Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon, known in Japan as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (Japanese: 美少女戦士セーラームーン, Hepburn: Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn), is a 1992 Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation using Super Sentai motifs. It is based on the manga of the same title written by Naoko Takeuchi that was published from 1991 to 1997 in Nakayoshi. Sailor Moon first aired in Japan on TV Asahi from March 7, 1992, to February 8, 1997, and was dubbed into various territories around the world, including the United States, Australia, Europe and Latin America.

The series follows the adventures of the protagonist Usagi Tsukino, a middle school student who is given the power to become the titular Sailor Soldier. Joined by other Sailor Soldiers, they defend Earth against an assortment of evil villains. The anime also parallels the maturation of Usagi from an emotional middle school girl to a responsible young adult.

Due to the success of the anime in the United States, the manga comprising its story was released by Tokyopop. Sailor Moon's popularity has spawned numerous releases which have come to represent most of the content in the Sailor Moon universe, including 3 films, 39 video games, and numerous soundtracks stemming from this material. A second animated adaptation, Sailor Moon Crystal, began streaming worldwide from July 2014 onwards.

Scrapped adaptation
In 1993, the animation studio Toon Makers intended to produce an "Americanized" version of the popular Japanese anime series Sailor Moon. A 17-minute-long pilot episode, combining animation with live-action film of the Sailor Scout characters as American teenagers, was completed, and Toon Makers had hoped to entice Bandai or Saban into producing a full series to air on FOX Saturday mornings starting in June 18, 1994. A two-minute promotional "music video" was made, showcasing the live cast, the animated characters, and the theme music, but ultimately the deal fell though and dubbed versions of the original Japanese episodes aired in syndication. Because of the campy, live action elements, the show has been given the derogatory nickname "Saban Moon", due to the fact that it heavily resembled something that would have happened during the early years of Power Rangers.

DiC's licensing to the anime
In 1995, after a bidding war with Toon Makers, who wanted to produce an American live-action/animated hybrid adaptation, DIC Productions L.P. licensed the first two seasons of Sailor Moon for an English-language release in North America. The Mississauga-based Optimum Productions was hired to dub the anime. Bob Summers wrote a new background score. DIC had mandated cuts to content and length, which reduced the first 89 episodes into 82. Their adaptation was created to capitalize on the success of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

The series premiered in Canada on August 28, 1995 on YTV and in first-run syndication in the U.S. on September 11, but halted production in November 1995 after two seasons due to low ratings. Despite moderate success in Canada, the U.S. airing struggled in early morning "dead" timeslots; the series originally aired in the U.S. in morning and afternoon timeslots which Anne Allison describes as unsuitable for the target audience. In contrast, due to the dubbing process being done in Canada, the series was considered Canadian enough to be screened in primetime as local content. After the series was cancelled, a fan petition that garnered over 12,500 signatures was created. This was later considered an early example of successful fan activism. On June 9, 1997, re-runs of this cancelled dub began airing on USA Network. That same year, production on the series' English dub was resumed with the last 17 episodes of the second season, Sailor Moon R, and was broadcast in Canada from September 20 to November 21, 1997 to wrap up lingering plot lines. On June 1, 1998, reruns of the series began airing on Cartoon Network's weekday afternoon programming block, Toonami. Due to the success of these reruns, the remaining seventeen episodes also aired on the block. In 1999, Cloverway Inc. once again contracted Optimum Productions to produce English-language adaptations of Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS, with Pioneer Entertainment handling home video distribution. This dub featured less censorship and was first broadcast on YTV in Canada, and later on Toonami in the United States. The dub finished airing on Toonami on September 13, 2002; in 2003, ADV and Pioneer lost the distribution rights to the first 159/166 episodes, as well as the three films.

Due to the series' resurgence of popularity in Japan, re-runs of the Sailor Moon series began on September 1, 2009 on Animax. In 2010, Toei negotiated to license and broadcast Sailor Moon in Italy on Mediaset, resulting in an international revival. Later, Toei licensed Sailor Moon episodes to countries which the show has not been aired before. On May 16, 2014, North American manga and anime distributor Viz Media announced that it had acquired the Sailor Moon anime series, as well as the three films and specials for an English-language release in North America, allowing Viz to restore the removed content from the first 89 episodes. The Studio City, Los Angeles-based Studiopolis was also hired by Viz to re-dub the entire series. The series began streaming in the United States on Neon Alley and Hulu on May 19, 2014, and in Canada on Tubi TV on July 15, 2016. On November 28, 2014, Australian manga and anime publisher Madman Entertainment announced that they had re-acquired the rights to the "Sailor Moon" anime series for Australia & New Zealand and will release the series in uncut format with the Viz Media English adaptation in 2015. Madman Entertainment had previously held the Australian licence for Sailor Moon on VHS & DVD until DiC lost the English-language rights.

Editing
Sailor Moon's original North American release was the subject of heavy editing which resulted in large amounts of removed content and alterations that greatly changed the original work. These changes altered almost every aspect of the show including character names, clothing, scenes and dialogue. Some scenes with brief nudity and bathing were also censored, and any type of violence including violence against children was also removed. Homosexual characters, including Zoisite, Fisheye, Kunzite, Sailor Uranus, and Sailor Neptune were also altered, with the former two's gender changed from male to female, and the latter two being explained as relatives rather than lovers. Changing evil characters' genders to female also had the side effect of creating more diverse female characterizations, as the evil female characters now did not have the same body type. Season 5, however, never made it in the North America since said season was very difficult to edit.

Death of DiC (and Cloverway) versions
Viz Media's release restores all of the content that was cut from the original Japanese version, including scenes that were censored by Optimum Productions at the request of DiC and Cloverway. Since Viz gained rights to the series, the DiC and Cloverway versions would not be recovered, as they are legally destroyed. The VHS and out-of-print DVD releases from former copyright holders are the only trace of their existence.