Sailor Moon in Germany

Sailor Moon in Germany refers to the German version of the Sailor Moon anime, which first aired in 1996 on ZDF. The full German title is "Sailor Moon - Das Mädchen mit den Zauberkräften" (Sailor Moon - The Girl with Magic Powers). The network showed one episode a week every Saturday. There was some censoring done of some episodes, but generally the German dub stayed close to the original Japanese version. Sailor Moon enjoyed some success on ZDF, but it was not until it moved to RTL II in May 1997 that the show really took off in Germany. On RTL II it became part of an afternoon-long kids' program called "Vampy," and was given a prime-time slot. ZDF's dub only comprised the first season, but RTL II decided to also dub Sailor Moon R, and later the entire series. Most, but not all, voice actors from the ZDF dub were brought back by RTL II to reprise their roles.

Sailor Moon on RTL II

Having already established a name for itself through ZDF's showing, Sailor Moon soon became a national hit, drawing over 10% of the German population in front of the screens during its popularity peak. RTL II chose to air all of the Sailor Moon episodes, except for episode 89, as it was merely a recap of previous episodes. RTL II also dubbed all the movies and aired them as "special episodes" (the actual specials were not dubbed, however).

In 2000, Sailor Moon finished after a successful three years on RTL II. It had no further re-runs there and RTL II apparently let the license expire, suggesting that it will not air on this network again. After RTL II Sailor Moon moved to Fox Kids (Germany/Austria).

Censorship and Changes

The German dub closely followed the original Japanese version; there was minimal censorship done by RTL II, and the dialogue closely followed the original, occasionally word-for-word. Michiru and Haruka's relationship was left almost untouched. The description the two gave of their relationship was translated word for word ("She is very special to me"), although some other minor lines of dialogue were changed.

Unlike most other dubs, the German dub did not attempt to change the names of the characters, apart from Usagi who became "Bunny" in order to work in the pun of her name. In some episodes, however, she was still called Usagi; it was not clear if this was intended and her name was actually Usagi (making "Bunny" a nickname), or if it was just an error in the dubbing script.

Some changes were made, however, and these include:

• Zoisite was changed to be a female.

• In the earlier episodes some of the Japanese elements were downplayed; for example, Bunny claimed that she was eating doughnuts (not odango).

• The word "kill" was often dubbed as "sleep" or "enchant" ("Rei, don't fall asleep" instead of "Rei, you can't die" or Rubeus shouting "Sleep, Sailor Moon!" instead of "Die, Sailor Moon!"). Instead of dying, it was said that the Talisman owners would "never be their old selves again" if they lost their Pure Heart Crystals.

• Rei's Akuryo Taisan attack was changed. Most of the time it was reduced to her simply counting from 1 to 10, but sometimes she would shout "Böser Geist, weiche!" (Evil spirit, go away!)

• The attacks of the Sailor Senshi were reduced to them simply shouting what they produced, followed by the word "fly" (e.g. "fireball fly").

• The transformation sequences featured the girls shouting "Macht der <planet> Nebel, macht auf," which translates to "Power of the <planet> mist, open up."

The first Japanese opening video - with some changes at the beginning - was used from the first season onwards, and was not changed until one re-run of the Stars season. The opening theme songs were changed a few times, even after the whole series had been dubbed, so the German episodes can be found in different versions with different theme songs. The first three were original German songs, called "Sag das Zauberwort," "Kämpfe Sailor Moon," and "Macht des Mondes"; the latter two were performed by the Super Moonies.

The dub's constant ending song was a short, slow-tempo version of "Sag das Zauberwort," played with an excerpt from the first Japanese ending animation.

Most of the songs featured within the episodes were played without vocal tracks, but "Ai no Senshi," "Anata no Sei Janai," "Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute," Onaji Namida wo Wakeatte, "Eien no Melody," "Nagareboshi He," "Route Venus," "Moon Revenge," and "Sailor Star Song" in episode 200 were dubbed with German vocals.