Uncensored ‘Sailor Moon’ English dub to debut at Cartoon Network
By Bryan Ke
An uncensored English dub of “Sailor Moon” will appear on TV for the first time this week as part of Adult Swim’s Toonami anime block on Cartoon Network.
Key points:
- “Sailor Moon,” along with fellow anime classics “Dragon Ball Z Kai” and “Naruto,” will air every Friday afternoon starting May 31.
- The original English dub of “Sailor Moon,” which was heavily censored, aired on Toonami between 1998 and 2002.
- The upcoming version features English dubbing from VIZ Media.
The details:
- “Sailor Moon” will kick off Adult Swim’s “Toonami Rewind” slate at 5 p.m., followed by back-to-back episodes of “Dragon Ball Z Kai” at 5:30 p.m. and “Naruto” at 6:30 p.m.
- “Toonami Rewind,” according to co-creator Jason DeMarco, will incorporate “classic older Toonami music and some older packaging,” as per Anime News Network.
- The original English dub of “Sailor Moon” was produced by DIC Entertainment, a now-defunct company, and Cloverway for the series’ later seasons. It featured Americanized character names, omitted references to Japanese culture and censored LGBTQ+ elements, such as the relationships of Sailors Neptune and Uranus (who were made cousins) and Zoisite and Kunzite (the former being turned into a female character).
- Friday’s pilot marks the first time VIZ Media’s English dub will air on TV, although it has been available for streaming on Hulu since 2014.
- Toonami originally aired as a weekday cartoon and anime block on Cartoon Network in 1997 until it was moved to Saturdays in 2004. It ended in 2008 but made a return in 2012, initially as an April Fool’s Day joke.
Reactions:
- Fans expressed excitement over the news. One Facebook user commented, “The fact that toonami is returning back to its old schedule means a lot. Support toonami and we will get more anime airing on weekdays.”
- “Love seeing you guys bring back Sailor Moon, especially the Viz dub! No more skipped episodes and maybe, eventually, the first ever airing of Sailor Stars on American cable TV,” another wrote.
- “So happy you’re finally bringing back ‘Sailor Moon’ after all these years! It changed my life seeing that first episode air on Toonami,” another exclaimed.
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