Top 10 Sailor Moon Songs

Hello all! Today I’d like to write a post I’ve wanted to try for a while, but which I’ve put off as I wasn’t sure how exactly to structure it. One of my favorite aspects of Sailor Moon is the music. In every incarnation (except the manga, of course) there’s excellent music which aids the storytelling. The only downside to this, however, is the fact that such an abundance of music makes it difficult to whittle the field down to just ten exemplary pieces. In order to aid myself in tackling this feat, I have decided to limit myself only to the anime (I could not possibly pick just ten if I let myself go into the musicals’ oeuvre) and present my top five songs from the original and top five songs from the English dub.

DiC vs. Toei: Season One Finale

Finally, I discuss one of the most hotly contested cases of DiC’s editing: the final episode(s) of Classic Sailor Moon*.

Classic dealt with the Sailor Soldiers awakening as warriors, fighting the Dark Kingdom, and eventually facing the Dark Kingdom’s leader, Queen Beryl, head-on. In general, DiC’s story arc was the same. Yes, there were plenty of adjustments along the way, but the trajectory was roughly the same. In the finale of the season, however, DiC made some of their biggest edits which affect both plot and character development. First off, they erase significant character deaths. Later, an extensive battle is cut out. Additionally, the last stand-off with Queen Beryl is quite altered. Finally, the end of the series changes from a reincarnation story to one of memory loss.

DiC vs. Toei: Raye vs. Rei

So, I talk about Sailor Moon a lot. I’ve been a fan of the show for years and, like most English-speaking Moonies, I was introduced to it by the English dub produced by DiC Entertainment. As such, I have a lot of affection for the dub and will defend many aspects of it. I don’t believe that one country’s adaptation of another country’s entertainment needs to be a carbon copy of the original. I’ll take into account cultural differences and marketability concerns because they are huge factors to consider when making a product for mass consumption, and, in the past, I have mostly sided with DiC in their decisions. There are times, however, when I have to state that DiC made the wrong choice, and I believe that is the case with how they handled the character of Rei.