Was Sailor Moon Stars ever English dubbed?

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Sailor Moon~

Luna Crescens
Apr 24, 2017
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#1
I'm watching the entire series in the English dub and was wondering if the Stars series was dubbed since I prefer to watch the dub over the Japanese dub with English subtitles.
 

MariaTenebre

Systema Solare
Jul 22, 2009
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#2
Sailor Moon~ said:
I'm watching the entire series in the English dub and was wondering if the Stars series was dubbed since I prefer to watch the dub over the Japanese dub with English subtitles.
In the original 90s English dub no Sailor Stars was never dubbed. However in the Viz redub of the series which is an English dub that is faithful to the original Japanese version on the most they are redubbing the series and plan to finally dub Sailor Stars as well. I would recommend purchasing the Viz dub as it is really good on the most part. They have released The first season part 1 and part 2, Sailor Moon R part 1 and part 2, the Sailor Moon R movie and Sailor Moon S part 1. Sailor Moon S part 2 is scheduled to come out some time in June.
 

chrissifniotis

Aurorae Lunares
Apr 20, 2017
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#3
MariaTenebre said:
In the original 90s English dub no Sailor Stars was never dubbed. However in the Viz redub of the series which is an English dub that is faithful to the original Japanese version on the most they are redubbing the series and plan to finally dub Sailor Stars as well. I would recommend purchasing the Viz dub as it is really good on the most part. They have released The first season part 1 and part 2, Sailor Moon R part 1 and part 2, the Sailor Moon R movie and Sailor Moon S part 1. Sailor Moon S part 2 is scheduled to come out some time in June.
Actually that's really good to know.
 
Aug 27, 2012
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#4
what MariaTenebre failed to mention was the reason it wasn't dubbed back in the day and it wasn't dubbed because of the Gender Bending Starlights Memory serves Toei was afraid that Cloverway (who I believe was dubbing the series at the time) would've done something stupid with it (like having Uranus and Neptune As Cousins) so they snatched back all the rights to the series before a dub could be done (hence why we never found out what happened with Queen Nehelenia).
 
Sep 10, 2012
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The Void
#5
Ryo Urawa said:
what MariaTenebre failed to mention was the reason it wasn't dubbed back in the day and it wasn't dubbed because of the Gender Bending Starlights Memory serves Toei was afraid that Cloverway (who I believe was dubbing the series at the time) would've done something stupid with it (like having Uranus and Neptune As Cousins) so they snatched back all the rights to the series before a dub could be done (hence why we never found out what happened with Queen Nehelenia).
I heard the reason it wasn't dubbed in English was because Toei simply wasn't releasing the license outside of Japan in general at the time.

Was Stars dubbed into any other language at the time when it was aired?
 

Masquerade

Solaris Luna
Nov 22, 2016
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#6
magic713 said:
Ryo Urawa said:
what MariaTenebre failed to mention was the reason it wasn't dubbed back in the day and it wasn't dubbed because of the Gender Bending Starlights Memory serves Toei was afraid that Cloverway (who I believe was dubbing the series at the time) would've done something stupid with it (like having Uranus and Neptune As Cousins) so they snatched back all the rights to the series before a dub could be done (hence why we never found out what happened with Queen Nehelenia).
I heard the reason it wasn't dubbed in English was because Toei simply wasn't releasing the license outside of Japan in general at the time.

Was Stars dubbed into any other language at the time when it was aired?
This is a lie. The license was blocked by Naoko around 2004/2005.
Stars aired in Brazil and Spain in 2002, as examples.
 

Masquerade

Solaris Luna
Nov 22, 2016
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#7
Ryo Urawa said:
what MariaTenebre failed to mention was the reason it wasn't dubbed back in the day and it wasn't dubbed because of the Gender Bending Starlights Memory serves Toei was afraid that Cloverway (who I believe was dubbing the series at the time) would've done something stupid with it (like having Uranus and Neptune As Cousins) so they snatched back all the rights to the series before a dub could be done (hence why we never found out what happened with Queen Nehelenia).
Toei was never worried about the gender identities of SM characters. Cloverway was actually their American branch which also took care of the latin spanish and brazilian portuguese dub of Stars.
The italian voice director stated Toei was really worried about "not shocking" italian audiences back when Stars aired in Italy, and for that they actually worked together with the italians to find ways to tone down the queer tone of the season. They made the starlights "twin sisters of the Three Lights" with Toei's blessing.
Probably they thought they were not going to be able to handle the Starlights in an English dub. Stars had also never seen the light of day in France before the 20th anniversary relaunch.
 
Feb 23, 2014
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#8
So are there official sources to these reasons for Stars not being dubbed, or is it just speculation and rumors?
 

Masquerade

Solaris Luna
Nov 22, 2016
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#9
knowall7 said:
So are there official sources to these reasons for Stars not being dubbed, or is it just speculation and rumors?
The only thing I can tell 100% sure is that this "Toei withdrew Cloverway's rights to Sailor Moon" thing is fake.
Cloverway handled Stars (and Sailor Moon in general) in Latin America until the very day Naoko blocked the licensing rights back in 2004/2005.
And Toei never got upset about censorship done worldwide, they were actually said to understand it was needed back then. They even stepped in the dubbing process when Stars hit Italy, because they knew handling the Starlights was gonna be tough.

There goes a interview with the italian ADR director: http://www.sailormoonworld.it/interviste/il-sailormoonworld-it-intervista-nicola-ryan-carrassi (italian)
 

Neon Genesis

Solaris Luna
Oct 31, 2015
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#10
No one knows the reason why Sailor Stars wasn't dubbed the first time. No official explanation was ever given. Anything else you hear about why is rumors. But all that matters now is we do finally have it now and Viz will dub it eventually but we just have to be patient for it.
 

musa

Luna Crescens
Feb 5, 2017
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#11
Another reason could be that Stars is a seperate license from the series. A company that wanted all of the series would have to pay for both. I remember Stars being listed seperately from the rest of the series.
 
Aug 24, 2016
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#12
musa said:
Another reason could be that Stars is a seperate license from the series. A company that wanted all of the series would have to pay for both. I remember Stars being listed seperately from the rest of the series.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but don't anime companies, at least back in the day (don't really keep up with the anime industry these days) consider different seasons of a TV show actually different series?

At the very least, Toei's website lists each season of Sailor Moon as a separate series. So you know.
 
Jul 29, 2012
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#13
My theory:

TOEI will let you do anything you want.

I, quite frankly, was surprised that S was dubbed in English to begin with. I think that making Uranus and Neptune "cousins" made the situation and the context of the season even more awkward.

My opinion: Stars is just too queer for audiences in the United States to handle, and, therefore, it cannot be aired in the United States. Kindly notice that I am *not* using the word queer pejoratively. The word is associated today with empowerment. So Stars... well, Stars depicted two lesbians raising a baby and it also had characters able to change their gender from male to female. This is shocking for audiences to handle... even today.

If a TV station in the U.S. decided to air "Sailor Moon S" and "Stars," uncensored, as your typical Saturday-morning cartoon, today, I feel that tons of conservatives would feel outraged. Organizations like one-million moms would throw a fit over the inclusion of lesbian and queer characters and launch a massive protest on social media to get the show pulled out. If things are like that today, just imagine how things were back in the late-90s/early-00s when S was being dubbed.

I do not think the U.S. is ready for a season like "Stars," and, in my opinion, that's the *real* reason why Stars didn't get its English dub.
 

SnowWolf

Aurorae Lunares
May 17, 2012
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#14
Maybe Cloverway just decided not to dub it. Maybe they pitched the season to Cartoon Network and they said "Pass".
 
Jul 29, 2012
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#15
kevoso96 said:
knowall7 said:
So are there official sources to these reasons for Stars not being dubbed, or is it just speculation and rumors?
The only thing I can tell 100% sure is that this "Toei withdrew Cloverway's rights to Sailor Moon" thing is fake.
Cloverway handled Stars (and Sailor Moon in general) in Latin America until the very day Naoko blocked the licensing rights back in 2004/2005.
There was a rumor back then that Naoko blocked the anime licensing rights in 2004/05 because she wanted to license PGSM internationally; in other words, shove PGSM down our throats.

Again: this is a rumor.
 

Neon Genesis

Solaris Luna
Oct 31, 2015
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#16
I think the nudity and violence in the finale would be more of a bigger problem for networks than the gender fluidity of the Starlights which they could have found some creative way to get around it. I don't know about the rumors about PGSM as I don't recall hearing any instances of Toei trying to get other countries to license PGSM. Maybe Cartoon Network just didn't see anime as lucrative enough for them to invest in another season of Sailor Moon? It was around this time Toonami started cutting back their hours and shortly after Sailor Moon went off the air was when Toonami moved to being on Saturday nights only and anime was starting to disappear from weekday TV broadcasts in general. It also could have been the case that Toei was asking for too much money for it. I recall both Pioneer and ADV tried to get the rights to Stars but passed on it because the license was too expensive.
 

MariaTenebre

Systema Solare
Jul 22, 2009
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#17
Clow said:
My theory:

TOEI will let you do anything you want.

I, quite frankly, was surprised that S was dubbed in English to begin with. I think that making Uranus and Neptune "cousins" made the situation and the context of the season even more awkward.

My opinion: Stars is just too queer for audiences in the United States to handle, and, therefore, it cannot be aired in the United States. Kindly notice that I am *not* using the word queer pejoratively. The word is associated today with empowerment. So Stars... well, Stars depicted two lesbians raising a baby and it also had characters able to change their gender from male to female. This is shocking for audiences to handle... even today.

If a TV station in the U.S. decided to air "Sailor Moon S" and "Stars," uncensored, as your typical Saturday-morning cartoon, today, I feel that tons of conservatives would feel outraged. Organizations like one-million moms would throw a fit over the inclusion of lesbian and queer characters and launch a massive protest on social media to get the show pulled out. If things are like that today, just imagine how things were back in the late-90s/early-00s when S was being dubbed.

I do not think the U.S. is ready for a season like "Stars," and, in my opinion, that's the *real* reason why Stars didn't get its English dub.
I think the US has gotten better in some regards now. I mean we have gay characters in Avatar Legend of Korra and Steven Universe so things are getting better somewhat.
 
Aug 27, 2012
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#18
MariaTenebre said:
I think the US has gotten better in some regards now. I mean we have gay characters in Avatar Legend of Korra and Steven Universe so things are getting better somewhat.
I'm curious didn't Steven Universe Get Censored on occasion? or was that just in the U.K.?
 

MariaTenebre

Systema Solare
Jul 22, 2009
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#19
Ryo Urawa said:
MariaTenebre said:
I think the US has gotten better in some regards now. I mean we have gay characters in Avatar Legend of Korra and Steven Universe so things are getting better somewhat.
I'm curious didn't Steven Universe Get Censored on occasion? or was that just in the U.K.?
I'm not sure I can't speak for the U.K. I know it was briefly censored in France.

Also to Clow if you don't mind I have a question for you? I know that in Brazil the gay themes of the series for the most part went uncensored with the exception of turning Zoisite female since you are from Brazil and living in America now I am curious how homophobic is Brazil is in comparison to America?
 

Masquerade

Solaris Luna
Nov 22, 2016
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#20
MariaTenebre said:
Ryo Urawa said:
MariaTenebre said:
I think the US has gotten better in some regards now. I mean we have gay characters in Avatar Legend of Korra and Steven Universe so things are getting better somewhat.
I'm curious didn't Steven Universe Get Censored on occasion? or was that just in the U.K.?
I'm not sure I can't speak for the U.K. I know it was briefly censored in France.

Also to Clow if you don't mind I have a question for you? I know that in Brazil the gay themes of the series for the most part went uncensored with the exception of turning Zoisite female since you are from Brazil and living in America now I am curious how homophobic is Brazil is in comparison to America?
I'm not Clow, but I'm from Brazil and I can say it's a lot more homophobic than the U.S.
The brazilian dub just inherited the adaptations from the latin spanish dub, because that's the version Brazil actually dubbed from.
And I believe the series could get away with such small censorship because it was never a hit. While Classic aired on a relevant channel in 1996, R-Stars was shown on Cartoon Network in 2000-2002, back when pay TV was still restricted to upper classes in Brazil. So I guess there wasn't much room for controversy, since it was not a mainstream channel yet.
R and S were actually also bought by a church-owned station that airs secular programming, but for some reason they stopped the airing during the R season and never showed S. I believe they were afraid of controversy.