My Very Heated Issue with Sailor Moon

Recently, I've finally come around to do something I've always wanted to do, but never had the time/energy/drive/passion/whatever to do: watch my childhood passion, Sailor Moon.

I chose to watch the english subtitled version this time, because it's much better and really shows what the show intended. And honestly, the sub is MUCH better than the shit I grew up with.

I grew up on the dub of the show, where they completely botched it up and made it "educational" with "Sailor Moon Says" at the end (Don't all of you remember that certain time period where a lot of cartoons were required to be 'educational' by either promoting good morals or teaching kids numbers or geography. Shows like Barney and Animaniacs followed this lead). "Make sure to eat your vegetables, because you'll grow strong!" Umm, yeah. Why would I take advice from a fictional character who doesn't even touch vegetables? Besides, donuts, cookies and cake taste better.

The voice actors/actresses were so annoying and didn't really fit their characters (save for Terri Hawkes as Sailor Moon in the second season(?) and movies and whoever did the voice for Dr. Tomoe). I swear, everytime the English Raye (Sailor Mars) would scream "FIREBALLS...CHARGE!", I'd cringe like a wilting plant. IT'S "AKIO TAISAN!" And don't even get me started on how anoying Chibi-usa/Rini is in the dub. It's not at all possible to be more annoying than that chick who's the Nanny in that 90s TV show. I think her first name is Fran...

What I most hated about the dub was how they blatantly hid the relationships between some of the characters. For example, in the first season, two of the Dark Kingdom Generals, Zoicite and Kunzite, were gay lovers. In the dub, they made Zoicite a girl!!!! Granted, Zoicite could totally pass for the opposite sex, but still, what's the harm in letting them be? And the same shit happened with Fish Eye in season 4. He was a guy, but the dub made him a girl! And they all did it because they didn't want parents to flip the fuck out.

"OMGWHYISTHERETWOGAYPEOPLEONMYCHILD'STELEVISIONSCREEEEEEEN?"

"GODDOESNOTTHINKTHISISNORMALORRIGHT,TAKEITOFFMYSCREEEEEEEEEEEN!"

...And you wonder why gays and lesbians suffer so much in our culture. It's because parents are so afraid of showing their children people with different sexualities and not let them accept it.

BUT: nothing could compare to the stupidity of the english localizers than how they dealt with Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus (heh). Clearly, in the original and foreign country dubs, such as those in Germany, Italy and France, they weren't afraid to show that Neptune and Uranus(heh) were lovers. Nothing was shown about it (no kiss, no sex), except for their closeness and very deep relationship. But according to the dubbers or whoever is in charge of this whackjob, they think that closeness like that should NEVER be attained by best friends, so what do they do?

They make them 'cousins.'

*headdesk*

Look, if they were really concerned about it, having them be best friends would be MUCH more understandable than having them as 'cousins'. And true, there are cousins out there who are really close, but it just irked me so much to see that they're lovers, but they are reduced to being blood relatives, just so it won't upset people.

And this can be used in the countless examples of gay ignorance and fear, when it's seen as okay in one culture, but completely incomprehensible in another.