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	  	     The Sailor Scribe #2 B                                             =
   
         Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/~Sandtiger                     =
  
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                         March 30, 1997                        
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Table of Contents                                                           =
                                   
`*`*`*`*`*`*`*`*`*` 

	Part B

The Jihad
Sailor Moon ala Southern Humor



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THE JIHAD
by Devin de Gruyl

Jihad (j=EE-h=E4d=B4) n.  1.  A Moslem holy war or spiritual struggle=
 against
infidels.  2.  A crusade or struggle.

     Naturally, the great debate between whether subs (English-subtitled
videos) or dubs (re-recorded with English voice actors) is the better way to
enjoy anime is as old as the art form itself.  Since both formats have their
respective merits and drawbacks, it's one of those arguments that can never=

be settled to everyone's satisfaction.  However, rarely has any one dub been
as soundly, thoroughly, and nigh-universally trashed as DIC's dub of Sailor=

Moon. The absolute hatred most "serious" anime fans have for it is almost
unprecedented - even Robotech gets more respect than the North American (NA)
version of SM, and if you've been around the anime scene for any reasonable
length of time, you know that the word "Robotech" borders on profanity in
the eyes of many.
    
     It's not too difficult to understand the DIC-bashers' point.  As a
straight translation, the NA SM is marginal at best, and absolutely pitiful=

at worst.  Names of characters were changed, relationships were simplified=

and "dumbed-down," plots of episodes were altered (sometimes severely), the
dialogue was completely rewritten, and elements deemed "too mature" by the
almighty censors were excised.  Not even the artwork was spared the trip
through the editors' "paintbox," as occasional scenes were touched-up to
remove certain elements (body lines in the transformation scenes, for
instance, or uniquely Japanese visual elements).  The final straw for most
"otaku" was the inclusion of the "Sailor Says" morals segment at the end of
each episode.  Not only did these have next to no business being here, but=

the morals they came up with occasionally were extreme stretches.  For
example: In the episode "An Uncharmed Life"/7 (Rei's debut episode),
Jadeite was sending busloads of girls into the Negaverse.  The "Sailor Says"
for the episode notes this - "Today on Sailor Moon, we saw buses disappear"=

- but then adds, "...too bad we can't do the same for all the smog and
pollution they cause."  And it becomes an environmental message.
Well-intentioned, perhaps, but it has almost no connection to the episode
just aired.

     For many, "Day of Destiny"/40, the final episode of the Queen Beryl
storyline (the first season of the Japanese series), is a metaphor for DIC's
cavalier treatment of the entire series.  As you probably know by now, this
was a compilation and distillation of the two-part first-season finale in
Japan, re-edited into one single episode.  The primary reason for doing so=

was simple - it was intended to camouflage the fact that the Sailors and
Tuxedo Mask were being *killed* over the course of the two-parter.  DIC's
editing and re-writing, however, made it appear as though they were,
instead of dying, being captured and held hostage in the Negaverse. 
Obviously, this fact had a MAJOR impact on the plot, lightening the episode=

considerably and turning what had been a classic storyline (the first half=

of the two-parter was recently voted "Best SM Episode Of All Time" on one
mailing list) into something that was merely ordinary.  The end result: not=

only was "Day of Destiny" a very choppy and dicey episode, with horrendous=

and glaring inconsistencies, but DIC's attempt to hide the truth was
fooling absolutely no one over the age of about 12.  In the eyes of many
fans, what DIC did here was an unforgivable sin.

     Knowing all of that, one might well think that there is NOTHING of
value about the DIC dub.  One would be wrong.  Indeed, there are many things
one could say in defense of DIC and their take on SM.

     The first, and perhaps most important reason DIC deserves a break is
because they NEVER claimed they were doing a TRANSLATION of SM, yet somehow
that's what most of us were expecting.  Even the end credits referred to
their show as an "English Language Adaptation," not as a translation.  This=

is not semantic nonsense; there *is* a huge difference between the two
terms.  An "adaptation" implies, correctly in this case, that certain
creative liberties were taken in order for the series to air on broadcast
TV.  The fact that nearly all of these liberties cannot be considered
improvements on the original, or even "good" in some cases, is incidental -=

the fact remains that DIC cannot be accused of claiming to be something
they are not.

     Secondly, the overall quality of the voice acting was of a very high
caliber.  Granted, there were some poorly-realized characterizations - Mary
Long's Molly and Jill Frappier's Luna are the two most cited examples of
voices that just didn't work that well - but that fact should not discredit
the outstanding work done by the voice cast as a whole, especially when
given the admittedly weak material they had to work with for most of the
dub.  In addition, they deserve a great deal of credit for making themselves
available to the fans for most of the past year in Canada (the primary
hotbed of SM's popularity in North America).  These are generally busy
people with other projects they are working on, and for them to take time
out from their schedules to be with the fans of a so-called "cartoon" they=

worked on a year or more ago I believe speaks volumes about their
characters.

     Third is the fact that the lyrical songs written for the dub were,
taken as a whole again, very nice.  A great deal of effort went into
producing them, and it shows.  DIC did not have to do that.  It's an added=

expense to a show that was already being done on the cheap.  That they did,=

in fact, come up with original songs is by itself noteworthy.  But, when
the songs were of such high quality as "My Only Love," "Carry On," and "Oh=

Starry Night," it becomes one of the truly good things about the dub. 
("My Only Love," in particular, was good enough to go Top 40, given the
chance.)  It's little wonder that the soundtrack CD has become one of the
most sought-after and prized pieces of NA merchandise.

     And finally, something most die-hard fans tend to forget when they bash
the dub.  Two years ago at this time, who on these shores had even HEARD of
Sailor Moon?  Outside of anime clubs, not too many.  Now, look.  SM is one=

of the most popular programs in the history of Canada's YTV cable network,=

and it remains at or near the top of the Canadian toy market.  Even in
America, SM has made inroads into the national subconscious, despite being=

buried in ridiculous time slots.  The key thing here is, it shows
mainstream society that there's more to anime than the "adult-oriented"
cyberpunk stuff like Akira and Ghost in the Shell.  Because of this, more
people are getting into anime now, using SM as their gateway.  And this is=

important.  If anime is going to survive and thrive here, it's going to
require more than just the support of a limited fan base.  Whether the
diehards want to admit it or not, sooner or later there's got to be some
"new blood" in fandom, lest the movement die out.  And that means there
MUST be SOME attempt to get it into the mainstream.

     The wars that have been fought between fans of the dub and those who
despise it are many and storied.  The dub-bashers have their own opinions,
certainly, yet some of them have become so ingrained into the general Moonie
subconscious that they have become myths.  Let's take a look at them, and
see how well they stand up to reality:

MYTH: DIC chopped SM up almost beyond recognition.

REALITY: This is a gross exaggeration.  True, most of DIC's editing seems to
have been done with a chainsaw.  However, if you look beyond all the cuts
and changes, you'll find that a lot of the stuff that made the original
series great has indeed survived intact.  You just have to look harder to
find it, is all.  Based on my experience, generally speaking, I would give=

DIC approximately a 75-80% accuracy rating when comparing what they did to=

the Japanese series.  Now that isn't quite as bad as some would have you
believe... of course, there are always going to be fans who only see the
20-25% that got changed, or who wouldn't be satisfied with anything less
than 100% accuracy.

MYTH: DIC has no respect for anime, and hacked up SM just to spite its fans.

REALITY: While the first part of that statement is impossible to prove one=

way or the other, the second part of it is simply not true.  DIC had three=

major factors working against them here: 

1) BS&P's stringent guidelines regarding what can and cannot be shown on
childrens' television.

2) their own standing in-house policy that states they would only produce
"family friendly" programming, and

3) the fact that they were under tight time restraints, not to mention
working from very limited information regarding the original episodes. 
Given these limitations, I'd like to see any other company do better.

MYTH: The dub's character names make no sense; they are terrible.

REALITY: I, too, would like to know where "Darien" and "Lita" came from, but
other than those two, most other dub names are easily explained. "Serena,"
naturally, is derived from the Japanese name of her past self in the Moon
Kingdom, Princess Serenity.  "Amy," "Raye," and "Mina" are obvious
Americanizations of their original names, "Ami," "Rei," and "Minako."
(Actually, there are several Japanese episodes where Minako is called
"Mina," usually by Artemis.)  "Rini" is supposed to be short for her
*actual* name, Serena, thus keeping intact the original's rather
significant plot point that Usagi and Chibi Usa ("little Usagi") share the=

same first name.  The names of the Dark Kingdom generals are the same, with=

the exception of Kunzite (Malachite in the dub, due to a legal
consideration) - only their spellings have been altered.  (Since Japanese
makes no distinction between the "R" and "L" sounds, "Neflite" can
technically  be considered a respelling, and not a renaming, of "Nephrite.")
Most of the other name changes appear to be the result of DIC choosing
names that sound roughly like their Japanese counterparts, yet have been
appropriately Americanized.
    
As for the dub names being terrible, it all depends on your point of
view.  I personally like the dub names, but I can see where some fans might
feel their intelligence has been insulted.  It IS possible for us to accept
heroes with unusual-sounding names.  My solution is to compromise - when
discussing the dub, I use DIC's names and not the originals, except where
they kept the name but changed the spelling.  In those cases, I restore the
original spelling.  (This includes Ami, even though "Amy" is, strictly
speaking, a completely different name.)

MYTH: What DIC has done violates the rights of the original artists.

REALITY: This one's a real thorny issue.  The problem being, most of those=

who say this feel SM should be considered on the same level as the immortal=

works of Voltaire, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, or any other literary classic. 
However, the primary purpose of SM, even in Japan, was to sell toys.  I
hate to burst anyone's bubble, but even SM's creators were motivated more
by profit than any sort of high-minded artistic vision. (I don't include
Naoko Takeuchi in this - she is, naturally, THE creator of SM, yet her
manga can justifiably be considered a legitimate art form.  The anime,
which is what I'm talking about here, is another story entirely.)  Because=

of this, I'm reluctant to place SM on too high a pedestal.  Even so, there's
no denying that SM is an absolutely beautiful story, one worth seeing again=

and again, and more than worthy of intelligent discussion.  Therefore, you=

have my problem.  Should the SM anime fall under the "artists' rights"
umbrella protection plan?  The answer is debatable.  I say yes, but
provisionally so.

MYTH: DIC is forcing Comixx to use the dub names in their translation of the
SM manga.

REALITY:  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  DIC had NOTHING to do with that.  This is
KODANSHA'S rule, not theirs.  (Kodansha, for those who didn't know, produces
the monthly girls' magazine "Nakayoshi," which is where the SM manga was
originally published.)  And Comixx has apparently been given a certain
amount of leeway with just how closely they have to follow the
already-established English conventions - witness their web page, where
they introduce the heroine as "Serena, known to her friends as Bunny...." =

We'll just have to see how well this works, and if they can do something
similar with other names.

MYTH: Comixx must also use whatever names DIC sets for the Outer Sailors.

REALITY:  No.  DIC, as it stands now, is not going to do the S-series. That
means that naming conventions for the Outer Sailors will go to whoever gets=

to them first.  So, unless DIC starts the S-series before MixxZine gets to=

that point in the manga, Comixx can call 'em whatever they like - they
could even use the original names, if they wanted to!

     In conclusion, I'd like to explain my own editorial stance on this
issue.  I do not consider myself to be a fan of the DIC version of Sailor
Moon.  However, I don't consider myself a fan of the original series either.=

I think of myself as a Sailor Moon fan, in whatever form it sees fit to
present itself to me in.  I understand and agree with how severely different
the dub is.  However, with the (admittedly HUGE) exception of the "Day of
Destiny" fiasco, the changes didn't really bother me that much at all.  Yes,=

a lot of them were annoying and/or made no sense, and for a while, I *did*=

want to unload a bazooka on whoever OK'd some of them.  However, I realized=

that, if I spent my time watching SM, dub or original, looking only for how
different the two versions were, I'd completely forget my main reason for
watching SM in the first place, which was ENJOYMENT.  People spend so much
time nitpicking the things that DIC did to change the series, and sometimes
forget to actually WATCH what they're knocking.  (This is what annoys me
about the SM FAQ... the author spends an excessive amount of time going
into painful detail of each little cut and change made in every dub episode.
It gives a decided editorial bias to a document that is SUPPOSED to be
impartial.)
     I don't expect this Jihad to end with my feeble little take on the
situation.  All I ask is that the extremists, on BOTH sides, just stop for a
moment, and THINK about what I'm saying before they fire off the next salvo.=
 
     I have a feeling fans all over the world would appreciate it.

(Dictionary entry is adapted from The American Heritage=AE Dictionary of the
English Language, Third Edition copyright =A9 1992 by Houghton Mifflin
Company. Electronic version licensed from InfoSoft International, Inc. All=

rights reserved.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Devin de Gruyl, aka "The insert-smart-aleck-comment-here Kid," is a member=

of the Taronga Sailor Moon Mailing List. He is the curator of the Sailor
Moon Cel Gallery web page:
http://www.infinet.com/~ddegruyl/smoon/smgallery.htm , and an operator on
the Undernet's #sailormoon IRC channel.  He currently lives in Columbus,
Ohio, and is a student at Ohio Dominican College.

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Sailor Moon ala Southern Humor
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Howdy, my name's J.C. but my friends call me the "Anime Redneck" because I=

love Sailor Moon and I happen to have been born and raised in Chattanooga.=

Now a lot of Southerners in the past year have recently become fans of the=

show and a lot of my "Yankee" Internet friends asked me "How can I tell if=

someone from the South is a Sailor Moon fan?" Well, with the inspiration of
my good friend Starfox and comedian Jeff Foxworthy, I've came up with this=

quick test to help point them out.

                YOU MIGHT BE A SOUTHERN SAILOR MOON FAN IF...

1. You shell out big bucks to have Sailor Moon put on a Rebel flag.

2. You would rather watch Sailor Moon than NASCAR.

3. You've ever wondered what Darien and Lita would look like with dip in
their mouths.

4. You have MixxZine comics to read in the outhouse.

5. You keep your issues of MixxZine next to your issues of "Buckmasters"

6. You watch "Dukes of Hazzard" on TNN and imagine Serena and Raye driving=

the General Lee.

7. Your Sailor Moon CD is next to your Blackhawk and Diamond Rio CDs.

8. Your ultimate fantasy is to see the Sailor Scouts do the kickline to the=

song "God Bless Texas!"

9. You sale Sailor Moon T-shirt designs at the flea Market next to the
"Jesus is Lord" and "Still a Rebel" T-shirt designs.

10.You got kicked out of the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville for trying to
introduce the "Sailor Scout Stomp!"

11.Your coon dogs can bark the theme song.

12.On your truck you have a drawing of Zoisite with a "24" on her chest
choking Sailor Moon (who has a "3" on her chest) with one arm and saying
"Moon Prism Power my a--!"

13.You make Moonshine runs in Grundy, Sequichie and Meigs County to support=

your Sailor Moon collecting habit.

14.Instead of money, you pay for Sailor Moon merchandise the old fashioned=

way: chickens, a quarter of this year's crop, egg and butter money.

15.You have Sailor Moon mud flaps on your 18 wheeler.

16.You would love to see the Sailor Scouts beat the crap out of LeAnn Rimes.

17.You think Shenia Twain, Faith Hill, Reba McIntyre, Jo Dee Messia and Pam=

Tillis would make excellent Sailor Scouts.

18.You have a hard time convincing Lita, who wants to cook for you, that
fat is a major food group in the South.

19.You try to eat like Serena during all-you-can-eat night at the local
B-B-Q joint.

20.Your fights between your Moonie friends about which Sailor Moon your to=

(N/A vs. Japanese) are just as intense as you and your friends over loyalty=

to Tennessee vs. Alabama football or worse: "3" vs. "24"!

My personal favorite!
21. You own copies of Sailor Moon dubbed in English are subtitled in
Southern Draw so members of your family can watch. (They sell these in SE
Tenn., NW Georgia, NE Alabama and all of Texas)

22. You think Darien should quit his job at the movie studio, marry Serena,=

move to Texas, have ten kids, settle down in a double-wide and earn his
living selling propane and propane accessaries!

23. You have a Sailor Moon doll hanging from your monster truck's rearview=

mirror.

24. Every time you hear "Lonesome Dove" by Garth Brooks you could swear
    he's saying "A Shinto woman in the devil's land."

25.You would love to see the Sailor Scouts visit the South. (That within
itself is funny as hell!)

If any other "Southern Moonies" have any they can come up with, give me a
holler at jcook@moccasun.utc.edu

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