The Canadian dub's 25th anniversary thread

[Neo Moonlight]

Honestly I wish I had experienced more of the old dub. I truly do feel like I missed out.

I saw the DiC one when it was playing in like 95/96, but I was 6 at the time. They advertised heavily that they were going to be airing new episodes at a certain date (which would've been the rest of R) and on the day of, where I was nearly shaking with excitement, when they instead played the first episode of the series -- that would've been when the dub was cancelled -- it was so earth shatteringly disappointing at that age that I quit watching the series. The disappointment was just so cataclysmic I can still remember it vividly, and I'm 30 now lol.

By the time the dub actually had continued, at that age those few years was an entire lifetime, I had moved on.

I returned to the series in 05, and while I really loved it then and still do now, being 16 was already at a point of being too old to feel that same level of excitement as a younger kid. Especially because at 16 I only re-watched season 1 and the tree arc (subbed), and was mostly watching PGSM and Myu. By the time I actually finished R and watched S, and SuperS I was in my late 20s and I only just watched Sailor Stars properly for the first time last month lol.

But when the old dub was playing I was much younger, and I would've been much more capable of that wide eyed excitement that a lot of people got to experience with the series. So yeah. Again, I feel like I missed out. I can only just barely remember the DiC dub as a 6 year old so it's not the same as my affection for Digimon when I was watching that as a 10 year old where I can remember pretty much every detail of that run.

 

[Neo Moonlight]

So I saw a few clips from the DiC dub on YouTube and may I just say holy smokes the music is *awesome*? The transformation music was even better than I remembered from childhood, the fighting music (I think the track is titled Sailor Jupiter but from what I saw of the clips it was used as fight music for everyone) was awesome, the Moon Tiara Action music was also great. That one was also familiar upon hearing it though I wouldn't have remembered it on my own since I was like 6 last I heard it.

All three of those tracks I like better than the original OST lol. To the point that I wish Viz could've somehow used it

Also I love the way they echo the voice when saying Moon Prism Power and Moon Tiara Magic (If I heard correctly?) and Mars Fire Ignite. I assume they did that for all attacks but the clips I saw were limited.

I wish they did that echo on the Viz dub too, I loved that.

So yeah just giving credit where it's due, because the music and the echo effects were super awesome!

 

[fighter4luv]

So I saw a few clips from the DiC dub on YouTube and may I just say holy smokes the music is *awesome*? The transformation music was even better than I remembered from childhood, the fighting music (I think the track is titled Sailor Jupiter but from what I saw of the clips it was used as fight music for everyone) was awesome, the Moon Tiara Action music was also great. That one was also familiar upon hearing it though I wouldn't have remembered it on my own since I was like 6 last I heard it.

A lot of the team that worked on Sailor Moon were amazing. Bob Summers is a very talented U.S. composer, and the Canadian guys at McClear place studio were just amazing at Audio mixing. Especially for those first 65 episodes. After that, most people were replaced and it kinda went downhill from there. The singers and songwriters from America also did an amazing job. Those dub songs will always be another reason why the original DiC dub felt more professional than Viz's.

 

[Neo Moonlight]

Well In Viz's defense a lot of people would've had their heads if they changed the insert songs so they were probably leery to do so. A lot of people really struggle with the concept of English for some reason and make a huge fuss.

They did at least have Rei, The Three Lights and Minako sing in English.

But yes I agree that clearly a lot of talent went into the production values of the DiC dub. The music was so good and perfectly match and had a very infectious energy that I loved. The echo effects on the attack and transformations was done really well and sounded super epic and cool and was pretty creative. It's like they saw a good thing and said to themselves "you know how it could be even better?"

This is often why I tend to prefer dubs over subs, because I really like it when they see an opportunity to make things better and go for it. Less so nowadays since a lot of intense anime fans complain so much if anything is even slightly different, but when they do it the odd time I love it. Definitely a controversial opinion around anime fans, but too bad that's how I feel haha.

 

[Frenchfries&AChocolateMalt]

A lot of the team that worked on Sailor Moon were amazing. Bob Summers is a very talented U.S. composer, and the Canadian guys at McClear place studio were just amazing at Audio mixing. Especially for those first 65 episodes. After that, most people were replaced and it kinda went downhill from there. The singers and songwriters from America also did an amazing job. Those dub songs will always be another reason why the original DiC dub felt more professional than Viz's.

The sound mixing took a huuge nosedive in the 2000 dubbed episodes but even when they dubbed the final 17 episodes of R something was off, to say nothing of the eclectic bgm placement

 

[snowgeisha]

The sound mixing took a huuge nosedive in the 2000 dubbed episodes but even when they dubbed the final 17 episodes of R something was off, to say nothing of the eclectic bgm placement

Those episodes definitely seemed rather.. lackluster in comparison. I think they were rushed, though, not as bad as Cloverway. I wonder if they had gotten rid of their original templates by that point. All their transitions seemed really simple instead of the cool ones that they had before.

 

[fighter4luv]

The sound mixing took a huuge nosedive in the 2000 dubbed episodes but even when they dubbed the final 17 episodes of R something was off, to say nothing of the eclectic bgm placement

Yes. No one returned from the original gang except for Lisa Lumby-Richards as writer. The rest of the team went on to other projects after the hiatus.

 

[Umino]

Well In Viz's defense a lot of people would've had their heads if they changed the insert songs so they were probably leery to do so. A lot of people really struggle with the concept of English for some reason and make a huge fuss.

They did at least have Rei, The Three Lights and Minako sing in English.

I think it's such a cheat they didn't translate the insert songs, but considering how bad Eien no Melody, and Route Venus turned out... I can't really complain. The Three Lights' songs were okay, although they had awkward lyrics like the other songs.

I give CWI a lot of credit for dubbing the few songs they did.

 

[Neo Moonlight]

I think it's such a cheat they didn't translate the insert songs, but considering how bad Eien no Melody, and Route Venus turned out... I can't really complain. The Three Lights' songs were okay, although they had awkward lyrics like the other songs.

I give CWI a lot of credit for dubbing the few songs they did.

I would've preferred they dubbed the insert songs too but let's be real, a lot of people would've flipped out if they had.

I even see people complaining that they translate sound effects in their manga and wishing for half assed releases like what Kodansha does. X_x Whereas I think it positively appalling that Kodansha sees fit to charge the same amount of money for half the work. When you have to search for a subtitle for a sound effect or flip to the back for translations notes on the random Japanese word they decided not to translate it's not a good translation x_x
But I keep seeing people praise them and dump on Viz.

I've even seen people who vocally oppose dubs altogether and think you either should watch it subbed or not at all

 

[julayla]

Yeah, some people are pretty vocal and very nitpicky nowadays when it comes to stuff like this.

 

[fighter4luv]

I give CWI a lot of credit for dubbing the few songs they did.

I actually didn't mind Angelo Oddi's adaptations he did for CWi, and Esther Thibault has a great voice. I wish we got full versions on CD of them.

 

[julayla]

I actually didn't mind Angelo Oddi's adaptations he did for CWi, and Esther Thibault has a great voice. I wish we got full versions on CD of them.

Me too. It would be nice to listen to the English dub versions of the songs on my iphone.

 

[Frenchfries&AChocolateMalt]

I actually didn't mind Angelo Oddi's adaptations he did for CWi, and Esther Thibault has a great voice. I wish we got full versions on CD of them.

Sounds like Optimum themselves handle the decision to dub/translate the songs.And Cloverway was hands off

As opposed to DiC who composed full studio albums in Los Angeles

 

[tux67]

I never realized that DiC was gonna make "Victoria" a high school student instead of middle school. I wonder if there was a reason for that or if they hadn't actually seen the show yet and assumed she was in high school.

 

[Frenchfries&AChocolateMalt]

I never realized that DiC was gonna make "Victoria" a high school student instead of middle school. I wonder if there was a reason for that or if they hadn't actually seen the show yet and assumed she was in high school.

Serena and her friends were also in high school in “Return of Sailor Moon” Alan mentioned enrolling in the local high school and Haruna introduced Ann as being in grade 9 and Alan in grade 10 (never mind that grade 9 is not high school in Japan)

It’s that episode and only in that episode where that happens. And since even the production of the first 65 episodes were a bit of a mess it’s hard to figure out what happened there.

 

[Umino]

Serena and her friends were also in high school in “Return of Sailor Moon” Alan mentioned enrolling in the local high school and Haruna introduced Ann as being in grade 9 and Alan in grade 10 (never mind that grade 9 is not high school in Japan)

It’s that episode and only in that episode where that happens. And since even the production of the first 65 episodes were a bit of a mess it’s hard to figure out what happened there.

I mean, the dub was filled with so many plot holes and errors, it’s no surprise.

 

[Frenchfries&AChocolateMalt]

I mean, the dub was filled with so many plot holes and errors, it’s no surprise.

Still I wonder what happened there? Was it a holdover from earlier drafts when the dub originally planned on aging the girls up to high school age? Did the writers assume the girls went up a grade after defeating Beryl despite having the same teacher and attending the same school and then changed their minds? (To be fair the girls should have been in grade 9 by the kindergarten bus episode in the Japanese version given the timeline)

 

[MementoNepenthe]

I mean... Serena and company are 14. You're 14 in 9th grade. It's not a terribly hard to understand mistake (and really the mistake is on the part of Naoko and Toei since at 14, Usagi *should* have been in her third year of junior high. In any case, the timeline is an absolute disaster.)

 

[Umino]

Still I wonder what happened there? Was it a holdover from earlier drafts when the dub originally planned on aging the girls up to high school age? Did the writers assume the girls went up a grade after defeating Beryl despite having the same teacher and attending the same school and then changed their minds? (To be fair the girls should have been in grade 9 by the kindergarten bus episode in the Japanese version given the timeline)

These are the same people who couldn’t remember attack names. I don’t think anything happened except the fact the dub was poorly done.

 

[MementoNepenthe]

I mean... Naoko couldn't remember Eternal Sailor Moon's transformation phrase to save her life, and she messed up Minako's disguise power phrase as well. Not remembering phrases is pretty much par for the course with this series, along with all other forms of inconsistency. "Poorly done" is pretty much the franchise's motto at this point.