Did anyone else ever think that that the last DiC Episode was the last episode ever? Should it have been?

[JuanGarcia1982]

What it says on the tin. Two things to note.

One is that DiC dubbed season one and two but did not dub seasons three and four, not the movies. The others like CWI and Pioneer picked up where DiC left off, yes, but they were different companies with a different feel and there was a two-year gap between the last DiC episode and when production started again.

Two, it’s amazing how quick nostalgia can grow. My happy place, my default version of SM is the DiC dub. Even now, when I read SM fanfics, I hear Terri Hawkes voice in my head. Part of that is the grater metaplot DiC made, whether intentionally or not. This is an ongoing essay and will go into four parts. The Negaverse, love found, and innocence lost, and the “final” episode end.

The Negaverse
The Negaverse… when DiC dubbed SM (or Optimum dubbed it for DiC) the Dark Kingdom was renamed the Negaverse, that is negative universe. It suggested the idea of parallel dimension of evil, in opposition to our “positive” universe. Indeed, during DiC’s dub, Artemis mentioned that the nightmare began when Beryl found a way “out of her Negaverse and into our universe.” SM would say things like, “For my friends, for our universe!” Later when Beryl is destroyed, she says, “Beryl is gone… our universe is safe again!” SM also spoke to a one of the Shittenou saying “I won’t be defeated by anyone from your world!”

I remember in the 90s, anime purists complained about this, that any change was bad. Me? I just shrugged my shoulders and enjoyed what DiC had to give. I had no access to the original Japanese version (to Japanese anything!) in that age before internet, social media, or streaming and so had nothing to compare it to. Have I, knowing what I know now, come to hate DiC for “butchering” the original? Just the opposite.

Looking back, knowing what I know of the bigger picture, I can honestly say (the morality of changing anything aside) DiC's creation of the Negaverse actually had the power to improve Sailor Moon.

This is why; it did for the DiC dub what Chaos did in the manga. In the original anime, they take it away and make it an American cartoon where with how things happen, but nothing really matters. It does not build to a greater story, it’s just random villains waiting in line for a chance to fight SM… and doing so for no particular reason. In the manga and the DiC dub, it built everything up for a greater climax by revealing that all the villains--whether they knew it or not--worked for Chaos/the Negaverse.

DiC’s 82 episodes have them face Negaverse threat past (Beryl), Negaverse threat present (Doom Tree) and Negaverse threat future (Negamoon/Black moon). Like I said, the original anime removed the reveal that Chaos was behind all the villains and so made it seem that the villains were just waiting in line to fight SM, attacking Tokyo for no particular reason. The Negaverse is the “Chaos” of the DiC dub except that whilst Chaos is never defeated and Sailor Cosmos returns to an uncertain future, the future of the DiC dub shows the last minions of the Negaverse (Negamoon/Black Moon) defeated once and for all.

With how the first episode of DiC's dub opened with a (dub only) flashback to Queen Serenity and the fall of the Moon Kingdom, with how it opened with the Negaverse’s victory one thousand years in the past, with how we see once Princess sent away to the future on Earth… and how the [second to last] last DiC episode ended with a flash forward to Neo-Queen Serenity and with the restored Crystal Tokyo, with the Negaverse’s final defeat one thousand years in the future, with how we see the Queen’s daughter returns home from the past... it felt like going full circle.

Watching it back in the 90s, I saw this and when I saw NQS hugging Rini, I said, its finally over… the war against the Negaverse is finally won…

That’s what I was thinking when I saw this video!

Second part coming tomorrow. Until then!

 

[JuanGarcia1982]

Love lost and found

Just listen to this song and you will see what I mean.

They are meant to be. 1,000 years ago, the Prince and Princess were engaged to be married but through all three stories in the present they always separate. In the first story arc against the Negaverse, they have no memory of each other and if anything, are antagonistic to each other and then… just when they recover their memories of each other, they are separated. He is nearly killed and then captured by the enemy.

All through is the desire to be free. In various episodes of DiC’s dub of season one, there is the theme of being kept apart. In episode 35 (31 in DiC’s count), SM has just regained her memories and is unsure of what to do when she has a vision of her prince saying, “Princess, help me be free again.” And it was in the final struggle against Beryl that SM found him saying, “Darien, it’s me Princess Serena… I’ve come to set you free again, just like I promised!”

In the end, he is saved, but as it was said in the intro to the first episode, “their memories [are] lost to them all.”

Story arc 2 shows this. Serena regains her memory but is saddened by how Darien has not. She thinks to jog his memory but it gets stranger when Moonlight Knight shows up. He is… and is not Darien. “What’s there left to believe in?” she asks. She went through hell, she lost her world and now the one thing she has left, Darien, even he will be taken away from her? But no, at the end, Moonlight Knight reveals that he was Darien’s subconscious and after bittersweet final words, reunites with Darien thus granting him his full memories once again.

Happily ever after… except that it’s not. Yes, they are reunited at last. They waited a thousand years to be together and now that peace is come, they have the chance… and Darien says no.

That scene sums it perfectly. Darien asks why should his whole life be lived based on what happened a thousand years ago? It’s over. Serena curls up into a ball and weeps… and Rini watches all this. Darien had been having nightmares, that if he stayed with Serena something bad would happen and so separated to save her.

He ultimately learns that it was his older self sending these nightmares across time as a test and this all means something else entirely.

The song “My Only Love” promises that there will come a day somewhere far away in Darien’s arms Serena will stay. That there will come a day is proven with DiC's last episode, with how Crystal Tokyo shows them married and with a family. They waited a thousand years and they two will have to wait a thousand years more, but when its all over they will have a happily ever after.

End on a positive note indeed!

 

[JuanGarcia1982]

Innocence lost

That ties into the next part. It’s an old story, as old as King Arthur, as old as Horus and the gods of Egypt. The king is slain, and his heir is raised in secret to one day reclaim the crown.

Various magic girl stories before and after tell this story, WITCH, Winx, Amethyst. (Heck some versions of Dorothy of Oz.) Here, she thinks she is just a normal girl not knowing her royal birthright and but ultimately embracing her destiny. Interestingly unlike these other magical girls, Serena/Usagi does not want to be a superhero. They all embraced the mission early on, they answered the call to adventure from the first issue, first episode. But not Serena.

In many ways, the end of Season one would, where she loses her memory and it’s like none of it ever happened would have been the happiest possible ending for her. As she said in the DiC dub of the first episode in saying she didn't want to be hero, “I’m just a kid!” Indeed, once her true memories start returning and she realizes that her mother isn’t really her mother, that she is the chosen one who must save the world, she’s horrified. “I don’t wanna be Sailor Moon! Not Sailor Moon, not Moon Princess, not Moon anything! I just wanna go back to being a normal teenager…”

That’s what she asks for but no, Luna just has to draft her as a child soldier and place on her a burden that no 14-year-old should have to carry. (And she has the gall to criticize her at all when she makes a single mistake… Hello Luna, 14-year-old schoolgirl in a war zone!)

Season 1 ends, with her childhood restored to her, with her being given the promise that she need never again carry the burden of a hero (or a princess or a queen or a god), the promise that she can just be... happy.

Back in the 90s, I came across a fan website and the guy listed his 100 greatest SM moments and the season 1 climax was ranked #1. As best I can remember he said...

Once upon a time, there was a frustrated teenage girl who dreamed of being a magical princess; she got her wish.

Once upon a time, there was a weary princess who dreamed of just being an ordinary teenage girl; she got her wish.



When you think about it, it makes Cihi's song "A New Day" at the end of season 1 that much more resonant. Yes, Serena "got up this morning, on the right side of my bed, with all these crazy thoughts screaming through my head" but it was all just a bad dream and now she "can't wait to see/ What this world holds for me"!

If the story had ended there it would have been Wizard of Oz story that’s tells you, be careful what you wish for. The opening of season 2 has her mourn the loss of her civilian life and the start of the Negamoon/Black Moon arc sees her happy that she can just live happily ever after in Darien’s arms.

Yet she has more adventures, As Toonami said, its “schoolgirls with superpowers vs the scum of the Negaverse.” That’s the whole draw of DiC’s SM; the sheer absurdity of it forces you to pay attention… but it can last only so long. The context provided by DiC stresses the idea that Sailor Moon is an ordinary girl… who finds out that she just happens to be a superhero princess. But Serena can only go on so many adventures before she stops being an ordinary girl thus ending the story. Indeed, by the end of season two there have been 80 episodes and even if the story stopped there, she has seen too much to ever back to being a normal girl.

The conclusion of the third storyline proves it!

I mean of course is the bittersweet revelation of Crystal Tokyo; in the context of DiC its comparable to the final revelation of the future of Manga Sailor Cosmos… but in one way better. To realize that her final known future is not happily ever after but a world where she is bereft of all her friends, fighting an endless and hopeless war. There, anime Beryl was right. She said it in the wrong timeline but she herself was right. In the final end, a shining future she dreams of will never come to pass and she will realize that the world is already filled with ugliness and filth. She has faith in what, everlasting love, indestructible friendship? What awaits her is a future where there is nothing for anyone to believe in!

With how DiC Sailor Moon ends with the revelation of Crystal Tokyo, its different.

Serena was the lost princess of a kingdom that no longer existed, a queen in exile. She did not seem to mind the loss of her crown and kingdom and the possibility of living a mundane civilian life. If anything, the opening of season 2 when she got her memories back, she was visibly saddened by having to take up the hero’s burden.

Just check this to see why.

At the end of his Golden Voyage, Sinbad the Sailor saw a possible future where he could be king, and he gave it all away. But... but why? Why would he ever do such a thing!? Because he values his freedom above all things… and a king is never truly free.

Sailor Moon does not have that luxury. To see Crystal Tokyo and to know that it’s not just a possible future but THE future… There is no detail of how it came to be but now unless she wants to mess up the timeline, she has to become queen. She has to reclaim her crown and fulfill the story of the prince born in exile. Like Simba in Lion King, she can’t just say Hakuna Matata and act like she doesn’t care. What she personally wants does not matter, what matters is her responsibilities.

Serena just wanted to be a normal teenager but at the end of DIC it’s clear that will never happen. She will never get it back. Indeed, as DiC’s 80 episodes progress we see less and less of Serena’s Earth family and less of Molly/Naru… as if they were only parts of a life that was never meant to be real.

In her last DiC appearance Mama Tsukino gets an extra cup of tea but she stops. Why should she, she asks laughingly. It’s not as if there was another child living in the house! Serena cries; Mama Tsukino has already forgotten about Rini. She is completely ignorant of one of the most important chapters of Serena’s life.

In Molly/Naru’s last appearance… this was the first time the villains did their evil deeds in full view of all. Every other time, there was only one civilian witness who fainted when the monster attacked. There was plausible deniability. Now, with the Negamoon/Black Moon Clan placing their Crystal in the middle of Tokyo… Joe Civilian has no details, but he knows something is happening.

That’s when Molly looks at the huge crystal and then at Serena. “You know what’s happening don’t you, you know more than you let on… but its ok. We’ll always be friends right?”

There is no mention or appearance of Molly in Crystal Tokyo. While NQS may indeed have fond memories of Molly, who’s to say she did not leave Molly behind? In the manga, there is one sad panel where Naru sees Usagi in the distance and says that something changed in Usagi… that she has gone somewhere that she, Naru cannot follow.

A queen, by virtue of what she is, is set apart from others. In My Little Pony G3, Spike trains a young filly to be the new princess and tells that she can’t go play with her friends anymore. Why? “Princesses don’t have friends. [She gasps.] Well, no. It’s not so much that she doesn’t have friends but that she doesn't have equals.” Yes, the exiled princess reclaims her crown and becomes queen, but she loses her freedom and her identity.

For Serena to have her freedom, to have no responsibilities or burden greater than the flavor of ice cream, to just retire and be a happy housewife to Darien, to have all that and to be able to share it with her friends that would the best possible ending.

For Serena to have none of that, for her to have the burden of the crown, to give up her freedom to spend the rest of her life in service to her people… but for her friends to be there holding her hand every step of the way, that’s the second best ending!

Thus the bitter… and the sweet.

 

[JuanGarcia1982]

The final episode

The last episode of season 2 is sometimes derided as a mere clip show and yes, in the context of a 5 season show, that’s what it is. However, as the last episode of the series, it can actually work.

The last episode of season 2 was made up entirely of clips and had the Sailors talk about the past and the future. In the original they don’t talk about anything new, and we learn nothing we hadn’t known before. Yes, it is true that they mention the future, but their glimpses of “other” Sailors is resolved in the first episode of season 3. The one bit of drama is even a joke; the Sailors mutiny against SM but at the end, they show they were just joking and that she is still the leader.

Small surprise that some countries skipped that episode altogether; it was a filler episode if there ever was one.

But with DiC, it was different. DiC’s dub ended there and for a time, it was the last episode American fans would ever see. (Legally at least.) Remember in the 90s, the internet was still this weird mysterious thing that a lot of people didn’t use, and some didn’t even know about. There was no streaming, no social media as we know it, nothing. So for a lot of people, SM was whatever DiC said it was, myself included.

For all I knew the last DiC episode was the last episode ever and interpreted it as such. When you see it like that, it changes everything. Thus, the last episode had them reminisce on everything. It’s a record of who the Sailors as they look back on how far they’ve come.

Related to that is that they rebelled for real, they really were thinking about replacing SM as the leader. It was lighthearted and they rallied behind Serena at the end, but it was there. With how DiC Sailor Moon is the story of them fighting the Negaverse, it only right with how they settle this when SM reminds them of their final battle against Beryl, Queen of the Negaverse. The first DiC episode opens with a flashback to how she destroyed their world and the last DiC episode ends with a flashback to how they defeated her. It was only by working together, Serena reminds them, that they were able to win.

They stand together.

That and the promise of the future. Up until then SM was the story of the five schoolgirl superheroes. Its what TV tropes calls the Five-Man, er Woman, Band--the idea that a team of five is the perfect number of characters to tell a story. They then catch glimpses of other Sailors. What?! Is that even possible?! In the original, it resolved the next episode but with DiC the fact that it ends there means that it’s a cliff hanger and storytellers know you should always leave them wanting more.

So, we’re left gasping for answers, what else is out there. Granted in today’s internet age you can just look it up on your phone but in those days it was different. And really, that’s the point, not knowing. If you know the answer that’s it but if there is no cannon answer, then the sky’s the limit as to what it could be.

Similarly, if the Negaverse is defeated then who’s the new villain with glasses? An evil future version of Melvin/Umino and is the red head future Molly/Naru? Again, the point is now knowing because it means that there is an entire world out there and it’s just beginning of the road to Crytal Tokyo.

Serena only ever wanted to be an ordinary kid again but it's like that scene from the last episode of “The Crown.” Queen Elizabeth never wanted to be a queen and at one point seriously thinks to retire so she can go back to being plain old Lilibet Windsor… except she can’t. In her mind, she meets her younger selves, and they all tell her they don’t exist anymore. You can’t go home again. By the end of the last DiC episode, with all she's done, all's learned of the past and the future, Serena is not the little kid Luna gave a transformation broach to in episode 1, not anymore.

This is what I saw in the last DiC episode, a callback to how far they've come and that innocence is lost, never to be regained.

For years now there has been only one "Serena," Queen Serena, Neo-Queen Serenity. If you went looking for Serena Tsukino, you wouldn't find her. She's gone, long gone

Except when at the end of the last DiC episode Serena says that they will investigate only after they have some cheesecake! The Sailors collective response? “You’re on meatball head!”

No matter where she goes no, no matter who she becomes, a part of her will still be the 14-year-old girl who fell asleep in class and panicked at the sound of thunder… and was still brave enough to save the world. I knew that I would never see SM again but I knew she would always be there. I actually marked the VHS tape I made of that episode as “Final Farewell”.

 

[journeyin2mystery]

This was a beautiful up and insightful love letter to the DiC dub which is always the first Sailor Moon storytelling I saw. Looking back, I appreciate a lot of the little things (outside of the gay erasure) DiC did that differentiate the dub.

 

[JuanGarcia1982]

Thanks for the kind words journey!

And yeah, I've since seen a whole world of SM but DiC still holds a place for me.

 

[Clow]

I still think season 1 has the most powerful ending.

Sailor Moon defeats “the Negaverse” and everybody resumes their lives without their memories.

The end.

 

[JuanGarcia1982]

I still think season 1 has the most powerful ending.

Sailor Moon defeats “the Negaverse” and everybody resumes their lives without their memories.

The end.

Got up this morning
On the right side of bed
With all these crazy thoughts
Screaming through my head
I can't wait to see
What this world holds for me
Oh, It's a new day!

 

[Clow]

Got up this morning
On the right side of bed
With all these crazy thoughts
Screaming through my head
I can't wait to see
What this world holds for me
Oh, It's a new day!

And they shall meet again … and again.

 

[ChampionOfNuggets]

The last episode of the DiC dub (Follow The Leader) was literally a preview for Sailor Moon S letting you know there was gonna be 2 new Sailor Scouts. How anyone could think that was the final episode is beyond me.

 

[JuanGarcia1982]

The last episode of the DiC dub (Follow The Leader) was literally a preview for Sailor Moon S letting you know there was gonna be 2 new Sailor Scouts. How anyone could think that was the final episode is beyond me.

Because there was no narrative reason to continue

From a storytelling perspective, DiC told a story in three parts. There is beginning (Negaverse past with Beryl), middle (Negaverse present with the Doom tree), and end (Negaverse future with Nemesis). Furthermore, it goes full circle. The first DIC episode opens in 1,000 years in the past with the magical kingdom forever destroyed and the (second to) last episode ends 1,000 years in the future with the magical kingdom restored

Queen Serenity 1 said, "Serena, I won't let it end like this... I won't let them take away your future!" And she didn't. It ends showing us Crystal Tokyo and thus proof that the Negaverse is (or will be) defeated once and for all. And sadly, proof that Serena will never get her normal life back.

We see the two mystery Sailors in the very last DiC episode yes, but that first time I saw it, I interpreted as a cliff hanger ending. There's a whole world thousand year's worth of adventures between "Follow the Leader" and Crystal Tokyo but CT proves that they're going to make it. We might never know who the two mystery Sailors are or who the mad scientist with glasses it, but we know that the Sailors will be alright.

Seasons 1 and 2 take place with the Sailors at 14 years old and is this the most amazing year of their entire lives. Its the year everything turned upside down. When I first saw the first movie "Promise of the Rose" that's how I interpreted that line at the end, "My friends!" thinks Princess Serena(ity), "I knew I could count on them, as always!" As always. She opens the movie by introducing herself as an ordinary 14 year old who just happens to have a magical compact and ends with her taking it for granted that her team will always be there for her to save the world from extinction level events

I saw it as once last adventure before they walk off into the "Follow the Leader" sunset. Why? Because with that, I knew that even without the promise of CT that they'd be ok, that they'll be ok!

Toei never meant to give such an impression and it mostly came from DiC's localizing the show. And the fact that seasons three and four undo the ending that DiC may or may not have intended*, really proves it. But that is what I saw that first time I saw their adaptation


*Did DIC try to create an overarching story in three parts or were they just making things up as they went along? If the second, no rule says you can;t get lucky!

 

[ChampionOfNuggets]

Because there was no narrative reason to continue

There was also no narrative reason to continue past Day of Destiny either and yet..

The final episode of R is screaming in your face THERE WILL BE MORE EPISODES DON'T WORRY. Even 6 year old me got that the show was telling you there was more to come with the appearance of two new Sailor Scouts and clips of a new evil villain and his assistant

 

[julayla]

I was excited as well and I was so excited when ep 65 (or ep 72 of the JP release) aired and knew that there'd be more episodes afterward. So much so, that I went to flea market booths to find JP fansub copies of the show alongside the original first 72 eps in fansub (don't have them anymore sadly) just to finish the entire series.

 

[JuanGarcia1982]

There was also no narrative reason to continue past Day of Destiny either and yet..

The final episode of R is screaming in your face THERE WILL BE MORE EPISODES DON'T WORRY. Even 6 year old me got that the show was telling you there was more to come with the appearance of two new Sailor Scouts and clips of a new evil villain and his assistant

I was 16 when I saw the last DiC episode and no, I heard no screams at all. DiC's last episode "Follow the Leader" has more weight as a last episode than "Day of Destiny" for reasons I stated. At 16, I had fully embraced and understood the idea of cliffhanger endings and the idea that no, you don't have to know everything. We don't need everything to be spelled out for us. If anything, unresolved questions and loose ends can add some spice to fan speculation!

DiC's adaptation of episode 1 opens on the Moon Kingdom with the narrator telling us that though her world was destroyed, that Queen Serenity's last hope was to send her daughter Princess Serena to the future on Earth. The (second to) last episode closes in the future with Serena having claimed her crown and reigning as the new Queen Serenity. The story goes full circle, and the saga is complete. It's an old trope, the prince/child of promise grows up in secret to one day claim his father's crown or fulfill his destiny. Superman, King Arthur, Moses, heck, it goes as far back as Horus of Egypt reclaiming his father's crown from uncle Set.

That's part of the reason I was slightly disappointed by the finale of classic anime season 1. I was excited by DiC's Sailor Moon so when I found out that there was a Sailor Moon comic book (as I called manga then!) I immediately sought it out. I was intrigued to see the "original version" and was more intrigued by the differences... mostly the end where Usagi having defeated the Dark Kingdom is met by her lunar mother and chooses not to reclaim her crown--not yet! The crown was hers for the taking and she walked away, a far more effective ending that the season 1 anime as is.

To paraphrase what Sinbad said in an earlier clip, freedom is a precious thing, and a queen is never truly free. Had the original anime played up the movie Wizard of Oz angle, the ending where they lose all their memories would have worked better. Serena/Dorothy dreams of going over the rainbow but when it's what she thought it would be, just wants to go home and in the end, wakes up as if it were all a dream. Indeed, movie Dorothy said,

Dorothy: Well, I - I think that it - it wasn't enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em - and it's that - if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard.

I saw in DiC's finale, seeing Serena claiming her crown as a reflection of the picture below. In both cases, Serena/Usagi had to make a choice and with all the wisdom she had gained, she made the best choice she could. In one, Serena accepted the crown to rule as Neo Queen Serenity. In the other, Usagi walked away from the crown to reclaim her Earth life--for a time at least! In both DiC's adaptation and the first manga story arc, it didn't end with just a dream, it ended with our gal making a choice of own will and volition and not having a choice made for her by some random dying wish.

That's why I saw DiC's last episode as THE last episode. There might be loose ends and cliffhangers to tease fan speculation, but the saga is complete.