It taught us that you could be clumsy, loud, and obsessed with video games (or food) and still save the world. It taught us that friendship is a superpower. Even if those friends had to pretend to be cousins to say it.

So, here’s to you, Serena. Here’s to you, Darien. And here’s to that terrible, wonderful, beautiful rock guitar solo.

Terri Hawkes (and later Tracey Moore) as Serena/Usagi captured the clumsy, hungry, crybaby essence perfectly. When Serena whined "Moooonieee," you felt it. And who can forget the late, great Jill Frappier as Luna? Sure, she sounded like a stern British aunt rather than a magical cat, but that maternal scolding was exactly what Serena needed.

Now, decades later, with the ability to stream the original Japanese subtitled version (and the excellent Viz Media redub), I decided to go back and revisit the "DiC" and "Cloverway" dubs of my youth. Was it as good as I remembered? Or was I just hypnotized by the glittering transformation sequences?

Let’s fight about this. The original Japanese score is beautiful and orchestral. But the DiC rock soundtrack ? The guitar riffs during the fight scenes? The "Oh, can you just believe it?" pop song during the credits? That music is synonymous with heroism for me. It turned every Sailor Teleport into a rock concert.

You have never seen Sailor Moon before and want the actual plot. In that case, go watch the Viz redub. The DiC version cuts out entire character arcs (Nephrite and Naru’s tragedy hits way harder in Japanese). Closing Thoughts The English dub of Sailor Moon is a bad translation. It is a product of a time when America was terrified of anime being "too foreign." But it is also the reason millions of us fell in love with the genre.