Most of it happened because of the Hulu Revival, I watched the first few episodes on there as well as most of Crystal, then the Sailor Jupiter introduction for the sake of the research for that old Sailor Jupiter post I made. And other random examples till I eventually just flat out watched Sailor Stars and season 3 of Crystal as they went up on Hulu. But some I'd seen even before that, I remember looking for the R movie online because it was the only movie not at my video rental store and the Sub was all I could find (I have now also seen both Dubs for that movie though). But I later much more intentionally chose to seek out some Subs for Sailor Moon S.
Looking at the reasons why, I feel like I'm probably not alone in that.
With DBZ the Dubs were viewed as very good, so while there was a niche of people watching bootlegged VHS fan subs even before the rise of Internet streaming, those of my generation mostly weren't interested. Some people I've heard turned to bootlegging more out of impatience then any issues with the Dub. But for me even when I did start learning these shows came from Japan it never occurred to me that Japan would be that far ahead of us. I only in the last few years realized the earliest DBZ episodes were already nearly a decade old when they first aired on Toonami.
With Pokémon when I did first start learning that a lot of stuff was changed I didn't really care much. I already knew certain Mario stuff was different in Japan so I accepted it as part of how Nintendo does things. I'm certainly not gonna play Pokémon in Japanese so why bother watching it in Japanese? And I'm pretty sure 90% of Pokémon fans trying to look smart by telling you about the differences are just repeating what they read on Dogasu's Backpack and Bulbapedia, if they're not spouting long debunked rumors about Butterfree.
There are two things that made me more interested in seeking out Sailor Moon in Japanese then many other Anime that I was often generally more into.
Even though I have nostalgia for the DiC voice actors I always knew on some level they weren't really good the way DBZ and Pokémon's Dub voices were. And for the Cloverway stuff I found some of them outright bad. And no it's not just because they were Canadian (something I didn't know at the time) the Futari Wa Pretty Cure Dub holds up and I always knew that one was Canadian.
And then there is the fact that I knew even very early on some Sailor Moon censorship changes were specifically about erasing LGBTQ representation. The 4Kids Dub of Pokémon if anything did the opposite however unintentionally. Even with Hun oddly enough, if that character simply had a male voice I may not have thought of them as Androgynous, but the Dub voice hardly sounds blatantly female, they actually sound pretty ambiguous.
So because I've always been interested in LGBT subjects even though I wasn't always the full vocal supporter I am now, I had an interest in wanting to experience the Japanese Audio of Sailor Moon that I still don't have for any other classic show. And lots of people were obviously far more invested in that aspect then I was.
Now my most recent earlier this year experience with Sailor Moon has been pretty exclusively the new Viz Dub since most of it is out now and I love all of the VAs they're using. But I remain a fan of what I've heard of the show in Japanese. And when I can finally find a way to watch the first Sailor Moon Memorial I will, I'm quite curious about that.
So I'm partly making this post because I want to learn if there are indeed others for whom this is the case, or had a similar yet different experience?
But also if it is true that this is the case, what could that information be useful for?
Well if you're someone trying to convince people you know to watch more stuff in Japanese. My first advice is don't be a judgmental Jerk about it, respect that they enjoy stuff you don't and try to convince them to watch more Subs in addition to not instead of the Dubs they like. Don't accuse them of disrespecting the original intent or make ablest comments about being unable to read, you will only make them mad at you. For me it's often easier to follow a Sub when I've already seen it dubbed and know the gist of the dialogue already.
After that figure out what stuff they are already a fan of the Japanese audio for (every Anime fan has probably watched something Subbed by this point) and try to recommend them stuff that has the same Seiyu they like in different roles. And in this case Sailor Moon may be the place to start. Of course even the most purely 4Kids Pokémon fans are fans of Ikue Ootani's voice, but guess what, she was also on Sailor Moon as Nyanko Suzu/Sailor Tin Cat during Sailor Stars. I wonder if she'll reprise the role if Crystal ever gets that far?
Some people might be surprised to learn how much other work the voice of Usagi Tsukino herself did considering how in the West we're used to Iconic TV Superhero actors getting too type cast to have much success doing anything else. But Kotono Mitsuishi has actually done quite a few other roles and not just obscure random throw away stuff. She's three different human Pokémon characters including Domino one of my favorites, I still haven't watched Mewtwo Returns in Japanese but I might someday just to see if she can be as memorable as Kerry Williams. She was also Excel in Excel Saga. And she's mother fraking Mireille Bouquet a lead character in my absolute favorite Anime Noir, I did watch Noir in Japanese once in late 2016 but didn't know this at the time, it must show her range cause I never once went "she sure sounds like Sailor Moon". She was also Misato Katsuragi on some little show called Neon Genesis Evangelion. And she was one of the more fun villains on Wedding Peach. She was the title character of Maze, and she was Juri on Utena (I suggested earlier this month Juri's dub VA was the main reason that Dub is looked on poorly, how ironic to now learn she was filling in for possibly the biggest Seiyu of them all). Back to her Pokémon contributions, MAL doesn't list this one but she was also Ditto (Metamon in Japanese) in at least two episodes including it's Anime debut. Oh and she provided narration for Eromanga-Sensei.
Apparently more Noir voices were Sailor Moon alumni. My favorite character Chloe was Ami Mizuno. I'm starting to wonder if it'd be easier to list shows that don't share a Seiyu with Sailor Moon?
Since Dogasu cares so much about convincing more people to watch Pokémon in Japanese, he should perhaps write something specifically on how much Seiyu overlap it has with Sailor Moon. Jessie/Musashi was Himeko in the S movie for another example.
Update December 2nd 2023: Case Closed???
I've got big into Detective Conan a few years after writing this, I've watched everything Dubbed that exists but also countless hours of Subbed content. I'm not sure how much that make my opening statement less true since I don't know how much traction it's old Dub got or even if it aired soon enough to really part part of Millennial Nostalgia.
But it's what I talked about near the end that is really relevant. Kotono Mitsuishi voiced the character of Kir aka Mizunashi Rena who is introduced in episode 425 an episode that still doesn't even have a fan Dub, then is in a Coma for over 2 real world years till the Clash of Red and Black. And finally got to do something significant again earlier this year in episodes 1077-1079 and Movie 26 a Sub of which finally surfaced online at the end of November 2023.
However the Japanese Seiyu Detective Conan has made me a fan of it Minami Takayama the voice of the title character. I like both of Conan's official English VAs and the two FanDubs I've heard are fine as well. But Minami's talent at giving Childlike Conan and true Conan distinct voices while still also sounding plausibly like a little boy is amazing, I'm will to designate her the Bud Collyer of Anime. I was hoping to find out she was also someone on Sailor Moon but so far no luck, unless someone hasn't been properly added to MAL yet.
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