by Joseph Walter
Shows like Voltron and Robotech would go through major edits and storyline changes, for example.
Anime made its first major splash in the early 90s with hits like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, and those shows also went through some serious changes, but on a lesser scale than Robotech's stitching together multiple, separate series into one, giant epic.
DBZ and Sailor Moon faced edits for sexuality or violence, but perhaps their most memorable changes came in the form of the total replacement of their original musical scores. Why the producers felt that music, of all things, needed to be changed is certainly baffling, but change them they did.
Sailor Moon's brand new score actually turned out to be superior (at least in my opinion) to its original Japanese, and I hunger for a full soundtrack release.
DBZ's musical changes, on the other hand, were met with far more controversy and are still heated topics of debate between fans even today, so I wanted to put all the major players out there and discuss the strengths and weaknesses regarding each version of the score.
While I won't be declaring a "winner," per se, I'm hoping that, at the very least, each score will get some kind of appreciation by the time we're done. Anyway, let's get started by first clicking the "Read More" break and then discussing our main players!
*Note: All analyses are based on my viewing of the series with all versions of the soundtrack, and listening to the available albums.