The quality of the various English dubbed versions of the show.
DIC/Cloverway vs Viz in general. The battle between fans of DiC versus the Viz Media sides of the fandom was a slow smolder for quite a while, but has flared up quite a bit in the New Twenties. Initially, there was relief and joy among the fandom when Viz Media took over the series back in 2014 with a full and faithful re-dub of the entire series with no censorship or edits, and with an All-Star Cast of voice actors, meaning there was going to be full experience of Sailor Moon finally in English. But as the years went on, attitudes towardsthe older dub started to shift and change, spawning a cult fanbase that was dedicated to preserving the DIC version, and these same fans started to get more vocal and asking for the old one to be re-distributed in some fashion (similar to what Funimation did with Dragon Ball Z's "Rock The Dragon" release) and there was the matchstick that set the fire ablaze. Viz fans and purists became confused and insulted as to why fans would want that "overly edited and bad" English dub back when they had the "definitive" Sailor Moon experience readily available, and went on the attack against the older dub again, bashing it at boards and cons and calling DiC fans nostalgia-obsessed loonies who can't let go of their childhoods, while DiC fans slam Viz fans for being boring purists and not letting others have any fun. Things got worse when the popular You Tube Channel "Sailor Moon Says", which posted funny clips and out-of-context lines of the DIC/Cloverway dub, was copyright struck by Toei in 2021, leaving DIC fans even more resentful, and left to believe that Toei and Viz were deliberately trying to erase the older dub, which in turn made them even more vocal and resentful towards the Viz Media version, calling it "bland" and slamming the "lackluster" vocal performances, and having nothing to offer besides pleasing the diehard purists.
The original English dub went through three voice actresses for the main character. During the original run of the show, Terri Hawkes was the most popular (largely because she dubbed the majority of the DiC run). So popular in fact that her much-maligned replacement, Linda Ballantyne, is often criticized for simply attempting to mimic Hawkes instead of acting. Which is not actually her fault as she was being told by Optimum to mimic Terri Hawkes. However, since the heyday of the dub, Tracey Moore, the original voice for the character who was replaced early in the first series, has built up a fandom and now there's two camps that fight over whether Moore or Hawkes was better. Usually the arguments are that Moore was better at actually sounding like a teenage girl, and gave an overall better-acted performance, but Hawkes was significantly better at delivering a wide array of emotions. Ballantyne's fanbase is significantly smaller than the other two (especially since she's the one helming the classic moment where Serena has "too much juice" and makes her sound more drunk than in the Japanese). Although some do find her to be a superior actress to Hawkes, most agree she was badly miscast.
The original dub of the first two seasons from DiC. There are many fans, especially more mainstream fans, who grew up with this version, and its voice actors, and cannot picture the show any other way. On the other hand, fans of the Japanese version have long criticized its heavy censorship and cheesy dialogue and music. Some modern anime fans see it as a relic of the past, but the distinctive quality of its voice acting still gets praised by some as being very good for the time. The original Cloverway dub of S and SuperS is also this to a lesser extent.
DiC's soundtrack. Many people who grew up on that dub often prefer it, finding it more "modern" or "epic", while others decry it as generic 90s cartoon music. This got scratched open again when Cloverway didn't replace any of the background soundtrack, thus exposing dub-only viewers to the actual soundtrack and immediately dividing even the fans of the dub between those that wanted DiC's replacement music and those who preferred having the show as close as the original English dub ever got to a faithful dub. There's a smaller subset that still dislike the original dub, but genuinely enjoy its music on its own merits. If pressed, even sub-only fans will admit the music was So Okay, It's Average at the least, with a few fitting some scenes just as well, or even better than, the original score. With insert songs, most fans even seem to prefer "Carry On"'s usage during the final battle with Queen Beryl instead of the Japanese version's recycling of "Moonlight Densetsu."
The new English dub from Viz Media and Studiopolis has received overall positive, but still divided reception. Some fans are pleased that we finally have a Sailor Moon dub that's up to the standards of current English anime dubbing, but it has its share of critics who grew up with the original dub that think the new one is more stale and less memorable, and/or the voice acting isn't as distinctive or good.
The attempts to fandub Sailor Stars into a DiC-style dub complete with the altered soundtrack, censorship, and random rewrites to the script. Not shockingly, fans of the Japanese version are very vocal about their opposition to it. It doesn't help that Viz Media's faithful redub is set to finally cover that season officially.
The artifacting and ghosting in Viz's DVD/Blu-ray releases, especially in the first season sets. Some fans either don't notice or don't mind and buy the sets regardless because they're happy with having new Sailor Moon DVDs, while others are so outraged by the video problems that not only were they canceling their pre-orders, but also leaving scathing reviews about the sets on Amazon just because of the video problems. Fans taking a middle ground perspective aren't any happier with the video defects, but raise the possibility that Viz was merely given bad masters in the first place. Given that damaged source tapes aren't unheard of with anime as old as Sailor Moon and that there was no reason for Toei to need them for a show at the time that didn't look like it was going to be licensed, the theory seems fairly plausible. Later seasons however, starting with R, would later fix most of the ghosting issues.
Viz Media's Late Export for You treatment of Canada caused a few fans of Sailor Moon in that country to turn against the company in disgust, believing that the company disrespected the country that first brought the show to the attention of the English-speaking world.
Sailor Stars, the final season of the anime, has a broken base over whether it's good or not. Stars followed the manga's arc the least faithfully of all seasons, making it Lighter and Softer with only a few bleak episodes at the very end. Some fans prefer the darker tone and worldbuilding that the manga presented, while some feel that the manga became much too bleak and hated the Badass Decay the entire cast suffered as a result of being all killed off, some offscreen, and say it's impossible to care about what's happening when nearly the entire cast (both heroes and villains) of the Stars arc exists only as Cannon Fodder to be introduced and then die. Supporters of the anime also prefer the anime's version of the Sailor Starlights, who all had their roles expanded and their personalities overhauled from the manga's versions.
Sailor Moon Crystal has this. Some fans from the 90s anime and the manga feel it's a disappointment for its constant bad animation quality, poor writing decisions and over-reliance on the manga, which was already admitted by Naoko Takeuchi to be rushed and not very good. Other fans feel Crystal is entirely necessary for being the true vision Naoko had for the original anime adaptation that made a large number of changes on the source material. There are also some people who are fine with most of the animation or at least that the art is very pretty, but hate the CGI everywhere, and instead don't like that the series is rushed thanks to the removal of all filler episodes.
Back in the days of Usenet, whether or not Hotaru/Sailor Saturn was a goth was a hotly-debated topic among the fandom.
Zoicite is changed into a woman for the DiC dub, to censor the homosexual relationship between him and Kunzite. Obviously this doesn't sit well with a lot of fans, as their romance is noted to be their redeeming trait, and this kind of change is seen as the worst kind of anime censorship in the US. However, some fans (particularly those who grew up with that dub) actually like the idea of Zoicite as a woman; especially since Kirsten Bishop's performance is still seen rather appropriate for the character.
Exclusive to the 90s anime, there are debates over whether Usagi is a toxic girlfriend or if her Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies are a natural consequence due to her young age compared to Mamoru. The former thinks he should've broken up with her permanently due to her toxic nature, while the latter thinks they should've stayed broken up as well, but for the reason that they unironically think Mamoru should take the brunt of the blame due to him being the older of the two.
While the decision to cast Keiko Kitagawa (who played Rei/Sailor Mars in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon) as Sailor Cosmos in Sailor Moon Cosmos has been met with polarizing reactions. Some are very excited at the prospect and are happy that PGSM is being acknowledged in some way while others are very vocal about their disapproval of this. The reason for the backlash being that many fans were hoping to hear Kotono Mitsuishi voicing Sailor Cosmos and the fact that that isn't the case and the fact that the role of Cosmos went to an actress who previously played Rei had people making claims that this somehow alters the existing lore when the identity of Sailor Cosmos was pretty ambiguous to begin with. While it was clarified that this was a decision by Takeuchi herself with support from both the cast of PGSM and Mitsuishi herself, Kitagawa had received so much backlash for this that she felt the need to apologize for it on social media.
Usagi's Butt-Monkey status in the 90s anime. Some find it funny, with her Amusing Injuries and humiliations being considered comedy gold at its finest. Others find it a tad mean-spirited, with how even the normally nicer characters like Ami and Makoto join in on the fun. The DiC dub, where this has become more prominent, hasn't done any favors either.
