Germans Love David Hasselhoff / Sailor Moon

North America

Tribute to Sailor Moon in Turin, Italy
The quote says It is justice, not charity, that is lacking in the world - Mary Wollstonecraft

• While Sailor Moon was popular in its heyday in Japan, the show is just one of a series of many within a demographic with many other popular Magical Girl shows that became popular. In the West, and especially in North America, its one of the most influential girl shows in history even after thirty years, and the Sailor Moon character herself is one of the most recognizable and iconic superheroines to Western audiences. The original English dub theme became a staple of 90's mainstream pop culture, and Americans even tried to create their own version of the show at one point.
• The show was also a massive hit in North America, to the point that even people who have never seen a single episode of the show can recognize the main character on sight. However, its popularity differed on either side of the border –- in America, the show first ran in syndication (meaning viewing times varied), so it didn't build up much of an audience until Cartoon Network aired it with a consistent schedule on the Toonami block, but Canada aired it from the get-go on major network YTV where it was a smashing success. YTV got to air the 17 "lost" episodes that concluded the R series some two years before America did. In fact, when the series was rescued and redubbed by Viz Media, they made sure to mention YTV on Twitter.
  • Sailor Moon's popularity in Canada deserves special mention, as by the late 1990s it had become a full-on pop culture phenomenon over there that was getting dues in other media - the most famous example the Barenaked Ladies song "One Week".^note "Gotta tune to Sailor Moon/It's got the "boom" anime babes that make me think the wrong thing." Most of the original toys and merchandise wound up in the Great White North as a result, with Canadians even getting some merch that Americans didn't. In fact, its popularity in Canada is a major reason why Cartoon Network salvaged Sailor Moon and put it back on air despite its previous failure in syndication; they figured the series had to have potential in the states if it's managed to become so incredibly popular in Canada. Thus the multiple No Export for You situations Canadian Moonies have been stuck with over the part few years are particularly stinging.
    • Back in the US, Viz admitted that pre-orders for their uncut DVDs were the absolute highest in the company's history. Now what was that you said about shows for girls not selling well?.
• Among fans whose first experience with Sailor Moon was the DiC dub, the Ail and Ann episodes in Sailor Moon R are much more popular than they are elsewhere. This is probably due to the fact that those episodes had much more faithful translations than any other storyline (no one is quite sure why, though). They also didn't have the annoying pop-culture references that the English dubs of S and SuperS were deluged in. The entire storyline was released in a VHS boxed set in the late nineties, something which was unheard of at the time.
• The Ail/An episodes are much more popular among American and Canadian fans. This is because these episodes had very faithful translations, and not as many censor cuts and no missing episodes. These episodes were actually held up during the first run of the original English dub and initially aired after the first 12 Rini episodes due to an attempt by DiC to sell them exclusively to a Network (the first episode of this arc actually did air on a Fox Kids Saturday morning slot). They were also released to VHS in a 4-tape boxset before such a release was commonplace. To the rest of the world, they're just filler episodes.
  • Among the same lines, the original dub was (and still is) more well-regarded in its native Canada than the rest of the world.
• Chibi-Chibi is much more popular amongst American fans as due to her cuteness and not being bratty like Chibi-Usa.

Europe

• The anime was one of the first anime series ever distributed in Russia, and while its current status has been relegated to cult classic today , it spawned a whole generation of Russian otakus back then. To the point that many current committed otakus and even casual anime fans in Russia today are not only in their thirties and forties, often crediting Sailor Moon as their gateway series, but a significant portion of otakus in the country are still Moonies despite the series being relegated to cult popularity today. Even many of younger generation of otakus often seek out the series and in turn become devout Moonies in turn and the series is famous enough even Russians unaware of anime can recognize the titular protagonist.
  • The Dark Kingdom, a group of villains from the first season of Sailor Moon, is impressively popular among Russian fans (female fans, at least), so much that it often overshadows the show's actual protagonists in fanfiction. This is likely related to the fact that many fans discovered yaoi thanks to Zoisite and Kunzite.
• The series was also huge in Italy. The first season and Sailor Moon R, airing back-to-back in 1995, were so successful that when S and SuperS were brought over in 1996 they were aired in a primetime block, and in 1997 Sailor Stars aired mere weeks after finishing in Japan. Unfortunately the series, already suffering from a questionable adaptation, was also the target of Moral Guardians which caused in turn even more censorship, up to a disastrous butchering of the finale; reportedly, it's one of the reasons author Naoko Takeuchi decided to retire the rights for many years afterwards. Despite the long hiatus the popularity has endured, to the point Italy was chosen to be the first country for an international relaunch of the series in 2010, and an Italian artist has drawn a lot of the official art for international merchandise since.
• Germany also has a lot of love to show Sailor Moon, with viewership of over 10% of the German population during its popularity peak. Much like the Canada example, Sailor Moon has also played a large role in German pop music, as even a band was formed based on it's popularity, and KXXMA (a German musician who's partnered with UMG) produced this. To this day, the show still receives reruns in Germany.

Latin America

• The series is also quite popular in Latin America, possibly being one of the Big 3 of the golden age of anime in Latin America along with Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya. You just have to walk down a street in Mexico City or Santiago de Chile and you may find a guy selling merchandise from the series in a street stall. Part of this is due to its wide dissemination (it was broadcast in almost all Latin American countries during the late 90s and early 2000s) and its excellent dubbing, with a memorable voice cast and without any censorship or editing, apart from broadcast all seasons. The voice cast was so iconic that the vast majority of them returned for the Sailor Moon Crystal dub.

Asia

• Sailor Moon was also very popular in Malaysia, to the point where it is the only anime with a dub whose quality rivals that of Doraemon. The anime even got a Malay cover of Moonlight Densetsu. Sailor Moon had the distinction of being the first anime in Malaysia to have it's theme song covered in Malay (an even now, it holds the distinction of being one of the very few animes whose theme song has a Malay cover)^note However, because the song was performed by an Indonesian because every Malaysian TV station had an Indonesian TV station partner as part of a friendship program launched by both the Malaysian and Indonesian government back in the day, after Malaysia ended the program Indonesians tried to lay claim to the cover, leading to a Fandom Rivalry of a ridiculous kind.
• The series also gathered huge popularity in Indonesia, to the point where if you ask any Indonesian about "Japanese female superhero", the first thing in their mind is usually Sailor Moon.
• The anime is very popular in Vietnam as chances you would see comments from Vietnamese speakers are high in the internet, and to the point the OST is also used in Vietnamese media and films (though it probably doesn't include credit and permission however).