In the final SuperS episode, after Nehellenia throws Chibi Moon off her rising debris platform, and Sailor Moon finishes up a brief BSOD, in the Japanese she turns around and says "I won't lose to you!" and jumps off to rescue Chibi Moon. In the original Cloverway English dub (and final episode of the original dub), she says "I still pity you." Directing this at Nehellenia, who was always envious of Sailor Moon and the Silver Millennium and her kingdom and who can't stand when people pity her, this line was delivered with much more impact and sting and emphasized Usagi's demeanor more effectively.
Fans of the original dub often talk about Linda Ballentyne's portrayal of Serena in this episode as her absolute best, from her parting shot at Nehellenia before jumping to the emotional plea she makes for Rini to wake up before they both die. Coupled alongside Kate Trotter's utterly vicious Nehellenia.
Nehellenia: Now how do you feel, Miss Sad Eyes? You've lost what you loved most, and you've lost your happy future. Now maybe you can understand how I feel. Huh?!
Sailor Moon: I still pity you.
From the first episode in the original, Usagi's mother sees Usagi's test and punishes her by basically kicking her out of the house telling her to "think about what she's done". The DiC dub changes this to her being told to go to the library and study. Kicking a kid out of the house would come off as really harsh (and possibly counter-productive) to an American, but sending the kid to the library to study sounds appropriate.
Some people admired the "That's so sweet, I'm getting cavities!" line Beryl utters doing the otherwise butchered "Day of Destiny" dubbed episode. Such a line might've become an Ascended Meme if someone used it right.
"Day of Destiny" is a woolseyism in hindsight. The changed plot point of the entire cast surviving the battle (rather than dying and being resurrected), arguably works better in the long run compared to the original episode. By the time Sailor Moon finished its first dub season in North America (1995), Super S (The fourth season) was already airing in Japan. Defenders say it likely would've created a needlessly awkward situation to just suddenly kill off the cast, even if temporarily, considering there are two whole seasons worth of episodes afterwards, and Sailor Moon comes back anyway in the first episode of the next season.
Considering the (dead) Inner Guardians end up returning as ghosts to help Usagi anyway in the original version, the change to the Scouts not dying at all and arriving in the nick of time to help Serena fight off Queen Beryl still arguably works the same in the DIC Dub. Though at the same time, cynical critics of the dub will decry the change anyway for taking away the tear-jerking context of the original to make it accessible to American children.
"Remless" as "lemures" is a bit more of a subjective example — the Cloverway dub changed the "Lemures" to "Remless". While "Lemures" does fit in the manga, the campy monsters of the week are that way because their dreams were stolen; dreaming usually occurs in the R.E.M. (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep — so it actually makes sense they're called "R.E.M."-less.
In the Cloverway dub, the Lemures often had a quote related to their habits when they were defeated. Whereas in the original, they just said "Stage out!", Viz for the most part stayed true to the original script... but maintained the joke with Ms. Togetoge being defeated without doing anything:
Cloverway: I haven't even done anything! Viz: But I didn't even DO anything! Stage out, Toge!
The suffixes and prefixes of some Lemures were also translated to an English counterpart. For example, Junjun's Lemures (Which are male) have "Dude" in their names, while the aforementioned "Ms. Togetoge" was originally "TogeToge Jou".
The DiC dub locallized Usagi's Embarrassing Nickname as "Meatball Head" rather than "dumpling head" due to the fact there is no real English equivalent to dumplings. The change still managed to fit because it made sense for a teenage girl to be upset about her hair being called "meatballs", plus her hair buns actually do look like meatballs. When the Viz Media dub went with the closer "bun head", it was cited by a group fans to not quite hit as hard or catchy as an insult compared to either the DiC or Japanese versions.
The "Dieting episode". The English dub emphasizes being healthy and warns that overexercising has its own problems. Furthermore, Usagi's classmates say that their parents don't want them to diet, referencing they are growing teenagers.
Nephrite's death becomes even more sad in the DiC dub, thanks to the line "Don't forget me". At the very end of Sailor Moon Season 1... ouch.
The changing of the main character's name is also rather well thought out. Usagi Tsukino is a reference to the Moon Rabbit, which is unheard of in Western mythology, therefore, her name becomes Serena — a reference to Selene, the Greek Goddess of the Moon. It also comes from 'serenity' — which is her true mother's name. There's a further bit of this when it comes to her daughter as well. 'Chibi-usa' essentially means 'Usagi Jr'. In the original English dub, it's translated to Rini, which is short for Serena, so the daughter remains named after her mother in some way. The name Serena fits even more because Selene's consort in mythology was Endymion, which ties into Prince Endymion, Mamoru/Darien's past identity, maintaining the theme of the story.
Likewise are the other Guardians' name changes. 'Ami' becomes the similar English name Amy. Rei's name is unchanged except for the spelling (it's now 'Raye'). Makoto is changed to 'Lita' because it is similar to 'lightning' — and Makoto's full name is a reference to her Shock and Awe powers. 'Lita' also shares the same pronunciation as "Leda", one of Jupiter's moons. Minako is changed to Mina, which was already a nickname for her in the Japanese version. Haruka gets changed to Amara, which means both 'bitter' and 'to love' — which rather matches her personality. Michiru is similar to Ami and changed to the elegant and also similar-sounding Michelle. Setsuna's name means 'sad' or 'lonely' and was changed to Trista — which is also the Spanish word for sad. Hotaru's name was unchanged.
A small one, but from the episode that introduces Tellu is the final confrontation between her and Mimete. In the Japanese, Tellu just says "goodbye, idiot" before pulling the plug. In the original English dub, she says "Ta ta, Mimete". This was a Call-Back to earlier in the episode: Mimete had used a voice-changing device to trick Tellu to sound like Dr. Tomoe. However, as Mimete ended the call, she said "ta ta", which tipped off Tellu to the ruse because Dr. Tomoe doesn't talk like that. Given their rivalry, it was a really effective way to rub Mimete's failure in her face.
No matter what people think about the dub itself, the English intro is considered one of the iconic Alternative Foreign Theme Songs out there. It helps that it uses the instrumental from the Japanese intro and that it just discusses the anime as is, with no Totally Radicalness. The song is routinely put on lists of the best English anime themes out there. Many even prefer it over the Japanese original.
In the Japanese version, one of the many running gags is Usagi's inability to write legible kanji. In the dub, this is changed to simply describe Usagi as having horrible handwriting.
Quite a few fan-fictions using the original Japanese names tend to use "the Negaverse" over "the Dark Kingdom".
Usagi's nickname "odango" is a reference to the fact that her hairstyle looks like an odangonote a round ball of sweetened rice flour typically served on a skewer. "Dumpling" would be an appropriate translation, but in North America, dumplings look much differentnote North America has a wide variety of sweet and savory dumplings, but they are not only much larger than odangos, but their shape tends to be oblong. As such, "odango" was changed to "meatball", since the shape and size are almost exactly the same.
Similarly, in the Italian dub, the nickname was changed to "testolina buffa", a way to say "funny head" that, depending on the context, can come up as mocking or a sign of affection.
Most names of the main characters in the Italian dub were quite well thought: Usagi, to go with her bunny theme, was simply renamed Bunny; Ami kept her name but was pronounced the English way, sounding similar to another magical girl that at the time was well-known in Italy; Rei was dubbed Rea in reference to a Roman mythological character connected to Mars that everyone would have known; Makoto got renamed Morea in reference to an old name for the Peloponnese; Minako was changed Marta, the Italian form of Martha, that translates as "the Lady" as per her Season 1 portrayal; Mamoru was renamed Marzio, as per the Italian name of Rome's legendary fourth king; Michiru was given the similar-sounding Milena, deriving from a Slavic word meaning "gracious", "pleasant" or "dear"; Hotaru was renamed Ottavia, a name of Roman origin translating as "the eighth one" in a subtle hint to her being the (unknowing) eight member of the Death Busters and a connection to Mistress 9 (whose name keeps the numerical reference). Early comprimaries tend to have well-thought names too (most notably, Queen Serenity, who states being the origin of the legend of Selene, was flat-out renamed that), while villains are given names that sound evil (in particular, Mistress 9 is changed into "Despota 9", translated as "Tyrant 9") or, if named after stones, often get their stone's name, that to Italians just sound wrong for the most part (Emeraude's Italian name Esmeralda being the exception, as it's a legitimate Italian name).
In the final battle against Queen Beryl the theme music was used in the original version, which many thought sounded out of place. For the English dub DiC created an original song called "Carry On" and had that play out during the battle instead, even those that preferred the sub admitted that the dub's music fit bitter since it was specifically made to fit the animation.
Likewise there are some that prefer the English Dub's theme for the final battle in the movie "Promise of the Rose"- Power of Love over the original theme "Moon's Revenge".
In episode 168, Rei says that she watches a TV show called "Let's Speak English" to learn English. In the Viz redub, she says that she is studying foreign languages with a show called "Let's Speak".
In one episode, Rei makes Usagi cry, and Ami and Makoto call her out on it. The DiCdialogue is arguably funnier than the Viz dialogue. It also reframes the scene as Amy and Lita being overall fed up with Raye's constant arguments with Serena, rather than a sudden Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure which only applies to this specific episode.
Amy: Fine! Be that way! Brat! I'm sick of having to break up your preadolescent fights. Grow up, get a life!
Lita: Yeah, give us a call when you get out of diapers!
In Episode 56, the girls all argue who should play the role of the leading lady in a school play of Snow White. Makoto flat out says she should get the role because she has the largest breasts. The DiC dub changes this to Lita exclaiming (and insisting) that she has the most "talent", but keeping the large breast shots (and the "boing" sound effect of the original). Creating aeuphemism that is arguably even funnier and reaching than the original joke.
Both English dubs of S give Mistress 9 a more appropriately threatening voice than the original Japanese, with Susan Aceron being Cast as a Mask with a rather husky voice with Power Echoes in the Cloverway dub (and later on, Jen Gould managing to give the character a more distinct voice than Hotaru’s) and Christine Marie Cabanos perfectly lowering her voice for Viz’s dub.
Unfortunate Implications a literal translation would have caused.
that everyone would have known; Makoto got renamed Morea in reference to an old name for the Peloponnese