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In 1995, DiC Entertainment, LP, by then a subsidiary of ABC, acquired the North American license to Sailor Moon. The wildly popular Shojo anime that breathed new life into the stagnating Magical Girl genre by incorporating elements from Shonen and Tokasatsu shows. Like most anime at the time, Sailor Moon, despite being aimed at an audience of young girls, featured content and subject matter that executives at DiC felt wouldn't fly with American children. The initial English adaptation of Sailor Moon featured numerous changes such as removal of Japanese names and locations, toned down violence, removal of objectionable content such as death, alcohol, and darker, more dramatic elements being either removed or lightened up to appeal to younger children. PSA segments known as "Sailor Says" were also added at the end of every episode to appease stations who wanted to air it.
The series premiered in syndication September 11th, 1995, but was taken off after only 2 seasons due to low ratings, largely caused by stations airing it in dead timeslots. After a brief re-run on USA Network, the show eventually ended up in the hands of Cartoon Network, Airing alongside Dragon Ball Z on the weekday Toonami block. Sailor Moon experienced newfound success, especially among the then niche demographic of girls aged 9-14, which prompted CN to order a third season from new distributor, Cloverway, Inc., which premiered in 2000. The Cloverway dub featured the original music, and (infamous "Cousins" incident aside) far less censorship than DiC's production thanks to the looser standards of the Cable Broadcaster. In 2014, Viz Media announced that the 90s anime would get a redub with a whole new dub cast to go along with the Crystal reboot saga and the resurgence of the anime is back again.
But with Sailor Moon now being a hit, why wasn't it followed up on properly? At least with Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, networks scrambled to get their own Mon series and Shonen anime on air to replicate their success, but every Shojo/Magical Girl series that could've been a hit on TV, never got proper airings. Cardcaptors infamously stripped the "Shojo" out of Cardcaptor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth was rejected by networks, Smile Precure being butchered by Saban Brands, Pretty Cure only aired in Canada, ADV dropped Mermaid Melody as fast as they took it up, and Tokyo Mew Mew and Ojama Doremi have been unsuccessful when they were licensed by 4Kids. Why was it so hard to follow up on the success of Sailor Moon during this period?
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