Voices

The following is all my own opinion based upon my own level of hearing and how I prefer my sound to be.

How defined would Usagi's personality have been if she had a rich, smooth, and very even voice? o_O Are we talking about the same Usagi? Actually, yes. I will be going into the voices of the voice seiyuus in both the American and the Japanese versions of Sailormoon and be overly opinionated.

  • Mitsuishi Kotono
    Mitsuishi Kotono has one of the most talented voices I have ever heard! When she plays Usagi's voice, she can hover it between the line of being incredibly whining and such without it getting on one's nerves. Well, at least not getting on my nerves . . .

    Ah, but Usagi can also sing! When Kotono sings, she can sing! It is a very smooth voice that slides easily along on the notes. But just as she has a beautiful singing voice and the perfect voice of a whiny girl who loves to wail, she can also make it sound incredibly cute! See, she also plays Chibichibi's voice. Oooooh! ^__^

    Usagi had two people playing her voice. Mitusuishi Kotono was in a car accident, bad enough to put her under for a month. During that time, Araki Kae did Usagi's voice (eps. 44-50). This lady is also the voice of Chibiusa. How fitting.

  • Tracey Moore
    Tracey Moore has a voice that is . . . Well, I am trying to think of something nice to say about it. Maybe if she didn't sound so childish, it wouldn't be bad. While Kotono's hovered on the border of being hilariously silly and frightingly nerve-wracking, Tracey's voice goes over the edge and is not nerve wracking but is horrible.

  • Terri Hawkes
    Terri Hawkes is the second voice for Serena (DiC name) and, I think, she does a better job that Tracey. Now, a lot of people have a lot to complain about her screaming, which sounds like yodeling.

    Actually, I have tried screaming like that; it is actually a lot harder than what it seems. (No, really it is!) But I think it is a nice touch. It adds more character to Serena. The voice she gives Serena is a more mature and level-sounding voice, making her into a young lady who has finally got her feet under herself, although she can still whine like the dickens! However, I don't like the way people are always putting the accent down, claiming it as "Valley Girl". I have an accent very close to it (exactly like it however with a pinch of German), and no one has ever told me I sound like an idiot of any kind.

    Because I feel that you can get the list of all of Mitusuishi Kotono's accomplishments here, I will list some of Terri's other debuts, and then maybe, if you still hate her voice, you can at least agree with me that she has some talent. ^__^

    Terri Hawkes has been the voice of:

  • One of the characters in the Strawberry Shortcake cartoon! (I love that show! ^__^)
  • Shreiky in Care Bears. (o_O You've got to have talent to do that voice!)
  • Bianca and Blaise in Beverly Hill Teens

    Her live performances include:

  • Maggie Cummings in All My Children.
  • Wendy Masters of General Hospital.
  • Kelly Hennenlotter in Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II.

    For more information on Terri (and the chance to send her fan mail!!), go here.

    Serena (American Usagi) has yet ANOTHER voice actress! Thanks to Sam, I was able to actually get the name!

    After Terri Hawkes went on a pregnancy leave (she had twins), the company had to find a new voice actress for Serena. For reasons that remain unclear to the rest of us, one Linda Ballantyne took her place for the S and SuperS season. Information of her other roles remain unclear, so I have NO idea as to what her experience might have been. Now, I had a lot of complaints about this girl from the beginning. If we thought Tracy Moore was awful, it is nothing compared to this voice! HOWEVER . . .

    I was excited to hear about the dubbing of the seasons. I actually liked the regular dub, no matter how many other people complained about it (I even forced my mom to sit down and watch the Nurse Venus episode so she could understand why I obsessed over the series so), but this voice just turned me off. It's too high-pitched and complaining. Terri had managed to do the voice so it was a whiny teenager, not this . . . whatever it is supposed to be. That was my opinion when the series started. After the first three episodes, I turned the TV off and decided never watched Sailormoon the dub again because I already had the S and SuperS seasons. However, one day while I was bored, I was flipping through the channels and I landed on an almost-finished Sailormoon episode. I decided, what the heck: I'll just watch it; it wasn't as if I had anything better to do.

    This was the infamous SuperS episode where Nephernia had thrown Chibimoon from the top of the floating building and Sailormoon jumped off it and control-fell towards her. Now, in the original Japanese episode, Usagi was screaming at Chibiusa to wake up. She was screaming and Mitusuishi got it across to the viewers that this was a very serious moment. Linda did not do that. Princess Serenity (remember, Usagi transformed) had a calm and smooth voice in the dub. I was very impressed by this. This was a serious and heart-stopping situation, and Serena was reacting calm-headed under the pressure and was very serious, but she had faith in Reeni. Now, when I heard this calm and easy voice, I think I realize this is the reason why it was chosen. It sounded beautiful. And it was. And so, with that in mind, I watch the dub again, and you know what? The voice doesn't seem nearly as irritating anymore.

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