American vs Japanese

I haven't had the honor of watching the Japanese version of Sailor Moon yet, however, I've read in multiple places by lots of fans who say that the version the United States was offered was like eating a water pie, compared to the velvety deliciousness of Chocolate Mouse. So, let's start a list of the various differences between the two versions. I'll start with what I've heard.

• Apparently there is a whole lot more queerness in the Japanese version. Keeping in mind that this was produced in the early 1990's, when the who "Don't Ask Don't Tell" crap was going on in the USA.
• The story was quite a bit more adult-natured too. Like erotic almost.
• The plot was also darker than what was shown on Cartoon Network.

What do you know about this?

Oh yeah. Usagi is apparently in your face bisexual in the original manga and this is... preserved better in the Japanese anime? It was censorship, plain and simple. Homosexuality got censored hard in the dubs, with only a few select moments surviving intact.

I'll be real, Sailor Moon is "adult" regardless of which version you watch. It touches upon a lot of topics that grown adults can barely handle like... well, adults. I would be reluctant to sexualize it by calling it erotic though. Character designs overtly try to be beautiful at times and a lewd joke might be cracked once in a while, but that's about it. I would moreso say that it trusted teens to handle more mature topics than some shows, had a little more faith in them, and wanted to teach them good values through discussing and showing those topics.

But like, even in the most censored dubs you still get stuff like Molly having a crush on a full grown adult and Chibiusa fighting with Usagi over Mamoru. These are things which depict uncomfortable behaviors that real kids sometimes engage in. Madoka has the reputation for being the dark magical girl anime, but I think most audiences would have a much harder time stomaching Sailor Moon's dark topics. And I can say that in confidence because even Sailor Moon's fandom is kinda split on whether they're comfortable with how the anime explored those topics. Personally, I think the anime treated both situations as a crisis to be solved, so I find it easy not to judge the writers for broaching the topic. But I do get why not everyone can handle them, so I'm of mixed opinions on whether it's a good thing a modern show couldn't get away with these things.