Plot: Bus loads of people have been disappearing lately, and a local shrine is under suspicion for the mysterious vanishings. A shrine maiden/priestess named Rei is trying desperately to clear the shrine’s name, but when Jadeite shows up to reveal that he’s behind the whole thing, the Sailor Scouts may need the help of a new soldier to help defeat him. Enter Sailor Mars!
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Title Change: The Cursed Bus: Enter Mars, the Guardian of Fire is changed to An Uncharmed Life.
When Usagi meets up with Ami, she asks what she’s doing there. Ami says she’s waiting for the bus to go to cram school. Usagi asks her why she bothers to go to cram school if she needs to take a bus for it, and Ami says that it wouldn’t matter if she needed to take a plane. She needs to study even harder now since she’s a Sailor Scout so that she can help out. Luna praises Ami for her work ethic, then compares her to Usagi, who has none, and Usagi nervously avoids the subject.
In the dub, Serena asks Amy if she’d like to go to the arcade. Amy says she’d like to, but she can’t since she has too much homework. Then Luna says that Serena has a lot of homework too and Serena nervously avoids the conversation. A good chunk of that scene was removed to shorten it for some reason.
So Usagi hears a story about a bus mysteriously disappearing and she says “That sounds like fun!”……Did I miss something or do you find a vehicle and 25-30 passengers spontaneously going missing, maybe dead, sounds like a romp at the arcade to you?
They edit out where Usagi says “That sounds like fun!”….I guess DiC took that scene the same way I did.
Ami repeats what the girls say by saying “A missing 6 o’clock bus…” like she’s wondering what happened. In the dub, she says the shrine is supposed to be really nice.
Originally, Usagi suggests that they go to the Hikawa shrine to get special amulets that ward off evil. Naru then says that that’s a great idea and that the daughter of the house supposedly has psychic powers and does really great fortune telling. The other girl also agrees that they should go.
In the dub, Serena actually refuses to go to the shrine initially saying she’d rather go to the arcade instead of some creepy temple. Molly then says that the shrine has really nice good luck charms and stuff, and the other girl says that it might even help them get boyfriends. Because screw mysteriously missing buses, we need BOYFRIENDSOMMGGGGGGGG!!
Ami asks Usagi and the others to get an amulet for her. Usagi asks why Ami isn’t going, and she says that she has to go to cram school to study for a mock test that is coming up, which makes Usagi fall over comically. In the dub, Amy asks them to get her a good luck charm. Serena asks if she has a secret crush, and Amy says no – she needs good luck on getting good grades on her extra credit essays which makes Serena fall over comically.
The sign outside of the shrine is edited out.
They edit out the ringing bells and the random girls praying at the shrine for guys that they like to like them back. They show them from the back, but change the dialogue to acting like they just got good luck charms.
Originally, Rei was quietly chanting at the fire. In the dub, she’s just grunting.
Rei’s grandfather originally called the random girls “pretty cute” and asked them if they wanted to be part-time shrine maidens in a cheeky manner. DiC changed this to asking the girls, without complimenting them, that they probably want the guided tour.
Rei’s grandpa originally wanted to send the girls off with some good wishes on finding their loves. He gives a prayer to the god of flames asking to guide the girls to their loves. In the dub, this is changed to grunting…Nothing but grunting.
I’m starting to wonder if this is getting offensive. I mean, they’re not editing out much of the shrine so far but what’s with changing religious chanting and prayers to grunting? Afterward, in the dub, Grandpa explains that that was his, not kidding here, super whammo blessing (yep, we just petered into offensive) for peace, love and good grades. Since the explanation of the prayer was already given in the original, this isn’t present in the same scene afterward.
In the original, Rei’s grandpa tries to sell the girls some fortune slips and paintings that are said to bring about good grades during entrance exams. This is the scene that was replaced with the explanation of the grunt prayer in the dub.
When Rei’s grandpa sees Usagi and the others, he tries hitting on them too with the same shrine maiden shtick. Rei comes over to scold him about it and says there are weird rumors going around about him. In the dub, Raye’s grandpa believes that Serena and the others are the same random girls from before and tells them that they’re going to miss their bus. Then Raye comes over to scold him about not wearing his glasses.
Name Change: Much in the realm of Ami, Rei’s name was also changed, but just the spelling. In the English dub, her name is spelled as Raye. Fully, Raye Hino as her Japanese counterpart’s is Rei Hino. As Usagi and Ami, her name also has meaning. Rei Hino means ‘beauty of fire.’
More grunting. It’s not really replacing much, but there it is while Rei’s ‘exorcising’ Usagi.
The ‘bandages’ were originally towels and water….which they clearly are. Towels and water are evil sorcery from Japan OOOoooOOOOHHHhhhhHHH!!
The original explanation for Jadeite (they don’t know it’s him of course) working at the shrine is that Rei’s grandpa likes to hit on practically everyone he sees regardless of gender. He showed up at the shrine a few days prior and accepted the offer to work in the shrine.
In the dub, Raye says that her grandpa used to run everything around the shrine but recently he’s gotten too old to do so, so he hired some guy named Jed (♫ Let me tell ya a little story ’bout a man named Jed. Poor evil lackey, barely kept his demons fed. ♫) to work there. Raye says she’d like to be out of school so that she could help out around the shrine more.
Luna thinks to herself after Rei says that she has prophecies and visions that she might be the Moon Princess. In the dub, most of her inner monologue is axed for Serena and the girls clamoring over her powers, then Luna says she has an odd feeling about Raye.
The angry mother who bursts into the room and is being accusatory of Rei’s grandpa says that he usually does a ritual at 5:30, which means he’s possibly forcing girls to be late for their bus and instead go on the 6:00 bus – the one that goes missing. In the dub, the mother bursts in just saying her daughter’s late and the bus she was on went missing, so she came to the shrine to bitch.
The dub’s bus stop was originally just a sign saying “Sendaizaka Ue” (I’m assuming the sign’s subtitle is wrong since Senndizaka Ue doesn’t seem to make sense.) Oddly, they left in the Japanese writing on the other side of the pillar.
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
Ami asks why all of the girls have love charms since they shouldn’t have time for falling in love when they have to study for entrance exams. Usagi looks disturbed and asks Ami if that means she never falls in love because she does it all the time. Then she daydreams about Tuxedo Mask and Motoki while saxophone music plays.
In the dub, Serena points out that she wants the same charms that they’ve got and Amy asks why since she already seems to be out of it. Serena says that she’s not out of it, she just likes daydreaming and then daydreams about Tuxedo Mask and Andy.
Ami then says that, if she doesn’t know the meaning of true love, then she shouldn’t throw around the word so flippantly. In the dub, Amy says that her daydreaming expression makes her look like some lovesick frog waiting for a big old bug to fly into its mouth…..which makes no sense. Frogs don’t fall in love with bugs, and they actively strike bugs with their tongues to catch them….What was that supposed to mean?
The shots of the bus are mirrored because in Japan they drive on the left side of the road.
Our hero, Usagi clinging to a pole out of fear of getting on a bus when she has super powers and a friend who also has super powers. Girl power!
The two crows that are shown being fed by Rei seem to be like her pets. They’re named Phobos and Deimos. They also have meaning behind their names. Phobos and Deimos are the two moons of Mars. Their names mean fear (Phobos) and terror (Deimos). They were named after the horses that pulled the chariot for the Greek god Ares, the god of war, which also happens to be the role of the Roman god, Mars, for whom the planet was named after. However, they’re not named or ever really given attention in the dub.
I don’t like particularly screeching harpy characters, especially in English dubs, but Raye always sounds too soft and calm when she’s getting mad and defensive in the dub.
The original doesn’t tell us that the amulets were Jadeite’s idea. Rei just asks Usagi to leave. Also, the amulets weren’t Jadeite’s idea, he just put a spell on the ones that they were already selling.
Raye: “What a strange and beautiful stick.” A stick? That’s really the best you could come up with, eh, DiC? If anything, it looks like a fancy pen, especially due to the clip. Originally, Rei just wonders if Usagi dropped it.
Usagi asks Luna why she left that pen with Rei, and she says she just wants to see something. This is left out of the dub for the same conversation that follows.
Usagi is upset because Ami’s late getting on the bus with her. Serena’s upset just because she doesn’t want to go.
Okay can someone please tell me what the hell is the point of this edit? Usagi is too scared to get on the bus, but decides that she can gather the courage if she has a disguise. When she gets this idea, a cartoon star pops near her face. In the dub, this exact idea occurs to her, but the cartoon star is now a bright, glowing and moving CGI star…….that’s…all sorts of pointless. A moment of silence for the amount of starving people that the money spent for that effect could’ve fed.
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
In the original, Usagi commands to be turned into a bus attendant. In the dub, she says “a flight attendant or something.” This is made even worse because dub!Luna actually says “that would be better if we were on a plane”….Yeah….it would. I don’t have much experience with buses, but some do have attendants in America, right? Either way, I think they’re just grasping at straws to use Usagi’s disguise power.
Usagi says that it’s her duty as a bus attendant to ensure that the passengers are safe that that she won’t condone hijacking. In the dub, Serena says she’s putting the driver under arrest for making ‘totally bogus runs’ ….also, she tells the driver to pull over and yells STOP….despite the fact that the bus hasn’t started moving yet.
They edit out Rei’s chant and more of her hand signs.
Dub!Luna: “That’s your own special power stick” Okay, stop calling it a stick. That sounds too dumb. Honestly. Wand, pen, anything is better than stick.
The dub adds this spiral fire explosion animation behind Rei when she poses. What, was her transformation not epic enough or did you just want to….BURN more money. Ahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahaha! I’m so funny.
Attack Name Change: Fire Soul is changed to Mars Fire Ignite.
Also, haha, Rei gets a much better attack than either Usagi or Ami.
Okay, time out, this ending is ridiculous. So Ami prays on her wand for her friends’ safety and that somehow makes a beam of blue light guide Usagi and Rei back through the portal? Also, WHAT THE HELL WAS TUXEDO MASK DOING IN THE BUS?! HOW’D HE GET THERE TO BEGIN WITH?! WHY WAS HE JUST CHILLIN’ IN THE BUS WHEN THEY WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES?! Just “Hey, I’m driving the bus, making a cameo!”
They edit out a small cartoon of Rei sticking her tongue out at Usagi in the corner as she cries.
Next episode, more disappearances, this time at a theme park!
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The Anime Madhouse 