On Monday, October 30, 2000 as part of the premiere run of "Sailor Moon SuperS," the Cartoon Network skipped the 25th episode of the television series. This was Japanese Episode #152 also currently known as English Language Version Episode #145. The original Japanese title was, "Honoo no Jounetsu! Mars Ikari no Chou Hissatsuwaza," which translates to "Burning Passion! Mars' Furious Deadly Attack." This episode is best known as where Sailor Mars is supposed to get a new attack power with the phrase (as said in English in the Japanese version), "Mars Flame Sniper!"

Image provided by Ludy.

The Cartoon Network rejected the episode from Optimum Productions/Cloverway because of the abundance of just-over-the-border (our words) objectionable visual material. The actions and poses of the recurring Lemure character caused most, if not all, of the problems. This character caused one executive to blurt out, "It was all because of that damned monkey!"

The Lemures were used by animators to push the content of the series into areas which would be unacceptable for human characters to perform (even on Japanese television). This is a common artistic trick made by animators throughout the world: If you should want or need to have a character do something objectionable or threatening--make it an animal character. Fans should note how Disney repeatedly makes villain's henchmen into animal characters--which is the same case here.

So as some fans have noted, while there may be some nudity for some human characters which have been acceptable to an American network, the more suggestive & disgusting actions by animal characters crosses the line. Some fans have thought that the possible use of the word "Sniper" in the episode might have caused a problem but we have found no indication of that.

The Cartoon Network seems to hate it when they do not keep to their own schedule. It appears to us that they have only rejected an episode (and thrown their schedule off) only when they absolutely have to. One of the bonuses for rushing these episodes (and "Sailor Moon S") is that more often than not the network has let normally objectionable material go on the air.

The Cartoon Network has promised that the episode in question, entitled "Dreams of Her Own," will air in it's proper sequence during the current rerunning of the series on Thursday, December 21. As opposed to the past where clothing has been added to characters or scenes that were digitally zoomed-in (to avoid some sensitive area), it appears that this episode will need more line removal than usual (a simple process).

Pioneer Entertainment is to release the original Japanese episode with English subtitles along with an unedited, uncensored English Language version on DVD. The broadcast version will be available via VHS tape. Pioneer has also said that they intend to release the DVD versions on separate VHS tapes starting with the "Sailor Moon S" television series (but we do not know if this will extend to the "Sailor Moon SuperS" series as well). These additional releases have been seen as saber-rattling in an escalating war between DiC & ADV vs. Cloverway & Pioneer over the Home Video market.