Sailor Venus

Sailor Venus (セーラーヴィーナス), officially spelled as Sailorvenus in Japan, is one of the central characters in the Sailor Moon metaseries. Her real name is Minako Aino (愛野 美奈子), a cheerful schoolgirl who can transform into one of the series' specialized heroines, the Sailor Senshi.

Sailor Venus is the fourth member of the Sailor Team to be discovered by Sailor Moon, though she was the first to awaken to her powers. She serves as the leader of the Guardian Senshi who protect Sailor Moon. She uses light and energy based powers, and often utilizes a special chain for melee combat. In the manga and anime series she dreams of becoming a famous idol, whereas in the live-action series her character is refactored to already be a celebrity.

She was first introduced as the protagonist of Naoko Takeuchi's much-shorter manga series, Codename: Sailor V, of which Sailor Moon is a sequel. In it (and the early part of Sailor Moon), she goes by the pseudonym Sailor V (セーラーＶ), short for "Venus", and is given personal backstory. The plot lines of Sailor V are generally compatible with the newer series, but are usually considered as separate. Later, she co-stars with Rei Hino in a special short story titled Rei and Minako's Girls School Battle.

In the anime and manga
Minako is first introduced in the Sailor V manga, of which she is the star. She is awakened as a Senshi by the white cat Artemis when she is 13 years old and instructed that she has a duty to become the beautiful warrior, Sailor V. Artemis explains that Venus and Earth are "twin planets" of about the same size and weight, that Venus is her "mother star", and that she must protect Earth from its enemies. He shows her Magellan Castle orbiting around Venus and says that it is hers, although the existence of these castles is not revealed to the other Senshi characters until late in the Sailor Moon series. She first dons her red hair bow during the first chapter of the story, on the recommendation of a handsome villain character that she defeats, and is almost never seen without it again.

Minako is depicted as athletic, cheerful, romantic, resilient, and clever. She is very versatile acting very elegant, intelligent, and refined at times (episode 108 where she speaks English flawlessly even over Ami) and irrational, boy-crazy, and over-ambitious at others (episode 98 where she and Usagi meet Haruka). When Sailor V was enough of a hit to earn its own anime adaptation, Takeuchi was asked to expand the concept to include more girls, and when she did, she placed Usagi Tsukino as the protagonist, with Minako as a part of the team.

In the anime, Minako is given a slightly different backstory, having spent some of her time as Sailor V in England, where she met a young Interpol officer named Katarina who taught her English and acted as a big sister, and a young man called Alan, with whom she fell in love. After Sailor V was caught in an explosion and believed to be dead, she saw them together and realized that they, without her knowing, had become a couple. She moved back to Japan shortly thereafter. She is also widely traveled in the manga, having visited Greece and China.

As a result of her past battles, when Minako meets the other Senshi she has a relatively serious personality, and is very focused on their mission as Sailor Senshi. In the manga, she even tells them she is the Princess they have been searching for, although in fact she is merely serving as a decoy to protect the real princess, Usagi. Throughout the first story arc she has by far the strongest memories of their past life during the Silver Millennium. After the first story arc concludes, she becomes a more excitable, even goofy character, and her adventures frequently involve overconfidence, enthusiastic determination to come out on top, and slapstick humor. In the anime, her speech is peppered with malapropisms and fractured proverbs. In the English-dubbed anime, "Mina's" personality is adjusted somewhat further; she adopts a valley girl dialect, and in the latter two seasons is rewritten as being sarcastic or mean-spirited in places where she had not been in the original Japanese.

Artemis lives in Minako's home (as Luna lives in Usagi's) and is one of her closest friends. Minako lives with both her parents, although references to her family life are few in the Sailor Moon series. Her family, like Usagi's, is based on Takeuchi's own family. For the first several story arcs, Minako attends a different junior high school from the others, Shiba Kōen. When the characters enter high school, she joins Usagi, Ami, and Makoto at Azabu Jūban. One of her greatest loves is volleyball, as shown from the beginning of the first Sailor V chapter throughout the rest of the series—she even considers quitting the Sailor Senshi to become a professional, and in high school joins the Volleyball club. Her favorite class is Physical Education, while in the manga her least favorites are mathematics and the English language. In the anime, having lived in England for some time, she is skilled at the language (in one episode it is shown her skills are more refined than Ami Mizuno's), and Usagi begs Minako to teach her.

Minako's other greatest love is pop culture. She desperately wants to be an idol, and so makes a hobby of chasing them and attending auditions whenever possible. She takes her role as the "Soldier of Love" literally, and enjoys regaling friends and acquaintances with advice about romance. Despite her declared expertise, Minako herself has little personal experience in relationships (aside from a brief and ill-fated love in the Sailor V manga), but is enthusiastic about romantic opportunities—even to the point of two-timing a pair of the series' villains. She has a crush on Yaten Kou throughout the Sailor Stars anime storyline, and in one episode the sinister idea of herself as a cat with Yaten gives her a nosebleed —a common symbol of sexual arousal in anime. In the manga, by contrast, Minako suspects Yaten of being an enemy; while confronting the Starlights, she and Rei reaffirm that they do not need men because they have dedicated their lives to their duty of protecting Usagi.

Minako is stated as having trouble with shiitake mushrooms, her mother, and the police. Her favorite colors are listed as yellow and red, and she likes birds and curry rice.

In the live-action series
In the anime and manga, Minako dreams of being an idol; in the live-action series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, she actually is one. Starting in Act 1, Minako is shown as a famous singer, of whom Usagi Tsukino in particular is an enormous fan. Her second album, newly released at the start of the series, is called "Venus" and her most popular song is "C'est La Vie", which is a Japanese pun: in Japanese, the French phrase and the name of her alter-ego, Sailor V, are pronounced almost identically (as sērāvī). Her first album, "Imitation," was released prior to her meeting Artemis and becoming a Senshi, but its track listing, shown onscreen, foreshadows later plot developments: "Origin of the Legend", "Imitation", "Don't Lose! Christmas Girl", "Love Versus Dream", "Happily", "Secret!", "Orange Heart", "White Rendezvous", and "Make Up! Power!!".

In the live-action series, Minako secretly leads a double life as idol and heroine&mdash;famous as a singer, and equally well-known as Sailor V. She remains entirely separate from the other girls, but is aware of each of their civilian identities. As in the other series, she eventually discards the guise of Sailor V in favor of her true form, Sailor Venus; nevertheless, she becomes only slightly involved with the others, and frequently expresses disapproval of their effectiveness as Senshi. She is frustrated by their lack of focus, and distances herself both for that reason and because, as revealed later, she has a terminal illness and does not want them to become close to her and then be saddened by her probable death.

When the other Senshi learn that Minako and Sailor V are the same person, they hide it from the irresponsible Usagi for some time. The character Minako is closest to being friends with is Rei Hino, with whom she has a conflicted relationship. Rei is supposed to be the secondary leader, but she is initially both less skilled than Minako and resentful of her advice. Although they often disagree and compete, they develop great respect for each other, to the point where Minako sometimes lets her guard down, and eventually confides to Rei about both her illness and what she feels is her destiny as a Senshi.

In terms of personality, the live-action Minako is deeply solemn and rarely smiles. Besides the complications from her unnamed illness (the doctors in one episode give her six months to live), her obsession with the collective past life makes her feel detached from the world, thinking of her current life as less important. However, she does seem to genuinely love singing, and shows a small mischievous side, especially in her relationship with Artemis.

As in the manga, she serves as a decoy Moon Princess for part of the series. She seems to be aware of her true position, often endangering herself to protect the real princess, Sailor Moon. In a twist, Usagi serves as a decoy Minako, chasing away a group of autograph hounds. She does this because she figures Minako needed to be away from the trappings of stardom for a while.

Near the end of the series, it is revealed that there is a surgery which might either correct Minako's condition or kill her early. She refuses to undergo the procedure, preferring to last as long as she can without it, but the other girls convince her to take any chance at life she can get. She is shown leaving for the hospital, and later that day, Artemis arrives at Rei's temple to tell the girls that Minako has died. She did, however, leave each of them a note giving her goodbyes. Rei uses Minako's weapon, Venus Dagger, in conjunction with her own Mars Dagger in the final battle. Though Minako dies before the final battle, Usagi's use of the Silver Crystal in the finale gives her a second chance at life. This allows her to take part in the battle in the direct-to-DVD special, in which she uses her own weapon as well as Rei's (who is in the hospital) in combat.

Aspects and forms
As a character with different incarnations, special powers, transformations and a long lifetime virtually spanned between the Silver Millennium era and the 30th century, Minako gains multiple aspects and aliases as the series progresses.

Sailor Venus
Minako's primary Senshi identity is that of Sailor Venus. Sailor Venus wears a uniform colored in orange (choker, collar, center of front bow, elbow fittings of gloves, skirt, shoes, and earrings), navy blue (front bow) and yellow (tiara gem and back bow), and retains the red bow she wears as a civilian. She also has a matching set of orange ankle-strap heels. In the live-action series, this bow appears only when she is in one of her Senshi forms, and has a gem in the center. In the manga and live-action series, she wears an item called the "wink chain" around her waist, which she sometimes uses as a weapon. She is given specific titles throughout the various series, including Soldier of Love, Soldier of Love and Hope, and Soldier of Love and Beauty. Her personality is no different from when she is a civilian, although she must be Sailor Venus to access her celestial powers.

In Japanese, the name for the planet Venus is Kinboshi (金星), the first kanji indicating a metal, especially gold, and the second indicating a celestial object. Unlike the other Senshi, her special abilities are not derived from the element in her planet's name, but are instead based on the concept of love, a reference to the Roman goddess of love, Venus. Metal does appear in her use of a special chain as a weapon, and she also has a few attacks with "crescent" in their names, mainly acquired during her time as Sailor V.

Sailor Venus is the de jure leader of the Guardian Senshi in their mission to protect Princess Serenity, and in turn is under the sometimes-awkward leadership of Sailor Moon. In the manga, as the leader, she is entrusted with the poisonous sword used to kill Queen Beryl, which turns the stone blade into a sword made of Silver Crystal.

In the live-action series only, upon her introduction, Sailor Venus's outfit is slightly different to represent her disguise as the Moon Princess. She bears the crescent moon symbol on her forehead in place of a tiara (just as she did when she was Sailor V), and wears a crown with a fake Silver Crystal on it. The latter disappears after the gem is revealed to be a fake, and she gains a normal tiara when Usagi is revealed as the real princess. Other characters refer to her in this form as Princess Sailor Venus. In the manga she does not have a different title or a crown, but she does retain the crescent moon on her forehead until Usagi is revealed as the princess.

As she grows stronger, Sailor Venus gains additional powers, and at key points her uniform changes to reflect this. The first change takes place in Act 39 of the manga, when she obtains the Venus Crystal and her outfit becomes similar to that of Super Sailor Moon. She is not given a new title. A similar event is divided between Episodes 143 and 154 of the anime, and she is given the name Super Sailor Venus. A third, manga-only form appears in Act 42, unnamed but analogous to Eternal Sailor Moon (sans wings).

Princess Venus
During the Silver Millennium, Sailor Venus was also the Princess of her home planet. She was the leader of those who protected Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom. As Princess Venus, she dwelt in Magellan Castle and wore a yellow gown&mdash;she appears in this form in the original manga, as well as in supplementary art. In the Sailor V manga, it is shown that she was loved by Adonis, a foot soldier in her army, who was later under the command of Endymion. His love went unnoticed by her, and he became a villain working for the Dark Agency after he was reborn.

Naoko Takeuchi once drew her in the arms of Kunzite, leader of the Shitennou. In the Original Picture Collection Vol. I, Takeuchi expresses a desire to explore the possibility of such relationships; unlike the other characters, with Venus and Kunzite this is explored within the series. In one flashback, Minako blushes and seems flustered around Kunzite after a conversation about love, and in the last chapter of Codename: Sailor V, Princess Venus is shown as having had an infatuation with Kunzite. The stage musicals told that the two of them were in love at the time of the Moon Kingdom, as does the Another Story video game.

Sailor V
A preliminary form, under which Minako fought alone before the other Sailor Senshi were awakened. She was used to distract the enemy into thinking she was the Moon Princess, while trying to find the real one. She wore a very different uniform under this name, most notably a red mask, and her appearance and powers incorporated the use of a crescent motif. In the early storyline of Sailor Moon, she is something of a celebrity figure, of whom Usagi Tsukino is a great fan. She called herself the Soldier of Justice.

Because Minako's creation predates the Sailor Moon metaseries, some aspects of her character are slightly incompatible with the other Senshi. For example, her magical attacks lack the strict elemental rules: Venus is typically associated with metal in Chinese astrology, but her attacks are mostly light or love related. The incorporation of the "love element" comes from the Roman goddess Venus; the association with light is derived from astronomy, where the planet Venus is the visibly brightest object in the sky.

Sailor V's uniform is mostly blue and red, and includes shoulder-armor, quarter-length sleeves, and broad stripes of color. She wears a shirt rather than a leotard, as well as her characteristic red mask. Some of the details vary between version to version; in the manga and live-action series the shirt had sleeves and smooth gloves, but in the anime it was sleeveless with ring-topped gloves. The anime added a second layer to her shoulder guards, omitted the crescent Moon that is normally visible on her forehead, and added a second stripe to her collar. In the live-action series, the bow on Sailor V's chest was made dark pink, like the red parts of Sailor Moon's costume, but her mask and hair bow are red.

Special powers and items
Minako, like the other Sailor Senshi, must transform in order to gain access to her special powers. To transform into Sailor Venus, she must first raise a special device (pen, bracelet, wand, or crystal) into the air and shout a special phrase, originally "Venus Power, Make-up!" As she becomes more powerful and obtains new transformation devices, this phrase changes to evoke Venus Star, Planet, or Crystal Power. In the anime, Sailor Venus's transformation sequence evolves slightly over time, whether to update the background images or to accommodate changes to her uniform or a new transformation device, but the animations all involve a ribbon of stars which she whips around to form her outfit.

Minako's transformations into Sailor V are not clearly shown&mdash;in the Sailor V manga, she raises her transformation pen and shouts the phrase Moon Power Transform. By saying the word Crescent first, she can take on a disguise using her Crescent Compact, and this is used in the Sailor Moon manga as well. In the live-action series she is shown storing her uniform in a suitcase, but she is also shown changing instantaneously into Sailor V while running down the street. Although her true identity as Sailor Venus takes precedence over her temporary Sailor V guise, in her own manga series she used a number of powers unique to the form. Her most important item was the Crescent Compact, which she used to gain energy for her primary attack, Crescent Beam (a beam of light which strikes enemies). She is also given numerous physical attacks, references to her guardian planet, and comically named one-off powers. The Compact must be placed in the moonlight to charge. It can also be used as a sharp throwing weapon, and in the manga series she retains it even as Sailor Venus. In the live-action version, she has an identical item which does not double as a compact, called the Crescent Moon Cutter. The pen she uses to transform into Sailor V has an extendable antenna used to contact "Boss," and no matter what is written with it, it will always be right. She later uses the same pen to transform into Sailor Venus.

In the Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Venus' first primary attack is again Crescent Beam, this time without use of an item. She uses a similar power in the live-action series, without using an item or any special phrase, but nothing like it in the manga; instead, she uses Rolling Heart Vibration, which also makes a single appearance in the live-action series. Her first attack that is entirely consistent across the different adaptations is Venus Love-Me Chain, which in the manga and live-action series uses the chain wrapped around her waist. This remains her main attack for the rest of the second story arc, all of the third, and much of the fourth, and the chain itself is used in several variations, with the links taking on different shapes. The chain-links are round in the manga and live-action series, but heart-shaped in the anime. Venus Wink Chain Sword (with heart-shaped links) appears in Manga Act 24, and Hissatsu Love-Me Chain is her attack when disguised as Sailor Moon in anime Episode 102.

When she takes on her second Senshi form (Super Sailor Venus in the anime), she gains the ability to use Venus Love and Beauty Shock, which is her most powerful attack. In the manga she also gains the Venus Crystal, which is her Sailor Crystal and the source of all of her power. In the live-action series, she is given a tambourine-like weapon (the Sailor Star Tambo) by Artemis. Also in the live-action series, once Minako discovers her true potential as a Senshi, she uses the attack Rolling Heart Vibration, a heart-shaped beam of rainbow energy, but only uses it once. She used the attack much earlier in the manga.

Minako's attacks and power cover the domains of love, beauty, light and metal (especially gold), all relevant to myth about Venus and are best demonstrated with Love-Me Chain.

Development
In the transition between the Sailor V and Sailor Moon series, Minako's basic character design did not change&mdash;in fact, creator Naoko Takeuchi has written that the concept of Minako has barely changed at all from the first moment she was created. The magazine that serialized Sailor V, Run-Run, intended to produce an OVA based on the character, but went bankrupt before it could happen, so Minako was relegated to the sidelines as one of Sailor Moon's costars, to Takeuchi's regret.

In Minako's new form as Sailor Venus, she would have a new uniform, and this went through many changes before settling to the one used in publication. Early on, each of the Senshi had a fully unique costume, and Venus's was inspired largely by the Sailor V outfit. It was colored mostly in dark blue, with orange used only for the chest-ribbon (which was not bow-shaped), and included a crescent moon motif, prominent armor, and white- and red-stripes. Her red hair-ribbon and trademark Sailor V mask were present as well. Later, Takeuchi was surprised by these sketches and stated that she did not remember drawing them.

Certain background details of Minako's character were chosen symbolically&mdash;for instance, her Western astrological sign is given as Libra, which in astrology corresponds to the planet Venus. In reference to a popular Japanese belief, her blood type is given as B, supposedly indicating optimism and an adventurous nature.

The kanji in Minako's name translate as "love" (愛), "field" or "civilian" (野), "beauty" (美), "what" or "how" (奈), and "child" (子). It is structured as a pun, as the syllable "no" indicates a possessive, so that her name can also be understood as "Minako of Love." As Minako was "transplanted" from her previous series, unlike the other Senshi, her family name does not begin with the same kanji as her planet, which would have been "gold" (金). However, like them it is still a representation of her primary element, the "inevitable" connection with Venus, the Roman goddess of love. The characters of her given name can also, using unconventional but extant readings, be read as Binasu&mdash;a Japanese approximation of the name "Venus".

Reception and influence
The official Sailor Moon character popularity polls listed Minako Aino, Sailor V, and Sailor Venus as separate entities. In 1992, readers ranked Venus as the second most popular character, Minako being tenth and Sailor V being ninth, out of thirty eight choices. One year later, now with fifty choices, Minako was the fifth most popular character, Sailor Venus was seventh, and Sailor V was tenth. In 1994, with fifty one choices, Sailor Venus was the twelfth most popular character, Minako was the fourteenth, and Sailor V was the nineteenth most popular character. In early 1996, with fifty one choices, Sailor Venus was the seventeenth most popular character, Minako was again the fourteenth most popular, and Sailor V did not place.

Minako has had her powers the longest of the Sailor Senshi, and because of this, Jennifer Brown suggests that her sense of self-worth is more connected to her confidence in her powers.

Actresses
In the anime, Minako's seiyū is Rika Fukami. In the English-language dub, Mina is voiced by Stephanie Morgenstern (first and R seasons and movies) and Emilie-Claire Barlow (S and Super S seasons).

In the stage musicals, Minako has been played by eleven actresses: Nana Suzuki, Sakae Yamashita ("Yume Senshi - Ai - Eien Ni" soundtrack only), Chizuru Soya, Kanatsu Nakaya, Akiko Miyazawa, Miyu Otani, Nao Inada, Yuki Nakamura, Ayumi Murata, Mizuki Watanabe, Momoko Shibuya, and half-American idol Erica.

In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Minako is played by Ayaka Komatsu.