Makoto Kino
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Makoto Kino (木野 まこと Kino Makoto) is one of the Sailor Senshi -- that is, a character in the manga, musical theater, and television adaptations of the metaseries known as Sailor Moon. She is known in the English translations as Lita Kino.
Makoto is from 14 to 16 years old (as all of the series last for some time) with medium-length brown hair and green eyes, and is more often known as Sailor Jupiter. She is also 170 cm (about 5'7"), often considered a generic 'tall' height of schoolgirls in anime. She is the tallest of the Inner Senshi.
Her default school uniform for most of the story's run is different from what the other young women wear. It is white and brown with laces in the front and a long brown skirt (the long skirt is also a common visual costume choice in anime to imply a tough or delinquent personality). This outfit is immediately recognizable to fans, more so than the high school uniform she acquires later, which resembles those of the other girls.
The fanon reason for the outfit is Makoto being uncommonly tall, and her school simply lacked one in her size. This is also referenced in some arguably canon promotional material, and is mentioned in the manga.
The manga explains her parents died in an airplane crash, and subsequently, she lives alone in an apartment (the anime does not refer to it directly, simply that she lives alone). Although very strong and athletic, she considers herself 'overly' tomboyish and compensates at being very good at domestic tasks. She is a great cook. Her most infamous trait is her seemingly random puppy-love affliction for cute boys, whom she invariably compares to a boy she knew when she was younger. She was the penultimate senshi introduced in the first major story arc, although she has fewer character-specific episodes than the others.
As Sailor Jupiter, her uniform is coloured green, white and 'sugar pink'. She uses elemental attacks involving either lightning, which is commonly associated with the Roman god Jupiter, or plants, since the planet Jupiter is associated with the element wood in Chinese astrology.
Her personality is slightly different in the various adaptations of the Sailor Moon story, although generally more consistent overall than the other main characters.
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Comparisons
Manga Version
Makoto is a transfer student and is often depicted with her hair down, and appears to (erroneously) have a perm. Nearly all of Sailor Jupiter's attacks are plant based. A male friend who seems attracted to her and knows she is Sailor Jupiter is mentioned in one chapter but not mentioned again later on. Makoto admires Haruka Tenoh, and they are considered friends.
Anime Differences
Makoto is a transfer student who is thought by the characters to be a former delinquent who got into fights (although this is commonly believed by the audience, there is no canon support for this and the manga contradicts this assumption). Makoto's hair is always seen up in a ponytail. In one episode of the Doom Tree story arc, which did not exist in the manga, she is shown to have had a male friend since childhood. Makoto's admiration of Haruka is referenced, although the two are not close.
Anime (English Dub) Differences
Despite criticism against the English adaptation of Sailor Moon, Lita Kino's personality is generally consistent with the original Japanese portrayal. Some aspects of her personality are downplayed, such as her height (presumably because American children wouldn't consider a 170-cm-tall teenaged girl as unusual as Japanese children would) and her obsession with proving her femininity (including 'running a restaurant' as a life goal rather than 'getting married young'). Her 'senpai' was given a name, Freddy; when later episodes were dubbed by a different company, Cloverway, he was given a different name. Lita Kino was voiced by Susan Roman, who also provided the voice of Megaman Trigger in the English version of the Mega Man Legends game.
Lita's dub name is considered to be either a corruption of Leda, a moon of Jupiter, or short for Hippolyta.
In an early DiC promotional tape that advertised Sailor Moon to television stations, Lita was called Sara.
Live Action Differences
Makoto is more similar to the manga version than the anime version, including her attacks. However, her obsession with boys and proving her femininity are even more downplayed than in the American dub. She is much more overtly boyish in dress and manner, tends to reject overly girly things, and her senpai complex is treated with great seriousness rather than a recurring gag as in the original anime. She, like in the anime and manga, also has a feisty attitude (much like Asuka Kazama from Tekken) that got her kicked out of school.
Famous quirks
- 'Talent': A fan term meaning 'large breasts'. This comes from a dialogue change in the second season from the original to the English dub when the characters are debating who should be the lead in a play. Makoto implies she should because she has the 'largest chest', while Lita retorts it is because she has the most stage 'talent' (the gesture of pointing to herself/her breasts was accompanied with a "boing" sound effect). This slang is recognized by most anime fans due to the popularity of Sailor Moon.
- 'My Mother is Allergic to Cats': In the second episode of Sailor Moon S, Usagi wants to have the girls adopt some cats from a house that is going to be torn down. Makoto says that she lives alone and so doesn't think she knows how to look after a cat. In the English dub, however, Lita says that her mother is allergic to cats. Although the TV series never makes direct mention of her family situation, much of the original series assumed common knowledge from the manga (a trend slightly less prevalent in anime lately). Some cynical viewers saw this as either an uninformed translation or deliberate edit in the dub, despite associated merchandise indicating her lack of parents. A common fanon explanation is that Lita could be fibbing to evade answering the question truthfully, while others argue such a thing would be difficult to hide from her longtime friends.
- Makoto yuri fandom: Sailor Moon's popularity and its mainly all-female main cast created one of the largest yuri fandom for a series in anime. One of the most common femmeslash or yuri pairings in Sailor Moon is Makoto and Ami Mizuno, mainly due to their polar personalities and appearance. Lita and Mina was a semi-common yuri pairing in early dub-based fanfiction. The otherwise unusually rare Makoto and Rei pairing has become more popular due to the live action version, which sometimes pits the opinions of the refined but somewhat cold Rei to the boyish but chummy Makoto.
Actresses
- In the anime, Makoto is played by Emi Shinohara.
- In the English dub, Lita is played by Susan Roman. Lita is the only main human character in the English-language dub to be played by the same voice actor through the entire series run.
- In the live action series, Makoto is played by Myuu Azama.
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| Protagonists | Usagi Tsukino | Ami Mizuno | Rei Hino | Makoto Kino | Minako Aino | Setsuna Meioh | Michiru Kaioh | Haruka Tenoh | Hotaru Tomoe | |||
| Mamoru Chiba | Chibiusa | Chibi Chibi | Sailor Starlights | Princess Kakyuu | Luna | Artemis | Diana | Queen Serenity | ||||
| Manga and Anime Villains | "Dark Kingdom" Sailormoon/ Sailormoon: Queen Metallia | Queen Beryl | Shitennou ("Four Kings") | |||
| "Doom Tree" (Does Not Appear/R (Return)) : Ail (Alan) | En (Ann) | Makaiju (Doom Tree)
"Black Moon" (Black Moon/ R(Romance)): Death Phantom | Demande | Saphir | Esmeraude | Rubeus | Ayakashi Sisters | ||||
| "Death Busters" (Infinity Arc/ Super): Pharaoh 90 | Mistress 9 | Professor Tomoe | Germatoid | Kaolinite | Witches 5 | ||||
| "Dead Moon Circus" (Dream Arc/ SuperS): Nehelenia | Zirconia | Zircon | Amazon Trio | Amazoness Quartet | ||||
| "Shadow Galactica" (Stars Arc/ Sailorstars): Chaos | Sailor Galaxia | Iron Mouse | Aluminum Siren | Lead Crow | Tin Nyanko | Heavy Metal Papillon | Sailor Lethe | Sailor Mnemosyne | Sailor Phi | Sailor Chi | Sailor Chaos | ||||
| Live Action and Myuu Villains | "Sera Myuu" (Musicals) : | Pewter Fox | Titan Kerokko | |||
| "Pretty Guardian Sailormoon" (Live Action Sailormoon): | Mio Kuroki | ||||
| Support Cast | Shingo Tsukino | Ikuko Tsukino | Kenji Tsukino | Naru Osaka | Gurio Umino | Haruna Sakurada | Motoki Furuhata | Unazuki Furuhata | Yūichirō Kumada | |||