Minako Aino
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Minako Aino (愛野 美奈子 Aino Minako) is a fictional character from the Japanese entertainment series known as Sailor Moon. Minako is a senshi known as Sailor Venus, but the character uses the name Sailor V for a period. The title 'soldier of love' is often used to refer to her, mostly in her own self introductions. She is known in the English adaptations as Mina Aino.
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Sailor V manga
The character originally appeared in the prototype manga series to Sailor Moon, Codename wa Sailor V. When it was proposed that the manga would be adapted as an anime, creator Naoko Takeuchi adapted the ideas from the Sailor V manga to fit a team format. Both manga ran simultaneously: Sailor V was published in the magazine Run Run while Sailor Moon ran in Nakayoshi. After Sailor V ended, there commenced the surprise addition of Sailor Venus to the Sailor Moon manga cast and anime. Minako is usually considered the 'real' leader of the Sailor Senshi, and has been depicted as a capable fighter despite her quirks. Usagi is partly based on her and thus they share some characteristics; however, due to the anime's prevalence in other countries, Minako is sometimes mistakenly considered the 'knockoff.' Usagi is generally considered less intelligent and somewhat lazier than Minako, while Minako is more graceful and driven but not neccessarily posessesing foresight.
In the live action adapation, Minako is presented as a somewhat jaded and distant character, probably the greatest modification to her original personality.
She was the first Sailor Senshi to be created, although the fifth to appear in the Sailor Moon saga. She was previously known as Sailor V, and Usagi Tsukino admired her greatly. She eventually quit being Sailor V and became the Sailor Soldier in gold, white and blue. Outside of her Sailor Senshi life she is quite normal; she likes the colors of red and gold, and she usually has a trademark red hair ribbon in her long blonde hair. She likes volleyball and is a terrible cook. She is a loyal friend and a strong leader. Minako is considered the true leader of the "Inner Senshi" (Inner Warriors)(as fans dub Sailor Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Moon) in the manga.
It is because her creation predates the Sailor Moon metaseries that some aspects of her are slightly incompatible with later rules. For example, her magical attacks lack the strict elemental rules: Venus is typically associated with metal in Chinese astrology, but her attacks are gold in color. Her attacks generally appear vaguely 'light' (Crescent Beam, Crescent Beam Shower) or 'love'-related (Venus Love-Me Chain, Venus Love and Beauty Shock). Also, her family name, Aino (愛野) does not start with the same kanji as that of the Japanese name for her planet, Kinsei (金星). If the pattern of the other Senshi were followed, the logical name for her would be the characters 金野 (usually read Konno). It is possible that Naoko Takeuchi used the Roman goddess Venus as the basis for her name instead.
Sailor Moon anime and manga
The anime version of her initially started as a somewhat broadly drawn character Usagi idolized as a hero figure. In later seasons Minako's personality slowly changed into a more excitable, goofy character whose ambitions, convictions, and elaborate plans sometimes bordered on hilarious obsession. She is more 'openly' weird than her friends, who generally tolerate it and see it as a catharsis from her lonliness as a younger child.
This is generall considered to have begun in one very popular second-season episode called "Nurse Venus," (Venus Minako no nurse daisoudou (The Problems of Venus-Minako as a Nurse) where Minako takes it upon herself to nurse her flu-stricken friends back to health, but in so doing creates much humorous chaos and destruction in her wake; this is often seen as the template for much of Minako's later characterization. In addition to distancing her from Usagi design-wise, it is generally regarded as a delayed manifestation of the carefree life she could not enjoy while fighting solo. Nonetheless, she still displays great leadership skills and confidence. She is ostensibly the owner of the white magical cat Artemis, who fulfills a guardian role. In the fifth series, Sailor Stars, she attends the same high school as Usagi Tsukino, Ami Mizuno, and Makoto Kino, although for the first four seasons she attends a different junior high school than these characters: Shibakouen.
References to Minako's family life are downplayed outside of the Sailor V manga, perhaps because her family is named after Naoko Takeuchi's family and would cause odd continuity issues with the Tsukino family naming scheme. Minako's parents also look almost identical to Usagi's.
Because of her evasive lifestyle, Minako lacked serious friends and was sometimes considered to be a snob by her peers. Adding to her predicament was a grim fortune she received saying that she would always be unlucky in romantic relationships. Minako's main dream is to become a famous idol. However, in the Live action series, Minako is introduced as an already marginally-popular idol.
Sailor Venus' attacks include the following:
- Crescent Beam: A simple beam of light energy emitted from her finger.
- Crescent Beam Shower: A beam of light energy that splits in multiple beams to rain down on the opponent.
- Venus Love Me Chain: An early attack, extremely versatile and one of the few attacks reused throughout the entire series. It can act as a whip or a chain to bind enemies and objects.
- Venus Love and Beauty Shock: A very useful heart projectile attack.
Sailor Venus has also shown the ability to make 'new' attacks depending on her annoyance or rage, such as being spurned romantically. She once created an enormous storm of mini-meteors, unrelated to a similar attack mentioned before. Another example occurs In an episode of Sailor Moon S anime: Magically disguising herself as Sailor Moon, she mimics Sailor Moon's attacks with abilities such as "Love Moon Chain".
In the enormous amount of Sailor Moon yuri dōjinshi, Minako is usually paired with Rei Hino due to their polar but close friendship in the manga. She can and is generally paired with any other senshi due to her exuberant personality and the image of Venus as a Free Love sort of figure. This is humorously supported by her canonic continued attraction to Haruka Tenoh, even after discovering that character is a girl.
In an early DiC promotional tape that advertised Sailor Moon to television stations, Minako was called Carrie.
Actresses
- In the anime, Minako is dubbed by Rika Fukami.
- In the English-language dub, Mina is dubbed by Stephanie Morganstern (episodes 29-82) and Emilie Barlow [1] (http://www.emilieclairebarlow.com/) (episodes 90-166).
- In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Minako is played by Ayaka Komatsu.
Attacks and powers
Sailor V
- Moon power transform
- Mikazuki power transform
- Crescent shower
- Crescent slender beam
- Sailor V kick
- Sailor V chop
- V-chan shiki momidashi Sailor V chop.
Sailor Moon manga
- Rolling heart vibration
- Venus wink chain sword
- Crescent boomerang
- Moon power
Sailor Moon anime
- Venus power, make up
- Venus star power, make up
- First appearance: Episode 65, Sailor Moon R
- Venus crystal power, make up
- Super Sailor Venus. First appearance: Episode 154, Sailor Moon SuperS
- Crescent beam
- Crescent beam shower
- Venus love me chain
- First appearance: Episode 102, Sailor Moon S
- Venus love and beauty shock.
References
- Doi, Hitoshi. Aino Minako/Sailor Venus (http://www.tcp.com/doi/smoon/char/venus.html). Retrevied February 1, 2005.
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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 | |||