Ami Mizuno (anime)

"But I think the harder the problem, the more it's worth solving."

- Ami Mizuno

Ami Mizuno is the civilian identity and present-day incarnation of Sailor Mercury. This is the first animated depiction of the original manga character.

Profile
Ami was a shy girl who did not make friends easily, preferring to be alone with her books instead. On her free time, she studies or attends Cram School, even during summer vacation. Her classmates mistook her withdrawn nature for arrogance, so they did not approach her either until Usagi started doing so. She studied very hard and regularly finished at the top of national exams, leading her classmates to speculate that she was superhuman and had an IQ of 300. Math and science were her favorite subjects, and she was aiming to become a doctor like her mother. Once she got an offer to study medicine in Germany, though she preferred to stay in Tokyo. Usually calm and level-headed, she was the voice of reason of the Senshi team. The others often relied on her plans and analyses, but they often thought she should "loosen up" more.

Ami was a kind and gentle person who disliked quarrels and abhorred harming innocent people. This trait was even cited in the title of anime episode 122, where she persuaded Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune not to kill Hotaru. Like her comrades, her loyalty to Sailor Moon was unwavering, and she would sacrifice her life for her princess if necessary.

Appearance
Like the others, Ami retains the same appearance as she did in the manga: bluish-teal hair that is a few inches above her shoulders and blue eyes. In the SuperS season, her hair is about an inch or two longer, but still retains a short length. She later returns to her original hair length in the Stars season.

Like Usagi, she wears a standard Azabu Juban school uniform.

Her notable casual outfit is similar to Usagi's from the first up to the third season, she wears a pink short jacket with a white long sleeve button shirt with a blue ribbon on the collar, cream yellow long skirt, white socks and brown shoes.

Sailor Moon
Ami first appears in the eighth episode, '''Is the Genius Girl a Youma? Brainwashing School of Terror'''. She is first mentioned the night before the episode's body starts by Luna when she goes to Game Center Crown to speak to a mysterious contact, later revealed to be Artemis. She asks for information on Ami after sensing a strange aura around her and suspecting her to be the enemy. The next day, the results for the mock exam are posted, Ami is ranked 1st, not just in the school but in the nation. Naru, Umino, Kuri and many of the other students believe her to be stuck-up and arrogant, which makes Ami sad. After school, Luna, suspicious, follows her and jumps on her shoulder. Usagi apologizes to Ami and, wanting to be her friend, asks her to come to the game center. After failing the Sailor V game, Usagi gives her a turn, and she quickly gets the highest score. However, as soon as she realizes that she is late for cram school, she hurries off, accidentally dropping her Crystal Disk in the process. Motoki finds it and gives it to Usagi, who goes to return it. after being stopped by Mamoru, Luna persuades Usagi to investigate the disk to see if they can uncover information on Ami using a school computer. They discover the brainwashing powers of the disk, and Luna, now sure that she is the enemy, returns to stop her. When she arrives and transforms, the actual Youma,, reveals herself. She tries to extract Ami's genius energy, but fails because she hasn't been using the disk. Ami says that studying should be done on your own, and that using the disk felt like cheating. , frustrated, throws her to the floor and turns her left arm into an ax to chop off her head. At that moment, the symbol of Mercury is revealed on her forehead. Luna realizes that she was wrong; the energy she was sensing was because Ami was a Sailor Senshi. She creates Sailor Mercury's transformation pen and rolls it to her, instructing her to say "Mercury Power Make Up." Ami, though shocked, has no choice but to oblige and transforms into Sailor Mercury, fighting the monster with Sailor Moon. From that point on, she would fight as Sailor Mercury.

During her missions as Sailor Mercury, she developed a relationship with Ryo Urama. He caught her attention as he was the first known student to surpass her on the Semester Exam, though it was through his psychic powers and not actual studying. Ryo was actually a reincarnation of the Seven Great Yuoma, which the Dark Kingdom tried to revive, but Ami helped to protect him as Sailor Mercury on two separate instances. After the second instance, the two were seen spending time alone.

After the Dark Kingdom was finally destroyed, she, along with the other Sailor Senshi and Mamoru lost memories of all events during the season. She went on to live her normal life for two months.

Sailor Moon R
Two months after Sailor Moon, her memories were finally restored by Luna and Artemis after a new enemy, Ail and Ann, arrived on earth. She became Sailor Mercury once again.

Etymology
Ami: The kanji for A (亜) translates to "Asia" or "second", and the kanji for mi (美) translates to "beauty". So her first name could be either "Asian Beauty" or "Second Beauty".

Mizuno: The kanji for Mizu (水) translates to "water" while the kanji for no (野) translates to "field" or "civilian". The syllable no (の) also indicates possession, so while the literal translation of her family name could be "water field" or "water civilian", others may translate it as "of the water." Also, Mizuno is a common surname in Japan.

Her name completely in hiragana/katakana would be "みずのあみ" (Mizuno Ami).

Trivia

 * Ami has an IQ of 300. In the Viz dub, Umino says that Ami's IQ is  "over nine-thousand", a reference to the English dub of Dragon Ball Z.
 * Ami's membership number in the Three Lights Fan Club was 25, the earliest number among the senshi.
 * In the anime, Ami had four image songs: Bicycle Till Tomorrow, Becoming Sweethearts Cannot Happen, But..., Sharing the Same Tears, and Someday...Somebody.... She also shared an image song with Rei Hino called I Can't Leave Her Alone.
 * In Japan, Sailor Mercury was the most popular Sailor Senshi, although she sometimes dropped to second place in favor of Sailor Chibi Moon among younger viewers. This was mainly due to the fact that Ami's docile and studious personality made her a role model for Japanese children. On the other hand, her lack of an offensive ability during the whole first season had earned her some scorn for being weak, leading to many jokes that Sailor Mercury is useless.
 * Ami is the only one of the inner senshi with a short hair style, and an unnatural hair color. In addition she is the only one who has a hair color that matches her eyes, and the only one who has a hair color that matches her fuku color.
 * Ami is the only one of the Inner Senshi who was never suspected of being Sailor Moon by the Dark Kingdom in the anime.
 * When Ami transforms into Sailor Mercury, her eyes become a slightly lighter shade of blue.
 * As Ami's visor/goggles displays German text and she plans on going to Germany in one episode, it is a possibility that she knows at least a little bit of German.
 * She probably wants to go to Germany to study in one of the most famous universities for medicine, which is called "Heidelberg University".
 * In the DiC dub, Ami is named "Amy Anderson", though during the Cloverway dub, her surname reverted back to "Mizuno". She spoke with a slight British accent during the DiC dub to highlight her intelligence, which DiC backed up by saying she transferred from Brighton, a town in the United Kingdom.
 * Ami is the second sailor senshi, (after Usagi Tsukino) to be introduced, and the first inner senshi to be introduced who is not the princess.
 * Ryo Urawa was the first to surpass Ami on the School Semester Exam, though it was through his psychic powers and not actual studying.

Gallery
For images of the anime incarnation of Ami Mizuno, please see Ami Mizuno (anime)/Image Gallery.