Minako Aino (anime)

Minako Aino is the civilian identity of Sailor V and the present-day incarnation of Sailor Venus. This is the first animated depiction of the original manga character.

Profile
Minako was a very silly character at times, but she could be more serious; this was especially true in the first season in general, and specifically in episodes 42, 100, and 109 (wherein she worried that she did not have a Pure Heart and tried to prove she was pure hearted in some very bizarre ways). She was also infamous for using mixed up proverbs in the anime, and officially referred to herself as "The Goddess of Love," a title which she used to try to solve others' love woes. Similar to Usagi, she was an academic underachiever, and would refer to Usagi at times as her "make-up tests partner." She was, however, much more athletic than Usagi, especially when it came to volleyball. Minako was shown to be very good in speaking English, since she had lived in London (or at least more so than Rei, Makoto, and Usagi). This was best demonstrated in episode 108, in which she was able to converse with relative fluency in English at the party. Although all students in Japan are required to learn English, it's more likely because of the time she spent as Sailor V in London in the anime. However, she has her thick British accent.

Minako is caring towards others and yet, like Usagi, pretty clumsy at times. For example, when every other Sailor Senshi got sick in Sailor Moon R, she tried to take care of them, but just ended up making a mess. The more she tried to straighten things out, the worse it got.

Appearance
Minako is a cute and bubbly 14-year-old (15 by the S season, and 16 in Sailor Stars) who originally lived in London. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. She wears a big red bow in her hair. Her Shiba Koen Junior High School uniform includes a white blouse with sailor neckerchief, a red scarf, blue skirt, white socks, and black Mary Jane shoes.

Her most notable casual outfit since both second until the fourth season, she wears a red leather jacket with a light purple shirt and an orange collar, green pleated denim skirt, white socks and sneakers.

In Sailor Stars, she wore the same school outfit as Usagi, Ami, and Makoto since all four of them were attending the same high school. Minako is described to be about 5'2" in height and possibly a bit taller in later seasons.

Sailor Moon
As revealed in episode 42, Minako lived in London, England. Before she moved to Japan, and began to fight with the senshi as Sailor Venus, Minako originally lived in London to fight the Dark Kingdom as Sailor V. There, she fell in love with another man named Alan. On one of her missions, she met a woman named Katarina, who was an Interpol police officer. The two spent time together, Katarina taught her English, and Minako regarded her as a big sister. During a mission, she (as Sailor V) was caught in an explosion, and Katarina believed that she died. Minako escaped, but saw Alan and Katarina together, seeing that the two loved each other. Minako decided to let the two believe that she was dead, and moved to Japan soon after.

Minako (in civilian form) finally appears in episode 33. There, she meets up with the other Sailor Senshi and saves them from one of Kunzite's traps. Here, Minako is shown to be completely devoted to her mission of fighting the Dark Kingdom and finding the Moon Princess, as she has the strongest memories of her past life as a Sailor Soldier. From then on, she officially joined Sailor Senshi.

Later on in episode 42, Katarina returns and is being used by Kunzite as a youma to get to Sailor V, considering he believes Sailor V knows who the Sailor Senshi are. After she is restored by Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus, Katarina and Minako reunite and become friends again.

Sailor Moon R
After the first season concludes, Minako's character and personality becomes more goofy, excitable, and overdramatic, as well as a bit ditzy. She is known to misquote proverbs on a regular basis.

During this season, Minako was shown to greatly care for others. She looked over a class of kindergarten kids. She also tried to take care of the other Sailor Senshi when they were all sick, though to no success.

Sailor Moon S
In Sailor Moon S, Minako was the last one of the Inner Senshi to have her Pure Heart Crystal stolen. Even though it said it did not bother her, it annoyed her greatly. She began to donate tons of blood and giving away the plush toys she won at the arcade in order to prove she had a good heart, and her Pure Heart was eventually removed by Eudial. But unlike the other victims, Minako retained her consciousness and ran off with her Pure Heart, and she eventually collapsed. After she regained consciousness, she transformed into Sailor Venus (much to the surprise of Eudial), and broke Eudial's fire buster with her Venus Love-Me Chain attack.

Sailor Moon SuperS
She escaped the imprisonment of her dream mirror which Tiger's Eye and Hawk's Eye were fighting over.

Trivia

 * Minako's name means "Beautiful Child of Love."
 * Minako is the goofiest member of the Sailor Soldiers.
 * Minako's membership number in the Three Lights' Fan Club was 278.
 * In the anime, Minako had four character songs: "Route Venus", "I'll Stand Alone", "I Saw Your Dream", and "The Goddess of Love's 'How to Love'".
 * In the anime, Minako was shown to be able to speak English fluently. This was probably due to the fact that she spent her time in London for a while as Sailor V, and her English-speaking ability was shown in Episode 108.
 * Minako often refers to herself as the 'Goddess of Love' both in her civilian and Sailor Venus forms.
 * Minako was the only character to have a nosebleed (a typical anime indication of perverted thoughts) in the anime. She developed one in episode 178, when she thought about Luna being taken care of by Yaten.
 * In the original English dub, Minako's name was romanized as "Mina". Ironically this is a nickname Artemis sometimes calls her in Japanese versions including the Codename Sailor V comic.
 * The episode describing Minako's life in England was cut by DiC. As a result, that part of her life is not canon in the orginal English dub.

Gallery
''For images of the anime incarnation of Minako Aino, please see Minako Aino (anime)/Image Gallery. ''