Sailor Venus



"Protected by Venus, the planet of beauty, Guardian of Love, Sailor Venus! Allow me to punish you with the power of love!"

- Sailor Venus's stock introduction

Sailor Venus  is the secret identity of Minako Aino and the leader of the Inner Sailor Senshi. This is the original depiction of the character created by Naoko Takeuchi.

Profile
Sailor Venus is one of the five original Inner Sailor Senshi of the Solar System. She is the fifth and last of the Inner Senshi to join the group, but the first to transform and battle the Dark Kingdom undercover villains known as Dark Agency. She is the guardian of the planet Venus and her powers center around love, light, and possibly metal.

Appearance

 * -|Sailor V =
 * -|Sailor Venus =
 * -|Super Sailor Venus =
 * -|Evil Sailor Venus =
 * -|Eternal Sailor Venus =
 * -|Princess Venus =

Codename: Sailor V
Sailor Venus, in her Sailor V form, first appears in Vol.1 - The Birth of Sailor V!. In this chapter, she fights Narcissus, an agent of the Dark Agency who was sent to make every woman his slave so that he can take over Tokyo, and kills him with Crescent Beam.

In Vol.2, after being attacked by Takurou Ootaku, Minako (in disguise as a Sentai heroine in armor) transforms into Sailor V, despite originally not wanting to transform into Sailor V because of how drafty the costume is and not being paid any money for being a champion of justice. After she transforms, Sailor V realizes that she doesn't want to stop being a champion of justice since she gets a wonderful feeling from being in her costume. Shortly after she realizes this, Takurou flips up her skirt to look at the "interior details" of her costume. Sailor V gets angered by this move and uses her Sailor V Kick on him. After doing so, Sailor V realizes that Takurou wasn't an enemy and runs away from the Game Center Crown arcade.

In Vol.3, Minako transforms into Sailor V after she gets Pandora's attention. Pandora is angered and sends her slaves to attack Sailor V. While she surrounded by Pandora's slaves, Artemis tells her to use her compact to reflect Pandora's true form. After doing so, Sailor V destroys her with Crescent Beam and detransforms afterwords.

Throughout the series, inspector general of the police Natsuna Sakurada is obsessed with Sailor V and obtaining her so as to have her work for them as a part-time job. In Vol.10, she discovers Sailor V's identity at a fashion building when Sailor V went to detransform back into Minako and emerges from where Sailor V entered.

Dark Kingdom Arc
Sailor V has been mentioned many times throughout the beginning of the manga. However, she doesn't make a formal appearance until Act 7. In Act 7, after a video tape popped out of the Sailor V Game machine, the machine started to act weird. Sailor V then appeared on the screen and told Usagi that the video that just popped out of the machine was a brainwashing video that was sent by the Dark Kingdom. When Sailor Moon confronted Zoisite, Zoisite was able to restrain Sailor Moon and was about to kill her. However, before the general could kill Sailor Moon, another Senshi arrived, and attacked Zoisite with her Crescent Boomerang, fatally cutting the general, killing him. It was revealed to be Sailor V, who introduced herself as the Moon Princess. When she felt someone watching her as she spoke with the Senshi, she readied to attack, until she saw it was Tuxedo Mask. Kunzite drained energy from the city of Tokyo, as well as its people, and the Senshi confronted him, including Sailor V. When Sailor Moon prepared to attack Kunzite, Sailor V demanded they should be protecting Sailor Moon. When Tuxedo Mask is hurt, the Silver Crystal is revealed to be within Sailor Moon and as she becomes Princess Serenity, the crescent moon symbol vanishes on Sailor V's forehead, turning into the Venus symbol before being replaced by a tiara, and she became formally known as Sailor Venus.

Black Moon Arc
Sailor Venus is targeted by Spectre Sister, Calaveras in Act 18 on the manga. Calaveras embarked on 004: Operation Rebirth and disguised herself as a medium. She persuaded the people of Tokyo that the Sailor Senshi were going to destroy Earth and the Black Moon Clan were coming to save them. When Sailor Venus confronted her, Calaveras first summoned the spirits of Sailor Venus' friends - Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter - through several of the Senshi's closest friends and showed them being tortured. She then summoned the spirits of her dead sisters to throw an energy blast at Sailor Venus. However, before Sailor Venus could be kidnapped, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask defeated Rubeus and then killed Calaveras.

Chibiusa took Sailor Venus, Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask, Luna and Artemis through a time portal where they were confronted by the time gate's guardian, Sailor Pluto. Chibiusa stopped Sailor Pluto and she allowed them to travel to Crystal Tokyo. The try to reach the Crystal Palace, but are trapped by the Boule Brothers. When Sailor Moon's attacks failed to work, Sailor Venus and Tuxedo Mask together destroyed the brothers, allowing them access to the palace.

Transformation Phrases and Items

 * -|Phrases=
 *  Moon Power, Transform 
 * Venus Power, Make Up
 * Venus Star Power, Make Up
 * Venus Planet Power, Make Up
 * Venus Crystal Power, Make Up
 * -|Items=
 *  Transformation Pen 
 * Star Power Stick
 * Venus Crystal

Attacks and Weapons

 * -|Weapons=
 *  Compact 
 *  Chain 
 * Stone Sword
 *  Microphone of Venus 
 * Striking Katana
 * Love Whip
 * -|Attacks=
 * Crescent Beam
 * Crescent Slender Beam
 * Crescent Super Beam  
 * Venus Ten Billion Volt Rock N' Rouge
 * Diphenhydramine Combo! Venus Brand Mosquito Repellent Incense Typhoon
 * Venus Iron Muscle Punch
 * Sailor V Kick
 * Venus Power, Love Crescent Shower
 * Venus Sulphur Smoke
 * Sailor V Chop
 * Crescent Boomerang
 * Seppuku
 * Rolling Screw Sailor V Punch
 * Venus Love, Megaton Shower
 * Sailor V Rub-out Chop
 * Venus Love-Me Chain
 * Rolling Heart Vibration
 * Venus Wink Chain Sword
 *  Sailor Kick 
 * Sailor Planet Attack
 * Sailor Planet Power
 * Venus Love and Beauty Shock
 *  Venus Love and Galactica Shock 

Other Items

 * -|Costume Items=
 * Mask
 * -|Misc.=
 * Communicator

Development
Her character design went through many changes before it was settled on the one used in publication. Earlier in development, each of the Senshi had a fully unique costume. Venus's costume was inspired largely by her Sailor V outfit. It was colored mostly in dark blue, with orange used only for the chest-ribbon (which was not bow-shaped and was shaped like the bow on her civilian school uniform), and included a crescent moon motif, prominent armor, and white and red stripes. Her red hair-ribbon and trademark Sailor V mask were also present. Also, her eye color was yellow. Later concept art showed a design that was much closer to the final product, though with a couple of differences. In that design, her eye color was gold and she had a ring on her left hand. Other differences include yellow/ orange shoulder pads/sleeves, a ribbon around her neck that was tied in the back, and a yellow manicure.

As for her Sailor V design, in concept art, it was shown to have been similar to her Sailor V costume in the anime, only with the crescent moon on her forehead present. It was noted that the design included armor, as she shoulder pads and a chest protector. Her image gem was noted topaz. Like the later Sailor Venus design, she had gold eyes.

Etymology
In Japanese, the name for the planet Venus is Kinsei (金星), which means "metal star". Unlike the other Solar System Sailor Senshi, her powers are references to Roman mythology (specifically Venus, the goddess of love) and not her planet name. However, she does use metal chains and compacts for weapons.

Trivia

 * In alchemy, the element copper is symbolized by the astrological sign for Venus - ♀.
 * The island of Cyprus, south of modern-day Turkey, was strongly associated with the cult of Aphrodite (the Greek predecessor to the Roman goddess Venus) in ancient times. The island was also a major source of copper ore, further strengthening the connection between Sailor Venus and the element of Metal.


 * Naoko Takeuchi has said that the reason Sailor Venus looks so much like Sailor Moon was because it was her duty to take Serenity's place to keep her from danger.
 * In the manga, it was Venus who killed Queen Beryl with the Sword of the Silver Crystal, stabbing her in the torso with it to save Sailor Moon. But in the anime, it was Princess Serenity who got rid of Super Beryl with the Moon Stick. Interestingly, Crystal changes Beryl's death from the manga so Moon kills Beryl with the sword by destroying her powered necklace.
 * Sailor Venus was the first guardian to awaken at the age of 13. Operating as Sailor V, she was popular before the rest of guardians even awakened. Moreover, Sailor Moon herself was one of her biggest fans.
 * Sailor Venus is on the cover art of volume five of the shinsouban and kanzanban editions of the manga.
 * She is the only Senshi who had an alternate Senshi identity (Sailor V) other than Sailor Venus.
 * In the Portuguese dub, Sailor V was called Sailor Venus from the beginning.
 * She was the first of the Inner Senshi to awaken.
 * She was cursed to never get her love.

Gallery
For images of the manga incarnation of Sailor Venus, please see Sailor Venus/Image Gallery.