About
Minako Aino
Minako is depicted as athletic, cheerful, romantic, and resilient, all traits she will retain in the Sailor Moon series. When Sailor V was enough of a hit to earn its own anime adaptation, Takeuchi was asked to expand the concept to include more girls, and when she did, she placed Usagi Tsukino as the protagonist, with Minako as a part of the team. As a result, many of the traits strongly associated with Usagi actually originated with Minako in the Sailor V series—long, blonde hair; blue eyes; underachieving in school; large appetite; interest in pop culture; Moon-based powers; even the appearances of Usagi's family and friends are extremely similar to Minako's.
In the anime, Minako is given a slightly different backstory, having spent some of her time as Sailor V in England, where she met a young Interpol officer named Katarina who taught her English and acted as a big sister, and a young man called Alan, with whom she fell in love. After Sailor V was caught in an explosion and believed to be dead, she saw them together and realized that they, without her knowing, had become a couple. She moved back to Japan shortly thereafter. She is also widely travelled in the manga, having visited Greece and China, but has never been to England.
As a result of her past battles, when Minako meets the other Senshi she has a relatively serious personality, and is very focused on their mission as Sailor Senshi. In the manga, she even tells them she is the Princess they have been searching for, although in fact she is merely serving as a decoy to protect the real princess, Usagi. Throughout the first story arc she has by far the strongest memories of their past life on the Moon Kingdom. With the passage of time after the first story arc concludes, she is able to relax among her friends (and is differentiated from Usagi), gradually transforming into a more excitable, even goofy character. Her adventures frequently involve overconfidence, enthusiastic determination to come out on top, and slapstick humor. This is amplified in the anime, where her speech is also notoriously peppered with malapropisms and fractured proverbs. In the English-dubbed anime, "Mina's" personality is adjusted somewhat further; she adopts a valley girl dialect, and in the latter two seasons is rewritten as being sarcastic or rude in places where she had only been melodramatic in the original Japanese.
Sailor Venus
Minako's primary Senshi identity. She wears a uniform colored in orange, navy blue, and yellow, and retains the red bow she wears as a civilian. She also has a matching set of orange high heels with a strap. In the live-action series, this bow appears only when she is in one of her Senshi forms, and has a gem in the center. In the manga and live-action series, she wears an item called the "wink chain" around her waist, which she sometimes uses as a weapon. She is given specific titles throughout the various series, including Soldier of Love, Solider of Love and Hope, and Soldier of Love and Beauty. Her personality is no different from when she is a civilian, although certain powers are unavailable to her in that form.
Sailor Venus is the de jure leader of the Guardian Senshi in their mission to protect Princess Serenity, and in turn is under the sometimes-awkward leadership of Sailor Moon. In the manga, as the leader, she is entrusted with the poisonous sword used to kill Queen Beryl, which turns the stone blade into a sword made of Silver Crystal. Her role as the leader of the Guardian Senshi is rarely mentioned in the anime, in which Sailor Moon is nearly always the one to finish off each enemy; however, it is mentioned frequently in the live-action version, although Sailor Venus rarely spends any time with the other Senshi aside from Sailor Mars.
As she grows stronger, Sailor Venus gains additional powers, and at key points her uniform changes to reflect this. The first change takes place in Act 39 of the manga, when she obtains the Venus Crystal and her outfit becomes similar to that of Super Sailor Moon. She is not given a new title. A similar event is divided between Episodes 143 and 154 of the anime, and she is given the name Super Sailor Venus. A third, manga-only form appears in Act 42, unnamed but analogous to Eternal Sailor Moon (sans wings).
Princess Venus
During the Silver Millennium, Sailor Venus was also the Princess of her home planet. She was the leader of those who protected Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom. As Princess Venus, she dwelt in Magellan Castle and wore a yellow gown—she appears in this form in the original manga, as well as in supplementary art. In the Sailor V manga, it is shown that she was loved by Adonis, a foot soldier in her army, who was later under the command of Endymion. His love went unnoticed by her, and he became a villain working for the Dark Agency after he was reborn.
Romantic Interests
Naoko Takeuchi once drew her in the arms of Kunzite, leader of the Shitennou. In the Original Picture Collection Vol. I, Takeuchi expresses a desire to explore the possibility of such relationships; unlike the other characters, with Venus and Kunzite this is explored within the series. In one flashback, Minako blushes and seems flustered around Kunzite after a conversation about love, and in the last chapter of Codename: Sailor V, Princess Venus is shown as having had an infatuation with Kunzite. The stage musicals hold that the two of them were in love at the time of the Moon Kingdom, as does the Another Story video game.
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