Aino Minako

Aino Minako

Aino Minako (愛野美奈子) is a fictional character from the Japanese entertainment series known as Sailor Moon. Minako is a senshi known as Sailor Venus, and is also referred to as the 'soldier of love'. 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 thinks she is cool. She eventually quit being Sailor V and became the Sailor Soldier in gold. 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" in the manga.

She originally appeared in the prototype manga to Sailor Moon, "Codename: Sailor V." Because Usagi is partly based on her, they share some characteristics, although due to the anime's prevalence Minako is sometimes mistakenly considered the 'knockoff.' Usagi is generally considered less intelligent and somewhat lazy, while Minako is more graceful but tends to become overeager at her plans to the point of amusing obsessive lunacy.

In her initial introduction, she is Usagi's idol and hero figure. Aino Minako because a more noticeable character during the second season of the anime, when she displayed a more wacky, oddball personality, and is even referred to playfully on USENET as "The Fruit Loop". 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. She goes to a different school than the other four "Inner Senshi" until high school.

Because of her evasive lifestyle, Minako 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 already a marginally popular idol.

Because her creation pre-dates the Sailor Moon metaseries, 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 but they generally appear vaguely 'light'-related.) Her name also does not refer to her powers like the other senshi (lit. Beautiful Child of Love).

Venus Love Me Chain: An early attack, extremely versatile and one of the few attacks reused thruout the entire series. It can act as a whip or a chain to bind enemies and objects.

Love and Beauty shock: A 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.)

In the enormous amount of Sailor Moon yuri dojinshi, Minako is usually paired with Rei 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 Ten'ou Haruka, ever after discovering that character is a girl.

Actresses

In the anime, Minako is played by Fukami Rika.
In the English-language dub, Mina is played by Stephanie Morganstern (episodes 29-82) and Emilie Barlow (episodes 90-166).
In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Minako is played by Ayaka Komatsu.

Sailor Moon Characters:

Tsukino Usagi | Chiba Mamoru | ChibiUsa | Chibi-Chibi | Sailor Starlights

Mizuno Ami | Hino Rei | Kino Makoto | Aino Minako

Meiou Setsuna | Kaiou Michiru | Ten'ou Haruka | Tomoe Hotaru

Luna | Artemis | Diana

Other characters: Professor Tomoe