The Kino Makoto reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Kino Makoto

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Kino Makoto
Kino Makoto (木野まこと) is a 'Senshi' character in the manga, musical theater, and television adaptations of the Japanese metaseries known as Sailor Moon. Kino Makoto is a 14-16 year old, and is the tallest member of the Sailor Team (known informally as the "Inner Senshi" in the Anglophone world) at about 170 cm. She has medium-length brown hair and green eyes, and is more known as Sailor Jupiter.

Her default school uniform for most of the story's run is different than what the other young women wear. It is white & brown with laces in the front and a long brown skirt. The fanon reason is her school didn't have them in her size, although this is never referred to in the original story. However, visually, schoolgirls with longer skirts than normal in anime are traditionally depicted as more 'delinquent'. More likely is the possibility that she simply didn't require a new uniform. This becomes unimportant later in the storyline, when she attends high school and wears the same new outfit as the other girls.

Her parents died in a plane crash, and subsequently, she lives alone in an apartment. Although very strong and athletic, she considers herself 'overly' tomboyish and compensates at being very good at domestic tasks. She is a great cook. Her most infamous trait is her seemingly random puppy-love affliction for cute boys, who she compares to a boy she knew when she was younger. She was the penultimate senshi introduced in the first major story arc, although she has fewer character-specific episodes than the others. As Sailor Jupiter, Makoto uses elemental attacks involving plants or thunder, which are commonly associated with the Roman god Jupiter.

Her personality is slightly different in adaptions of the Sailor Moon story, although generally more consistent overall than the other main characters.

Table of contents
1 Comparisons
2 Famous quirks
3 Actresses

Comparisons

Manga Version

Makoto is a transfer student and is often depicted with her hair down, and appears (erroneously) have a perm. Nearly all of Sailor Jupiter's attacks are plant based. A male friend who seems attracted to her and knows she is Sailor Jupiter is mentioned in one chapter but not mentioned again later on. Makoto admires Haruka Tenoh and they are considered friends.

Anime Differences

Makoto is a transfer student who is thought by the characters to be a former delinquent who got into fights (although this is commonly believed by the audience, there is no canon support for this and the manga contradicts this assumption). Makoto's hair is always seen up in a ponytail. In one episode of the 'filler' Doom Tree story arc, we learn she has had a male friend since childhood. Makoto's admiration of Haruka Tenoh is referenced, although the two are not close. The seiyuu who performed as Makoto was Emi Shinohara.

Anime (English Dub) Differences

Despite criticism against the English adaptation of Sailor Moon, Makoto Kino's personality is generally consistent with the original Japanese portrayal. Some aspects of her personality are downplayed, such as her height (presumably because taller American children wouldn't find a 170 cm-tall teen as unusual) and her obsession with proving her femininity (including 'running a restaurant' as a life goal rather than 'getting married young'). Her 'sempai' was given a name, Freddy, although when later episodes were dubbed by a different company, Cloverway, he was given a different name. Lita Kino was voiced by Susan Roman, who also provided the voice of the eerily similar Megaman in the english version of the Megaman Legends game.

Lita's dub name is considered to be either a corruption of Leda, a moon of Jupiter or short for Hippolyta.

Live Action Differences

Makoto is more similar to the manga version than the anime version, including her attacks. However, her obsession with boys and proving her femininity are even more downplayed than the American dub. She is much more overtly boyish in dress and manner, tends to reject overtly girly things, and her sempai complex is treated with great seriousness rather than a reoccurring gag as in the original anime.

Famous quirks

Actresses


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