Mizuno Ami

Mizuno Ami

Mizuno Ami (水野亜美) is one of the main 'Senshi' characters in the franchise known as "Sailor Moon". Her Senshi name is Sailor Mercury. A girl with short blue hair, her abilities are water-based, although for quite some time, very few of them are strictly offensive in nature. However, her intelligence makes her one of the default tactical planners of the Sailor Team, and of the series. She also has a "mini-computer" and visor, helpful for scanning her peripheral environment, among other things.

Ami is a very archetypical character and easy to sympathize with, and was the most popular character in Sailor Moon for quite some time. With a 'generic' genius IQ of 300, she nonetheless gains appreciation for artistic things, especially music (and was even a fan of a J-pop band before any of the other Senshi). Ami is generally considered the sensible one of the five girls, and usually is a scapegoat for embarrassment when the group is having a dullard moment.

Ami lives with her mother, a busy doctor who is not home very often, and whose face was never seen in the TV series. Ami is originally obsessed with being a perfect student, although it is unknown if her mother contributed to this behavioural trait. Ami's father, a painter who effectively abandoned his family to do his work, is only referred to in the paintings (in place of postcards or letters) he sends. Ami seems to be vaguely appreciative to him in the TV series, but resentful in the original manga. She is one of the few girls in the series whose family situation was explicitly mentioned in the TV series.

Ami was given her own 'special,' an animated version of a manga story featuring her as the star character. She was the only member of the team budgeted for such a story, and it is generally considered one of her best roles, humorously trying to deal with the concept of having a romantic admirer.

Her personality is generally consistent through various adaptations of the series. Originally, Ami only wore glasses while reading, but perhaps due to fan love for meganekko, she wears them more consistently in the new Live action series, though it is mentioned that she does not need them for vision correction, but prefers them for the appearance.

Starting in Episode 21 of PGSM, Ami was ensnared by the Dark Kingdom and became Dark Sailormercury, an evil version of herself. This applies solely to the live action series, and not to the manga or anime versions.

She is sometimes unfairly compared to Kaiou Michiru because of their superficial water-based powers, which are actually quite different by Asian Elemental reckoning. Ami is also more of a 'science' intellectual while Michiru is more into the aesthetics of music. Ami is also considered generally more friendly, although quite shy over most of the metaseries.

Ami's name is pronouced AH-ME, not 'Amy'. A generic Americanized family name ("Anderson") was used by her in one episode of the English language dub, but ignored in later merchandise. Later episodes of the English language dub give her correct family name, "Mizuno".

Character traits

• Hair: During an interview, head animators admitted although seemingly simple, Ami's hair was extremely hard to draw. She has the most widely inconsistent drawn hairstyle in the metaseries (especially in lower budget episodes), although the 'last' design, nearly shoulder length, is generally considered the fan favourite.

• Boys: Although the television series rarely featured many males in reoccurring roles, Ami's popularity warranted more than one mention of a boy (Urawa Ryo), with whom she became friends in the first series, who clearly liked her, although he is never mentioned in other series.

• Ecchi: A semi-running joke in the series is the fact that Ami is extremely observant about nonexplicit romantic or sexual conduct in situations within the series, which usually shocks or surprises the other Senshi. Ami is sometimes jokingly referred to, in anime fandom, as a closet pervert.

• In the original anime production of Sailor Moon, Ami is played by veteran voice actress Aya Hisakawa.
• In the English dubbed version of Sailor Moon, Amy is played by Karen Bernstein (episodes 5-82) and Liza Balkan (episodes 90-166). The later is sometimes criticized for sounding too 'nasal'.
• In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Ami is played by Chisaki Hama.