Makoto Kino :: Sailor Jupiter

Attacks + Transformations | Items
General Information | Settin' you Straight | Differences
Mythology | Technical

Name: Makoto Kino
Pun: Honesty of Trees
Dub Name: Lita (Kino)
Age: 14-16
Birthday: December 5th
Star Sign: Sagittarius
Blood Type: O
Gemstone: Emerald
Favourite Colour: (Sugar) pink
Favourite Subject: Home Ec
Least Favourite Subjects: Physics
Favourite Foods: Cherry pie + meatloaf
Least Favourite Food: None
Voice Actress: Emi Shinohara

Makoto Kino is a tall, strong and, at first glance, very masculine girl. She gets into fights frequently and too often jumps to conclusions that end in one. But once you get to know her, you realise that this cake-baking, flower-arranging, dress-sewing young woman is very sweet and feminine. She frequently falls 'in love' at first sight and she hopes that one day she'll be a bride. If you cross her, however, she'll rapidly change back to the hard-edged, hard-hitting girl she emanates and have you on your back faster than you can apologise. This fighting spirit comes in handy when she transforms to fight evil as the Pretty Sailor-Suited Soldier, Sailor Jupiter.
As Jupiter, she's blessed with the powers of thunder from her Roman God deity Zeus, and also the power of wood from the Asian table of elements which her planet Jupiter is associated with. Even when not transformed, though, she can hold her own against monsters with her brute strength and knowledge of Kung-Fu and Karate.
Makoto is street-smart and mature, but not the most dilligent of students; she normally ranks a couple of places above Usagi on the mock exams. She's a genius in the kitchen, though, and her cooking skills are as reknown as her quick temper is infamous. She has the tallest + most 'mature' body of the Sailor Team, which is sometimes a hindrance; even though she attends the same Junior Highschool as Usagi + Ami, Juuban Junior Highschool, she has to wear her old Uniform because her new school didn't have one in her size.

Makoto had a mysterious 'senpai' (upperclassman) from years ago, an old partner who broke up with her badly and left her scarred. While she seems to be largely over him, she still has a fear of abandonment and the peculiar 'Senpai Disease' running gag, which occurs when she sees a good-looking boy and compares a part of him to her 'senpai' (eg. 'His hair is just the same as his...' 'His voice is just like that man's...', etc.). We never see him properly, only shadowed or at unflattering angles. In the Manga, Makoto is friends with a boy called Asanuma Ittou who appears during the Black Moon Arc. A good friend/admirer of Mamoru, he makes friends with Makoto who eventually reveals to him her secret identity. He is amazed and says that if he had the ability, he would protect her. Then she gets sucked up by Petz. WAY TO GO, ASANUMA~! RAH RAH! Even though he doesn't appear after the Black Moon Arc, it's implied they have a soft spot for each other. Asanuma only appears once in the Anime for about 10 seconds and he doesn't talk to anyone and he sounds like a Japanese Archie Andrews, so he doesn't matter. In the R Season Fillers she has a very close male friend called Shinozaki who protects her from a Cardian, mortally wounding himself and spending a few days in the hospital. Even though he doesn't appear beyond that one Episode and Makoto says at the end of the Episode that they're just friends, they're a very popular Fan Pairing. In the Manga, Naoko Takeuchi played with the idea of having the Sailor Soldiers paired up with the Four Heavenly Kings, and Sailor Jupiter was with Nephrite. But this never made it into Canon. Another popular Fan Pairing is Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury, but it's still not Canon. In both versions she's had a crush on Motoki Furuhata. In the Live Action, despite Motoki being very different to any other incarnations, the two end up dating and at the end of the Special Act he proposes to her (and she accepts).


Makoto is an orphan, and her parents were killed in a plane crash, which has left her with an erratic fear of planes (she even gets terrified at the sound of one passing overhead). This doesn't survive into the Anime, however, where she has been in an airport a couple of times and even in a plane for a very frivolous reason (it was a round-trip flight just so she could watch the on-flight movie). There is a lot of speculation as to how Makoto has supported herself, since she's living by herself and she's only 14. However, she only moves to Tokyo a year before the story starts, and we see her getting off the train for the first time as a cameo in the Sailor V Manga, so she may have been staying with an elderly relative until she came to live on her own. This move might have been because she was expelled from her previous Junior Highschool and had to live closer to her new one. General consensus, however, is that she's living off a sizeable inheritance from her parents.

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Settin' you Straight

  • Makoto's not a lesbian. She admires Haruka in an Episode even after she finds out she's a woman, but even though it looks like a crush, it's just admiration. We can see at the end of the Episode that Makoto doesn't harbor any further romantic feelings for her, and was just impressed by her maturity at such a young age.
  • Makoto's only 14 at he start of the show. A lot of people seem to think she's older because she's her body's further along than the other Soldiers.

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Differences

  • In the R Season Fillers, when the Sailor Team wants to put on a performance of Snow White, everyone is arguing about who should play the lead + putting forth why it should be them. Makoto's reason is because Snow White is a lady, and she has the most lady-like figure (ie. the biggest boobs). The North American Dub changes it so she says she has the most talent. As such, 'talent' has become a meme for breasts in the Sailor Moon Community.
  • Sailor Jupiter has a lot more plant-related attacks in the Manga + Live Action than in the Anime, where she only has one, which is also electric-based.

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Mythology

Jupiter, or Zeus, is well-known as the King of the Gods. He would sit up at Mount Olympus and throw thunder bolts at the Earth and/or other Gods when they displeased him, and to establish power. His full name is Juppiter Optimus Maximus Soter, which is just plain hilarious.

The Oak Tree is a symbol of Zeus, as well as the planet Jupiter. Sailor Jupiter uses electricity-charged oak leaves in her Super attack 'Jupiter Oak Evolution'. She also wears a laurel of oak leaves around her head, which Zeus can sometimes be seen wearing. Oak-leaf laurels were awarded to winners of the Ancient Olympics as medals because they were thought to be sacred and Godly.

It's not related at all, but the Etruscan equivalent of Jupiter/Zeus is Tinia.
xD

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Technical

Sailor Jupiter's Voice Actress in the Japanese Anime is Emi Shinohara. She's a veteran voice actress and plays several other well-known characters in popular Animes, such as B-ko from Project A-ko, Kaho Mizuki from Cardcaptor Sakura, Presea + Sierra from Magic Knights Rayearth, Kagero from Ninja Scroll and April O'Neil in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Anime. She also voiced Mokuren in Please Save My Earth, which is oddly enough another Anime Series about people from the Moon who are reborn on Earth - it's very much like a cross between Trigun and Sailor Moon. She's also made appearances in Tenchi Muyo!, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, Dream Hunter Rem and Nana. She's also played Tsubara Ise in Ayakashi Ninden Kunoichiban, a Play Station Game. She's currently married to Hiroshi Watari, a Live Action Actor who also had some minor voice-acting roles in very popular Anime Series.

For the North American dub, her Voice Actresses Susan Roman, making her the only Dub major character whose Voice Actor didn't change. She was Snowy the dog's barking noises in The Adventures of Tintin (I shit you not), James the Red Engine from Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Oliver + Judy Tate in the Beyblades Dub, Tika from Barbie as the Island Princess and Harry's mother in the bizzarely named Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs. ? It seems a prerequisite that the Dub Voice Actresses do some work in Care Bears and Susan's no exception.

In the Sailor Moon Musicals - Sera Myu - Sailor Jupiter is played by 11 Actresses. From the left;

First Stage: Noriko Kamiyama ("Kanoko")
Marie Sada
Takako Inayoshi
Emika Satou
Akari Tonegawa
Second Stage: Chiho Ooyama
Emi Kuriyama (also Third Stage)
Third Stage: Yuriko Hayashi
Fourth Stage: Ayano Sugimoto
Kaori Sakata
Mai Watanabe

Jupiter's Myu Actors have been keeping fairly quiet + out of the spotlight. The only mentionable thing is that Emi Kuriyama came in 5th Place for the Miss Universe Japan 2006 Beauty Pageant, which is fairly impressive. In case you couldn't tell from the name + similar appearance, Chiho Ooyama is Anza Ooyama's younger sister.

In the Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon she is played by Myu "Mew" Azama. Myu Azama + Myuu Sawai (Sailor Moon's PGSM Actress) stressed the difference between their first names in the Acts 17-20 'Oshiokiyo' DVD behind-the-scenes special; you emphasise all the syllables in 'Miyuu', like 'Me-you', whereas you really do pronounce Myu as 'Mew'. Myu has expressed her gratitude for being so tall, because it allowed her to become a model, but she's got a while to go before she's as 'talented' as Makoto as we know her (wink wink nudge nudge). She's been sticking to just modelling at the moment, but she also won the 'Non-no Model Grand Prix' competition from amongst 5 000 other competitors.

Sailor Jupiter's Image Songs are 'Anata no Sei Janai' ('It's Not Your Fault'), 'Star Light ni Kiss Shite' ('Kissing In the Star Light'), 'Wasureru Tame ni Koi wo Shinaide' ('To Forget, Don't Love') and 'We Believe You'. In the Live Action, her Image Songs are 'Miracle Dance Night' and 'Lovely Yell'. In the English Dub, her Image Songs are 'Rainy Day man' and 'Daddy's Girl' sung by Patricia Tollett.

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