Rei Hino :: Sailor Mars

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

Name: Rei Hino
Pun: Spirit of Fire
Dub Name: Raye Hino
Age: 14-16
Birthday: April 17th
Star Sign: Aries
Blood Type: AB
Gemstone: Ruby
Favourite Colours: Red + black
Favourite Subject: Traditional Calligraphy
Least Favourite Subjects: Modern History
Favourite Foods: Puffer fish
Least Favourite Food: Tinned asparagus
Voice Actress: Michie Tomizawa


Rei Hino is a confident, fiery and spiritual Shinto Priestess and student at T.A Girl's Private School whose beauty and psychic prowess awe and scare many. However, of course, she's also a Pretty Sailor-Suited Soldier, Sailor Mars! She expertly juggles time in between being a revered student, an elegent Shrine maiden and an all-round fashionable teenage girl, and nothing is safe from the scope of her dream future.
As Sailor Mars, she's blessed with the power of fire and has powerful attacks, but also fights with her religious ofuda (seals) to dispell evil.
At times Rei might seem hot-headed (oh, shoot me) and a tad PMS POWER~!, but deep down we find she really does value her friends and her lifestyle.

In the past, Rei was princess of her planet, creatively named Princess Mars. She was also a part of Princess Serenity's court and fought to protect her. In current times, she lives at the Hikawa Shrine with her grandfather (and, in the Anime, Yuuichirou) and her two crows, Phobos and Deimos (who in the Manga are also her protectors and have humanoid but tiny forms). Another 1000 years from now and she's one of the four Guardian Soldiers of NeoQueen Serenity and Crystal Tokyo, charged with protecting them both from invaders like the Black Moon.

Rei's love interests are hard to define because they change so vastly between versions. In the Manga, Rei is a cold fish romantically and doesn't care for men, generally because she hasn't had very good male role models in her life - her father is a workaholic who abandoned her mother and the only man she ever loved turned out just like him. She states that the only reason she's get a boyfriend would be to boss him around. In the Anime, though, she's just as boy-crazy as the rest of them, and has been sighted going weak-kneed over a few different boys. The biggest condendor, though, seems to be Yuuichirou Kumada, an Anime-only straggler that hangs out at her Shrine after he falls in love with her at first sight. Although she's kissed him twice and wishes she'd kissed him before her death in the first Series, she otherwise seems nonplussed with him and - perhaps staying true to the Manga - only really bosses him around. Early in the Manga, before anyone knew Usagi was Princess Serenity and Mamoru was Tuxedo Mask, Rei + Mamoru were 'dating' (although Mamoru definitely didn't see it that way). This fizzled out even before Usagi + Mamoru regained their memories. In the Manga special 'Casablanca Memories', we find out she was once in love with her father's secretary, Kaidou. He despised what her father had done to his family and vowed never to become like that - however one day, Rei was shocked to find he was engaged to another woman, and with dismay realised he was turning out to be just like his father. Also in the Manga, Naoko Takeuchi toyed with the idea of having the Sailor Soldiers paired up with the Four Heavenly Kings, and Sailor Mars was with Jadeite. This never made it into Canon, although Jadeite still states in the Manga that he finds her entrancingly beautiful. A popular fan-pairing between the Soldiers is Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus, but it's not Canon.


Her mother, a beautiful young woman, died when Rei was just a little girl. She was frequently ill but Rei feels she died from neglect, because her father was never around. The man himself is Politician married to his job, who hardly ever sees her - only once a year on her birthday, and sends her the same present each time; white lilies and a dress. Rei doesn't appreciate or want these visits/ presents and thinks very little of her father, and such, chooses to live with her paternal grandfather.
None of the members of Rei's family have any first names, apparently.
In the Anime Stars Token-Swimsuits-Episode, we find out that Rei has a handsome male cousin called Kengo, who lives in a hut and sculpts all day, then gets pissy and destroys everything.

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Settin' you Straight

  • Rei's not in love with Mamoru and she doesn't want to steal him away from Usagi. She was probably aware that he wasn't interested in her, and certainly got over him very quickly.
  • Rei's not a lesbian with Minako. Some fans think it's Canon because of a misunderstood Manga line, where she + Minako say they don't need men. Out of context, it sounds like they're speaking about each other, but it becomes obvious they're speaking about their duty for the Princess in the Manga.
  • Rei's not Catholic. The school she goes to is a Catholic private school, but she's very obviously Shinto. In one of the foreign Manga translations she's Jewish, but that's different from Catholic.

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Differences

  • The biggest difference, as mentioned above, is the difference between Manga!Rei + Anime!Rei's interest in men. Manga!Rei is pretty disinterested and actually a little anti-male; Anime!Rei is boy-crazy and wants to get a good-looking boyfriend. PGSM!Rei states her interest in boys as being 'normal', but her behaviour shows she stays truer to her Manga version.
  • Rei's Dub favourite food is vegetarian pizza. Because nobody in America knows what a puffer fish is.
  • In the Manga, her dream occupation is just to continue being a Shinto Priestess. In the Anime, though, she wants to be everything - a genuine Career Woman. A model, an idol, a singer, and to travel - she wants to do it all.
  • In the Anime, she wants to be an Idol, and she's a very good singer + songwriter, and she's almost reached celebrity status at her own school. In PGSM, she's also a very good singer, but she hates it (which sucks because, being teenage Japanese girls, the rest of the girls love going to Karaoke). Minako ropes her into singing in public once, though, and occasionally she breaks out into her Idol pseudonim 'Mars Reiko'.
  • In the Manga, while she has a few admirers at school because of her beauty and level head, she's also somewhat feared by many and viewed as a weirdo because of her psychic abilities. In the Anime, though, she's almost like a God to these people. A Gooood. See? Being interested in men does make you popular!

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Mythology

Mars or Ares is well-known as the God of War; but, more specifically, he's the God of savage war, or bloodlust.
o _o;;
He's the lover of Venus/Aphrodite, which I guess makes VenusxMars shippers happy, but he's also supposed to be the son of Jupiter which fucks nicely with the Canon.
The Romans had a much higher regard for him, placing him second only to Jupiter, the King of the Gods.

Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars + Rei's two pet crows/guardians, are loyal war-companions of Ares' as well as his children with Aphrodite.

The Spartans, a race of fighting men who are synonymous with kickass cinema and Internet Memes, were supposed to be the descendants of Ares.

Speaking of Aphrodite, she was already married to a man named Hephaestus (gesundheit) when she was shacking up with him. Adding insult to injury, they were doing it in Hephy's own hall. Helios, the sneaky priest, spotted them and dobbed to Big H. Hephaestus wasn't content with just bustin' their asses, so he devised a plan to catch them in the act. With a net. Which he did. Then he invited all the Gods to come watch. Which they did (all the male ones, anyway).
Wow, Helios is a bitch.
This whole Aphrodite/Ares thing will probably be made into a Black Dog plotline sometime soon, only on a train, so keep your eyes peeled.

And we're not even remotely on-track anymore, so I'll just point out how sleasy the God Mars looks.

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Technical

Sailor Mars' Voice Actress in the Japanese Anime is Michi Tomizawa. She's a veteran voice actress and plays several other well-known characters in popular Animes, such as Linna Yamazaki from Bubblegum Crisis + Bubblegum Crash, Roberta from Black Lagoon, C-ko from Project A-ko, Sumire Kanzaki from Sakura Wars, Emi Ogasawara in Ghost Sweeper Mikami and Ume Matsuzaka from Crayon Shin-chan. She's also appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kimagure Orange Road and One Piece. In a joint effort with Sailor Moon's Voice Actress Kotono Mitsuishi, she voiced 'OL', Office Lady, the main charcter (a hamster)'s owner in Oruchuban Ebichu. Michi didn't act in it, but the character Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion was named after our Rei Hino.

For the North American dub, her Voice Actresses are (in order of appearance) Katie Griffin and Emilie-Claire Barlow. Emilie also voiced Minako in Super + SuperS when Katie returned. Katie is a fairly successful Dub Voice Actor and voices Alex from the Dub of the absurdly popular French Wanime Totally Spies!.

In the Sailor Moon Musicals - Sera Myu - she's played by 8 different Actresses. From the left;

First Stage: Hiroko Nakayama
Misako Kotani
Asuka Umemiya
Second Stage: Hiromi Sakai
Eri Kanda (also Third Stage)
Fourth Stage: Megumi Yoshida
Aiko Kawasaki
Risa Honma

Risa/Lisa also played Cere Cere in other Musicals. The other Mars Actresses have been keeping fairly quiet.

In the Live Action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon she is played by Keiko Kitagawa (image on the right). She is probably the most popular post-PGSM Actress, tying possibly with Ayaka, appearing in more and more movies + TV shows. She is the/one of the main characters in the J-Drama Mop Girl, and one of the main characters in the movies Cherry Pie, Dear Friends and most recently Heat Island, where she starred alongside Yuu Shirota, one of the Tuxedo Mask Myu Actors. Breaking into the international movie scene, she had a (very) minor part as the hot female mechanic in the barely-Japanese The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift movie. She is a very popular Idol in Japan and frequently appears in magazine photo shoots + commercials, and has also released a couple of her own Idol books. Rumours seem to fly around her regarding other Japanese celebrities she's apparently dating, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Sailor Mars' Image Songs are 'Eien no Melody' ('Eternal Melody'), '~Sei Hi Ai~ Fire Soul Love' ('~Spirit Fire Love~ Fire Soul Love'), 'Watashi no Gingahen' ('My Boyfriend, Arranged by the Stars') and 'Honoo no Sogekimono Flame Sniper' ('Flame Sniper, Flame Sniper'). In the Live Action, her Image Songs are 'Sakura Fubuki' ('Cherry Blossom Storm') and 'Hoshi Furu Yoake' ('Starry Dawn'). In the North American Dub, her Image Songs are 'Call My Name' sung by Jennifer Cihi and 'Oh Starry Night' + 'Nothing at All' sung by Sandy Howell. 'Oh Starry Night' is a sound-alike to 'Eien no Melody' but with very different lyrics.

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