"Kunzaito-sama, you're so mean!" God, he's adorable when he pouts...

Ah, Zoisite. The general favorite of the four kings, and definately the most complex. Zoisite is almost my favorite of the Shitennou, coming in a close second to Kunzite. In terms of personality and character development, Zoisite far surpasses any of the other Shitennou, even my beloved Kunzy... He's amazingly complex for a villain, especially in just the first season of a show.

Zoisite first appears in Nephrite's first main episode, episode 14, only for a moment to mock the latter king. He also appears this way in the manga, only less... annoying. He makes appearances throughout Neffy's episodes, mostly only showing up to piss his predecessor off. He makes remarks about how incompetent Nephrite is, not gathering as much energy as they need, and soforth. But Zoisite really starts coming into play when Neffy makes a very stupid (and dangerous) move... he tells Queen Beryl that he will recover the Silver Crystal, which had originally been Zoisite's job. I think this was somewhere around episode 21 or 22. Anyway, instead of doing what you'd think he'd do (ripping Nephrite's head off or some such thing) Zoisite decides on going to whine at Kunzite. This is Kunzy's first appearance, by the way-- sitting in a very large chair and stroking the head of one very pissed off little Shitennou. He tells Zoi that he must be patient, and that their time will come to deal with Nephrite. At any rate, Zoisite is most seriously displeased with Neffy's taking-over of his job, and he shows up frequently now to bitch him out. Finally, after Nephrite strikes up his lethal acquaintance with Naru, Zoisite sees his chance. He sends a group of youma after Naru, hoping Neffy will come after them (which he did) and after Naru is kidnapped and subsequently rescued by Nephrite, Zoi finds them together and instructs his youma to run the King of the Stars through with some sort of painful vine thing. Nephrite dies (yeah, yeah, you're saying, we all know that) and Zoisite, all happy with himself after this little victory, becomes the main villain.

Zoisite actually gets more screen time (or at least more episodes in which he is featured) than any of the other Shitennou, even though he very well could be the least experienced. Not the weakest, mind you, but maybe the youngest. Anyway, Beryl informs him that in order to get the ginzuishou, he first has to obtain the seven rainbow crystals. Apparently, they are seven great youma that had been instrumental in destroying the Moon Kingdom way back when, and Queen Serenity's power turned them into crystals that had been reborn in the form of seven psychically gifted individuals. So, back to the realm of Earth Zoi goes, encountering the Senshi at every turn because all of the rainbow crystals' carriers have some (purely coincidental *cough*) connection to them. Is that bad luck, or what? So Zoisite goes about getting the seven crystals, but he can't seem to get all of them because every so often Tuxedo Mask shows up and grabs one of the crystals before he can get to it. Tuxy apparently thinks he'll get his lost memories back if he can obtain all of the crystals.

So, Zoisite is getting pretty ticked off that he hasn't been able to collect all of the crystals, and now (to his delight) Kunzite is actively helping him. Together, they come up with a scheme to trap Tuxedo Mask and get the missing crystals back. Zoisite goes about the city, dressed as Sailor Moon, and lures Tux to an abandoned construction site where they have at it for a while in a warehouse. Meanwhile, Kunzite traps Sailor Moon and company in a dark bubble of energy, hoping to crush them into submission. Or just crush them, whatever. Zoisite and Tuxedo Mask continue to fight, Zoi stabbing Cape Boy's shoulder with some kinda ice shard thing, when Sailor Venus shows up and rescues Tux. Zoisite has a temper tantrum, which is one of the better parts of that episode. After losing Tuxedo Mask (and in a generally nasty mood) Zoisite goes back to Kunzy and warns him that Tuxedo Mask is loose in the area. Kunzite is berating him in his usual icy manner when Sailor Venus shows up again and cresent beams Kunzite's hands, breaking his concentration and freeing the Senshi from their black bubble of doom. Zoisite tells Kunzite to get away and he'll take care of the Senshi (awwww) but before Kunzite can object Queen Beryl calls them back to the Dark Kingdom. Zoisite doesn't want to go, being all rared up and ready to zoi the Senshi to kingdom come, but he doesn't dare disobey. Later on, he appears in Mamo-chan's apartment, and in a rather amusing exchange, challanges him to come to the Crystal Tower (I think that's what it is...) and fight him like a man. "Oyasumi nasai, Mamoru-chan."

And now, the fateful battle at the Crystal Tower... Zoisite gets Mamoru and (unwittingly) Usagi in his clutches and tricks Mamo-chan into giving him the remaining crystals, but Usagi transforms into Sailor Moon and Mamoru into Tuxedo Mask in time to fight him and give him a rather nasty scratch on the face (which he is livid about). Zoisite rewards the scratch with impaling Tuxedo Mask through the back with a giant ice spear thing (a very bad idea), and in her grief, Sailor Moon reveals her identity as Princess Serenity, and at the same time, creates the ginzuishou out of her tear and the seven rainbow crystals (which fly out of Kunzite's possesion in the remarkably well-done scene where the picture used as a background on the main page comes from). Everyone is suitably shocked, and Sail... er, Princess Serenity uses the Silver Crystal to injure poor Zoisite pretty badly. Kunzy comes to the rescue and takes his little lover back to the Dark Kindom, along with the injured body of Tuxedo Mask. Needless to say, Queen Beryl is not happy. She explicitly ordered Zoisite to bring her Tuxedo Mask alive and whole, but he disobeyed her in his rage, and now he was going to pay... Despite Kunzite's pleadings to allow him to take the blame, Queen Beryl toasts the already-injured Zoisite and leaves him for dead, telling his poor distraught partner to "Get rid of that garbage." In a heart-wrenching and very well-known scene, Zoisite, mere moments from death, asks Kunzite to "die pretty." Kunzite obliges and creates a wind of flower petals, giving Zoisite his last wish. And after telling him that he loved him ("Oshitaishite orimashita, Kunzaito-sama...") Zoisite dies.

*bawls*

So, the life and death of the most complex Shitennou... and now I'll go into just why he's so complex. Unlike the other three kings, who can pretty much be summed up in a phrase or two (Jadeite likes to dress up, Nephrite uses the stars and likes little girls, Kunzite is icy and damn powerful), Zoisite is kind of hard to describe. Well, maybe not hard, but his personality is pretty splintered. I'm talking opposite ends of the spectrum here. One second, he's bratty and dang near psychotic, and the next he's vulnerable and loyal. Zoisite plays largely off the other characters, which is something the other three Shittenou don't often do. He gets into catfights with Neffy, adores Kunzite, and loathes Tuxedo Mask. The other three just sort of play along with Beryl and, while Nephrite and Kunzite both have people they love (one substantially more than the other, in my insignificant little opinion ;) ) Zoisite has more interesting relationships than any of the others do. It might be because Zoisite obviously has more trouble controlling himself than the others do. He really wears his heart on his sleeve, and the other kings are all very controlled by comparison. He also swings from being strong, such as when Kunzite was wounded by Venus and he took it upon himself to get rid of them and protect his lover, to being somewhat wussy and whiney. I will admit that he whines a lot less than he yells ;) In terms of Zoi's more... positive emotions (love, for example ;) ) he is a lot more vulnerable than someone like him would seem. He gets offended and jealous very easily, and never hesitates to show his love for his Kunzaito-sama. After he got blasted by Queen Beryl and he was dying, it was clear that he was trying to be strong to spare Kunzite's feelings (if we know he doesn't like being emotional, his lover sure as heck would.) All in all, owing to the huge range of emotions Zoisite shows in just the small time he gets onscreen, he is a remarkably developed character. Especially for a show like Sailor Moon, which, in it's early stages, hadn't really gotten off to a strong start. I mean, I didn't get interested in Sailor Moon at all until I saw one of the "important" episodes (read: not one of the ever-predictable monster du jour eps). Of course, that was the dub, so I can't really say anything, but Zoisite got pretty lucky to get more character than some of the protagonists had at that point.

Since I don't have as much room on my page as I'd like to (and I'm paying anyway, due to Geocities' evil new data transfer policy) I have some links here to pages where they have lots of good pictures. If there's a picture you've seen previously on this page, e-mail me, and I'll try to fish it out of the vast space that is my hard drive ^_^

Stayka's Dark Kingdom Home
This page has the most screenshots I have ever seen from any show, let alone the Dark Kingdom of Sailor Moon. There's tons and tons of them, and almost all of my pictures came from here. This page is amazing ^_^

Click here to go back to Hana no Bishounen.