Makoto Kino

Lore & Background

Makoto's strong, independent personality is hinted at in her most striking physical feature—her unusual height (5 ft 7 in (170 cm)). She is stated at her first appearance in the series to be very tall, being the tallest Sailor Guardian. She's also physically strong, and she was rumored to have been kicked out of her previous school for taking part in a brawl. She is introduced to the series after transferring to Jūban Junior High, where Usagi Tsukino and Ami Mizuno are students, and where she stands out all the more because her school uniform is different from everyone else's; unable to find anything in her size, her school's administration tells her to wear her old one. It has a long skirt, which when coupled with her hair, was a common visual cue for a tough or delinquent girl at the time the series was created. However, unlike these delinquent girls, her brown (chestnut/auburn) wavy hair is natural. Despite her tough appearance, she is very gentle. She always wears a green hair tie that decorates her ponytail, and her earrings are red or pink round studs. One of the most consistent characters across the many versions of the series, Makoto is always depicted as simultaneously the most masculine and the most feminine of the four Sailor Guardians. Her most closely held dream is to get married and own a cake and flower shop. After entering high school, she also joins the cooking and gardening clubs. Her domestic talents are explained as a deliberate effort to overcome her tomboyishness. This dual nature comes from a need to be self-sufficient: her parents died when she was a child, and she has since then looked after herself. She is self-sufficient almost to a fault. In the anime adaptation, Makoto lives alone.

In Their Own Story

Makoto's Sailor Guardian identity is Sailor Jupiter. She wears a sailor suit colored in green and pink, with rose-shaped earrings in green, laced-up boots with height just above the ankles. In the manga and live-action series she has a belt carrying a small ball of potpourri. She is given specific titles throughout the various series, including "Guardian of Protection", "Herculean Jupiter", "Guardian of Thunder and Courage", and "Guardian of Caring". Her personality is no different from when she is a civilian, although certain powers are unavailable to her in that form. In Japanese, the name for the planet Jupiter is Mokusei (木星), the first kanji meaning 'wood' and the second indicating a celestial object. Although the Roman planet-name is used, Sailor Jupiter's dominant element is wood due to this aspect of Japanese mythology. Unusually, most of her attacks are based on her secondary power, lightning, which is in reference to the Roman god Jupiter. She is by far the most skilled of the Sailor Guardians, able to lift a full-grown man above her head, even while ice skating or to stop a stone pillar from falling. In the early manga, she always has a short antenna coming from her tiara, which serves as a lightning rod; eventually this takes on the same role as in the anime, and extends upward only when she summons lightning. It does not appear in the live-action series. Sailor Jupiter gains additional special abilities and powers, and at key points her Sailor Guardian uniform changes to reflect this. The first change takes place in Act 42 of the manga, when she obtains the Jupiter Crystal and her outfit becomes similar to that of Super Sailor Moon. A similar event is divided between Episodes 143 and 154 of the anime, and she is given the name Super Sailor Jupiter. A third form appears in Act 49 of the manga, unnamed but similar to Eternal Sailor Moon (without wings). In the official visual book for Sailor Moon Eternal, this form was named "Eternal Sailor Jupiter".

Reader's Guide

Makoto is portrayed as unusually strong for a teenage girl, but like the other Sailor Guardians, she must transform in order to gain access to her celestial powers. She transforms into a Sailor Guardian by raising a special device (pen, bracelet, wand, or crystal) into the air and shouting a special phrase, originally "Jupiter Power, Make-up!" As she becomes more powerful and obtains new transformation devices, this phrase changes to evoke Jupiter Star, Planet, or Crystal Power. In both anime, Sailor Jupiter's transformation sequence evolves slightly over time, whether to update the background images or to accommodate changes to her uniform or a new transformation device, but they all involve electric charges forming an atom path which encircles her body. In the manga, Sailor Jupiter's first named attack is Flower Hurricane, which is immediately followed by calling down lightning. Emphasis is quickly placed upon her electric-based powers, and these are the norm in all versions of the series. Her primary attack for the first story arc and most of the second is Supreme Thunder, for which she calls down lightning from the sky with a tiny lightning rod that extends from the stone on her tiara (or, in the live-action series, with her leg). Sometimes, before performing the attack she would call out "My guardian Jupiter! Brew a storm! Call the clouds! Bring down the lightning!" Although she channels this power, she is not immune to its effects, and can use her body to focus the electricity in a suicide move. It is upgraded twice for one-off attacks in the anime series: once to Supreme Thunder Dragon, and much later to Super Supreme Thunder. In the second story arc Sailor Jupiter gains Sparkling Wide Pressure, an attack consisting of a lightning ball which, aside from a manga and Sailor Moon Crystal-only power called Jupiter Coconut Cyclone, remains her primary attack for the rest of the second story arc, all of the third, and much of the fourth. When she takes on her second Sailor Guardian form (Super Sailor Jupiter in the anime), she acquires a special item, a wreath of oak leaves, which is described in the manga as "the emblem of thunder and lightning." It appears in her hair and enables her to use Jupiter Oak Evolution.

Did You Know?

• Makoto's height is 5 ft 7 in (170 cm), making her the tallest Sailor Guardian.
• Her parents died when she was a child, though the cause is never specified in the core canon.
• Her most closely held dream is to get married and own a cake and flower shop.
• In the live-action series, she and Motoki Furuhata become close and by the end of the Special Act they are engaged to be married.
• In Sailor Moon Crystal, it is clearly stated that Sailor Jupiter and Nephrite were in love at the time of the Moon Kingdom.