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Minako is first introduced in the Sailor V manga, of which she is the star. She is awakened as a Senshi by the white cat Artemis
when she is 13 years old and instructed that she has a duty to become the beautiful warrior, Sailor V. Artemis explains that
Venus and Earth are "twin planets" of about the same size and weight, that Venus is her "mother star",
and that she must protect Earth from its enemies. He shows her Magellan Castle orbiting around Venus and says that it is hers,
although the existence of these castles is not revealed to the other Senshi characters until late in the Sailor Moon series.
She first dons her red hair bow during the first chapter of the story, on the recommendation of a cute boy, and is almost
never seen without it again.
Minako is depicted as athletic, cheerful, romantic, and resilient, all traits she will retain in the Sailor Moon series.
When Sailor V was enough of a hit to earn its own anime adaptation, Takeuchi was asked to expand the concept to include more
girls, and when she did, she placed Usagi Tsukino as the protagonist, with Minako as a part of the team. As a result, many
of the traits strongly associated with Usagi actually originated with Minako in the Sailor V series long, blonde hair; underachieving
in school; large appetite; interest in pop culture; Moon-based powers; even the appearances of Usagi's family and friends
are extremely similar to Minako's.
In the anime, Minako is given a slightly different backstory, having spent some of her time as Sailor V in England, where
she met a young police woman named Katarina who taught her English and acted as a big sister, and a young man called Alan,
with whom she fell in love. After Sailor V was caught in an explosion and believed to be dead, she saw them together and realized
that they, without her knowing, had become a couple. She moved back to Japan shortly thereafter.
As a result of her past battles, when Minako meets the other Senshi she has a relatively serious personality, and is very
focused on their mission as Sailor Senshi. In the manga, she even tells them she is the Princess they have been searching
for, although in fact she is merely serving as a decoy to protect the real princess, Usagi. Throughout the first story arc
she has by far the strongest memories of their past life on the Moon Kingdom. With the passage of time after the first story
arc concludes, she is able to relax among her friends (and is differentiated from Usagi), gradually transforming into a more
excitable, even goofy character. Her adventures frequently involve overconfidence, enthusiastic determination to come out
on top, and slapstick humor. This is amplified in the anime, where her speech is also notoriously peppered with malapropisms
and fractured proverbs. In the English-dubbed anime, "Mina's" personality is adjusted somewhat further; she adopts
a valley girl dialect, and in the latter two seasons is rewritten as being sarcastic or rude in places where she had only
been melodramatic in the original Japanese.
Artemis lives in Minako's home (as Luna lives in Usagi's) and is one of her closest friends. She is also the only Senshi
other than Usagi to live with both parents, although references to her family life are downplayed in the Sailor Moon series
because of their similarity to the Tsukino family. For the first several story arcs, Minako attends a different junior high
school from the others, Shiba Ken. When the characters enter high school, she joins Usagi, Ami, and Makoto at Azabu Juban.
One of her greatest loves is volleyball, as shown from the beginning of the first Sailor V chapter throughout the rest of
the series she even considers quitting the Sailor Senshi to become a professional, and in high school joins the Volleyball
club. Her favorite class is Physical Education, while in the manga her least favorites are mathematics and the English language.
In the anime, having lived in England for some time, she is skilled at the language, and Usagi even begs for Minako to teach
her.
Minako's other greatest love is pop culture. She desperately wants to be an idol, and so makes a hobby of chasing them
and attending auditions whenever possible. Her favorite colors are yellow and red, and she likes birds and curry rice. She
is stated as having trouble with shiitake mushrooms, her mother, and the police (presumably because of her experiences as
Sailor V). She is blood type B and stands about 157.48 centimeters tall (5 ft 2 in).
Minako takes her role as the "Soldier of Love" literally, and enjoys regaling friends and acquaintances with
advice about romance. She is very boy-crazy and a flirt. Despite her declared expertise, Minako herself has little personal
experience in relationships (aside from a brief and ill-fated love in the Sailor V manga), but she is generally on the lookout
for opportunities. Her most consistently-portrayed crush is on Yaten Kou, during the Sailor Stars storyline. Thinking about
him even gave her a nosebleed at one point, a common symbol of sexual attraction in anime, and the only occurrence of this
in the entire series.
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