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Makoto's strong, independent personality is hinted at in her most striking physical feature she is 168 centimeters in height,
very tall for a Japanese girl. This is downplayed in English translations (as a 5 ft 6 in girl is not all that uncommon in
the West), but considerable notice is taken in Japanese. She is also physically very strong, and in fact was kicked out of
her previous school for fighting. She is introduced to the series after transferring to Azabu Juban Junior High, where Usagi
and Ami are students, where she stands out all the more because her school uniform is different from everyone else's; unable
to find anything in her size, the school's administration tells her to wear her old one. It has a long skirt, which when coupled
with her curly 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 curly hair is natural. Early on in her character design, Naoko Takeuchi drew Makoto as a smoker,
but this trait was not used in any of the series. Despite her tough appearance, she is very gentle. She always wears pink
rose earrings and a green hair-band, even when transformed.
One of the most consistent characters in the many versions of the series, Makoto is always depicted as simultaneously
the most masculine and most feminine of the younger Senshi. She is tall, strong, physical, and practices martial arts and
other sports, but at the same time is rather busty and an excellent cook and house-cleaner. Her most closely-held dream is
to marry young and own a cake and flower shop, and she loves romance novels. Her favorite class is home economics and her
least favorite is physics; after entering high school, she also joins the cooking and gardening clubs. She likes all foods,
but especially cherry pie, and meatloaf, and her favorite colors are green and pink. She loves horses, but hates cheaters,
and is blood type O.
Her domestic talents are explained as a deliberate effort to overcome her tomboyishness. In the anime, she is given the
additional character trait of being highly prone to random crushes. In the live-action series she enjoys shopping, but eschews
"girly" things; she cooks, but also physically overpowers bullies; she reorganizes her home, but does so with a
sledgehammer. She insists that she is not the least bit feminine at all, and seems surprised and touched when someone tells
her so.
This dual nature comes from a need to be self-sufficient: in the manga continuity her parents died in a plane crash when
she was very young and she has since then looked after herself. She is self-sufficient almost to a fault, and becomes extremely
nervous anytime an airplane passes overhead. In the anime, Makoto lives alone, but it is never explicitly stated that her
parents are dead — in the English adaptation, she even claims she cannot take care of a cat because her mother is
allergic — and later in the series she is shown boarding an airplane without any mention of fear. In Pretty Guardian
Sailor Moon, Makoto's parents' death is told in a flashback in Act 6, but how they died is not mentioned.
Makoto has at least one former boyfriend; the importance of this subplot, as well as her level of obsession with cute
men, varies wildly between adaptations. Fans of the anime typically have a perception of Makoto as extremely boy-crazy; a
recurring gag is her obsession with people who look like the older classmate (sempai) who once broke her heart (unnamed except
in the English dub, where he is called Freddy). In the manga, her "sempai" is mentioned only once or twice, and
in the live-action drama is an integral part of why Makoto feels she needs to be alone. In each version, there are mentions
of other men who were very briefly a part of her life. Makoto is generally attracted to Motoki Furuhata, especially in the
anime, but only in the live-action show do they become close. By the end of the direct-to-DVD Special Act, they are engaged
to be married.
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