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Rei's history is largely the same across the different versions of the story, but her personality varies wildly. In the manga
she is portrayed as calm, serious, and practical. Her greatest dream is to remain exactly where she is, at the Hikawa Shrine,
and become its head priestess. She distrusts most men and discourages her friends from developing romantic relationships.
In the anime Rei is quite different;fiery, boy-crazy, and ambitious, longing to one day become a singer, model, and voice
actress. She frequently engages in petty arguments with Usagi, who she sees as immature, and although she becomes calmer as
the series progresses, remains somewhat more of a typical teenager than her manga counterpart. Anime Rei also tends to engage
in long periods of sticking her tongue out at Usagi (who returns the favor), as a kind of running gag of their arguments.
Rei goes to a different school from the other girls, namely T*A Private Girls School, a Catholic institution run by nuns.
She herself is a practitioner of Shinto, living and working at Hikawa Shrine with her maternal grandfather, its head priest.
Her mother died when Rei was very young; her father is a high-class and famous politician who cares more about his job than
about her (though in the live-action version he still tries to be involved in her life), and who only visits Rei on her birthday.
She carries a certain amount of bitterness toward him, especially in the live-action series, in which the character of her
grandfather does not exist.
Other characters frequently comment on Rei's beauty and elegance;in her first appearance, these traits even lead Luna
to suspect that she could be the Princess they have been searching for. However, her strange psychic talents have caused some
to be afraid of her, and her distant nature makes her unreceptive to close friendship. Rei does treasure the friends she has,
which consist entirely of the other Senshi, and although she sometimes adopts an aloof, big-sisterly attitude around them,
this façade is frequently broken by her own enthusiasm, her genuine affection for all of them, and her sharp tongue.
Because of the lack of respectable males in her life, the manga and live-action Rei harbors a generally low opinion of
all men. She considers them emotionally weak and untrustworthy and seems genuinely uninterested in romance. The one exception
is in a manga side-story centering around her, Casablanca Memories, which tells of Rei's friendship with her father's young
secretary, Kaidou. He had been kind to her for her entire life and, in the story, she fancies herself in love with him. She
is shocked when he suddenly announces his engagement to another girl and his decision to become a politician, despite having
once said that he didn't like what had happened to Rei's family as a result of her father's work. In the manga, this is the
only potential romance in her life; in the live-action series, nothing of the sort is ever shown, as Rei is pointedly disinterested
in boys. In the anime, however, she dates Mamoru Chiba for a short while before he and Usagi become friends, and occasionally
seems open to a relationship with Yuuichiro;, her grandfather's pupil.
Late in the manga, members of the Dead Moon Circus harass Rei with a reflection of her young self, which mocks her for
her friendships and her dream of being a priestess. The reflection tells her that the only way for her to be happy is to try
her luck with numerous men until she ends up married to someone rich. Rei is able to defeat this illusion, and in the process
gains her Sailor Crystal along with the memory that, long ago, she had in fact made a vow of chastity to Princess Serenity.
After this realization, she is never again shown having any doubts about her lack of interest in romance. This is never mentioned
in the other series, although late in the anime she expresses an intention to remain single forever.
Much of Rei's life is influenced by her spirituality, particularly in the manga. Meditation is given as her strong point,
and she enjoys fortune-telling as a hobby. The elegance of her character is further underscored by the contrast between her
favorite subject, ancient writing, and her least favorite, modern society. She also belongs to the Archery club at school,
which later provides the context for her most powerful weapon, the Mars Arrow. As for more general tastes, it is mentioned
in the manga that Rei enjoys fugu, a type of blowfish which is both highly toxic and considered a delicacy in Japan. Other
favorite things include pandas and the colors red and black; dislikes include men as well as television and canned asparagus.
Rei stands about 160 centimeters tall (5 ft 3 in), and her blood type is AB.
Just as Rei is more fiery in the anime than in the manga, she is changed again in the dubbed series. Although shots of
her actually slapping Usagi are removed, remarks about her childishness and unreliability are more frequent and often harsher.
In episode 43 of the original, Sailor Mars is briefly entrusted with the Moon Stick, which she explains to the others as proof
that she and Sailor Moon don't hate each other. In the dubbed equivalent, she says that Sailor Moon left it at her house by
accident and that she took it because she would make a better leader. Other episodes add dialogue in which "Raye"
tells people off or is rude to them, where in the original she is only mildly frustrated.
Though Rei and Usagi's arguments are a constant in the anime series, it is shown several times that Rei is in fact Usagi's
closest friend among the Senshi. Rei is the last Senshi to die in the battle against the DD Girls in the first arc's finale,
and when Sailor Galaxia kills all the Guardian Senshi, it is Sailor Mars to whom Sailor Moon immediately rushes towards.
In the live-action series, Rei's personality is based more on the manga than on the anime. She has a difficult time trusting
people, even her fellow Senshi, and has a tendency to rely too much on herself. She claims to hate karaoke (which the other
girls love, especially Usagi), but is later coerced by Minako into posing as an idol;exactly what her anime counterpart wishes.
Under the name "Mars Reiko," she appears on three occasions: performing for hospitalized children, working alongside
Minako, and staging a contest with Minako in order to stop her from quitting the idol business. She has a complex relationship
with Minako; though they often disagree and compete with each other, they also share great respect. Minako even sometimes
lets her guard down around Rei, and eventually confides to her about what she feels is her destiny as a Senshi. Rei is told
that she is to be the secondary leader of the Senshi (as in the manga), and alternately admires and resents Minako's teachings
about what that means.
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