Sailor Jupiter - Profile

Profile

Makoto's strong, independent personality is hinted at in her most striking physical feature—her unusual height. She is stated at her first appearance in the series to be very tall, and considerable notice is taken in the Japanese versions, although this trait is downplayed in English translations (as her relative height is not all that uncommon in most Europeans). She is also physically very strong, and in fact was rumored to have been kicked out of her previous school for fighting. She is introduced to the series after transferring to Azabu Jūban Junior High, where Usagi and Ami 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 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 wavy hair is natural. Despite her tough appearance, she is very gentle. She always wears pink rose earrings and a green hair tie that decorates her ponytail.

One of the most consistent characters across the many versions of the series, Makoto is always depicted as simultaneously the most masculine and most feminine of the younger Senshi. She is strong and tall and practices martial arts and other sports such as basketball and ice skating, but at the same time is rather busty and is excellent at arts and crafts, cleaning, cooking, dancing especially ballet, and gardening (when Makoto and Usagi first meet in the anime she beats up bullies—and then offers Usagi delicious homemade riceballs). Her most closely held dream is to get married and own a cake and flower shop, and she loves romance novels, shopping, and video games. 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, her favorite colors are green and pink, her favorite flower is roses, and her favorite gemstone is emerald. She loves horses and tropical fish and hates cheaters.

Her domestic talents are explained as a deliberate effort to overcome her tomboyishness. In the live-action series she enjoys shopping, but eschews "girly" things (she can be seen shopping for basketball shoes in one scene, for instance); 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, and seems surprised and touched when someone tells her she is.

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 says 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.

One quirk of Makoto's was made famous among English-speaking fans due to the translation of a particular anime scene. The girls are arguing over which of them should play the part of Snow White in a play. In Japanese, Makoto insists that she would be best for the role because she has the largest breasts. In the English adaptation, she still points at her chest, but states instead that she has the most "talent." As a reference to this, anime fans occasionally use the term "talented" as a euphemism for "busty."