Tuxedo Mask - Profile

Profile

Mamoru Chiba becomes the major romantic interest of Usagi Tsukino. The series often portrays him as stoic, steady and introverted. At a young age he lost his parents in a car crash. This blocked his childhood memories of his current lifetime and opened up the memories of his previous life as Prince Endymion. In the beginning of the series, dreams of Princess Serenity haunt Mamoru. Unaware of his dual-identity as Tuxedo Mask, he suffers painful headaches and visions whenever Usagi gets into trouble, and he transforms unknowingly into Tuxedo Mask. As Mamoru, he tries to piece together his strange dreams, and as Tuxedo Mask, he tries to remember his past and identity, while searching for Princess Serenity. Early in the manga he seeks the Silver Crystal in the belief that this will fully restore his memories. In the anime, he seeks it because Princess Serenity tells him to in a dream. Of all the characters, Mamoru gets brainwashed and captured the most throughout the series, probably because of his importance to Usagi.

Mamoru and Usagi become lovers during the series, although they hate each other initially. In the anime, Usagi and Mamoru don't know each other's shared histories, and don't know that they work together as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. In both the manga and anime he and Usagi feel antagonism towards each other and only develop romantic feelings later on. In the anime, Mamoru explains that when Usagi comes close, he doesn't know what comes over him, and for some reason he feels compelled to insult her. Their bantering sets up for a very passionate relationship. In the manga their feelings develop well before they discover their identities; in the anime such feelings emerge only shortly before the revelation of their true roles. Once they became a couple, they remain deeply devoted to each other and their love survives many trials. In the manga, they briefly show jealousy in Volume 8, Act 25. In the anime they break up in Episode 61 (55 in the English version) after King Endymion sends nightmares to Mamoru, making him believe if he stays with Usagi she will die. However, they re-unite in Episode 77. He is always addressed as Mamo-chan by Usagi throughout the series during this time period (Chibiusa also addresses him with this nickname later on). After dating for two years, Mamoru gives Usagi an engagement ring at an airport. Their wedding is shown at the very end of the manga. In the future, they become king and queen and have a child together whom they name, Small Lady, but is in the majority of the series known as Chibiusa.

The manga develops Mamoru more extensively, showing that the car-crash happened on his birthday, and it gives a glimpse of his parents. Mamoru also struggles with his identity and function throughout the manga, worrying first about his true nature, then later whether he gets in the way of the Sailor Soldiers. A fair amount of subtle characterization is made for Mamoru, and later extending his role within the manga as to who he is. He also is given the power of psychometry, which also showed up in the anime, but was not given a name. This manifests in his ability to see and read dreams (Such as Chibiusa's), heal people and monitor the status of the Earth. This was not fully developed until the Black Moon arc, and was used occasionally throughout the series. Mamoru also has his left ear pierced in the manga, a trait that does not carry over to his anime counterpart.

The anime tends not to develop Mamoru as much, but shows him as more social than his manga counterpart. He demonstrates interests in a variety of subjects and emerges as smart. The musical Kakyu Ouhi Kourin shows that he is aspiring to become a doctor. He also "dates" Rei Hino for a short time before the revelation of all the past-life identities, though he believes they are just friends.

Tuxedo Mask plays a significantly more important role in the manga than in the anime. In fact, many of Sailor Moon's transformations and final victories come as a result of her and Tuxedo Mask fusing their powers together. In the final battle against the Dark Kingdom, Queen Metaria absorbs Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask into her body. However, they succeed in combining their powers through the Silver Crystal and destroy Queen Metaria from within. Tuxedo Mask also combines his power into Super Sailor Moon's last item in the manga with the rest of the soldiers using the Golden Crystal. In the Infinity story arc, he combined his powers with Sailor Moon to create the next scepter.

The manga tends to show Mamoru as quiet, studious, mysterious and stoic. The student body of his high school often admires him for these qualities. The anime also tends to make him appear in every episode to save Sailor Moon's life. He did have a few attacks that resemble what would seem like some of the attacks in the manga, but these are not given actual names within the anime.

The dub did not make many significant changes to Mamoru's character. He appears a little more extroverted than his original anime counterpart in the voicing. Darien was more likely to yell and get annoyed than Mamoru of the anime, who was often quiet and distant, even when he was annoyed. A line was also added to an episode in the dub that claimed Darien used to be a model, but this was never referred to again. The original line had Mamoru talking about the attractiveness of a girl's character being more important than physical beauty. It also invented karate as one of his hobbies, which was only mentioned in one episode and never mentioned in the original.

In the musicals, Mamoru protects Usagi and generally appears at her side. Several of his relationships change in different settings, however. For example, one musical reveals Queen Beryl as Mamoru's fiancé from his time as Prince of the Earth. Associating with the Moon Kingdom was against Earth law, and Endymion violated this law when he fell in love with Princess Serenity. In this version of events, Serenity and Endymion are outlaws (similar to Romeo and Juliet) who drive an otherwise innocent woman, Beryl, to evil by making her jealous. Sailor Pluto also reveals that she is in love with Endymion, though she has contented herself with watching from afar.

Another variation occurs in the Ryuusei Densetsu musical, when Galaxia does not kill Mamoru, leaving him able to fight alongside the Senshi. Mamoru typically gets very involved in Senshi battles, fighting alongside the Senshi as opposed to his anime rôle of throwing a rose and then letting Sailor Moon deliver the finishing blow.

Tuxedo Mask always gets his own song; these songs vary from musical to musical. One musical featured multiple songs as both the present Mamoru appeared as Tuxedo Mask and later King Endymion appeared in disguise as Space Knight to look out for Chibiusa.

The live-action version presents Mamoru as a much more silent, yet dedicated person. For example he stays loyal to Hina, his girlfriend (despite not loving her), on the basis of a promise they made as children. He searches for the Silver Crystal due to his amnesia: dreams told him that the magical object could restore his memories. To do this, he donned the Tuxedo Kamen disguise and became a thief, searching for the legendary crystal. Once he regained his memories of his past and present lives, he assumed his Endymion form to help the Senshi and tried his best to protect Usagi from the dangers of overusing the Silver Crystal. However, because of his dedication he is forced to join the Dark Kingdom or the Shitennou will be killed. He also joins to keep a promise with Usagi that they will not destroy the planet. Learning that the Silver Crystal made Metaria stronger every time Sailor Moon used it, Endymion took Metaria into his body before succumbing to its dark power. Now an evil parody of himself, Dark Prince Endymion, he almost killed Sailor Mercury when Sailor Moon was forced to kill him to stop Metaria. He was revived once Sailor Moon managed to finally control the Crystal's power and destroyed Metaria for good.