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This page covers Makoto Kino from Sailor Moon.


Makoto Kino/Lita — Sailor Jupiter

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sailor_jupiter_season_iii.png
Click to see Makoto Kino.
Voiced by: Emi Shinohara (first anime), Ami Koshimizu (Crystal onwards) (Japanese), Susan Roman (DiC and Cloverway), Amanda Céline Miller (Viz) (English) Foreign VAs
Portrayed in PGSM by: Mew Azama
Portrayed in the musicals by: Kanoko (Noriko Kamiyama), Marie Sada, Kiwako Kanou (Takako Inayoshi), Emika Satou, Akari Tonegawa, Chiho, Emi Kuriyama, Yuriko Hayashi, Ayano Sugimoto, Kaori Sakata, Mai Watanabe, Yu Takahashi

"Guardian of Thunder and Courage, the pretty sailor suited soldier Sailor Jupiter! I'll make you feel so much regret, it'll leave you numb!"

Despite her tall, fierce appearance and terrifying reputation, Makoto is a friendly, nurturing girl who enjoys traditionally feminine pursuits like cooking in addition to fighting and working out. Often seen pining for her old sempai, who rejected her in the days before she transferred to Usagi and Ami's school. She's the physically strongest of the Sailor Team, and it shows.


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    A-E 
  • Action Girl: While all of the Sailor Guardians are this, it's notable that Makoto held this status even before she first transformed, fighting off bullies at her former schools, protecting Usagi from a gang of thugs, and bruising Zoisite in a battle.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Makoto/Sailor Jupiter had pink/strawberry-red hair in early manga art, but in both The '90s anime and recursively, later manga art, it's brown. Sailor Moon Crystal takes the middle ground by giving her light auburn hair.invoked
  • Adaptational Badass: While she is still the strongest, largest, and most skilled in hand-to-hand combat of the Guardians in the manga, she's basically a street brawler with no formal training (as she's shown losing to Haruka in a friendly Judo match). In the '90s anime she is legitimately a practitioner of Japanese martial arts and is shown practicing katas, breaking bricks, and other exercises associated with higher belt levels and even exhibits some actual techniques from time to time including in her civilian form against Youmas.
  • Adaptational Job Change: Well, dub dream job change to be exact. Her dream is to own a flower and cake shop, but the original English dub changed this to wanting to open her own restaurant. Why this was changed isn't clear.
  • All Girls Like Ponies: Horses are listed among her likes. In many cultures, horses are a symbol of power and strength.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Makoto has her unrequited love for her sempai, and she has a crush on Motoki who has a girlfriend. Not so much in the live-action; she and Motoki really do get together.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Her imposing stature and Super-Strength, combined with her insistence on standing up to bullies, meant that people assumed she was a violent girl delinquent and avoided her out of fear.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: The original English dub focused on Sailor Jupiter's tomboy aspects rather than her domestic side. Many people thought this was an improvement, even those who thought most other Guardians (other than Mercury and Saturn, who were not altered at all) were changed for the worse. This led to Sailor Jupiter becoming a favorite among American fans.
  • Artistic License – Space: Jupiter is one of the outer planets and therefore part of the outer Solar System, but Sailor Jupiter isn't considered one of the Soldiers of the Outer Solar System. This is because she was created before the Outers were and before there was any need to divide the Sailor Guardians into groups.
  • Badass Boast: Outside of her soldier identity, Makoto often combined this with a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner, particularly in the live-action series. In other versions, she varies between threatening people ridiculing others or giving them death glares until they pay attention.
  • Badass Bystander: Her debut in the original anime. She initially appears to be just some random Huge Schoolgirl who held her own against one of the Quirky Miniboss Squad with just her bare hands. (To the viewers who ignored the clues: Her debut episode even mentioned Sailor Jupiter in the title.)
  • Bad Liar: As explained in Cannot Tell a Lie, '90s anime Makoto just doesn't have the temperament to lie.
  • Ballet: Even before the events of episode 145, she'd had some training when she was younger, if her aptitude at figure skating on full display in episode 39 is anything to go by.
  • Beam-O-War: Jupiter and Petz engage in a lightning-flavored one. Jupiter loses.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Makoto tries hard to be feminine, and she is very encouraging and empathetic towards her fellow guardians, especially Usagi and Ami. She also destroyed multiple youma without Usagi's help, and attacked Nehellenia herself, while the other guardians were tag-teaming against Nehellenia's mirror images. She is also often the first guardian to attack a monster.
  • Big-Breast Pride: Makoto's argument that she should play the lead in Snow White is that she has the largest breasts. note 
  • Big Damn Heroes: In episode 8 of Crystal, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter show up in time to aid Venus against Kunzite.
  • Big Eater: Downplayed, though her side story in "Exam Battle Chapter: Makoto's Melancholy" shows her obsession with cooking and eating, and she ends up overeating from stress. Her debut episode in the anime shows her almost ordering a big bowl of curry, then changing her order as she did not want to seem indelicate.
  • The Big Girl: Jupiter stands out by being taller than everyone else, even the boys at her school. She knows martial arts and kicks ass both in and out of her uniform. In the manga, she outright destroys the bride youma before transforming and then kills Nephrite in one attack immediately after transforming.
  • Big Sister Instinct: She's often the most protective to Usagi. When she's first introduced in the '90s anime, she effortlessly beats the crap out of a group of hooligans who threatened to mug Usagi.
  • Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Sailor Jupiter is the first Guardian to die at the end of the first season of The '90s anime. Like all the others, she gets better. Inverted in Stars's initial mini-arc, where she was the second-to-last Guardian to go down and be captured by Nehelenia. She's later released by Sailor Moon.
  • Birds of a Feather: She and Usagi bond well after they become friends and have quite a bit in common, like a mutual love for food, some boy-crazy cloudcuckoolanderish tendencies... They even seem to be okay with the fact that they both have a crush on Motoki.
  • Blessed with Suck: Zig-zagged. She appreciates her height and strength when they come in handy, like when she's in battle, but in her day-to-day life, they're a hindrance to her because it makes people mistake her for a bully and a delinquent, and because No Guy Wants an Amazon.
  • Blow You Away: Sailor Jupiter can create hurricanes and cyclones in the manga.
  • Break Them by Talking: Nephrite almost gets Makoto with this lecture in Act 5, mocking her for being fooled by appearances and for believing in love. Unfortunately for Nephrite, Sailor Moon saves the day with a well-timed counterargument that inspires Makoto to fight back.
  • Bruiser with a Soft Center: She is the physically strongest of the inner soldiers, with powerful lightning attacks to boot. She is also a Huge Schoolgirl with a reputation as a brawler. Despite her brashness, and her tendency to resort to intimidation/violence to deal with enemies and delinquents, she is a friendly, warm-hearted, generous girl who wouldn’t lay a finger on an innocent person.
  • Bully Hunter: The rumors that she had to leave her previous school for fighting were based on Makoto fighting off delinquents who picked on more vulnerable children. In her introduction in the '90s anime she curb-stomps three delinquents who attempt to mug Usagi; a flashback in the SuperS season shows that she had enough of a reputation at her previous school that a group of boys tormenting Tomoko scatter at the sight of Mako. In another episode, she nearly attacks some students who are making fun of Ami, stopping only because an ungrateful Ami begs her to.
  • Bump into Confrontation: This is how she is introduced, by saving Usagi from one of these scenarios.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: To a lesser extent than Minako or Usagi. Her boy-craziness is exaggerated, but it doesn't stop her from being a great Guardian.
  • Butt-Monkey: Even though she's so strong, she often gets knocked down easily in a fight, and even though she's the one most determined to find love, she's also the one that boys hardly ever pay attention to.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: Makoto has breasts that range from visibly larger to twice the size or more (depending on the scene) of her cohorts. At one point in the anime, she tries to use her breast size (memetically dubbed as "talent") as a qualification for the lead role in a play. Unfortunately, she can't get a boyfriend to save her life, because she stands taller than most of the boys at about 5'6" and is physically strong and active and has a history of getting into fights.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: "Jupiter power, make up!", "Jupiter star power, make up!", Jupiter Planet Power, Make up! "Jupiter crystal power, make up!"
  • Cannot Tell a Lie: '90s anime Makoto is so earnest it means she's horrible when it comes to subterfuge and easily the worst liar of all the inner soldiers. This is best exemplified when the girls need to protect Usagi's identity from Kaolinite, so they have Minako dress up as Sailor Moon. All Makoto can do is awkwardly, and loudly, declare that Rei's proclamation that Usagi is too much of a clumsy crybaby to ever be a Sailor Soldier is true.
  • Caring Gardener: She's a very caring girl who likes growing plants, and when she goes to high school, she decides to join the gardening club to help with her dream of owning a flower and cake shop.
  • Chafing Against the Dress Code: Subverted in the manga. The teacher briefly thinks she's a Japanese Delinquent because of her hair color and the fact she's still wearing her old school's uniform. The hair is her natural color and the school didn't have any uniforms sized for a girl her height.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Even before awakening to her power as Sailor Jupiter, Makoto is strong enough to lift a youma over her head and toss around muscle-bound delinquents with ease, and her reflexes are good enough to snatch Usagi out of the path of a speeding car and land a hit on Zoisite.
  • Chef of Iron: She joins the cooking club at school.
  • Chekhov's Gun: When she is introduced in the first season of the anime, her rose-shaped earrings sparkle with reflected light. They seem insignificant until the beginning of the fifth season, when Usagi is trapped in Queen Nehelenia's illusions and loses the will to press on to save Mamoru and Chibi-Usa. When Jupiter shields Usagi with her body to block Neheleni'a lightning attacks one of Jupiter's earrings falls off and Usagi finds it later; the rose shape reminds her of her love for Mamoru, and she jolts herself out of her illusion to continue to save Mamoru.
  • Close-Range Combatant: The typical example in the series. When alone, she routinely engages the enemy in hand-to-hand, and is explicitly shown to be the physically strongest (even having Super-Strength when not transformed). She rarely wins.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Has her moments (though not nearly as frequently as Usagi and Minako do), one being her saying a dog reminded her of her senpai.
  • Conveniently an Orphan: Her parents are dead, which is used to Hand Wave why she lives alone. It makes it easier to keep up her double life because she doesn't have a family to hide things from.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: In her introduction episode, when she sees three delinquents trying to mug Usagi, she jumps right in and single-handedly mops the floor with all three of them.
  • Custom Uniform: Unlike the others, her tiara comes with a built-in lightning rod. In the manga, it's always present, but in the original anime, it extends when she uses it.
  • Cute Giant: She is the biggest and toughest of the Inner Guardians, yet is absolutely adorable.
  • Dead Serious: In the season 1 finale, the DD Girls subvert being a Quirky Miniboss Squad by successfully killing off Sailor Jupiter. The remaining Sailor soldiers are taken out in various battles with the DD Girls (successfully evening the numbers mind you) - all to make it more poignant that Usagi face Queen Beryl alone in the second part.
  • Death Glare: She's known to give these in some versions to bullies and villains. And when she does it, she means it.
  • Decomposite Character: Meta-example. Naoko Takeuchi created a concept character called Mamoru Chino who would have appeared in Codename: Sailor V had she been used. This character evolved into who became Makoto Kino, but her name was given to Tuxedo Mask.
  • Delinquent Hair: She isn't actually a delinquent, but her tall height, strength, long-skirted school uniform, and naturally curly reddish hair all make her fellow students perceive her as this.
  • Does Not Know Her Own Strength: Usually Played for Laughs; she accidentally knocks Mamoru out while choking him for information about Motoki's girlfriend, and sends poor Ami to the ground (complete with a red handprint) with a friendly clap on the back.
  • Dub Personality Change: The original English dub focused more on Makoto's tomboyish side than her feminine side. This lessened her Tomboy Angst as a result.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Act 4 of Crystal ends with her appearing.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In Jupiter's debut episode, she throws her own earrings at Zoisite as if they were just a random object to toss as a distraction. Later on, it's made a point that the earrings had belonged to her mother which is why she always wore them.
  • Earth Mother: Her manga/Crystal incarnation best fits this trope with her plant powers, domesticity, wanting a family and to be more girly, and being the Team Mom of the Inners. She also acts like a surrogate mom to Chibi-Usa in one chapter in the Dream arc. Her dream to own either a bakery or a flower shop is mentioned extensively.
  • Eating Lunch Alone: Her introductory story shows her eating lunch alone after transferring to Juuban because the other students are scared of her. Fortunately, the state of affairs doesn't last long once Usagi notices her.
  • Effortless Amazonian Lift: Her debut in the anime has her throwing a grown man around like a ragdoll. She also picks up Ami during a dance and shows no physical strain, and cheerfully lifts a skater named Misha similarly when he cannot do it for her due to her weight. In the manga, her first appearance has her saving Usagi from a speeding car by picking her up and getting her out of the way with no effort.
  • Elemental Personalities: Green Thumb users tend to be caring and nurturing, while Shock and Awe users are likely to be tougher and more emotional. Makoto manages to be both at the same time.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: In her anime debut, she delivered a Curb-Stomp Battle on three brawny men, left a bruise on Zoisite's face, and threw the Monster of the Week over her head. All of this was before she got her guardian powers.
  • Energy Ball: Her Sparkling Wide Pressure attack takes this form.
  • Establishing Character Moment: In just her debut episode, she easily curb-stomped three street delinquents who threatened to mug Usagi, punched Zoisite in the face while trying to protect Crane Game Jo, saved Sailor Moon when Jo transformed into a Great Youma, and then got her powers.
  • Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Has a beautiful pair of rose-shaped earrings. They become a Chekhov's Gun in the anime, as Makoto is injured while fighting one of Nehellenia's clones but seeing her earrings on the ground snapped Usagi out of a Lotus-Eater Machine she was in. They're even stated to smell good.

    F-M 
  • Face of a Thug: Downplayed. Makoto (Lita) isn't ugly, but her height and stature, her curly reddish hair, and the long skirt of her transfer student uniform are all designed to make her look like a female delinquent (according to Japanese culture). Her Kubrick Stare when she's angry or serious probably doesn't help either.
  • Fainting: The Anemia Fainting type. She gives blood up for her injured friend in one episode, and then faints while fighting. She fights through the pain to rescue Sailor Moon and defeat the youma alone.
  • Fangirl: In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, she and the others are fangirls of Aino Minako, an Idol Singer who also turns out to be Sailor Venus.
  • Feet-First Introduction: This happens to her in her debut episode. The first part of her body we see is her foot, before the camera cuts to the lower-half of her body to finally reveal the rest of her - including her face.
  • Feminine Women Can Cook: She actually tries to invoke this. In one episode of the third series, she secretly confides to Usagi that she only got into cooking to compensate for her tomboyishness.
  • Fiery Redhead: Subverted in the manga (where her hair is red), while people believe her to be a violent hothead, she is demure and easygoing and only fights to defeat monsters and protect her friends and innocent people.
  • Fights Like a Normal: She is prone to try and just beat the stuff out of her enemies, both as Makoto and Sailor Jupiter. Justified as she tended to get into brawls before getting her powers and is a confirmed martial artist.
  • Flanderization: Falling for someone who reminds her of her old boyfriend was just part of her introduction in the original manga, but is made into a recurring part of her character in the anime.
  • A Friend in Need: Whatever happens, she and her best friend Shinozaki are there for each other, even in the worst of times. When Makoto's heart is broken, he comforts her. When Shinozaki is seriously injured and needs a transfusion, Makoto donates the blood herself.
  • The Friends Who Never Hang: With her Canon Foreigner friend Shinozaki. He's supposed to be her best friend, but he only appears in one episode out of two hundred.
  • Gender-Blender Name: "Makoto" is a unisex name, which is fitting since she's a Tomboy with a Girly Streak.
  • Generic Cuteness: Makoto is supposedly too unattractive (read: muscular and manly looking) to retain a boyfriend and is ostracized for her appearance. Though she is shown as taller than the rest of the Inner Guardians, she appears just as slender as any other Guardian and her face shape isn't visually any different from the more "attractive" characters.
  • Gentle Giant: She's not the bully she appears to be at all, despite being unusually tall for a girl her age.
  • Generation Xerox: As seen in Crystal, Makoto inherited most of her looks from her deceased mother.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: In the manga, while bound by an induced Epiphanic Prison, Makoto questions whether she really wants to be a guardian. She gets slapped and told off by her own Crystal Soldier, and is only given her Jupiter Crystal when she realizes that protecting Sailor Moon and her fellow guardians is her true dream.
  • Girls Love Stuffed Animals: In Crystal, Makoto is seen clutching a stuffed dog while trying to get through her cold.
  • Girly Bruiser: It's telling how much the anime runs on this trope when the most tomboyish girl in the group is still this. Makoto loves cooking and shopping and is the most boy-crazy of all the other girls, and is easily the best figure skater out of them.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Makoto is a sweet girl and has a motherly demeanor, but if you try to hurt her friends, you better run.
  • Go Out with a Smile: At the end of season 1 of the anime, Sailor Jupiter gives Moon a comforting smile as she dies, telling her not to be sad.
  • Green Means Natural: In the original manga, Sailor Jupiter, who is color coded green in every iteration she shows up in, has much more plant and flower iconography. This is noticeable from two of her attacks, Flower Hurricane and Jupiter Oak Evolution, the former which creates a flurry of rose petals around an enemy and the latter that combines her electric and plant powers into a single ability. This would be downplayed in later adaptations to play up the association between Sailor Jupiter and Jupiter, Roman God of Thunder.
  • Green Thumb: In the manga, some of her attacks revolve around plants, e.g. Coconut Cyclone. Also, Jupiter Oak Evolution is an attack mostly involving oak leaves.
  • Ground Punch: In the video game for the Sega Genesis, she has this as a special move. It sends all enemies around her flying.
  • Hand Behind Head: Makoto did this a lot, usually when she felt uncomfortable or embarrassed. This was often the reaction after being caught out of a white lie.
  • Heartwarming Orphan: Once she meets the other Sailor Guardians, she makes their lives a little better by joining their True Companions and becoming a Team Mom to them. And in the manga and Crystal, when she opens up to Asanuma about what happened to her parents, it strengthens the bond between them and implies that a romantic relationship might come of it.
  • Height Angst: She knows that boys don't usually go for tall girls, much to her chagrin.
  • Heroic BSoD: Makoto tends to fall into this when her heart is broken. Her sempai broke her heart in the past, and in Crystal, when she feels it's happened again with Motoki, after Nephrite's Breaking Speech that mocks her for believing in love, she emotionally collapses and stops fighting. Sailor Moon snaps her out of it with a Shut Up, Hannibal!.
  • Hoist Hero over Head: Does this a few times in the anime, including once before she even learns that she's Sailor Jupiter.
  • Huge Schoolgirl: Maybe one of the most famous examples in the whole shoujo genre. At fourteen years old, Makoto stands 168cm or about 5'6", almost equal to the average height of an adult Japanese man. Her height is intimidating to most Japanese people; the manga and Crystal show that she's tall enough to loom over one of her school's male teachers.
  • Human Hammer-Throw: In the video game for Sega Genesis, Sailor Jupiter has a move where she grabs an enemy by the legs, spins it around a few times to mow down anyone nearby, then throws it a considerable distance. It's one of the most damaging moves in the game if she can get enough spins done before throwing, and it's rather hilarious to see this done by a teenage girl.
  • Iconic Item: Makoto always wears her pink rose-shaped earrings, even after transforming into Sailor Jupiter. Sometimes she uses them as projectile weapons, and more than once the sight of them has snapped Usagi back into remembering.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Like Ami, she was lonely before she met her True Companions because everyone thought she was a delinquent.
  • I Know Mortal Kombat: Inverted. Makoto is shown cleaning up at the Sailor V game despite never having played it before, and explains that it's "just like a real fight."
  • Implausible Hair Color: She has auburn hair. It specifically gets noted as unusual and makes people worry that she's a Japanese Delinquent.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Kind-hearted, loving and selfless, Makoto is one of the most honorable and purehearted girls among the main cast, and you can always expect her to do what's right. Of course, that doesn't mean that she's a pushover.
  • Improbable Weapon User: She uses a wreath of oak leaves to perform her Jupiter Oak Evolution attack.
  • In Love with Love: Aside from her flower and cake shop, Makoto's other dream is to be a bride someday. But she's so obsessed with the idea of being in love that she immediately lets herself get taken with every cute boy she sees. Only in the live-action does she actually get into a relationship that she takes seriously.
  • In-Series Nickname: Her friends rarely call her Makoto, usually shortening it to Mako.
  • In the Name of the Moon: Subverted in that she never got an introduction speech. Reverted in the live-action, where she does get one: "Soldier of Thunder and Courage, Sailor Jupiter! In the name of Jupiter, I'll punish you!" Also subverted in Crystal. “I’ll fill you with regret, and leave you feeling numb”.
  • Japanese Delinquents: Her overall looks (very long school skirt, jewelry, wavy hair) and her bad reputation at school comes from the concept of Sukeban or female school rebels. Makoto was intended to be a delinquent leader who smoked, drank, and had a motorcycle gang in tow, but the idea was scrapped out and only her looks and bad rep stayed, though she's shown buying a beer from a vending machine in the manga. invoked
  • Kubrick Stare: Sports a pretty intense one whenever she goes into battle in the '90s anime.
  • Kung-Fu Wizard: Along with her lightning based powers, she practices kung fu and relies a fair bit on physically attacking the enemy, and makes use of Full-Contact Magic.
  • Large Ham: Susan Roman, her English voice actress, sometimes voiced her this way, especially when Calling Your Attacks.
  • Loner-Turned-Friend: Like all of the inner soldiers, she had no friends and was ostracized by her peers until she became Usagi's friend and fellow soldier.
  • Love at First Punch: Subverted. Makoto's horrid luck with love persisted despite her ability to wail on any and all bullies. She fared better in the live-action adaptation, but this trope was irrelevant in the relationship.
  • Love Bubbles: In Act 17 of Crystal, there's a romantic scene between Makoto and Asanuma where she kisses him and bubbles and sparkles are all around them.
  • Loving a Shadow: She says every guy she likes reminds her of her senpai, but considering she falls for every handsome guy she sees, one wonders whether it's true.
  • Luminescent Blush: Sailor Mercury is knocked over in a tight alleyway to the point in which her behind is sticking up in the air. Sailor Jupiter behind her glances up her skirt notably for a long while, whilst blushing and biting her hand.
  • Lying on a Hillside: She and Minako do this in the R movie.
  • Made of Iron: While protecting Usagi, she survives a barrage of black lightning blasts from the real Nehellenia, leaving Nehellenia exhausted.
  • Mama Bear: She is the Sailor Soldier of Protection, and, as such, will fight back if her friends are in danger. One of the biggest examples is in R, where she snaps after seeing Sailor Moon pinned to the ground by a Cardian and defeats it singlehandedly — despite being weak from donating blood to her friend Shinozaki (Ken in the old dub) after he was injured by the same Cardian earlier in the episode.
  • Martial Pacifist: Contrary to her reputation, she doesn't actually enjoy fighting, but if she's pushed to that point, rarely expect her to hold back.
  • Meaningful Name: The "Ki" in "Kino" means "wood" or "tree". Her given name is written in hiragana, but sounds like the word for "sincerity"; her full name sounds the same as the Japanese phrase "sincerity of wood". She got her Canadian dub name "Lita" because it is similar to "lightning", her other elemental power. It also sounds like a variation of "Leda", which is one of the moons of Jupiter, and the mother of Helen of Troy by Zeus.
  • Meditating Under a Waterfall: In an episode of S, Makoto goes to train in a Buddhist temple led by a famous Bare-Fisted Monk named Kakuzuin. At some point she catches him training like this and attempts to imitate him, but she can barely withstand few seconds under the icy water. Then Kakuzuin gets out... and sneezes, as he only managed to do it due to being very focused.
  • Minor Living Alone: At age fourteen, she's an orphan with her own place. How and why isn't explained.
  • Mirror Monologue: In SuperS Sailor Jupiter's mind is increasingly befuddled in Nehellenia's lair, and she finds herself having a conversation with her reflection. Her "reflection" convinces her to give up, since it controlled by the Big Bad.
  • Mistaken for Dyed: In early manga, when her hair was red, there were people who assumed it to be dyed red.
  • Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold:
    • She gets unfairly painted as a Delinquent. She's also notorious for fighting at her old school, yet she only fights if someone is in danger and to fend off bullies, rather than picking fights out of belligerence or for fun.
    • In the manga, it was explained that she transferred schools after being rejected by her senpai; her being expelled for fighting was just gossip. She also mentions feeling guided to Juban by the wind, as though she was needed there.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: Even though she's taller than the other guardians, she borders on Charles Atlas Super Power given she's not any more muscular than the other characters and can easily lift things bigger than her. On the other hand, in the Materials she is described as being "meatier than normal" (in comparison to Usagi's "a little chubby" or Rei's "slender").

    N-Y 
  • Neat Freak: In the manga version. At one point, she spends two days cleaning her apartment.
  • New Transfer Student: Introduced this way in all versions of the series. She keeps her transfer student uniform because the school doesn't have a fuku that fits her.
  • Nice Girl: Despite her surly appearance and genuinely becoming hot-tempered when protecting her loved ones, Makoto is one of the kindest characters in the series, being a caring, encouraging mother/big sister figure to the Sailor Team, and would never hurt somebody unprovoked. An episode in the SuperS season shows her refusing to give up on an old friend's dream to write a novel.
  • No Guy Wants an Amazon: Poor Makoto. At least the Periphery Demographic strongly disagrees. invoked
  • Over-the-Shoulder Carry: When she first appears, she saves Usagi from being hit by a car by picking her up and carrying her over her shoulder to safety.
  • Parental Abandonment: Her parents are dead from a plane crash. Mostly in the manga.
  • Personality Powers: She has powers over both lightning and plants, fitting her dual nature as a strong fighter and a nurturing Team Mom.
  • Petal Power: One of her manga/Crystal attacks is the "Flower Hurricane".
  • Pimped-Out Dress: She once wore a long, black dress, that had a large, red rose embroidered on the skirt.
  • Pink Means Feminine: Pink is her secondary color to show that she's a Tomboy with a Girly Streak.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: With the one-shot anime character Shinozaki, her former schoolmate. When Usagi asks if he is her boyfriend, she denies it; their relationship is greater than that.
  • Power Incontinence: While sick because of Petz's virus, Mako's body gives off static electricity, which shocks Asanuma.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: In her Crystal debut, she gets one on top of her In the Name of the Moon speech, throwing Nephrite's own words back in his face:
    Sailor Jupiter: "Believe in love and ruin yourself? Bring it on!"
  • Precision F-Strike: In Makoto's manga debut, when a ghost bride possessed Motoki to trick her into falling in love with him, she lets one out and hoists the ghost over her head before transforming for the first time. She also does this twice in the live action. She also says "Kuso!" (a common Japanese swear word) at least twice in the Sailor Moon R movie.
  • Punched Across the Room: Had this happen to her while brainwashed once courtesy of Minako's kick.
  • Race Lift: Black in the Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon pilot.
  • Really Gets Around: Every boy seems to remind her of her old crush.
  • Red/Green Contrast: With Rei. Rei is a rude, bitter, short-tempered Jerk with a Heart of Gold who controls fire, and she wears red, while Makoto is a kind, sweet, calm Nice Girl who controls thunder, and she wears green. Doubles as Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: She can be either depending on who she is paired with. She is a more hot-blooded and boisterous red to Ami's calm and patient blue. Zigzagged with Usagi, Rei and Minako who are girly girls, she is the red oni out of all despite her laid back nature.
  • Redhead In Green: A variation. She's not a redhead in all versions or all artwork, but in Sailor Moon Crystal her hair is definitely pink and her outfit is green.
  • Relationship Sabotage: In the first anime, Makoto is jealous that her crush, Motoki, has a girlfriend. Upon finding out that his girlfriend is tempted to accept a job abroad which would separate them for a long period of time, Makoto nicely sits down and has a talk with her, trying to convince her to take the job. She ends the talk with the suggestion that Motoki and the girlfriend could very well pick up where they left off, before lampshading to herself how terrible she is at sabotaging relationships.
  • Rescue Introduction: Makoto is introduced saving Usagi from either getting hit by a car (manga and Sailor Moon Crystal) or from Japanese Delinquents (1990s anime) depending on the version.
  • Rules of Orphan Economics: She seems to live without any visible means of support. Fanon often presumes a parental trust fund, but there was no mention of same in the anime or manga.
  • Running Gag: In the 90s anime, whenever she meets a boy, she will say he reminds her of her senpai (Japanese/old boyfriend (English). Including a dog, once.
  • Serial Romeo: She will fall for every handsome guy she sees.
  • Ship Tease: She'll crush just about any boy she sees, but a few stand out. The manga hints at a relationship between the Inners and the Shitennou, including Makoto/Nephrite. Of all her crushes, Motoki is the most common, but only in PGSM where Reika is Adapted Out do they become an official couple. She kisses Asanuma on the forehead at one point and, though she insists that she and Shinozaki are only Platonic Life-Partners, they're really affectionate ones. She and Ami are also very close and even share a romantic-looking dance at one point. invoked
  • Shock and Awe: Given that Jupiter is the Roman god of lightning, this shouldn't be surprising. The anime actually exaggerated her thunder powers to the point they were the only powers she had, whereas in the manga, her powers were more often linked to plants.
  • Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Her hair is auburn or pink (the original anime and the live-action made her a brunette, though), her eyes are green and she turns out to be one of the Sailor Guardians.
  • Smack on the Back: Did this to Ami in one episode.
  • Smitten Teenage Girl: Well known for falling in love at the drop of a hat with any reasonably good-looking guy who crosses her path. Every time, she claims that her latest crush reminders her of the senpai who broke her heart at her previous school.
  • Something about a Rose: Roses are a prominent motif for Makoto. In addition to her rose earrings, they appear on her umbrella, on the bag in which she carries her lunchbox, and on her gloves, and Sailor Jupiter's Flower Hurricane attack is made up of a barrage of rose petals.
  • Spectacular Spinning: Her Jupiter Oak Evolution attack.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Makoto is tall for a Japanese girl, with her height being easily equal to that of many adult men and is also very beautiful and busty. Unfortunately, most people are more likely to be intimidated by her height than attracted.
  • Stepford Smiler: She's got a remarkably positive attitude for someone who lost her parents when she was little and didn't even have friends to support her through it all.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: While she apparently has ridiculous amounts of strength in civilian form, it doesn't really show as much as it should in how fights are choreographed, and she tends to get taken down too easily when she does use it in battle.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: To her late mother. When a photograph of Makoto's parents appears in the manga and Crystal, her mother looks like an older version of her.
  • Super-Strength: In civilian form, has picked up and thrown man-sized enemies without much strain. She's the physically strongest (appropriate, given the god she's named after).
  • Supreme Chef: She's easily the best cook and baker of the main characters; Usagi immediately notices how tasty her school lunches look, and the other Inner Guardians love her cooking. She aspires to one day own her very own bakery.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: She and Ami once assured Rei that they were not late to battle because Usagi was playing video games.
  • Sweet Baker: She is a kind, nurturing Team Mom who enjoys baking sweets for her friends and dreams of one day having her own bakery.
  • Taken for Granite: In the princess training episode, Ami and Makoto pass the princess test with flying colors, but the person behind it revealed herself to be a youma who turns them and the other passing students into wax statues.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Sailor Jupiter jumps at Petz, and then does her In the Name of the Moon speech... complete with gestures.
  • Team Chef: Cooks for the other guardians on various occasions.
  • Team Mom: Shares the role with Ami. Makoto is the one who takes care more of the cooking and housekeeping stuff and generally looks after the girls in day-to-day life.
  • Teens Love Shopping: Shopping is one of her hobbies, and she's good at finding bargains. This aspect carries over into the live-action, although in that version, she doesn't shop for girly stuff.
  • Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Doubles as a Red/Green Contrast. Makoto Kino, who was painted as a delinquent due to her frightening nature, turns out to be a Nice Girl who would love to make friends and had a tragic past due to being expelled and dealing with the passing of her parents. She is even the most patient and motherly of the Inner Guardians. Rei Hino is (or was) rude, vain, snooty and snarky towards Usagi, even poking insults at he. Nonetheless, she still has a golden heart inside of her and went on better terms with her, too.
  • Think Nothing of It: Makoto does not see her kindness, or her skill, as anything worth bragging about.
  • Through His Stomach:
    • Makoto first befriends Usagi when she shares her food with her.
    • This is how Makoto tries to impress Motoki. Unfortunately, her meal preparations are interrupted when Zoisite attacks his girlfriend Reika.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Makoto is the tomboy to Ami's girly girl. It's downplayed in the manga and anime, as while they are generally close friends and foils, both are usually too much of a mix of boyish and girly traits to fit. In the live-action, though, Makoto is an outright tomboy who plays basketball and eschews girly things and Ami gets a Girliness Upgrade, complete with more feminine hair, and is now shyer than ever.
  • Tomboy Angst: Makoto is very well aware that she's not very feminine, so she tries to make up for it in other ways. She eventually gets over this.
  • Tomboyish Baseball Cap: One of her outfits in the nineties anime had her wearing a baseball cap. Fittingly, she's the Tomboy with a Girly Streak of the Inner Guardians.
  • Tomboyish Ponytail: She always wears her hair in a ponytail, and she's one of the most tomboyish of the Sailor Guardians despite also having a feminine side, being the physically strongest of the group and the designated brawler. It's seen untied only once, at the beginning of the "Nurse Minako" episode.
  • Tomboyish Voice: She has a raspy, vaguely deep voice, but is largely downplayed since Makoto is both a tomboy and a girly girl in the same package.
  • Tomboy Princess: Tall, strong, independent, good at martial arts and other sports, and the princess of her planet.
  • Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's physically the strongest of the Sailor Guardians (aside from perhaps Sailor Uranus), can beat up grown men, and was expelled from a previous school for fighting, but she's also the best cook, seamstress, and housekeeper of them, a very talented ice skater, and an aspiring florist and baker (in the English version, she wants to own her own restaurant and cook there).
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Meat loaf and cherry pie (though she does love all foods).
  • Tragic Keepsake: Her earrings. They belong to her mother, who was killed in a plane crash. Makoto never goes anywhere without them to remember her by.
  • Transfer Student Uniforms: Justified; she keeps her previous one since Usagi's school does not have a big enough uniform for her. Thankfully, when they reach high school, the school has sizes that can catch up to her.
  • Troubled, but Cute: Mostly in the live-action, where her abandonment issues are actually a plot point and a turning point in her Character Development.
  • Tsurime Eyes: An on-and-off example in the '90s anime; while her eyes normally have the same innocent rounded shape as Usagi's, when she's angry or especially determined they shift to the narrower, sharper tsurime shape to emphasize the fierceness of her expression. Notably, she's the only character who does this, while everyone else's eye shapes remain consistent, highlighting the duality of her personality.
  • Umbrella of Togetherness: A purely platonic one. When Makoto's senpai rejects her on a rainy day and she runs away, Shinozaki shares his umbrella with her as he comforts her through the heartbreak.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: She's physically the strongest of the group, but also one of the easiest to take down in battle just because she doesn't have Minako's expertise as a warrior.
  • Unusual Euphemism: One episode had Makoto argue that she was best suited for the main role in a school play, because she had the largest breasts. When DiC translated it for American broadcasting, she instead claimed to have the greatest talent. However, there was no way for them to remove the rather unambiguous gesture that accompanied the line and its original meaning. Since then, SM fans enjoy using the word "talent" or "being talented" for... well, having large breasts.
  • Vasquez Always Dies: In the original anime adaptation, Sailor Jupiter, the tomboyish Big Girl, is the first to die when they storm the Dark Kingdom towards the end of the first season. Also to be noted that all in all, the girls die out in order of usefulness. Jupiter was the strongest, so she died first. Mercury's analysis capabilities were too useful when the enemy was unknown, so she died second. Venus was the most experienced and competent so she died third. Mars was ostensibly the least suited to the situation, so she died last. And Sailor Moon was the most feminine (sort of, or at least the least competent) so she survived (again, sort of).
  • Waif-Fu: While Makoto is a Huge Schoolgirl who towers over the rest of the Inners, she still counts because she's faced several enemies even taller than her. She can take down grown men when provoked and is explicitly shown studying martial arts.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's afraid of flying (her parents died in a plane crash), although apparently the writers forgot about it when they put her on a plane in an episode of the final season. It was only mentioned in the manga.
  • Wind Is Green: Green is her color, and in the manga she had a joint power of creating hurricanes, typhoons and tornadoes of flower petals and such.
  • Worf Effect: Her great strength is one of her most defining attributes and the main asset that Sailor Jupiter brings to battle... so whenever the story needs to sell a new character as being impressively strong, it's usually done by having them beat up Makoto. She's frequently the first to be defeated by new villains, and in several instances she's reduced to jobbing for other guardians; Minako takes her out with one kick when she's brainwashed by Dark Endymion during the manga/Crystal version of the Dark Kingdom arc, and Haruka gets a one-move takedown of her early in the Infinity arc.
  • Worf Had the Flu: Jupiter was suffering from the virus Petz had spread throughout Tokyo in the Crystal episode where she was captured.
  • Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: She is seen usually with blue lightning, but Depending on the Artist, it also can be seen as green lightning.
  • Younger Than They Look: At one's first glance, they may see Makoto as either the oldest of the inner guardians or maybe older than Usagi mainly because of her deep voice or being the tallest of them. However, when you look at their birthdays alogether. She is actually the youngest of the inners with Hotaru (and to an extent, Chibiusa) right in front of her being the overall youngest.
  • You're Not My Type: She's been on the receiving end of this several times. In her introductory episode in the 1990s anime adaptation, crush du jour Game Machine Joe states that he's not into tall, strong girls like her; Makoto admits that the senpai who broke her heart said the same thing, and it's shown to be a recurring source of pain for her in this and later episodes.

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