Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon

"*I am the Pretty Guardian who Fights for Love and for Justice. I am Sailor Moon! And now In the name of the moon, I will punish you!*" — Sailor Moon’s stock introduction

**Usagi Tsukino** (月野 うさぎ, Tsukino Usagi) is the civilian identity of the Sailor Guardian of Love and Justice, **Sailor Moon** (セーラームーン, Seeraa Muun). Originally from a prosperous civilization on the Moon known as the Moon Kingdom, she was reborn on Earth and re-awoke as the leader of the Sailor Senshi.

## Nomenclature & Etymology

### Etymology

**Usagi** is written in the hiragana spelling of the Japanese word for "rabbit" (うさぎ, Usagi)

**Tsukino**, The kanji of *Tsuki* (月) translates to "moon" while the kanji for *no* (野) translates to "field" or "civilian". The syllable *no* (の) also indicates possession, so while the literal translation of her family name could be "moon field" or "moon civilian", others may translate it as "of the moon."

Her full name, when said in the Japanese naming-order, *Tsukino Usagi*, gives two additional puns: *No-Usagi* (野うさぎ), meaning "wild rabbit"; and *Tsuki no Usagi* (月のうさぎ), meaning "Rabbit of the Moon". The latter derives from an Asian folktale about a rabbit that is said to reside on the Moon.

### Nomenclature

Naoko Takeuchi included many occultist arts to finely detail each character. For Usagi, these things include:

* **Birthstone(s):**
	+ Pearl - Purity, humility, and innocence.
	+ Alexandrite - Believed to strengthen intuition, aid creativity and inspire imagination.
	+ Moonstone - Love, passion, fertility and great luck.
* **Zodiac Sign:** Cancer - Tenacious, highly imaginative, loyal, emotional, sympathetic, persuasive; Moody, pessimistic, suspicious, manipulative, insecure.

## Appearance

### Civilian

Usagi has blue eyes and long blonde hair that she wears in odango.

The outfit that Usagi usually wears is a light blue middle school uniform (which later became her iconic everyday outfit), which has a blue sailor collar with two white stripes. She has a red ribbon on the front of her uniform, which she ties her magical locket to. She has a white school top with blue sleeves that have white stripes on, like the collar. In the summer, she wears a white top with short puffy sleeves. She has a blue pleated skirt with a blue ribbon on the back. She usually wears white socks and black cross-strap Mary Jane shoes.

## Personality

Usagi's is a bit selfish, and can be overly dramatic. She is also considered lazy and hated school. Not only that, she was also shown to be easily jealous of Mamoru.

However, it was shown that she cared very deeply for her friends and family. She is very trusting and believes that everyone has a better nature. This could be seen as both a character strength and a character flaw at times. She did not believe in killing innocent humans, even when they had been transformed into vicious monsters, and always sought ways to heal them instead.

Over the course of the series, Usagi matured a great deal although she was still prone to some childish behavior and bouts of silliness; she became a capable young woman.

She is alway nosy about Chibiusa’s business.

## Information

Usagi was the oldest of two siblings and lived with her parents, Kenji and Ikuko Tsukino, and her younger brother, Shingo Tsukino. She lived an average life with her friends, Naru, Umino, Yumiko, and Kuri.

### Sailor Moon (Season 1)

After rushing to school because she overslept, she spots some kids tormenting a black cat; putting band-aids on the cat's forehead. After Usagi chases the boys away, she removes the band-aids to reveal a crescent moon on the cat's forehead.

Later, Usagi received a poor grade on her exam and tries to toss it away. The crumpled up paper hit a man on the head, named Mamoru Chiba, who then began taunting her throughout the first half of the season.

It was later that night that the cat, named Luna, spoke to Usagi about the new enemy attacking Earth; the Dark Kingdom. To prove that it was not a dream, Luna gave her a magic brooch that allowed Usagi to become Sailor Moon. It was on her first mission where she met the mysterious Tuxedo Mask and had crushes on him from then on.

For a while, Usagi struggled on with school, as well as the fight against the Dark Kingdom on her own -with the help of Tuxedo Mask. Eventually, she was joined by school genius Ami Mizuno; a classmate of Usagi's who Luna suspected might be a youma. Ami was later revealed to be Sailor Mercury.

Usagi and Ami then continue to fight the Dark Kingdom's minions. Then, Usagi meets Rei Hino, a teenage shrine priestess who went to a private school. Like Ami, she was a Sailor Senshi. The Guardian of Fire and Passion, Sailor Mars. They began hanging out together and Rei joins Ami and Usagi as they continued to fight against the Dark Kingdom.

Sometimes, Usagi would argue with Rei. The arguments would center around Usagi's laid-back attitude towards responsibilities or the rivalry of Tuxedo Mask's affection.

One day, Usagi was running late for school when she accidentally ran into a group of guys who began to pick on her. She was rescued by a new transfer student, Makoto Kino. While other students avoided Makoto, due to her history of violence in her previous school, Usagi kindly introduced herself, and Makoto shared her food with her. Makoto was revealed to be the Sailor Senshi of Lightning and Courage: Sailor Jupiter; and joined the three of the other Sailor Senshi.

Shortly after being introduced to Sailor Venus, Usagi is once again confronted by Mamoru. He apologizes to her for all the times he made fun of her. Seeing that he was injured, Usagi becomes concerned and follows him into a Dark Kingdom trap. Usagi was forced to transform into Sailor Moon to save her and Mamoru's life; who then revealed himself to be Tuxedo Mask. After he was seriously injured in a sneak-attack by Zoisite, Sailor Moon gained the Legendary Silver Crystal and was revealed to be Princess Serenity.

Tuxedo Mask was then kidnapped by the Dark Kingdom and Usagi fell into a depressed state; worrying about him. Once he was revealed to be alive but under the control of the Dark Kingdom, Usagi gained back her determination to save him. After thwarting many of the Dark Kingdom's attempts to capture the Silver Crystal, Usagi and the Sailor Senshi traveled to the North Pole. They aimed for a place known as D-Point, to defeat Queen Beryl and save Tuxedo Mask.

On their way across the tundra, one by one Usagi's friends were forced to sacrifice themselves to help her reach the base. After finally arriving at the Dark Kingdom headquarters, she had to fight against Mamoru, who was still under the enemy's control. Eventually, Usagi was able to break the hold over him, only to have him die in her arms when he was protecting her.

In the final battle, she faced off against the leader of the Dark Kingdom; using up all her strength and destroying it. She collapsed and the blast spread throughout the entire area, consuming everyone.

The next morning, Usagi woke up in bed, rushing to school with no memory of her time as Sailor Moon. The other Sailor Senshi and Mamoru are alive as well and have no memories of being Sailor Senshi as well.

## Sailor Senshi Info

Usagi can transform into a "Sailor Soldier" by wearing a special device (usually a brooch) and shouting a special command that activates the device. Her original transformation command is "Moon Prism Power, Make Up!" (ムーンプリズムパワー、メイクアップ, Muun Purizumu Pawaa, Meiku Appu). She gains a new basic transformation sequence for each of the five major story arcs.

In the fifth arc of the manga, she becomes Eternal Sailor Moon with "Silver Moon Crystal Power, Make Up!" instead of "Moon Eternal, Make Up!"

As the protagonist and leader, Usagi has special and stronger powers than any of the other characters in the series. Her physical attacks, usually one-offs and not always successful, include Sailor Moon Kick.

One of her techniques is the "Supersonic Wave" (超音波, Chouonpa), which involves her red hairpieces acting as an amplifier for her wailing.

Some attacks are were changed, added or made exclusive to a certain version of the *Sailor Moon* series. The list below shows the changes as well as the inclusion or exclusion of certain ones.

### Phrases

* Moon Prism Power, Make Up
* Moon Power, change me into a...
* Moon Crystal Power, Make Up
* Moon Cosmic Power, Make Up
* Crisis, Make Up
* Moon Crisis, Make Up
* Moon Eternal, Make Up

### Attacks

* Supersonic Waves
* Moon Tiara Action
* Moon Tiara Stardust
* Moon Healing Escalation
* Moon Princess Halation
* Moon Crystal Power
* Moon Spiral Heart Attack
* Rainbow Moon Heartache
* Moon Gorgeous Meditation
* Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss
* Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss
* Silver Moon Crystal Power

### Items and Weapons

* Transformation Brooch
* Tiara
* Disguise Pen
* Crystal Star
* Cutie Moon Rod
* Cosmic Heart Compact
* Spiral Heart Moon Rod
* Silver Crystal
* Holy Grail
* Crisis Moon Compact
* Moon Kaleido Scope
* Eternal Moon Article
* Eternal Tiare
* Holy Moon Chalice
* Moon Power Tiare

## Development

Usagi's signature hairstyle derives from a "good luck charm" of the artist's. In college, Naoko Takeuchi would put her own hair up in odango before difficult class exams. By the intermediate stages of development, Takeuchi planned to have the character's hair be blonde in civilian form and change to silver when she transformed, but she was told by her editor that silver hair would be too plain for cover art. Stylistic use of differently-colored hair does sometimes appear in later artwork. Out of all the Sailor Senshi, Usagi's personality is closest to Takeuchi's own personality at the time that the series was created.

Certain background details of Usagi's character were chosen symbolically. For instance, her Western astrological sign is given as Cancer, which in astrology corresponds to the moon. In reference to a popular Japanese belief, Usagi's blood type O, supposedly indicates friendliness, optimism, and carelessness.