This entry is mainly complete, save for some extra artwork to be added later.

Portrait 1

IRC Handle:		C'est_La_V
Alternate Identities:		Sailor V, Sailor Venus, Princess Venus
First Appearance:		Suburban Senshi Episode 3, IRC Chat #523
Birthdate:		October 22nd, 1978 (Libra)
Blood Type:		B
Height / Weight:		157cm, 52kg
Function:		Leader of the Yon Shugô Jin no Senshi (Inner Senshi)
Domicile:		Xadium's TARDIS, Ten'ou/Aino House, 1F 2-4-60 Azabu Juban Minato-ku
Education:		Shiba Elementary School, Shiba Public Park Junior High, Glory Cram school, Juuban Senior High School.

Personality

As a child, Minako loved to watch television, play sports, video game and sing. She loved science fiction and action movies for the tough heroes and the big explosions. Her favourite movie star was (and still is) Clint Eastwood. She also used to read quite a lot (mainly pop-culture and gaming magazines, but other things as well), even though these days the internet has taken up the bulk of her reading time. She is by no means as well-read as Hotaru or Ami, but she is light-years beyond Usagi, and even a bit beyond Rei. These days, her reading tends to be in the realm of pop science fiction, romance, or gaming, such as the Squaresoft repository of Science Fiction and Mythology.

Minako is a woman of extremes. On the one hand, she can be extremely lazy and slothful—it’s a rare day when she gets out of bed before 11:30 in the morning. She lives the life of a college student. Her cooking repertoire is extremely limited; it mainly consists of being able to toast bread, make pasta and instant foods, and being able to order delivery pizza or take-out Korean Barbecue. Her room was reknowned for being incredibly sloppy.

Minako’s old, sloppy room.

Minako also usually has a very short attention span, flitting from one interest to the next with blinding speed. (This is a girl, after all, who had over 5000 “first loves” in a span of less than one year.)

Despite being a gifted athlete who is stronger and faster than most boys her age, she can also be an incredible klutz, with her klutziness increasing in direct proportion to her giddiness or nervousness (for example, if she’s worried about someone and trying to help them, but something goes wrong, she tries to frantically overcorrect, which makes the situation worse). She also used to have a bad time with electronics, breaking them as soon as looking at them (though this has improved with time). Minako is also the master of the malapropism, or mangled saying.

To those who don’t know her well, this is all they see of Minako, and to them she might well seem to be no more than a bubbly airhead. But this is only the side of her persona she allows the world to see. While she is quite capable of zoning out, or sinking immediately to the level of a child (especially when dealing with children), there is a much more serious, calculating and “deep” side to her that occasionally rises to the surface—especially when her friends are in trouble or she really wants something. Then she becomes a whirlwind that is almost impossible to stop.

In these moments, her concentration becomes razor sharp, and her usual flights of fancy translate into what can often be brilliant tactical decisions or intuitions. She is an excellent planner and co-coordinator when she wants to be (as is befitting the leader of the inner Senshi) and she will go to any lengths to get what she wants or to help her friends. She is capable of being extremely sensitive and caring when her own feelings aren’t directly on the line. (At those times she can become petty, childish and selfish). She hates to see her friends suffer, and can easily stray into bouts of almost depressive introspection (although she snaps out of them fairly quickly). When enraged, she is virtually unstoppable.

These sides of Minako’s persona became more distinguished after her awakening as Sailor V. Before her awakening, she was a carefree, somewhat lazy, fun-loving girl. But even then, she was something of a social outcast.

A “nail that stuck out” because of her tomboyish, athletic nature, and her refusal to be brought to tears by the boys who teased her, she was already looked upon dimly by some. Her constant idol-chasing ostracized her from still others. When she awoke as Sailor V, due to the various emergencies in Tokyo, she was always forced to duck out of club and class activities, which made her look like an aloof “lone wolf”. Since her training as Sailor V, coupled with her natural athleticism, made her so much *better* than her other classmates, her constant running off gave the impression that she was a stuck-up primadonna who came in merely to make herself look good and then run off. The breaking point came when she returned from England, and quit the junior high Volleyball team in order to focus full-time on hunting down more information about the Dark Kingdom. This cost her team the championship, and cemented her classmates’ opinions against her. From then on, she was shunned and alone.

Even though Minako would later find friends in Tsukino Usagi and the others, the hurt in her heart from her experience in Junior High school still haunts her—she deeply fears being suddenly “thrown away” by those she has come to love. Nonetheless, she has learned to cover those fears with a bright, sunny expression and a cheerful smile.

Minako is the sort of person who is always moving forward, who may be sad about the past, but unwilling to let it consume her. For her, tomorrow is always another opportunity to have a better life.

Work history

Some have accused Minako of “Gold digging”, given her relationship with Doctor Xadium, who is very generous with the gifts he lavishes upon her, due to his affection for her. The truth, however, is quite different. Minako is quite willing to work; however, her colorful work history makes it quite difficult for her to find work outside of the idol industry.

Minako’s first part-time job, as a flatus odour judge at Mugen Academy went up in flames when she turned on a Bunsen burner at the wrong instant. Her next job, working as an artificial steer inseminator at her uncle’s cattle ranch, failed when, during a “klutz” moment, she spilled a bucket of the materials she was gathering on her aunt’s head. (For his part, Artemis mistook some of it for milk and had some bad experiences as well).

When Minako joined the newly-formed Juuban volunteer fire department, she started more fires than she stopped—including one that burned down the fire department building itself. Her tenure playing “Sailor V” in a giant foam costume came to an abrupt end when, overcome by heat, she removed her head in public, traumatizing a group of elementary school children—many of whom are still in therapy to this day.

Despite her jolly nature, Minako was also a failure at being a party clown. She punched out the father of the house for displaying a bias in the softball game he was umpiring, making sure that his child was going to win. What she failed to realize was that the kids were all in on it, seeing as how the child of the house was due to have a liver transplant and they wanted to make him feel better before surgery.

Minako’s most famous “failed job” has to be her occasional forays into playing “Nurse” for the injured. This has gotten so bad that she is often referred to as "Malpractice Minako-chan". She often wreaks havoc as she tries desperately to make things better, but one thing that is never in question is her sincerity or her genuine concern for the well-being of her friends.

Idol Minako

Minako’s only real job, aside from occasionally helping to sell charms at Azabu-Juuban’s Hikawa Shrine, has been a short stint playing Kisaragi Honey in the short-lived Cutey Honey Flash series, and her work as an idol. After her graduation from High School, and through the connections she made both as an assistant for the Three Lights (during which time their ratings rose, as the rumours about them being "backseat backstreet boys" began to fade), she was able to secure a job with Stardust Productions. (Ironically, Minako credits David Hasselhoff’s German Idol career with giving her the courage to start her own, under the reasoning that “if he can do I, than surely I can!”)

Minako in her debut role as Kisaragi Honey.

For several years, Minako pursued a career in entertainment, traveling the world and joint concerts with Ten’ou Haruka and “Michiru”. Her new wave, techno J-Pop style contrasted with and complemented their classical, elegant style. She adored the crowd, and the crowd adored her.

Over time, however, Minako grew tired of being constantly in the public eye, and a series of angry run-ins with the Paparazzi—culminating in a knock-down, drag-out slobberknocker in the middle of a live press conference with one Suzu Nyanko (who had illegally snapped her picture, broken into her house, stolen her underwear and sold it in Vending Machines in Roppongi [Snopes.com, NSFW]—led to her retirement from the public stage. While she still puts out the odd image CD, she is nowhere near as visible as she was almost a decade ago.

Minako’s wealth and earnings from her time as an idol would not last, however. Her manager, the flamboyant and slightly-crazy “Sugao”, embezzled all her money and took off to Bermuda, where he lives a life of luxury. Minako has vowed to track him down and extract her “ton of flesh” from him, but married life has cooled her ire somewhat as she is now well taken care of.

Married Life

Despite her more comical forays into romance, such as her two-timing date with Hawks-Eye and Tigers-Eye, Minako is rather traditional when it comes to matters of love, and considers marriage very important. Oddly for a tomboy such as herself, Minako always dreamed of being married in a traditional western style. Doctor Xadium, after waiting nearly three years, proposed to her. After a hurricane nearly killed them before the wedding, she finally got her wish.

Dr. & Mrs. Xadium. Minako’s proper name is legally Minako Xadium-Aino, but she uses “Aino Minako” due to her status as a semi-retired idol.

Minako greatly enjoys being pampered by her husband, but occasionally tires of him treating her as if she were some kind of fragile flower. Despite her tendencies to be slightly manipulative towards Xadium when she wants something, she is glad to be with someone who accepts her completely, and would defend him to the death. She greatly enjoys being in a permanent relationship, and gleefully celebrates her marriage anniversary every month.

Minako’s bright, cheerful, extroverted persona is the polar opposite of her husband’s, and she has taken it upon herself to “crack him out of his eggshell.” She tries her best to teach Xadium the art of self-defense and combat, but is hampered by his refusal to strike her. She has also tried to teach him Japanese, unsuccessfully. Artemis has joked that all she has ever really done for him on that front is teach him three words: “Baka”, “Sugoi", and “Kimmochi".

When Xadium is away, Minako tends to get a little depressed, and turns to a video game named Rez to occupy herself. She's destroyed many a Rez controller in this fashion, considering that she managed to lose Xadium in Roppongi for over a month at one point.

Minako’s new room in Xadium’s TARDIS.

Even though Minako is kept in a very high standard of living by Xadium, she still carries herself normally. She isn’t the type to let fame or attention get to her head (at least after the initial rush wears off). She would willingly share her good fortune with the rest of her family, but they aren’t around much.

Minako’s Family

Minako’s father is a stressed-out, overworked salaryman who is overshadowed by his rough-tempered, yet well meaning wife. Minako’s mother is somewhat rambunctious and direct, and always at odds with her daughter. She seemed to delight in physically dumping Minako out of her futon when she overslept. Much of Minako’s athletic tomboyishness comes from this side of her family.

Given her mother’s slight mean streak, it didn’t really surprise Minako that much when Artemis revealed to her that her father had actually turned to the love of another woman, posing as “Tsukino Kenji” and siring a family on the other side of town.

Minako does not see much of her parents these days, since—mainly to annoy her—her mother scheduled a second honeymoon on Minako’s wedding day, and sold the family home to pay for a permanent berth (usually meant for elders seeking end-of-life care) on a sailing ship which constantly circles the globe.

Furuhata Motoki’s fiancé Nishimura Reika is Minako’s second cousin; the similarity in their voices at times can be quite striking. Minako has a dim opinion of her cousin, who elected to travel the world studying by herself, leaving her fiancé behind.

Friendships

Minako has something of a running hatred for Jedite, since he was in the Dark Kingdom, but lately that seems to have cooled. Well, after she lit his posterior in fire twice.

Regardless of why Minako joined, her friends are glad she did, even if they fear her abilities at times.

Skills

Interestingly, Minako is quite fluent in English, though not strictly by choice. In Junior High school, she was routinely late to class (to the tune out of 5 out of 6 days a week). As a punishment, her teacher would assign her 30-60 additional English (and sometimes math) problems each day. That, combined with the regular English taught in class, and her half-year’s worth of total immersion in England (plus tutoring by her friend Katarina), was enough to get her to fluency. Her predilection for western-style entertainment and games has reinforced her skills as well.

Minako is quite accomplished in the means of gathering information and incriminating data, honed by her years of idol-chasing. She has a small “Fun-Fun” novelty disposable camera which has a timer and is easily concealable. It allows her to take even the most candid of shots with great ease. She is also quite good with Photoshop (as seen in PGSM), even going to far as to (with Artemis’ help) design her own websites and promotional material. She also uses her Photoshop skills to make annoying “blackmail” photographs for those who cross her.

Minako is quite knowledgeable about many different kinds of music, viewing it as her job as a part-time idol to be on top of the pop scene.

As the result of her job in Crystal Tokyo wherein she was required to play the role of Royal Decoy, Minako is capable of performing a frightfully good Neo-Queen Serenity impersonation, with the caveat that she has to be drunk on Sake to pull it off 100% correctly. (Minako is nowhere near the klutz that Usagi is, even on her worst day).

The Senshi side of Aino Minako

When forcing, herself to the maximum, Venus is substantially more powerful than many of the other Senshi in the present due to her extensive training in the future. She no longer needs to use her Henshin stick, since, like Hotaru, she has learned to transform by sheer force of will. She has the capacity to do a “Venus Planet Attack”, which channels a great deal of her planet’s power at the target of her choice. As controller of the element of metal, Venus can locate, manipulate, and identify various metals with ease. She can exert great magnetic attractive or repulsive forces, and even shatter alloys by causing the different metals to separate forcibly. She is powerful enough to kill a Dark General with one shot of a crescent beam.

Venus, as the Goddess of Love, also has some emotion-related powers. She can see the “red thread of fate” that binds two people—her red bow is actually composed of the stuff, and she can use it to bind two people together—but it will not work if her motives are impure or selfish. She can sometimes tell how others feel—but not herself. Also, her physical responses (attraction, repulsion, jealousy) can cloud her perception quite easily. She can make herself appear ethereally beautiful in order to cloud the minds of men—but this is a power she rarely likes to employ, as she feels strongly (as Venus) about toying with other people’s emotions. She is much more responsible with her powers than her civilian counterpart.

Venus has almost complete memory of her past life, and the duties and tributes she was given as the Goddess Venus. She knows almost all the ancient poems and tales relating to her by whatever name she was given, be it Ishtar, Ianna, or Aphrodite. She still has the holy sword of the moon, which is composed of the same material as the Ginzuishou, and she is the only person other than Usagi who can wield it.

Venus’ weapon of choice is her Love-Me-chain. It can be controlled telekinetically, and is quite useful for both short-range defense and long range offense. Coupled with the fact that it can be summoned and vanished at will, it makes quite possibly one of the best weapons in the Senshi arsenal.

Trivia:

Wrestling: Minako knows a lot about Pro Wrestling because Artemis made her watch WCW on satellite. Since Xadium and Haruka are big fans as well, she is quite up to speed on the WWE. Her favourite wrestler of all time is Sid Vicious.

Computers: Minako knows Photoshop quite well, and can work a computer decently. She likes to break into Xadium’s E-mail and read it, but is no genius hacker. Any tricks she knows she either learned from Artemis, or from tutorials on the internet. In this sense she is a pure “script kiddie.” She has a panasonic hardened toughbook because it’s the only computer that will survive her. Artemis lets her use a macintosh for art because he’s convinced it’s the only way she won’t mess up.

Minako never found out that her engagement ring was lost in the sewers, swallowed and vomited up by Artemis, or worn by Elios on his… unit before it got to her finger, where it is now well and stuck.

Minako taught Neo-Queen Serenity the fine art of blackmail so NQS could keep Endymion in line.

Minako has been merchandised to death both as an idol and as Sailor V. There is lots of Sailor V merchandise on the market, for which she gets no royalties.

A Sailor V plush	Sailor V Sweet Strawberry Sugar Flakes

Quirks: One of Minako's earliest IRC quirks was an overuse of emoticons and almost no punctuation, but doubled punctuation when she did use it. Today, after months of learning IRC etiquette, only the doubled punctuation remains.

According to Xadium, Minako is the sort who, when shopping, will touch all the items, no matter how lightly, even if it means merely brushing her fingers across some fabric, or picking up a bauble just to put it back in a slightly new position, without even scrutinizing them that much.
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