Kaioh Michiru - Diving Deeper

Cultured and innately elegant, Kaioh Michiru is extremely beautiful and talented, and out of all the Senshi, she would probably considered the most "perfect." The name "Michiru" means "complete" - complete in the sense of being matured and being perfected - and Takeuchi Naoko, the creatrix of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon/BSSM herself, says that Michiru (whose epithet is "elegant") is the complete opposite of the underachieving, lazy, clumsy, crybaby Tsukino Usagi/Sailor Moon. Michiru's natural sensitivity and sophistication gleam through in her bearing, her personality and mannerisms, and even her voice. Extremely talented at everything she does, she nevertheless manages it all with an inner grace that is natural and not at all affectation, and when a lemon is tossed to her while she is playing her violin in the park, she begins to gracefully dance and bounce the lemon on the violin as she plays, causing Usagi to call her a perfect princess. Michiru is considered by a good portion of Sailormoon fans as being the prettiest Sailor Senshi, and she also has the high genius of Mizuno Ami/Sailor Mercury. Some dispute this since Ami/Mercury is the Senshi best known for intelligence, but Michiru's high school is Mugen Gakuen (Infinity Academy), a school where one must be at Ami's level before one can even consider applying to the school. This shows quite clearly that Michiru is just as smart as Ami, and the fact that Michiru excels in many other areas besides academics shows that she has an all-encompassing "true genius" unlike the one-dimensional scholastic genius of Ami. Furthermore, Michiru's genius is innate, while Ami is always seen studying and working to reach her goals. This does not mean that Michiru doesn't have to work hard to be smart and be the famous violinist and painter that she is; it just means that she doesn't let academics permeate her life to the point where she becomes subsumed by it and in effect becomes one-dimensional. This is not meant to be an Ami-bashing segment; rather, it is meant to disprove claims that Ami has greater intelligence than Michiru. Michiru is easily Ami's equal, and surpasses her in many ways.

Incidentally, after the destruction of Mugen Gakuen in the manga at the end of Sailormoon Super, Michiru transfers to Juuban High, which the Inner Senshi and the Three Lights attend, but in the anime it seems that she does not attend school after Mugen Gakuen's destruction. As mentioned earlier, Michiru has many other talents besides her brains. She plays the violin at virtuoso level, and indeed is famed for her proficiency: in the manga and anime she appears in large concerts, sharing top billing with the Three Lights, an extremely popular idol rock group. In the manga she has even released her own compact discs. She is also an excellent painter - her painting "Space" hangs in a museum, while one entitled "The End of the World" was exhibited at a party on an expensive cruise ship. In one episode we also see Michiru in art class painting a mermaid swimming along a beautiful ocean floor. Michiru also swims well, and of the Senshi Ami is her only equal in that area. In short, Michiru is the most well-rounded and talented of the Senshi. People accuse Michiru of being a sore loser because she was upset after reaching a draw in an informal swimming race against Ami, but it was a draw, and neither girl lost or won, so how could she be a sore loser? :P Rather, what Michiru was upset about was the fact that Ami did not do her best, thus not allowing Michiru a genuine chance to test herself against Ami; later, when Ami does swim her best, she and Michiru again reach a draw, and Michiru is pleased by that because they were both performing to their best ability. So yes, that might mean that Michiru is quite competitive, but it in no way means that she is a bad loser. As Sailor Neptune and Super Sailor Neptune (and as princess of the planet Neptune in the manga), Michiru controls the oceans - "Kaioh" means "ocean ruler" - and like Hino Rei/Sailor Mars she has the ability to sense and predict danger. She is very rich to judge from the house she lives in with Tenoh Haruka/Sailor Uranus (her equally well-off lover :P) and the other Outer Senshi, as well as the money that would be an inevitable payoff for being such a talented violinist and painter. It also seems that she comes from old money to begin with.

Sailor Neptune's Sailormoon Super introduction: Aratana jidaini sasowarete, Sailor Neptune, yuuga ni katsuyaku! Invited by a new age, Sailor Neptune, standing in elegance!

Michiru first appears in Sailormoon Super (the third season of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon) along with Haruka as the two mysterious, cold new Senshi who are out to get the heart crystals, which are found inside people with pure hearts. Their mission is to find the three heart crystals which hold the three Talismans that, when combined, summon the Holy Grail that defeats the threatening darkness (the Grail summons the true Messiah, who turns out to be Usagi in the form of Super Sailor Moon). Little do Michiru and her partner know that two of the three Talismans are inside of them; Michiru holds the first of the three Talismans: the Aqua Mirror, which is used in conjunction with Neptune's "submarine reflection" attack. Haruka holds the second Talisman (the Space Sword), and Meioh Setsuna/Sailor Pluto has the final one (the Garnet Orb). Since the theft of a heart crystal results in a person's death, both Haruka and Michiru are under the impression that acquiring the Talismans means killing three innocent people to get them, something which greatly upsets the conscience of both girls even though they are doing it for the sake of the earth. One major difference one notices between the two girls is that Haruka is much more willing than Michiru to try and accept the sacrifice of three people than Michiru, although Haruka would never kill a human intentionally; in fact, Michiru points out many times to Haruka that Haruka would never be able to sacrifice those she cared for. For the mission's sake, Michiru and Haruka had promised each other that they would leave the other behind if anything happened to one of them, but whenever she is put in such a situation, Michiru has a penchant for breaking that promise. She is totally devoted to Haruka, bordering on the line of co-dependency, and she has risked her life countless times in order to keep her lover from danger; the most stunning example takes place in the Marine Cathedral in episode 110, where Sailor Neptune is gunned down - twice - by countless bullets, but nevertheless manages to keep herself going long enough to distract the witch Eudial and keep the witch from shooting her lover, and in the end Neptune takes the shot intended for Uranus, falling unconscious as her heart crystal is removed and becomes the Aqua Mirror. Haruka would maybe sacrifice Michiru for the mission but would definitely kill herself later out of grief, as proven when she shoots her herself after Neptune's "death" (in the same episode 110) to extracts her own heart crystal/Talisman. It is only thanks to Sailor Pluto, who proves that the Talismans can be separated from the heart crystals they are housed in if all three Talismans are in each other's presence, that the two dying girls were revived by having their heart crystals returned to them. Michiru puts her lover before her world; indeed, to Michiru Haruka IS her world to a large extent, and she has said that a world without Haruka isn't a world worth saving. Her extremely selfless nature, though not necessarily unique among the Senshi, is probably only equalled in strength by Usagi's, and it gives Michiru a very admirable, very human and lovable quality that balances the serenely formidable aura she emits just by being a multi-talented person. At first Neptune (and Uranus) was cold to the Inner Senshi as they were a hindrance to the mission, but Michiru was friendly to the younger girls in civilian form as they didn't know each other's Senshi identities. After their identities are revealed to each other, Michiru inevitably becomes a bit more distant to the younger girls, although she pretty much acts the same to them: friendly and graceful. She is definitely more friendly to them than Haruka, who can take rudeness and brusqueness to the extreme - except in Usagi's case, whom she is strangely protective of. Michiru isn't protective of Usagi as Haruka is, but she does consider Usagi to be sort of a cute little sister, and Usagi does in fact look up to Michiru as the type of woman she wants to be. However, it isn't till Usagi/Super Sailor Moon is shown to be the Messiah, then later retrieves Tomoe Hotaru/Sailor Saturn after Saturn defeats Pharoah Ninety, and then still later defeats the Outer Senshi in a staged battle that Neptune and the other Outer Senshi truly accept Usagi (and by extension the other Inner Senshi) and give them full respect.

At the end of Sailormoon Super, after that staged battle between the Outer Senshi and Usagi to prove Usagi's worth as the Moon Princess, Michiru disappears with Haruka and Setsuna and the three of them do not appear at all in Sailormoon Super S (the fourth season) except in the Super S movie, where Neptune slyly comments to Uranus that there are some things only adults can enjoy. Haruka and Michiru also appear in the Super S special, in which Michiru says that famous line about a world without Haruka being a world not worth saving. In the anime, Michiru is technically the first Outer Senshi to be discovered in this time since Sailor Pluto is actually a "leftover" from the days of the Moon Kingdom. This is a testament to Michiru's inner strength: for who knows how many weeks or months, Michiru is the one who fought alone before meeting up with Haruka. When Elza Gray, a girl who knows Haruka through track competitions, introduced Michiru to Haruka, their meeting can be described as electric. Haruka recognized Michiru as the mysterious girl from her visions of the world's end, while Michiru, who had been watching Haruka from afar for a long while, finally got to meet Haruka up close. Michiru is immediately flirtatious, telling the other girl that she was interested in using her as a model for her artwork, but Haruka declines coolly and walks off. Later, when Haruka again runs into Michiru at a fancy party on a cruise ship, where Michiru is the star violinist, Haruka is staring at a painting Michiru has done called "The End of the World," which strikingly mirrors Haruka's visions. Michiru appears and talks with Haruka about her destiny to help prevent the world's destruction, and Haruka stubbornly rejects the idea of having a destiny set out for her; to this Michiru comments that she'd rather be just a violinist, but she can't escape her duty.

Yet although Michiru would like for Haruka to be more accepting of her destiny, she nevertheless wishes Haruka to lead a normal life. When Haruka's transformation pen appears before her for the first time while she is trying to fend off a youma with a crowbar, Michiru appears and warns her not to use it unless she wants to give up her normal life. Then, before Haruka's astonished eyes, Michiru transforms into Sailor Neptune and defeats the youma, but not before acquiring major slashes on her back and arms when she leaped to protect Haruka from harm. When Haruka asks the injured Senshi why she risked herself since a misplaced injury could have meant losing her dream of becoming a violinist, Michiru expresses her devotion and love, telling the other girl in her indirect way: "I know a girl who would love nothing more than to ride in your car with you." At that point, Haruka accepts the transformation pen and her destiny. Michiru is sort of the brains of the Outer Senshi and she thinks before she acts; her elegance, serenity, silent leadership, and quiet determination are the perfect foil for Haruka's brash, outer-directed nature. The two girls' meeting is probably *the* turning point in both their lives, and they are two parts of a whole. Michiru is more reserved than Haruka but no less intense; inseparable in Senshi form as well as in civilian form, they make formidable adversaries because of their incredible attunement to each other. One criticism levelled at Michiru is that she is too dependent on and too passive around Haruka, always content to follow Haruka's lead and making Haruka's opinions her own. However, anyone who has seen Michiru or Neptune in action will know that she is in no way passive, and just because Haruka/Uranus is strong and aggressive it does not make Michiru/Neptune's persona one iota less strong or complex than that of her partner. In fact, many people point out that it is in fact Michiru who leads Haruka in many subtle, silent ways, and that most of the time it's Michiru who's the unfazeable one of the pair... unless Haruka's in danger. :P Furthermore, Michiru's dependency is merely the result of her deep, unconditional love, the type of love which none of the Senshi except Usagi have displayed; indeed, in many cases it seems that Haruka and Michiru's love is stronger than that of Usagi and Chiba Mamoru/Tuxedo Kamen (not to mention more realistic, sweet, and deep :P), especially in the anime.

Super Sailor Neptune's Sailormoon SailorStars introduction: Shinkai no hoshi, kaioh seioh shugoni motsu, houyou no senshi, Sailor Neptune! Aratana kikeni sasowarete, koko ni sanjou! Carrying the protection of the planet of the deep sea, Neptune, the soldier of embrace, Sailor Neptune! Invited by a new danger, here I stand!

As a side note, Michiru flirts with Mamoru in the manga - in the anime she also asks him to dance, to which he agrees. Naturally Usagi gets jealous, most likely feeling inadequate when a sophisticated, pretty, and talented girl dances with her boyfriend; however, she has nothing to worry about, as Michiru is too devoted to Haruka to do more than be gently flirtatious with others - Michiru even flirts with Seiya Kou in SailorStars. o_O After Super S Michiru returns in the fifth and final season, Sailormoon SailorStars. After Setsuna retrieves the baby Hotaru from her father after discerning that Hotaru's power as Sailor Saturn would be needed, Michiru and Haruka raise Hotaru with Setsuna's help. Hotaru calls Haruka her "papa" while she refers to both Michiru and Setsuna as "mama." Throughout SailorStars, Michiru only makes cameo appearances with the other Outer Senshi, appearing to bail the Inner Senshi out of trouble or running into Usagi and the others at random places. Although at first Michiru and the other Outer Senshi's duty was to protect the solar system from outside invasions, in the final season it also became their duty to protect Usagi (the Moon Princess), so naturally the Outer Senshi detested the Sailor Starlights, who were both outside intruders and a perceived threat to Usagi since Seiya Kou/Sailor Starfighter was a potential threat to Usagi and Mamoru's relationship, a relationship crucial to the future utopia of Crystal Tokyo.

In the final episodes of SailorStars, the Outer Senshi go to fight Galaxia together, and after unsuccessfully trying to kill Galaxia, Neptune and Uranus give themselves over to Galaxia and become evil, killing Sailors Pluto and Saturn and giving Eternal Sailor Moon and the Sailor Starlights a hard battle. However, in a stunning move that surprises everyone, Uranus and Neptune turn around and blast Galaxia with her own weapons, and they would have killed Galaxia had it not been for the fact that Galaxia was immune to such blasts (since the weapons were intended to extracted star seeds, and Galaxia had released her star seed long ago). But although Neptune and Uranus had proved that Galaxia had not been able to turn them evil, they had still given themselves to Galaxia, and when Galaxia removed their life-giving bracelets they die slowly as Moon and the Starlights look on. After Uranus tells Starfighter to take care of Sailor Moon, thus implicitly resolving the differences between the Outer Senshi and the Starlights, Neptune tells Uranus with a weak voice that she wants to touch her. As the two lie dying, they struggle with their last breaths and then manage to get a tight, trembling grasp on each other's hand as they vanish into thin air. Two episodes later, in the final episode of the anime, after Usagi defeated the evil inside Galaxia and watched the Sailor Senshi revive, the Outer Senshi can be seen sitting along the side of Haruka's yellow convertible watching shooting stars streak across the darkening evening sky. After asking Setsuna what she wished for, Hotaru hops off the side of the car and then goes to Michiru and Haruka to ask them what they wished for. Michiru pointedly leans into Haruka and says that they didn't need to wish for a thing, as they were perfectly happy already.

Kaioh Michiru/Sailor Neptune Info
Ganymede's Sailor Neptune Shrine
The Sailormoon Citadel
Ganymede's Palace