Makoto Kino - Sailor Jupiter
I translated this from an italian article, which you can read by yourself here → https://www.animeclick.it/news/209-Sailor+Moon+Kotaro.
Makoto Kino (木 野 ま こ と Kino Makoto) is the fourth Sailor warrior to appear.
Her battle name is Sailor Jupiter, the fighter protected by the planet Jupiter.
In the oriental tradition, the element of wood (extended to green trees and nature in general) is tied to the planet Jupiter and to the green color, which characterizes Makoto’s clothes and her battle costume, green with pink bows, almost to remember a flower. In both civilian and transformed clothes, Makoto always wears a pair of rose-shaped earrings, to emphasize her connection with flowers, trees and nature.
The link is already explained by the name, as the surname of the girl, 木 野 Kino, contains the ideogram 木 ki / moku (wood, tree), which appears both in the Japanese name of Thursday and in that of the planet Jupiter.
The name ま こ と Makoto has the same pronunciation of the ideograms 誠 (sincerity) and 真 (truth). Being the name of the character written in hiragana, it is not clear the meaning that the author wanted to give her, so the full name of the warrior of Jupiter, “Ki no makoto”, can be understood as 木 野 (の) 誠 “the sincerity of the trees” or as 木 野 (の) 真 “the truth of the trees”.
Nature is the source of the powers of Sailor Jupiter, who, especially in the manga, uses attacks related to plants and flowers such as the Flower Hurricane or the Jupiter Coconut Cyclone. The only plant-based attack that appeared in the animated series is the Jupiter Oak Evolution, where oak leaves become an important symbol of the character in both the anime and the manga.
To underline Makoto’s link with nature and green there’s her dream, to become an a florist.
The planet Jupiter, from which Sailor Jupiter draws strength, is the largest of all the Solar System (it is not accidental, therefore, that Jupiter is the highest, the most curvaceous and the one with greater physical strength, among the warriors). Because of its size, which made it more visible than the other celestial bodies, since the times of the ancient Babylonians this planet has been associated with the main deity of the various cults, the so-called “father of the gods” (Indo-European expression from which the Latin Iuppiter). It was also called “planet protector”, and in relation to this Sailor Jupiter is called “warrior of protection”.
Storms and perturbations occur frequently on Jupiter.
The ancient Greeks associated it with Zeus (Ζεύς Zeus) the Jupiter (Iuppiter) of the ancient Romans, who was indeed the father of the gods in their pantheon, but also the lord of lightning and cloud, whose sacred tree, moreover, was just the Oak.
In the manga but also mainly in the anime, many Sailor Jupiter attacks are mainly based on lightning, a characterizing element of Zeus, such as the Supreme Thunder, the Supreme Thunder Dragon or the Sparkling Wide Pressure. Moreover, Jupiter’s battle costume includes a small lightning rod antenna in the manga and in the anime, used to catalyze electricity.
In the comic it is also said that on Jupiter there is a castle called Io Castle which gives Sailor Jupiter the strength to become Eternal Sailor Jupiter.
Io is the name of a Jupiter’s natural satellite, which takes its name from the homonymous character who, according to Greek mythology, was one of the lovers of the god Zeus, later transformed into a heifer because of Hera’s jealousy.
In mythology, Zeus was also known for his numerous extramarital erotic adventures and for the numerous children from different women. It could refer to this aspect of the eponymous god of the planet Jupiter also the leitmotiv that characterizes Makoto in the cartoon, her way to fall in love with almost any boy who appears in the story with the excuse that reminds her a senpai from the past.
Born on December 5th, Makoto is a Sagittarius, ruled by the planet Jupiter, whose characteristic flower is the red rose, like those of the earrings worn by the girl.
Those born under this sign are characterized by an expansive character, a great openness of mind and a great humanitarian spirit, all qualities that are well suited to the “warrior of protection” who acts a bit like a mother for the other warriors, cooking good meals for them and acting like a real friend.
