- Gender: Female
- Age: 14
- Hair: Blonde
- Eyes: Blue
- Nationality: Japanese/Moon Kingdom
- From the anime Sailor Moon, property of Toei Animation Co.
- First Appearance: Chapter 11
The last of the inner senshi to appear in the original series, but ironically the first one to awaken to her powers. Minako Aino was a typical Japanese high school girl, good at sports (especially volleyball), bad at classes. One day, the Moon Cat Artemis found her and gave her her magic transformation pen, which allowed her to become Sailor V, the guardian of the planet Venus.
Shortly thereafter, she and her family moved to England. She was the reincarnated princess of the planet Venus. He was a talking telepathic cat from a millennia-old kingdom on the Moon. Together, they fought crime!
Also, apparently, they were largely engaged in distracting the Dark Kingdom in their search for the reborn Moon Princess, by making Sailor V seem to be the one they sought. Sailor V’s exploits were thus deliberately public, and she became a popular media figure, the star of video games, animations, comic books, etc. Ironically enough, the real Moon Princess, Usagi Tsukino, was a big fan of Sailor V.
Minako is among the more formidible of the Inner Senshi. She is physically adept and has considerable martial arts skill, though not so much as Sailor Jupiter. Her magical powers focus around the ability to project a golden energy, which is sometimes associated with sunlight as well as the pure holy energy of the Sailor Senshi. Sailor V also had access to a number of gadgets, such as her opera glasses, which allowed her to see the true forms of her enemies. Sailor V is wearing a modified version of the typical Sailor Senshi outfit; it is known she CAN transform into the regular Sailor Senshi uniform, and may be able to further alter her costume if she chooses.