Ami Mizuno

Ami Mizuno (水野 亜美 Mizuno Ami) is a fictional Sailor Senshi, one of the central characters in the metaseries known as Sailor Moon. She is known as Amy Mizuno in the English translations, and briefly as Amy Anderson in the early anime dub. When transformed, she is known as Sailor Mercury.

As Sailor Mercury, her abilities are water-based, although for quite some time very few of them are strictly offensive in nature. However, her intelligence makes her the default tactical planner of the Sailors and of the series. She also has a "mini-computer" and visor, helpful for scanning her peripheral environment, among other things. Reflecting the nature of her power, her senshi uniform is coloured marine blue, white and cyan.

Ami is a very archetypical character and easy to sympathize with, and was the most popular character in Sailor Moon for quite some time. With a 'generic' genius IQ of 300, she nonetheless gains appreciation for artistic things, especially music (and was even a fan of a J-pop band before any of the other Senshi). She also enjoys swimming and playing chess. Ami is generally considered the sensible one of the five girls, and usually is a scapegoat for embarrassment when the group is having a dullard moment.

Ami lives with her mother, a busy doctor who is not home very often, and whose face was never seen in the anime. Ami is originally obsessed with being a perfect student, although it is unknown if her mother contributed to this behavioural trait. Ami's father, a painter who effectively abandoned his family to do his work, is only referred to in the paintings (in place of postcards or letters) he sends. Ami seems to be vaguely appreciative towards him in the anime, but resentful in the original manga. She is one of the few girls in the series whose family situation was explicitly mentioned in the anime.

Ami was given her own 'special,' an animated version of a manga story featuring her as the star character. She was the only member of the team budgeted for such a story, and it is generally considered one of her best roles, humorously trying to deal with the concept of having a romantic admirer.

Her personality is generally consistent through various adaptations of the series. Originally, Ami only wore glasses while reading, but perhaps due to fan love for meganekko, she wears them more consistently in the new live action series -- though it is mentioned that she does not need them for vision correction, but prefers them for the appearance.

Starting in Episode 21 of PGSM, Ami was ensnared by the Dark Kingdom and became Dark Sailor Mercury, an evil version of herself. This applies solely to the live action series, and not to the manga or anime versions.

She is sometimes compared to Michiru Kaioh because of their water-based powers, which are actually quite different otherwise. Ami is also more of a 'science' intellectual while Michiru is more into the aesthetics of music. Ami is also considered generally more friendly, although quite shy over most of the metaseries. Also, Sailor Mercury's attacks tend to serve a tactical purpose (by hiding her allies or by distracting/immobilizing/freezing her enemies) whereas Sailor Neptune's powers tend to be more offensive (drawing its power from the seas and oceans) and psychic-based.

(In an early DiC promotional tape that advertised Sailor Moon to television stations, Ami was also called Blue.)

Character traits

• Hair: During an interview, head animators admitted although seemingly simple, Ami's hair was extremely hard to draw. She has the most widely inconsistent drawn hairstyle in the metaseries (especially in lower budget episodes), although the 'last' design, nearly shoulder length, is generally considered the fan favourite.

  Contrary to the expectations of many viewers unfamiliar with the medium of anime, Ami's blue hair serves only to easily differentiate her visually from other characters, and is likely not intended to be a product of hair dye. The stereotype that may be formed by the unwitting Western viewer -- that of someone who dyes their hair blue, and is probably rebellious and wild -- is almost the polar opposite of Ami's depicted personality. In fact, many of the stereotypes otaku commonly associate with blue-haired anime characters in general likely originated with Ami herself.

• Boys: Although the television series rarely featured many males in reoccurring roles, Ami's popularity warranted more than one mention of a boy (Ryō Urawa), with whom she became friends in the first series, who clearly liked her, although he is never mentioned in other series.

• Ecchi: A semi-running joke in the series is the fact that Ami is extremely observant about nonexplicit romantic or sexual conduct in situations within the series, which usually shocks or surprises the other Senshi. Ami is sometimes jokingly referred to, in anime fandom, as a closet pervert.

• Attacks: Sailor Mercury's primary attack is "Sabaõ Spray" (シャボン・スプレー shabon supurē; sabaõ is Portuguese for soap) which is a stream of bubbles that she throws at her target. The attack does not usually harm her target, but it does serve to distract it or deflect any of its attacks. (In one episode of the anime, she received an upgrade of this attack called "Shabon Spray Freezing" which actually released bubbles that encased her enemy in ice.) In later episodes of the anime, she acquires a new attack called "Shine Aqua Illusion" (シャイン・アクア・イリュージョン shain akua iryūjon). Still later, she receives an even more powerful attack, "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody." In the live-action series, Ami's attacks are generally quite a bit more powerful; her water spray attacks have proven on multiple occasions capable of pulverizing a youma, and she is able to form a sword from nearby sources of water.

Fandom

Ami is traditionally the most popular character in the Sailor Moon metaseries, especially among Western audiences. Her fan-favorite status, combined with her apparent "closet pervert" tendencies alluded to above, have made her a frequent player in the copious amount of Sailor Moon yuri fanfiction. Most often, such stories pair her with Makoto Kino, though she has been known to appear with other characters.

Actresses

• In the original anime production of Sailor Moon, Ami is played by veteran voice actress Aya Hisakawa.
• In the English dubbed version of Sailor Moon, Amy is played by Karen Bernstein (episodes 5-82) and Liza Balkan (episodes 90-166). The latter is sometimes criticized for sounding too 'nasal'.
• In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Ami is played by Chisaki Hama.