Sailor Neptune

Sailor Neptune (セーラーネプチューン, Sērā Nepuchūn) is a fictional lead character in the Sailor Moon media franchise. Her alternate identity is Michiru Kaiou (海王 みちる, Kaiō Michiru; renamed "Michelle Kaioh" in some English adaptations), a teenage Japanese schoolgirl and violinist. Michiru is a member of the Sailor Guardians, female supernatural fighters who protect the Solar System from evil.

Introduced in the third story arc, Sailor Neptune fights alongside her partner and lover Sailor Uranus. In both versions of the story she is portrayed as elegant, sophisticated, capable of sharp anger, occasionally cold, and fully dedicated to her duty as a Sailor Guardian. She possesses powers associated with the sea, precognition, as well as powers granted by her magic mirror.

Michiru is formally introduced in the third story arc, although she appears in silhouette alongside Sailor Uranus in episode 89, a "teaser" to Sailor Moon S. She is portrayed as a very polite, calm character in the series. She dislikes being patronized even if not doing so would hurt her feelings, and subsequently will not indulge people. This is alluded to in her backstory, explaining that she was congenial but generally not social. Michiru is also graceful and delicate, with an aura of sophistication. She is clearly intelligent, and this usually manifests itself through art and music. Usagi (to whom this observation is especially relevant) once commented that Michiru was the ideal example of a princess. Michiru has short teal hair in a wavy style that reaches just past her shoulders. In her transformation sequence, she finishes with a hair toss/flip.

Michiru attends Mugen Academy with Haruka (and the younger Hotaru Tomoe) when she is first introduced. In the manga, after Mugen is destroyed, she and Haruka later attend the same high school as Usagi and the other girls. It is never mentioned where they go after this in the anime, but the two of them are shown driving away in their last appearance in Sailor Moon S, and during a made-for-TV special set during the following season, they are shown staying at a hotel elsewhere in Japan. According to the musicals, Michiru had experience studying abroad. Michiru's closest bond is with Haruka, and Takeuchi has explicitly stated that the two are in a lesbian relationship in both the manga and the anime as well as the musicals.

In the anime adaptation, Michiru briefly flirts with Seiya, at that time a man, asking him to help her unzip her dress. Her stated intention, earlier in the episode, is to learn Seiya's motives out of fear that he is a threat to the planet. This flirtation does not occur in the manga, where Seiya is always a female and plays a much more minor role. However, in the Infinity arc, Michiru appears as temptation for Mamoru, paralleling Haruka being used as temptation for Usagi. Though she never makes any of the advances on Mamoru that Haruka makes on Usagi, Usagi is jealous of her because she sees them together.

Michiru is deeply artistic and is the Sailor Soldier most associated with the arts. Her known skills include the violin, swimming, and painting; of all her skills, her strongest is as a violinist, which is also her greatest dream. She likes all her classes, especially music, and belongs to the music club at school as well as the swimming club. In the manga, she collects cosmetics; in the anime, she loves to swim, often using the water as a way to relax. Her favorite food is sashimi, while her least favorite is kikurage mushrooms. She also dislikes sea cucumbers for unclear reasons, and her favorite color is Marine blue.

As a character with different incarnations, special powers, transformations and a long lifetime virtually spanned between the Silver Millennium era and the 30th century, Michiru gains multiple aspects and aliases as the series progresses.

Michiru's Soldier identity. She wears a teal and cerulean uniform, and unlike most of the other Soldiers, her gloves extend only to her mid-forearms and has an 8 stars shaped jewel on her teal-colored choker. She wears planet shaped teal-colored earrings (which is the shape of Planet Neptune) but the earrings were absent in the 1992 version of Sailor Moon, and present in the Sailor Moon Crystal. She is given specific titles throughout the various series, including Soldier of the Deep Waters (or "Depths" in the English manga), Soldier of Embrace, Soldier of the Sea, and Soldier of Comprehension. Her personality is no different from when she is a civilian, although certain special abilities and powers are unavailable to her in her regular civilian form. Just like her partner, Haruka, Michiru has some precognitive abilities while in her normal form. She is able to prophetically predict who is likely to be the next target of the Death Busters.