Sailor Mercury
“Mercury Power, Make Up!”
- japanese name
- Mizuno Ami (水野 亜美)
- 90’s english dub
- Amy Anderson
- likes
- reading, swimming, chess, classical music
- dislikes
- love letters, attention, being called cold
- birthday
- september 10
- zodiac sun sign
Virgo- blood type
- A
Ami Mizuno is the transfer student with test scores too high to believe, the girl who leaves the moment the bell rings, and Juuban has decided she’s cold. Her family name, 水野 (Mizuno), reads as “of the water”, so her element is in her surname before she ever transforms, and her given name, 亜美 (Ami), plays on the French ami, “friend”, the thing this lonely genius most needs. She’s a Virgo with a Virgo’s nerves, and she has mistaken her own shyness for distance.
In Hellenistic astrology, Mercury is a planet of traffic more than of ideas. It rules the crossing, the errand and the translation, and it never gets far from the Sun, too close to the light to be seen at all. Ami’s cleverness is the careful sort. In a fight she finds the monster’s weakness and works out a plan, and when there’s panic she gives the others a next step. She rarely lands the final blow. Someone else lands it, using what she has worked out.
read the Mercury page →
← back to character selectin hellenistic astrology
dignity
- domicile
Geminimessages and exchangeVirgosorting and editingIts own house, and Mercury has two. Gemini is a masculine, double-bodied air sign, and its quality is cold. Virgo is a feminine, double-bodied earth sign, and its quality is dry. Double-bodied signs sit between two seasons and are linked with doubling. At home, a planet uses its own resources and doesn’t rely on a host.In Gemini, Mercury is quick and talkative and does several things at once, with a lot of messages, trade and exchange. In Virgo it’s exact and practical, and shows up as sorting, counting, crafts, writing and editing.- exaltation
- Virgoaccuracy and methodRaised up in Virgo. Mercury is the only planet whose home and exaltation are the same sign, so in Virgo it’s both at home and in a place of honour. It pairs with Venus’s exaltation in Pisces, the opposite sign. In his scheme Virgo raises the intellect and Pisces raises desire and pleasure.Mercury in Virgo shows up as accuracy, method, analysis, practical thinking, teaching, medicine, careful craftwork, and any work that depends on getting the details right.
- detriment
Sagittariustheory and belief
Piscesbreadth and blurOpposite its houses. Sagittarius and Pisces are Jupiter’s houses. Sagittarius is a masculine, double-bodied fire sign, and Pisces a feminine, double-bodied water sign. Mercury’s intellect and reason sit opposite Jupiter’s possessions and abundance. Later texts treat a planet opposite its own house as hindered or in exile.Mercury in Jupiter’s signs shows up as broad theories, belief, teaching and advice on big questions, and speaking for important people. Precision gives way to the big picture, and in Pisces fine distinctions blur. Mercury in Jupiter’s signs reads as messengers who serve kings.- fall
- Piscesimpression and intuitionPut low in Pisces, a feminine, double-bodied water sign ruled by Jupiter. Its quality is wet. Pisces is both Mercury’s detriment and its fall. Fall is the sign opposite a planet’s exaltation, and there its significations lose standing. Pisces is Venus’s exaltation, and in Rhetorius’ scheme desire and pleasure are raised there and the intellect is lowered.Mercury in Pisces shows up as thinking by impression and intuition, imaginative or poetic speech, trouble with exact figures and fine distinctions, plans that change with the mood, and attention split between two things.
The dashed lines join opposites: detriment sits opposite the house, and fall opposite exaltation.
Mercury’s exaltation lands inside one of its own domiciles, so Virgo is its domicile and its exaltation at once. Both pairs are oppositions (domicile faces detriment, and exaltation faces fall), so the far end of that same axis has to double too, and Pisces is its detriment and fall together. That one coincidence has two consequences, and no other planet in the scheme has it. Virgo is the strongest sign on this plate, and the weakest sits directly opposite it.
condition
- sect
- commonMercury isn’t fixed to either team. By one rule it joins the day team when it rises before the Sun as a morning star, and the night team when it sets after the Sun as an evening star. A second rule disagrees. Mercury’s side has to be worked out in each chart before it can be read.Mercury is also neither benefic nor malefic. It takes on the character of the planets it’s with, and it helps when it’s with Jupiter or Venus and harms when it’s with Mars or Saturn. As a morning star it’s counted masculine, and as an evening star feminine.
- joy
- the first placeA planet’s joy is the place where it’s gladdest to be, whatever sign it’s in. Mercury’s is the first place, the Hour-Marker or Helm, where the chart starts. It sits on the horizon, where the upper half of the chart (spirit) meets the lower half (the body), and Mercury carries things between the two.The first place signifies the person’s body, life, character and conduct, and the early part of life. Mercury in the first adds its speech, reasoning, learning and skill to these.
powers and transformations
The Transformation WandOne object, three times. Each asks a little more of her.
Transformation PenGiven, not earned. “Mercury Power, Make Up.”
Star Power StickThe upgrade. “Mercury Star Power, Make Up.”
Crystal Change RodIt has wings and runs on her own crystal instead of the Moon’s. “Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up.”
Mercury Goggle (analyzing visor)Her signature tool is a translucent visor that snaps across her eyes on command and scans the enemy for structure, weak points and hidden mechanisms. Her first move in any fight is to understand it. The visor appears in both continuities as Mercury’s defining gadget.
Mercury (mini) SupercomputerA handheld computer that she summons to run the visor’s data, model the battlefield and give the team a plan. In the manga she has it with her all the time from her debut. In the anime it is the reason she is the one who says where to strike.
what she can do
- Mercury Power, Make Uptransformation
The first call, “Mercury Power, Make Up”. Luna hands it over, and Ami is no longer only the smartest girl in the room.
- Sabão Sprayattack
Her first attack makes bubbles thick enough to blind a room. Instead of hitting the monster, she stops it seeing the fight.
- Mercury Star Power, Make Uptransformation
The second wand. From here on, “Mercury Star Power, Make Up” replaces the first call.
- Shine Aqua IllusionattackR · S · SuperS
Water, frozen on the way.
She has no new moves in this arc and carries the Star Power Stick and Shine Aqua Illusion straight through.
- Mercury Crystal Power, Make Uptransformation
The third and last call. It is powered by her own crystal instead of by the Moon, so the power is no longer lent to her.
- Mercury Aqua Rhapsodyattack
Played on the Mercury Harp.
She has no new moves in this arc and ends the series on Mercury Crystal Power, Shine Aqua Illusion and Mercury Aqua Rhapsody.
variations
Labelled by source. The manga is the primary text here. The anime, Crystal and the live-action series are separate continuities that sometimes disagree, and where they do, this site argues from the manga.
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manga
Sailor Mercury
Act 2 -
manga
Super Sailor Mercury
Infinity arc -
manga
Eternal Sailor Mercury
Stars arc -
manga
Princess Mercury
Silver Millennium -
anime
Sailor Mercury
season 1 -
anime
Super Sailor Mercury
SuperS onward -
crystal
Sailor Mercury
season 1 -
pgsm
Sailor Mercury
2003
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