Template:InfoboxCharacter Usagi "Chibiusa" Tsukino is one of the central fictional characters in the Sailor Moon metaseries. When she first appears, she is a small child from the 30th century who visits the past to seek help from the series' primary heroines, the Sailor Senshi, in order to restore her mother, Neo-Queen Serenity, to normal. Neo-Queen Serenity had been injured whilst shielding Chibi-Usa from one of the Black Moon Clan's dark energy attacks; the queen would've used the Silver Crystal, but at the time the powerful stone had vanished.
She later returns, a few years older, in order to train as a Senshi herself (Sailor Chibi Moon) due to her mother's request for her to go back in time to train with her teenaged self so she could learn how to defend the planet properly, and make friends as well.
Chibi-usa is formally named Usagi Small Lady Serenity, in contrast to her mothers former royal name Princess Serenity, but in the 20th century she goes by the name Chibi-Usa. She is given her nickname by Mamoru Chiba in the manga and anime in order to differentiate from the older Usagi Tsukino. The nickname is a combination of chibi (meaning runt, dwarf, shrimp) and her given name, Usagi. In her own time period, she is always called Small Lady. In the English-language adaptations, where Usagi had been changed to Serena, the diminutive "Rini" was used for Chibiusa's name.
She is the very much loved daughter of Usagi Tsukino, and Mamoru, and the only grandchild of Queen Serenity, the late ruler of the Silver Millennium. She was born in 30th century Crystal Tokyo, and is Crystal Tokyo's crown Princess. As the queen's daughter she is also the heiress to the powerful Silver Crystal which she will use to defend the planet in her distant future.
Profile
Creator Naoko Takeuchi describes Chibiusa as a precocious brat who likes pulling pranks. She is the daughter of Usagi Tsukino and Mamoru Chiba. Her real name is the same as her mother's, but she is called Chibiusa in Japanese (and Rini, the diminutive of "Serena" in English) to avoid confusion between the two. She is known for having pink hair put into a unique style that resembles rabbit ears on top of her head. Chibiusa's hair is apparently truly pink, and not just colored that way for stylistic purposes; its color is stated in the manga's first Picture Diary and in the poem about her in the Sailor Stars CD single.
In Act 20 of the manga, it's mentioned that she is 900 years old, her youthful appearance attributed to the fact that she suddenly stopped growing when she was five. The reason for this is never fully understood, but she begins to age after she becomes Sailor Chibi Moon. By the time of the Dream story arc, she claims to be 902. Her exact age was not disclosed in the anime, and her time traveling complicates guessing. The candles on a birthday cake in one memory indicate that she is about five years old when first introduced, and she seems to be 8 or 9 years old when she returns later on. Exposure to the Silver Crystal renders all of Crystal Tokyo's inhabitants functionally immortal.
Chibiusa's affections come into conflict because she generally does not immediately identify Usagi and Mamoru as being her parents, although she is aware of the fact. There is evidence that Chibiusa has a hard time identifying Usagi and Mamoru as being her parents since she sees such a sharp contrast in personality between their present and future selves. She also reacts differently toward Usagi and Mamoru than she does towards King Endymion and Neo-Queen Serenity, being more respectful to the latter but more spontaneous to the former; it is not clear if she prefers one set over the other. Sometimes she'll identify Mamoru as 'Daddy' (Papa in Japanese) but never refers to Usagi as her mother. However, she always calls her father Mamoru as Mamo-chan (in the 20th century), an affectionate nickname by Usagi, and has an innocent crush on him, much to Usagi's fury.
Chibiusa is usually very upbeat, extroverted and outgoing. Though she started out socially awkward, she quickly became popular with her classmates. In the manga, she once became president of her class. Her initial shyness could be attributed to the fact that she was teased in the 30th-century for not having any Senshi powers. As the manga progresses, she gradually matures, becoming more comfortable with herself and more confident with her Senshi abilities. Because her dream in the manga is to become a beautiful lady, her actions often are based around this. She tries to be a perfectionist and starts off trying to do everything alone and for herself. This view evolves as she realizes what maturity really is and what it really means to be an adult.
In the anime, she is more judgmental and does not mature as much as her manga counterpart. She often picks on Usagi for being so scatterbrained. In the SuperS movie, she describes Usagi as "a klutz, a ditz, and a crybaby." However, there are many instances where Usagi and Chibiusa show their love and concern for one another, such as when Sailor Moon breaks down crying after Mistress 9 takes Chibiusa's pure heart crystal, afterward Usagi is also shown feeling incredibly gulty for putting her daughter in such terrible danger, and for her sake vows to find a way to save both her and Hotaru (her best friend) or when she dives off Nehalenia's balcony which was rising toward the Dark Moon to save her daughter, after Nehelenia threw her off it. Nevertheless, the two often bicker, often behaving more like sisters than mother and daughter.
Chibiusa's dream is to one day become a real lady, to have her own prince, and to be friends with everyone she knows. Meanwhile, she is a fairly ordinary little girl; she likes pink and red, pudding, pancakes, and rabbits. Her favorite school subject is drawing, while her least favorites are language classes. Her least favorite food is listed in the manga as carrots, just like Usagi, but they both eat them in the anime. Chibiusa hates taking care of the house and is afraid of such things as thunder and lightning, ghosts, vampires, dentists, and needles. She also likes to collect things with rabbits on them, and belongs to the Gardening Committee at school. She is very short when she first appears, but grows slightly taller as she gets older. Her blood type is B as she is very active,loves things to be done her way and noisy at times according to the Japanese blood type personalities.
Later in the anime, she seems to have taken after Usagi's eating habits. She offered to eat Luna's food after Luna learned that Artemis had a daughter.
Aspects and Forms
Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity
Small Lady, Chibiusa's true form as a princess, as seen in the anime. The royal gown shown here is nearly identical to Princess Serenity's.
Often shortened by her parents and family friends to Small Lady, this is the name that Chibiusa is known by in the future. It is unchanged in the part of the English anime dubbed by DiC, but changed to Little Lady in the episodes dubbed by Cloverway.
In the manga, this form appears more frequently and receives more explanation. It is the name given to her by her parents so she often uses this to identify herself in the future. The only other character to use it, besides the royal family and its friends and allies, is Diana, who periodically calls her by Small Lady and uses honorific endings to indicate that Chibiusa is a princess. Her princess form also appears in Artbooks IV and the Materials Collection, in which she is drawn among the other Senshi in their specific gowns. She wears a light pink gown unique from all the others.
In the anime, Chibiusa changes into her princess form when she needs more power than her Senshi or civilian forms allow, similar to how her parents can become Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity when they need more power. In this form, she wears a dress and jewelry identical to that of Princess Serenity, albeit smaller. This happens twice, during the final battles of the second and fourth series. Like her mother, she once grows a pair of functioning, angelic wings. She does this after Usagi, as Serenity, grabs her while they are falling during the climax of Supers, and the two of them collide with Pegasus. It is unknown if she grew the wings on her own or with Usagi's or Pegasus' help.
In the anime, it's not told where she got the name from, but again it is only used by the royal family and friends. She mainly goes by Chibiusa, even to the point where in the 20th century she asks Setsuna to call her Chibiusa instead of Small Lady.
In Act 40 of the manga, it is stated that when she is old enough she will become Princess Lady Serenity. This form is shown in Artbooks IV and V and in Helios' dreams giving a strong indication that they will marry in the future. This older future form is never shown or mentioned in the anime, though an older Chibiusa is shown in episode 158 when she and Usagi switch ages.
Special Powers and Items
From Chibiusa's first appearance, it is clear that she is not just a normal girl: she falls out of the sky, pulls a gun on Usagi apparently from nowhere, and hypnotizes the Tsukino family into adopting her. All of these "powers" are assisted by objects and by other people.
Luna-P
Luna-P Ball
Her primary tool is the cat-faced rubber ball called Luna-P (alternately called "Lunaball" or "Luna Sphere" in the DiC anime). Luna-P is a mechanical object (strongly resembling Luna, much to the real cat's alarm) which Chibiusa regards as her closest friend and which acts as her guardian. It can be used as a communication device, particularly with Sailor Pluto, and can be transformed into other objects Chibiusa may need by use of a special phrase—"Abracadabra Pon" in the manga and "Luna-P Transform" or "Luna-P Magic" in the anime.
Key of Space-Time
The Stallion Reve given to Chibi-Usa by Helios
Chibiusa travels through time at various points in the series using the Key of Space-Time given to her by Sailor Pluto (in the manga, she stole it). She time-travels by holding up the key and shouting, "Time Guardian! Tear apart the sky, and open the space-time door to me! I call the true name of the almighty god of time, the time guardian's father! Chronos! Reveal to me the path of light!"
Development
Adding in Usagi's child to the Sailor Moon storyline, as well as her name, Chibiusa for a chibi (little) Usagi, was the idea of Naoko Takeuchi's editor, Fumio Osano. Takeuchi has stated that she did not think much about how Chibiusa's hair would look, besides it having odango like Usagi's hair and being pink; and that she used a Chibiusa doll for reference on the hair.
The first appearance of Chibiusa as a Sailor Senshi is in a side story, a year and a half before Sailor Chibi Moon made her debut in the manga. In the first Picture Diary, Chibiusa is rescued by Sailors Moon and Venus and dreams that night about becoming a "soldier of love and justice" herself. She calls herself "Sailor Chibiusa Moon" and appears in a uniform slightly different from the one she wears later, most notably including a cape.
Takeuchi struggled with a name for Black Lady, initially calling her "the Black Queen" and retaining her childlike appearance. Takeuchi also noted that the leg-slit on Black Lady's dress was even more revealing in the anime than in the manga, something which shocked her as she had wondered if the slit was going too far in her drawings of Black Lady.
Reception and Influence
The official Sailor Moon character popularity poll listed Chibiusa, Sailor Chibi Moon, Princess Lady Serenity, and Black Lady as separate entities. In 1993, with fifty choices, Chibiusa was the most popular character, Black Lady was the thirteenth most popular, and Luna-P, an item of Chibiusa's, was the seventeenth most popular character. In 1994, with fifty one choices, Sailor Chibi Moon was the second most popular character, Chibiusa was the eighth most popular, and Luna-P was the twenty sixth most popular character. In early 1996, with fifty one choices, Sailor Chibi Moon was again the second most popular character, Chibiusa was the eleventh most popular, and Princess Lady Serenity, an older form of Small Lady, was the twenty fourth most popular character.
Despite this, Chibiusa has been described by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy as "unpopular" even among Japanese audiences, at least in the anime.
Actresses
Miyazaki Noeru as chibiusa in the musicals
In the stage musicals, Chibiusa was frequently double-cast, and has been played by 14 actresses: Ai Miyakawa, Mao Kawasaki, Tamaki Dia Shirai, Natsumi Takenaka, Ayano Gunji, Arisu Izawa, Kasumi Takabatake, Noël Miyazaki, Aisha Yamamoto, Nanami Ota, Mao Ono, Mina Horita, and Moe Osaki. Years later, Mao Kawasaki went on to portray her evil adult form, Black Lady. This character was also played by Shion Nakamaru. Ayano Gunji, the longest running Chibiusa actress, stated that the manga and anime of Sailor Moon was #1, and she was happy to watch the show. She also stated she became even happier when she was able to wear ChibiMoon's costume, and wanted to live actively like Chibiusa.
Chibiusa does not appear in the live-action series, although Usagi shows signs of being pregnant (such as morning sickness) during the direct-to-DVD Special Act.
Trivia
- Although Chibiusa was popular among young Japanese fans, there was notable dislike of the character within the Western fandom.
- Chibiusa's odango gave an impression of a rabbit's ears. This, together with her red eyes, pink hair and pink sailor fuku, made her like a pink rabbit.
- In the anime, Chibiusa's princess dress was identical in style to Princess Serenity's, but in the manga her dress was of a different design and color.
- Chibiusa's best subject in school was art.
- In the anime, Chibiusa was shown to have a fear of thunderstorms, just as her mother did.
- Chibiusa pretends to be rather 'cold' toward Usagi but in truth, Chibiusa loves her more then anyone.
- Unlike in the English dub, Chibiusa never refers to Usagi as her mother, she does not see her as a mother, just a "sister".
- Chibiusa is notebly close with all the Sailor Senshi.
- In the manga, Chibiusa looks almost exactly like Usagi.
- Chibiusa at times is a brat who likes being annoying and obnoxious but she is mostly a sweet, caring, gentle, childlike girl who dreams of love and being like her mother.
- "Ewamaria Björkström-Roos" made the Swedish dub for Chibiusa.