Sailor Star Maker, stage on!

Poor Maker was seriously gyped in this department, at least in the anime SM anyway. And the sad thing is, she's not supposed to be. Maker's the tallest of the Starlights, with (in the anime) long brown hair brushed away from her forehead, and (usually) purple eyes. I say usually because the artists in the anime can't seem to make up their minds about them: they're sometimes grey, sometimes purple, and sometimes dark pink. I'm not exactly sure what that's supposed to mean except, perhaps, that the anime is being reprehensibly careless, which annoys me a whole lot, because they aren't doing Maker justice! (Grrrr...^^;;;) 90% of the time, both Maker and Taiki are terribly animated: overexaggerating her (actually, it's 'his') height or making her look like she's balding at age 16, which is pathetic, let me say that right now. And speaking of her (his) hair, I have serious issues with the way the anime artists drew it. In the episode where he abandons Ami while she's being attacked (in vol.7, I think), you could seriously impale yourself on those spikes that's supposed to be his hair. And they practically warped his face into something beyond recognition. If it weren't for the characteristic balding forehead and hair color the anime gave her, I'd probably take him to be Monster of the Day.-_-;;;
In actuality, Maker is stunningly beautiful, in my humble opinion...just not in the anime. Manga Maker is a tall, willowy, mature young woman with sensuous curves in, well, "all the right places," so to speak.^_^ She has a head of silky, healthily sleek hair--and it's auburn, not brown. Her eyes are an amethyst purple, sharp and penetrating, yet equally capable of softness and warmth. (FYI, She is not always in a bad mood; Maker actually has a sense of humor, thank you very much. But more on that later.)

Taiki, no matter boy or girl, turns into Sailor Star Maker by shouting the phrase, "Maker Star Power--MAKE UP!" And you all know what her uniform is, after all, it's one of the Starlights' charms.^_^ Anyway, before I run way off track with my rambling, Maker's costume varies slightly from the manga to the anime. In the former, she has three, thin magenta/purple rings around her neck; in the anime, she has two thicker (uglier, IMO) rings. The same goes for her arm band: the manga version consists of three half-rings connected on both ends, and the anime is the same design, except with two half-rings. Needless to say, I like the manga version better.^_^
Now about Maker's attack phrase... A few years ago, I probably would've attacked the computer screen if I heard someone claim Maker's attack was "Star Gentle Uterus," because I found the name to be rather tasteless, inelegant, and all-together not a name Tacheuchi-sensei would use.^_^; Now...well, now, I concede (slightly) to the translation of Maker's very strange attack, because it does make sense. The uterus, as everyone knows, is the womb, where children are conceived. Thus it's logical for someone named "Maker" to have an attacked named after the organ. And seeing as Takeuchi-sensei does not speak English, she probably thought the word sounded cool in an attack (rolls right off the tongue, you know^^), and--thinking the definition fitting--used it for Maker, unwittingly causing this poor senshi to be the subject of many jokes. (Which I laugh at myself, admittedly.^_^)
Yet for aesthetic reasons I will not use that attack phrase in my stories. Despite what anyone says to convince me otherwise, having the word "uterus" in an attack keeps bring to mind a flying womb from the abdomen of a woman. And that's one disgusting image.-_-;;; I can't just not think of the word's meaning when I read or write "Star Gentle Uterus," so I gave her another attack name with a word I found in the 'u' section of the American Heritage College Dictionary, replacing "uterus" with "utterance." ^_^ This word has two meanings: the first and more well-known one is 'to utter (a sound, etc.)', but the second one, and the one I decided would work for Maker's weapon, is 'a silent end; a bitter end.' It makes sense, doesn't it, to name an attack the "gentle utterance"? Maker shoots to kill (in the manga, at least... Sailor Moon kinda steals the thunder in the anime), so to her enemies, it is indeed a "gentle but bitter end." (Though the other meaning of "utterance" can work too, like she's 'uttering' something gently, but that doesn't seem to suit an attack as well.^_^)

From what I've seen on websites, Maker is logical, highly intelligent, but also cold and unfeeling. Her IQ rivals or surpasses Ami's (rivals in the anime, surpasses in the manga^^), and she sees the world in purely scientific terms (which is a nice way of saying she has no imagination). The latter, of course, comes from the episode where he scorns Ami's dreamy views of shooting stars, probably causing a lot of indignation from people who don't like the Starlights.^_^; I've also read that she is arrogant, looking down on others who are not as intelligent, pessimistic, and the most masculine of all three. One site labeled her as "the eternally pissed off guy," which, I thought,--though I don't agree--was very funny.^_^ (I think Asaka, who gave me Maker's pic up there, said that.)

Maker, besides being "the eternally pissed-off guy," (grin) is also the most misunderstood Starlights senshi...probably the most misunderstood out of all the senshi.-_- And that's kind of upsetting for me, being a Maker fan.^_^ She is definitely a genius (that's not even an issue!) and she is logical, practical, taking very little stock in dreams. But this is not because she's cold or unimaginative (she is neither), but because she's scientific. Maker believes--in science, in experimental results, in what she has experienced and what she can see and grasp. She is the ultimate "I'll believe it when I see it" type of person, and understandably, in a series where elusive concepts like dreams and hopes are so important and so vital, Maker comes across as cold and unsympathetic. Even I was a bit annoyed when Taiki threw cold water on Ami's wish to see the shooting star, and I like Maker a lot.^_^ But to Maker, those things-dreams, wishes on a shooting star-are unreliable and even (to put it a bit harshly) a cruel deception for the people who believe them... probably, once, including herself (though I'm only venturing a guess here...more on that later). Being a scientific, logical person, she's the type who'll look at a shooting star and proclaim that they're only "dirty snowballs trailing their debris around," absolutely ruining the romantic image everyone else around her has.^^;;; But she's not trying to be a wet blanket; that's really what she sees, and it's equally obvious to her that making wishes to a 'dirty snowball' isn't going to get them granted, hence why she was so annoyed at Ami: she couldn't understand why someone who seemed to be so similar to her (in intelligence) could actually believe in 'miracles,' like comets granting wishes or rainy nights clearing up just in time for the shooting star to be seen.

But to give Maker some credit in the 'romantic' department, she probably wasn't always so coldly scientific. Keep in mind that she has lost her home-- not just a house, not just her belongings, but everything, everything she knew and loved through Galaxia's heartless attack. In probably a few days, she's experienced her planet's destruction, her peoples' murder, and her princess' disappearance. In the face of that, it's grossly unfair to say you dislike her because her attitude sucks or whatever--how great would your attitude be if you went through what she has gone through?^_^;; Going back to what I said earlier about Maker once being a person who believed in wishes, etc.--people who do so are usually (*not* always) the imaginative ones, the writers, artists, and other creative individuals. Maker recites and writes poetry--the former is her hobby, the latter is mentioned somewhere; can't remember exactly where though--and she is a full-fledged musician, as we all know. To be successful at either of those things (and she is, even in the poetry department: she 'wrote' the lyrics of "Nagareboshi e" and other Three Lights songs), one has to be creative, and thus, imaginative. Maker was probably one of those delightful combinations of logic, science, and imagination... that is, until her planet went kaboom.^^;;;

To make my point a bit clearer, picture this purely hypothetical (but possible) scenario: the night before Galaxia attacked, Maker, Healer, and Fighter, completely unaware, were planning a picnic that will take place three days later. (Or planning a get-together in the park...whatever.^^;) They have fun, fool around, and act like normal 16 year old girls on Kinmoku. After her friends have gone to bed, Maker sits up late--to read, or write--by her bay window. When she happens to look outside, she sees a shooting star, and, spurred on by a sudden impulsiveness, she makes a wish, desiring to be happy with her family, her friends, and her princess, to whom she is devoted. The next day, Galaxia destroys everything.

If something like that happened, Maker must've remembered later--with much bitterness--how she had made such a wish, and how it all came to nothing. Being someone who, as I've said, believes in her experiences, it makes sense that Maker would now scorn unfounded wishes and dreams without substance.

Well, that's one interpretation, and since this is a character analysis, I was sort of reluctant to bring in a hypothetical scenario, but it seemed likely, and it fit with what I was trying to say, so I hope you'll all forgive me.^_^

Now, on to other parts of Maker's misunderstood personality...^^ I've heard, as I said, that Maker is arrogant. Well, actually, she's not. I think people got this idea from episodes where Taiki "looks down" on his teacher and Ami for 1) not taking advantage of his (the teacher's, not Taiki's) genius and doing more with it, and 2) believing in 'dreams'. (We went through that one already.) Once again, this is because of the way she looks at things. From Maker/Taiki's comment to her teacher, you can tell she's probably ambitious: that is, if she were the teacher, she wouldn't be at the high school, she'd be out researching, contributing to the scientific world, submitting her articles to journals, etc. It surprises her that the teacher has no such ambition, the way it surprises an avid reader that other people hate reading, or a mall crawler when he or she finds that someone else can't stand shopping. Basically, it's a natural reaction to a personality different than her own, and not because she is arrogant, that she makes the comment to the teacher.

Maker probably is pessimistic, in a way, and it's due to one of her flaws: she seems like the type who thinks things through so much that she winds up with more than one way things can happen in a certain situation, and invariably mixed in there would always be a "worst-case scenario." In other words, she comes up with so many ways an event can go wrong that she comes out as a pessimist to the people around her. Have you ever had a great idea, and then it gets shot down by one of your friends because he or she points out all the things wrong with it? That's sort of what Maker's like, and it comes from being a thinker, I believe. She and others like her are usually the 'wet blankets', to reuse the term, and they usually don't mean it, they're just trying to make people aware of the inherent problems they see: a task most of us don't like to do.^_^

Maker is not "eternally pissed off," as amusing as that phrase is.^^ She's very serious in the anime most of the time because (I think) they were trying to show how stressed she is by all that's happened so far. Up until the princess reappeared before them, she doesn't have much to smile about. Though some of you might argue that being famous idols is definitely something to be happy over, it certainly isn't for Maker. That is not only because being an idol isn't their real objective, it's also because Maker doesn't like the spotlight. If there were a way to make their princess notice them without being idols, she'd choose that way instead. Have you noticed how Maker doesn't talk much (only when she needs to), and rarely yells at people when she's angry? (There's an edge to her voice, but she doesn't really scream at others.^^) She's a naturally quiet person, probably due to her thoughtful and introspective nature, a characteristic of the intellectual, which I will explain in the next paragraph.^^

Maker is, as I just said, an intellectual, and by that I mean she's the sort who thirsts for knowledge, learns for learning's sake, and reads because she wants to, not because she has to. These people are usually also the ones who think a lot, but say little. They prefer to observe, but not be the center of attention. (Seiya/Fighter is the exact opposite.^^) Hence, Maker dislikes the noise and the glamour of fame--notice how she got so incredibly annoyed when the Three Lights were being mobbed in front of the school, with those screaming girls snapping pictures right and left, asking for autographs, and generally making nuisances out of themselves. Maker hates that sort of stuff, as her reaction to the girls clearly shows us; she'd choose a book over fame any day. And if that sounds absurd to most of us, think about it this way: Maker is a very goal-oriented person. She needs to have something to strive for, to throw all her energy in, and most importantly, she needs to see something come out of her hard work, or she'll get discouraged. Currently, this 'something' is finding their princess through their music. Maker is willing to sacrifice her own personal preferences to become an idol musician, but look at how upset she got when nothing came of their modeling, singing, and acting besides having a bunch of obsessed fans hound them everyday. (In the episode where that little girl drew a picture of Princess Kakyuu when she heard the Three Lights' songs.) It was only after Maker saw the drawing of her princess, and knew their songs were actually reaching someone, that she got herself back together and went to sing in the concert. So unless fame was going to help achieve her goal, Maker is perfectly happy without it and all its downsides.

And now, after all that, time for a bit of Maker's 'less-serious' side. (Yes, she has one.^^) The tallest Starlight senshi has a sense of humor, she does find things funny, and for heaven's sake, she does do more than scowl.^_^ If something tickles her funnybone enough, Maker is perfectly capable of cracking up, as evidenced in the episode where Usagi blew up the cake in the oven--live on TV.^^; In the anime, there was this one part where the Starlights are on the school roof (and btw, I like the manga portrayal of them better^^), and Healer/Yaten makes a comment about how she's "sick of being a student again," to which Maker/Taiki replies, with a happy, closed-eye smile, "But it's fun to learn!" You could take that at face value, but I think it's also Maker poking fun at Healer's obvious dislike for her classes. She doesn't make belly-laugh jokes, but when she gets a chance, her comments are the wry sort which will crack a smile or two.^_^

Out of all three Starlights, Maker is probably the most responsible, in the sense that it's probably her who does most of the cleaning, cooking, and looking after of her team mates. (Poor Maker~!^^) We know Maker's a good cook, so it's very likely that she does act as the Three Lights' resident chef, and judging from how clean their living room always looks, Maker probably does do some housework. (Somehow I can't picture Seiya or Yaten being very enthusiastic about that.^^) In addition, her two friends probably look at her in a way similar to how the inners look at Makoto and Ami: the responsible, homework-help, big-sister sort of figure.^_^ And Maker, despite scenes in the anime to the contrary, is an essentially nice (if a bit confused) person, who cares very much for her friends. (Both she and Healer were practically frantic when Fighter was wounded.) So, even if her friends' habits might cause her to complain, Maker probably doesn't mind taking care of them.^_^ After all, those two are all she really has left of her old life.

Lastly, (I know how all of you are cheering now^^) that whole thing about Maker being the most masculine. I really hope people are talking about her appearance and not her personality, because in the former, I understand perfectly--the anime artists can't draw--but in the latter, that's definitely a delusion.^_^;; Maker's not masculine in anything but appearance, and even then, that's only in the anime. It's not as if she's all out feminine either--Healer has that title-- she's just an average genious girl.^^ (Look, it's an oxymoron!! :D) Being practical, I think she probably doesn't like to 'waste her time' on things like make-up (like Healer^_^). Instead, she seems like the type who opts for being neat and clean, choosing clothes which are subdued, comfortable, but not sloppily casual. (Fighter is more likely to wear clothes like the last type when she's not at concerts.^_^) Although I must say the one pic Takeuchi-sensei drew of the Starlights in regular clothes and not disguised as guys sort of blew Maker's 'conservative dress' theory out of the water.^_^;; Oh well, they were sort of performing/posing in that pic, so I doubt those are the clothes they wear everyday.^^;;;

So in conclusion, I hope my portrayal of Maker doesn't make anyone howl angrily in their seat about how off it all is, and I'd be really happy if anyone reads this and decides that they do like Maker, after all.^^ That'd make my day.^_^