Sailor Venus is the senshi whose powers are based on love and beauty and often golden colored (like the golden "Crescent Beam" or the "Venus LOVE-Me Chain"). The japanese kanji for Venus literally means "Gold Star". Sailor Venus was the last of the inner senshi to arrive, partially because she had been fighting evil in England for a while. Consequently, her english is much more fluent than college student Mamoru Chiba or even the studious Ami Mizuno! Sailor Venus's history as a sailor senshi prior to joining the others are mysterious and unclear. In the Sailor Moon S season, a friend of hers from England arrives and sheds some light on Venus's past. Like Sailor Moon, Venus has a cat-guardian: Artemis--her previous history as a senshi and having a cat-guardian seems to set her apart from Mars, Mercury and Jupiter.
As Minako Aino, she is a fun-loving carefree girl much like Usagi. Usagi and Minako possess many of the same "unpolished" habits, though Minako seems to be on a more mild scale. The two girls are often late to school..but Minako is not AS late. Neither Minako or Usagi can be called "studious", and their grades are not something to be desired, but it seems like Minako's academic life is not as devastating as Usagi's. In the first season of Sailor Moon, Minako comes off as a dependable senshi and a reasonable girl that knows what she's doing. There was very little hint of any extreme "Usagi-like" qualities. By the S season, I was surprised that Minako could possibly get a ridiculous idea like luring the daemons to her so that she could prove she had a pure heart. I think this episode was when my first doubts about her logic surfaced. By Sailor Stars, she seemed as silly as Usagi, if not more so. Running around like a ball of energy to be around the Three Lights (Seiya, Taiki and Yaten Kou), even Usagi gets frustrated and uncomfortable with Minako's behavior. Nevertheless, Minako DOES know when to get serious and with the ever-cautious and prudent outer senshi (Sailor Saturn, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune) back, I suppose having two "Usagi's" is alright. Not to mention the Sailor Starlights (although at first unclear whether they were friend or foe) also help fight the minions sent by Sailor Galaxia.
