As most of us know, Ami is usually the top-rated character of the Sailor Moon anime, usually followed by Chibiusa and then Usagi! But why is this?

As I am watching the show, I noticed it even more this time, Ami is totally awesome. Not that she wasn't... but compared to everything else going on. She's just so cool, she's always prepared to fight, to stand up to people even if they're a little scary,  three episodes in a row, all on her own she confronts Sakiko's Father, then Nephrite then Tuxedo Mask. Never needs help. Unlike Usagi and Rei who in these episodes are sometimes a little disinterested in being Sailor Soldiers. Thinking about the rest of the series, Ami gets the best share of episodes, we see so many different sides of personality, her kindness, her shyness, her studiousness, her secret hobbies and interests, her beliefs in love and friendship, her personal anxieties and fears and her insecurities throughout the series. Ami is probably the most relatable of characters for a wide audience, for studious children, she's a role model, which was probably encouraged by parents, her shyness, for shy people, her bravery for the not-so-shy, her slight nerdiness-yet-not-nerdiness for the little-bit geeky. Her less "classically feminine" personality compared to characters like Minako or Michiru, make her easier to relate for the male audience. She's also very funny at times XD. I can totally see it! What do you guys think.

Personally Ami's not my current favourite, but she is sometimes! But I can totally see why overall she'd be the most popular

Miki you so right! Ami really does have some good episodes throughout the anime. She's also adorable in PGSM. :3

I have no idea how Usagi lasted 7 episodes without Ami o.o

Thinking about the series, everything is always Ami XD

Ami pities Berthier and Vilyui. Ami faces (and defeats!) Evil Tuxedo Mask (maybe this is a callback to when she confronted Good Tuxedo Mask), Ami is the one to defeat Zirconia, Ami's the one who gets to Taiki to talk about Seiya, Ami's the one to find the DD Girls illusion power source and destroy it, Ami's the one who manages to repel alot of villains-of-the-day including Nephrite's shadow long enough for Sailor Moon to magic it away. Ami is the one who allows Uranus to defeat the Mirror Paedri. Ami confronts many many villains all on her own.

Thank goodness she didn't go to Germany.

XD They would be screwed if she did leave for Germany. Maybe Ami should be the leader?

I didn't know she was the most popular anime character. She did have some good solo episodes, though. The one where she debates leaving for Germany and the chess match with what her face in R, the episode in S where she has the race with Michiru and the one I remember from SuperS that revealed her mad mechanic skills (might be mistaken). I'm also of the opinion she's a lot tougher than she looks ever since I saw the Stars episode where she get blasted with electricity (or some type of energy) and she's still on her feet working on her computer.

Lol that makes me think about 89 where she said she didn't want to be leader then spammed the episode with clips of her "best lines".

So much personality. Cannot handle

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I'm also of the opinion she's a lot tougher than she looks

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Definitely agree with this, she's tough under pressure. She hardly ever cracks... I can't think of a time in the anime where she actually goes, except when Usagi is putting herself in danger.

She seems the most mature inner senshi in the anime.

I wonder if that's due to her family background or her intelligence... probably a mix of both...

(Ami's probably even more mature than Haruka and Michiru too XD since Michiru reacted a little like a child in the Ami vs. Michiru episode and Ami was a couple steps ahead of Haruka in the Nehelenia arc, though Ami can't run as fast as Haruka...)

I wonder what happens when Ami and Setsuna get together?



Maybe?

I love Ami - she is my second favourite Inner, after Usagi. I am glad she is so popular - though a little pleasantly suprised - I believed she is overlooked a little. In manga was written that she was Osabu's favourite (although I'm not sure it's serious). Also, anime writers seemed to favour her - IMO, she got the most episodes and the best ones, her own special - and was the first to get powerups.

I especially love her SuperS powerup episode - one of my overall favourites.

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Ami's probably even more mature than Haruka and Michiru

Why even- Ha&Mi are such immature, that Chibiusa looks well in comparison. But ITA- in Nehellenia arc in Stars Ami was perfect.

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Ami is probably the most relatable of characters for a wide audience, for studious children, she's a role model, which was probably encouraged by parents, her shyness, for shy people, her bravery for the not-so-shy, her slight nerdiness-yet-not-nerdiness for the little-bit geeky. Her less "classically feminine" personality compared to characters like Minako or Michiru, make her easier to relate for the male audience.

She may not be "classically" feminine, but she also is not completely tomboyish. And as for her shyness - she has her moments of taking initiative with people - like with Ryo.

My favorite episode of Ami is the SuperS one where she gets her power up too! I love her anime love letter special.

I never realized that she was most popular. I'm wondering if it is because she is probably more relatable to the kinda nerdy, introverted people who (in my experience) are more into fandoms.

Also, she had a lot of personality in a more subtle way, which is probably the most realisitic. I know people in real life that are just like her, and I cannot say that for pretty much any other character

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She may not be "classically" feminine, but she
also is not completely tomboyish. And as for her shyness - she has her
moments of taking initiative with people - like with Ryo.

I totally agree with you, I think Ami has been purposely been portrayed as neither classically feminine nor tomboyish which allows a vast range of demographics be able associate with her, everyone from a middle aged working man to a little girl in kindergarten gets her.

Ami also seems to be completely immune to the stereotype placed upon her. She is not at all some supernerd with not personality. Unlike poor others like Makoto who fell into her personality trap and ended up having the majority of her episodes about her feeling inferior and having to prove herself constantly.

I like that her family situation isn't played for angst - her parents aren't perfect, but instead of holding it against them, she focuses on what they gave her, not what she lacks. (Also, in anime she was one of few, whose family background was developed - IIRC, only Usagi, Mamoru and Hotaru had it too).

I didn't know she was the most popular anime character, I always thought it was Rei xD
Ami is my second favorite character (after Usagi), I love that her strong point is her intelligence, and even if she seems very shy, she values friendship a lot!
I actually was happy that she got a lot of importance on PGSM, and even as an antagonist character, she was quite smart.

Rei is the lead-after-Usagi character in the anime, however Ami, Minako and Chibiusa all beat her in popularity at least in Japan.

I wouldn't say about second lead - if I calculate correctly, Ami gets the most episodes and a special.

OT: Chibiusa was popular?

Moonlight Lady wrote:

OT: Chibiusa was popular?

Well, as soon as she starts rolling on the Perils of the Silver Crystal table...

Moonlight Lady wrote:

I wouldn't say about second lead - if I calculate correctly, Ami gets the most episodes and a special.

OT: Chibiusa was popular?

This isn't about screen-time, otherwise Minako beats out Rei too. This is about the overall sense of the series. Rei is a more major character to the overall plot. She's the one Usagi runs to, the one Usagi's always, with, the one who takes charge when Usagi is absent. Ami and Minako both may have more featured episode than Rei, but Rei is on the whole, more important, just because she's the one closest to the main character. Its particularly noticeable in most episodes, Rei is listed before Ami in the credits, Rei transforms before the others often. Did you notice that overtime they shifted from their order of appearance into Mars-Mercury-Jupiter-Venus?

And yes Chibiusa is one of the most popular characters. She is usually second to Ami. (This is about the most popular characters in Japan in the 90s, not the Western community).

I never knew Ami was so popular O.o I always thought it would be Usagi or Minako because she seems to be a lot of people's least favorite on here.

Houyou no Senshi wrote:

This isn't about screen-time, otherwise Minako beats out Rei too. This is about the overall sense of the series. Rei is a more major character to the overall plot. She's the one Usagi runs to, the one Usagi's always, with, the one who takes charge when Usagi is absent. Ami and Minako both may have more featured episode than Rei, but Rei is on the whole, more important, just because she's the one closest to the main character. Its particularly noticeable in most episodes, Rei is listed before Ami in the credits, Rei transforms before the others often. Did you notice that overtime they shifted from their order of appearance into Mars-Mercury-Jupiter-Venus?

But the Stars opening still has Ami before Rei? Though I don't think it's the order of importance?

I'd rather say Rei's importance decreases - especially in Stars, where she goes to different school. They also seem much to abandon Hikawa Shrine as their meeting place.

And Usagi clearly loves all her fiends equally.

Well a lot of the inners get shafted in Stars. It kinda becomes the Ami-Minako-Taiki-Seiya show or at least it feels that way at times. xD

Moonlight Lady wrote:

Houyou no Senshi wrote:

This isn't about screen-time, otherwise Minako beats out Rei too. This is about the overall sense of the series. Rei is a more major character to the overall plot. She's the one Usagi runs to, the one Usagi's always, with, the one who takes charge when Usagi is absent. Ami and Minako both may have more featured episode than Rei, but Rei is on the whole, more important, just because she's the one closest to the main character. Its particularly noticeable in most episodes, Rei is listed before Ami in the credits, Rei transforms before the others often. Did you notice that overtime they shifted from their order of appearance into Mars-Mercury-Jupiter-Venus?

But the Stars opening still has Ami before Rei? Though I don't think it's the order of importance?

I'd rather say Rei's importance decreases - especially in Stars, where she goes to different school. They also seem much to abandon Hikawa Shrine as their meeting place.

And Usagi clearly loves all her fiends equally.

I'm not saying always -.o just often, they switch Rei and Ami around and I can't think of any other reason why... also transformation scenes often have Mars going first... and their final transformation of the series together took place at Hikawa Shrine and when Mars died Moon ran to her first...

Usagi runs to Rei first, because she was the one who defended her directly - others were protecting Starlights.

If order of appearance equal order of importance, then Minako would be the least... I don't think it's significant.

There in Stars are a few times in Hikawa Shrine, but much less than i.e. in S. They switch to Crown and high school (for instance, we last see Inners and cats there).

Small Lady wrote:

Well a lot of the inners get shafted in Stars. It kinda becomes the Ami-Minako-Taiki-Seiya show or at least it feels that way at times. xD

Mako got shafted, too - though she was often in the background, unlike Rei. They maybe focused on characters they had idea to develop and interact with others...

Yeah but none the less, Rei is quite clearly, the girl Usagi is the closest to in the anime and because of that, she's more important to the overall series. Ami may have a lot of screentime, but its all very personal to her character. Rei does drop a little in Stars but so does everyone else, Ami and Minako not so much, but this might simply be due to their popularity as characters.

I didn't say order of appearance equals order of importance. When they transform, its usually in order of appearance that is Mercury-Mars-Jupiter-Venus but for some reason, this is often changed to Mars-Mercury-Jupiter-Venus, in fact I believe if I went through all episodes, this would be the most common.

You don't have to agree but thats just my view.

But where do you notice this special closeness of Usagi and Rei? In fact, I'd rather say that making friends with Rei was the most difficult for Usagi of all. Of course, later the show put more focus on girls as group than on individual relationships with Usagi. Also in Stars there seems to be kind of distance between them?

This isn't a debate thread for Usagi and Rei, so please don't derail the topic to much. Let's just stick to our favorite braniac, Ami. ^^

i think you need to rewatch the anime if you missed how close rei and usagi were to be perfectly honest... In Stars, Usagi is detached from everyone because of Mamoru's absence...

sorry brit

AMI IS THE BEST BECAUSE THAT GERMANY EPISODE WAS WONDERFUL.
(and was made into like 8 musicals for some reason)

Yeah I'm with those of you who had NO idea Ami was so popular. If anything, I had always thought that Ami was the least favorite just because of how much our society loves the stereotypical long-haired girly type. I'm glad to hear people like her though i liked her the best in PGSM, she was so cute

Well in Japan, Ami has many male fans too. I think its just Ami appeals more to different Japanese demographics