Taiki Kou
The Silver Neela
Owner: Crow
Job: Lead Librarian

★ Seiya Kou
★ Yaten Kou

☽ Usagi Tsukino
☿ Mizuno Ami

♂ Hino Rei
♃ Kino Makoto

♀ Aino Minako
♅ Tenoh Haruka

♆ Kaioh Michiru
♇ Meioh Setsuna

♄ Tomoe Hotaru
♥ Chibiusa

♡ Chibi Chibi

★ TAIKI KOU ★

"Breaking through the darkness, I am a wandering shooting star! Sailor Star Maker, stage on!"

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Taiki Kou (大気 光) is studious, serious, and reserved -- so much so that he can be cold and distant, difficult to understand and even more difficult to get close to. He seems an unlikely candidate to be an idol, but he's one of the Three Lights, rising stars on the pop culture circuit. But this is hardly the only unlikely secret that Taiki has . . .

Taiki is actually a Senshi from a planet far outside of Earth's solar system -- she is Sailor Star Maker, one of the three Sailor Starlights. Together with her companions, she's come to Earth searching for her lost princess, and has disguised herself as a man. With Seiya and Yaten, Taiki sends a song out into the world, hoping against hope that it will reach Princess Kakyuu. But Taiki has begun to lose her hopes and dreams, becoming harsh and cynical. It's not until she slowly comes to know the guardian Senshi of Earth that she begins to take the risk of believing again -- even in the seemingly impossible task of finding her princess...

Taiki seems at first to be skeptical, cold, and dismissive -- but she slowly begins to find interest and hope outside of her mission as she reluctantly crosses paths with Earth's sailors. In the end, Sailor Star Maker chooses to side with them against Galaxia's inexorable advance, fighting with the other Senshi for love and justice!

★ WHAT'S IN A NAME ★

★ Taiki is written with the kanji 大気, which can also be read as "atmosphere". The name Kou is written as 光 ("light").

★ The three Starlights are specified not to be siblings -- their shared name, "Kou", is each of their given name. "Taiki" is the character's surname.

★ The name of their idol group, Three Lights, is both a reference to their being the Sailor Starlights, and a pun based on all three of them having the same given name meaning "light".

★ Taiki was called Erika Kot in the Danish dub and Didi (디디) in the Korean dub.

★ BITS AND PIECES ★

★ Taiki loves poetry and reading, and joins the Literature Club while at Juuban High School. She quotes the poetry of William Blake in one episode of the anime.

★ When interacting with the other Senshi, Taiki is most often shown with Ami in the anime. In the manga, she is more closely paralleled with Setsuna. Naoko Takeuchi described Taiki as being similar to Setsuna -- quiet, calm, and mysterious -- but colder and more distant.

★ Taiki occasionally wears glasses in the anime.

★ She likes the color blue, emeralds, and sushi.

★ Taiki's roles in the Three Lights are keyboards and synthesizer, background vocals, and composition.

★ Taiki wears or carries a white rose when performing.

★ Like Yaten, Taiki wants to avoid Earth's Senshi, and tries to convince Seiya to stay away from Sailor Moon.

★ Taiki's birthday is May 30^th, making her a Gemini.

★ In Naoko Takeuchi's original designs, the Sailor Starlights did not originally have the long ponytails each of them are shown with, and instead all had short hairstyles; the ponytails were added to make it easier to create dolls for the characters.

★ PRETTY SOLDIER ★

★ The Starlights come from outside of Earth's solar system; they come from a planet called Kinmoku, and are themselves Senshi based on shooting stars/comets. They are not particularly interested in protecting Earth, believing it's not their responsibility to do so.

★ The Starlights have come to Earth in search of their own princess, Kakyuu, who fled planet Kinmoku when Sailor Galaxia attacked it. They adopt pop idol personas to do so (choosing to disguise themselves as young men in the belief that they will become more popular than a girl group would) and they place a telepathic message into their songs that they hope will reach Princess Kakyuu. People with psychic sensitivity sometimes receive faint glimmers of the message while listening to the music.

★ The Starlights are main characters in the final season of the anime, on a level with Sailor Moon and the Inner Senshi. In the manga, however, they are more minor characters, and are not part of the climactic final battle as they are in the anime.

★ In the manga, the Starlights are women; their identity as male pop idols is simply cross-dressing as a disguise. In the anime, however, they have male bodies that are shown to turn female when they transform. This is never explained, so it's not clear whether the Starlights' male bodies are merely part of the disguise they have assumed on Earth, or if they always have male bodies when not transformed.
Although many countries kept the gender change intact, Stars was not included in the English, French, or Vietnamese dubs, which ended with SuperS; and in the Italian dub, the Sailor Starlights were the twin sisters of the Three Lights, with the transformation sequences treated as the Three Lights summoning their sisters to do battle.

★ MUSIC ★

★ "Nagareboshi he" ("To the Shooting Stars"), from the Three Lights' character single. "Nagareboshi he" is performed by the Three Lights several times in-series.
(Translated lyrics here)

★ "Todokanu Omoi -my friend's love-" ("Unreachable Feelings -my friend's love-"), from the Three Lights' character single.
(Translated lyrics here)

★ "Chikara Awasete" ("Combining Our Power"), Taiki's character single. It was accompanied by a spoken prologue and poem.
(Translated lyrics here)

★ PLAYED BY ★

★ Taiki was voiced by Tsunoda Narumi in the original anime (in both male and female form).

★ Taiki was portrayed by Ono Hikari and Nakayama Akiko in the Sera Myu musicals.

★ She was portrayed by Tatemichi Riona in the revival musical Sailor Moon: Le Mouvement Final.

★ MAGICAL GIRL ★

★ indicates a video! NB: Videos may contain flashing images!

SAILOR STARS SEASON/STARS ARC

Sailor Change Star: The transformation item each of the Starlights have. It consists of a white/gold earpiece with a microphone, into which Taiki says "★ Maker Star Power, Makeup!" to transform. In the manga, the Starlights also wear their brooches (shaped like winged stars) as pendants under their clothes, and hold them up as part of the transformation.
There is an ★ alternate version of Maker's transformation that appears later in the season.

★ Star Gentle Uterus: Maker's attack, in which she creates a star of white light between her hands before directing it at her target, at which point it multiplies into several spheres of energy.
An ★ alternate version is used later in the season, in which Maker uses her Sailor Star Yell to create and direct the energy spheres.

Sailor Star Yell: An item that appears only in the anime, the Sailor Star Yells are white, star-shaped items with gems in the surface and wings attached to each side. The Sailor Starlights use them to perform their attacks later in the season, although earlier in the season they attack without them.

Star Maker Relaxation, Star Maker Strike, and Star Maker Orgel: These attacks/techniques are listed for Sailor Star Maker in the Materials Collection artbook, but are never elaborated on or shown in the manga.

★

"From now on, I'll treasure dreams and romance, too."