Greenstone - a memorial of love

- unsolicited testimonial from National Geographic magazine - okay, they were talking about rocks, but it still sounds good. Yep, that's Nephrite - the tuff one! *^.^*

The second of the generals of the Dark Kingdom to go head-to-head with the Sailor Senshi. Nephrite succeeded Jadeite, who, following an embarrassing series of rather clumsily executed energy-gathering schemes, was imprisoned in a crystal block by Queen Beryl, who did not suffer fools gladly but was glad to see fools suffer.

How to describe Nephrite? Tall and imposing, with long, thick, wavy auburn hair and ice-blue eyes. The detail-obsessed will recall that the decorative piping on his uniform was yellow, and that although he wore the fried-egg-like epaulettes denoting superior rank, he did not wear a cape as Kunzite did. Nephrite had a remarkably expressive face, and depending on his mood could look absolutely fiendish or utterly sweet.

Sexy Neph

'I am a sexy bitch.'

Nephrite was arrogantly confident of his ability to outdo his predecessor, but his confidence was, to some extent, justified. Jadeite's characteristic MO was to get a bunch of people assembled together and drain energy from all of them, indiscriminately. Nephrite favoured quality over quantity, and used astrology to divine the whereabouts of individuals coming to the most critical moment of their lives, when their personal energy would be at its most potent and precious.

Nor did Nephrite share Jadeite's apparent love of dressing up. Apart from a regrettable incident when he disguised himself as Tuxedo Kamen (the suit looked good, it's just that a top hat on top of a head of hair like Nephrite's looks faintly ridiculous) he assumed only one cover identity: Sanjouin Masato, wealthy, powerful and generally rather interesting young man-about-town.

Sporty Neph

He first introduced himself as a tennis coach, and his personal style was in accord with this. He generally wore a blue sports coat over a lemon-yellow collarless shirt with the top button undone, and crisp light-coloured pants. He also drove a noisy red Ferrari like a maniac. (Apparently, when you finally get out of Dark Kingdom headquarters for the first time in a thousand years, the first thing you want to do is find something that goes VRROOOM.)

In person, Nephrite was undeniably charming, if sometimes intimidating, and Naru's crush on him is quite understandable. One of the few people to find no redeeming virtues in him was Zoisite, the third general, who made no secret of his low opinion of Nephrite, taking every opportunity to run him down in front of Queen Beryl and making many a snaky, undermining comment. Nephrite appears to have written Zoisite off as nothing more than an annoyance - hey, bitches happen - which was, in the end, his only really fatal miscalculation.

Driven by resentment, ambition and spite, Zoisite had Nephrite assassinated at what was really the most critical time of Nephrite's own life - when he was beginning to be redeemed through Naru's love. Zoisite would not face in person an adversary who he knew to be stronger than himself. Nephrite might have made a powerful and valuable ally to the Sailor Senshi, had he but lived. We'll never know.

In the manga, Nephrite is nothing special (other than visually *^.^*). The anime transformed him into a three-dimensional character of real depth and interest, a truly tragic figure destroyed by hubris. (Objectively, I realise he was destroyed by a big thorn that went through his shoulder, but I'm sure Aristotle would say it was hubris.)

For a proper study of Nephrite's relationship with Naru and how it affected him, visit the History section of this shrine.

Interesting: Naoko's notes on the character in the Materials Collection artbook: Among the four generals, he is the eldest-son type. (She calls Zoisite a 'youngest child' type. However, Kunzite is supposed to be the eldest of them, at 25 or 26 years of age. Naoko apparently fancied the pants off Kunzite.)