In the Materials collection, it is stated that Jadeite is about the same height as Zoisite, and his estimated age is 18. During the Silver Millennium, Jadeite and the other Shitennou originally were not evil - they served under Prince Endymion as his guardians and advisors. They were, however, tempted by the power of the Dark Kingdom (like most other humans), and fell to it. They eventually become good again, and advise Mamoru when he needs their help.
Jadeite is the first of the Dark Kingdom's Shitennou to appear in the manga. He appears in Volume 1, Act 1, but is not named until Act 2, when he calls himself the commander of the Far East. His first plot is to have a youma pose as Naru Osaka's mother at the Jewelry OSA-P store selling jewelry which drains its wearers of their energy. When this first plot fails, he moves on to his second plot, where he sets up a cram school attended by Ami Mizuno called Crystal Seminar, where students are drained of their energy.
After this, too, fails, his final plot, in Act 3, is to trap the senshi on a bus. He kidnaps students riding the 6:00 bus (#666) from Sendai Hill, which is near the Hikawa Shrine. He manages to hypnotize Rei into boarding the bus, and takes the bus to another dimension. Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury confront him, and Sailor Moon uses her Moon Frisbee to prevent him from moving. He can still, however, use powers stemming from his vision, and attacks both senshi. Sailor Mercury, prompted by Luna, throws a transformation pen at Rei, who immediately transforms into Sailor Mars and attacks him with one of her anti-evil scrolls.
Nephrite preserves his skeleton in a glass coffin and vows to bring him back to life, which he temporarily does when Princess Serenity is found. Unfortunately, he and the other Shitennou were immediately turned into precious stones afterwards.
In the later side story Casablanca Memories, Zoisite also tried and failed to avenge Jadeite's death.
In the anime, Jadeite was primarily focused in gathering human energy to awaken the ruler of the Dark KingdomQueen Metalia. When plotting for a method to steal human energy, Jadeite would observe the behavior of humans and then report back to the Dark Kingdom appearing in front of Queen Beryl to explain his plans. Once approval was sought from Queen Beryl, he would dispatch his servant i.e. a youma to take on a human disguise and with the aid of the youma start gathering energy from the humans. His method for gathering human energy would be to draw large crowds using his youma and trick them into buying goods charged with dark energy (e.g. jewellery, Chanelas, clocks, good luck charms) or use services that stole human energy (e.g. “relaxation pods”, tarot cards and computer applications).
From the beginning, Jadeite was fairly confident of himself, often taking a hands-on approach by physically being present in his plots. As a master of disguise, Jadeite would assume numerous human alter-egos and personae; masquerading as a radio host (J Dite), a gym instructor, an MC for a talent contest, a caretaker for the Hikawa Shrine, as well as a security guard at an amusement park. However, his pride got to him as he underestimated the strength of Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars who always foiled his plans and killed his youma. For every death of his youma, the stolen energy disappears as Jadeite is summoned to face Queen Beryl for his failures.
Very little reference was made about his past. The only reference made to his past includes Jadeite collaborating with an old acquaintance named Thetis. Thetis was one of Queen Beryl’s best youma. Initially reluctant, Jadeite accepts her “romantic cruise strategy”, after the thought appealed to him. Thetis, under the supervision of Jadeite, implements the scheme hoping to drain the love energy from couples on board the cruise ship. But this plan is foiled by Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars who were also on board the ship and destroyed Thetis just like any other youma.
Upon reporting back to Queen Beryl, Jadeite was grilled for the use of her best youma and punished him with an ultimatum: finally destroy the Sailor Senshi forever otherwise be condemned to eternal sleep. Desperate, Jadeite though an illusion in the sky; challenges Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars to a duel at the main runway of Haneda Airport at one o’clock in the morning otherwise he would burn the city Tokyo to the ground. Luna consults with Rei, Ami Mizuno and Usagi Tsukino over the perceived threat.
Rei decides to accept Jadeite's duel while Ami refuses believing that it may be a trap. Thinking it was a hoax the police play down the threat. However, the threat to burn the city to the ground cannot be ignored and as such the police station teams of police at the airport. Usagi who was scared decides that the trio should not fight but later changes her mind and accepts the duel citing concerns over her school mates as they voice their interest in watching the upcoming fight. Jadeite dispensed of the police presence at the airport by using telekinesis to put them to sleep and replaced them with imitations made up of mud. Upon arriving at the airport in a specially chartered monorail carriage, Rei, Ami and Usagi are chased by the fake police assault teams to the main runway where the trio transform into Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars and dispose of the fake police with her Fire Soul attack. After witnessing the trio transform Jadeite learned of their true identities and begins his battle by again using telekinesis to control nearby 747 jumbo jets to chase after them.
Sailor Mars tries to use her Fire Soul attack but is prevented by Luna given the huge damage that would result if either 747 jumbo jet is destroyed. The nearby 747 jumbo jet continue to chase after the trio, until Tuxedo Mask arrives and fights with Jadeite, who supposedly killed Tuxedo Mask (he was later shown to have survived). Jadeite made the 747 jumbo jets chase after the trio again, but they devised a plan. Sailor Moon got one of the jets to chase after her while Sailor Mercury used her Sabão Spray attack to obscure Jadeite’s vision. While the other jet chased her, Sailor Mars used an anti evil scroll attack on Jadeite, which caused the two jets to chase him instead.
Just as Sailor Moon tries to finish Jadeite off with her tiara, he dodges it and appears to be teleported back to Queen Beryl before either 747 jumbo jet could flatten him. He tried to tell her that he had found out the true identities the Sailor Senshi but angered over his failed duel, she locks him into “Eternal Sleep”. Encased in a crystal and forever teleported away towards profound darkness, he is never seen again. Queen Beryl then promotes the next ShitennouNephrite as his successor.
Of all the Shitennou, Jadeite is the only one to retain his basic appearance and mannerisms in the live-action series (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon). Again, he was the first Shitennou to appear and he was totally subservient to Queen Beryl, for which she rewards him with her favor, sending him on missions that range from gathering energy using youmas to spying on his fellow warriors as well as to attacking the Senshi directly. He acquires the gift of teleportation in with the help of Zoisite but due to an injury, he loses his gift of teleportation and disappears early in the series, with Queen Beryl congealing him into a hisui (jade) form. Fortunately, he is revived some time later by the growing power of Queen Metalia. Firmly loyal to Queen Beryl, he rejects Prince Endymion as his true master until the very last episode of the series.
his musical, the Shitennou played high school boys assigned to romance certain Sailor Senshi. Jadeite was paired up with Rei Hino, as the musicals tended to take the famous manga illustration as canon. He was played by Susumu Nihashi.
Starlights - Ryuusei Densetsu - For this musical, Jadeite, the other Shitennou, and Queen Beryl were all revived by Sailor Galaxia as part of her plan to obtain the Sailor Senshi's Star Seeds. Once again, the character was paired with Rei Hino. The uniforms were made of a shiny royal blue material, with the front flaps open all the time like Kunzite's in the anime. The trim and flap on Jadeite's uniform was a metallic purple, and he had epaulettes. In this musical, he was played by Yuuka Asami.
Kakyuu-Ouhi Kourin - The Second Stage Final - Although Jadeite was not present in this musical, the character Kalunite was visually similar to the previous musical's Jadeite and could easily be believed to be him.
Naoko Takeuchi in her Materials Collection Art Book described him as being the second youngest Shitennou with an age of 18 years. The anime series depicts him as being 24 years of age whilst Jadeite is shown as the youngest of the Shitennou in the live-action series.
In the anime he was portrayed as more of a weak individual driven only on hate and greed. This hate appeared to have manifested into his character being sexist against women, often remarking how women and girls cannot match his power nor comprehend his methods
In the first official Sailor Moon popularity poll, Jadeite was ranked the twentieth most popular character out of thirty eight choices.
Many "Jadeite returns" fanfics have been written, depicting Jadeite's return from his Eternal Sleep.