Tomoe Hotaru
Warning: Plot details follow.
Tomoe Hotaru (土萠ほたる) is a character in the Japanese anime known as Sailor Moon. She is joked to be the Boba Fett of the series; rarely seen but extremely popular. She lives with her demon-possessed father, while her mother is deceased. Hotaru was known for her extreme shyness, and weak constitution. She is technically the second youngest Senshi, although due to the bizarre nature of her body to age abnormally, her 'physical' age fluctuates at times.
Interestingly, Hotaru is the only 'Sailor Senshi' in the English dub whose name pronunciation or spelling was not intentionally modified.
Hotaru's name is pronouced in Japanese with the stress on the first syllable, not the middle.
Adding to the mystery, her violet-clad "Sailor Saturn" persona is also rarely seen in the series, nor is she seen using any magical attacks. The nature of her powers in the anime are left uncertain, although Saturn's most fearful power is the destruction she can bring by using her glaive, which fans playfully explain as appearing to be a giant, slender can opener. It is implied that she can destroy the world, although whether or not this is a dramatic exaggeration is debated. She is supposed to have buried the evidence of the fallen Silver Millennium, but has also used her power in the Sailor Moon manga, managing to 'only' destroy a fair bit of Tokyo. For a time the "Outer Senshi" are somewhat aware of her reawakening, and consequently make it part of their mission to 'deal' with her, causing the initial friction between them and the "Sailor Team". In the manga, the threat of Saturn actually doing damage is more overtly implied.
Athough much more cheerful later, Hotaru herself dresses nearly always in black and much art of her features a superficial western loligoth style, although this is more for aestetics than anything else. She also enjoys poetry and collecting lamps ("hotaru" means firefly in Japanese). Hotaru has almost no fan detractors, though ironically her best friend is ChibiUsa, one of the most disliked charcters in the show's American fandom.
n.b. In the interest of spoilers, some information about Hotaru will be left out.
In Sailor Moon's copious yuri fanfiction, she is paired almost exclusively with ChibiUsa, usually diluting the latter character's somewhat poor image among fans.
Character
Manga
Hotaru's father, Professor Tomoe, is malevolent. She was involved in a lab accident, and her father reconstructed her body as a cyborg. This is the in-plot explanation of why she wears black (to cover her skin).Anime
Hotaru's father, portrayed more sympathetically, is possessed by a demon in exchange for Hotaru's life. A 'normal' Hotaru is featured heavily in the third series, and later in the final fifth series. Changes in her father's character create a logical plothole in the anime when she lives with the Outer Senshi.Fandom
Profile
| Sailor Moon Characters: |
| Tsukino Usagi | Chiba Mamoru | ChibiUsa | Chibi-Chibi | Sailor Starlights |
| Mizuno Ami | Hino Rei | Kino Makoto | Aino Minako |
| Meiou Setsuna | Kaiou Michiru | Ten'ou Haruka | Tomoe Hotaru |
| Luna | Artemis | Diana
Other characters: Professor Tomoe |