Hotaru Tomoe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sailor Saturn | |
|---|---|
| Profile | |
| Name: | Hotaru Tomoe (土萠ほたる[1]) |
| English: | Hotaru Tomoe |
| Birthday: | January 6 (Capricorn)[1] |
| Age range: | 13, newborn, 5, 13 (in order throughout the series) |
| Aliases: | Princess Saturn, Mistress 9 (when possessed), Miss Dream (musicals only) |
| Affiliations: | Sailor Team, Death Busters (when possessed), Shadow Galactica (manga) |
| Powers: | Silence and destruction. Can heal wounds and create energy barriers. |
| Performers: | (See below) |
Hotaru Tomoe (土萠ほたる Tomoe Hotaru?) is one of the central characters in the Sailor Moon metaseries. She is best known by the name Sailor Saturn, one of the series' primary heroines — the Sailor Senshi. She is the only human protagonist whose name's spelling was not modified in the English dub.
She is known for making the fewest appearances in the anime, especially in her Senshi form.
Contents |
Hotaru is introduced first as a friend to Chibiusa, but often experiences seizures due to a sickness. It is only much later that she is discovered as a Sailor Soldier, being last of this solar system's soldiers to fully realize her powers. Hotaru tends to be very logical, dependable and loyal. She is also very independent and did not have friends until she met Chibiusa and Usagi. She was said by Naoko Takeuchi, her creator, to be quiet and precocious as well as expressionless. She was not popular with her classmates because of her powers and her strange seizures as well as personality changes for being the host of Mistress 9, the evil entity that lived in her after the age of 5.
She dresses predominantly in grey and black, although sometimes she wears a cobalt blue coat and a red cap. She is also seen with a garment around her shoulders in her predominant black outfit, and occasionally wore a brown coat. She always wears complete clothing to cover up her body, as she has scars from the accident that killed her mother.
Hotaru's age fluctuates during the series, since she was first introduced as older, presumably 13 and was later reborn as a baby, then grew back to about the resemblance of a 5 year old, then grew into about a 12 year old.
As Sailor Saturn, Hotaru can destroy the world and the solar system to some extent (she did destroy the last remnants of the Silver Millennium kingdom). This disturbing information causes the other Outer Senshi, who are only somewhat aware of her reawakening, to make it part of their mission to "deal" with her.
Hotaru wants to be a nurse one day, probably because of her talent at injury treatment. Due to the state of her health in both the anime and manga, her hobbies require no physical exertion and include reading and collecting lamps. She enjoys her World History class, but dislikes Physical Education and has difficulty with marathons.[1] She also hates milk. Other favorite things include soba (buckwheat) noodles, panthers,[2] and the color purple. Her blood type is AB,[1] and her height fluctuates throughout the series. In her ordinary form as a young teenager, she is about 145 centimeters (4 ft 10 in) tall.[3]
The kanji of Hotaru's surname translate as "earth" (土 to?) and "sprouting" (萠 ō?). The former comes from the name of her planet in Japanese, Dosei (土星?). Her given name is in hiragana (ほたる hotaru?) and so its meaning is not inherent, but the word itself means "firefly", and this meaning is used at least once as a pun.[4] In the Mixx (now TOKYOPOP) manga, Hotaru was once named Jenny; Mixx later admitted this was a mistake and changed her name back.
As a character with different incarnations, special powers, transformations and a long lifetime virtually spanned between the Silver Millennium era and the 30th century, Hotaru gains multiple aspects and aliases as the series progresses.
Hotaru's Senshi persona, often appearing as somehow separate from Hotaru. She wears a uniform colored in purple and maroon, and which in its initial form is unlike any of the others', with petal-shaped sleeves, a star brooch (resembling the "Pure Heart Crystals" that appear in the third story arc), more elaborate gloves, and knee-high, laced-up boots. She is given various specific titles, including Soldier of Silence,[5] Soldier of Destruction,[5] and Soldier of Ruin and Birth.[6]
Sailor Saturn is especially recognizable for the Silence Glaive she carries, which she may use to bring about the cataclysmic destruction of a world or worlds. However, she has the ability to heal minor wounds in both her civilian and Senshi forms.
In the anime, all of the Senshi (including Saturn) had lives in the Moon Kingdom and their represented planets, and were all reborn with Princess Serenity and her court. In the manga, however, Sailor Saturn is said not to have lived among the other Senshi. In fact, her coming had always been prevented by the Outer Senshi, as it was thought that allowing her to come into existence would mean the destruction of their worlds. The Outer Senshi were not supposed to be reborn when the Kingdom was destroyed, but they gathered together because of its destruction, accidentally awakening Saturn from her sleep. She then killed the remnants of the Silver Millennium and they were all reborn on Earth.
As she grows stronger, Sailor Saturn gains additional powers, and at key points her uniform changes to reflect this. The first change takes place in Act 39 of the manga, when she obtains the Saturn Crystal and her outfit becomes similar to that of Super Sailor Moon. She is not given a new title. A similar event takes place in Episode 168 of the anime, and she is given the name Super Sailor Saturn. A third, manga-only form appears in Act 42, also unnamed but analogous to Eternal Sailor Moon (sans wings).[7]
In the manga, like the other Senshi, Sailor Saturn is pictured as having been a princess during the time of the Silver Millennium. As Princess Saturn, she dwelt in Titan Castle and wore a purple gown--she appears in this form in the original manga Act 41, as well as in supplementary art.
During the third story arc of both anime and manga, Hotaru's body was possessed by an alien known as Mistress 9. She was used as a a tool of the Death Busters during this time.
Throughout the various series, both Hotaru and Sailor Saturn display a number of special attacks and other powers.[8]
Hotaru differs from most other Senshi (Mars and Neptune being obvious exceptions), in that she has several powers outside of her Senshi form. Some of these powers may be attributed to the influence of Mistress 9 possessing her body. However, many are manifested after Mistress 9 has been destroyed, or while the Saturn symbol shines on Hotaru's forehead (indicating that the power is her own).
- Energy barrier — At various times in the anime, Hotaru is protected from harm by a barrier of energy. This barrier severely damages the enemy. This barrier appears to be involuntary.
- Energy beams — At various times in Sailor Moon S, Hotaru uses her power to damage or paralyze enemies.
- Healing — In both the anime and manga, Hotaru has the ability to heal wounds. This power was never explored in-depth, and the wounds being healed were always shown to be fairly minor.
- Rebirth — It appears that Hotaru has the ability to be reborn when defeated. It is unknown as to what the extent of this power is. In conjunction with her rebirth, Hotaru also ages rapidly when needed. In both the anime and manga, she is shown to reach her former age in a matter of days.
- Power-ups — In both the manga and anime, Hotaru is the one to power up the Outer Senshi into their 'super' forms.
- Visions and projections — Hotaru often has visions of upcoming events. She also has the ability to project visions to others. She does this several times in the Dream arc of the manga and in the Sailor Stars anime. In the manga, notable occurrences involve showing a defeated Pegasus in Dream and projections of the Universe of which Hotaru watches over and uses it to destroy or bring planets to life. While she was reaching former age in Dream arc, Haruka did it with her as Michiru referred to it as gardening with Hotaru.
- Saturn Planet Power, Make-up — Used to transform into Sailor Saturn in video games.
- Saturn Crystal Power, Make-up! — Used to transform into Sailor Saturn's second form in the manga.
In the anime, Sailor Saturn is the only Sailor Senshi with no proper transformation sequence. The sequence most commonly associated with her is drawn in the style of the anime, but appeared only one of the Sailor Moon video games.[9] In it, she holds up her hand and her fingernails are magically painted, as in the other Senshi's transformations. She then appears fully dressed, turning around before ending in a pose. The formation of her sailor fuku is not shown, nor is any transformation device.
- Silent Wall - Saturn raises her Silence Glaive and forms a dark energy barrier around herself or others in her vicinity.
- Death Reborn Revolution[10] - Used only in the manga, the attack shows thousands of ribbons coming out, making the name of the attack a pun on "Reborn" and "Ribbon," which sound very similar in Japanese. It does not destroy the world, despite its name. Saturn's power for destroying the world is nameless and without incantation.
- Silence Glaive Surprise - This power is a double-edged attack by which Super Sailor Saturn can instantly kill an opponent. In the anime, she must sacrifice herself in the process.[citation needed] This attack is seen in the manga resembling Sailor Mercury's Shabon Spray inside a dome, doing major destruction. In the anime, it is used to destroy Pharaoh 90 from within, although it is not shown (a slashing noise is heard). In the Sailor Stars anime, against Nehellenia she attempted to use the attack. A large sphere of purple light formed around the blade of her Silence Glaive, and she began to bring down the Glaive to destroy Nehellenia. After a huge blast of explosive power, she was stopped from completing this at the last moment by Chibiusa.
- Galactica Glaive Surprise - Super Sailor Saturn used this attack while under the control of Sailor Galaxia in the manga.
- Galactica Cannon - In the manga, Sailor Pluto and Super Sailor Saturn use this attack against Sailor Moon when they are controlled by Sailor Galaxia.
- In both the anime and the manga, Sailor Saturn destroys worlds simply by bringing down the Silence Glaive. There is no incantation for this power, though in the instances in which it appears, Sailor Saturn has used some of her other powers to give her time to bring down her glaive.
