is a fictional supporting character in the ''

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 60 individual chapters (later reorganized into ...

'' manga, the 1992–1997

anime series is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

created by Naoko Takeuchi and the 2014–2023 reboot that more closely follows the manga. Her spirit resides deep within twelve-year-old , a frail middle schoolgirl who is her lookalike

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...

, which makes Sailor Saturn her

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...

; entirely apart from how the other nine Sailor Guardians are reborn and their human identities remain entirely separate. She is the tenth and last of the Sailor Guardians of the long gone Moon Kingdom to be introduced, possessing immensely strong dark powers associated with silence and ruin, nothingness and the void, destruction and

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

, annihilation and

rebirth Rebirth may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Film * ''Rebirth'' (2011 film), a 2011 Japanese drama film * ''Rebirth'' (2016 film), a 2016 American thriller film * ''Rebirth'', a 2011 documentary film produced by Project Rebirth * '' ...

. Her powers made her a potential threat as she can wipe out a planet and even an entire Star System or reset its evolution. Her deathly powers are necessary for rejuvenation and re-creation to complement Sailor Moon's mighty powers of

healing With physical trauma or disease suffered by an organism, healing involves the repairing of damaged tissue(s), organs and the biological system as a whole and resumption of (normal) functioning. Medicine includes the process by which the cells ...

and rejuvenation with powerful

moonlight Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes. History The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras was aware that "''the sun provides the moon with its ...

from the Silver Crystal.

Profile

Prior to the main events of ''Sailor Moon'', when Hotaru was eight years old, she lived with her parents in Tokyo's Sankakusu District when a freak storm occurred causing a fire that killed her mother Keiko and left her on the verge of death herself. Later admitting that she was meant to die at the time, Hotaru's life was unnaturally prolonged by both the actions of her father Souichi Tomoe turning her into a cyborg and being made a host to the

Daimon The daimon (), also spelled daemon (meaning "god", "godlike", "power", "fate"), denotes an "unknown superfactor", which can be either good or hostile. In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology a daimon was imagined to be a lesser ...

Mistress 9 whose presence caused Hotaru's body to suffer seizures with only the Tairon Crystal appearing to reduce the pain, only seen in '' Sailor Moon Crystal's'' thirteen-episode third season. Wearing clothes to conceal her altered body, unaware of Mistress 9's existence prior, Hotaru was friendless before meeting her best friend, Chibiusa. By the time she realized Mistress 9's existence, she loses her body to the Daimon as she steals Chibiusa's Silver Crystal to fully regain her strength. Hotaru is also revealed to be the reincarnation of Sailor Saturn who was responsible for destroying the last remnants of the fallen Moon Kingdom Silver Millenium so it can begin anew of Earth. This fact and her power made her feared by the Outer Guardians as they initially intended to kill Hotaru and seal her soul before she could awaken and destroy Earth. But Hotaru, seemingly destroyed when Mistress 9 ripped herself out of the human's body, ended up awakening as Sailor Saturn when Pharaoh 90 appeared and Sailor Moon appeared to have died in a gambit. Though Saturn intended to destroy Earth along with Pharaoh 90, she stops the destruction upon seeing Sailor Moon alive and deemed destroying Earth to make way for the new Silver Millenium not necessary. She then drives Pharaoh 90 to his domain while sacrificing herself to ensure he remains trapped, though Sailor Moon's restoration brings Hotaru back to Earth as an infant. With her father dead, Hotaru becomes the adopted daughter of Haruka Tenoh, Michiru Kaioh and

Setsuna Meioh is a fictional character in the ''Sailor Moon'' manga series written by Naoko Takeuchi. The alternate identity of , she is a member of the Sailor Guardians, female supernatural fighters who protect the Solar System from evil. She is unique am ...

as the four of them reside at an Empire Victorian House. In the first anime, Hotaru's story is mostly the same except that she was ''not'' modified into a cyborg and Mistress 9 had a stronger influence that played a role in her being ostracized by her classmates. Her father also survived the Death Busters' defeat and was allowed to raise her until Setsuna asks for her help in the first part of ''

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars ''Sailor Moon Sailor Stars'', or simply ''Sailor Stars'', is the fifth and final season of ''Sailor Moon'', a Japanese magical girl anime series based on the ''Sailor Moon'' manga series by Naoko Takeuchi; the season was directed by Takuya Igar ...

''. Hotaru's age fluctuates during the series; she is first introduced as a twelve-year-old, is reborn as an infant due to Sailor Saturn's spirit forever within her, quickly develops into a young four or five-year-old child around then reaches her proper chronological age after a metaphysical epiphany with Sailor Saturn herself appearing before her to "wake up." When not transformed, her body retains the smaller height of a five-year-old; the exact same height she gained since being reborn. In the musicals, Professor Souichi Tomoe is only present in a few stages, though Sailor Saturn appears in every musical from the third on. In musicals where Tomoe is absent, Hotaru is presented as being in the care of Haruka and Michiru. During ''Last Dracul Jokyoku'', Hotaru is presented in the care of Professor Tomoe, knowing of the existence of the Sailor Soldiers, yet not awakening as Sailor Saturn until halfway through the musical. Naoko Takeuchi, the series creator, describes her as delicate, quiet, precocious, and expressionless.

Aspects and forms

As a character with special powers, ever evolving transformations and a long lifetime virtually spanning between the Silver Millennium era and the 30th century, Hotaru gains multiple aspects and aliases from both her separate personalities (until Mistress 9 is fully expelled) as the series progresses.

Sailor Saturn

Sailor Saturn wears a dark blue-violet

uniform A uniform is a variety of costume worn by members of an organization while usually participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency serv ...

with a pale maroon bow in the front of her chest with a silver crystalline brooch and in the back of her miniskirt. The initial version of this uniform has petal-shaped

sleeve A sleeve (, a word allied to '' slip'', cf. Dutch ) is the part of a garment that covers the arm, or through which the arm passes or slips. The sleeve is a characteristic of fashion seen in almost every country and time period, across a myri ...

s, a windrose

brooch A brooch (, ) is a decorative jewellery item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with enamel or with gem ...

and choker with the same kind of windrose, bellflower-shaped white

glove A glove is a garment covering the hand, with separate sheaths or openings for each finger including the thumb. Gloves protect and comfort hands against cold or heat, damage by friction, abrasion or chemicals, and disease; or in turn to provide a ...

s, and knee-high, lace up

boot A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...

s. She is given various specific titles, including Guardian of Silence, Guardian of Destruction, and Guardian of Ruin and Rebirth. Sailor Saturn carries the Silence Glaive, which she may use to bring about the destruction of a world or worlds with a single swing. She also has the ability to heal minor wounds in both her civilian and Guardian forms, having healed Chibiusa when she was attacked by a Daimon, though the process weakens her which was more detrimental while she had Mistress 9 in her body. In her past life, Sailor Saturn lived far from Silver Millennium and only appears during a crisis with the Three Talismans of her fellow Outer Guardians serving as keys to summon her once the items were brought together. Because of their distance from Silver Millennium and each other, Saturn and the Outer Guardians were not intended to be reborn. But as Hotaru theorized, the events caused by the Death Busters played a key role in her awakening when she was originally meant to die and the Outer Guardians allowed to live normal lives. Sailor Saturn gains additional powers as the series progresses, and at key points her uniform changes to reflect this. The first change takes place in Act 44 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 form appears in Act 49 of the manga, unnamed but similar to Eternal Sailor Moon (without wings). In the official visual book for '' Sailor Moon Eternal'', this form was named "Eternal Sailor Saturn". In the original anime's fifth and final season, her Eternal form is never seen neither is her transformation sequence into her Super Sailor form.

Princess Saturn

According to the

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

, on Silver Millennium, Sailor Saturn was also the princess of her home planet. She was among those given the duty of protecting the Solar System from outside invasion. As Princess Saturn, she dwelt in Titan Castle and wore a purple gown—she appears in this form in the original manga and in supplementary art. Unlike the other Sailor Guardians, it is stated that Saturn did not awaken on Silver Millennium until after it was destroyed so Princess Saturn's exact status during that time is unclear.

Mistress 9

During the third story arc of the manga and the anime adaptations, Hotaru's body was possessed by a parasitic Daimon known as Mistress 9 since she was four years old, whereas the Sailor Guardian of Death and Rebirth had inhabited Hotaru since birth. Mistress 9 eventually took over Hotaru's body and distorted it into an adult-like form, eventually destroying it when Mistress 9 is ripped out of her host's body. In the first anime, retaining her sense and defying the extraterrestrial parasite, like in the manga and its 2014-2023 reboot, Hotaru fully awakened, as one with Sailor Saturn herself, and ultimately destroyed Mistress 9's persona at the cost of her physical self. A vision of the solitary Sailor Guardian of Space-Time of the Outer Solar System had told Chibiusa of how Mistress 9 was expelled with the help of

, thus enabling Hotaru to live her life anew with Sailor Saturn's vital essence still within her until the renowned Sailor Guardian of Ruin and Rebirth's full powers of death and destruction, annihilation and silence, would be needed once again for an additional crisis.

Mysterious Girl

In the musical ''Yume Senshi - Ai - Eien ni...'' and its revision, ''Yume Senshi - Ai - Eien ni... Saturn Fukkatsu Hen!'', Hotaru takes the alias of a nameless girl while under the control of the Dead Moon Circus, who beat and ridicule her. Her memories are seemingly erased and she is given the powers to enter and alter people's dreams. Only Sailors Uranus, Neptune and Pluto realize who she really is. In the original musical, it is only implied that she is Hotaru, and it is stated but not shown that she is Sailor Saturn. Her actual awakening as Saturn is also ambiguous, while implied, it's not shown and she is simply shown as a normal girl at the end of the musical. In the revision, her identity as Hotaru is stated plainly, and she awakens on-stage as Saturn, after being saved by the other Sailor Guardians and appears transformed moments later.

Kon

In all four of the ''Kaguya Island'' musicals, Hotaru is possessed by a spirit named Kon, who speaks through Hotaru to the other Sailor Guardians. When Hotaru awakens she has no memory of what happened while Kon possessed her body. Kon is the remnant of stars destroyed by Dark Plasman and the comet Coatl. In the first two of these musicals, she gives her power to Sailor Moon in the final battle to allow her to transform into Eternal Sailor Moon. Kon was given the song "''Hitosuji no Hikari no Kokoro''" in her appearances.

Special powers and items

While several Sailor Guardians have unusual powers as civilians, Hotaru's are numerous and varied in both her civilian and ever evolving Sailor forms. Some of these are portrayed only in the third story arc, such as her past life existing as a secondary personality that unconsciously transmits visions to the other Sailor Guardians of incoming disasters that would lead to her eventual awakening. Prior to her awakening, Hotaru displayed the ability to involuntarily create force-fields and energy beams whenever in danger and heal minor flesh wounds, as shown when she heals Chibiusa's knee after Chibiusa evades a Daimon attack from Hotaru. Her possession by Mistress 9 also revealed her ability to exist as a disembodied spirit as long as her physical self is intact. Hotaru is shown to be insecure of her destructive powers, and being seen as "weird" by kids at school because of them. Due to the destructive nature of her powers, Hotaru would be reborn as an infant immediately upon fulfilling her task as Sailor Saturn in an event that ends with her demise. The infant Hotaru would later grow to her former within a matter of days should she need to reawaken, with a visitation by the soul of her past life completing the process. Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Pluto gained their second transformation when Hotaru gives them their Sailor Crystals while she regained her original twelve-year-old body upon reconnecting with her past memories and bonding with Sailor Saturn herself. In the anime, Hotaru is still an infant when Sailor Saturn's mighty power floods Sailors' Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, upgrading them and herself to their evolved Super forms. In both versions, Hotaru has visions of coming events, especially of danger, and can project these visions to other people. When she is a young girl, she creates a small projection of the galaxy which hovers in the air in her room, simulating astronomical history at high speed. However, it is only in the manga that Haruka stays with her while she reproduces these events to help keep her increasingly powerful abilities in check. Hotaru's transformation into Sailor Saturn is very rare indeed. The transformation sequence into her standard Sailor form is never shown in the main series, although one of the video games included a shortened transformation sequence, which she initiated by raising her hand in the air (like the other Sailor Soldiers) and shouting "Saturn Planet Power, Make up!". In the manga she eventually gains her Saturn Crystal and does transform in front of the other Soldiers, evoking ''Saturn Crystal Power! Make Up!''. In the anime, although she does upgrade to Super Sailor Saturn, the command ''Saturn Crystal Power'' is never mentioned and her transformation is again not shown on-screen. Sailor Saturn's powers are mostly based on

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to th ...

, in which

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

is the god of the

harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

. In Western astrology, the planet Saturn is known as "the Greater Malefic", "the Old Taskmaster" and "the Grim Reaper." Calling herself a "harbinger of death", referred by others as the Forbidden Guardian, Saturn's primary role is execute total annihilation and is normally summoned as a final resort when all hope is lost. Such an example is Saturn wiping out what remained of Silver Millennium after Metaria destroyed most of it, which made the Outer Guardians greatly fear her as they did not fully understand her purpose at the time. Saturn's signature weapon is her Silence Glaive, which is referenced by Sailor Neptune as the "

scythe A scythe (, rhyming with ''writhe'') is an agriculture, agricultural hand-tool for mowing grass or Harvest, harvesting Crop, crops. It was historically used to cut down or reaping, reap edible grain, grains before they underwent the process of ...

of the Goddess of Death,".Act 33. This is made apparent as a single swing of the Silence Glaive is enough to destroy an entire world. The Roman god Saturn is often depicted carrying a scythe or sickle, which became symbolic of harvesting human souls at the end of their lifespan. When first awakened during the Mugen Academy incident, a result of Sailor Moon's apparent demise, Saturn's first act was deeming Earth beyond salvation while fatally weakening Master Pharaoh 90 with her "Death Reborn Revolution." The

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

used with this maneuver translate to , with the intended pronunciation given in

furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana (syllabic characters) printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also know ...

. But when Sailor Moon remerges alive and unharmed, Saturn renounces her intent of destroying Earth and deliberately allows herself to be sealed away in Master Pharaoh 90's dimension while he is escaping. In the original anime's third season, Saturn will die from using the attack, only to be saved by Super Sailor Moon at the last moment as she obliterated Pharaoh 90 from existence with incredibly powerful bursts of purple destructive energy. When Sailor Saturn returns near the end of the fourth story arc (which actually overflows into the beginning of the fifth season), a couple more attacks are introduced. She defends herself and her allies with , a dome of dark energy that deflects attacks, and attacks with . In the anime this attack is used against Nehellenia; seeing no other way to defeat her, Saturn intends to bring down her Glaive and destroy everything and everyone, but before she manages to strike the ground Sailor Chibi Moon throws herself at Saturn to stop her from completing the action and sacrificing her life, nevertheless, the Glaive releases massively destructive power that destroys most of Queen Nehellenia's palace. In the manga and ''Crystal'' series, the Death Busters use a power source called the Taioron Crystal which is the life source of their home world. One fragment somehow ended up in the possession of Hotaru's late mother, Keiko Tomoe, with Professor Tomoe giving the item to Hotaru in order to ease her seizures while nourishing Mistress 9 until the Daimon stole Chibiusa's Legendary Silver Crystal of the thirtieth century. The Saturn Crystal is her Sailor Crystal and the source of all her power, which becomes especially important in the fourth and fifth sagas.

Development

In the original character sketches, Takeuchi drew Sailor Saturn with a brown staff rather than her Silence Glaive. Her Sailor Uniform was also different with purple sleeves rather than white, there was no windrose on her chest, and the third band on her gloves was sheer with a point. Her choker also differed from the final version having a gold 6-pointed star rather than the present choker. The

of Hotaru's surname translate as and . The former comes from the name of her planet in Japanese, . Her given name is in

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...

and so its meaning is not inherent, but the word itself means "firefly" , and this meaning is used at least once as a pun. Fireflies are associated with spirits of the dead in Japanese mythology, referring to her status as the Soldier of death and rebirth.

Actresses

In the Japanese anime series, Hotaru has been voiced by

Yūko Minaguchi is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator from Bunkyō, Tokyo. She is affiliated with Aoni Production. In 2012, Minaguchi took a nineteen-month-long hiatus from acting in order to study abroad in the United States. This resulted in Sh ...

. In the third season of '' Sailor Moon Crystal'', she is voiced by Yukiyo Fujii. In English, Hotaru is voiced by Jen Gould for the Cloverway Inc. adaptation, and by Christine Marie Cabanos in the

Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

adaptations. In the stage musicals, Hotaru has been played by twelve actresses: Keiko Takeda, Chihiro Imai, Asami Sanpei, Mao Mita, Mario Tomioka, Ayami Kakiuchi, Ruria Nakamura, Yui Iizuka, Eriko Funakoshi, Karin Takahashi, Mirai, and Yuuka Ide.

Reception and influence

The official ''Sailor Moon'' popularity polls listed Hotaru Tomoe and Sailor Saturn as separate characters. In 1994, with fifty-one choices, Sailor Saturn was the third most popular character and Hotaru was the fourth. In early 1996, with fifty one choices, Saturn was the sixth most popular character, and Hotaru was the seventh. It has been suggested that '' moe'' comes from a contraction of her last name, but this is considered a

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology or pseudo-etymology) is a false theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural/linguistic community, it is a folk etymology (or po ...

. Tsubame Sanjou of ''

Rurouni Kenshin is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins in 1878, the 11th year of the Meiji era in Japan, and follows a former assassin of the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against ...

'' had her final design based on Hotaru.Rurouni Kenshin Volume 5 (The Secret Life of Characters, Sanjou Tsubame), p. 68

References

{{Sailor Moon Adoptee characters in anime and manga Anime and manga characters introduced in 1994 Anime and manga characters with accelerated healing Anime and manga psychics Child characters in anime and manga Child superheroes Fiction set on Saturn Fictional characters with death or rebirth abilities Fictional polearm and spearfighters Fictional victims of child abuse

Superheroes who are adopted