Sailor Saturn

12-year-old Hotaru Tomoe, as seen in the original 1990s anime

Years prior to the story, Hotaru was eight years old and living with her parents in Tokyo's Sankakusu District prior to a freak storm which caused 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 Mistress 9 whose presence caused Hotaru's body to suffer seizures with only the Tairon Crystal appearing to reduce the pain. Wearing clothes to conceal her altered body, unaware of Mistress 9's existence prior, Hotaru was friendless prior to meeting Chibiusa.

By the time Hotaru realized Mistress 9's existence, she loses her body to the Daimon as she steals Chibiusa's Legendary 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 Saturn when Master Pharaoh appeared and Sailor Moon appeared to have died in a gambit. Though Saturn intended to destroy Earth along with Pharaoh 90, she stays her hand upon seeing Sailor Moon alive and deemed destroying Earth so it to be renewed for the new Silver Millenium not needed. 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 a human infant. With Tomoe dead, Hotaru becomes the adopted daughter of Haruka Tenoh, Michiru Kaioh and Setsuna Meioh 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 Sailor Pluto asks for her help in the first part of Sailor Moon Stars.

Hotaru's age fluctuates during the series; she is first introduced as a 12-year-old, is reborn as an infant, quickly develops into a young child around 4, 5, or 8 then reaches her proper chronological age after a metaphysical epiphany.

In the musicals, Professor 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.[3]

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.

Sailor Saturn using the Silence Glaive to perform Death Reborn Revolution in Sailor Moon Crystal.

While several Sailor Guardians have unusual powers as civilians, Hotaru's are numerous and varied. 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. Her possession by Mistress 9 also revealed her ability to exist as a disembodied soul as long as her body is intact.

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.[10] 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.

Sailors Uranus, Neptune and Pluto gained their second evolved transformation when Hotaru gives them their Sailor Crystals while she regained her teenage body. In the anime, Hotaru is still a baby when her 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 rare. The transformation sequence into her Soldier 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!".[11] In the manga she eventually gains her Saturn Crystal and does transform in front of the other Soldiers, evoking Saturn Crystal Power! Make Up!.[12] 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, in which Saturn is the god of the harvest.[13] In Western astrology, the planet Saturn is known as "the Greater Malefic", "the Old Taskmaster" and "the Grim Reaper."[14] 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 understood her purpose at the time. Saturn's signature weapon is her Silence Glaive, which is referenced by Sailor Neptune as the "scythe of the God of Death,".[15] This is made apparent as a single swing of the Silence Glaive is enough to destroy an entire world.[16]

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." [15] The kanji used with this maneuver translate to "Death World Revolution" (死世界変革), with the intended pronunciation given in furigana.[17] 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 first anime, Saturn will die from using the attack, only to be saved by Super Sailor Moon at the last moment as she defeated Pharaoh 90.

When Sailor Saturn returns near the end of the fourth story arc (which overflows into the beginning of the fifth anime series), several more attacks are introduced. She defends herself and her allies with Silence Wall (不動城壁, "Motionless Rampart"),[18] a dome of dark energy that deflects attacks, and attacks with Silence Glaive Surprise (沈黙鎌奇襲, "Silence Sickle Surprise Attack"). 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 Nehellenia's palace.[19]

In the manga and Crystal series, the Death Busters use a power source called the Taioron Crystal which is the life source of their homeworld. 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.[20] The Saturn Crystal is her Sailor Crystal and the source of all her power, which becomes especially important in the fourth and fifth sagas.

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.[3]

The kanji of Hotaru's surname translate as "earth" (土, to) and "sprouting" (萠, moe). The former comes from the name of her planet in Japanese, Dosei (土星, Earth Star). Her given name is in hiragana hotaru (ほたる) and so its meaning is not inherent, but the word itself means "firefly" (蛍), and this meaning is used at least once as a pun.[21] Fireflies are associated with spirits of the dead in Japanese mythology, referring to her status as the Soldier of death and rebirth.

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.[24] In early 1996, with fifty one choices, Saturn was the sixth most popular character, and Hotaru was the seventh.[25]

It has been suggested that moe comes from a contraction of her last name, but this is considered a false etymology.[26][27]

Tsubame Sanjou of Rurouni Kenshin had her final design based on Hotaru.[28]

• Saturn in fiction
• Saturn (mythology)
• Cronus
• Chronos