Pearl

"Boo-YAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

- Pearl's battle cry from the Octo Expansion

Pearl is one of the two members of Off the Hook, a band featured in Splatoon 2. She and Marina host Inkopolis News, replacing the Squid Sisters from the first game. Her signature color is light pink.

She is voiced by Rina Itou.

Appearance
Pearl resembles a stereotypical "pop princess". She appears shorter than most Inklings, something she is defensive about, seemingly using a charger to compensate for her "stature", per Marina's suggestion. Her tentacles are shoulder-length and creamy-white with pink tips and a small bang, although they can change to completely one color like other Inklings. She has light golden eyes with pale yellow pupils in the shape of a cross and a beauty mark at the bottom left of her lips. Like Marina, and unlike other Inklings, she has one sharp tooth in the middle of her mouth at the top instead of the usual two. Her ears, which are slightly smaller than those of the average Inkling, are usually covered by her hair.

Her outfit consists of a pearly white sleeveless dress, white shorts, and pink tights. The dress has a high collar, a large golden zipper on the front, and features a slanted diamond-like pattern at the bottom left. Her shoes are white, slightly platformed boots with large golden zippers and black soles. She also wears black fingerless gloves and a white crown with pink tips on her head that resembles a squid ring tooth. During Splatfests, the pink in her design changes to match the color of her chosen team, except for her crown which only changes in artwork.

In the Octo Expansion, she wears a more hip-hop-style attire than her pop stage outfit. She wears a golden jeweled crown on her head, a long golden chain necklace with a cross pendant (like her zippers on her stage outfit) around her neck, multiple golden rings on her fingers on both of her hands, a pastel pink baggy hoodie with cream sleeves, and rainbow metallic platform shoes. This outfit is noted as being reminiscent of the rapper The Notorious B.I.G. The gear items given out by the Pearl amiibo are replicas of Pearl's Octo Expansion outfit, named the Pearlescent Crown, Pearlescent Hoodie, and Pearlescent Kicks.

During the Final Fest, Pearl wore a black crown that is slightly bent in one direction. On her face is a drawn mark near her right eye. She wears a black, sleeveless dress that gets bigger at the bottom. She wears black boots with spikes coming out of them.

Personality and traits
Pearl speaks rather bluntly and uses various slang terms, in line with her characterization as a rapper (despite her "pop princess" appearance). Compared to Marina, Pearl is a lot more expressive and quick to jump onto a topic with a bit of a short temper and a knack for composing new songs as they come to her. Often her comments can be playfully sarcastic, playing off Marina. Her lively attitude is most obvious if the player looks at her through the window, as she looks at them quizzically before striking a pose. When she wins a Splatfest, she often boasts how her team was better in the form of a rap, which she insists she makes up on the spot. She has been described sarcastically by Marina as "starved for attention, yet full of (herself)".

Her Splatfest choices show her to gravitate towards mostly outgoing things, such as Action, Adventure, and Film. Indeed, she has difficulties with sitting still, leading her to fidget and walk around during recordings. She also has a quirky side, as she has mentioned that she eats breakfast cereal with a fork and has a pool full of imported mayonnaise.

Pearl's voice can create massive shockwaves, leading to her being given the nickname of the "club destroyer". Sunken Scroll 1 shows an incident in which a young Pearl destroyed various parts of the Youth Folk-Singing contest, and Marina's chat room has a clip during a death metal concert in which glass is heard shattering. When fully warmed up and amplified by the Princess Cannon, Pearl's shockwave is concentrated into a powerful laser able to counteract a mostly-charged cannon designed and set to destroy all sentient life. As a result of this tremendous power, Pearl chooses to practice away from civilization on Mount Nantai.

Pearl is also very protective of Marina, even after being told by Cap'n Cuttlefish of Marina's true nature as an Octoling. Upon receiving the news, she remained loyal to Marina, even threatening violence against Cap'n Cuttlefish if he ever dared to splat her bandmate. She considers meeting Marina the best gift she has ever received. Pearl is also fond of Agent 8, who she nicknames as 'Eight', happily noticing them before Marina does and striking a more flourished pose in direct contrast to her reaction to the standard playable Inkling.

Early life


Pearl was born into an exceedingly rich family, something that came across in a lot of stories about her childhood, such as being able to easily afford top-of-the-range musical equipment and receiving a ship identical to the Manta Maria for her sixth birthday. She also met the 'Lord of The Lake' who owns Piranha Pit. Pearl was interested in music from an early age, taking part in an Inkopolis Youth Folk-Singing Contest and causing some destruction with the power of her voice.

Pearl later attempted to start a musical career of her own, and despite having little to no idea how to write music, she insisted her heart was in the right place. She eventually became known as a death metal singer, demonstrating a notably more vulgar side with her song #$@%* Dudes Be #$@%* Sleepin, which garnered some fans but never went beyond that.



While practicing her potentially dangerous voice on Mt. Nantai less than two years before the events of, Pearl met Marina, a newly-defected Octoling, and the two quickly bonded. Pearl never learned of Marina's past, believing her to be a "country bumpkin", and taught Marina the ways of Inkling society. After meeting each other again, the two became friends, with Marina demonstrating her musical abilities with a demo of Ebb & Flow. After hearing this, Pearl agreed to form a band with her, which led to her fully establishing herself in the public consciousness upon the formation of Off the Hook. They released Ebb & Flow as their first single, and it was a hit. By the time of their fourth single, around nine months after the events of, they had become popular enough to take over hosting Inkopolis News from the Squid Sisters.

Splatoon 2
By the time of, Off the Hook had become famous in Inkopolis Square for their music and for presenting Inkopolis News, in which Pearl had a similar relationship with Marina as Callie had with Marie. Their work included hosting Splatfest events, announcing the themes and singing and dancing to Color Pulse for the event's duration. Across all regions, Pearl and Marina won 29 Splatfests each.

Although Pearl and Marina did not make appearances during Octo Canyon, they were the first to break the news of Callie and the Great Zapfish's disappearances. They also announced their rescue on Inkopolis News, fulfilling a request by "Freshly Fried Boy" to play Fresh Start over the credits.

Octo Expansion


During the Octo Expansion, Pearl and Marina stumbled upon Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agent 8 by overhearing their radio transmission. Learning that they were trapped in the Deepsea Metro, attempting to escape to Inkopolis, they promised to help them out. The three acted as Agent 8's guides during the tests, while they also talked in Marina's chat room, where Pearl was known as "MC.Princess". This chat room was used by the group to learn about their respective pasts. When discussing with Cuttlefish about Marina's technological achievements, Pearl finally discovered her history as a member of the Octarian army, and despite being deeply shocked, she promised to remain friends with her. Later, Pearl revealed to Marina and Cuttlefish how Inkopolis Square was beginning to become populated with more Octolings and eased Cuttlefish's worries about his old enemies.

After Agent 8 collected all four thangs and escaped from the Deepsea Metro, Off the Hook finally met them and Cap'n Cuttlefish in person after their battle with a brainwashed Agent 3. When the Telephone revealed its true nature as Commander Tartar to destroy Inkopolis, Pearl's "battle cry" was instrumental in defeating it. After Agent 8 covered the NILS Statue in ink from Marina's hyperbombs, Pearl used her Princess Cannon to finish it off. With the threat averted, the group returned safely to Inkopolis Square.

In the manga series
Pearl’s first appearance in the manga was chapter 15, where she and Marina announced the semi-final matches for the Square King Cup. During the same tournament, she, along with Marina, does the play-by-play report for both the semi-finals and finals.

In the Octo Expansion arc, Pearl plays the same role she has in the game, helping Cap’n Cuttlefish, Eight, Team Blue, and Rider out of Deepsea Metro.

Trivia

 * In the Inner Wear vs. Outer Wear Splatfest artwork, Pearl is shown tossing her crown while posing like a Uniqlo model. The next artwork to be released, for Sweater vs. Sock, shows that her crown is cracked, likely from falling on the ground following the previous picture. The following Splatfest artwork shows her with a new, golden crown instead. This was not reflected on her in-game model, but she did wear her gold crown during Fam vs. Friend.
 * Pearl is also shown wearing black and silver crowns afterwards. She wore a black crown in-game during Trick vs. Treat, as well.
 * Lastly, she appears to be wearing a white crown again, with no signs of damage, in the artwork for the No Pineapple vs. Pineapple Splatfest.
 * Pearl coming from a rich family explains some elements of her attitude, appearance, and personality. For example, she owns a go-cart, Camp Triggerfish, the baseball "Inkopolis Princess League", and a fitness studio. She also still gets an allowance despite having a job, has personal shoppers for MakoMart, and owns a vegetable garden in front of her house that must be watered using her helicopter with an exclusive jellyfish pilot.
 * Her favorite weapon appears to be the Splat Dualies.
 * According to The Art of Splatoon 2, Pearl has a very bad diet. This may have led to digestive issues, according to Warm Breakfast vs. Cold Breakfast Splatfest dialog.
 * According to The Art of Splatoon 2, Pearl has very poor handwriting.
 * Pearl seems to have a special connection with Snapper Canal from multiple news dialogues. Her father taught her how to ride a bike there, although she still uses training wheels, and a boy from her school took her there as a child for an unknown reason.
 * Her preferred personal pronoun in Japanese is アタシ atashi, which is an informal female form commonly used by young women and girls.
 * She also uses many slang terms as well as childish speech patterns (like replacing "sh" sounds with "ch" sounds), giving the air of a little girl trying to act tough. She speaks almost exclusively in the informal speech (タメ語/タメ口 tame-go/tame-guchi), further emphasizing her "street" style.
 * Her text extends syllables very often (with the ー character compared to Marina's ～, mirroring the same difference between Callie and Marie), and she ends many sentences with the particles よ, ぜ and even ぞ, which not only makes her text read as energetic and curt but also as if she is rapping her lines.
 * According to dialogue in the Japanese version of the game, Pearl is referred to as "senpai" by Marina. "Senpai" is an honorific used in addressing someone of an elder with the same social standing or to someone of more experience in a field or trade, implying that Marina looks up to Pearl as a respectable figure who came before her; in this case, the music industry (or the Inkling world, as Marina grew up among the Octarians). This is also because Pearl is older than her by three years.
 * Her nickname for Cap'n Cuttlefish in the Russian localisation is Трилобит (Trilobite). This is a reference to the prehistorical mollusks of the same name, with a similar meaning to calling him "old dude" in English.
 * In Japan, Pearl's fans are known as Himeito (ヒメイト), a portmanteau of Pearl's name, "Hime", and the English word "mate." The English equivalent to this name may be "Pearl Scout", as seen on the Pearl-Scout Lace-Ups. "Pearl Scout" is a reference to the Girl Scouts.
 * Both Marina and Pearl subtly break the fourth wall during their stage dialogs, including for Blackbelly Skatepark, Moray Towers, Snapper Canal, and the Chicken vs. Egg Splatfest.
 * According to concept art by Nintendo, Pearl was going to be an Octoling, but that concept was scrapped later in favor of her current design. It seems she was supposed to be the same age as Marina as well.

Dialogue expressions
The images' captions are their internal names in the game's news data files. See the category.

Etymology
"Pearl" is derived from the valuable hard, glistening mineral of the same name formed inside the shells of molluscs.

"Hime" literally translates to "princess", which inspired her design and 'MC.Princess' nickname. It also derives from the real-world northern pygmy squid, one of the world's smallest squids, which translates to ヒメイカ hime-ika in Japanese. Her Japanese surname "Hōzuki" is likely derived from the real-world colossal squid, the world's largest squid, which translates to ダイオウホウズキイカ daiōhōzukīka in Japanese. Her first name and surname deriving from contrasting sizes of squid could be a reference to The Notorious B.I.G., who had the nickname "Biggie Smalls" and provided inspiration for Pearl's Octo Expansion design.