Hotaru Futaba

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Hotaru Futaba
Game series	Fatal Fury series, King of Fighters series
First game	Garou: Mark of the Wolves
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	Japan
Blood type	A
Likes	Chocolate ice cream banana parfaits, the high jump, her pet ferret Itokatsu, pop music, collecting ribbons
Dislikes	earthquakes

Hotaru Futaba (双葉ほたる, her first name, in Japanese, means Firefly) is a video game character who was introduced in SNK Playmore's Garou: Mark of the Wolves and also makes an appearance in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, and in the PS2 version of The King of Fighters XI.

Hotaru is the daughter of a family of martial artists, but is not very fond of violence. She never wants to hurt others, which is the probable reason why her father taught her the lighter side of Chinese kenpo; the Juu-kei style, which suits her easygoing personality.

There are two things that Hotaru appreciates the most after her mother's death: her ferret, Itokatsu, and her older brother, Gato. But Gato was a man who was tormented to become an accomplished martial artist, and was pushed too far by their father. Still, Hotaru knows who the real Gato is, and she is sure that he is not such a bad person at heart.

Gato's disappearance led Hotaru to a hostile city located in the United States: Second Southtown, where fighting rules all, crime rules the society, and strength dictates who lives and dies. In this harsh place, Hotaru set out to find clues about her brother. She then heard news of a fighting tournament of epic proportions that would soon occur in Second Southtown - "King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem." Hotaru had a feeling that her brother would enter the tournament, as he was always looking for strong opponents to fight. Following her premonitions, Hotaru entered the tournament as well.

[edit] Trivia

Her fighting style is very similar to a combination of Athena's and Kensou's from the King of Fighters series.

Hotaru's 'juu-kei' Chinese Kenpo resembles the style of fighters like Ling Xiaoyu of Tekken - in fact, in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum SNK Playmore modified her moveset to include stances like Xiaoyu's 'Rain Dance' and 'Art of the Phoenix'.

Since her brother Gato is in King of Fighters 2003 and XI it is possible she will appear in the series; she does make a cameo in the "Mark of the Wolves" team ending as she acted as a waitress to the team; she finds Tizoc and Jenet, but finds out her brother left after the tournament completed. She made her first appearance in KOF as a combatant in the Playstation 2 port of KOF XI (which used her appearance in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum.

Despite all of the rumors, Hotaru has no Samurai Shodown style technique which involves her pet. Itokatsu only appears in her opening/winpose scenes.

Hotaru makes an appearance in the nighttime Dragon's Lair stage in KOF: Maximum Impact 2. In that same game, Lilly Kane's normal costume color C makes her dress exactly like Hotaru, even causing her pigtails to turn red to represent Hotaru's hair ribbon.