Characters / Splatoon – Idol Groups

Splatoon Character Index
Playable Characters | Idol Groups | Inkopolis and Splatsville | Octarians | Salmonids | Deepsea Metro | Order Sector | Bands | Manga Characters

Uber-popular musicians in the world of the Splatoon games. Their popularity lands them roles on Turf War newscasts, making them the faces you'll see every day to learn about the hottest Turf War hangouts and Splatfest competitions.

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As a Whole

• Badass Adorable: All of them are cute with lovable personalities, and frequent mention is made of them actively participating in Turf Wars like all of the other squid and octo kids. And that's without going into what they can do during the story campaigns, which invariably involve them helping the player save the world.
• The Cameo: The Squid Sisters are available as amiibo costumes in Super Mario Maker, and both them and Off the Hook have designed levels for the sequel.
• Celebrity Masquerade: The Idol Groups aren't just announcers and pop stars, but are also your allies in the game's story modes, where they do work that is separate from their celebrity personae. The Squid Sisters are agents of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, while Deep Cut moonlights as treasure hunters. Off the Hook averts this, even with their appearance in Octo Expansion. They are just bystanders who decide to help your character, and never officially join the Squidbeak Splatoon.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Each of them consist of an energetic member who's highly excited (Callie, Pearl, Frye) with a soft-spoken counterpart who's more calm and laidback (Marie, Marina, Shiver).
• Exotic Eye Designs: Inklings Callie, Marie, Pearl, and Frye have plus sign-shaped pupils; while Octolings Marina and Shiver have infinity sign-shaped pupils.
• Famed In-Story: Fitting, as they are idol groups after all. The Squid Sisters in particular are known by basically everyone in the Splatoon universe.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The members of the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook are arranged like this:
  • Sanguine: Callie - the cheerful, friendly Genki Girl.
  • Melancholic: Marie - the quiet, critical Deadpan Snarker.
  • Choleric: Pearl - the blunt, short tempered Blood Knight.
  • Phlegmatic: Marina - the reserved, gentle Shrinking Violet.
• Kent Brockman News: Their job entails announcing any changes in the stage rotations of the game modes. They do the job well enough, but have a habit of interjecting with their own personal anecdotes and musings instead of giving any real advice about the stages.
• Ms. Fanservice: Pretty much all of them except Pearl and Big Man:
  • Callie and Marie have Sexy Backless Outfits with low necklines, and Callie gets a Evil Costume Switch that goes Stripperific in 2.
  • Marina wears short shorts and a tight sleeveless crop top that's mostly unzipped, with her entire midriff almost entirely exposed.
  • Shiver and Frye wear midriff-exposing clothes.
• Opposites Attract: A common characteristic across all of them is that each idol group consists of people who are True Companions to each other, but which are also unable to agree on anything for the fact that they'll never share teams when a Splatfest topic divides them.
• Source Music: Like the other splatbands, the idols provide their own music for the games they star in. The multiplayer tracks are replaced by their own discography during splatfests, complete with their own covers of Now or Never, and they're also provide live performances during the finales of the games' many campaigns.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Every group has had at least one member call out another for Unsportsmanlike Gloating at Splatfest time.
  Marie: I'm PLENTY nice, you know! I care about—
  Callie: Yourself? Winning? Insulting me on live TV?
  
  Pearl: The finest minds couldn't line these rhymes with same shine as mine, I'm—
  Marina: OMG. SHUT UP ALREADY, PEARL.
  (Beat)
  Pearl: Jeez, Reena...
  Marina: Sorry, I'm just getting sick of losing these things. That's three in a row!
  
  Shiver: Don't I deserve the most relaxing type of Pokémon after winning both Splatfests?
  Frye: Wow. WOW. You went there, huh?

The Squid Sisters

In General

Callie (left) and Marie (right)

Album art

An Inkling Idol Singer duo who act as the hosts of the first game, hosting the Inkopolis News Network that announces available stages and modes as well as Splatfest events.

Two years later, the duo has fallen into relative obscurity, and Callie has mysteriously disappeared. It's then up to Marie and another Inkling to stop the Octarians and find Callie.

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• 15 Minutes of Fame: Downplayed. The duo was very popular in the timeframe of the first game, but two years later, their lack of activity stemming from their separation seems to have caused them to become relatively unknown among the younger Inklings of Inkopolis Square, though Off the Hook and Deep Cut's newscasts imply that they're still quite famous among the general populace when they expanded to film and television roles, and they maintain an active music career with new songs in all three games. Though of course, Marina holds them in particular regard since they literally changed her life through a performance.
• Badass Adorable: They may be older than most Inklings, but they're just as cute.
• Big Eater: Their dialogue points to this often. Not only are they both in love with candy (see Sweet Tooth below), Marie has been known to fantasize about french fries, Callie sometimes interrupts the news to beg the audience to bring her peanut butter, and Marie tells Callie that what she has in common with the Kelp Dome is that they're both "sweaty and full of food." Several of the Splatfests they have hosted across all regions were themed around food items, and one in particular had "eating" as one of the choices.
• Big Good: With Cap'n Cuttlefish being Put on a Bus, Marie fills this role in the second game's single player. They both help out in the third game, along with the Captain.
• Big Sister Mentor: They both act this way toward Agent 3 when they take over Cap'n Cuttlefish's spot as Mission Control. Marie acts this way to Agent 4 in the second game, and both act this way towards the new Agent 3 in the third.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: They fit these roles from time to time, especially during the newscasts. Callie's the Boke, Marie is the Tsukkomi. Appropriately, they support their respective roles in the fifth Japanese Splatfest, which was themed around this routine.
• Cain and Abel: Due to being brainwashed, Callie serves as the Cain to Marie's Abel in the second game.
• Clashing Cousins: Used playfully in the Splatfests. They're on opposite sides, however it's (mostly) done in jest.
• Content Warning: For whatever reason, their album has an icon resembling a Parental Advisory label on it. As all of the songs are sung in the local Simlish, it's impossible to tell what exactly the label is warning for.
• Dub Name Change: From Aori and Hotaru. Some other localizations change their names as well, usually to make or keep another sea-related pun.
• Edible Theme Naming: Calimari is a mediterranean dish of fried squid or octopus. This also applies to France (where their names, Ayo and Oli, combine to form "Aioli," a Mayonnaise-like sauce commonly served with seafood) and Germany (where their names are Aioli and Limone, both used to flavor seafood).
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The fourth Japanese Splatfest, Grasshoppers vs. Ants, invokes this dynamic; Callie represents the grasshopper while Marie represents the ant.
• Faux Action Girl: As secret agents against the Octarian Army, it's implied that they can fight with skill, and they are the leaders of a group of heroes. But unlike all the other idols — Marina deploys Hyperbombs in the Octo Expansion and directly confronts the final boss of Side Order regardless of the danger it poses to her, Pearl can wreck things with her voice in both the Octo Expansion and Side Order and fights alongside you as the Pearl Drone in the latter, while Deep Cut are your primary boss fights in 3 — the Squid Sisters generally take a backline role as the player character's Mission Control. The closest either of them get to directly participating in the action is in Octo Canyon's final boss fight, where Marie uses a Splat Charger to snipe Callie's hypnoshades off.
• Graceful Loser: If their preferred team doesn't win a Splatfest, they're disappointed. But they show no hard feelings to each other depending on results (Callie moreso than Marie, however).
• Hartman Hips: They have some considerably wide hips, accented further by their costumes, especially the puffy bottoms of Callie's shorts.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Even if you beat the Final Boss of the second game, Callie will still return, Brainwashed and Crazy, each time you repeat it. However it's played less seriously after the first time. Turns out Callie keeps putting the shades back on, forgetting the mind control aspect on them (who knows why she doesn't just get someone to remove the mind control bit, really), because she thinks they look good on her. Marie is quite exasperated about it, but she'll come for Callie every time.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Callie and Marie appear to have shades of this in Splatoon 2. While Callie managed to go on to star in television, Marie on the other hand ended up landing a small-time gig on a radio show that involved studying. (And in the world of Inklings, studying is the very last thing they would care about.) This later comes to a head when Marie longs for the old days when they were the Squid Sisters. Callie for her part, while seemingly successful, ended up buckling under the pressure her new fame had gotten her.
• Idol Singer: They're based on J-pop idols, and they are very popular in the Tokyo-based setting of the game. During Splatfests, they can be seen singing to the plaza crowd on top of trucks.
• Innocent Bigot: In 3, you can play Hero Mode as an Inkling or an Octoling, but they retain an aggressive attitude against the Fuzzy Octarians, still using various slurs regardless of if the player is an Octoling themself. Although in this case, it's at least in part a limitation of the game, and No A's liberal use of localization.
• It's Personal: At the end of the NA Splatfest Early Bird VS. Night Owl, Marie's latest win really starts to get on Callie's nerves that they both start bickering (on live TV) about who won the most Splatfests and who won the most important ones. If Callie's Early Birds had won instead, the end result wouldn't have been any better, with Marie's frustration over losing to Callie so often finally boiling over. The next and last Splatfest continues this trend, pitting the Squid Sisters directly against each other.
• Lonely at the Top: The Squid Sisters Stories reveal that while Callie and Marie both increased in fame following the final Splatfest of the first game, their careers went different paths and they started growing apart.
• Magic Music: Not inherent to them, of course, but Calamari Inkantation can disrupt some of the brainwashing Octarians are subjected to; this is how Agent 8 and Marina got it in their heads to make their own livelihoods. And in Splatoon 3, it has the power to turn Smallfry into a Kaiju.
• Meaningful Name: In Japan, they're named for two species of squid. In English... well, just say it out loud. During a rematch against Callie in Splatoon 2, Marie is briefly stunned by the revelation after hearing Callie actually say the word "calamari" out loud.
  Marie: Ohhhhh! I just realized that mine and Callie's names... actually, now's not the time.
• Mission Control: They take over this role in the first game's single player campaign when Cap'n Cuttlefish, their grandfather, is kidnapped. Marie fills this role in Splatoon 2's single player campaign, and both fill it in Splatoon 3 after Cuttlefish is kidnapped again.
• Ms. Fanservice: Both of them, but especially Callie. Special mention goes to Callie's brainwashed outfit.
• Non-Indicative Name: While they're related, they aren't literally a Sibling Team. They're actually cousins, as revealed by one of the Sunken Scrolls, and also at at real-life "live" concert.
• Noodle Incident: In the American Spanish localization, Callie mentions that they got banned from eating at Mahi-Mahi Resort for some reason.
  Marie: You threw that handful of caviar at me first!
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • At the end of the Naughty vs. Nice Splatfest, Marie congratulates Callie for her victory rather than insult her as normal in North American Splatfests. This catches Callie completely off-guard:
    Callie: NAUGHTY WINS! IN YOUR FACE, MARIE!
    Marie: Congrats, Callie! You earned it...
    Callie: BAHAHA! Whatev— Wait, what?
    Marie: Merry Squidmas from Team Nice!
    (Callie is completely speechless for the rest of the segment.)
  • In the final Splatfest (Callie vs. Marie), Callie calls Marie grandma. The latter is utterly speechless.
• One-Hit Wonder: In-Universe; as a duo, the Squid Sisters aren't this by any stretch of the imagination, but as solo artists, they've never released any singles other than Callie's "Bomb Rush Blush" and Marie's "Tide Goes Out".
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The game doesn't bother to hide that they're Agents 1 and 2, being the only black- and white-tentacled Inklings in the setting. The actual disguises they wear while communicating with Agent 3 are flimsy at best: Callie wears a beanie and a pair of sunglasses, while Marie wears a green cap and a surgical mask. If you haven't figured it out before Agent 1 accidentally refers to Agent 2 by her real name, then you'll know for sure once that happens.
• Punny Name:
  • If you put their English names together, they sound like "calamari". It takes two years after the first game for Marie to actually get the joke.
  • In Italy, their names (Stella and Marina) combine to make the Italian word for Starfish.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Callie is the red, being more energetic, always leading when discussing the news, and having a mostly magenta color scheme. Marie is the blue, being more laid-back, always responding to Callie's statements, and having a mostly green color scheme. Their solo songs introduced with their amiibo reflect this: Callie's solo, "Bomb Rush Blush", is faster paced and energetic; Marie's solo, "Tide Goes Out", is slower and more chill.
• Rooting for the Empire: In-Universe. Marie was on Team Decepticon in the North American August 2015 Splatfest. Then for the Christmas Splatfest in December of 2015, Callie was on Team Naughty.
• Secret Identity: They're Agents 1 and 2 respectively, the player's predecessors in the first game's single player campaign, and Cap'n Cuttlefish's granddaughters. Becomes Late-Arrival Spoiler in Splatoon 2 when Marie flat out admits she's Agent 2 and later talks about her grandfather, and in Splatoon 3 when they both introduce themselves by their agent numbers and operate out of Squid Sisters Camp on Future Utopia Island.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Downplayed. Their outfits show off part of their backs, but they aren't completely backless. Whether or not they qualify for the "sexy" part is for the viewer to decide.
• Signing Off Catchphrase:
  Callie: Until next time...
  Both: Staaaay fresh!
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: After the final boss of Splatoon 2 is defeated, the Squid Sisters declare that they have reunited, but the post-game dialogue shows that Callie is still rehearsing her role for a TV show and Marie is still running her radio program. Despite being back together, they still have obligations to their employers to keep working, and the Squid Sisters still desire to develop their own solo careers.
• Sweet Tooth:
  • One of Marie's possible lines when the duo introduce Port Mackerel as a playable stage has her wondering if there is candy in the crates with an oddly silly grin on her face.
  • The sisters also always have a cup full of lollipops within arm's reach when you see them hanging out in their studio.
  • In the announcement of the Marshmallows vs. Hot Dogs Splatfest, Callie gets very enthusiastic about the sugary sweetness of marshmallows.
  • In the European version, and originally the North American version too, one of the possible lines for Camp Triggerfish show that Marie is fine with marshmallows too. A bit too much:
    Callie: Ahh, a campsite! Did you bring the marshmallows?
    Marie: I, uh, sort of already ate them. Heh...
  • In the European localisation one of the lines for Urchin Underpass has Callie mentioning they did a news story there. Marie states she only remembers it for the ice cream.
  • One of the Japanese quotes for Urchin Underpass has Callie stating she wants a "mega-whip-choco-chip-double-waffle".
• Take That!: The Naughty vs. Nice Splatfest has Callie making Marie fall speechless when Callie points out Marie is just as naughty as she is.
  Marie: I'm PLENTY nice, you know! I care about-
  Callie: Yourself? Winning? Insulting me on live TV?
  Marie: (remains shocked for the remainder of the segment)
• Thicker Than Water: Despite all the tension building between them that led to the final Callie vs. Marie Splatfest (see It's Personal above), they put it all behind them after the results, with Marie acknowledging Callie as her best friend, and Callie acknowledging that her cousin earned her win.
  Callie: SQUID SISTERS FOREVER!
• Think of the Censors!: In the NA Splatfest for Pirates VS Ninjas, Callie was painfully obviously trying to refer to some other kind of "booty" if Marie warned her about keeping the rating E for Everyone.
  Callie: It's time to swab the deck and plunder the booty!
  Marie: Whoa there, Callie. Let's keep it E for Everyone.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • If one goes by the North American localization, Callie likes marshmallows and catfish burgers while Marie really likes hot dogs (and hot dogfish when Arowana Mall is one of the featured maps)
    Marie: It's the perfect food! Just a cylinder of meat!
  • The Squid Sisters seem to talk a lot about chips (aka fries) in the European version.
  • Callie also seems to like the sundaes they sell at Urchin Underpass.
• Vague Age: They're "at least 17" in S1, and are obviously two years older in S2 and seven years older in S3, but beyond that, nothing is specified. Neither one visibly ages that much in the Time Skips between games, although Marie's traditional Japanese outfit from 2 and her stark white military dress from 3 do give off more mature vibes than her usual performance outfit, and both seem to have put on a bit of muscle in Return of the Mammalians.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Callie, who has a very in-your-face and hyper attitude, mains rollers, a weapon that encourages constant movement to cover turf and score splats. Marie's slower, drier, more methodical approach means she instead favors chargers, weapons good at carrying out planned splats from afar.
• Weapon Specialization:
  • Some of their conversations suggest that Marie's preferred weapon is the Charger while Callie's is the Roller. One of their dialogues when Moray Towers is playable outright confirms their choices:
    Callie: Rollers are super effective here!
    Marie: Chargers are the very best, like no gun ever was!
  • When Marie comes in to rescue Callie in the sequel, she's packing a charger which she uses to snipe off Callie's hypnoshades.
• White Gloves: Both sisters wear these to compliment their outfits.

Callie

Voiced by: Yuki Mizutani^note credited as "keity.pop" (game), Haruka Shiraishi (anime vomic)

"It's another great day, so let's give it our best! Yeah!"

The energetic, upbeat member in pink with long, black tentacles.

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• All-Loving Hero: Has never showed an ounce of sincere hatred of anything or anyone. The first thing she says to Deep Cut after their introduction in Return of the Mammalians is that she loves them.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Callie does manage to get Marie stunned in shock, by insulting her in the Early Bird Vs Night Owl Splatfest, as well as rebuking her own past insults in the Naughty Vs Nice Splatfest.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: What happens to Callie in the second game due to DJ Octavio's hypnoshades. Thankfully she gets better thanks to Marie.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: Sunken Scroll #21 in Splatoon 2 sees Callie trying to fight off fans and paparazzi on her way home. The text states that the pressure of fame is getting to her.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She has her moments, saying very random things at times. In Splatoon 3, when she and her team hand over the combined treasure to Deep Cut without a fight or anything because they're done with it, Shiver asks what's wrong with Callie being done with "treasure," she cheerfully says, "Plenty!"
• Cute Clumsy Girl: It's implied in some of their conversations that Callie is quite clumsy, such as barely being able to ride a bike, causing multiple accidents back when she worked at Walleye Warehouse, and splatting innocent bystanders during matches, although Marie questions that last one.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: A hiccuping Callie asks Marie how to do well in Mahi-Mahi Resort, but her hiccups can easily translate to her being drunk.
• The Dragon: Callie serves as this to DJ Octavio in the second game while brainwashed.
• Drives Like Crazy: When Callie expresses a desire to drive one of the forklifts in Port Mackerel, Marie insists she can barely ride a bike. Callie's comment on a cool car she just saw pass by on Urchin Underpass is met by Marie pointing out that she recently failed her driving test.
• Evil Costume Switch: In Splatoon 2, Callie changes to a much more dark and revealing outfit as a brainwashed enemy to contrast the not-brainwashed Marie who wears a more modest and light-colored kimono. Both end up returning to their original outfits by the end of the game.
• Genki Girl: Callie is noticeably more energetic and lively than Marie. Especially when her preferred team wins in Splatfests.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: Callie has spent years trying to find a Vulpix in her Pokémon Red, not knowing it is exclusive to Pokémon Blue. After calling the other version the inferior one, Marie reconsiders giving her a Vulpix.
• Jive Turkey: Callie expresses her support for Team Snowman in the Snowman vs. Sandcastle Splatfest by claiming that "Team Snowbae is so fleek that I literally can't even! It's cray. Like...crayfish cray." This ends up alienating Marie from that team.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Callie supported cats in the first American Splatfest.
• Large Ham: Callie, when talking about Museum d'Alfonsino. Marie reprimands her from not using her indoor voice.
• Nice Girl: Callie is one of the nicest characters in Splatoon. She's optimistic, friendly and a Graceful Loser that doesn't mind being on the loser's side during a Splafest.
• Running Gag: Callie's oft-mentioned inability to ride a bike.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Callie's brainwashed appearance is a good deal more revealing than her usual appearance, as she dons a crop top that leaves her midriff exposed.
• Sinister Shades: In the sequel, Callie wears a pair of sunglasses that cause her to become brainwashed. Upon challenging the final boss after defeating it once, she puts them back on because she thinks they look good on her.
• Something Only They Would Say: In the second game, Marie is able to recognize that the mysterious figure intercepting their conversations is Callie all because she's holding the communication upside-down like she did one time in the first game.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Due to DJ Octavio's brainwashing, Callie is on the Octarians' side in Splatoon 2. She snaps out of it by the end, though.
• Tsurime Eyes: Callie has sharper eyes to go with her peppier personality compared to Marie.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: In the Naughty vs. Nice Splatfest, she represented the former, and thus reacts... rather thematically after winning:
  NAUGHTY WINS! IN YOUR FACE, MARIE!
• Walking Spoiler: Is this in Splatoon 2, as her disappearance is what triggers the events of the single-player campaign.

Marie

Voiced by: Mari Kikuma (game), Haruka Shiraishi (anime vomic)

"I'm Marie. I know you're probably a bit starstruck, but I need you to get over it."

The relaxed, sarcastic member in green with short, white tentacles.

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• The Cameo: Marie appears in Octo Expansion in the Bonus Track session of Marina's Chat Room with the username of Agent 2, the text in her ink color.
• Characterization Marches On: In the early days of the American English localization of the first game, Marie displayed a liking for marshmallows just like Callie. After the Marshmallow versus Hot Dog Splatfest her lines were edited so that she disliked marshmallows.
• Cold Sniper: Downplayed. Marie isn't evil, or even unfriendly, but her use of a Charger matches her personality as the more reserved, cool-headed member of the duo.
• Damned by Faint Praise: After completing the main story in Splatoon 2, Callie mentions that Marie has been tracking Agent 4 throughout the game and has put together an Agent 4 Factopedia. According to Callie, it's "totally not creepy".
• Deadpan Snarker: Marie spends a good portion of her dialogue snarking at Callie.
• Does Not Like Spam: She hates tomatoes for whatever reason, and states in Alterna that humans should not have preserved them.
• Everyone Has Standards: If she wins in Tableturf, she takes it in good stride instead of Unsportsmanlike Gloating, remarking that she's not doing that only because Tableturf involves too much luck for that.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Marie supported dogs in the first American Splatfest.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she's usually bossy, sarcastic, and is a bit of a Competition Freak during Splatfests, under all that snark she genuinely loves her cousin.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Some of Callie's incredibly lame puns cause this reaction from Marie. In one of their conversations, Marie outright says she hates puns.
  Marie: You know how much I hate puns. They're punbearable!
• Modesty Shorts: Marie wears black shorts under her dress, which can be seen when she's dancing during a Splatfest.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Marie thinks the totem pole faces in Camp Triggerfish are "kinda cute", whereas Callie gets the creeps from them.
• Not So Above It All: While Marie usually acts as the straight man to Callie, Marie can be pretty silly herself sometimes, such as believing french fries can be grown like plants, and burning her work uniform after quitting a past job at Walleye Warehouse. She even uses a pun when describing Port Mackerel (though not without Callie begging her).
• Pineapple Ruins Pizza: Marie was on an anti-pineapple pizza team for a European Splatfest, while one of her lines in Splatoon 2 has her wondering how she can get her hands on a slice of pineapple-free pizza from the future.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Marie wears what looks like green tights under her dress, though she also wears shorts.
• Sleepyhead: She's never seen outright dozing off, but her love of sleep is often referenced in dialogue, and she represented Team Sleeping in a European Splatfest.
  Callie: The soothing sea backdrop [of Hammerhead Bridge] makes me want to nap.
  Marie: Everything makes me want to nap...
• Sore Loser:
  • At least in the North American Splatfests though she had one instance in a European Splatfest as well.
    After losing Hotdogs vs. Marshmallows: Well played, you sweet-toothed tryhards!
    Losing Art vs. Science: You only won because us scientists have jobs to do.
    Losing Cats vs. Dogs (EU): Whatever. Cats only won because Judd's the ref!
    Losing Pirates vs. Ninjas: You pirates are a bunch of cheats!
  • Callie calls her out on this after Pirates vs. Ninjas.
    Callie: Avast, me hearties! Sore loser off the port bow!
• Tareme Eyes: Marie has softer, rounder eyes to highlight her calmer, more sarcastic personality compared to Callie.
• Troll: The U.S. Pokémon Splatfest reveals that Marie did in fact trade Callie a Vulpix... nicknamed BLUEISBEST.^note Callie keeps asking how she can change her Vulpix's nickname, presumably to get rid of the nasty nickname, even though no Pokémon game lets you do that with traded ones.
• Tsundere: Marie, towards Agent 4. At the start of the game her lines when talking to her repeatedly include a number of rude thoughts and comments, calling Agent 4 needy and implying that they're bad at multiplayer. By the end of the game, her lines include a number of more friendly ones, such as offering to to get Agent 4 tickets to her next concert, or thinking to herself that Agent 4 is adorable. That's not to say that the original rude lines won't show up anymore.
• The Un-Smile: Downplayed. Marie's smile always comes out crooked, looking more like a forced, awkward grin, but it still manages to make her look endearing and cute.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Drops a bird-related insult on Callie after winning the Early Bird vs. Night Owl Splatfest to rub in her loss. This leaves Callie furious and causes the two to argue briefly.
  Callie: You know, Marie? I'm really sick of your attitude. You talk all this smack... But I've won WAY more Splatfests than you...
  Marie: Whatever...I won all the important ones...
  Callie: You wanna talk smack? Put up or shut up!
• Weapon Specialization: According to Side Order, she mains Chargers. She's also been seen using a Charger before.

Off the Hook

In General

Pearl (left) and Marina (right)

Album art

The newest freshest Idol Singer duo who reside in Inkopolis Square, with their team called "Off the Hook". They're also the newest hosts for the news.

In Splatoon 3, they are the stars of the Side Order Downloadable Content campaign. They also collaborate and tour with another band known as Damp Socks.

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• Ambiguously Gay: A not-so-insignificant amount of their interactions can be read as romantic, with Marina in particular being very affectionate towards Pearl. By Side Order, the romantic angle is emphasized so much in their dialogue that the only thing keeping the "ambiguous" part intact is the lack of direct confirmation from Nintendo themselves.
• Badass Bystander: When introduced in the Octo Expansion they aren't actually a part of Squidbeak Splatoon, or actively aware of what's going on. Instead they found a communicator that belonged to the Squidbeak Splatoon on a mountain they were visiting, and decided to assist them escaping from the Underground Metro. Instead of taking a backseat, they are active in assisting both Agent 8 and Capt. Cuttlefish and as mission control, Marina being a skilled hacker that can help Agent 8 if they get stuck, and Pearl mobilizing a fleet of helicopters to rescue all members of the New Squidbeak Splatoon at the end. Beforehand Marina also activates Agent 8's emergency beacon in a last ditch effort to prevent Agent 8 and Cuttlefish from being blended, which works when it summons Agent 3 to destroy the blender.
• Big "OMG!":
  • Or rather, "Big 'OMC'", in this case. During the conversation for the Sweaters vs Socks Splatfest, Pearl screams "OH MY COD" when Marina brings up an idea of a sweater with Judd and Li'l Judd howling at the moon.
  • A straight example (just the acronym, though) from Marina occurs after losing the Fork vs. Spoon Splatfest.
• Bootstrapped Theme: Much like how "Calamari Inkantation" is the Squid Sisters' most iconic song, Octo Expansion turns "Ebb & Flow" into this for them, giving it a Triumphant Reprise for the final section of the final boss. It even gets a bit of backstory as one of the duo's very first songs, if not the first.
• Conlang: Notable in that their music features a different one from the one usually employed by the game, as Marina sings in a different language (represented by the lyrics for her parts being in katakana instead of hiragana, and implied to be the Octarian language). Pearl's rapping, which she writes herself, is in the game's usual squid language (portions where she sings with Marina are in her language, but marked in hiragana to indicate her unfamiliarity with it).
• Cute Little Fangs: They both have a very noticeable pointy tooth in the center of their mouths, but it is especially prominent on Pearl (and unique by both Inkling and Octoling standards).
• Damned by Faint Praise: One of their conversations regarding Inkblot Art Academy has Pearl ask Marina to tell the viewers about the school. All Marina can come up with is "It's a place that exists". In another conversation, Pearl admits that they can't badmouth the Academy because it's one of their sponsors.
• Does Not Like Spam: Downplayed regarding their reactions to the other side's choice in food-related Splatfests. They'll complain about each other's choice, but it's mostly just standard arguing to try and make their own side seem better. For example, Marina goes on a comedic rant about how she hates mayonnaise when the Mayo vs. Ketchup Splatfest's announced, remarking (among other things) that she'd rather lick Crusty Sean's grease trap than eat it. Even Pearl is taken aback.
• Doing It for the Art: In-universe, their development concept is being more focused on music making as an artistic endeavor than the Squid Sisters, who are more closely involved with the Idol Singer culture part of the entertainment industry. However, one conversation for Inkblot Art Academy says that this isn't as successful for them as this trope would suggest.
  Marina: Our shows sell out almost as fast as we do...
• Dub Name Change:
  • In the original Japanese, their names are Hime (Pearl) and Iida (Marina), and their band is called "Tentacles". Like with Callie and Marie, the localizations change their names into other sea-related puns; some notable examples include:
    • Their Italian names Alga (Pearl) and Nori (Marina), which are themed after seaweed.
    • Pearl's Dutch name of Lorelei.
  • The Japanese and English versions both manage to reconcile the other's name for Marina by making it her surname: In English, she's "Marina Ida" (with only one I), while in Japanese, she's "Iida Marine" (the latter pronounced 'Mah-Ree-Neh')^note Her Octarian Army dossier in the Japanese version writes her name out in katakana as 'IIDA=MARINE', with the '=' separator suggesting her name is written in Western name order.
• Dub Personality Change: In the Japanese version, since Pearl is three years older than Marina and has more experience in the music industry than her, Marina is openly adoring of Pearl on-air and enthusiastically compliments her often; the joke is that the ostensibly more mature Marina is the one looking up to the rowdier and more childish Pearl. This would carry a very different tone in the West due to the fact that seniority carries much less weight than it does in Japan, which would lead to their relationship being perceived very differently, so the English localization changes it to have more of an air of Vitriolic Best Buds.^note Pearl being three years older than Marina and more experienced in the industry means that Marina is expected to act respectful towards Pearl by default, and Pearl is likewise expected to set an example for Marina and help guide her, but Marina's occasional subtle snark at Pearl's antics and the duo's more honest conversations in Octo Expansion make it clear that the two mutually admire each other and have more of an equal relationship in practice (in fact, Pearl likewise has no problem regarding the Squid Sisters as equal "rivals" despite also being older than them). In the West, since deferring to one's senior isn't expected by default, Senpai-Kohai is often seen with more of a power imbalance, leading to the concept's over-conflation with "wanting senpai to notice me" due to the prevalence of the dynamic in Shōjo Demographic works. This would likely lead to the Western audience perceiving Marina as overly deferential or submissive to Pearl, so the English version's writing changes it to the opposite dynamic where they banter openly on screen but show more mutual respect for each other in Octo Expansion.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Due in part to the long time spent in-between, Pearl and Marina's Splatoon 3 fits were both tweaked a bit between their first appearance in Sunken Scroll 22 and their proper debut in Side Order, with their appearance in the February 2024 Deep Cut concert matching the latter.
  • Pearl's jacket lacks the sewn-on patches on its right side. The large colorful NASA-like symbol on her jacket's left breast pocket was nowhere to be seen, replaced with a simple X shape. The Sunken Scroll art also depicts her jacket as a bit less puffy and less visibly oversized than in Side Order.
  • Marina still has her navel piercing from Splatoon 2, wears different gloves that expose her knuckles and the backs of her hands, and has a bandeau with about the same cut as her old zipper top. In Side Order, Marina wears the same gloves as in 2, goes without the piercing, and has a much lower-cut neckline exposing quite a bit of cleavage. The galaxy pattern on her tentacles reaches further up in the Sunken Scroll, and is more realistic-looking and less vibrant.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Although the Inkopolis residents don't quite realize they're doing this (as they don't realize Marina's an Octoling), they consider Off the Hook's "exoticness" as part of their appeal.
• Gamer Chick: Both are known to play games, though Marina is clearly the bigger gamer. The Knight vs. Wizard Splatfest has her geek out about a game releasing around the time, and one regular stage dialogue has her bemoan an event occurring around the same time a new game is coming out. Pearl herself is a fan of Squidbeatz, and according to one Side Order dialogue, is insanely good at rhythm games.
• Genre Mashup: In-universe, they mix the popular music of their respective cultures, the sparkly pop performed by the Squid Sisters and the bizarre rhythms and instrumentation performed by Turquoise October. In Octo Expansion, particularly, they also take a turn into '90s Dirty Rap.
• Giant Woman:
  • Some of the Splatfest artwork in Splatoon 2 exaggerates the height difference between Pearl and Marina... in both directions. The Japanese No Pineapple vs. Pineapple Splatfest shows Pearl defending a huge plate of sweet-and-sour pork from an equally large and menacing Marina◊. And for Super Mushroom vs. Super Star, Pearl looks a lot more like she's found a Mega Mushroom◊ than an ordinary Super one.
  • Marina gets pretty enormous during the Marina Agitando boss fight. She doesn't move around much, but she finds plenty of ways to cause mayhem regardless with her ink balls, Super Chump spam, and countless Jelletons. Destroying the machine and Controller VM shrinks her back to her normal (but still tall) height. It's possible the size discrepancy is to prevent Marina from being obscured when viewed from below, considering how no one ever mentions it — but with the Memverse being a VR simulation to begin with, it's just as likely to be diegetic.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: It's shown that despite their differing personalities, they get along like peanut butter and jelly, even on-stage. The Octo Expansion further dives into this, revealing the two had been unbelievably close friends for as long as they could remember, despite their vast differences which they quickly set aside. Even their friendship doesn't once falter when Pearl learns about Marina's history in the Octarian Army. Not that we haven't been made to wonder about that first word.
• Hidden Depths:
  • The Chat Room in Octo Expansion reveals that Pearl was a metal singer before she joined with Marina.
  • Marina is a talented Shoujo artist, as shown in the Octo Expansion. Her drawings of Pearl and the playable Octoling are quite a sight to behold. Cap'n Cuttlefish has a whole dossier on her and her sizable contribution to the Octarian military before she went AWOL courtesy of Agents 1 through 3 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon.
• Hide Your Lesbians: At first, international localizations of Splatoon 2 downplayed any potential romance between Pearl and Marina by insisting they were just very good friends. This was done partially by making Marina's dialogue toward Pearl significantly less affectionate, but also by doing things such as changing Marina's title on the Splatoon Base website from "Young Lady in Love" to "Real Sweetheart", and the "DEAR SENPAI" Shifty Station to "MC.Princess Diaries" in English and "Eternal Friendship" in most European languages. This lessened as time went on, with the two getting more affectionately teasing lines toward each other and (most notably) Pearl telling Marina "you know I love you" — and in Side Order, the romantic subtext is so thick and so strong that few localizations bothered to hide it anymore.
• Idol Singer: The duo has displaced the Squid Sisters as the favorite music act of Inkopolis in Splatoon 2. To contrast their forerunners' Japanese idol styling, Off the Hook takes after a '90s rap/techno-R&B style. This is even reflected in their approaches to their Inkopolis News broadcasts: The Squid Sisters structure theirs like a Manzai performance, while Off the Hook is more like a modern music talk show.
• Implied Love Interest: Whereas Splatoon 2 was content with leaving Off the Hook at Heterosexual Life-Partners, Side Order ramps things up two or three notches. Pearl and Marina's dialogue and general behavior toward each other during the campaign is so openly romantic in nature that it's really only the lack of official confirmation keeping them from being an Official Couple. (And even then, some of the details make one wonder if maybe it is supposed to be canon. Check out Marina's desktop background — that's not the kind of picture you take of someone who's just your "best friend"). Even Acht tends to react to their banter with passive bemusement, as if they're watching two Sickeningly Sweethearts flirting.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Many have noted that they bear more than a passing resemblance to their voice actresses Rina Itou and Alice.
• Interspecies Friendship: Off the Hook is a friendship between an Inkling and an Octoling, two races that aren't known to be on good terms with each other at the present time. However, Pearl isn't actually aware of Marina's true origins and even after she learns who Marina really is during the Octo Expansion, her friendship doesn't waver in the slightest, giving hope for more Octoling/Inkling friendships in the future and perhaps even an end to the great conflict between the two races. By Side Order this seems to have evolved into an Interspecies Romance.
• Irony: Pearl is a princess, with her crown and titles and status as coming from a rich family. Marina is a knight, an ex-soldier and combat engineer in the Octarian army. But when designing her Memverse, Marina sets up the whole thing so that Pearl is the knight in shining armor climbing a tower to save the princess on top, with Marina being the princess in the situation.
• Meaningful Appearance: Both girls wear fingerless gloves, as a nod to the white gloves the Squid Sisters wore. They're also somewhat similar to the fingerless gloves worn by Octoling soldiers. The details of Octo Expansion heavily suggest they're a holdover from Marina's Octarian Army days.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Their Japanese names are Hime and Iida; Hime is a reference to a type of squid called Hime-ika (the Northern Pygmy Squid) and the word for "princess", while Iida is a shortened version of a type of octopus called Iidako (the Ocellated Octopus). Their English names reference natural Marine Pearls and Pearl Harbor.
  • Pearl's full name, Pearl Houzuki, comes from "daio houzuki ika", the Japanese name for the colossal squid. This creates a further pun when you take into account her Japanese name, Hime — forming "Hime Houzuki" or "Colossal Pygmy", literally the squid version of "Biggie Smalls", which, of course, is a reference to The Notorious B.I.G..
• Mission Control: Their role in Octo Expansion. Only Marina fills this role in Side Order (now joined by Acht), with Pearl taking to the splattlefield alongside Eight as the Pearl Drone.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: They not only promote Grizzco's job hirings in their news segment, but they also mention taking Salmon Run shifts as well. This means they unwittingly help Mr. Grizz further his plans to remake the world with fuzz.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Their outfits in their MC Princess and DJ_Hyperfresh personas are dead-on recreations of the two most iconic outfits worn by The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, respectively.
• Noodle Incident:
  • One of the blurbs for Manta Maria has Marina remind Pearl that they sunk the last ship they had a concert on. How on earth this happened is never explained.
  • Nor is the time Pearl met "The Lord of The Lake", the owner of Piranha Pit.
  • In another blurb for Snapper Canal, Pearl mentions a boy from her school brought her there as a kid. She never reveals any more information about the incident, leaving us (and Marina) extremely confused.
• Odd Friendship:
  • The first example of Inkling/Octoling friendship in the series, though Pearl doesn't actually know Marina is an Octoling until the events of the Octo Expansion, only sensing that she was "different" but not feeling comfortable directly addressing it outside the occasional "octo" joke. When she does finally receive confirmation thanks to Cuttlefish, she doesn't really care at all and still considers Marina her best friend.
  • Pearl and Cap'n Cuttlefish form a friendship over their love of rap music, despite their differing outlooks on life. Also counts as Intergenerational Friendship.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When they announce that Salmon Run is currently live, the duo will occasionally bring up that they partake in Salmon Run shifts, which are never shown in-game.
  Pearl: I can't believe our last gig went so smoothly, Marina!
  Marina: Yeah, especially because we worked a Salmon Run shift instead of rehearsing!
• Older Than They Look: Marina is younger than Pearl by three years; The official artbook reveals that she's 18 during the events of Splatoon 2, while Pearl is 21.
• One Head Taller: With Pearl being so short and Marina being so tall^note 145 cm (4'9") and 178 cm (5'10"), respectively, they have quite a height difference between each other.
• Out of Focus: They don't appear in Splatoon 2's hero mode, only getting a few mentions in Sunken Scrolls (plus Marie occasionally alluding to them). This is subverted in Octo Expansion, where they assist Agent 8 as Mission Control. This ends up being the exact same case for Splatoon 3, funnily enough. They are only in a single Sunken Scroll that explains why they aren't around, but do star in the Side Order DLC campaign, return to Inkopolis Square afterward, and make various cameos on the game's multiplayer stages. They also perform two new songs that can be heard in Turf Wars and the Splatfest song "Suffer No Fools."
• Punny Name: The names their group takes in the European versions are punny:
  • The majority of them are a combination of "Tentacle" and "Cool".
  • The Spanish name, Cefalopop, is a mix of "cephalopod" and "pop".
• Put on a Bus: As foreshadowed by their post-FinalFest dialogue in Splatoon 2, the duo are on a world tour in the events of Splatoon 3, and make no physical appearance as a result. They are the main focus of the Side Order campaign, however. To really emphasize that The Bus Came Back, you gain the ability to revisit Inkopolis Square after clearing the Spire of Order for the first time, where an Anarchy Splatcast announcement reveals that Off the Hook's tour is officially over.
• Recurring Element: A Red Oni, Blue Oni musical duo that hosts the news. The original had the Red Oni with pink clothes and black tentacles, and the Blue Oni with green clothes and white tentacles. Here the Red Oni is pink clothes with white tentacles and Blue Oni is green clothes with black tentacles.
• Ship Tease: They get an insane amount of ship tease, from the Splatfest art, to their very romantic-looking hug at the end of Octo Expansion, to... actually, almost every single interaction the two share in Side Order. The Final Splatfest even has Pearl say she loves Marina. For bonus points, the Japanese version of the Splatoon 3 relationship chart refers to Marina as a "maiden in love"^note "恋する乙女" or "koisuru-otome", a sterotypically romantic phrase commonly found in shōjo romance manga, which Marina is said to be a fan of multiple times which was changed to "Real Sweetheart" in the English version. In "Suffer No Fools" Pearl dedicates a whole bar to hyping Marina up as perfection incarnate, calling her divine and one-of-a-kind; with the splash art of them singing together depicting Marina affectionately draped against Pearl. In the same song, one of Frye's disses is calling Marina a "grouper" (a fish pun on "groupie"), likely including all the negative connotations it implies, which basically means Frye is accusing Pearl and Marina of sleeping together.
• Shout-Out:
  • The European name of Off The Hook is Tentacool.
  • In the "Octo Expansion", Pearl and Marina's outfits as MC Princess◊ and DJ_Hyperfresh◊ are homages to The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, respectively.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: By the time of Splatoon 3: Side Order, Pearl and Marina's relationship has evolved into something far more romantic in nature, and a large portion of the incidental dialogue they have together is flirting with each other. It's as adorable as you'd expect from a pink pop princess and romance manga fan. Eight's reaction to this is as ambiguous as always, but Acht clearly finds it a bit nausea-inducing.
• Signing Off Catchphrase:
  Pearl: Until next time...
  Both: Don't get cooked... Stay off the hook!
• Singer-Songwriter: Unlike the Squid Sisters, who have their songs written by their producer Shy-Ho-Shy, Marina composes and arranges all of Off the Hook's music (with Pearl writing the lyrics and rap portions). This is one of the things the two first bonded over after meeting on Mt. Nantai, with Pearl being impressed with Marina's early cut of Ebb & Flow and Marina being pleasantly surprised by Pearl's rap skills.
• Sore Loser:
  • Pearl is pretty salty whenever she loses a Splatfest:
    • She immediately contests Marina's statement that Ice Cream is better than Cake after the Splatfest World Premiere; Marina proceeds to unleash her rule-fu, which cues the little Inkling throwing a tantrum.
    • When Marina won the Sci-Fi vs Fantasy Splatfest, Pearl complained that the machinery-obsessed Marina should have chosen Science Fiction, to which Marina states she prefers science fact; Pearl's final line was "Whatever."
    • Pearl yells about how Team Comedy spends its time as if stereotyping, while claiming how Team Action "doesn't look at explosions"; Marina says they probably should have, which warrants another "Whatever" from Pearl.
    • During the initial announcement of the Hana vs. Dango Splatfest in Japan, Pearl was angrily huffing over her six-Splatfest losing streak in that region. Luckily for her, she went on to win that particular Splatfest.
    • When the Money vs. Love Splatfest results were finalized, the very first word out of Pearl's mouth was "RIGGED!"
    • Game 2 of the Turtles Splatfest had her particularly salty that "Dona-smello" won. She's reduced to groaning when Raphael loses.
    • Pearl's first response to Marina winning Splatoween is accusing her of bribing Li'l Judd with candy.
    • During the Eat It vs. Save It Splatfest results speech, Pearl calls Marina's team as the 'no-fun allowed squad'. In response, Marina makes food puns about sour grapes and a humble pie.
  • Marina has a downplayed moment of this after losing the Fork vs Spoon Splatfest.
• Stealth Pun: At first, this duo's names don't seem to be as connected as the Squid Sisters', but then you realize that "Marina" is another word for "harbor", but with the benefit of sounding like an actual name. Pearl Harbor is of course, the famous harbor in Hawaii most known for being host to a North American Naval Base, the destruction of which got the United States to enter World War II.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The spicy Pearl to the sweet Marina. Although, their appearances contrast this dynamic, with Pearl looking girlier.
• Too Dumb to Live: Played for Laughs and goes both ways. Pearl is generally Book Dumb, while tech genius Marina has some gaps in knowledge about life on the surface that makes her an easy target for some jokes.
  • From their banter, it's clear that most of Pearl's behavior in battle basically amounts to "forget the objective and do whatever seems fun". For example, one of her battles strategies for Starfish Mainstage is to get onto the stage and look "freshhhhhhh", while her modus operandi for Ancho-V Games is to spend the entire match playing with the propeller platforms. Marina laments her choice of partner because of this.
  • There is also the fact Pearl tricked Marina into diving inside the water near the former stage, which as you know is not-so-great for Inklings and Octolings. This is joked about in one of the dialogue pieces for Sturgeon Shipyard, but a conversation had during one Splatfest announcement implies that the lesson didn't really sink in:
    Marina: I can see it now. The sun, the breeze in my tentacles, a quick dip in the ocean...
    Pearl: Marina, did you forget that we LITERALLY DISSOLVE in the ocean or somethin'?
• True Companions: For whatever arguments they have on air, they're fierce friends behind the scenes. Marina is deeply grateful to Pearl for helping her adapt to Inkling culture, while Pearl will not hesitate to threaten anyone who even implies they have a problem with Marina.
  DJ_Hyperfresh (Marina): Anyway, I know we talk a lot of smack on the show and all, but I just wanted to say thanks. For everything.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The duo acts like this when on-air, regularly sending veiled insults and snark each other's way. Marina will outright say Pearl's singing is terrible and criticize her battle strategies, while Pearl might lie and say Marina isn't her best friend or insult her preferred choice of condiment (ketchup), calling it "tomato jam". There are rare occasions where they break this if they think they've gone too far with the mudslinging, such as the North American Pulp/No Pulp Splatfest, where they stop halfway during their banter to apologize for the comments, or when Marina apologizes to Pearl after Fork/Spoon for snapping at her out of frustration
• Zipperiffic: Their outfits feature large zips on their boots, Pearl's dress and Marina's crop top. One of their conversations for Inkblot Art Academy pokes fun at them:
  Pearl: I heard the designer that made our outfits graduated from here.
  Marina: I wonder if she wrote her thesis on ridiculously large zippers.

Pearl Houzuki

Voiced by: Rina Itou

"Boo-YAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The feisty white-and-pink Inkling rapper.

---

• Affectionate Nickname:
  • In the English localization, Marina calls Pearl "Pearlie". Pearl, in turn, occasionally calls her "'Rina".
  • In the Japanese version, Marina calls her "senpai".
  • In the Spanish localization, Marina calls her Perlita ("little pearl").
• Ambiguous Situation: The backstory for the band SashiMori makes mention of their previous leader and lead singer back when they were a wall-of-sound-style hard rock band, who is described as domineering and with a voice so strong that only their Made of Iron scaly-foot gastropod member Karla could handle it. Pearl's background as a former metal singer with a tendency to wreck her venues, combined with her somewhat egotistical demeanor, strongly suggests she was the band's old leader, but no official confirmation has been given beyond an offhand statement along the lines of "use your imagination" in a developer interview, and a blurb on the English version of SashiMori's Splatoon Base page that may be a mistranslation, which refers to the lead singer with masculine pronouns.
• Assist Character:
  • In the Final Splatfest of 2, Pearl shows up on the special Shifty Station for that fest. During the final minute, she'll show up near the center of the map and initiate a Killer Wail for the first player that reaches her. Either team can get her assist.
  It's the voice to end all voices!
  • In Side Order, she acts as this to Agent 8 in the form of the Pearl Drone. At her base, she allows Eight to glide in order to cross gaps, and has a laser pointer that will lock on to the nearest enemy or objective to help you keep track. It's all by Marina's design, as she planned for Pearl to act as a guiding force for users of the Memverse to help them scale the Spire.
• Badass Adorable: Pearl is short, energetic, perhaps a bit crass but otherwise just as adorable as most other Inklings. She's also performed the most impressive feat out of the Idols, destroying a city-destroying super weapon in a Beam-O-War with a Killer Wail empowered BOOYAH!
• Berserk Button: Harming Marina, or saying anything that could be construed as a threat against her, is a very quick way to get on Pearl's bad side. Cuttlefish suggesting that he may be at odds with Marina due to her past in Octavio's army has Pearl immediately respond by threatening him. Then there's also her contribution to Side Order's Monster Compendium entry for Marina's Brainwashed and Crazy boss form:
  Pearl: How DARE Order put Marina through the wringer like that! That thing's on my LIST!
• Big Fancy House:
  • The Splatoon 3 map of Inkadia and the Splatlands◊ shows that Pearl's house is quite big and fancy, with multiple islands surrounded by a lake big enough to compare to a small city. And the roof of the building is shaped like her crown, in case the massive real estate didn't already scream "the person who lives here is rich".
  • Incidental dialogue from Side Order has her suddenly remember she left her umbrella on the airplane Off the Hook used for their world tour. Acht responds that she should just contact the airport to have it returned. Pearl responds back and says that if it's still on the plane, then it's in her backyard, strongly implying that she has her own private jet on her property.
• Blood Knight: Pearl is one very aggressive Inkling. In one Grizzco advert, Pearl gets yelled at by Mr. Grizz for not picking up the Golden Eggs and focusing solely on "cooking" Salmonids. If Eight is on their last life in a Side Order run, Pearl will express excitement at being on your last legs
• Character Catchphrase: Parodied. In one of their conversations, it's revealed that Pearl has been trying to make "straight up sloppy" into a trend. Marina doesn't think it will catch on. This is one of the giveaways that "Celebrity MC" is really Pearl in her cameo in Super Mario Maker 2, as one of her course descriptions has her still trying to make the phrase work.
• Chekhov's Gun: The first Sunken Scroll of Hero Mode shows a young Pearl accidentally making a destructive shockwave with her voice. In the climax of the Octo Expansion, she weaponizes this to bring down the NILS Statue.
• Comically Missing the Point: Marina points out to Pearl how vampires can be easy to slay, mentioning stakes as one of the options. Pearl mishears that as "steaks" and goes into how you can't kill vampires with meat.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Marina's idea of fixing Pearl's sour attitude after the Splatoween Splatfest involves bombarding her with candy corn via Tenta-Missile launcher.
• Cool Crown:
  • Pearl has some headgear that looks like a white crown with pink highlights. Makes sense as her Japanese name is "Hime".
  • In Octo Expansion, Pearl in her "MC Princess" persona has an even bigger and cooler one. She also reveals that she has her own personalized Killer Wail speaker that also sports one.
  • By tapping Pearl's amiibo, you can obtain the Pearlescent Crown, a piece of headgear inspired by the crown in her "MC Princess" outfit.
• Cool Ship: The Manta Maria apparently once belonged to Pearl — it was a present she got for her sixth birthday.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Pearl's love of mayonnaise apparently extends to using it as cake frosting◊. Marina's not much better, with decorating her ice cream with ketchup...
• Cute and Psycho: Pearl expresses wanting to splat the faces off the rock-climbing jellyfish at Musselforge Fitness due to their cuteness, prompting Marina to confiscate her Splattershot until she calms down. She also threatens to use time travel in the Time Travel vs. Teleportation splatfest to splat some kids entire family line.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: Her small stature and well-coordinated outfits, plus being one of the two star idols for Splatoon 2 quickly show off her cuteness, but she can be very quick to show off her loud side, whether it be by blowing out the speakers with her voice in an early performance, using an amplified Killer Wail to finish off the final boss of Octo Expansion, or another amplified Killer Wail to finish the final boss of Side Order. Appropriately, in Side Order, one of the only Drone Chips that doesn't need to be unlocked is the Drone Killer Wail.
• Dirty Coward: For all her aggression, one reason Marina chides Pearl in a stage dialogue is that the latter "jumps back to spawn at the first sign of trouble". However, this seems to be an Informed Ability, or exclusive to Turf Wars. She has personally faced off against two of the series four significant Big Bads with no apparent signs of fear, and is nothing but enthusiastic about being an Assist Character to Eight in Side Order.
• Ditzy Genius: According to her Splatune 2 interview, Marina sees Pearl as The Ace in that she can nail her music in one or two takes while Marina's perfectionism compels her to do multiple takes. That said, everything else can be a challenge to Pearl, like doing a Dualie-centric stunt 4,000 times to actually pull it off, and some of her Ink Battle tactics can be questionable at best.
• Dub Personality Change: Her knowledge of Marina's secret differs between the English and Japanese scripts. In Japan, she's just as clueless as the rest of the Inklings that Marina's an Octoling, and it takes Cap'n Cuttlefish telling her in Octo Expansion for her to figure it out. In English, though, she implies she's aware that Marina's not an "exotic Inkling" as everybody else thinks. Thus, in place of Marina being an Octoling, it's the fact that Marina was a combat engineer for the Octarian army that's the news Cuttlefish breaks to her.
• Epic Fail: Pearl has been implied to have splatted herself with her own Dualies. Bear in mind, Inklings are Friendly Fireproof to their own attacks, so how this happened is anyone's guess.
• Face of a Thug: Pearl's default expression has a pretty serious scowl, which contrasts from her energetic merriment on-and-off stage. The scowl only deepens when the player uses an Inkling avatar to watch her talk with Marina.
• Fiction 500: While it's never gone into detail about, it's made clear Pearl's family is pretty loaded. Case in point: the Manta Maria was a birthday present her parents bought her when she was six. Her family also owns the Inkopolis baseball league. Not the team, but the whole league. The land taken up by her Big Fancy House is shown in a map of the Splatoon 3 world to rival some cities. Past your first run of Side Order, Pearl may imply in an elevator dialogue that she has a private jet that Off the Hook used during their tour, which she keeps in her backyard when not using.
• Forehead of Doom: Pearl has quite a prominent forehead.
• Genki Girl: Pearl is always bubbly and excited during their broadcasts. Marina is also happy-go-lucky, particularly during Splatfests.
• Genre Shift: As revealed in Marina's Chat Room in Octo Expansion, Pearl was a Heavy Metal singer before she switched to pop rap.
• Guns Akimbo: Her Splatcast conversations and the Action vs. Comedy Splatfest art imply that she mains the Splat Dualies, which fits her aggressive energy rather well. This is further backed by the fact that her palette in Side Order has the Splat Dualies as the Main Weapon.
• Height Angst:
  • Marina gets in a couple cracks about her size.
    Pearl: Hey Marina, I heard you got a new motorcycle! You gotta let me ride it!
    Marina: I don't think your feet would reach the pegs...
    Marina: Hey, Pearl. Why do you always wear those thick-soled boots to this park?
    Pearl: My dad gave them to me. They make me tall enough to ride the rides...
  • Pearl says she had a hand in designing Camp Triggerfish as it's owned by her parents. If you play Clam Blitz on that stage, the clam basket isn't hanging far off the ground like it usually is — for some reason, it's abnormally close to the ground, and still has a throwing mound for throwers to have extra height against it.
• Hidden Depths: Marina mentions in a Side Order conversation that Pearl mastered a rhythm game Marina developed all the way back in her school days, a feat Pearl performed so effortlessly that Marina set out to make a harder follow-up. It wouldn't be that impressive if not for the fact that the game clocked in at over 888 BPM.
• Innocently Insensitive: During the Squid vs. Octopus Splatfest, Pearl, not knowing that Marina is an Octoling (and barely knowing anything about octopi or Octarians besides what she remembers from history class), makes a comment about how squids are better than octopi because they have ten limbs when octopi have 8.
• Insistent Terminology: Pearl calls the stages "maps", which Marina warns her may confuse people.
• Ironic Name: "Lorelei" is associated with the famous murmuring rock on the Rhine, as well as the many legends of maidens with captivating voices who sang on it. In Dutch, this is Pearl's name. Her last name, "Houzuki", comes from the Japanese name for the colossal squid, the most massive squid species on Earth... when Pearl is one of the shortest characters in the series.
• Is This Thing Still On?: One dialogue when Blackbelly Skatepark is one of the stages has Pearl telling Marina about her new training wheels and doesn't want Marina to tell anyone, before the latter reminds her that they're still live.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Calling Pearl a jerk is a bit of an exaggeration. While not mean, she is aggressive, sometimes insensitive and has quite the ego about her. Her response to an Inkling watching her and Marina in their studio (or any character in Splatoon 3) shows her being annoyed before posing to placate them. In spite of that, she cares fiercely for Marina, and is perfectly happy shelling out cash to a random stranger just to help them out.
• King Incognito: Possibly. A few things in Octo Expansion — particularly her Mem Cake, the consistency of her MC Princess handle across languages, her consistent crown iconography and the casualness with which she shaves cash off her dad (as seen if you go broke in the Metro) — hint that Pearl might be actual Inkling royalty, or at least something like it. It helps that she owns a Big Fancy House. She notably manages to dodge the subject of her full name in Octo Expansion - while Japanese speakers learned her name in the Octotune OST's side material, others would have to wait until Side Order released.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Very heavily implied in the chip catalogue in Side Order - Pearl's commentary on the Main Damage (Close) chip advocates rushing in to take advantage of the damage boost, and several of the chips that help with ink (be it by increasing recovery or reducing consumption) strongly imply that Pearl regularly is so focused on attacking that she forgets to reload.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor:
  • Calling Pearl outright mean is a stretch, but she's had moments on the air, likely unscripted, where she's insensitive, a Sore Loser, dishing out Unsportsmanlike Gloating, or straight-up rude to Marina. However, she and Marina can always be seen chatting and laughing it up together in their studio when off the air.
  • Octo Expansion confirms this as even when Cuttlefish reveals Marina's past life as a high-ranking engineer in the Octarian army, she remains fiercely loyal to her friend and often makes it clear just how much she values Marina's friendship. Besides that, she's very supportive of Agent 8 throughout their journey, and she instantly bonds with Cuttlefish over their shared interest in rapping.
  • Come Side Order, almost all dialogue between Pearl and Marina is complimentary. Pearl even mentions she felt genuine terror for the first time in quite a while during the campaign, all due to hoping Marina was okay.
• Metal Scream: Pearl was capable of this during her days as a metal singer, with her vocal chords being powerful enough to destroy the equipment at the Youth Folk Singing competition she once participated in. It should come as no surprise that her Limit Break of choice in Turf Wars is a Killer Wail.
• The Napoleon: Pearl is notably shorter than other Inklings and has a big attitude.
• No Indoor Voice: Pearl, especially when performing. A Sunken Scroll reveals that even as a child, the Folk-Singing Contest she sang in (the same contest The Squid Sisters got their start in previously) had to be cut short because her performance was so loud that it caused a powerful shockwave that caused damage to the venue and blew the speakers out. This trait is weaponized during Octo Expansion; One would think Pearl screaming a battle cry as a counter to Cmdr. Tartar's superweapon is stretching her love of shouting too far, but then they break out the Killer Wail. Pearl gets to use her voice as a weapon again when facing off against the Overlorder in Side Order, first with a regular supersonic "Boo-YAAAH!", then with a Color Chip-boosted Color Wail 5.1.
  Pearl: The acoustics in this place are amazing! My voice carries like crazy! AYO! AYO!
  Marina: Just... try not to break any of the ancient fossils with your voice.
• Older Than They Look: While Marina appears more physically mature than Pearl, official material cites that Pearl is actually three years older than Marina, being around age 27 by the events of Side Order.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: She is short, even for an Inkling, yet is capable of screams powerful enough to hold back and overpower a Wave-Motion Gun (albeit with assistance from a Killer Wail speaker). Taken further in Side Order, where her Drone form is even smaller, yet with a player that puts enough effort into upgrading her, can utterly bombard the battlefield with bombs, Inkstrikes, and Killer Wails.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Whenever Pearl's side wins in a Splatfest, she'll pop off and drop some sick beats acknowledging the victory. It often borders on Unsportsmanlike Gloating and, at one point, Marina snaps at her. Pearl's tendency to spit fire at the drop of a hat continues into Side Order.
• Spoiled Sweet: Pearl's family is rich enough to have bought her a fully-fledged ship for her sixth birthday and still give her an allowance despite her being an adult and a famous rapper. But while she has some bratty tendencies, she seems to genuinely care for Marina and never seems to use her wealth as an excuse to treat others poorly or disregard boundaries. Learning about Marina's past only makes her more loyal to her best friend and galvanizes her desire to help other Octolings who want to leave violence behind, like Eight.
• Stealth Pun: Her Japanese name can translate to "Colossal Pygmy", which would be the Inkling version of "Biggie Smalls".
• Super-Scream: A lot of dialogue implies that, even without the aid of a sound system or Killer Wail, she's loud.
  • She notes in the Japanese Ce vs. Pa splatfest that she's banned from the regular stands of the local baseball stadium, because of how excited she gets during matches.
  • The reason Marina tries to keep her from singing during newscasts is largely out of fear she'll damage the building.
  • A Sunken Scroll details how a young Pearl was able to blow out a bunch of equipment because of her loudness.
  • After beating the main campaign and talking to Callie at Tentakeel Outpost, one thing that Marie might bring up is "the mystery of Mount Nantai", in which a "tiny, pale shadow" can make "an ear-splitting scream loud enough to shatter glass". As it so happens, Mt. Nantai is a place Pearl frequents.
  • Octo Expansion features the glory that is "＃$@%* Dudes Be ＃$@%* Sleepin". At the end, you can hear something breaking, likely caused by Pearl's voice.
  • In the finale of Octo Expansion, she uses a modified Killer Wail as a megaphone to unleash a shatteringly loud shout that wins a Beam-O-War against Tartar's statue.
  • She joins the fray in Shifty Station during the final Splatfest with her Killer Wail megaphone, the Princess Cannon. Its sound shockwave beam is even larger than the original's.
  • When facing the Final Boss of Side Order for the first time, Pearl gets in two super shouts at the Overlorder — first a "regular" unamplified one that destroys the top of the spire, then later a superpowered Color Wail 5.1 to deliver the coup de grace.
• Sweet Tooth: One MakoMart conversation has Marina point out that Pearl's favorite peanut butter (Swee-Nut) is "literally 99% sugar".
• Tomboy With A Girly Girlstreak: Pearl is crass, loudmuthed and with an in-your-face kind of attitude, having once been a metal musician in her past before moving to rap. Despite those traits, her default color is pink, and she styles herself a pop princess to the point of having M.C. Princess as a nickname.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Pearl tends to pepper her Splatfest victory speeches with improvised rap lyrics. Marina usually snarks at them... unless she gets a losing streak.
• Wealthy Yacht Owner: Pearl, as seen in the Manta Maria dialogue.
  Pearl: This ship... it's the same one I got for my sixth birthday!
  Marina: I knew you grew up rich, but geez!
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: When it comes to her Implied Love Interest Marina, anything even remotely resembling a threat to the Octoling will be met with threats of violence from Pearl. From threatening to "cut a fish" with Captain Cuttlefish, to putting Order on her list for what it did to Marina, and promising that any of Marina's old friends would "catch her rotors" if they even considered having bad opinions about her.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Has this relationship with Frye. Their encounter in the February 2024 Deep Cut concert has them immediately butt heads as their first interaction before ending the concert with an amicable fist bump. Pearl also mentions in Side Order that Frye always runs at her whenever she sees her, either to hug Pearl or to punch Pearl. Pearl can never tell which will happen. Most of "Suffer No Fools" consists of a mutual Diss Track where they playfully trash talk each other.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Her weapon preference is the Dualies, a class known for being aggressive via its dodge roll — which also suits Pearl's in-your-face tendencies. Appropriately, the Enperry Splat Dualies have a print of Pearl's crown on them; Enperry as a brand generally associates/themes itself with royalty, suiting Pearl's "princess" theme.
• Weapon Specialization: The Enperry line associates with Pearl in its brand, with the Enperry Splat Dualies being the only weapon they sponsor. In Side Order, Pearl's preferred weapon is the Splat Dualies.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: Pearl's fast-paced rapping heavily contrasts Marina's more typical pop singing, particularly in their debut song "Color Pulse". Doubled down on in Pearl's introduction in Octo Expansion, where her first radio contact with Cap'n Cuttlefish is a rap battle. Pearl takes a break from the rapping when collabing with Damp Socks and Dedf1sh (due to her and Marina simply being guest vocalists for those artists), but when Off the Hook starts putting out new songs, she starts dropping beats like she never stopped.
• Womanchild: Pearl is the older one in Off the Hook, and among all of the idol groups as well. Yet she still gets an allowance from her father even after growing up rich and living on her own, and when it comes to riding a bike, she hasn't learned how to ride one without training wheels.

Pearl Drone

Inside the Order Sector, Pearl is transformed into a small, floating drone called Pearl Drone, who is of major help to you on Agent 8's quest to scale the Spire of Order. She has her own dedicated set of Color Chips that can either make her a useful assistant, or a total powerhouse, depending on how well the RNG decides to treat the player.

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• Attack Drone: Not at first, but by picking out Drone Color Chips, you can equip Pearl Drone with plenty of weapons to use against enemies. Burst and Splat Bombs, Ink Mines, and a Killer Wail and Inkstrike are among your options for Pearl Drone combat.
• Breaking Old Trends: Through this form, this is the first time in the series an Idol directly aids you in the middle of combat, instead of simply providing commentary and aid on the sidelines.
• Cooldown Manipulation: Pearl Drone's Actions work through a meter system that naturally fills up overtime. It works like the Special system, meaning each ability she can have has different point requirements. Having more of a particular Drone Action chip will decrease the point requirement, while there are others that can fill it through movement, turfing or splatting enemies.
• Character Customization: You need to find Drone Color Chips in order to give her her unique abilities, meaning how she works in a run is up to the whims of the player and the Spire itself. However, you need to unlock these Color Chips and the slots to equip abilities to first before they can show up in the Spire.
• Cursed with Awesome: She has absolutely no problems with being a drone, even before she gets the ability to change back to Inkling form, and she actually rather likes being one. Mostly because she gets to fly around anywhere she wants, really, which is pretty understandable.
• Cute Machines: Pearl's drone form is positively adorable. The round, soft edges of her main body, the big eye screen and the tentacle shaped flaps on the side of her head. Marina is particularly fond of how she looks.
  Marina: Siiigh...
  Pearl: What's up, Marina? Getting tired?
  Marina: Oh, sorry! I was just daydreaming about how adorable you are in this drone form.
• Forced Transformation: At first, Pearl finds herself stuck in this form for the duration of Side Order's tutorial, though she adapts pretty well to her new form. Once you complete it, though, she's able to transform between herself and the drone at will.
• Hover Bot: Floats around thanks to a small rotor fan on the bottom of her body. She's strong enough to carry Eight short distances through the glide ability though carrying both Eight and Marina at once seems to go past the weight limit.
• Limit Break: The Step-Off song. Rarely, a disc piece will drop from an enemy that will go to Pearl Drone's side of the U.I. Collect three, and she will unleash the song and knock every Jelleton on stage out of bounds, as well as prevent any more from spawning for a decent duration.
• Mad Bomber: Four of her drone chips are bombs of some kind, specifically Splat Bombs, Burst Bombs, Ink Mines and an Inkstrike. Add some Drone Gauge filling color chips, and Pearl will be firing bombs left and right with reckless abandon, as well as audible glee.
  "The bomb party don't stop!"
• Magikarp Power: Pearl can't do much on her own at first, requiring you to fill out her Action Slots with the necessary Drone Chips to allow her to attack, as well as unlocking those Action Slots and Drone Chips themselves. Even then, the point requirements are large unless you get more of the same chip, especially for the specials. Get her the right chips (Splat Drone Guage or Mobility Drone Guage as examples), and she'll be a force to be reckoned with capable of annihalating waves of Jelletons in a rain of explosive, inky death.
• Morphic Resonance: Pearl's drone form inherits a lot of her features. Her star shaped pupils are represented by star shapes on a screen, her tentacles become flaps on the side of her head that she uses as arms sometimes, her eyebrows are two sliders that move up and down, even her mole is represented by a dot under her face screen. All deliberate design choices by Marina, who designed the drone in the first place.
• Super-Scream:
  • One of her drone chips gives her access to a singular Killer Wail. Unlike the player controlled version, this one moves faster and actively searches for targets after every splat.
  • In the final battle against Overlorder, gathering all of the Full Spectrum Color Chips enables Pearl to summon the Color Wail; an upgraded Off The Hook-branded Princess Cannon flanked by colorful versions of the Killer Wail 5.1.
• Support Party Member:
  • By default she helps Eight with tracking enemies and objectives, as well as gliding in the air to cross gaps. You can also give her color chips that let her act as a floating sprinkler or periodically drop items for you to use. With weapons, she will also aid you in completing floor goals like keeping the splatzone painted or the turbine tower moving by firing at it.
  • In a way, you can become this to the Pearl Drone if you choose to focus on Color Chips that help her attack more often, specifically Turf and Mobility Drone Gauge and the Drone Battery Drop Chips.
• Wingding Eyes: By default, the Pearl Drone's eyes are star-shaped, showing some Morphic Resonance with her Inkling form. When she's exhausted or frustrated, they rotate into x-shapes.

Marina Ida

Voiced by: Alice Peralta

"Sometimes when colors clash and mix, you end up with mud. But every now and then, you get to see a beautiful rainbow! And in the end...that's a gamble I'm willing to take!"

The shy black-and-green Octoling singer and DJ.

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• Amazonian Beauty: Owing to her background as an Octarian engineer, Marina is a bit more muscular than the other idols, with noticeably larger and thicker forearms. She's also one of the series' biggest Ms. Fanservices and is confirmed to have garnered attention for her looks in universe.
• Ambiguously Brown: Even though Marina isn't human, her dark skin is something that distinguishes her from other characters.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Octo Expansion chat logs vaguely imply that she may or may not be an Artificial Human. Its only source on the matter is Cuttlefish's dossier on the Octarians, which refers to her as from generation 83, rather than a more innocuous and simple year of birth. Nobody dwells on that information after it's shown.
  • In "Suffer No Fools" it's left unclear whether or not Marina is simply too Sarcasm-Blind to pick up on Shiver's Stealth Insults or if she does understand but simply won't give Shiver the response she wants.
• Bad Liar: Marina is characteristically nervous and forthright, and so would rather not talk about anything to do with octopuses or her abnormal "hairstyle". Whenever she has to, she tends to do a bad job of covering it up: awkwardly stumbling through words, letting things slip and having to abruptly change the subject. Amusingly, Pearl, who is otherwise far more blunt than Marina, has a much easier time keeping up a cover story than she does.
• Berserk Button: Marina with certain food and drinks. Pearl claiming ketchup is basically just jam is the first time that we see Marina actually get angry. All she can retort with is "It's not jam." Her rant about mayonnaise implies that condiment is also a button for her, and she's so disgusted by orange pulp that she's too upset about losing that Splatfest to even retort to Pearl's gloating.
• Big Good: She's effectively this for 3's Side Order, having created the Memverse for the purpose of rehabilitating Sanitized Octarians and restoring their memories and personalities. However, much of the legwork goes to Agent 8 for brawling their way through the floors of the Spire of Order.
• Big "SHUT UP!": After losing the Fork vs. Spoon Splatfest and getting tired of Pearl's victorious raps, Marina yells at her to "SHUT UP ALREADY." After a moment of Stunned Silence, she apologizes.
• Boss Subtitles: "The Administrator of Order, Marina Agitando".
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Marina acts as the Warm-Up Boss of Side Order, having been temporarily assimilated by Order.
• Characterization Marches On: The English localization originally portrayed Marina as constantly snarking at Pearl, acting as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Marie (who's still around). Updates gradually toned down her sass, with implications relayed in the English localization of Octo Expansion about how she used to play up an attitude for the cameras due to her nervousness about herself. Side Order portrays Marina as being kinder and gentler than she was in even the Octo Expansion, in line with her Japanese personality. During said DLC campaign, Marina has nothing but positive things to say about Pearl, constantly praising her.
• Child Prodigy: Marina graduated from Octarian military engineering training at age nine, and was designing war machines by the time she turned thirteen. Given that most Inklings, and it's implied Octolings, don't do Turf War until they're at least fourteen, that says quite a lot. Her brilliance hasn't faded with adulthood, either.
• Clark Kenting: Marina, obviously an Octoling, hides out in plain sight thanks to the assumption that all the new kids in town with the suckers on the outside of their tentacles are actually Inklings wearing their hair in a new style. This is largely because few modern Inklings that aren't secret agents have even seen an Octarian in generations, so amusingly she barely has to do anything to keep it up but coast by on the assumption.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Marina falls in a brief monologue in the Splatune 3 interview with Big Man and Marie regarding a world of order beyond the world of chaos. It's rather concerning, and doesn't make much sense even in context as foreshadowing for the Side Order campaign.
• Covert Pervert: In their banter for the Flight vs. Invisibility Splatfest, Marina cites being able to "spy on people while they're...inking their Splat Zone" as one of the perks of the latter.
• Create Your Own Villain: Marina developed the Order Sector in order to rehabilitate the sanitised Octolings from Octo Expansion. Unfortunately, the AI she created to oversee the virtual world took its job a little too seriously.
• Crush Filter: Dear Pearl, Marina's shōjo one-shot from the manga series, draws Pearl as being significantly more attractive than she normally is, with plenty of flower petals and sparkles surrounding her as typical of the medium. When we see a clip of Marina's notes in Side Order, they're covered in doodles of other characters. They're all drawn in Marina's typical big-eyed anime art style, but Pearl's doodle is larger and more detailed than the rest, and (again) surrounded by sparkles and flowers. It's obvious who she likes drawing most of all.
• Deadpan Snarker: Like Marie, Marina has a tendency to snark at Pearl's expense. While Marie's snarkiness seems to come from exasperation, Marina's is a lot more playful.
  Pearl: A word from our sponsor: Grizzco Industries is hiring! Apply now!
  Marina: Your corporate shill game is on point as always, Pearl./Let's work a Salmon Run shift later, Pearl!
  Pearl: (when discussing Sturgeon Shipyard) The drawbridge here is the perfect spot to camp with a charger.
  Marina: You would.../Never change, Pearl...
  Pearl: I love climbing the walls here and looking down on the battlefield from on high!
  Marina: You enjoy looking down on people? You don't say.
• Defector from Decadence: The Sunken Scrolls imply that Marina moved from Octo Valley to Inkopolis after witnessing the musical duel between the Squid Sisters and DJ Octavio at the end of the first game's single-player. Octo Expansion confirms this, with Marina describing how that night changed her life forever and made her realize what she'd been indoctrinated to do.
• Deliberately Distressed Damsel: Of a sort. When developing the Memverse, Marina considers having the program set up so that her avatar is positioned at the top of the Spire of Order as its manager, while Pearl's guides users up to her. She questions to herself whether that would make her a "storybook princess" and Pearl a brave hero coming to her rescue, then immediately decides she has to do it. Then Order gets involved, and the "distressed" part stops being so deliberate.
• Draco in Leather Pants: In-Universe; Marina justifies her stance with Team Villain by saying that villains aren't bad guys but merely misunderstood. She claims that society only labels them villains because they "want to change the world". Considering that she admits the change is "fight the establishment and topple the status quo" beforehand, it's clear that Octarian propaganda from her former life greatly influenced her perspective even after her Heel–Face Turn.
• Dub Personality Change: In the English localization, Marina notably speaks more confidently and has a tendency for Marie-esque snark at Pearl's expense or otherwise. In the 1.2 update this was downplayed, as some of her more vicious lines were toned down and several new batches of dialogue were added to show her softer, protective side. Octo Expansion further brings her JP and NA characterizations in sync, as even if she does snark at times, it's clear she is, if anything, trying in-universe to ape Marie's gimmick on camera and off-camera she's a bundle of insecurities because of her status as an Octarian military defector. In Splatoon 3: Side Order, Marina's Dub Personality Change is all but undone, and she now acts just as outwardly sweet, humble, and agreeable as she does in Japanese (implicitly due to the increased presence of Octolings in Inkadia granting her newfound confidence to be herself).
• Failed a Spot Check: Despite her not looking like the other squids in Inkopolis, using octopus-related symbols everywhere, and singing in an entirely different language, nobody realizes Marina isn't even a squid in the first place (considering her only an "exotic young lady"), and while Pearl had her suspicions it was only in Octo Expansion that they were confirmed — not that it changes anything for her.
• Fangirl: Marina, at the very least, is one to the Squid Sisters. One of the Sunken Scrolls implies that they inspired her to move to Inkopolis, and she claims in one Moray Towers conversation to have watched a particular Squid Sisters music video "like 300 times". Her interview in the Splatune 2 soundtrack reveals that she considers them her "roots" and confirms that they're the reason she wanted to start getting into the music world. Octo Expansion confirms that it was the Squid Sisters' "performance" at the climax of Splatoon 1 that convinced her there was a life for her beyond designing war machines, and she idolizes the Sisters as a result. Marina is also a huge fan of Deep Cut, excitedly stating that she knows every song they ever wrote during the February 2024 concert.
  • Marina has artwork of Pearl as her laptop background, and sings her praises near constantly in Side Order.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Marina is a talented engineer and hacker. She created the Shifty Station stages used during Splatfests in Splatoon 2, which not only defy gravity but come equipped with Ocatarian tech like Flooders and Ink Rails, another hint to Marina's identity as a former Octarian combat engineer and one of the original inventors of the Flooder. Marina is also capable of hacking into the Kamabo Corporation's computer systems, which allows Agent 8 to skip challenges if they are having too much trouble with them. She also created Hyperbombs which prove to be essential in preventing the NILS Statue from destroying Inkopolis during the final battle of the Octo Expansion. In Splatoon 3: Side Order, Marina has created and developed her own virtual reality realm that she plans to use to cure Sanitized Octolings by reuniting the memories stored in mem cakes with their souls.
• Graceful Loser: Side Order has her diary entries note that she took Team Order's loss in Splatoon 2's FinalFest in stride, and both she and Pearl were happy to pack up for the world tour straight after.
• Grenade Spam: The finale of Octo Expansion and the Final Splatfest of 2 involve her covering the battlefield with her hand-designed Hyperbombs (Suction Bombs but really big, and bearing her face on them). They only detonate when shot, but when they do detonate, the ground they cover is comparable to the radius of the Rainmaker's shield explosion.
• Grew a Spine:
  • Being forced to push back against Pearl's rampant waggery helps Marina come out of her shell.
  • Despite being unarmed, during Side Order she offers to assist in combat, with both Pearl and Acht telling her it's okay to be mission support and help out. She then insists to do whatever she must to help out given the circumstances, and even confronts the Big Bad alongside Eight and Pearl.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": She's a former military war engineer and talented DJ, but she's still a massive fan of the Squid Sisters despite her achievements. The reason why she isn't heard singing during Off the Hook's cover of Now or Never (which is specified to be the Squid Sisters version) is because she's too nervous to sing the lyrics of a Squid Sister song. In fact, Marina literally squees at Pearl's "take-no-prisoners" attitude in Side Order.
• Ms. Fanservice: Marina is the most physically mature of the duo, and wears very revealing outfits compared to Pearl. She lampshades this in a conversation at Blackbelly Park, implying that Marina's appearance doesn't go unnoticed.
  Pearl: You should feel at home here, Marina. You're used to skating by on your looks.
  Marina: Ouch... OK, that was pretty good.
• Ms. Vice Girl: Marina claims in the intro to the Flight vs. Invisibility Splatfest that the latter power lets her "walk into a bank and...make sure the money's still there!"
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Marina is an Octoling, and is quite friendly. She wasn't always friendly to Inklings, but she hopes that peace between the two races can be a reality someday.
• invokedNarm Charm: Her self-published manga, "Dear Pearl", is loaded with common romantic manga tropes, depicting Marina as klutzy and useless, and Pearl as more attractive and knowledgable than she actually is. However, it's still a charming testament to how she looks up to Pearl.
• Nervous Wreck: Marina has a near-constant worried look on her face. Considering Octolings are the Arch-Enemy of Inkling kind, it's kind of understandable that she'd be this. This is lampshaded in the Sweaters vs. Socks Splatfest discussion, where she states that socks are easier to hide than sweaters. Octo Expansion elaborates on this, showing that Marina is particularly worried because she's not just an Octoling, she's a former war machine engineer and is complicit in the theft of the Zapfish in Splatoon 1.
• Naïve Newcomer: Downplayed. By the time she and Pearl debuted as Off the Hook, Marina had been living in Inkopolis for two years, and had adapted well with the help of Pearl. That said, she still has plenty of gaps in her knowledge of the world and requires Pearl to fill her in, like the Airhead vs. Wisecracker splatfest, where Pearl acts out a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine on the spot in order to explain the concept.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Another interpretation of her behaviour in "Suffer No Fools" is that she's deliberately playing dumb towards Shiver's passive aggressive remarks in order to throw her off. Shiver tries to end their verse by saying that it's late, only for Marina to quickly counter by saying she can go all night long, which gives the vibe that she's well aware of what she's doing and what Shiver is trying to do.
• Playful Hacker: In Octo Expansion, Marina is shown to have superb computer hacking skills. In Side Order, she uses said skills to assist Agent 8 by counteracting Order's modifications of the Memverse, improving Eight and Pearl's stats using Prlz.
• Poor Communication Kills: In Side Order, she develops an easy access method to her Memverse VR project via a Sea-Cucumber phone for the convenience of the participating Sanitised Octolings. However, she realises that theoretically anyone with one could be unwillingly pulled into the Memverse due to a security flaw and plans to warn the phone company about it. Given how bad things get by the time Eight saves her, she very likely forgot to do so.
• Proud to Be a Geek: Not at first, as she dislikes being referred to as a geek by Pearl in their newscaster days in Splatoon 2. Come Side Order, she's now comfortable enough to refer to her previous self as "A younger, less experienced nerd."
• Recurring Riff:
  • Her initial solo-composed draft of "Ebb and Flow" as revealed in Octo Expansion ends with the same sequence of notes as the post-level victory jingle "Onwards!" from 1 and 2, highlighting that she was still fresh out of the Octarian army at the time. None of the music she's contributed to since that shares that riff, conversely underscoring how far she's come since then.
  • The "Onwards!" jingle returns in Side Order when she's Marina Agitando as a part of the boss fight against her, expressing that in the moment, she's trapped in her past and old orderly ways.
• Renaissance Woman: Marina has a ton of different skills, though most of them are related to music, as one might expect.
  • She doesn't just sing and DJ for Off The Hook, but she's also the band's primary songwriter/composer and plays both the keyboard and the keytar. As such, it's really no surprise to see her playing piano as part of Damp Socks in 3.
  • She's also a newscaster for Inkopolis News, of course.
  • The Shifty Stations which form the exclusive stage roster for 2's Splatfests are her making.
  • Octo Expansion reveals that she's a former military engineer, partially responsible for creating the Flooder, and also part of DJ Octavio's personal wasabi supply team. Also, she demonstrates a ton of computer skills throughout (primarily hacking), and she draws cute, shojo manga-style illustrations of Pearl and Agent 8 in the cutscene before the final boss.
  • Side Order adds game development to her list, as the entirety of the Order Sector was actually a VR game she was developing to help rehabilitate the sanitised Octolings from Octo Expansion. An elevator conversation reveals that Marina once worked on a rhythm game that "ran at like 888 BPM" — Acht was the only one of her schoolmates who was able to beat it (and even then, only barely) but Pearl didn't even know it was supposed to be hard, inspiring Marina to make an even more difficult sequel.
• Rooting for the Empire: In-Universe. Similar to Marie during the Transformers Splatfest; Marina was on Team Villain during the Super Smash Bros. Splatfest. This isn't as surprising, considering that she used to be part of DJ Octavio's army.
• Sarcasm-Blind: In "Suffer No Fools" Marine treats Shiver's Kyoto-style passive-aggressiveness as though her snide remarks are genuine complements.
• Shrinking Violet: Marina's body language shows she is often nervous and unsure.
• Statuesque Stunner: Marina is well-known for her good looks, and towers over most Inklings (and even most other Octolings) at 5'10".
• Stripperiffic: Marina seems to be very aware that she's Ms. Fanservice, because she wears rather revealing outfits compared to the other idols and especially compared to Pearl. Her standard number is a crop top vest that's mostly unzipped to show off her cleavage and bares a lot of midriff, while her DJ_Hyperfresh outfit has pants that are about as low as the E10+ rating will allow. Marina's Splatoon 3 outfit is slightly more modest by virtue of including a dress jacket and long pants, but still has a wide-open midriff, a low waistline, and an even lower neckline than in Splatoon 2. Her SpringFest getup in Splatoon 3, though, consists of little more than a white cotton top, sweatpants, and boots.
• Token Heroic Orc: Marina, at first, was the only good-aligned Octoling the player had experience with — not even having anything to do with the story mode (which featured another Octarian attack, of which Marina was completely unaware). Eventually, the Octo Expansion both plays with it and changes it. After that point, good-aligned Octolings begin moving into Inkopolis and joining in regular gameplay en-masse, there are multiple options for playing as good Octolings, and a new heroic Octoling protagonist is introduced in Agent 8. On the flipside, nearly all of those Octolings (including Marina and Agent 8) are noted to have previously been evil before choosing to defect, which would still make them the exception rather than the rule and thus still examples of the trope.
• Translation Nod: In the English localizations, Marina's surname is revealed to be Ida, a letter off from her Japanese name Iida, in Octo Expansion. This is also true in the Japanese version of the DLC, where her given name is revealed to be Marine (a letter off from her English name).
• Unreliable Illustrator: The Fork vs. Spoon promotional art◊ depicted her with unusually pale skin.
• The Unsmile: Downplayed, like Marie. Marina always looks a little awkward and nervous whenever she smiles, but it adds to her charm.
• Verbal Backspace: Marina whenever she accidentally alludes to being an Octoling. During the Christmas Splatfest announcement, Marina says the Octoling equivalent of Squidmas (Octivus), before hastily adding Squidmas to her point. During the 1st Anniversary Squid vs. Octopus announcement, she tries to shift gears after her gushing about octopuses has her shout that one could be hiding in plain sight in front of the viewer.
• Walking Spoiler: It's difficult to talk about Marina's role in Side Order without bringing up the fact that the campaign takes place in a cyberspace location called the Memverse that she created. This was problematic for marketing because it meant they couldn't talk about one of the campaign's central focus characters without giving away the story, leading to Marina being absent from most promotional materials — even being intentionally cropped out of shots where she appears prominently in the actual game.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Her stage quotes indicate that she prefers Brellas, rather befitting of her naturally shy demeanor and secretiveness about her past. She also likes using them to cover her Implied Love Interest Pearl in battle — or as she puts it, "[protecting her] precious Pearlie at all costs!" Her Palette in Side Order further backs this, due to the main weapon being a Brella and a bias toward chips that empower the Pearl Drone.
• Workaholic: As mentioned by Pearl in Octo Expansion, Marina is very hardworking. Girl manages to create most of a mind-altering VR simulation game by herself while simultaneously going on a world tour and playing music in the backstory of Side Order... but that story also deconstructs this mentality, as it leads to Marina having difficulty balancing her work on the Memverse with her tour obligations.
• Wrench Wench: Marina is a former weapons engineer, having worked on things like the Flooders and the Great Octoweapons, and as part of Off the Hook, she's noted to have had a hand in designing the many Shifty Stations. She also routinely expresses an adoration for heavy machinery. Espcially excavators — according to Acht, she was once able to go on a complete monologue about them for two hours.

Deep Cut (Contains unmarked spoilers for Return of the Mammalians!)

In General

Left to right: Shiver, Big Man, and Frye

Album Art

The newest, hottest idol group comprised of Shiver the Octoling, Frye the Inkling, and Big Man the Manta Ray. They run the Anarchy Splatcast and are in charge of the Splatfests at Splatsville as their day job.

Besides that, they moonlight as a trio of bandits searching the Splatlands for treasure to loot, and clashing with any other treasure hunters in their way. Owing to their dogged determination, New Agent 3 (you) and the New Squidbeak Splatoon might not be spared from their ferociousness...

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• All Your Powers Combined: They each assist the New Agent 3 in reaching Mr. Grizz's Fuzzy Ooze-filled rocket by having Frye make an absurdly long chain of eels as a path so that Shiver can give her Master Mega as New Agent 3's ride to ride the eels chain to space...then completely averted with Big Man, who just gives them a space helmet.
• Anti-Villain: They act as antagonists for much of the story mode, but it's all due to a misunderstanding as to what exactly the NSS is doing in Alterna. Once things are cleared up, they happily join the crew in saving Cuttlefish.
• Animal Jingoism: Sharks, eels, and rays are predators of squids and octopi, so Deep Cut naturally fit in as the boss fights of Return of the Mammalians.
• Animal Motifs: Shiver has a shark motif, while Frye has a moray eel motif.
• Badass Adorable: Villainous examples before their Heel–Face Turn. Don't let their cute looks fool you, they have intimidating and dangerous abilities:
  • Shiver summons a shark named Master Mega to attack Agent 3.
  • Frye summons eels to attack Agent 3.
  • Big Man can cover himself to create a giant blue shadow of himself that leaves a trail of ink as it moves.
• The Beast Master: Shiver and Frye both come from clans known for their mastery over sharks and eels respectively. They show off these skills in their boss fights quite well.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • The last two idol groups were made up of two girls. Deep Cut is made up of three people instead, and this idol group has a male member (who's also neither an Inkling nor an Octoling) alongside the standard pair of girls.
  • Their names don't combine together to form a punny Meaningful Name. Instead two contrasts hot and cold, while the third is simply descriptive.
  • They also don't have a pink-green color scheme going on like the previous idols did.^note Though Big Man's red is close to pink, and blue and yellow do make green.
  • Also unlike the previous idol groups, they don't play a supporting role in the single player mode, instead being antagonists. Until the end, anyway.
• Bust-Contrast Duo: Shiver is almost entirely flat chested while Frye has a larger bust than Marina.
• Butt-Monkey: Downplayed but present. While they do make good as genuine threats in their boss fights, the story mode doesn't treat them all that seriously. The NSS view them as nuisances at best, all three screw up their smoke outs at the end of their boss fights, and they even have their own idol intro interrupted by Callie.
• Character Tics: Like the previous idols, they have their own unique signing off pose and gesture; Shiver and Frye spread their arms, dropping them slack at the elbow while extending three fingers. This gives off the impression of squids hanging on a hook, while also symbolizing that they’re a trio of idols in the third game in the series.
• Childhood Friends: Downplayed. A Nintendo Magazine interview reveals that while they've known each other since childhood thanks to their family clans being close to each other, they didn't really start becoming friends until middle school, where a shared interest in music brought them together and made them form the band.
• Chromatic Arrangement: The three members of Deep Cut assemble a blue-yellow-red arrangement, as established by their default colors of their clothes and the colors they use in the Rock vs. Paper vs. Scissors Splatfest and the Shiver vs. Frye vs. Big Man Splatfest. In his boss fight, however, Big Man uses a yellow-and-teal ink.
• Cool Mask: They all have wooden masks based on their animal motifs.
• Desert Bandits: The trio moonlight as bandits that raid the Splatlands for treasure to sell. This instigates their conflict with the NSS in the story mode, as they think they are intruding on their turf.
• Doing It for the Art: In-Universe. Big Man mentions in the Splatune 3 interview that Hide and Sleek and Smeared Canvas were commisions made for other people. If it weren't for Shiver charging the commisioners for them, Big Man and Frye would have likely done these songs for free.
• Epic Fail: Each of the Deep Cut members all attempt a Smoke Out at the end of their boss fights to escape with their dignity intact. All three only succeed in blowing themselves up.
  • Shiver summons a smoke bomb from her fan but she ends up dropping the bomb instead, gasping in shock before it blows up on her and Master Mega. It's especially epic since Frye and Big Man at least have outside circumstances to blame for their fails. Shiver just flubs her throw entirely.
  • Frye neglects to remember that she's doing it on top of a malfunctioning Octostomp, and tossing the bomb into it causes it to explode on her and her eels. However, the slight smile on her face implies that this may have been all on purpose (or at least she's finding the experience kind of fun).
  • Big Man's smoke bomb simply gets stuck in ink and fails to go off. Big Man decides the best course of action is to kick the bomb, which ends as expected.
• Establishing Character Moment: Their personalities are hinted at in the prerelease Splatfest (Rock, Paper, or Scissors?). Shiver, ever the analytical one, chooses rock because a fist would beat the other gestures if they collide. Frye is reflexively enthusiastic about choosing paper, then switches around to the other options until she settles with paper. Big Man is stuck vouching for scissors despite lacking the necessary fingers to make that gesture, but once his cohosts start needling him about it he stands his ground.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In the music video "Big Betrayal", Shiver and Frye discovers that Big Man has been collaborating and spent time with the Squid Sisters under the guise of Ian BGM, and due to the Splatlands' rivalry with Inkopolis, the two see this as a big betrayal from him. Though, considering the song was written by Big Man himself and the three literally work for the Squid Sisters as of the end of the story mode, there's implications that it's all played up for Kayfabe.
• Failed a Spot Check: Mostly played for comedy. They somehow completely fail to recognize the Squidbeak agents as the Squid Sisters until the very end of Hero Mode, where they get their hands on Callie and Marie's newest single that proudly displays them on the cover. Keep in mind, the two aren't even wearing their "disguises" in 3; heck, Callie's outfit is essentially just a palette swap of her idol costume. This goes doubly so for Big Man, if you're playing Return of the Mammalians after Fresh Season 2023; he's implied to have collaborated as Ian BGM with Callie and Marie in singing Liquid Sunshine.
• Fantastic Racism: Deep Cut doesn't have many nice things to say about Salmonids during the Wahoo World Big Run event, with Big Man outright wondering if he could keep one as a pet. After the series has gone on record to establish them as a sapient species. It's especially tone deaf when one of their coworkers in the NNSS, who should be noted to have had a fin in saving the world from fuzzyfication, is a Salmonid. It should be noted that this treatment is exclusive to the American localization, however, and isn't present in the original Japanese, where Deep Cut talks about Salmonids in less demeaning terms.
  Shiver: They're fish, Big Man. All they do is swim, spawn, eat, repeat. Sounds nice, actually...
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: They all take after real-world cultures, despite humanity being long gone by the time they came around. Shiver is Japanese, taking after a rakugoka performer and telling stories using a hand fan. Frye is Indian, bearing Snake Charmer motifs by signalling her eels using a pungi. Big Man is Brazilian, as giant manta rays are frequently seen around the Brazilian coast and his version of the Splatfest song that idly plays in Splatsville includes Samba instruments such as the whistle-like apito.
• Furry Confusion: Shiver tames sharks and Frye tames eels, even though the background bands in Splatoon 2 include a shark and a cutthroat eel as musicians, both of whom seem to be significantly more sapient than Master Mega and Frye's eels.
• Genre Mashup: Their Splatfest Song, "Anarchy Rainbow," lives up to the name by combining traditional Japanese festival music with Brazilian Carnival vibes, with Frye's verse sung in a style resembling traditional Indian music.
• Greed: In their treasure hunter personae, they come to blows with the New Squidbeak Splatoon when they believe them to be after the treasures scattered about Alterna, and cannot comprehend the idea of simply giving away treasure. It's ultimately downplayed, however, as they later reveal that they mainly hunt to raise money for the less fortunate in Splatsville.
• Heel Realization: Upon learning that the New Squidbeak Splatoon has no need or interest in Alterna's treasure, they feel downright rotten for attacking the heroes over nothing and kneel in apology, becoming allies soon after.
• Hero Antagonist: They serve as the bosses of story mode, interrupting the New Squidbeak Splatoon's search for Captain Cuttlefish due to them thinking the latter is after the treasure that they plan to give to the Splatlands.
• Irony: The team winds up getting into conflict with the new Agent 3. The customization sequence implies they're a poor youth who lived in the deserts surrounding Splatsville, salvaging enough stuff to save up and take a trip there; Agent 3's the exact kind of person they'd usually help with their banditry.
• Just Like Robin Hood: After clearing things up with the Squidbeak Splatoon, they explain they solely search for treasure so they can give it to residents in the Splatlands who need it.
• Kabuki Theatre: They're often accompanied by Kabuki Sounds when they're on screen, and the way they pose are reminiscent of the exaggerated mie poses characteristic of Kabuki. Big Man's boss battle even takes place on an area similar to a stage, complete with him wearing a mask evoking the look of a Kabuki actor.
• Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: Big Man isn't humanoid, but "man" is part of his name and does look like a male ray. Frye is the more overtly feminine of the humanoid members, with noticeable breasts, hips, and more pronounced lips. Shiver, finally, has a much more neutral appearance than Frye, and while she is female she could pass off as either gender with relative ease.
• Meaningful Name: They're originally called すりみ連合, or "Surimi Union", in Japan. Surimi is a paste created by grinding fish until homogenous, which references their musical style being a blend of multiple cultures.
• Ms. Fanservice: Shiver and Frye both show off their midriffs, Shiver's Hartman Hips are very emphasized, and Frye has a larger bust than Marina.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Like Off the Hook, Deep Cut promotes job hirings at Grizzco in their Anarchy Splatcast, and it's implied they also took Salmon Run shifts as well, meaning that they too unwittingly helped Mr. Grizz get all the Fuzzy Ooze he needs to turn the entire world into a fuzzy wonderland. At least they get to make up for it by helping new Agent 3 reach the rocket to stop Mr. Grizz before he can complete his plan.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Downplayed as none of them are truly mean. However, Big Man is the Nice, as he's generally quite mellow and is the least interested in fighting Agent 3. Shiver is the Mean, since she's the coldest out of the trio and can be quite arrogant and boastful about herself. Frye is In Between, as she can be aggressive and rude at times, but is overall a good, loyal and fun friend to her teammates.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Shiver and Frye look drastically different from any other Inkling and Octoling we've ever seen in a Splatoon game, the most notable details being Shiver's eyes looking almost human and Frye having an absurdly large forehead and long spiky ears. Then there's Big Man, who isn't even humanoid to begin with, which is a first for the series' idol characters.
• Physical, Mystical, Technological: All three of them can be slotted into this trichotomy.
  • Frye is the Physical, relying mostly on her dance skills and tamed eels.
  • Shiver is the Technological, Master Mega being equipped with rockets and handlebars.
  • Big Man is the Mystical, as he's clearly performing some sort of ritual or incantation before becoming the Manta Storm.
• Polka-Dot Paint: For whatever reason, their ink is patterned with their logo, very heavily noticeable on Big Man's yellow-and-teal ink but still present in Frye and Shiver's ink as well.
• Poor Communication Kills: The reason for their antagonism in Return of the Mammalians comes down to them misunderstanding the NSS' reasons for being in Alterna. They assume they broke into their turf to hunt for treasure, and they want it first. Once things are cleared up, they cease being enemies.
• Punny Name: "Deep Cut", referring to obscure pieces of music within a band or musician's discography.
• Regional Riff: Unlike the previous idols, each member of Deep Cut has a distinct cultural riff in their solos. Shiver has traditional Japanese festival music, Frye has Indian instrumentals, and Big Man sports Brazilian samba.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: The trio will imitate drumrolls with their voice during their Anarchy Splatcasts. Frye does it most of the time, as she's the only one who does it for stage rotation announcements, but Shiver and Big Man will also do this for Splatfest-related announcements.
• Sigil Spam: Their ink has a repeating pattern featuring their group's logo. Shiver and Frye's ink have the logo in a barely noticeable lighter shade, while Big Man's ink features the logo prominently due to being coloured yellow against a teal backdrop.
• Signing Off Catchphrase:
  Shiver: From Splatsville, that's a wrap.
  All three: Catch ya later!
• Singer-Songwriter: Shiver and Frye do the bulk of the singing for their songs, which Big Man writes and composes.
• Smoke Out: The trio make use of smoke bombs during their appearances in hero mode. It's also what they use to try and escape at the end of their boss fights. Emphasis on the try part.
• Small Town Rivalry: Shiver and Frye are based in the Splatlands and seem to have a couple of bones to pick with Inkopolis musicians. Unlike them, Big Man doesn't hate Inkopolis.
  • At the end of Return of the Mammalians, Frye mentions she's "big MAD" about the Inkopolis-based Squid Sisters' newest single until she realizes they're Callie and Marie.
  • This interview has a part where Frye startles Big Man because he offhandedly mentioned Inkopolis.
  • Shiver may complain that the bougie neighborhood of Flounder Heights represents a lot of things she doesn't like about Inkopolis.
    Frye: "They remodeled Flounder Heights, didn't they? It’s so fancy now!"
    Shiver: "Yes. There’s a terrace, trendy shops, and fresh paint. It REEKS of Inkopolis!"
    Big Man: "...Ay. (...Shiver, I think Inkopolis smells kinda nice.)"
  • In their song Big Betrayal, Frye is furious at Big Man for hanging out with the Squid Sisters in his Ian BGM disguise, while Shiver passive-aggressively suggests he should spend all his time with the Squid Sisters. Big Man wanted artists from Splatsville and Inkopolis to get along by doing a collab. Then again, considering the trio work for the Squid Sisters, something that isn't well-known publicly, this might be played up for the sake of Kayfabe. They have a similar reaction to Big Man just allowing Off the Hook to perform while the two were on a break during the Nintendo Live Tokyo 2024 performance (and then forgive him immediately after they finish performing Big Betrayal again), so how much of this is played up for Kayfabe and how much of it is genuine is currently uncertain.
  • If you use amiibo to summon Shiver or Frye at Inkopolis, they will either complain about the city or state that they're prepared to break something there.
  • When Frye discovered Off the Hook was planning on having their first Splatsville-based concert, she and Shiver got together under the name "Fire and Ice" while Big Man was busy being awestruck to have a few words with them, resulting in the song Suffer No Fools, a diss track between the two duos.
  • It should be noted that while Shiver and Frye do genuinely have a bone to pick with Inkopolis, it's also fairly clear that as of the end of Return of the Mammalians and based on from dialogue from Side Order that the trio as a whole are genuinely good friends with both the Squid Sisters and Off The Hook, at least behind the scenes, implying that there's a good amount of Kayfabe and they don't have any personal beef against the other idol groups (especially since the Squid Sisters are their bosses), it's just beef with Inkopolis and its culture in general.
• Terrible Trio: As antagonists, they come off as a Team Rocket-esque band of thieves, down to their Twinkle in the Sky exit. Subverted once the endgame begins; they even join the New New Squidbeak Splatoon.
• True Companions: The trio's family clans have been close to each other for generations, and they share a strong bond with each other as a result. Their dialogue at the end of the Gear vs Grub vs Fun Splatfest shows it best, as they forgo any potential animosity they could have in exchange for planning their own deserted island adventure as a team.
• Two Girls and a Guy: Deep Cut consists of Tomboy Shiver and Girly Girl Frye in addition to the male manta ray, Big Man.
• Walking Spoiler: Unlike the prior two music groups, Deep Cut aren't allies for the main campaign, but antagonists, albeit due to a misunderstanding, and function as the boss fights. This fact made it completely hidden in nearly all promotional material, except for their introduction which provided very subtle hints as to their antagonistic nature.

Shiver Hohojiro

Voiced by: Anna Sato

"You think you're cool? Sharks call ME cold-blooded. But you can call me Shiver!"

The cool-headed blue haired Octoling member of the trio.

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• A God Am I: Played for Laughs at the end of the "Nessie vs. Aliens vs. Bigfoot" splatfest, where she takes victory and admits to lying about having seen Nessie... only for Big Man to break the news of a seamonster sighting near the Splatlandian Sea. Shiver is quick to believe she willed that into existence with her lie.
• Aloof Archer: Prefers to use Stringers, and like them has a very cold-blooded, dignified, and slightly-old-fashioned character.
• The Beast Master: Shiver is from a clan of shark tamers, and has her own shark, Master Mega, that she rides around in her boss fight.
• "Begone" Bribe: Her purchasing strategy at Hagglefish Market is to annoy the dealer until they give her a free item.
• Beneath the Mask: When she's on the air or on the stage, she's cool and elegant if playful. Off of it, she can be rather vicious and daffy.
• Bifauxnen: Although she is female, her character design is very androgynous to the extent that she can be easily mistaken for a Pretty Boy. This even led to the fandom not knowing her gender until it was clarified by Nintendo and she was first referred to officially by she/her pronouns in the test fire Splatfest.
• Blatant Lies: The Nessie vs. Aliens vs. Bigfoot Splatfest has the trio share stories of the time they saw their respective cryptid, with Shiver describing witnessing something emerging from the sea when coming out of work. Only, judging by her whispering to herself, she's actually just passing off an unrelated creature sighting for Nessie and hoping the others fall for it. She later admits to the lie once she takes the win at the end of the splatfest.
• Boss Subtitles: The Cold-Blooded Bandit.
• Buffy Speak: Shiver sometimes tries to sound smart by imparting knowledge to her peers, only she lacks the vocabulary to actually sell what she's trying to say. Her trying to bring up how dark chocolate has anti-oxidants in support for her side fails on account of her calling them "anti...somethings".
• Character Catchphrase: "Pedal to the megalodon!" seems to be hers. Callie thinks it needs work.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: In Side Order, Pearl recounts Shiver giving her the mother of all Death Glares whenever Pearl talked to Frye.
• Competition Freak:
  • The Anarchy Splatcasts often hint that Shiver is hyper-competitive. Frye says she's always out on the front lines keeping constant track of her splat count, Big Man doesn't get invited to her Salmon Run raids because he's The Load, and she obsessively remembers exactly how long ago it was since she lost a Turf War battle by one percent.
  • If she beats you in Tableturf, she's quick to start Unsportsmanlike Gloating before reeling herself in and offering a rematch. On the other hand, if you beat her, she accepts her loss but is practically inches away from begging you to rematch her just so she can prove she's still better than you.
• Drives Like Crazy: Humpback Pump Track Splatcast dialogue indicates that Shiver used to ride a bicycle like a maniac.
  Frye: "Yeah, I can definitely imagine getting obliterated by Shiver on a ten-speed..."
• Feed It a Bomb: Her Master Mega shark can be temporary stunned should Agent 3 manage to toss a bomb (or Smallfry) into its mouth whenever it's opened.
• Glass Cannon: The most aggressive of the trio during her boss fight, but being such an active attacker leaves her and Master Mega always visible to the player, and much easier to target as a result.
• Insult Backfire: During Suffer No Fools, effectively a Rap Battle of Frye and Shiver Vs Pearl and Marina, she spends all her verses effectively tossing passive aggressive Stealth Insults towards Marina... which fly right over the latter's head. Marina's response verses consist of her thanking Shiver for the compliments.
• Japanese Delinquents: Was one as a teenager, according to the the promotional artwork for the Shiver vs. Frye vs. Big Man Splatfest◊ where she dresses like a sukeban, with a cropped shirt and long skirt on her uniform.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Downplayed. Her appeal for dark chocolate indicates a tendency to talk big without fully understanding the details; citing that dark chocolate is better because it has "anti...somethings", but not why they're good. She's on the right track — dark chocolate has a lot of antioxidants, which are healthy — but her delivery fails to convince Frye and Big Man.
• Maniac Tongue: Shiver sticks out her tongue while riding her shark Master Mega. While likely intended to be an taunt, it just makes her look goofy instead.
• Meaningful Name: A "shiver" is a collective term for a group of sharks. The relation to cold also contrasts with Frye's name.
• Neologizer: Shiver has a tendency to use nonsense words and jargon that make sense to her and her immediate friends, and that absolutely no one else can understand.
  Shiver: "Oh, you need help with this? Just do a double floop and skim the blorble, stealth-style. EZ!"
  Big Man: "Ay! (Smart! Great plan, Shiver.)"
  Marie: "(D-double floop? Blorble?!)"
• Money Fetish:
  • The lore behind the Deep Cut songs Hide and Sleek and Smeared Canvas is that Frye and Big Man were content with doing them pro bono, but Shiver charged their client for doing these songs anyway.
  • In the Money vs. Fame vs. Love Splatfest, Shiver was Team Money. Per her words: "The world RUNS on money!"
  • When raking Big Man over the coals in Big Betrayal, Shiver passive-aggressively reminds him that she wants money, and deserves a cut of the pay next time Big Man goes off and does a collab without asking first.
  • Likewise in the 2024 concert version of "Big Betrayal", she chastises Big Man that if he's going to let another group (Off the Hook) perform during their show, then he had better charge them for the privilege.
• My Horse Is a Motorbike: Her shark, Master Mega, has a saddle adorned with handlebars and has rockets at its sides, giving Shiver the appearance of a Badass Biker.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: She does the "laugh at the sky" variant when you first confront them in the single player mode, shown here.
• No Full Name Given: While Frye and Big Man had known family names at the start of Splatoon 3 (Onaga and Manta, respectively), Shiver lacked this until the Drizzle Season 2023 update added a sticker based on her logo, giving her clan the family name of Hohojiro.
• Not So Above It All: Shiver portrays herself as the cool and collected member of Deep Cut, but frequently undercuts that image with goofier moments, such as showing her Competition Freak side in the Splatcasts, her excessive use of her catchphrase in her boss fight, and her Epic Fail of a Smoke Out.
• Not So Extinct: Shiver claims that Master Mega is a Megalodon. Assuming Shiver is not exaggerating here, this means that the supposedly extinct Megalodon survived two mass extinctions and became tamable pets for Shiver's clan.
• Oh, Crap!: Shiver accidentally drops the smoke bomb she planned to use for her Smoke Out since she carried it on her fan. And when that happens, she reacts with shock and desperately tries to reach for it.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted: in Japan, she shares a name with the shark bassist of the band Bottom Feeders, spelled slightly differently.
• One-Woman Wail: Shiver often wails in songs she sings with Deep Cut, like "Fins in the Air", the live version of "Hide and Sleek", and "Calamari Inkantation 3MIX".
• The Perfectionist: This interview with Deep Cut has Big Man note that she was the reason Anarchy Rainbow took seven separate attempts just to finish.
• Punny Name: Outside of English-speaking nations:
  • Her Japanese name, Fuuka, is closely homophonous with "Fuka," a lesser used word for Shark.
  • In Europe, France uses "Pasquale" - a portmanteau of the name "Pascale" and the Squaliformes order of Sharks. Italy's "Pinnuccia" meanwhile is Pinuccia (the diminutive of the name Giuseppina) with an 'N' added to look like "Pinna," the italian word for "fin." Her name is "Megan" in Spain, very similar to Megalodon, an extinct species of shark. The Russian localization uses "Kulla", which is a name that rhymes with Akula (Russian word for "a shark").
• Recurring Boss Template: One of Master Mega's attacks involves it swimming under Agent 3 and attempting to devour them, similar to the Octomaw and the Maws. Much like those bosses, it can also be stunned by tossing a bomb in its mouth.
• Recurring Element: Master Mega's tiny sunglasses on its nose follows the footsteps of "giant boss with small accessory", a-la Octonozzle's little sneakers and Octo Samurai's puny unicycle.
• Sarashi: She wears bandages under her shawl.
• Security Cling: In the Nessie vs. Aliens vs. Bigfoot Splatfest art, being the only one visibly frightened while clutching Frye's arm on her right and leaning towards Big Man's fin on her left.
• Sore Loser: Downplayed, but she tends to hold grudges whenever she loses. One stage announcement shows she still remembers a particular loss she had two years ago, to the point of keeping time on how long ago it was down to the second, and whenever you best her in Tableturf Battle, she will insist on a rematch.
• Stealth Insult: In "Suffer No Fools," Shiver's verse against Marina consists of these, condescendingly complimenting her voice and saying she reminds her of her neighbour's young daughter. Either Marina is doling out similar insults, or she's entirely missing them and genuinely complimenting Shiver back.
• There Is Another: Shiver is the second known Octoling (preceded by Warabi from Diss-Pair) to have never lived in the Octarian domes, as various sources have indicated that her clan has been residing in the Splatlands for generations, seemingly unaffected by the events of the Great Turf War.
• Threatening Shark: Not only does she evokes the image of a shark, but she also has a huge pet shark called Master Mega which she rides in her Boss Fight.
• Tsurime Eyes: Her eyes are much sleeker than that of Frye's, befitting her cool demeanor.
• Unaffected by Spice: Played with. She loves spicy food and can't get enough of the sensation. She even sees tasting spicy food as a fun challenge and can't comprehend why Frye and Big Man can't handle it. Thus, she represent Team Spicy in the Spicy vs Sweet vs Sour Splatfest. On the other hand, the art for the splatfest◊ shows her seemingly struggling to eat her food and eyeing Big Man's drink.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Exaggerated, compared to previous idols. Shiver brags that she won both Splatfests so far during the Grass-Fire-Water Splatfest announcement. This is Splatsville's third Splatfest, whereas the other idol groups' gloater did so after several had gone by. Frye does not let this go unnoticed.
• Weapon Specialization: According to Side Order, she likes to use Tri-Stringers.
• Worthy Opponent: If you tie with her in Tableturf, she'll state that you're this, pointing out that not many people can match her skill. Beat her enough times to get her deck's card sleeves, and she'll explicitly call you "a worthy and satisfying opponent".
• Yamato Nadeshiko: She carries herself like a traditional Japanese lady, and her singing style evokes enka.

Frye Onaga

Voiced by: Laura Yokozawa

"We're not SUPPOSED to be anything... But I'll tell you who we ARE. Say it with sizzle... I'm Frye!"

The excitable yellow haired Inkling member of the trio.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: This seems to be Frye's go to strategy.
  • Her advice for Turf Wars: "Splat the enemy... then splat 'em again! And again!"
  • When her team secures the Ultra Signal in Tricolor Turf War she declares "The best offense is a good offense. Attaaack!"
  • The Grass-Fire-Water Splatfest announcement has her constantly thinking of how powerful Fire types are, even though power isn't all that relevant.
• The Beast Master: Frye is from a clan of eel tamers, and has an entire fry of giant flying eels under her command.
• Beneath the Mask: Plays the part of Shiver's perky, impulsive foil in the eyes of the public, but she shows a shrewder and more perceptive side of herself in the game's story mode. Of note, she's the only member of Deep Cut who tries to negotiate with the new Agent 3 before battling them.
• Big Eater:
  • She establishes herself early on as one in the Gear-Grub-Fun Splatfest by immediately joining Team Grub, and says that a fun bonus of eating is that you can "try to break [your] own record". She also idly wonders if you can eat a sleeping bag, alarming Big Man.
  • At some point, she bought an "annual ice-cream pass" to use at Wahoo World.
  • In the Spicy vs. Sweet vs. Sour Splatfest, her immediate reaction to the Splatfest's announcement is that she gets hungry again, even after having breakfast, brunch, lunch, and possibly a "lunner". The announcement also reveals she also has a habit of stealing her friend's snacks.
  • The Japanese-exclusive Lightly Salted vs. Consommé vs. Salted Seaweed potato chip Splatfest has her say that consommé is the best flavor, because whenever she brings it, they're always first to be consumed. Shiver points out that this is because Frye eats all the consommé chips that fast.
• Bizarre Taste in Food:
  • Shiver has expressed concern for Frye's barista for the things she makes them do to her coffee. The only context of this is that Frye says that the sugar is a source of energy for her, rather than the caffeine.
  • This continues in the results for "Dark Chocolate vs Milk Chocolate vs White Chocolate" Splatfest, in which, evidently for a previous Valentine's Day, she gave Big Man a chocolate-covered onion.
• Blood Knight: Frye enjoys herself a good fight. She treats Salmon Run shifts as stress relief, encourages you to go on the offensive in Tricolor Turf Battles, and is the most into the idea of fighting you to the death in Hero Mode.
• Boss Subtitles: The Eel Deal.
• Calling Your Attacks: Will announce all of her eels' formations when fighting her, such as her "Hundred Eel Vision", which sends them out to float in the air and spit ink like Octocopters.
• Chainsaw Good: Her favorite weapon is the Splatana, and Side Order reveals she specifically likes the Stamper variant which is essentially a chainsaw, fitting her characterization as a Blood Knight.
• Cool Big Sis: She has younger siblings whom she cares for a lot. She has a brother who's two years younger than her and whom she takes out treasure hunting, and two twin siblings whom she was planning to take shopping to Barnacle and Dime, and gets mad when Big Run gets in the way of that.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Big Man has been teaching her how to cook, according to stage dialogue for MakoMart. It's slow going, as she apparently has a habit of pouring whole cups of sugar into whatever they cook (though she claims she's reduced herself to just half-cups).
• Cute Little Fangs: She has a pair of prominent canines sticking out of her mouth. It may be a reference to the vampire squid, which would fit alongside her luminescent blue features and large ears, also visual features which are associated with the vampire squid.
• Dance Battler: She controls her eels through dances, and is skilled enough to do so while on top of a spinning Octostomp. Her Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Boss Subtitles even refer to her as "The Dancing Gangster".
• The Ditherer: In the early Splatfests, Frye tended to have trouble sticking to her choices. She'd usually make a pick, but then start to consider changing the moment she hears a better argument. Despite that, she ends up going with her first choice.
• Forehead of Doom: Frye's is so big that she manages to give Pearl a run for her money. It's most likely another reference to a vampire squid, which atop of its other physical similarities to Frye also have disproportionately long heads relative to their eyes.
• Genki Girl: She takes Callie and Pearl's role as this in the third game.
• Meaningful Name: A "fry" is the name for a collective group of eels. Its relation to heat also contrasts with Shiver's name.
• Mistaken for Aliens: The Nessie vs Aliens vs Bigfoot Splatfest has her comment on her own speculative alien sighting, noting that she saw a hovering UFO in the Crater, which had gigantic fists. She's more than likely referring to DJ Octavio, whose Giant Mecha is encountered in the Crater and fits her description.
• Money Dumb: When talking about Scorch Gorge, she'll occasionally comment that the gift shop has cute trinkets and pushy employees. Shiver responds with a comment of her own that Frye owns a bunch of random Scorch Gorge junk that she's unable to resist buying.
• Ms. Red Ink: MakoMart dialogue indicates that, whenever Deep Cut does shopping together, Frye makes a ton of impulse buys by sneaking them into Shiver and Big Man's grocery cart.
• Mystical India: She likely hails from the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of India in Splatoon's world, as her appearance and singing techniques are distinctly Indian, while her eel-tamer lineage is the Splatoon equivalent of a Snake Charmer. She even carries a pungi and uses it to summon her eels in her boss fight.
• No Indoor Voice: Every time Deep Cut enters in story mode, it's heralded by her screaming something.
• No Sense of Personal Space: According to the FrostyFest announcement dialogue, she's the kind of relative to pinch her relatives' cheeks and tousle their hair a lot. Big Man implies she does it enough for her family to be "ready to fight back".
• Obsessed with Food: Being a Big Eater, Frye naturally also loves to think about food.
  • Her comment on Manta Maria is that she'll warn others of seagulls there... not because they get in the way, but because they steal food.
  • Big Man recounts an incident when Frye got into the giant overhead ramen bowl at Robo ROM-en once. Frye says that she had to figure out what flavor it was. Mind you, that giant bowl is probably a decoration that doesn't actually contain ramen.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: She only wears a pair of "socks" that leave her toes fully exposed.
• Punny Name: Outside of English.
  • Her Japanese name, "Utsuho," is an uncommon name in Japan that sounds nearly identical to "Utsubo," meaning "Moray Eel."
  • Her name in Dutch (Muriël), German (Muri), and Italian (Morena) are all plays on those languages names for the Moray Eel (Moeraal, Muräne, and Murena, respectively).
  • In France and Spain, her name is Angie, which is a play on anguille/anguila, the French/Spanish words for eels in general.
• Recurring Boss Template: Her "Hundred Eel Vision" dance has her summon flying eels that shoot ink at Agent 3, similar to one of Octomaw's attacks where it fires off its teeth that act as Attack Drone. In addition, she will occasionally charge at Agent 3 with the spinning Octostomp body in-between dances with a similar movement pattern to Octowhirl.
• Recurring Element: Once again is the Octostomp a boss, albeit this time around it's merely used as a housing for Frye's eels.
• Rule of Symbolism: Her symbol on Anarchy Splatcasts and on her Ultra Signal looks like a raised fist (or maybe a giant boot kicking upwards), representing her aggressive, bombastic personality.
• Skipping School: Anarchy Splatcast dialogue hints that she used to skip school often. When she comments that she'd want to have joined a school like Inkblot Art Academy that enables students to learn whatever they want, Big Man chastises her and says that she can't get a major in skipping school, and when they discuss Undertow Spillway she says that she skipped the classes teaching her what its purpose is.
• Sweet Tooth:
  • She loves to eat sweets, hence why she represents Team Sweet in the Spicy vs Sweet vs Sour Splatfest. She boasts that sweet sugar buzz is the key to her hyperactive energy. After Team Sweet won the Splatfest, Frye plans to eat at an All You Can Sweets buffet to celebrate her team's victory.
  • Likewise, the Dark Chocolate vs Milk Chocolate vs White Chocolate 'fest has her join Team Milk Chocolate, which is typically sweeter compared to dark and white chocolate.
  • When talking about MakoMart, Big Man may chastise her for adding a cup of sugar to every dish. She defends herself by stating that she's reduced it to "only" half a cup.
• Synchronized Swarming: Her "Great Moray Transformation" attack, which causes her eels to swarm into the shape of a big fish.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: She can only be hurt by splatting her domino-masked eels, which bounces them back to hit her. If she didn't send those ones out (or, better yet, only used her Octostomp body to attack), she would have been unstoppable.
• Tareme Eyes: Her eyes are much rounder than that of Shiver's, befitting her rather upbeat behavior.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: She will rub her victory in your face if you lose to her at Tableturf, and plans to have a laugh about it with her friends. Despite this, if she loses, she takes it pretty well.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Uses Splatanas as her preferred weapon; like them, she's capable of being very aggressive and in-your-face.
• Worthy Opponent: Despite hating the Inkopolis music scene, she and Pearl mutually appreciate each other's boldness when they meet at Nintendo Live 2024.

Big Man

"Ay! (Make money! Get fish quick!) Ay! (Big Man in the house!)"

The fun-loving yet incomprehensible(?) manta ray member of the trio.

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• Annoying Arrows: In his boss fight, he occasionally launches a volley of Tri-Stringer darts in a row, though they generally serve to impair movement rather than deal lethal damage.
• Artistic License – Marine Biology: Although he is described as a manta ray, Big Man bears far more resemblance to an eagle ray, sharing several traits with that particular species. Specifically, they both have their mouths on the underside of their body, while manta rays have them between the overside and underside. In addition, Big Man has more developed pectoral fins that he uses as feet (which is artistic license on its own), which eagle rays also have, while manta rays don't. As Big Man says in the Gear Vs. Grub Vs. Fun splatfest announcement, he can filter feed, but his small, bottom facing mouth should make the act impossible. In reality, rays like him are bottom feeders, which hunt prey via swimming to the sea floor and biting them.
• Asteroids Monster: Big Man splits into smaller manta rays when he's attacked.
• Bear Hug: Towers over most other characters, and his go-to greeting is giving the other person a hug. Splatfest dialogue has Frye acknowledge that "Big Man's whole body IS a hug", for his wide stature means that he can really envelop the other person with his arms; Splatfest artwork◊ shows him giving a big hug to an Inkling while walking around a city.
• Beleaguered Boss: While he has a massive capacity for kindness, his duties as the head of the Manta Clan tend to leave him running ragged. In the Friends vs. Family vs. Solo Splatfest, he comments he has no time for himself and wishes to stay alone to relax for the holidays.
• Beneath the Mask: Has a rather amorphous role in Deep Cut as someone who both Shiver and Frye can play off of, making him come across as their simpleminded sidekick. That said, a Sunken Scroll page hints that he's from a refined background, a Japanese Twitter post states that he is the patriarch of the Manta Clan, he writes most of the band's music, and his advice for Turf Wars focuses on inking to maintain control of the area, as does his actual boss fight.
• Big Fun: Far more easy-going than the somewhat edgy Shiver and Frye, and obviously far larger than them as well.
• Blush Stickers: His SpringFest outfit includes a pair of big, bright pink blush-like circles on his cheeks.
• Boss Subtitles: The Hype Manta Storm.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In Sunken Scroll 12, it is revealed that the Manta Clan eats a plankton breakfast every day that enhances the mind, body, and bodily toxins.
• Company Cross References: Big Man's entire boss fight is a reference to the Phantamanta from Super Mario Sunshine, being a massive floor-crawling, goop-spreading silhouette of a manta ray that's also an Asteroids Monster, down to the same colors of blue and yellow for the ink (minus the electrical qualities of Phantamanta's goop however). Ironic considering Splatoon's developers entirely forgot Sunshine even existed for a while during the first game's development.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In Deep Cut's dialogue, Big Man is painted as the most absentminded band member that Shiver and Frye can play off of, but he's actually very tactically minded when put to the test. While Frye and Shiver have a number of attacks that make themselves unnecessarily vulnerable, Big Man's fight puts up a semblance of strategy: outpaint his opponent and spam bombs when they can't escape.
• Deadpan Snarker: Although he is generally quite jolly, he does have his moments.
  Shiver: We're never going to agree on this.
  Big Man: Ay? Ay? Ay! (Us? Disagree? I'm shocked!)
• A Dog Named "Dog": His clan name (Manta) is just the name of the species of ray that Big Man is.
• Doppelgänger Attack: The smaller manta rays created in his boss fight can attack the player.
• Eccentric Artist: Despite being a rather silly manta ray with a goofy smile and some odd mannerisms, he's actually the one who writes the music for Deep Cut, as stated in a dev interview and by the official Twitter.
• "El Niño" Is Spanish for "The Niño": His parting words from his boss fight are "Ay-ay-ay." In brackets, the translation is "(Ay-ay-ay.)"
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: If the Splatoon 3 Direct is any hint, Big Man's native language is Portuguese, or whatever the equivalent is in the Splatoon universe. Despite the game itself lacking a Portuguese localization, in the official Nintendo Direct for the game it's the only subtitled language where he is seen speaking normally as opposed to his usual "Ay".
• Extreme Omnivore: One Salmon Run dialogue shows that he's an unpicky eater. When Shiver gets mad about Frye getting run over by Lesser Salmonids, Frye responds that she doesn't bother with "mosquitos". Big Man takes this literally, exclaiming that he could have been eating mosquitos the whole time.
• Failed a Spot Check: He once bought a cucumber from Hagglefish Market, thinking it was a sea-cucumber phone.
• Fanboy: Implied to be one to Off the Hook. While Frye and Shiver actively opposed them having a concert in Splatsville, Big Man is noted to have been starstruck at their appearance.
• Foreshadowing: Big Man will sometimes snark about how Shiver and Frye should focus more on inking territory during Turf Wars rather than splatting opponents or playing around with special weapons. His boss fight has him focus exceedingly on painting ground, slowing down enemy movements so that they're more likely to be caught flatfooted when he throws explosives at them.
• Fingerless Hands:
  • No fingers to speak of, but that doesn't stop him from being the band's composer and being able to play piano. He's noted at least to be quite dextrous with his fins.
  • He often asks if any of the weapons are fin-operated when new weapons drop during the announcements of the new seasons. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his Palette in Side Order comes equipped with the Slosher, which requires no opposable thumbs (or fingers, for that matter) to operate.
• Furry Reminder:
  • As he casually notes in the Gear Vs. Grub Vs. Fun splatfest announcement, Big Man can apparently filter feed like real mantas do, despite the fact that his mouth's size and position makes filter feeding impossible.
    Big Man: Ay? Ay? (You need food to live? Have you tried swimming with your mouth open?)
  • He'll also offhandedly remark that he's able to ride the waves in the Grass Vs. Fire Vs. Water Splatfest announcement, as opposed to Shiver and Frye to whom water is lethal.
• Ghost Writer: In-Universe, dialogue for Drums vs. Guitar vs. Keyboard indicates Big Man believes that — if Deep Cut didn't take off — he'd end up secretly writing music to be credited under someone else, and is thankful that he's visibly a part of an act he performs in.
• Good Parents: Side Order notes that Big Man was raised by a loving family who cared a lot about him.
• Grenade Spam: His boss fight's primary means of attack involves throwing various types of bombs at Agent 3, as well as explosive Tri-Stringer shots and Inkstrike grenade markers. This is referenced by his Tableturf deck, which is largely comprised of bombs.
• The Heart:
  • With Deep Cut's friendship being a bit unstable, it is Big Man who takes it on himself to calm the group down.
  • When Agent 3 fights him, his pre-battle cry emphasizes that he's only doing this to help those in need in Splatsville. He really doesn't want to refight them if Agent 3 challenges his level again, and only does so to appease Shiver and Frye.
  • During the Splatfest announcement for who would be the best leader for Deep Cut, he mentions that there are others besides Shiver and Frye who come to him for advice which he is always there for, which both Shiver and Frye like about him.
  • He also underwent a hidden identity as Ian BGM and did a collab with the Squid Sisters because he wanted artists from both Splatsville and Inkopolis to get better along.
  • He was Team Love in the Money vs. Fame vs. Love Splatfest. The associated promotional art◊ shows him tenderly cradling a Smallfry like a child or a beloved family pet.
    "Ay? Ay! (Is any of it worth it without love? Love and peace for all!)"
    "Ay. Ay! (C'mon, Shiver. Love is important! Not just romance. Friends and family!)"
    "Aaay... (You don't want to live in solitude... even if you sleep on a pile of money.)"
• Incredibly Lame Fun: One dialog about Shipshape Cargo Co. leads to him rattling off a fact about the place from the top of his head; when asked about where he learned that, he mentions he watches "boring documentaries" in his spare time.
• Inexplicably Awesome: It's never explained how he can produce ink or turn into a Phantamanta-like shadow, but he's able to put up just as much as a fight against Inklings and Octolings while having full access to some of their weapons and happily participates in Salmon Runs.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Similar to Judd, his "Ay"s are translated in parenthesis in text, but Shiver and Frye seem able to fully understand what he's saying in conversation.
• Living Shadow: Turns into a big shadow-like silhouette during his boss fight.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": A manta ray named Big Man(ta ray).
• Lovable Coward: He's generally less enthusiastic about fighting than Shiver and Frye (his rematch dialogue implies that he's only fighting to avoid backlash from them), and during the Nessie vs. Aliens vs. Bigfoot Splatfest's announcement, he gets spooked by Shiver, Frye, and his own stories about their respective cryptids that (by his own admission, no less) do not exist.
• Macross Missile Massacre: In round three of his boss fight, the amount of explosives he and his clones release steps up drastically, to the point you can have over half-a-dozen missiles and grenades launching at you while the bombs bounce around your feet.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Big Man is a big manta ray. Also, out of the members of Deep Cut (and the idols in general as of 3), he's both the largest and the only male.
  • His Japanese name, Mantarō, combines "Manta" with the common male-name suffix "Tarō". This name goes untranslated in German, where "Mantaro" can be seen as a shortened form of "Mantarochen," the German word for "Manta Ray."
  • In Spanish, he's Rayan, a pun on the name Ryan.
• Mellow Mantas: He's an anthropomorphic eagle ray, and the most easy-going and fun-loving member of Deep Cut. Unlike his co-stars, he doesn't even try to act tough in story mode.
• Missing Child: A comment he can make about Undertow Spillway is that he got lost there when he was young. Frye asks if he was chasing the butterflies that hang out around there — or if a butterfly was chasing him.
• Mistaken for Exhibit: One comment he can make about Museum D'Alfonsino is his love of the modern art they have there sometimes. Frye asks him if he's not just looking at the Turf War splatters.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Swimming through enemy ink doesn't slow him down while he's submerged.
• Named After Someone Famous: Discussed. In one Splatcast dialogue, Shiver asks Big Man if he believes that the Manta Maria is named after him, to which Big Man says is not true, due to the ship being older than him, but this makes him believe that he could possibly have been named after it.
• Oblivious to Their Own Description: Implied. One possible comment Shiver can make on the current Salmon Run stage notes that it can be difficult working with a teammate prone to dancing fits. Big Man responds by asking who she's talking about and why he wasn't invited.
• The One Guy: He's the only male idol in the game. It's even his name.
• One-Word Vocabulary: All that Big Man can say is "Ay" and the audience can only understand him by looking at the description within the parenthesis.
• Overly Long Name: His full Japanese name is Manta Taro Kizaemon Munekiyo, of which "Mantaro" is short for.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Painfully subverted. When he decided to collaborate with the Squid Sisters to release the song "Liquid Sunshine", he not only wore a fake moustache and cap, but went of the alias of "Ian BGM" which is anagram of his own name. Unsurprisingly, when Shiver and Frye found out, they weren't fooled in the slightest. Side Order reveals that Pearl didn't fall for it either, although Marina did.
• Playful Cat Smile: As seen in the image, Big Man has two bumps on his face right above his triangular mouth that gives his face that appearance. Truth in Television, as many rays similar to him do have these kind of mouths, although in their case, their mouth is actually shaped like that with no bumps.
• Pokémon Speak: In the original Japanese, Big Man's "Ay"s are written out as "Ei". "Ei" just so happens to be the Japanese word for "ray".
• Post-Victory Collapse: Composing version: this online Nintendo magazine has Big Man state he worked on "Anarchy Rainbow" for about two months, revising the song seven times. Shiver remarks that he looked "dried up like an uncooked lasagna noodle" after this, impling he got insanely burnt out from it.
• Punny Name:
  • His name in French (Raimi) and Spanish (Rayan) combines those languages words for Ray ("raie" and "raya", respectively) with the names "Rémi" and "Ryan."
  • His name in Dutch meanwhile is just "Ray", which is generally also used as a diminutive for the name "Raymond."
• Ramming Always Works: He'll try to mow down Agent 3 every so often during his fight. While he can't turn during it, his wide hitbox and speed makes it a very dangerous attack, especially if you're surrounded by his ink. His clones can do the same, and while they're smaller their numbers mean you can get rushed at from several directions in a short time or at once. The attack has a lot of knockback as well, easily sending you off the edge of the arena if you're not careful.
• Red Baron: His Boss Subtitles give him one ("The Hype Manta Storm"), but his level name gives him a secondary title: "The Obscurest Chiraoscurist". Chiaroscuro refers to the use of bold shadows in painting, such as in Sunken Scroll #12 depicting Big Man in a classical painting — or, more obviously — the fact that he turns into a shadow for his fight.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: He's a very cute manta ray with a Playful Cat Smile.
• Shown Their Work: The use of Brazilian carnival motif for his parts of Deep Cut's music is a reference to the Giant Manta Ray being commonly seen in South America.
• Shrinking Violet: Big Man is rather shy, often preferring to stay in the background of many of the songs he composes for Deep Cut, often going along with Shiver and Frye's actions throughout Hero Mode, and afraid of confronting them, perhaps more than Marina from the previous game.
• Significant Anagram: One of the Squid Sisters' new songs, "Liquid Sunshine", is a collaboration with a mysterious songster called Ian BGM, whose name is an anagram of Big Man and whose vocals sound suspiciously nasally like his. It's repeated in other languages too, such as in Japanese where the alias is RANOMAT, an anagram of Mantaro. Hilariously, this turned out to be true. When Shiver and Frye found out about it, they weren't happy.
• Tailfin Walking: Downplayed. While Big Man does walk with his fins, he uses his pectoral fins rather than his tailfin to do so.
• The Unintelligible: Big Man speaks in a different language than everyone else, though every sound he makes means a lot and is described in parenthesis.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Prefers using subweapons like Torpedoes and Splat Bombs over attacking directly.
• Token Good Teammate: While none of the three are truly evil, Big Man is the most reluctant to fight and rarely, if ever, acts mean towards Agent 3. He even gets "a bit scared" from Shiver and Frye's threat to the New Squidbeak Splatoon, indicating he doesn't like the group acting like this, and also doesn't want to be yelled at by Shiver and Frye for not fighting the player, as he mentions in his boss fight rematch lines. The Splatfest song "Big Betrayal" hammers in the consequences of his sneaking to collab with the Squid Sisters as Ian BGM behind the girls' backs (assuming it's not just the trio playing it up for the sake of Kayfabe).
• Token Non-Human: Well, Token Non-Humanoid, but same deal.
• Translation: "Yes": Big Man manages to pack a lot of meaning behind just saying "Ay". Entire sentences tend to be communicated by him saying a single word.
• The Triple: Big Man is responsible for whenever the third of the three Splatfest teams is something weird and unlike the other two. When the other two are bringing survival tools and rations to a deserted island, Big Man would prefer to bring toys and games. Likewise, when Shiver and Frye prefer the fairly broad appeal of vanilla ice cream or strawberry flavor, Big Man likes the more esoteric and divisive mint chocolate chip as opposed to a conventional flavor like chocolate or cookies n' cream.
• Twofer Token Minority: A threefer, actually. Out of all idols in the series, he's the only non-humanoid, the only male, and the only vertebrate.
• Upbringing Makes the Hero: The kindest and warmest-hearted Splatoon idol of the first three games, and Side Order indicates he was raised by an equally-loving family.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: His Side Order Palette will give him a Slosher. Just like Big Man, Sloshers are weird and goofy, yet surprisingly competent for their purpose. It's also physically one of the most fin-friendly weapons to operate without needing much dexterity.
• Where's the Kaboom?: When attempting a Smoke Out after his boss battle, the smoke bomb lands in a puddle of ink and fizzles out. Big Man waddles over to it and kicks it, causing it to blow up and send him flying.

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