Haruka Tenoh
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Haruka Tenoh (天王 はるか Ten'ō Haruka) is a Sailor Senshi, one of the central characters of the anime and manga Sailor Moon. She is known in the English adaptation of the anime as Amara Tenoh. For several years, she was arguably one of anime's most famous 'out' characters in American fandom. Her birthday is given as January 27; fittingly, her astrological sign, Aquarius, is co-ruled by the planets Saturn and her guardian planet, Uranus. Her blood type is B.
Her vaguely masculine appearance (by shōjo standards) is considered to be one of the standard archetypes in yuri.
She is a stubborn, xenophobic, and overprotective individual, but is also strong-willed, capable, charming, and occasionally even doting. She is formally introduced in the third season of the anime, although her possible existence is alluded to in the second season. When transformed, she is known as Sailor Uranus, and is part of the group known as the Outer Senshi.
As Sailor Uranus, she is the soldier of the planet Uranus, and her element is air; this derives from the Greek sky god Uranus after whom the planet is named. (In Japanese, the planet is typically known as 天王星 Ten'ōsei/Tennōsei, meaning roughly "Star of the Sky King", thus preserving the meaning.) Due to an animation quirk, however, her attack "World Shaking" often looks like an earth-based attack. Her planetary aura is blue in the manga, but in the anime, it varies between blue and gold.
Haruka's family name is sometimes written as Tennō. Ordinarily, both てんのう Tennō and てんおう Ten'ō are legitimate Japanese readings for the characters 天王, and both can be used to write the planet's name (hence the dual gloss above); usually, Tennōsei is preferred in Japanese dictionaries (see gikun). However, the manga invariably glosses Haruka's family name as Ten'ō where furigana are used; likewise, it is pronounced as Ten'ō rather than Tennō in the anime.
In contrast, the spelling Tenoh is simply a nonstandard romanization, although it is commonly used by the original author. The English version of the manga uses Tenoh and Tenou.
Any similarity between the sounds of Haruka Tenoh (天王はるか Ten'ō Haruka, this character) and Tennō Heika (天皇陛下, His Majesty the Emperor) is likely coincidental.
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Transformation
Haruka's transformation command is "Uranus Planet Power, Make Up!"
Attacks
As Sailor Uranus, her powers include throwing a concentrated energy bomb along the ground and using the Space Sword which she acquired explicitly in the anime but already possessed in the original comic. In addition, Haruka herself is quite strong and shows grappling melee skills.
Sailor Uranus' initial power is "World Shaking." When she does this move she makes a fist above her head, and then a yellow energy concentrates within. She subsequently slams her fist onto the ground and a transparent yellow sphere with a ring around it zig-zags back and forth until it lifts off the ground. The second attack Sailor Uranus uses is called "Space Sword Blaster." Using her talisman, the Space Sword, she raises it above her heard and begins to strike. Energy off the sword is what usually hits the enemy, and not the sword itself. Uranus uses a third killer move in the manga, "Space Turbulence".
Character
Haruka is apparently a racecar driver, a logical plothole in the original manga once mentioned in the TV series as a good-natured rub. This is because Haruka is actually not older than most of the Senshi, and, despite misinformed fanon, is barely sixteen years old when she appears. However, the timing of her birthday to the Japanese school year means she is one grade ahead of them.
Her other hobbies, as well as anything about her family life, are never discussed, although she and Michiru Kaioh appear noticeably wealthy by unknown means. Popular fan fiction tends to speculate that (like most of the other Senshi) her family life is problematic. She has been the target of sexism at one point in the animated series, but never of homophobia.
Among fans in the United States, Haruka was (and likely remains) the most famous out lesbian character in anime. Haruka is also extremely flirtatious and loves to tease pretty girls who sometimes mistake her gender due to Haruka's tomboyish behavior, although most people who confuse her for a man are either distracted by her good looks, not particularly observant, or rather stupid.
Although her relationship with Michiru is not implicitly sexual until later in the series, their romantic situation is referred to early on and generally understood by most of the metaseries' characters fairly quickly. The creator of the manga, Naoko Takeuchi, also explicitly mentioned this at a fan convention to a particularly obtuse audience member. It is sometimes as a source of good natured humor, particularly because few of the other Senshi have serious romantic prospects in comparison and because the otherwise flirtatious Haruka finds it impolite to discuss people's romantic matters.
While most Americans are more familiar with the anime version of Haruka (an absolute crossdresser), in the original manga Haruka is more androgynous, wearing both feminine and masculine outfits, and more in tune with the traditional depiction of a beautiful androgynous woman in shōjo comics. Unusually, the manga artist goes as far as to draw Haruka physically different and more masculine when she is crossdressing, perhaps as an easy visual aid. All fan rumors about Haruka being a man, the reincarnation of one, or a hermaphrodite, are untrue. Naoko Takeuchi has explicitly stated — multiple times — that "Haruka is a girl. Always has been, always will be."
However, while superficially appearing to be a femme/butch relationship, Haruka is generally regarded to be much more emotional and visceral (Michiru is often seen by fans as 'cold' by comparison), and shows quite motherly tendencies towards her adopted daughter, Hotaru Tomoe.
In yuri fandom, Haruka and Michiru are considered a hands-off pair due to their healthy love for each other, aloofness towards others, and writing scope of the plot according to canon. It is extremely difficult to slash them with anyone else, although many lemons sometimes have Haruka in explicit trysts with other Senshi. (Officially, it is recognized that only Usagi Tsukino and Minako Aino have any longstanding attraction to Haruka, Minako slightly more so.)
The anime and manga versions of the character are reasonably interchangeable, although arguably her masculine traits and stubbornness are exaggerated in the TV program. Haruka (along with the Outer Senshi in general) is sometimes considered more cold and slightly unlikeable by some fans, due to the anime's more fatalistic and grim additions to the original manga plot. Aside from a brief vignette in a special, Haruka and the others do not return after the third season until the final fifth season, generally retaining the same personalities.
Haruka and the others do appear in the SuperS movie, although because its story is derived from the manga rather than from the anime, there are some changes. Notably, they are more overtly friendly and helpful, and Sailor Pluto is present (in contradiction of certain events in the third series). One of her most amusing scenes implies that while Haruka is a flatterer, she can get flustered if flirted with herself.
The English dub of the anime changes her given name to Amara. (This name is sometimes incorrectly stated to be Greek or Latin for 'eternal'; however, in Greek it means 'irrigation channel', and in Latin it means 'bitter'. The confusion, as well as the name itself, likely both arise from αμαραντος amarantos, meaning 'unfading' or 'amaranth'.)
In an effort to avoid the controversy that a lesbian character on a show technically aimed towards a younger audience would cause, given the contemporary social mores in the United States, the dub also states that Amara and Michelle (Michiru Kaioh) are cousins - and yet a noticeable amount of flirting is sometimes inexplicably left in the translation. Thus the edits are disliked but generally noticeable, perhaps purposely so.
Although this technically does not prove Amara isn't a lesbian - simply a relative of Michelle - most fans of the original are not particularly interested in this version of the character, which is perhaps unsurprising considering that, by the time the relevant episodes of the series were dubbed, most fans were well aware of changes within the adaptation.
The packaging of Irwin dolls released in Canada in 1998 called Haruka Corinn.
In the Mixx (now TokyoPop) manga, she was once named Alex; Mixx later admitted this was a mistake, and changed her name back to "Haruka". Similar, in many dub-based fanfics predating the adapation of later seasons, 'Alex' was often used an gender-neutral name for Haruka.
Actresses
In the anime series and movies, Haruka/Sailor Uranus is played by Megumi Ogata.
Live Action Series
Currently, Pretty Guardian Sailormoon is covering only the Dark Kingdom arc. The Outer Senshi are unlikely to appear.
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| Protagonists | Usagi Tsukino | Ami Mizuno | Rei Hino | Makoto Kino | Minako Aino | Setsuna Meioh | Michiru Kaioh | Haruka Tenoh | Hotaru Tomoe | |||
| Mamoru Chiba | Chibiusa | Chibi Chibi | Sailor Starlights | Princess Kakyuu | Luna | Artemis | Diana | Queen Serenity | ||||
| Manga and Anime Villains | "Dark Kingdom" Sailormoon/ Sailormoon: Queen Metallia | Queen Beryl | Shitennou ("Four Kings") | |||
| "Doom Tree" (Does Not Appear/R (Return)) : Ail (Alan) | En (Ann) | Makaiju (Doom Tree)
"Black Moon" (Black Moon/ R(Romance)): Death Phantom | Demande | Saphir | Esmeraude | Rubeus | Ayakashi Sisters | ||||
| "Death Busters" (Infinity Arc/ Super): Pharaoh 90 | Mistress 9 | Professor Tomoe | Germatoid | Kaolinite | Witches 5 | ||||
| "Dead Moon Circus" (Dream Arc/ SuperS): Nehelenia | Zirconia | Zircon | Amazon Trio | Amazoness Quartet | ||||
| "Shadow Galactica" (Stars Arc/ Sailorstars): Chaos | Sailor Galaxia | Iron Mouse | Aluminum Siren | Lead Crow | Tin Nyanko | Heavy Metal Papillon | Sailor Lethe | Sailor Mnemosyne | Sailor Phi | Sailor Chi | Sailor Chaos | ||||
| Live Action and Myuu Villains | "Sera Myuu" (Musicals) : | Pewter Fox | Titan Kerokko | |||
| "Pretty Guardian Sailormoon" (Live Action Sailormoon): | Mio Kuroki | ||||
| Support Cast | Shingo Tsukino | Ikuko Tsukino | Kenji Tsukino | Naru Osaka | Gurio Umino | Haruna Sakurada | Motoki Furuhata | Unazuki Furuhata | Yūichirō Kumada | |||