Marina

Marina Ida is a major character introduced in Splatoon 2. She is one of the two members of the band Off the Hook, along with Pearl. Full name: Marina Ida Age: 23 Height: 178 cm Marina is an Octoling that appears to be taller and more curvaceous than most Inklings and Octolings. She has dark brown skin, teal eyes with reddish-pink horizontal pupils (which real-life octopuses have) in the shape of an infinity symbol and two eyelashes each, and dark brown tentacles with teal tips that can also change completely to one color; they are kept very long, arriving past her waist. She also has dark teal eyebrows that are constantly downturned in a "worried" expression, a teal gradient on her fingers, and a beauty mark at the left of her lips. Like Pearl, and unlike other Octolings, her sharp teeth are in the center on both the top and bottom, instead of being asymmetrical. She has also stated that she has multiple hearts, like how real-life octopuses do.

Her outfit consists of a sleeveless, high-collared black top that bares her midriff, showing a teal navel piercing. It has a large, mostly undone silver zipper with an infinity symbol-shaped hole resembling the pupils of her eyes. She has black puffy shorts with a diagonal waistline and slanted grooves that light up in sync with the music; under them are teal tights and black boots with big undone silver zippers with 8-shaped holes like the one on her top. She wears large black headphones with teal rings on the sides of them, covering her ears, and black fingerless gloves. Marina is more reserved than her bandmate Pearl. She speaks in a sweet, gentle manner, but can get very sassy in response to others teasing her. She is more sentimental and tender-hearted than Pearl, and has been known to break down crying in public when sufficiently touched. Despite her shyness, she does not appear to be concerned about expressing herself. She is forgetful and has been observed to forget the news she and Pearl are broadcasting. Her timidity shows when she sees an Inkling watching her through the window; when she notices them, she smiles awkwardly and waves. This behavior likely comes from the fact that many believe her to be an Inkling even though she learned the Inkling language recently and that she looks very different from the Inklings; her Octoling-like appearance was said to simply be a new fashion trend before Agent 8 came to Inkopolis Square. Early in Splatoon 2, international versions characterized Marina as being much more sarcastic and frequently delivering lighthearted jabs toward Pearl's character flaws, similar to Marie; this would be greatly toned down in the following updates. Octo Expansion would later hint this discrepancy is due to Marina wanting to disguise her inner lack of self-confidence, and in Splatoon 3: Side Order her international persona matches her Japanese one.

Marina is a lesbian, since she is shown to have a crush on Pearl, being described as a "maiden in love" on the Japanese version of Splatoon Base, and making a manga about her where she is drawn as a bishōjo, drawing flowers, sparkles, and hearts around Pearl. While this is never explicitly stated in-game, Marina shows her affection towards her by playfully poking fun at Pearl's small stature during newscasts, tackling and nuzzling her in a hug after they win the final battle of Octo Expansion, and becoming extremely devastated when Pearl floats around the idea of their band breaking up. This is also seen in Side Order, where Marina has a picture of Pearl as her computer's wallpaper, frequently uses heart emojis when speaking about Pearl in her dev diary, and compares herself to a "storybook princess" at the top of a tower who "brave Pearl" must rescue. She also appears to get jealous toward Acht when she thinks they are flirting with Pearl. Additionally, in Suffer No Fools, Frye calls Marina Pearl's "grouper", possibly a reference to groupies, women who go on tours and have romantic relationships with members of a band. Marina likes to call Pearl "Pearlie".

Marina is known to be very technologically skilled, with Pearl describing her as being "too smart for her own good" in the Octo Expansion. This is demonstrated with the Shifty Stations, a series of stages created by Marina for Splatfests using advanced Octarian technology, with the mechanics from Octo Canyon appearing in them, as well as floating rocks. She is also capable of hacking Kamabo Corporation, allowing Agent 8 to pass a test using the data collected from their previous attempts, and can hack their CQ-80 device to show her chat room or release a distress signal. In the final battle of the Octo Expansion, she can use her laptop to analyze the NILS Statue in a few seconds, learning about the strength of its cannon and its use of sunlight to charge up power. In Side Order, Marina is the creator of the Memverse, a virtual reality setting with which she hopes to save sanitized Octolings like Acht by rejoining the memories stored in mem cakes with their souls; throughout the campaign, she is able to hack into the Memverse's code and provide buffs for Eight and the Pearl Drone. She is portrayed as being obsessed with the machinery found in various stages, such as Sturgeon Shipyard, Port Mackerel, and the bucketwheel excavator in Piranha Pit. She often utilizes similar machinery in the Shifty Station layouts she designs. While she does not like being considered a "nerd" in this regard in Splatoon 2, she seems to have embraced the identity by the time of Side Order. Marina is a childhood friend of Acht, with the two having gone to the same engineering school in the Octarian world.

Marina's favourite weapon class is brellas. Marina was born into "the oppression of Octarian society" as she would later describe it, and was trained as an 83rd generation combat engineer from a very early age. When she was six, she enrolled in the elementary training program in Slimeskin Garrison. She graduated from elementary training at the age of nine after skipping multiple grades, taking only advanced courses, and went on to the same elite training facility as Acht. For the next few years, Marina went on to play a part in designing the Flooder and enhancing the Great Octoweapons. During the events of Splatoon, she received multiple commendations as part of DJ Octavio's wasabi supply unit. As a high-ranking member, she was known throughout Octarian society and was recognized by Agent 8 despite them never meeting personally.

During Splatoon, Marina was present wearing Octoling gear in the audience of Agent 3's battle against DJ Octavio but deserted the army and Octarian society shortly after hearing the Squid Sisters sing the Calamari Inkantation. According to witnesses, her only comment was "This changes everything." She escaped to Mount Nantai, even though she didn't know a word of the Inkling language. While there, she met an Inkling named Pearl, who was practicing singing. Growing on each other, Pearl then taught Marina about Inkling culture and customs. After this, Marina came back to Mount Nantai every day for two weeks, hoping to find Pearl again. When she did, she showed Pearl her musical abilities through her demo of Ebb & Flow and Pearl immediately agreed to them starting a band that they decided to call Off the Hook. They released Ebb & Flow as their first single, which was a hit. By the time of their fourth single, around nine months after the events of Splatoon, they had become popular enough to take over hosting Inkopolis News from the Squid Sisters.

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