Pearl

Pearl Houzuki is a major character introduced in Splatoon 2. She is one of the two members of the band Off the Hook, along with Marina. Full name: Pearl Houzuki Age: 26 Height: 145 cm Pearl resembles a stereotypical Japanese "pop princess". She has pale skin and appears shorter than most Inklings, something she is defensive about. Her shoulder-length tentacles are creamy-white with pink tips and a small bang, although they can change to completely one color like other Inklings. She has light golden eyes with pale yellow pupils in the shape of a cross, round cream eyebrows, and a beauty mark at the bottom right of her lips. Like Marina, and unlike other Inklings, she has one sharp tooth in the top middle of her mouth instead of the usual two. Her ears, which are slightly smaller than those of the average Inkling, are usually covered by her hair.

Her outfit consists of a pearly white sleeveless dress, white shorts, and pink tights. The dress has a high collar, a large golden zipper on the front with a cut out cross similar to her pupils, and features a slanted diamond-like pattern at the bottom right. Her shoes are white, slightly platformed boots with large golden zippers and black soles. She also wears black fingerless gloves and a white crown with pink tips on her head that resembles a squid ring tooth. During Splatfests, the pink in her design changes to match the color of her chosen team, except for her crown which only changes in artwork. The diamond-like pattern on her dress lights up in sync with the music. According to her Inkopolis News dialogue, this outfit and Marina's matching one were designed by a graduate of Inkblot Art Academy. Pearl speaks rather bluntly and uses various slang terms, in line with her characterization as a rapper (despite her "pop princess" appearance). Compared to Marina, Pearl is a lot more energetic, expressive and quick to jump onto a topic with a bit of a short temper and a knack for composing new songs as they come to her. Often her comments can be playfully sarcastic, playing off Marina. She can also be quite brash, but is usually very friendly and means well in the end. Her lively attitude is most obvious if the player looks at her through the window, as she looks at them quizzically before striking a pose. When she wins a Splatfest, she often boasts how her team was better in the form of a rap, which she insists she makes up on the spot. She has been described sarcastically by Marina as "starved for attention, yet full of [herself]".

She comes from a very rich family, which reflects in her attitude and appearance. Among her several possessions, she owns a go-kart, a private jet, the baseball "Inkopolis Princess League", and a fitness studio. She also still gets an allowance despite having a job, has personal shoppers for MakoMart, and owns a vegetable garden in front of her house that must be watered using her helicopter with an exclusive jellyfish pilot, as well as having a lemon tree orchard and at least three shoe rooms in her house, one of which is soundproof.

Due to being born with uniquely developed vocal cords, Pearl's voice operates at two thousand times the frequency required to produce "mind-blowing" waves. As a result, it can create massive shockwaves and destroys audio equipment when she sings, leading her fans to nickname her the "club destroyer". Sunken Scroll 1 shows an incident in which a young Pearl destroyed various parts of the Youth Folk-Singing contest, and Marina's chat room has a clip during a heavy metal concert in which glass is heard shattering. To mitigate the effect, Marina mixes backing tracks in order to prevent Pearl from destroying her audio systems. When fully warmed up[a] and amplified by the Princess Cannon, Pearl's shockwave is concentrated into a powerful laser able to counteract the NILS statue's mostly-charged cannon. As a result of this tremendous power, Pearl chooses to practice away from civilization on Mount Nantai.

Pearl is also very protective of Marina, even after being told by Cap'n Cuttlefish of Marina's true nature as an Octoling. Upon receiving the news, she remained loyal to Marina, even threatening violence against Cap'n Cuttlefish if he ever dared to splat her bandmate. She considers meeting Marina the best gift she has ever received.[8] Pearl is also fond of Agent 8, who she nicknames as 'Eight', happily noticing them before Marina does and striking a more flourished pose in direct contrast to her reaction to the standard playable Inkling. However, she is shown to dislike Sheldon due to her finding him boring, calling him that in the Mayo vs. Ketchup Splatfests' announcements. She also says that she would "rather watch ink dry...at the post office...WITH SHELDON" than watching soccer in the Baseball vs. Soccer announcement, as well as suggesting to Marina that they should cover his house in toilet paper as a Halloween prank, albeit only in localizations.

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

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

While practicing her potentially dangerous voice on Mount Nantai less than two years before the events of Splatoon 2, Pearl met Marina, a newly-defected Octoling, and the two quickly bonded. Pearl never learned of Marina's past, believing her to be a "country bumpkin", and taught Marina the ways of Inkling society. After meeting each other again, the two became friends, with Marina demonstrating her musical abilities with a demo of Ebb & Flow. After hearing this, Pearl agreed to form a band with her, which led to her fully establishing herself in the public consciousness upon the formation of Off the Hook. They released Ebb & Flow as their first single, and it was a hit. By the time of their fourth single, around nine months after the events of 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 Pearl had a similar relationship with Marina as Callie had with Marie. Their work included hosting Splatfest events, announcing the themes and singing and dancing to Color Pulse for the event's duration. Across all regions, Pearl and Marina won 29 Splatfests each.