Honoka

Honoka (Japanese: 穂香) is a high school student, and secretly a martial artist, who made her debut in the 2015 title Dead or Alive 5 Last Round.

Appearance

 * See also: Honoka's costumes

Owing to her status as a Japanese schoolgirl, she constantly wears a school uniform including the blazer, as well as a glove that has a winking skull and crossbones logo on the back of the hand.

She possesses shoulder length salmon pink hair that is tied into a ponytail on the side (which is always represented as a ball with the same markings as the winking skull and crossbones motif or some variation thereof, save for her certain DLC costumes like Last Getaway and New Challengers outfit, which uses a flower instead) as well as reddish eyes and somewhat tanned skin. Her face and overall build (namely her height) is similar to that of Marie Rose, although unlike her, she possesses a significantly large bust. Honoka currently possesses the largest bust out of all the female characters in the series, a direct contrast to her friend and rival, Marie Rose who possesses the smallest bust, which was even the subject of a pun for their Japanese tag team intro. Her bust size had been hinted at in Famitsu prior to her official announcement, where it mentioned that the new girl had "the biggest." She also has a more curvaceous and voluptuous figure than most of the other younger girls, having very curvy hips, and short but rather shapely legs (in fact, the only one to have an overall more voluptuous figure than Honoka is Mai Shiranui).

Besides her swimwear, she dresses relatively modestly, which could be due to her innocent nature and grandmother's influence. Some of her outfits also contain a cow motif, such as a cow face print on a t-shirt with "milk" written under it, as well as clothes with a cow marking-print and an attached stuffed cow. In Xtreme 3, she is able to wear her hair fully down, and in Last Round, she wears Hitomi's bob cut in pink on certain collaboration DLC such as her Schoolgirl Strikers and Arc Systems DLC with a white hair band in the former.

Personality
Having been raised all her life by her gentle and loving grandmother, she is a sweet, easygoing kind of girl, but when she sees a fight, she cannot contain her excitement - or the mysterious power surging within her. Honoka has a strange knack for instantly learning any fighting move she sees. She has kept this power hush-hush, but has been itching to test it out in secret.

Her victory quotes indicate she doesn't even know the origin of her powers and seeks to find out about it. In some victory quotes, she also gets apologetic and asks if they can stand up while rushing towards them to offer them a hand, implying that while she does want to test her powers out, she doesn't want to injure or cripple people with them. Unlike most other fighters, she doesn't attempt to shame her opponent upon beating them.

Although she is very eager for a challenge and a fight to the extent that she can't help herself, even she has her limits, as her losing quote has her whining that her opponent is too strong. She also seems to be quite naive and oblivious. This can be seen when she wins a tag match with Ayane, she'll make the mistake of asking if Ayane's a ninja, much to her disbelief and annoyance. This is further seen when she makes an accidental pun that angers Marie Rose, due to her not knowing that Marie Rose is jealous of Honoka because of her "assets".

Etymology
Honoka is figuratively a fortuitous prayer for a woman's livelihood. "Ho" (穂) is referring to an ear of grain, in this case one that has ripened well enough to harvest. "Ka" (香) refers to a fragrance. When paired together, the feminine name is wishing for the woman to live a fruitful life.

Marie Rose
Although none of the details have been released yet - such as how long they've been friends, how they met, or how they interact with each other - Honoka is friends with Marie Rose, even sharing a special interaction as well as being Tag Battle partners where Honoka requests to Marie Rose for a practice round. In addition, when winning a tag battle with Marie Rose, she does Marie Rose's signature pose with her.

Raidou
It's unknown what their exact connection is, but she is apparently tag partners with Raidou. It might have something to do with Honoka having the ability to copy moves from other fighters by just looking at them doing it, which Raidou is well known for. They also both have that mysterious red mist energy, which might be the source of their move copying power. She may have met him in the past, as she seemingly recognized him in their tag team victory pose, but didn't know from where. Before a tag fight, however, she says that she's "kinda scared" while conveying body language that indicated she was uncomfortable, implying that her fighting alongside Raidou is out of reluctance. It's possible that she may have seen him in the first Dead or Alive tournament due to mentioning that she was a fan of Kasumi due to that tournament.

Ayane
As seen in during Tag Mode, they seem to know or at least are familiar with each other. Although Ayane herself seems unaware that Honoka might have a connection with the kunoichi's evil father, Raidou. Their win scene has Honoka asking if Ayane is "some kind of ninja," with Ayane apparently getting irritated, saying "Are you serious?" Fans have theorized that they may be half-sisters and not know it, judging by Honoka's quote and similar powers to Raidou and them both having red irises.

Honoka's grandmother
Honoka has been raised by her grandmother for most of her life. As such, she loves and cares about her very much, expressing some hesitance about going on a vacation to New Zack Island and leaving her grandmother, and also spending the vacation at times wondering how she's doing.

Kasumi
Although they have not had any direct interactions yet, Honoka claims she had been a fan of Kasumi ever since the latter beat Raidou in the first Dead or Alive tournament. Kasumi, likewise, noted that Honoka's abilities seem comparable to that of Raidou, and intends to keep a close eye on her to learn more.

Naotora Ii
Although it is unclear if she ever encountered Naotora Ii face-to-face, she has at least heard of her, as she mentioned that she recognized her from her textbooks at school.

Ryu Hayabusa
Although it is unclear how they met, Honoka is familiar with Ryu.

Momiji
Like above, it's unclear how and when they met, although Honoka is familiar with Momiji.

Gameplay

 * See also: Honoka's command lists

Honoka studies her favorite moves and fighting styles, and combines them into a unique style which she calls "Honoka Fu" (ほのか流, Honoka-ryū, lit. "Honoka style"). Since her build is that of an average teenage girl, her moves, while skilled, may not always pack the same punch as the fighter she learned them from. In her Hissatsu-no-Kamae (必殺の構え, lit. "Fighting Position of Annihilation") stance, however, she is imbued with an unbelievable strength and becomes capable of techniques she has never seen from any other fighter. Honoka is not recommended for beginners due to her lack of damage, range, and her many stance transitions.

Dead or Alive series

 * Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (playable, 2015)
 * Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 (playable, 2016)

Warriors All-Stars
Honoka is a playable character in Koei's hack-and-slash title, Warriors All-Stars, representing the Dead or Alive series alongside Ayane, Kasumi, and Marie Rose.

The story takes place in an alternate world that relies on a miraculous spring to sustain itself. The King who could control the spring's powers suddenly perished, leaving the world in turmoil.

The Queen told her daughter to summon otherworldly heroes to save their land, with Honoka being one of them, but the attempted summoning malfunctioned and left them scattered in different areas. Eventually, other members of this royal family are deemed eligible for the throne, dividing all the heroes into three warring factions.

Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash
Honoka appeared in Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash as one of the paid DLC characters released on March 30th, 2017 for the game, and will be one of the three representing Dead or Alive along with Marie Rose and Ayane (the latter formerly appeared in Senran Kagura: Estival Versus).

Fighting quotes

 * Dead or Alive 5 Last Round

Music themes
The following are the music themes used for Honoka throughout the series.

Gallery

 * See: Honoka gallery

Trivia

 * In her Japanese bio, it was mentioned under her hobbies that she enjoys partaking in onsens (Japanese bath houses/hot springs). This was localized outside Japan as simply being "taking hot baths" due to there not being a word in English that accurately translates the Japanese term "furo."
 * The cow-related apparel in several of Honoka's costumes are an unsubtle reference to her significantly large bust, owing to cows being well known for constantly producing milk.
 * According to Tom Lee, Honoka was created to fulfill the Japanese audiences' desires for more of the girls.
 * Some of the Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate concept artwork for Marie Rose had various similarities to Honoka, barring that she was blonde instead of pink-haired as well as having a noticeably smaller bust. This suggests that Honoka's overall design was reused from an unused concept for Marie Rose.
 * Being the latest character, it seems Honoka knows some Dead or Alive characters such as Eliot, Zack, Tina, Bass, and Mila by calling their name even though she doesn't have any intros, outros, and tag throws with any of these characters.
 * In the Japanese version of Honoka and Marie Rose's tag team intro, Honoka asks if she could borrow Marie Rose's chest, acting as a pun on their radically different bust sizes and on a typical Japanese request for a sparring round derived from Sumo Wrestling, where it is believed that a wrestler's power lies in their chest due to their heart being located there. This was toned down in localization to Honoka directly requesting for a practice round, since the pun was untranslatable in the West.
 * Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 was released on Honoka's birthday (March 24th).
 * Honoka bares a strong resemblance to Honoka Kousaka from Love Live!.
 * Coincidentally, both characters share the same first name.
 * When Honoka performs the moves of other fighters, she'll also mimick the sound they make.
 * Technically, Honoka has the second-biggest bust in the series after SPARTAN-458, although it is unclear whether the latter's bust measurements were her own or whether that was while she was in her Space Marine armor.