Sailor Saturn is likely the most powerful member of the Sailor Senshi in Sailor Moon. She’s a unique addition to the team seeing as she's considered a taboo in the franchise's mythos. In fact, when viewers meet Hotaru in the classic anime, it’s only because Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are thinking seriously about killing her before she’s able to awaken as Sailor Saturn, since Saturn’s appearance is a portent.
There are lots of really awesome things about Saturn because of this unique role in Sailor Moon mythology, but there are definitely some things that don’t land as well about her character.
10 Overrated: Barely Appears
Despite likely being the most powerful Sailor Senshi, with the arguable exception of Sailor Moon herself, Sailor Saturn doesn’t actually appear all that often in the series.
After her reincarnation, she is certainly around, having magically been aged up from infancy with little explanation — it's assumed she was aged up/reawakened in the '90s anime because of Galaxia — and she is awakened as Sailor Saturn at that point. But she still doesn’t participate as much in the series as the others.
9 Underrated: Senshi Of Destruction
In essence, Sailor Saturn’s role is to destroy the world if there is no other means to saving it. She usually only awakens in end times, when she senses the necessity to end a world so it can begin anew.
In both the manga and the Crystal anime, viewers see her do this after Queen Metalia destroys the Silver Millennium and everyone in it. Sailor Saturn, sensing it’s time to begin again, destroys the kingdom so everyone can be reborn on Earth. The fact that her entire role in awakening in the series is because she senses the end of the planet is nigh is awesome.
8 Overrated: Gets Possessed
One of the most frustrating things about Hotaru, and perhaps one of the most interesting things too, is that she is very ill when she's not in her Senshi form. This puts her in a lot of danger and allows people to put her in bad positions.
At a young age, Hotaru was turned into a host for Mistress 9. Although Mistress 9 eventually took over, Hotaru managed to break free and awaken her true form as Sailor Saturn.
7 Underrated: Silence Glaive
Some of the Sailor Senshi have some kind of weapon, though most of them really only bring them out when they’re prepared to use them. The Outer Senshi all actively carry weapons, and viewers regularly see Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn with theirs.
Sailor Saturn’s Silence Glaive is one of the most powerful weapon in the series, with the ability to actually destroy the earth. Plus, it’s shaped like a scythe, which makes its deadly nature even more appropriate.
6 Overrated: No Transformation Sequence
Sailor Moon is the definitive magical girl anime, and a lot of the fun of watching the series is getting to the exciting moment when the girls transform into their Sailor Senshi alter egos. Every Senshi has her own unique transformation sequence that goes along with her color scheme and powers.
But Sailor Saturn is the only Senshi with no transformation sequence in either anime; she does have one in the "Dream" arc of the manga. The absence in the anime is especially crushing because everything else about her is so detailed. A transformation would have likely enthused fans further.
5 Underrated: Cool Uniform
Another way that Sailor Saturn is different from the other Senshi is the fact that she has an awesome uniform that’s totally unique to her. There are elements about it that are similar to other Senshi: the sailor collar, the pleated skirt, etc.
But she has a crystal (similar to a Pure Heart Crystal in the '90s anime) in the center of her bow instead of a brooch; her gloves fan out dramatically; she has flower petal-shaped sleeves instead of the usual cap sleeves. She gets a more traditional uniform after being resurrected, but her original costume is unique.
4 Overrated: Chibi-Usa’s Friend
Chibi-Usa is one of the most divisive characters in Sailor Moon. Positioning Hotaru as a friend that Chibi-Usa has made makes Chibi-Usa’s role feel more like a plot function, instead of giving her space, and her friendship with Hotaru space, to become an actual relationship, instead of just a way to get to the next plot point.
However, their friendship is important, too, because they fight together in Chibi-Usa's future team of Sailor Senshi in the manga. Their relationship paves the way for that plot point.
3 Underrated: A Cyborg
While this isn’t the case in the original anime series, in both the Sailor Moon manga and Sailor Moon Crystal, Hotaru is a cyborg, due to some experiments that her father has done on her in an attempt to save her life after an accident. This is a totally wild addition to Sailor Moon mythology.
Hotaru mostly wears clothes that completely hide her skin from the neck down (turtleneck sweaters, thick black tights, etc.) to hide her cyborg status.
2 Overrated: Little Interaction with the Other Characters
Hotaru was involved in a fire as a child during an accident at the lab where her scientist father works. While he was able to use some of his biological expertise and experimentation to save her life after she’s wounded in this fire, she’s still pretty weak and unable to participate in a lot of activities. In fact, viewers rarely see her outside of her own home and they would have loved to her see more involved with the other characters.
1 Underrated: Character With A Disability
At the same time, Hotaru is a character with a chronic illness that certainly has an effect on how she lives her life. There isn’t a lot of representation of characters with disabilities in anime, and having Hotaru become probably the most powerful character in Sailor Moon, despite and because of this disability, is a really strong message in the series.