Motoko Aoyama is an intense 15-year old school girl in
love hina, who practices the martial art of kendo, as well as being a member of the Shinmeryuu sword school (which is also referred to in Akamatsu's later work Mahou Sensei Negima, as the school of the character Setsuna). Motoko Aoyama is a resident at the Hinata Inn, living in room 302.
Motoko Aoyama has difficulty relating to other people, especially men, whom she finds to be a distraction that keeps her from being able to concentrate fully on her studies and practice. Motoko Aoyama also dislikes men because her sister left the dojo to marry.
Motoko Aoyama'a
relationship with
Keitaro Urashima initially resembles
Naru Narusegawa's relationship with him in some ways; all too often he finds himself on the receiving end of various attacks as a result of his frequent mishaps. Motoko Aoyama eventually warms to him somewhat and eventually finds herself developing strong feelings for him. On two occasions this causes severe problems for both Motoko Aoyama and Keitaro Urashima. In later volumes she develops a habit of writing trashy romance stories involving the two of them.
Motoko Aoyama has an older sister, Tsuruko, who gave up the life of the sword to marry. Tsuruko is far stronger at kendo than Motoko Aoyama; Motoko both greatly admires and fears her older sister. However, Tsuruko believes that Motoko Aoyama has more potential than she herself does, and that Motoko lost her drive to improve when Tsuruko married. Motoko Aoyama is also the next in line to inherit the Aoyama family's Kyoto dojo as she is not married. It is notable that Tsuruko is actually Motoko Aoyama's biological sister. They are two of the few characters in the series who are actually blood-related as siblings (the second siblings couple is presented by
Kaolla Su and Amalla Su).
Motoko has only two serious fears in the world: Tsuruko and, for some unspecifed reason, turtles (even though Tsuruko correlates it to her intense dislike for men).
In the
love hina anime, Motoko Aoyama is popular at her school for her kendo skills. She frequently spends time with Sachiyo Matsumoto, Emi Ichikawa and Kikuko Onoue, who are all fans of her. Kikuko is especially protective of Motoko and has criticised Motoko's change in personality and decline in kendo skills since Keitaro began living at Hinata Inn, referring to him as a distraction. In the anime television series, Motoko Aoyama is voiced by Yu Asakawa in Japanese and Mona Marshall in English.
Motoko Aoyama is probably the girl that will beat your ass the most next to
Naru Narusegawa in
The Love Hina Game!
