Onsen, Tamago
Summary
Tamago Onsen, known to fans as Tama-chan, is a flying turtle featured in the Love Hina series. Keitaro receives this creature as a gift from Mutsumi. Although Keitaro correctly identifies the turtle as male, the other girls insist on treating the animal as female, and the manga consistently uses feminine pronouns for the character. As an onsen kame, or hot-springs turtle, Tama-chan possesses a unique trait: Su, Mutsumi, Seta, and eventually Keitaro can understand and communicate with her. Su frequently harbors an urge to eat the turtle, a behavior that is sometimes portrayed as teasing directed at Shinobu. The manga notes that Su eventually abandons this predatory habit to wait for Tama-chan to reproduce.
