Kenshin's first wife. She originally wanted to kill Kenshin as he had killed her fiance, but in the end fell in love with him and died to protect him.

*sigh* I'm thinking she must be THE most hated characters in the RK universe, if the net is anything to go by. Happily there're also people out there who support her. (yay! high-fives) I have NO idea why people hate her. I really don't think Watsuki-san intended for her to be the kind of character everyone hates. Tomoe-bashers call her heartless, bloodless, soulless, wimpy and goodness knows what else. If Tomoe weren't fictional she'd probably sue. The main grudge Tomoe-haters-cum-Kaoru-proponents seem to hold against Tomoe is that she could do houswork while Kaoru couldn't. =p

Some say she never really loved Kenshin to begin with, and hated him to the end. Now, that is simply not true! True, she may have hated him to begin with, and her initial motive was probably revenge for her fiance, but later on she did fall in love with him, and even made the ultimate sacrifice, dying so that he might live. *sob* That is sooooo romantic! She looks really sweet when she smiles too.

It's not as if she actually DID anything to Kaoru; in fact, she even told Kenshin (in a dream) to go look for her (kaoru, that is, not tomoe), that she (ditto) wasn't dead. Now, how can you argue with that? *maibox gets flooded with vitrolic responses to this rhetorical question. O_o*