Happy Around! | Peaky P-key | Photon Maiden | Merm4id | RONDO | Lyrical Lily | UniChØrd | Abyssmare | Call Of Artemis | Other Characters
This is the character sheet for Happy Around from D4DJ.
Beware of spoilers.
NOTE: This page is a work in progress.
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Happy Around!
Come on everyone, let's turn happiness around!
"Happy Around!, here we go!"
Yoba Academy's newest DJ unit and the central unit of the D4DJ franchise. The unit was formed by transfer student Rinku Aimoto after she watched a DJ performance. They consist of Rinku on lead vocals, Maho as DJ, Muni as VJ, and Rei on keyboard. Energetic and uplifting performances are their specialty. Their genre consists of J-pop, dubstep, and happy hardcore. General
- Champions on the Inside: After struggling to make it onto the Sunset Stage, Happy Around! bomb out in the first round. Still, they're just happy that they got to compete alongside Peaky P-key at all.
- Color-Coded Characters: The unit is associated as a group with dark orange or red.
- Rinku: Orange
- Maho: Yellow
- Muni: Pink
- Rei: Blue
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Energetic and fun-loving Rinku is Sanguine.
- Responsible and hardworking Maho is Melancholic.
- Short-tempered Tsundere Muni is Choleric.
- Calm, polite and elegant Rei is Phlegmatic.
- Friendly Rivalry: In First Mix, they compete with both Peaky P-key and Photon Maiden at some point, but stay on good terms with them and consider the members of the other units to be their friends.
- Genki Girl: Their music is very upbeat and energetic.
- Meaningful Name: Happy Around! is Rinku's catchphrase that she says whenever she's happy or excited. The group adopts it as their name since they want their upbeat performances to make people happy.
- Overly Long Name: "DJ Mash & Rinku with VJ Only + Togetsu Rei". They quickly decide to dub themselves Happy Around! instead.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Muni is an immature Attention Whore who dresses in the Lolita fashion style and who needs to have all eyes on her at all times. Her design is predominantly pink, a girly shade of red. Meanwhile, Rei is a mature yet awkward rich girl who dresses elegantly and conservatively, and initially she seems uncomfortable being thrust into the spotlight as a member of HappyAra. Her design is predominantly a bluish shade of purple, which we've been told elegant ladies like to wear.
- Series Mascot: Serves as this for the franchise, being the most focused group in promotion and being the focus of First Mix.
- Technician Versus Performer: Rinku is the performer and Maho is the technician. First Mix follows Rinku as she — The Heart of Happy Around! — inspires the others to come together, reach for the stars, and make their dreams come true. In contrast, All Mix follows Maho — the expert DJ of Happy Around! and the Team Dad who organizes everything — and focuses more on the incredible effort and long hours she puts in to make those dreams (and the whole Operation Beckoning Cat) come true.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl:
- Maho is significantly more tomboyish than the other members of Happy Around!: she has Boyish Short Hair (though after the game’s first anniversary it’s grown slightly longer) and has an interest in sports — to the point she is depicted playing basketball in one of her cards. Meanwhile, Rinku is a sweet, bubbly Genki Girl, Muni is a Kawaiiko with a Sweet Tooth, and Rei is a polite, graceful Elegant Classical Musician.
- Their outfits are customized to match their level of girliness.
- At one end, we have Muni, who is absurdly girly and wears a fluffy Lolita-style outfit because of her psychological compulsion to stand out.
- Then we have Rei, who wears high heels and a stately, refined skirt to demonstrate her elegant, mature femininity.
- Next we come to Rinku, who wears a skirt that's a little bit girly, but also sporty and modern and a bit in disarray, and she pairs that with sneakers to show she's also a little boyish too.
- Finally we have Maho, the tomboy, who simply wears short shorts and sneakers.
Rinku Aimoto
Rinku Aimoto
Voiced by: Yuka Nishio (Japanese), Emi Lo (English)
"Linking, let’s go, shouting happiness in a loud voice
Smiles are the best! Say, Happy Around!"
Smiles are the best! Say, Happy Around!"
The lead vocalist of Happy Around!. Rinku lived abroad in Tiotio, Africa as a child due to her parents' work. She came back to Japan on her own to attend high school and currently lives with her grandmother. Always cheerful and optimistic, she also has an odd side - like how she calls the wilderness her "friend". She became interested in DJing after meeting Maho.
- Airplane Arms: She runs with her arms thrown out several times in the first episode, as part of her generally hyperactive personality.
- Big Eater: Eats a lot, implied to be what keeps her at such high energy levels throughout the day. She is always looking forward to her next meal, and other girls comment on how often she snacks. However, she is noted to have a more nutritious diet than most, with Maho finding it odd that her snack of choice is...celery, of all things.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite coming off as a ditz, she picks up DJing easily and Maho notes that she's got a natural knack for mixing songs. Nonetheless, she still decides to act as vocals instead.
- Catchphrase: "Happy around!", usually while doing a spin. She uses it whenever she's happy or excited, which led to the group using it as their official unit name.
- Childhood Friends: She and Muni have been friends since they were young kids, but became estranged when Rinku moved to Tiotio. They became friends again when Rinku moved back to Japan for high school.
- Demoted to Comic Relief: In First Mix, Rinku was the main character. She was a Fish out of Water who introduced audiences to the world (of the Groovy Mix mobile game) and also The Heart who held HapiAra together. In All Mix, which has to give equal screen time to all six first-gen units from the mobile game (twenty-four characters in total), she's just kind of ... there. In HapiAra-centric episodes, Maho tends to take the lead since she's more organized and knows more about DJ-ing and Muni gets a few Plot Tailored to the Party episodes where she and the other VJs employ their skills together, leaving Rinku with nothing to do except squeal gleefully and offer a few funny lines.
- Genki Girl: She's extraordinarily cheery and vivacious.
- Giver of Lame Names: In the first episode, Rinku tries to give Maho the nickname "Mahopi". Maho immediately shoots her down and says, "I don't need any weird nicknames."
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's always looking to give others a smile and has the golden hair to match.
- Infectious Enthusiasm: Her enthusiasm to start a DJ unit and enter the D4DJ festival ends up convincing Maho to try out forming a duo, and sucks in Muni and Rei as well.
- Meaningful Name: "Rinku" is the Japanese pronunciation of "link", and she's the person that links the members of Happy Around! together.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: According to supplementary materials, the reason Rinku has such an incredible sense of rhythm is because she grew up in Africa. The show wisely avoids going into too much detail about this.
- Signature Headgear: Always seen with a red bow in her hair.
- Spanner in the Works: During a DJ unit duel between Abyssmare and UniChØrd, what was supposed to be Abyssmare's victory with 0 votes for UniChØrd ends up with 1 vote for the latter courtesy of Rinku, which begins Abyssmare's fall from grace, as Abyssmare become fixated on and frustrated over having their Flawless Victory marred even though they still won by a massive origin.
- Terrible Artist: While Maho created the unit's first eye searing promotional poster, Rinku's attempts to improve it aren't much better.
Maho Akashi
Maho Akashi
Voiced by: Karin Kagami (Japanese/English)
"BPM rising to the stage of our dreams
Gonna do it, gotta do it! DJ Mash in the world!"
Gonna do it, gotta do it! DJ Mash in the world!"
The DJ of Happy Around!. Maho was deeply moved by a DJ performance she saw as a child, and became immersed in DJ activities herself. She has recently been trying her hand at producing tracks as well. She formed Happy Around! after she met Rinku, and although sometimes bewildered by Rinku's eccentricity, she continues to improve her performance as a DJ.
- Amazonian Beauty: Rinku comments on her "dynamite" body in episode 6 of First Mix.
- Boyish Short Hair: Befitting one of the more tomboyish girls, though it’s grown a bit longer after the game's first anniversary.
- Hates Rich People: Well, not exactly hate, but Maho isn't particularly fond of Rei unintentionally flaunting her wealth; every time she does, Maho turns her head away and derides the bourgeoisie under her breath.
- In "Fall Camp", when Rei says her family only eats expensive meat.
- In "Because It's Cold", after Rei says her family takes a trip to an old hot springs in Kyoto every year.
- Hidden Buxom: Her academy uniform makes her appear modest, but her more form-fitting DJ outfit reveals that she's actually very well-endowed.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: She wears a grey hoodie under her school's official blazer.
- Not So Above It All: Though she attempts to be mature and keep everyone on track in terms of their DJ activities, she's not above getting swept into goofing off, such as when she ended up forgetting to practice with everyone else in First Mix because she was enjoying the bathhouse too much.
- Parental Substitute: Her parents usually aren’t home due to their jobs, so she serves as this to her younger siblings.
- The Protagonist: First Mix was all about the emotion of coming together and forming an idol unit (or "DJ" unit), and Rinku was the perfect viewpoint character since she knew nothing about that world and she wore her heart on her sleeve. In contrast, All Mix is about logistics and scheduling (both in the in-universe sense of putting on Operation Beckoning Cat, and in the out-of-universe sense of squeezing twenty-four characters into one plot). As a result Maho has much more prominence than Rinku, who's been Demoted to Comic Relief. We frequently see Maho alone in her room, mixing music and trying to schedule things to keep the unit and the festival on-track, while Rinku's contributions are mostly blurting out ideas that Maho works tirelessly to implement.
- Stage Names: She goes by the name of DJ Mash.
- Team Dad: She is the sternest and most level-headed member of Happy Around!, always advising the others to think things through and to be sensible.note She's also the one who manages and plans both their music and their activities as a unit, and many episodes of All Mix show her working late into the night trying to pull things together for the unit.
- Terrible Artist: She created the unit's first promotional poster, and the result was enough to make Muni recoil in horror.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Maho is the tomboy of the group: she has Boyish Short Hair and a sporty fashion style, in addition to having an interest in sports, but she serves as the responsible Team Mom of Happy Around and her specialties are cooking and "caring for others".
Muni Ohnaruto
Muni Ohnaruto
Voiced by: Haruka Mimura (Japanese), Lily Ki (English)
"Muni-chan's cute? Of course I am
FAVFAVFAVFAV→MUTE! I’m Muni-que!"
FAVFAVFAVFAV→MUTE! I’m Muni-que!"
The VJ of Happy Around!. Rinku's praise for Muni's drawing skills when they were younger prompted her to take it seriously. As a result, she's now a renowned artist on the internet. She only lets her guard down and shows affection towards people who acknowledge her artistic abilities.
- Ambiguously Gay: It's heavily implied that she has a crush on Rinku.
- In "Holy Gifts", when Rinku says she got tickets from "Kyoko-san", Muni barks "Who's this woman?!"
- In "Camera, Live, Action!" she becomes incredibly flustered when Rinku offers some of her food.
- In "Freedom Freedom?", she swaps the arrangement of the Hina dolls so that her and Rinku's dolls act as the 'couple'.
- In the What is "Love"? event, she becomes jealous of Rinku and Kyoko spending time together while rehearsing for a concert, and follows them around the city.
- Animal-Eared Headband: She almost always wears a headband with some kind of animal ears (she wears rabbit ears with her school uniform, bear ears with her fall/winter outfit, and cat ears with her spring/summer outfit), and her unit outfit has her sporting bunny-eared headphones.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: She and Rinku became friends when Rinku comforted Muni after she got chased into a park by bullies.
- Childhood Friends: She was close friends with Rinku when they were younger, but lost touch with her after Rinku moved to Tiotio.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She tends to get easily jealous of others when Rinku pays them too much attention. Especially obvious in the What is "Love"? event, where she spies on Rinku and Kyoko and becomes frustrated when she sees the pair holding hands.
- Desperately Craves Affection: "One and Only" reveals her attention-seeking antics are the result of her parents working long hours, leaving her alone by herself. Not that she'll ever admit it.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first episode where she has a major role ("Only Me") begins with her posting some fantastic artwork online, greedily sucking up the praise in the comments, and then muting somebody who says it feels a little same-y.
- Expy: Of Nico from Love Live!. Aside from Bushiroad being involved in both franchises, Muni and Nico:
- Are both pompous Attention Whores with loveably-caustic tsundere personalities.
- Have the same hairstyle, black pigtails with red bows.
- Wear pink sweaters under their blazers.
- Have the same anime introduction to their units — spying on the other girls through a restaurant divider, and popping out from cover to berate them when their passions get the better of them.
- Have a scene where they haughtily berate the other girls for getting nervous ... while visibly shaking and spilling their tea cup/juice box everywhere.
- Gamer Chick: She's an avid gamer and watches Let's Plays on the regular.
- Image Song: Give Me Awesome!!!! was written in her image, because she wanted people to notice her and praise her like they did with the other Happy Around! members.
- It's All About Me: Downplayed; she likes being the center of attention and receiving praise to the point where she tries desperately to make it more clear that she's the VJ of Happy Around!, but this comes from her just wanting to be validated, and she does care about her other unit members.
- Mood-Swinger: Muni has little control over her emotions, and changes moods at the drop of a hat. Often she will adopt a snooty, condescending attitude and tell people not to do something she herself often indulges in, and whenever Maho calls her on it, Muni flies off the handle and shouts in rage.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Her school uniform is incredibly customized, with a pink cardigan underneath her blazer, knee-high pink socks and pink pumps, as well as a large red bow on the back of her blazer. She also wears a bunny ear headband.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Whereas the other girls wear shorts or thigh-length skirts, Muni wears an elaborate, fluffy, Lolita-styled dress to indicate her desire for attention.
- Pink Means Feminine: Her hair has a pink gradient, her image color is pink, she wears a lot of pink frilly dresses, and overall she’s very girly, what with her love for cute things and sweets.
- Signature Headgear: She's rarely seen without some kind of Animal-Eared Headband, with rabbit ears being the ones she wears the most often (both as a headband with her school uniform, and as a pair of headphones with her unit outfit).
- Stage Names: Christens herself as VJ Only after joining the group.
- Sweet Tooth: Claims to be "100 percent sugar", as in she prefers to eat fruit, sweets, and junk food over meat and vegetables (which she only eats whenever she gets scolded by Rei or Hiiro).
- Tsundere: She tends to get defensive whenever her more affectionate actions are pointed out.
Rei Togetsu
Rei Togetsu
Voiced by: Kanon Shizaki (Japanese, 2019-2022), Maiko Irie (Japanese, 2022 onwards), Anairis Quiñones (English)
"Melodies jumping out of the musical score
Keyboards sparkling, oh, how beautiful!"
Keyboards sparkling, oh, how beautiful!"
The keyboardist of Happy Around!. Rei was born into a wealthy family, and had lessons in all sorts of things. However she showed to be particularly talented at playing the piano. Though she felt oppressed by the life her parents had planned out for her, she didn't have the courage to make a change. That is, until a chance encounter with Rinku, when a change starts to brew inside of Rei.
- Casting Gag: She is (formerly) voiced by Kanon Shizaki, who has also played the role of a reserved, long dark-haired keyboardist, as she also plays the role of Rinko Shirokane, in BanG Dream!, which is also created by Bushiroad. Ironically, Shizaki stepped down from her role as Rei to be replaced by Maiko Irie, whereas she previously replaced Satomi Akesaka in voicing Rinko.
- Childhood Friends: With Esora. The two first met during a piano recital in elementary school.
- Demoted to Extra:
- First Mix was mainly about HapiAra coming together, as a way to gradually introduce audiences to the franchise's world in preparation for the mobile game. All Mix is a side-story to the mobile game that juggles all twenty-four characters at once — there's no time for more than a handful of character moments, and poor Rei gets the short end of the stick. She has simply nothing to do except offer a few lines as part of HapiAra group discussions. Even when they use her house as a vacation spot in "Because it's Cold", she has maybe two lines at most, while the other members of HapiAra and Peaky P-Key banter freely.
- This may be related to the fact that her voice actress was replaced between seasons — either they wrote it without having a replacement and wanted to limit the amount of re-recording they'd need to do, or they underwrote her role intentionally to make the change seem less jarring.
- Elegant Classical Musician: She had been playing piano professionally long before joining the group.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: She's the richest and most elegant member of HappyAra, and she has a purple-themed stage outfit.
- Hopeless with Tech: Enough that Muni warns her off from using an ATM or a self-checkout out of fear she'd break them.
- Mandatory Line: Much of her dialogue in All Mix is this. While the other three members of HapiAra banter freely and have actual comedy, in group discussions she will have at most two or three lines pointing out factual information or setting up plot points, just to remind the audience she exists. Most likely related to uncertainty around the replacement of her original voice actress.
- Mundane Object Amazement: Takes interest in junk food such as cup noodles and instant curry as she grew up sheltered from instant foods.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: Wears black tights with her summer and winter uniform, befitting her elegant disposition.
- Spoiled Sweet: She's incredibly wealthy and well-bred, but she's one of the sweetest and most polite girls in the cast.
- True Blue Femininity: Associated with blue and is a graceful, mature girl.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Fits this archetype as she was raised in a wealthy family, as well as her interest in areas such as tea ceremonies and Japanese art, specifically Hokusai.
