Love Live! (μ's) | Love Live! Sunshine!! (Aqours) (Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR-) | Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club (NijiGaku) | Love Live! Superstar!! (Liella!) | Link! Like! Love Live! | Love Live! School idol festival
This is the character sheet for μ's from Love Live!.
Beware of spoilers.
NOTE: Additional supporting characters pretty much in progress!!! Also, their other characteristics from the Manga and the Novels' (except for the Anthologies) are allowed to be mentioned here.
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µ's ("Muse")
"Making dreams come true with everyone!"
The protagonist idol group hailing from Otonokizaka Academy, which is located between Tokyo's Akihabara, Kanda, and Jinbouchou neighborhoods. Initially starting with three members, they grow in number throughout the first season, finally hitting its final roster of nine members. µ's original purpose was to attract prospective students to enroll at Otonokizaka to prevent it from closing down by taking advantage of the recent trend and popularity of school idols. Pretty soon, they become one of the most popular school idol groups in Japan.
In General
Music Start!!
- Book Ends: This is done with the sub-units' album covers; the members of each unit all wear the same outfits on the covers of their last singles as they did with their first singles.
- Breaking the Fellowship: In the later episodes of the second season, they decide to disband after the third years graduate. They officially announce this in the movie, with their performance for the third Love Live! event at the Akiba Dome as their final performance. In real life, the members are "graduated" after their Final Live in 2016.
- Cast Herd: µ's members form their own groups of three whenever they are not together.
- There's the first years (Hanayo, Rin, Maki), the second years, (Honoka, Umi, Kotori), and the third years (Eli, Nozomi, Nico).
- They are also divided into "sub units" of three members during performances: Printemps (Honoka, Kotori, Hanayo), BiBi (Eli, Maki, Nico), and lily white (Umi, Nozomi, Rin).
- School Idol Festival complicates things further, by having each of the girls assigned an "attribute": Smile (Rin, Honoka, Nico), Pure (Hanayo, Kotori, Nozomi), or Cool (Maki, Umi, Eli).
- Characterization Marches On: Generally, there are aspects to them that remain the same no matter what continuity, such as Honoka starting the group or Maki being born to a family of doctors, but it took a few years for their characters to really solidify; for example, Nozomi was originally something of a Cloudcuckoolander and Nico was more of a genuine Cutie than The Fake Cutie with a heart of gold she would end up becoming. Since old content is often a separate continuity from newer content, it's common for people to just mix it up to some degree, with the anime interpretations being the most widely accepted.
- Character-Magnetic Team: µ's typically starts with the three-member group of Honoka, Kotori and Umi, then grow from there until they hit 9. Then in the movie, they manage to recruit damn near every school idol groups in Japan and then some for their performance of "Sunny Day Song".
- Color-Coded Characters: You can see their image colors in each character's individual sections below. Subverted in that many of them are VERY inconsistent with their colors.
- Depending on the Writer: In the anime, the group starts with Honoka, Kotori, and Umi. In the manga adaptation, the group starts with Honoka, Kotori, Rin & Hanayo instead.
- Famed In-Story: The anime is about µ's rise to fame. By the second season, their popularity has equaled and at one point surpassed their rival, and already established school idol group, A-RISE. Also, as noted in Legendary in the Sequel below, they have become a legendary idol group.
- Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The four most blatant examples to fit the four philosophies: cheerful, passionate Genki Girl and Determinator Honoka (the Optimist); independent, aloof and standoffish tsundere Maki (The Cynic); grounded, level-headed, and serious Umi (the Realist); self-absorbed, mischievous, irritable Nico, who initially antagonized the first members of the group, especially Honoka, and trolled them (the Apathetic). The other members are all Conflicted to some extent.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Honoka and her Childhood Friends in either material fit this dynamic:
- The Sanguine is Honoka - cheerful, friendly, passionate and outgoing.
- The Choleric is Eli - bold, confident, logical and assertive.
- The Phlegmatic is Kotori - kind, loyal, selfless (sometimes to a fault) and indecisive. She's overall more outgoing compared to most examples, but she's also quieter than Honoka.
- The Melancholic is Umi - not depressed but shy, serious, logical, mature and can be strict.
- The remaining five members fit the dynamic as well. In this Five Temperament Ensemble:
- The Sanguine is Rin - arguably even more energetic and outgoing than Honoka, tomboyish, playful and cheerful.
- The Choleric is Nico - brash, abrasive, self-absorbed and irritable.
- The Phlegmatic is Nozomi - laidback, fairly mature and levelheaded yet not without a mischievous streak.
- The Melancholic is Maki - aloof, overly prideful, standoffish, independent and hands down the most pessimistic and bitter group member.
- The Eclectic is Hanayo - a very meek and shy girl, who gains confidence thanks to her Character Development and has a very passionate side, mainly reserved to idols.
- Honoka and her Childhood Friends in either material fit this dynamic:
- Freudian Trio: By year:
- The first years:
- Rin: the Id. Energetic, extroverted, playful and somewhat mischievous.
- Hanayo: the Ego. Shy, quiet and very gentle, yet has a very passionate side, mainly reserved to idols and anything related.
- Maki: the Superego. Stoic most of the time, quite cynical and aloof, and a tsundere with a Sugar-and-Ice Personality.
- The second years:
- Honoka: the Id. The eternally optimistic Determinator who is passionate, energetic and extroverted, yet lazy when it comes to schoolwork.
- Kotori: the Ego. Very selfless, kind, sweet and also clever and well-balanced, although she can be indecisive and insecure.
- Umi: the Superego. Quiet, very reliable, the most serious member of the group and can be strict at times.
- The third years:
- Nico: the Id. Irritable, impulsive, mischievous and self-centered, but ultimately has a heart of gold.
- Nozomi: the Ego. Kind, well-balanced, quiet and a good mother figure, yet not without a playful and mischievous streak.
- Eli: the Superego. A disciplinarian, mature, serious, and and initially served as an Obstructive Bureaucrat to the group before eventually warming up to them.
- The first years:
- Image Song: While the subject of nearly every song is vaguely-defined, each of them have at least one solo song that fits their character particularly.
- Legendary in the Sequel: They achieve this status in Love Live! Sunshine!!, with people such as Chika and Dia holding great admiration for them.
- Meaningful Name: The name of the group is pronounced as "Muse". In Greek mythology, the Muses are nine goddesses of the arts, which includes dance and music. Naturally, this fits with how the group is made of up nine girls. It's eventually revealed that this was invoked by Nozomi since she was the one who came up with the name, and she engineered it so that there would be nine members.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The third years outright fit this dynamic: Team Mom Nozomi is nice, Jerk with a Heart of Gold Nico is mean and Defrosting Ice Queen Eli is in-between.
- Saving the Orphanage: µ's original goal was to prevent their school from closing due to lack of enrolling students.
- School Idol: The trope means 'someone idolized in school'. At the beginning, it's just Eli and/or Umi who qualify, but by the end of the anime series, µ's turns into the number one idol group, defeating everyone by a landslide.
Printemps
Printemps' final single, "WAO-WAO Powerful day!"
The "Smile" subunit, consisting of Honoka Kosaka, Kotori Minami, and Hanayo Koizumi. Best described as a shoujo (teenage girls) group, with emphasis on Japanese Pop Music and themes of friendship and love.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first "Smile" subunit in the Love Live! franchise, and the only one whose name is not a derivative of its members' names.
- Genki Girl: Half of their style is this, with cheery and upbeat songs like "sweet&sweet holiday", "Puwa Puwa-O!" and the aptly named "CheerDay CheerGirl!". It helps that Honoka, an actual Genki Girl, is part of this subunit.
- Gratuitous French: The sub-unit "Printemps" is named for the French word for "spring".
- Silly Love Songs: The other half of their style, but contrary to their appearance, they have a darker take on it with serious heartbreaking tracks such as "Love marginal" and "UNBALANCED LOVE", and the Yandere-like "No Exit Orion".
Honoka Kōsaka
Voiced by: Emi Nitta (Japanese), Marieve Herington (English)
- Image Color: Orange (Red or pink in PVs)
Age: 16
Birthday: August 3 (Leo)
Blood Type: O
Height: 157cm
Three Sizes: B78/W58/H82
Trademark Favorite Food: Strawberries
Least Favorite Food: Bell Peppers
Charm Point: Her energetic smile
Symbol: ほ*
Units: Printemps
Character Statistics:Studies: ★★
Reflexes: ★★★★
Aggressiveness: ★★★★★
Conformity: ★★★
Special Trait: Clumsiness (★★★★★)
In the manga, she was a star member of the kendo club, but quit to become an idol after seeing an A-RISE concert.
Honoka plays the tomboy angel Kuroiel in The Guided Fate Paradox and reprises the role for The Awakened Fate Ultimatum.
- Big Eater: She can keep up with resident µ's big eater Hanayo, to say the least. She's also been shown to ask for tea in her sleep and convinces Hanayo to ditch their workout routine to eat rice when the two were supposed to be dieting.
- Book Dumb:
- Her grades are average, also she and math cannot understand each other.
- She also gets easily overwhelmed by paperwork for the student council in the Season 2.
- In one of the stories for School Idol Festival, Honoka believes that there are only three countries in the world: Japan, America, and Africa*.
- Bound and Gagged: Happens to her in the movie at the hands of Hideko, Mika and Fumiko, who try to persuade her to not disband µ's and hold another concert.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: A compelling leader and actually pretty good at motivating and organizing people, but is often too laid-back to do so. Umi even mentions that she can do the student council work just fine if she stops procrastinating.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Lazy, eccentric and airheaded, but definitely charismatic and competent, and not dumb.
- Character Catchphrase: "Fight to the end!" (or "Faito dayo!" in Japanese).
- Childhood Friends: Kotori and Umi (as a bonus, Honoka's mother and Umi's mother are childhood friends too). Eli as well in the manga.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She tends to Comically Missing the Point, is rather clumsy and airheaded, and her behavior is quite eccentric.
- Comically Missing the Point: She tends to do this. Hell, this is her Establishing Character Moment in the first episode, when she thinks the school closure is effective immediately, and she'll have to re-take her entrance exams to transfer to a new school.
- Compelling Voice: One of the reasons why she's considered the leader of the group.
- Almost parodied in the first episode of season 2 where she "stops" rain by yelling at it.
- She tries it again in episode 5, first at Umi's phone while it has a weather app running on it, then at the sky. It doesn't work either time.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: More so in the audio dramas than in the anime.
- Dare to Be Badass: In the manga, Honoka delivers one to Umi in response to the latter's desire to give up on participating in Love Live!Honoka: I know that our goal wasn't to win the Love Live, but if we want to do everything in our power to save the school, didn't we agree that the best way to do that would be to win the Love Live!?
Umi: But in our region, Japan's biggest school idols, A-RISE, stand in our way. They're the champs, and the scale of equipment, and everything else about their school totally outclasses ours.
Honoka: Then all eyes will be on us! I'll bet you couldn't find a better situation than that! - Determinator: Double subverted. Honoka is initially described as someone who tends to get overly excited over a prospect, dragging everyone around her into achieving said prospect only to lose confidence in the end and quit (causing trouble for everyone involved). When she initially tries to form a school idol group, she doesn't have much luck in it, and it seemed like history would repeat itself towards the end of season 1, but Honoka ends defying expectations by never truly giving up. She puts everything she has into become a school idol and against all odds (and despite numerous setbacks) she succeeds.
- Detrimental Determination: In episode 11, since she had already been training very hard, the other girls tell her to take it easy. She refuses and one day during the rain, keeps training. It later bites her back by contracting a severe fever that jeopardizes her performance at the school festival.
- Didn't Think This Through: While forming an Idol Singer group does prove to be the right decision in the long run, the fact still remains that Honoka proposed the idea without having a clue how much effort is put into becoming an idol, something Umi rightfully calls her out for. Furthermore, it isn't until Eli points it out to her that Honoka realises that the plan has a chance of failing, which would end up making the school look even worse than it already does. Fortunately, Honoka takes these comments very much to heart and resolves to take the matter more seriously from then on.
- Does Not Like Spam: Honoka dislikes azuki bean paste, since she lives in a wagashi (Japanese-style sweets) shop and she's eaten it so often as a taste-testing guinea pig that she's sick of it. In the first episode of the anime, she complains loudly after she eats some without realizing it.
- Family Theme Naming: Shares the "穂" (ho) character with her sister, notable in that the sweet shop her family manages is called "Homura", phonetically mirroring this.
- Genki Girl: She gets excited pretty easily, especially when talking about school idols. Along with Rin, she's also easily the most energetic member in the group.
- The Heart: Played With. One one hand, thanks to her being good-natured, people-oriented, cheerful and charismatic, she is very magnetic, having a big role in the creation of µ's. However, she can also be a little pushy, inconsiderate, and too focused on her own feelings and desires at times, and this doesn't always make her the best at keeping the group together.
- Heroic RRoD: Has one near the end of season 1 of the anime when she collapses during the concert at the school festival after a Heroic Second Wind because she had been undergoing excessive training (and once below the rain) for the past few days, getting a fever in the process.
- Image Song: "Mogyutto Love de Sekinchuu!" in which she's the center of the PV.
- Idiot Hero: Honoka gives the impression she's not very bright. However, it's rather laziness and lack of common sense than being outright dumb, and it's shown that when she's passionate about something she's competent, clever and creative, and ultimately a subversion true to this female protagonist archetype.
- Infectious Enthusiasm: This is the only reason why the group even ended up getting together to start with. It backfires on her in episode 11 of the Season 1 anime.
- Innocently Insensitive: While she's an overall warm-hearted and sweet individual, she typically has a tendency to be slightly self-absorbed and pushy while following her passionate side, and can be a little bit inconsiderate of others in this case.
- The Leader: As the founder and undisputed center of the µ's, she definitely factors as this. When the group decides to seriously establish a leader, despite lots of protest and discussions, everyone (barring Nico) secretly agrees that Honoka is most fit to be the leader. In the end, her sheer charisma and ability to raise everyone's spirits was a key in µ's success. Though she's good at making important decisions, she also has a habit of proposing wild ideas for the group, with questionably legitimacy at best. She's a Type III mixed with Type IV.
- The McCoy: Easily the most impulsive and immature among the "µ's" second years. She's a carefree, enthusiastic and airheaded Genki Girl, while Umi is the logical, sometimes strict Only Sane Woman and Kotori is the naive, sometimes overindulgent yet otherwise levelheaded and quieter Nice Girl.
- Nice Girl: Deconstructed. Honoka is well-meaning and kind with a positive attitude, and likes to make others happy. On the other hand, though, given her energy and her persistent never-say-die attitude, she can be a little pushy, inconsiderate, impulsive and slightly self-absorbed at times. This is shown especially in Season 1, where her decisions earn her the scrutiny from the group, eventually culminating in a slap from Umi in an attempt to snap her back to reality. It gets reconstructed in season 2 where she mostly keeps her negative traits in check, though they still creep back up from time to time.
- Perpetual Smiler: VERY much so. This is her charm point, too.
- Running Gag: Tends to bring up a soap brand that sounds similar to "µ's".
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She quits the group in Season 1 episode 11 due to mounting tensions coming from the group's entry into the Love Live being revoked after her on-stage Heroic RRoD, Kotori declaring that she's going to leave the country to study fashion abroad, and the realization that her goal of keeping the school from shutting down is complete. Fortunately, it doesn't stick for long.
- Ship Tease: With Umi in the manga and School Idol Diaries. It's apparently so evident, that Nico outright urges Umi to step in during Honoka's moment with Eli.
- Sleepyhead: Lying down anywhere for more than a couple of seconds and she can fall asleep. She can even sleep at the edge of a cliff.
- Stock Shoujo Heroine: Extremely optimistic, persistent, nice and cheerful, a Big Eater, Book Dumb, and a Magnetic Hero as well, Honoka is almost a textbook example.
- Student Council President: In season 2 of the anime, she replaces Eli since Eli is graduating soon.
- Third-Person Person: She refers herself in third person from time to time.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Bread, to the point that her love for it is what Nozomi parodies when she had to act as her.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: She has this with Umi in the manga
◊. - Vitriolic Best Buds: Sort of with Umi in the anime, in contrast with her manga adaptation. They bicker at times as Honoka is lazy and playful, while Umi is mature and hard-working.
- Weight Woe: In season 2 episode 7. Naturally this is also when a lot of other girls are eating lots of things, which Umi won't let her touch due to having to go on a diet.
Kotori Minami
Voiced by: Aya Uchida (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English)
- Image Color: White (Green or turquoise in PVs)
Age: 16
Birthday: September 12 (Virgo)
Blood Type: O
Height: 159cm
Three Sizes: B80/W58/H80
Trademark Favorite Food: Cheesecake
Least Favorite Food: Garlic
Charm Point: Her soft droopy eyes
Symbol: Bird
Units: Printemps
Character Statistics:Studies: ★★★★
Reflexes: ★★
Aggressiveness: ★★
Conformity: ★★★★★
Special Trait: Delusional capability (★★★★★)
Kotori plays recurring Nippon Ichi character Asagi in The Guided Fate Paradox.
- Animal Motifs:
- Fans tend to associate Kotori with birds a lot, mainly because her name means "little bird". This would later make its way into the phone games.
- For her loyal, sweet and naive nature, and for the look in her eyes, she also can be compared to a puppy dog.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's pretty naive and airheaded, but is talented, intelligent and a good student.
- The Charmer: Gender-inverted and downplayed, but Kotori is aware of her natural charisma and does make use of it for the good of both herself and µ's, such as convincing Umi to write a song, working as Minalinsky or negotiating with a group of schoolgirls for their support.
- Childhood Friends: With Honoka and Umi. Eli as well outside of the anime.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She's rather airheaded, often with her head in the clouds. She's still a little bit more grounded than Honoka, though.
- Delicate and Sickly: She was born with poor leg health which made her unable to run when she was younger. A surgery at Nishikino fixes this (which would explain how her mother and Maki's mother know each other). However, unfortunately it leaves her with a scar that became her complex. She did get better though, as the wound becomes less noticeable as she grew up.
- Extreme Doormat: Not that she lacks willingness to do things, but Kotori is quite passive and exceedingly agreeable, going along with what her friends want to do (especially Honoka). Umi often calls her out for this.
- Friend to All Living Things: She really likes the school's pet alpacas, along with Hanayo, and the School Idol Diaries say that she feeds the birds that sometimes visit outside her window.
- The Generic Girl: She sees herself as this in comparison to Honoka and Umi, believing there's nothing about her that stands out, lacking the energy of the former and the levelheadedness of the latter. Neither of them seem to agree, though, since she's no less good a singer and dancer than they are and designs the group's costumes on top of it.
- Hidden Depths:
- She may look as a typically lovable airhead, yet she's shown to be definitely intelligent, with very good school results and a talented clothes designer.
- While she looks very cheerful, if quieter than Honoka, she's shown to be a rather reserved person, who would never bother others with her own feelings. This is shown when she tells her mom she won't meet her friends before her flight, as she would cry a river of tears in front of them.
- Image Song:
- "Wonder Zone" is an in-universe example in the anime, where the others ask her to write a song about her feelings.
- There's also "Wonderful Rush," the PV that she centered.
- Improbable Hairstyle: Her looped side ponytail is a bit fanciful but not impossible to pull off in real life, as her voice actress Aya Uchida has worn the hairstyle herself (many videos show how it's basically a side ponytail with a piece that's looped into a bun and sits on top of the head), but the way it always manages to stay in place despite the training that she goes through daily falls into this trope.
- The Kirk: Surprisingly, despite likely being the most emotional member in her group, she can be considered as this in her best friends trio, as compared to Only Sane Woman Umi and carefree, airheaded Genki Girl Honoka she's fairly levelheaded and well-balanced, yet naive and overindulgent at times.
- Male Gaze: An unintentional example. Before she tries to use her Puppy-Dog Eyes to convince Umi, the camera focuses for a moment on Kotori grasping her shirt's chest area, treating the viewer to a brief view of her bust.
- Meido: She works as one at a maid cafe in Akiba, and she is even famous for it, as Akiba's legendary maid Minalinsky.
- Nice Girl: One of the most kindhearted characters in the series, with easily unmatched altruism; she really cares more about how others feel as opposed to her own feelings. That being said, she generally goes along with whatever her friends are doing, and Umi even complains that she can be too nice, at least towards Honoka.
- Out of Focus: Zig-zagged. Kotori received a great deal of focus at the end of Season 1, and the anime makes it clear she is one of the three main protagonists alongside Honoka and Umi. However, she fell a bit out of the spotlight in Season 2, where she mostly serves as support for Honoka.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Employs this in Season 1 episode 2 of the anime to coax Umi into writing µ's first song. Needless to say, it's super effective.
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment: According to supplementary materials, which reveal a few creepy undertones on her relationship with Umi.Kotori: "... compared to a dashingly dressed Umi who clenches her fists and proclaims victory, a dejected Umi who is on her knees with both hands on the floor and tearfully admits 'I lost...' is so much more attractive, so much more outstanding, so much prettier."
- Secret Identity: It's revealed that she works part-time at a maid cafe where she's known as Minalinsky, Akiba's legendary maid, when the girls decide to make a school idol group. However, Tsubasa refers to her as the "ex-Charismatic Maid of Akiba" in episode 3 of Season 2, suggesting that she either stopped working at the maid cafe or lost the position to someone else.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She looks a lot like her mother.
- Tareme Eyes: Her charm point - they highlight her nice and dreamy nature.
- Tempting Fate: She receives a letter that offers her the opportunity to study fashion overseas right after a conversation where she, Honoka and Umi agree that they want to be together forever.
- Two First Names: Her surname is also a fairly common given name.
- Yes-Man: Kotori seems to almost always agree with Honoka's opinion when she says something other than what the rest of the group thinks.
Hanayo Koizumi
Voiced by: Yurika Kubo (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English)
- Image Color: Green (Orange in PVs)
Age: 15
Birthday: January 17 (Capricorn)
Blood Type: B
Height: 156cm
Three Sizes: B82/W60/H83
Trademark Favorite Food: White rice
Least Favorite Food: None
Charm Point: Her soft cheeks
Symbol: Rice bowl
Units: Printemps, NicoRinPana
Character Statistics:Studies: ★★★★
Reflexes: ★★
Aggressiveness: ★
Conformity: ★★★★★
Special Trait: Rice intake (★★★★★)
Hanayo plays the shut-in angel Neliel in The Guided Fate Paradox and reprises the role for The Awakened Fate Ultimatum.
- Affectionate Nickname: Rin always calls her "Kayo-chin".
- Ascended Fangirl:
- She went from being a fan of Honoka's school idol group to becoming one of the members of it. In her diary novel, it's also revealed that her mother used to be an idol.
- Also happens again at the end of the anime, when Nico makes her the president of the idol research club.
- Bespectacled Cutie: She is a pretty girl who wears glasses prior to joining µ's, fitting with her shy and somewhat nerdy nature, but after joining she switches to contact lenses. She still wears her glasses when she's at home, though.
- Big Eater: She eats rice a lot. She has to eat an extra set of rice balls after school, or she would not have enough stamina for practice. She also loves eating in general, and the fact that she's afraid of getting fat is the only reason that stop her from going rampant with eating...although Nico implies that she won't get any fatter but her bust will get even more "perfect", and Eli points out that her adoring fans know about her penchant for eating, and that they love for her for it.
- Birds of a Feather: Hinted to be this towards Nico as, despite their pretty contrasting personalities, the two actually get along fairly well with their passionate nature and shared love for idols. Hanayo is the first to stand up for Nico's behavior in the fourth episode of the second season, since she can understand Nico's strong will to become an idol, and is even picked to be the one to imitate her when the group are pretending to be each other in season 2, episode 6. Nico Passing the Torch off to Hanayo to become the new Idol Research Club president is something of an acknowledgement of this.
- Character Catch Phrase:
- "Somebody save me!" ("Dareka tasukete!" in Japanese).
- Her voice actress Yurika Kubo's call-and response during concerts adds "Wait a minute" ("Chotto mattete").
- Childhood Friends: She's attended the same schools as Rin since elementary school.
- Friend to All Living Things: She takes care of the school's alpacas along with Kotori.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: She wore glasses before joining µ's, but after joining them, she now wears contact lenses that match her eye color. Note that she doesn't wear glasses outside of the anime, though.
- Hair Color Dissonance: In early media, her hair appears to be of a medium brown colour, and has a greenish tinge in the anime. But in her cards in SIF, Hanayo's hair appears more as a dark blonde.
- In-Series Nickname: "Kayo", an Alternate Character Reading of her name. In the anime, only Rin calls her this, in the mobile game, all of the other µ's members use it as well.
- Lighter and Softer: Not her actual character, but her songs. The earlier days of franchise have a lot of songs where she sings in a more "serious" tone compared to most of the recent songs, where they lean towards more cute sounding.
- Nice Girl: Hanayo is a very kind and sweet girl who pretty much never has a bad word to say about anyone, be they human or animal.
- Otaku: Her love of idols tends to border on her being this.
- Passing the Torch: She's made the president of the idol research club at the end of season 2. While she naturally objects to it, Nico tells her she can't have Honoka do it as she's the student council president. On top of that, Hanayo is also the most knowledgeable person regarding idols, so she's naturally the best choice. Hanayo accepts, but then makes Maki the vice-president of the club, who also initially objects to it.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: She wears tights under her uniform, which fits her shy and reserved personality.
- Serious Business:
- Anytime she runs into idol-related materials, she takes her love of idols and their merchandise very seriously.
- Also, as a Japanese, she treats the diet of white rice very seriously as well.
- Shrinking Violet: Before joining µ's, she was a pretty shy girl who couldn't even talk loudly at school without being pointed out to her. As a result of this, she didn't have many friends other than Rin. She gradually overcomes this, with help of Rin and Maki, and just in time to join µ's.
- Tareme Eyes: Which highlight her shyness and sweet, soft nature.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The shy, delicate girly girl to Rin's energetic, athletic tomboy. Deconstructed as this has caused Rin to develop an inferiority complex, believing Hanayo to be much cuter and more suited to be an idol than her despite Hanayo not agreeing.
- Trademark Favorite Food: She really loves rice. For example, rather than settling for a plate of curry rice, she has a whole bowl of rice to go with her curry. This bites her hard when the group visited New York in The Movie, but thankfully being in New York, they could easily find a nearby Japanese restaurant for her.
- Weight Woe: She tends to wrestle with the fact that she's (supposedly) chubbier than the rest of µ's, and being a Big Eater doesn't help. Her insistence on going on diets is born from this, though with a little help from her friends, she manages to accept this.
lily white
lily white's final single, "Omoide Ijou ni Naritakute"
The "Pure" subunit, consisting of Umi Sonoda, Rin Hoshizora, and Nozomi Tojo. Inspired by Showa Era idol groups, their discography reflects the genres prevalent during that time.
- all lowercase letters: The subunit's name is always written in lowercase letters.
- Floral Theme Naming: White lilies.
- Lighter and Softer: The subunit gives a classy and elegant vibe, with most of their songs giving a dream-like sensation.
- Meaningful Name: Named after white lilies, to symbolize the austere and pure feel exhibited by its members.
- Retraux: Their discography is inspired by the music of early idols from the seventies and eighties, resulting in a more dreamlike and elegant sound than the cheery and energetic J-Pop which is typical of modern-day idols.
Umi Sonoda
Voiced by: Suzuko Mimori (Japanese), Kira Buckland (English)
- Image Color: Blue
Age: 16
Birthday: March 15 (Pisces)
Blood Type: A
Height: 159cm
Three Sizes: B76/W58/H80
Trademark Favorite Food: Honoka's family's manjuu
Least Favorite Food: Carbonated drinks
Charm Point: Her long black hair since childhood
Symbol: Bow and arrow
Units: lily white
Character Statistics:Studies: ★★★★★
Reflexes: ★★★★★
Aggressiveness: ★★
Conformity: ★★
Special Trait: Modesty (★★★★★)
In the manga, she's the president of the Kendo Club instead, and is quite annoyed when Honoka suddenly resigns from the club to become an idol.
Umi plays the mascot Misery in The Guided Fate Paradox.
- Academic Athlete: She's one of the best archers in her school's Archery Club (and the kendo club captain in the manga) and has excellent grades, to the point that when the group splits into tutoring teams to help prepare for exams, she helps tutor Nico, who's a year ahead of her.
- Adaptation Personality Change: In the manga, while still calm, Umi was noticeably more cheerful and even considered Honoka to be her "super childhood friend". This is not the case in the anime, where she is more withdrawn, much more prone to getting worked out by incompetence, and her dynamic with Honoka is a little more vitriolic despite them still being best friends.
- Aloof Archer: Not particularly aloof but she's fairly mature, composed and calm, and practices archery.
- Ambiguously Gay: She has a lot of moments on her own in the expanded materials.
- In the manga, she outright kisses Honoka on the cheek.
- In her School Idol Diary, she has a swim race with Eli and ends up thinking Eli would be a good girlfriend."I refused to be married into a family. By any chance, Eli might be a good girlfriend. Eli and I, hmm... there's not much of an age difference between us. Even now, why do I always feel like I should silently surrender? If I don't think about it I can't find an explanation for this."
- As mentioned below in Covert Pervert, she fantasized Nozomi and Rin together when they fool around and ends up getting a nosebleed and passes out.
- Her Secret Short Cut with Kotori has this excerpt from her internal monologue."Hugging me, Kotori looks up and peers into my eyes. I feel like my heart is about to jump out of my chest from the sight. Is the coldness of the water getting to me? Kotori's smile is so white and dazzling."
- She's also canonically the writer for most of the songs, which includes "Garasu No Hanazono", "Zurui Yo magnetic today", "Anemone Heart", and "Storm in Lover". If she was the writer for the mentioned songs, then this may bring up some implications about Umi as well.
- Averted in the anime, due to her serious and professional side played more often.
- Berserk Button: Waking her up while she's asleep. Umi slept through episode 10's pillow fight, until some of the girls accidentally hit her. When she gets up, all of the girls, even the more calm and collected Eli and Nozomi have an Oh, Crap! look in their face, and when Umi throws the pillows, they seem to hit rather hard. It takes Maki and Nozomi throwing at the same time to knock her back out.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Umi is a genuinely kind individual and shows from time to time that she cares for her friends, but unfortunately the group (and especially Honoka) doesn't seem to understand not to push her too far, which happens often and causes Umi to show her harsh side.
- Calling Your Attacks: "Love Arrow Shoot!"
- Childhood Friends: Honoka and Kotori. Eli as well in the manga. She claims to be super childhood friends with Honoka in the manga, because their mothers were childhood friends too.
- Commonality Connection: She gets along notably better with Eli than either of the other third-years, due to them both being the most mature and level-headed members of µ's. While initially she's just happy to no longer be the only person taking the whole thing seriously, she later states that she really is glad Eli has joined them.
- Contralto of Strength: Has the deepest voice out of the nine girls courtesy of Suzuko Mimori and Kira Buckland, plus she's a skilled archer in the anime (and the Kendo Club Captain in the manga), along with the fact that she can knock people unconscious with supersonic pillows.
- Covert Pervert: In one of the audio dramas, she gets incredibly aroused after witnessing Nozomi and Rin fool around, and she actually passes out from a nosebleed after her imagination runs wild. You can see it play out here.
- Death Glare:
- Gives a scathing one to Nico in season 2 episode 4.
- And again to Honoka in season 2 episode 7.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not often, but as expected of the Only Sane Man of the group who also happens to be one of Honoka's best friends, she has her moments in the anime.Rin: (about the others leaving early without practicing) You guys are making us [Honoka and I] look stupid!
Umi: You are stupid. - Drill Sergeant Nasty: Downplayed as she isn't rude, but she can be very strict when needed. She takes everything seriously, be it her studies, student council work, the group's practice sessions, and even her fellow members' diets, something that Honoka and Hanayo learned the hard way. Nico was even initially worried during episode 2 of season 2 that Umi may implement yet another hellish training course when she shows a bit too much enthusiasm in hiking the nearby mountain. However, her strictness is justified in that she's aware of how much effort needs to be put into being a school idol.
- Enraged by Idiocy: Downplayed but still one of her defining traits. She's pretty strict towards Honoka and other girls when triggered by their acts of mischief, and isn't shy about showing her feelings of disappointment at laziness or incompetence, but this stems from her kindness, loyalty, and her care for the other girls' wellbeing.
- Even the Girls Want Her: One of the School Idol Diary chapters reveals that she receives love letters (in all-girl school), and has her asking Eli for advice on how to deal with them.
- Hair Color Dissonance: Her hair is colored dark blue, though since her charm point is stated to be her "long black hair", it's likely meant to be a stylized shade of black.
- Heir to the Dojo: Her father is a martial artist, and her mother is a practitioner of traditional Japanese dance. She is expected to inherit the combined dojo of both.
- Japanese Politeness: One of the most polite girls in the group, and she always speaks formally, casual settings not excepted. This is likely due to her upbringing from a very traditional family, since she comes from a iemoto mothernote and a shihan fathernote , both of which are respectful titles.
- Kendo Team Captain: In the manga, she is the captain, and recognized for it, but the distinction of being the best member belonged to Honoka before she dropped kendo for idol activities.
- Love Letter Lunacy: The love letters mentioned above? She replied to each and every one of the literal dozens she received as if she accepted the feelings of the sender, which she thought were along the lines of sisterly admiration. Eventually, they all came up to her in a crowd one day and swarmed her with questions about who she really liked. Since then, she stopped replying, not knowing how to handle the situation delicately.
- Nice Girl: Sort of a deconstruction and in a different way than Honoka. Umi is fundamentally a very kind, polite and loyal girl who cares for her friends and selflessly supports them. Though, being also traditional and diligent, she is also mature (at least, compared to the others), generally takes things very seriously, and dislikes inefficiency and laziness, while her friends are rather zany. What happens if things go far? Well, it would be accurate to say that Umi is a nice girl per se, but her friends tend to bring out her stricter and more annoyed side quite often.
- No Poker Face: While playing a card game with Kotori and Honoka, Umi holds two cards facing toward herself and lets them pick one. Kotori reaches for one, and Umi gets a look of dread on her face. Then Kotori reaches for the other one, and Umi positively lights up.
- Not a Morning Person: Inverted, she hates being woken up after she's just gone to sleep.
- Not So Above It All: Although she's the group's Only Sane Woman, she easily flies to a panic if she's showing "too much" skin, has No Poker Face, and sometimes ends up going along the other girls' antics despite trying her hardest not to.
- Not So Stoic: She's generally mature and level-headed, and is pretty quiet but she often gets worked up such as when she tries not to lose her cool, when she freaks out around strangers and when she has to wear revealing clothes.
- Only Sane Woman: Played with. Umi certainly thinks she's this, and after Eli joins is overjoyed that she's no longer the only one taking things seriously. However, this comment earns a remark from Rin, who asks if she sees the rest of them as "a bunch of uncontrollable animals", and Umi has a tendency to overreact about certain things and deeply resents being taken out of her comfort zone. As such, it may be more accurate to say she's a subversion or Only Sane by Comparison.
- Out of Focus: Zig-zagged. On one hand, the anime makes it clear that Umi is one of the three main protagonists alongside Honoka and Kotori. On the other hand, unlike the other two or the rest of μ's for that matter, Umi never receives a character focus episode, and in Season 2 she mostly serves as support for Honoka and receives less individual development compared to Season 1.
- Performance Anxiety: She has some early on due to her outfits, but gradually overcomes it.
- Petite Pride: As shown in Nico's School Idol Diary, she doesn't mind that she's among the less endowed.
- The Reliable One: She's the one that tries to keep the girls focused on the task at hand, such as making sure they get enough practice time in. And making sure Honoka isn't goofing off too much.
- Serious Business: She tends to treat things she's doing this way, such as making sure the girls know the song and dance routines, not goofing off too much at the beach during a training session, getting her sleep interrupted, or climbing a mountain.
- Ship Tease:
- With Honoka, though it's pretty much exclusive to the manga and School Idol Diaries. It's apparently so evident, that Nico outright urges Umi to step in during Honoka's moment with Eli.
- With Eli, although only for pre-anime materials.
- Shrinking Violet: She was a straight example before meeting Honoka and Kotori. She's also really insecure about showing off her body "too much"; for reference, showing off too much of her upper thigh is enough to make her fly into a panic. Now she's more assertive around her friends, but can still be shy.
- Shy Blue-Haired Girl: She used to be more of a Shrinking Violet when she was young. Downplayed in the present day, as while she's much more assertive now, she still occasionally has her shy moments, especially around strangers and when she has to wear revealing clothes.
- Sore Loser:
- Umi crushes her card when she lost a game of Old Maid with Kotori and Honoka in Season 2.
- Umi and Kotori play Old Maid again during The Movie. It's implied that Umi keeps on rematching upon losing.
- During the "Great Battle on the High Seas!" event, Umi insists that You and Hanamaru winning the water athletics course is a fluke due to a wave that brought down everyone except for Hanamaru, who easily crossed the goal. Due to this reason, she also insists on getting a rematch after.
- The Spock: While she's ultimately Not So Stoic, she's the most rational and down-to earth in her second years friends group, being the Only Sane Woman while Honoka is an airheaded and carefree Genki Girl and Kotori is fairly levelheaded but sometimes overindulgent.
- Spock Speak: She's always well-spoken and serious, no matter who she's addressing.
- Stripperiffic: Played for Laughs - this is how she sees any outfit she has to wear if they show too much leg skin. Unfortunately for her, as expected of a school idol, she has to wear said outfits on-stage.
- Training from Hell: Attempts to invoke this on the others during a two-day training trip to Maki's beach house. Her training plan involved a swimming for total of 25 kilometers over two days. It's unknown whether or not even Umi herself could've completed the training, but seeing as she could throw supersonic pillows to render someone unconcious...
- Tsundere: She can be considered a Sweet type: she's normally very polite and well-mannered, but she's easily annoyed by Honoka's carefree and somewhat lazy nature and has little tolerance for slacking off.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Goodness, she definitely has for this Honoka in the manga◊.
- Verbal Tic: Tends to end her sentences with -desu, which fits in her Japanese Politeness and her traditional upbringing.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: She sometimes bickers with Honoka in the anime, in contrast with the manga adaptation and School Idol Diaries where they get a lot more Ship Tease. Understandable as they are pretty much the opposite.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: She's a downplayed example; she comes from a very traditional family, has long dark hair and has a stubbornness to her regarding the people she cares about. However, while she's usually modest, calm, and rational in terms of personality, the only thing keeping her from playing this completely straight is how she gets worked up rather often.
Rin Hoshizora
Voiced by: Riho Iida (Japanese), Faye Mata (English)
- Image Color: Yellow (Light green in PVs)
Age: 15
Birthday: November 1 (Scorpio)
Blood Type: A
Height: 155cm
Three Sizes: B75/W58/H80
Trademark Favorite Food: Ramen
Least Favorite Food: Fish
Charm Point: Her cute and shapely butt◊
Symbol: Cat
Units: lily white, NicoRinPana
Character Statistics:Studies: ★
Reflexes: ★★★★★
Aggressiveness: ★★★★★
Conformity: ★★
Special Trait: Courage (★★★★★)
Rin plays the protagonist's younger sister Minamo in The Guided Fate Paradox.
- A-Cup Angst: Subverted.
- In the novel, she outright states that she doesn't mind about her chest at all, but she also says that she'd prefer to have better assets because it could help her look more feminine.
- However, she is not thrilled when Nozomi uses this to her advantage to get her to slip through a narrow space between two cars that Nico had escaped through while they were chasing her in Episode 4 of Season 2.
- And Your Reward Is Edible: As seen in her comments in the 7th chapter of the School Idol Diary, Rin's father rewarded her a cheesy hamburg steak even though she had 68 points for her exam score.
- Animal Motifs: Cats. She's prone to making Playful Cat Smiles, ends many of her sentences with "nya" (the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat meowing) and even wears cat ears and a tail during one of the music videos they shoot in the anime. Despite that, she dislikes fish and is actually allergic to cats.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: In the Drama CD's, she's the boke to Nozomi's tsukkomi.
- Book Dumb: Her grades are generally pretty poor (with English being her worst subject by far) and in Maki's School Idol Diary, she claims that getting a 68 on a test is cause for celebration.Rin: Still, why did Maki and her parents make such a fuss about getting 68!? When I get 68, we go out and get cheesy hamburg steak to celebrate☆
- Boyish Short Hair: She has the shortest hair out of any character in the Love Live! franchise. She used this at first as a reason to why she doesn't fit the idol image.
- Childhood Friends: She is one with Hanayo, as flashbacks show them being close as far back as elementary school.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She's this way towards Hanayo, if this◊ questionnaire is of any indicationQ: What would you do if Hanayo-chan brought over a boyfriend?
Rin: I'd be surprised! I'm pretty sure I'd cry too—don't know why though. Umm... But I don't think I can even imagine it; just thinking about it gives my chest a weird flickering kind of feeling... I'm going out for a run! - A Day in the Limelight: Gets one in season 2 episode 5, since she's chosen to be the temporary leader of "µ's" since Honoka, Umi, and Kotori are stuck in Okinawa due to a typhoon during their school trip. The episode focuses on her complex regarding her Tomboy looks and the girls helping her embrace her more feminine side. It succeeds, and she finally decides to wear skirts more often.
- Fiery Redhead: Although less fiery tempered and more energetic.
- Genki Girl: Generally the most energetic of the group, ever more than Honoka, and is quite evident in the closing credits when the girls are rehearsing.
- I Am Not Pretty: Turns out that she has quite the complex about her tomboyish image, to the point where she legitimately cannot see herself as cute. Hanayo and the others help her get over this.
- Image Song: "Love Wing Bell" in which Rin is the center in a bride outfit.
- Ironic Allergy: Despite being heavily associated with cats, School idol diary reveals that she is allergic to them.
- Irony: Even more ironic, despite her cat motif, Rin's least favorite food is fish.
- Nice Girl: A Genki Girl who's very friendly towards her peers and tends to be mindful of her friends' feelings before herself.
- The Nicknamer: Tends to add the non-honorific "-chin" to people's names and calls Hanayo "Kayo", an Alternate Character Reading of her first name.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Unlike most Otonokizaka students, she doesn't wear a vest with her summer uniform.
- Passionate Sports Girl: The most athletic of the group, originally wanted to try out for the track team, and showcased a rather impressive series of flips in the fifth episode. A-RISE even cites her athletic ability as her greatest asset to the group.
- Playful Cat Smile: She sports one from time to time, and it fits her playful, somewhat mischievous nature.
- Third-Person Person: Often refers to herself by name.
- Those Two Girls: She has this relationship with Nozomi of all people in the audio dramas. They play the Boke and Tsukkomi Routine while at it.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Hanayo's girly girl. Deconstructed as this has caused Rin to develop an inferiority complex, believing Hanayo to be much cuter and more suited to be an idol than her despite Hanayo not agreeing (see Tomboy Angst below).
- Tomboy Angst: Her insecurities about not being cute stem from how she feels she's too tomboyish to be an idol. This is because boys used to make fun of her when she wore skirts, causing her to wear pants instead, except for her school uniform. She eventually overcomes this and fully embraces her feminine side after she performs as the center of a performance while wearing a wedding dress, and wears skirts for practice onward.
- Tomboyish Baseball Cap: She wears one during the PV for the group's third single.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: More tomboyish than the rest of the girls, and is noticeably worried about being too tomboyish to wear frilly skirts, but still loves the idea of being an idol. After season 2 episode 5, she finally fully embraces her feminine side, and she begins to wear skirts on training.
- A lot of her UR costumes in ALL STARS lean more towards being cute/feminine, such as her first two◊ Fes URs◊, Signs of Spring◊, and A Cute Dream Wonderland◊.
- A lot of her UR costumes in ALL STARS lean more towards being cute/feminine, such as her first two
- Verbal Tic: Sometimes adds a -nya in the ends of her words.
Nozomi Tōjō
Voiced by: Aina Kusuda (Japanese), Laura Post (English)
- Image Color: Violet
Age: 17
Birthday: June 9 (Gemini)
Blood Type: O
Height: 159cm
Three Sizes: B90/W60/H82
Trademark Favorite Food: Yakiniku (Japanese grilled beef)
Least Favorite Food: Caramel
Charm Point: Her bust
Symbol: Crescent moon
Units: lily white
Character Statistics:Studies: ★★
Reflexes: ★★★
Aggressiveness: ★★★
Conformity: ★★
Special Trait: Luck (∞)
Nozomi is type-cast as the impish angel Cheriel in The Guided Fate Paradox and reprises the role for The Awakened Fate Ultimatum.
- Accent Slip-Up: She typically speaks with a Kansai dialect, even though she's not actually from that region (she likely picked it up due to her family constant moving). However, she briefly drops the dialect when she's flustered, as the rest of µ's learns when they confront her in her room.
- Adaptation Personality Change: She was more of a Cloudcuckoolander and Book Dumb in the manga and novel. The anime pushes her to be more of a Cool Big Sis, as well as far, far more mischievous and devious.
- Ambiguously Gay: Though all the main characters have their moments, Nozomi is the most blatant example of this trope. It's more downplayed in the anime, but very much the case in the expanded material. To wit:
- In the manga, she blatantly◊ flirts with Eli, and has outright stated that she won't let anyone have her. Her flirting isn't just limited to just Eli either.
- She lists looking at cute girls as one of her likes.
- One of her side stories in the School Idol Festival game has her fantasizing over cute girls in swimsuits:
Nozomi: The blazing sun, the glittering splashes of water, and of course the cute girls in swimsuits! ♪\\ Nozomi: And... I can rub as many breasts as I want!- Pushed to its absolute limit in one of the School Idol Diaries. After helping Honoka at her store, Nozomi and Honoka decide to take a break in Honoka's room. Honoka notices that there's a piece of mochi stuck on Nozomi's nose and then decides to remove it by... eating it off her face.◊ Nozomi is understandably◊ flustered◊ by this. Her reaction should speak for itself:Nozomi: Oh no, oh no, oh no!
Nozomi: I might actually be—
Nozomi: I was this close to entering into that other world... - Just when you thought they couldn't possibly make it more obvious, this◊ School Idol Festival event makes her sexuality downright EXPLICIT.
- In the manga, she blatantly
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: In the Drama CDs, she likes to play the tsukkomi to Rin's boke.
- Book Dumb:
- In the novel, it's revealed that she isn't much better than Honoka, Rin or Nico when it comes to study, much to Eli's concern.
- Averted in the anime where she even helps the other girls when they need to study, especially Nico.
- Big-Breast Pride: Subverted. Despite having the contradictory role of the boob lover and owner of the largest chest among the girls, she seems quite indifferent about her own chest.
- Born Lucky: By her own admission, she's always been lucky (ie: drawing "Great" fortunes and being eternally undefeated in Rock–Paper–Scissors). She uses that luck to help her with fortune telling.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: At 90 cm, Nozomi is the second most endowed girl in the franchise, losing only to Emma. Not hard to see why it's her charm point.
- In Nico's School Idol Diary both her and Rin look jealous toward Nozomi. Nico also shows her jealousy in Nozomi's own School idol diary
- Rin, once again, in their radio dramas.
- In the manga, even Eli, who's also pretty big herself, is amazed by the size of her breasts.
- In Nico's School Idol Diary
- Camera Fiend: Of the filming variety more than photography. Nozomi jumps at any excuse to record her friends doing anything interesting.
- The Chessmaster: She is a mild example. Episode 8 reveals that she had been prodding them along with fortune-telling, from as early as when they were asking for name suggestions, so they would reach nine members. She played a significant role in getting Nico, Maki and Eli to join, and getting Hanayo to join also indirectly resulted in Rin and Maki wanting to join them. After this, she joins as the ninth member. This means that she is directly or indirectly responsible for every member aside from the initial trio joining.
- Commonality Connection: The reason why she approached Eli in the first place was this — because she reminded her of herself in how she pushed people away.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: She tends to punish the other girls for various slights by rubbing their breasts.
- Cool Big Sis: Acts as one to the other girls, usually giving them advice for their problems.
- A Day in the Limelight: Gets more focus in season 2 episode 8, which details quite a bit about her past (and her relationship with Eli).
- D-Cup Distress: Played for Laughs in episode 4 of season 2; she got quite upset because her assets didn't allow her to pass through a narrow area formed by two cars. Nothing else in the anime/other materials suggest she does have this, though.
- Depending on the Writer: In the anime, Nozomi is the vice-president of the school's student council before passing the position to Umi in season 2. In the manga, she is the last member of the Supernatural Phenomenon Research Society.
- Fortune Teller: She likes to use tarot cards to predict the future, and has a deck of her own. It's through this that she's able to predict the line-up of µ's.
- Friendless Background: As episode eight of Season 2 expands, she constantly moved around and thus never had any chances to really make friends until she met Eli.
- The Gadfly: She has a mischievous side to her personality, and sure likes to tease some of the girls, namely Nico, Maki and sometimes even Eli and Honoka.
- Girlish Pigtails: Less so compared to Nico, since they're low-tied and thus make her look more mature.
- Gratuitous English: In the movie, after the group attracts some attention from some English-speaking locals, she manages to defuse the awkwardness with a good understanding of the language.Nozomi: "Yes, we are school idols! We are called µ's."
- Hidden Depths: Her machinations for bringing the nine girls together take on a bit more meaning when her backstory is revealed in episode 8 of season 2. As she herself explains, after approaching Eli and finding a friend in her, she starts finding other girls with "boundless potential", but is unable to reach out to them due to her problems with approaching others. When the second-years form µ's, she uses that opportunity to bind the nine of them together and give herself a chance to be a part of something bigger that could connect her feelings with those of the other 8 girls. In other words, while she may have had selfless motives in giving the other girls a chance to express their passion together, to her, µ's is a group where she could finally form truly special bonds with others - her own special miracle.
- Miko: She works as one at Kanda Shrine, where Honoka, Umi and Kotori first start their fitness training to become an idol group. Since this is a mundane series, she doesn't have any supernatural powers, though she is fond of fortune telling.
- Minor Living Alone: Nozomi lives alone in her own apartment. This is because her parents would move around constantly for work, leaving her unable to make friends, so she begged her parents to let her live by herself during high school.
- Morality Pet: To Eli, before they both join the group.
- Ms. Fanservice: Has the largest bust among the group, and it tends to get several male gazes in the anime. She also wears a Grade A Zettai Ryouiki. Plus, her outfits (both in the anime and the Love Live! School idol festival game) tend to show off her curves and some cleavage.
- Nice Girl: Despite her mischievous and quirky personality, Nozomi is a very kind and supportive girl who often plays the role of the Team Mom thanks to her warm, caring and gentle nature.
- The Nicknamer: Not as much as Rin, but she does sometimes add "chi" to the end of people's names, most noticeably Eli and Nico; perhaps because they are in the same year as her.
- Passing the Torch: She passes the position of the student council's vice-president to Umi in season 2, since she was graduating soon.
- Really Moves Around: Her family would move constantly during most of her childhood, which resulted in her not being able to make any friends. It got to the point that she begged her parents to let her live by herself during high school.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: As the vice president of the student council, she suggests ways for µ's to bypass obstacles set by Eli.
- Ship Tease: With Eli and, to a lesser extent, Nico.
- Spell My Name With An S: Her last name is romanized as "Tojo" in School Idol Festival and official art, although "Toujou" is a common way of romanizing it as well.
- Tareme Eyes: The most noticeable of the girls; they highlight her gentle, kind and soft personality.
- Tarot Motifs: This is how she likes to predict the future. She never goes out of her home without bringing her own tarot deck with her, and usually uses it to fit in a conversation. She notably uses this method to explain the motivations of her actions when assembling µ's.
- Team Mom: The more calm and collected of the third years and the first one to lend a hand to the underclassmen, even before actually being involved in µ's.
- In Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS, she extends her role to both Aqours and the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club.
- Thanks for the Mammaries: Her preferred way to punish or cheer people up. She calls this technique the "washi washi". Ironic, given her ample bust.
- She first employs this on Maki at the end of episode 2 to call her attention.
- And again in episode 7 on Nico, Rin and Honoka to keep them into studying.
- Episode 11 has her do it to Honoka again to cheer her up.
- Tried to do this to Nico again in episode 4 of season 2. Hilariously, Nico's lack of a bust enables her to escape this attack.
- Those Two Girls: She has this relationship with Rin of all people in the audio dramas. They even play a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.
- Trickster Mentor: Other than her... interesting methods of punishment, it's hinted that some of the signs that she uses to prompt the other girls on are made up so that they will take action.
- Verbal Tic: Sometimes adds a "-ya" or "-yan" to the ends of her sentences, which is typical for a Kansai accent.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: She seems to know quite a lot about a few topics (most notably tarot) and often shares her knowledge with the other girls. Sometimes they wonder why she knows so much, or how much she travels.
BiBi
BiBi's final single, "Sakkaku CROSSROADS"
The "Cool" subunit, consisting of Eli Ayase, Maki Nishikino, and Nico Yazawa. Their unique combination allows them to cover a wide range of styles.
- Breakout Character: Due to both Nico and Maki being individually popular, as well as being a popular pairing, the group has always been the most popular µ's subunit with single sales above the other two units.
- Genre-Busting: Their discography ranges from Silly Love Songs ("Love Novels", "Psychic Fire") to Electronic Dance Music ("Cutie Panther", "Diamond Princess no Yuuutsu") to ballads ("Fuyu ga Kureta Yokan", "Sakkaku Crossroads").
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Nico and Maki get more attention than Eli, the group's leader.
Eli Ayase
Voiced by: Yoshino Nanjo (Japanese), Erica Lindbeck (English)
- Image Color: Light Blue
Age: 17
Birthday: October 21 (Libra)
Blood Type: B
Height: 162cm
Three Sizes: B88/W60/H84
Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate
Least Favorite Food: Dried plums and seaweed
Charm Point: Her sharp style
Symbol: Я
Units: BiBi
Character Statistics:Studies: ★★★★
Reflexes: ★★★★
Aggressiveness: ★★★★
Conformity: ★★★★
Special Trait: Internationality (★★★★)
Eli plays the delusional angel Lanael in The Guided Fate Paradox and reprises the role for The Awakened Fate Ultimatum.
- The Ace: Smart, athletic, popular, has a good figure, and gorgeous to boot. Nico agrees completely.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Eli gets this the most out of the girls; in the manga, she was far more approachable as the student council's president and was one of Honoka's Childhood Friends. In the anime, she's an Ice Queen who's initially cold towards the other characters except for Nozomi (until character development kicks in).
- The Backwards Я: "Я" appears on her practice clothes about as much as "ほ" appears on Honoka's. However, the only place in her name where it might be written is the 'ya' in 'Ayase'.note
- Beneath the Mask: Turns out, Eli does want to form part of a recreational activity; in this case, being a school idol. The problem stems from a combination of her insecurity about it because of her failure to qualify as a professional ballerina; said failure fueling her disappointment at µ's routine; and her duties as a student council president limiting this and, in her eyes, forcing her to decline the foundation of the school idol group in the first place. Nozomi rightfully points this out to her, to which Eli responds, with anguish, she would love to pursue that second chance if not for how insecure she is.Eli: Someone has to be responsible, I HAVE NO CHOICE! It would be nice to solve all my problems by doing what I want to do and not just what I have to do! I know that I'm a stupid awkward mess, but still...! After all I've done, how do you expect me to tell them that I want to be an idol too?
- Big Bad: Subverted. She certainly tries to be this, constantly roadblocking µ's from achieving their goals and being the biggest direct obstacle they face, but not only does she do little in slowing them down, she ultimately does more to help them in the long run. Once her Freudian Excuse and actual desires come to light, she turns around and joins the group, landing the rest of the show squarely in No Antagonist territory.
- Big-Breast Pride: Downplayed but present. Eli is fairly annoyed when Nico bluntly states that large breasts make people uncomfortable during the swimsuit contest.
- Broken Bird: She used to be on the path to becoming a professional ballerina when she was younger, but kept failing audition after audition until she finally gave up. This is the source of her resentment towards µ's in the beginning (from her perspective, she sees their dancing as sloppy and amateurish).
- But Not Too Foreign: She is a quarter Russian.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: At 88cm, she's the second largest next to Nozomi. In the manga, when Nico is scouting Eli as a potential club member, her larger-than-Japanese-average bust size is singled out as one of the points in her favor.
- Character Catchphrase: "хорошо!"note , which is Russian for "good", "fine" or "okay". Strangely, she occasionally says it when a situation isn't okay.
- Character Development: Over the course of the first season, Eli goes from the most opposed to forming an Idol Singer group to the one to snap the group's leader out of her Heroic BSoD.
- Childhood Friends: In the manga, she's childhood friends with Honoka, Kotori and Umi.
- Cool Big Sis: Like Nozomi, she often has good advice for the other girls, even if she comes off as antagonistic with it. Of course, it helps that she's an actual big sister.
- Dancing Is Serious Business: The reason why she considers µ's dancing moves as sloppy and amateurish is because Eli herself used to train to become a professional ballerina when she was younger. If this is anything to go by, this probably also comprises her charm point's core.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: It took her until episode 8 to show her kinder side; until then, she's full-on frigid, reserved and sometimes hostile, only showing her softer side to Nozomi and Alisa. After she defrosts, despite still being one of the most level-headed girls, she's more relaxed and approachable than Maki (a standoffish Tsundere) and Umi (the most serious member of the group).
- Deuteragonist: Gets the most focus and development out of any character besides Honoka, especially in season 1, where she continues to have a definitive presence in every episode even after her own personal character arc is resolved.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Honoka mentions that she's popular with girls because of her beauty and long legs.
- One of the School Idol Diary chapters focuses entirely on this. She tends to receive a ton of love letters... in an all-girl school.
- Humorously displayed in the manga, in which Nico and Maki are scouting for members to join µ's.
- Freudian Excuse: Turns out, Eli had pursued a dream of her own when she was younger. She used to practice to become a professional ballerina, until she finally gave up after repeteadly failing auditions. This is the reason why she tried to prevent a school idol group from forming, and why she considers μ's routine as amateurish.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Some of her artworks have her wearing glasses, but she doesn't wear them in the anime.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard:
- She tries to prove that µ's dancing and singing was amateurish by uploading their first performance onto the internet. It instead winds up contributing to the group's first surge of popularity.
- Her attempt to stop Honoka's group from officially forming a club, by saying that there already is an Idol Research Club at the school, backfires when her comments prompt Nozomi to recommend that Honoka approach the club's president, Nico. This results in both Nico joining µ's and Honoka's group attaining official club status by merging itself into the Idol Research Club.
- Huge School Girl: The tallest of the group (and also pretty busty) and admittedly a bit socially awkward at first.
- If Only You Knew: She outright breaks under the pressure in episode 8 when Nozomi confronts her about how she thinks about everyone but not herself when it came to the school idol group, and finally tells Nozomi that she would love to join if it wasn't for her responsibility and fear of failing again. Fortunately, µ's had other plans for her.
- Informed Ability: She's stated to be a very skilled dancer, and Umi thinks the group could accomplish much more with her guiding them. However, there's little difference in the group's dancing skills before and after Eli joining the group, and Eli's dancing isn't really shown to be that much better than the other girls.
- Informed Attractiveness: She's frequently noted to be beautiful in the manga, with Nico saying she has a great figure and Honoka saying she has nice legs, and she's also shown to be popular with girls. Despite this, she doesn't look much different from the other main characters in terms of design.
- The Leader: Subverted. She's a textbook leader (ie: calm, pragmatic and mature), but she always defers to Honoka on decisions that affect µ's.
- Leg Focus: Honoka mentions that her legs are one of the reasons why she's so popular with girls.
- The Mole: Played for Laughs...because of her Russian heritage, though since this is generally a light-hearted series she's obviously not really a mole for anyone. In episode 8 of Season 2, when Eli keeps insisting for the group to write a love song, even though their performance would be better with a song that already exists, Rin speculates that she might be spy for A-RISE, trying to get µ's to screw up so A-RISE would get to Love Live. She even has an Imagine Spot of Eli in an A-RISE outfit.Eli: (imagined by Rin) Sorry guys, but I'm actually a spy!
- My Greatest Second Chance: Her chance to join µ's is this after her failure to qualify as a professional ballerina when she was younger.
- Nice Girl: While she takes a while to show it, Eli is ultimately a very kind girl who acts like a Cool Big Sis to the group's younger members. She even gently snaps Honoka out of her Heroic BSoD in the season 1 finale.
- Not So Stoic: Despite typically being the most cool and level-headed member along with Umi, Eli is deathly afraid of the dark and freaks out at the slightest spook.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Very much so early on, as she constantly tries to stop Honoka's attempts to form a club, usually while utilizing school rules or loopholes, such as saying there was already an idol group at their school, or that they would need at least 5 members to form a group. Eventually, she stops antagonizing the group and is convinced to join them.
- Only Friend: In the anime, it's implied Nozomi was this to her. Subverted after she defrosts.
- Passing the Torch: She passes the position of Student Council President to Honoka in season 2, since she was graduating soon.
- Phenotype Stereotype: She has blonde hair with light blue eyes, indicating her quarter-Russian heritage.
- Primal Fear: While it is hinted at in season 2 episode 2, it is confirmed that she has a fear of the dark, ten episodes later.
- Ship Tease: With Nozomi, and occasionally Umi outside of the anime.
- Spock Speak: Very well-spoken with her grandmother, who she holds in high regard.
- Statuesque Stunner: In-universe. She's quite tall at 162cm, and definitely attractive.
- Student Council President: During the first season of the anime, until she passes the position to Honoka, as she would be graduating soon.
- Token Minority: She is part Russian from her grandmother.
- Token Religious Teammate: According to her School Idol Diary, Eli's an Orthodox Christian, and goes to church on Sundays.
- True Blue Femininity: At least her image color. Also counts as Foreshadowing if you take into account her initial personality.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- Eli has a fear of dark places, which is first displayed in episode 2 of the anime's Season 2. Apparently, she also can't sleep without at least some kind of light. This is something her best friend, Nozomi, likes to exploit for her amusement.
- She also seems to be afraid of haunted houses, which Nico exploits in an animated short for µ's 2014 concert.
- One of the Drama CD's reveals that she's also afraid of ghosts.
- Wrong Side All Along: This pretty much sums up her character arc in the first two-thirds of season 1, with her eventually realising that she should have been supporting µ's instead of opposing them.
Maki Nishikino
Voiced by: Pile (Japanese), Caitlin Glass (English)
- Image Color: Red (Purple or maroon in PVs)
Age: 15
Birthday: April 19 (Aries)
Blood Type: AB
Height: 161cm
Three Sizes: B78/W56/H83
Trademark Favorite Food: Tomatoes
Least Favorite Food: Tangerines
Charm Point: Her beauty and overflowing intelligence
Symbol: Star
Units: BiBi
Character Statistics:Studies: ★★★★★
Reflexes: ★
Aggressiveness: ★★★
Conformity: ★★★
Special Trait: Self-confidence (Skyrocketing)
Maki plays the major villain Frunetti in The Guided Fate Paradox.
- Broken Ace: Smart and born to a wealthy family of doctors, beautiful, the group's main composer, and very popular in-series and out. And if the 6th PV is to be taken seriously, possesses supernatural powers. However, despite her good fortune, she has her fair share of personal demons to deal with. Her status as the daughter of famous doctors has left her isolated from her peers, she has to contend with parents who have abnormally high expectations of her (all the while being practically forced into becoming a doctor like them) and worst of all, her love for music isn't at all respected by said parents (who only see it as a temporary entertainment at best) in the manga. The School Diary Idol novel that centers around her goes into more detail.
- Brutal Honesty: She's not one to mince words. Her cold and abrasive demeanor only adds to her bluntness.
- Byronic Heroine: Oddly enough, in a rather idealistic and happy-go-lucky idol series, she's comparatively rather aloof, cynical, and somewhat arrogant at times, and she usually prefers to work alone. Of course, she's also very attractive.
- Character Catchphrase: "What's that? I don't get you", which she typically says when confused or irritated.
- Character Tics: Has a habit of curling her hair around her finger when bored or embarrassed.
- Deadpan Snarker: She can have snappy comebacks at times, usually whenever it's directed at Nico.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Although Eli was one too, it takes Maki even longer to warm up to the group, and she doesn't take part in too many of the non-idol activities. However, Nozomi tries to help bring her into the group more, and she ends up joining them in the pillow fight during episode 10.
- Depending on the Writer: In the anime, she is shown to be a permanent student of Otonokizaka. In the manga, Maki wanted to go to UTX instead of following her parents' decision.
- Elegant Classical Musician: Plays piano and acts as the group's composer in the anime.
- Fiery Redhead: Downplayed. Maki can occasionally get frustrated easily, such as not wanting to be video-taped in Season 1 Episode 6, but she's usually detached and impassive.
- Fountain of Youth: In the Music S.T.A.R.T!! OVA that was made in between seasons 1 and 2, she temporarily takes on the form of herself as a little girl. She goes back to her normal age before the music video starts.
- Girlish Pigtails: With her practice outfit in season two. They're small, so it's a bit hard to tell.
- Hates Being Alone: Although she might deny it. The anime reveals Maki never had too many friends to begin with, and that it was rare for her to even speak with other people in her class, before getting involved with Honoka and the girls of µ's. This might have been a product of her Sugar-and-Ice Personality.
- Hypocritical Humor: As seen in School Idol Festival, Maki doesn't believe in magic, but in the anime's second season, it's shown she believes in Santa Claus.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Outright stated in the School Idol Diary entry that centers around her:Maki: Organized, smart, beautiful, always dressed for success and super rich. That’s what everyone says about me. Well, that’s just the truth, so it didn't bother me much. But, the truth is... I wanted to be like everyone else, to be the other side of me. To be the Maki who just likes to play piano.
- Image Song:
- "Music S.T.A.R.T!!" in which she's the center of the PV.
- Also, "Aishiteru Banzai", the first µ's song she composed in the anime.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Maki is rather abrasive and standoffish, and even exaggerated with her tsundere mannerisms. That said, she does have a genuinely good heart deep down, and this is first seen when she starts helping Hanayo overcoming her shyness (not that she admitted she was encouraging her, though...).
- Lonely Rich Kid: Justified. Because of her innate talent and beauty, her family's wealth and her parent's aspirations of her, Maki developed into a haughty Ice Queen, which only serves to isolate her more from her peers.
- Loner-Turned-Friend: As seen above in Hates Being Alone, she was pretty lonely until she joined µ's, earning her more friends.
- Meaningful Name: The second kanji in her name can mean "princess", befitting her affluent background and icy nature.
- Mirror Character:
- An odd example occurs in episode 10 of season 1, Nozomi can see how Maki has trouble opening up to people when she can't drop the "-senpai" use, and helps her with that while noting that Maki "reminds her of someone," or, "is just like her." Next season, Maki detects that Nozomi is hiding something from the group when Eli's suggestion to write a love song as a group gives them trouble. After Maki confronts them, Nozomi talks about how µ's meeting was miraculous to her, but in particular she describes how she and Eli were similarly distant to people. Putting that together, Maki is not so different from either Eli, or Nozomi, or both of them.
- When the rest of the group discusses Nico's odd behavior in episode 4 of Season 2, Maki describes her as stubborn, not opening up to others, and conceited. Rin comments that they're exactly the same, to which Maki responds in an annoyed manner.
- Not So Above It All:
- Often the first to point out how the others' antics are silly or childish, but still believes in Santa and joins in with the others in using puppets to have a conversation.
- It's even more apparent in the School Idol Diary. She has a tendency of getting wrapped up◊ in Nico's antics.
- Not So Stoic: She has her moments, such as in Season 1 Episode 6.Maki: Stop filming me!
- Ojou: Comes from a pretty wealthy family, but subverts this personality-wise. She's relatively polite, but she's otherwise rather standoffish and blunt.
- Refusal of the Call:
- While she hovered around Honoka's group early on, she always claimed she wasn't interested in joining. However, around the time Hanayo and Rin join, she feels compelled to as well, and ultimately answers the call.
- She also attempts this when Hanayo makes her vice-president of the idol research club, but then reluctantly agrees to it.
- Ship Tease: With Nico.
- The Stoic: She's usually detached and impassive, especially in comparison to everyone else◊.
- Still Believes in Santa: Maki still believes in Santa Claus. Nico was ready to make fun of her for it until Honoka and Rin stop her so she wouldn't shatter Maki's innocence.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Deep down she is pretty kind and has a good heart, yet she is aloof, standoffish and the member least likely to get overly emotional, except for when she is angry or frustrated. Though even then, episode 11 of season 2 exists.
- The Smart Girl: She's noted to have excellent grades, on par with Umi. Unlike the former, however, this is Maki's charm point.
- Token Rich Student: Maki comes from a wealthy family yet goes to Otonokizaka, an unremarkable aging school that's in danger of closing down due to lack of interest. In the manga, Maki wants to go to UTX but her parents decided that she will go to Otonokizaka instead.
- Tsundere: A modern Harsh type, and this clashes along with her Sugar-and-Ice Personality, making her a unique take on the trope. Not only is Maki very hard to open emotionally; when called out on it, she tends to coldly refuse it, especially if it's about wanting to be alone. She cares for the other girls, but as per any character with this behavior, not admitting to it is priority number one; it takes Nozomi to open up her feelings to the other girls. And although she is constantly arguing with Nico, she does care for her as well (to the point she reveals to her she wants to form a group of idols with her when they both graduate, on episode 11 of season 2).
- Played for Laughs in Season 2 Episode 8, which presents the girls recording videos of themselves giving Valentine's Day chocolate to a crush; Maki's is the standard "I-It's not as though I want to give it to you!" that everyone who has seen a Tsundere anime character knows about. Rin even comments that she's seen this type of scene on manga.
- On Chapter 14 of the School Idol Festival story, Nico outright calls her Ms. Tsundere in the original Japanese version. In the English version, it's translated as "Ms. Hot-and-Cold", but since this trait forms part of her Tsundere side, the connotations are the same.
- Tsurime Eyes: Then again, would you be surprised given she's a Tsundere? She's the only member of the group with them.
- Nico even refers to her as "you, with the slanted eyes!" during practice.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Nico. Though they often argue, they're seen together quite a bit as well. And sometimes when she speaks, she'll turn towards Nico, implying something about her (usually negative).
Nico Yazawa
Voiced by: Sora Tokui (Japanese), Erica Mendez (English)
- Image Color: Pink
Age: 17
Birthday: July 22 (Cancer)
Blood Type: A
Height: 154cm
Three Sizes: B74(71)/W57/H79
Trademark Favorite Food: Sweet food
Least Favorite Food: Spicy food
Charm Point: Her light skin
Symbol: Smiley face
Units: BiBi, NicoRinPana
Character Statistics:Studies: ★★★
Reflexes: ★★★
Aggressiveness: ★★★
Conformity: ★
Special Trait: "Nico-nii♪" (Immeasurable)
Nico plays female lead Liliel in The Guided Fate Paradox and reprises the role for The Awakened Fate Ultimatum.
- A-Cup Angst: To absurdly painful levels. More so when the more developed Eli, Nozomi, and Hanayo are around.
- Maki, as well, as seen in the album cover of the second BiBi single (Cutie Panther / Natsu, Owaranaide) and Shangri-la Shower.
- Kotori too, as seen in one of the chapters of her School Idol Diary.
- In one of her diary novels (Nico-nii no Himitsu Sokutei), this drives half of the chapter's plot as she tries to find a way to increase her bust size (which was revealed to be 71cm). She admits to adding 3 centimeters to account for her bust growing during senior high, but it didn't.
- Adaptation Personality Change: In the manga, Nico was far more bubbly and an outright Nice Girl. The anime opts more for the Attention Whore With A Heart Of Gold route.
- Ambiguously Gay: In the first cut of Secret Shortcuts, Nico declared that she loves Maki, wanting her to walk home together sometimes.
- Attention Whore: Subverted. She seems to be this whenever she has the chance to show off her skills, though it always results in her getting ignored. She even tries to be the center of the group (which most of the time fails). However, it's later revealed that she makes an impression on her siblings that she's a 'super idol' and continues to brag about it. She does this because she doesn't want to break their hearts.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed. She usually makes no effort to hide her irritable nature, but she occasionally plays up her character as an idol as incredibly cute and sweet (it should be noted that Nico is not a bad person by any means, though).
- Book Dumb: Like Honoka, she doesn't like doing her schoolwork, and it doesn't look like she has good test scores either. That said, the supplementary materials state that she actually can make an above-average grade if she decides to put her mind to it. She also has a... strange way of answering some of the test questions.
- Broken Bird: She started out as one, when she was unable to form a school idol group. She eventually became disenchanted with it as a result, that is until Honoka shows up.
- Butt-Monkey: So damn much. She's often ignored by the group, Nozomi loves to take cracks at her expense and threatens four times within one episode to give her the "washi washi", succeeding three times, and Maki never hesitates to take potshots at her. When A-RISE compliment's µ's in episode 3 of season 2, they specifically mention traits that make each particular girl unique to the group. But then when they get to Nico, they simply thank her for the flowers she sent before. This gif sums it up perfectly.◊
- Character Catch Phrase:
- "Nico-Nico-nii!", her self-made catch meant to make her cutesy idol persona even cuter. She even makes the rest of the club practice it, and she taught it to her younger siblings. According to the School Idol diary novels, she got the phrase from her Disappeared Dad.
- In the audio dramas, she also has "Pyon-pyon-pyon!!".
- Characterization Marches On: Early pre-anime material such as the manga and some early Drama CD's portray Nico's cuteness as a genuine part of her personality, along with her being a lot more laid-back and openly friendly. This is a far cry from her later characterization that was solidified in the anime, where she's a much more comedic Jerk with a Heart of Gold who deliberately acts cute for attention.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Not to Honoka's extent, but with her awkward suggestions and her attention-seeking, eccentric behavior, there's no denying that Nico is rather odd.
- Club Stub: At the start of the series, she was the only remaining member of the school's official Idol Research Club, the other members having been driven away by her high expectations and demands for being school idols. Convincing her to join them is motivation for μ's in attaining official club status.
- Cool Big Sis: To her younger siblings.
- Determinator: She's been working seriously towards being an idol the longest and is the most stubborn about it. Even when µ's temporarily disbands, she tries to keep going by forming a separate unit with Rin and Hanayo.
- And in season 2, when faced with the possibility that her last chance at participating in the Love Live might not happen because Honoka would rather have the group stay out of the competition, she challenges her.
- Episode four of season two highlights this with flashbacks to when she started up the Idol Research Club as a first year with no one really showing much interest, all of her group members resign, and her audience dwindling as she still tried to do it alone. Despite all of these setbacks, she still desperately wanted to be an idol.
- A Day in the Limelight: Gets one in Season 2 Episode 4, when her two sisters and one brother are revealed to the other girls, in the process focusing on her emotionally traumatic history of trying to start an idol group.
- Disappeared Dad: Nico mentions him in her School Idol Diary novel, and states that he "isn't here" anymore. The way she talks about him heavily implies that he's deceased.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: For a period of time before the anime aired, she was drawn with her hair in low pigtails tied with scrunchies, much like Nozomi's hairstyle. This was eventually dropped and her hairstyle was changed back to her original high pigtails with ribbons, likely to keep her from looking too similar to Nozomi.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Periodically invoked. Part of her "Super Idol Nico-Nii" persona involves her twintail hairstyle triggering the energetic, cutesy Nico to surface, while letting her hair hang loose shows her "truer", more demure side. No one buys it.
- Expy Coexistence: Kasumi Nakasu is often considered to be an expy of Nico to a certain extent, and in ALL STARS they meet (and compete) with each other on occasion. Predictably, they do not get along.
- The Fake Cutie: She acts cute and sweet on stage and when acting out her idol persona, but her cuteness is a deliberate act and she's actually rather irritable and sometimes duplicitous.
- Fatal Flaw: Her rather aggressive, self-centered and at the same time naive nature tends to make other people avoid her. Fortunately, she does find friends, but it still can be hard to tolerate her flaws at times.
- Foil:
- Nico is practically the complete opposite of Kotori, personality-wise: Kotori is quiet, gentle, sweet, kind and selfless even to a fault, and is also somewhat shy and insecure despite her affable nature, while Nico is a self-absorbed, cheeky, brash, loud, abrasive and rather arrogant Jerk with a Heart of Gold. The only thing they may have in common is that they're both rather naive - though, again, in a different way, with Nico who is childish and clumsy deep down, and Kotori who is a gullible and lovable airhead.
- Also to Maki. While they're both rather abrasive girls with a Jerk with a Heart of Gold nature, Nico is brash, boisterous, loud, competitive, mischievous and an attention-seeker most of the time, while Maki is introverted, stoic, reserved and dislikes being the center of attention. Unsurprisingly, they're Vitriolic Best Buds.
- Freudian Excuse: In season 1 she was very antagonistic towards Honoka attempting to start an idol group until they invited her into the group. Nozomi explains to the other girls about how Nico tried to start a school idol group, but failed to garner much interest like Honoka's first attempt. Her two clubmates also resigned shortly afterwards, and attempting to solo it also failed miserably, causing her to grow bitter and resentful. This is why she attempted to sabotage Honoka's attempts at first. This is given more attention in episode 4 of season 2.
- When giving the position of club president of the Idol Research Club to Hanayo in the last episode of season 2, while Hanayo objects, Nico says she'll do a much better job because she's very knowledgeable about idols. She then also mentions having friends who will help her, calling back to when she ran the club earlier and how she had no one to help her prior to running into Honoka and the others.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Due to her self-absorbed personality and awkward suggestions, she often gets ignored. Though it's subverted, as it's made exceedingly clear that everyone in µ's genuinely appreciates her presence. A-RISE plays this tropes straight, as they deliver a Stealth Insult to her by claiming she's the imp in the group. Nico misunderstands it and takes that as a compliment.
- Girlish Pigtails: They add to her childish appearance. Knowing Nico, she likely invokes this hairstyle to make herself look cuter.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She tries to tell Honoka to disband her idol group early on. Nozomi tells them that Nico originally tried to form an idol group in her first year, but her standards were set too high for the other members, and they gradually quit one by one. Honoka gets around this by including her in the group. She noticed that while Nico was criticizing them, it also meant she was paying close attention, and probably wanted them to succeed secretly. It seems to work, as once they start genuinely asking for Nico's advice, she mellows out and starts taking part in their group.
- Hidden Depths: She usually comes across as an attention seeker, but is actually a rather private person. She actively avoids letting anyone know about her home life (and where she even lives for that matter), and she tends to keep her problems to herself. It all comes full circle in one of the School Idol Diary chapters in which Nico gets sick. Her friends visit and take care of her, and she realizes that they know where she lives now. Nico then comes to the conclusion that she should stop putting up a front. Eli outright points this out in her chapter comments.
- Hypocrite: When the group are deciding a leader for µ's, Nico claims that a leader must be passionate, open-minded and well-respected by everyone in the group. After this, she tries to claim that the only one fit to be the leader is her, despite the fact that she has outrageously high standards and is generally ignored by the others at this point.
- I Just Want to Be Special: This is arguably the concept behind her entire character. Nico is hopelessly average in comparison to everyone else. She comes from a somewhat poor family, and she lacks a noteworthy talent that sets her apart from the rest of µ's.note She's always had a strong desire to shine bright as an idol, and she's worked harder than anyone else to fulfill her goals. The School Idol Diary chapters that center around her further drive this point home, though her friends insist that she has her own good points as well. In the end, her desire to be special and the (sometimes questionable) things she does to make herself stand out makes her special in her own way.
- Image Song: "Natsuiro Egao de 1, 2 Jump!!" in which she's the center of.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Big time. The main reason she antagonizes Honoka at first by trying to get her to disband the school idol group is because of her own failures to start an idol group herself, since out of all the characters she's the one who wants to be an idol the most.
- It's All About Me: Nico - the best school idol to ever exist, the center of μ's, and the mentor to the other girls! ...or at least, so she claims. At least her younger siblings go along with it.
- Jack of All Trades: Nico, surprisingly, has varieties of the skills and traits that other members have, such as sewing clothes, cooking and athletics. She doesn't really excel at anything but cooking, however, unlike the others.
- Jerkass Has a Point: In the season 1 finale, after Honoka expresses surprise to see Nico, Hanayo and Rin training, Nico states that it's because they love idols, and angrily calls Honka a "quitter" with a "half-assed" interest in them. While Rin feels she went too far, Honoka acknowledges that Nico is right, since she's the one who chose to have µ's go on hiatus out of a belief that there was no point in continuing.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Nico is actually pretty surly despite her cutesy act, and at worst she can be a bit of an obnoxious egomaniac. However, she's still a good person deep down, and is more caring than one would first think. She cares a lot about her friends and takes care of her younger siblings the best she can, also wanting them to believe she's an incredibly good idol.
- Kid-Appeal Character: Sort of. But especially to her younger siblings.
- The Leader: On paper, as the chairman of the Idol Research Club.
- Letting Her Hair Down: She invokes this in episode 6, making a show of letting down her pigtails to show her "truer", more demure side. No one buys it and leaves the room."Hey! Where the hell'd they go?!"
- Meaningful Name: "Nico" means "smile" in Japanese, fitting for the image she always tries to portray, and her catchphrase is a play on it.
- Motor Mouth: Not when speaking, but any song featuring her tends to be pretty fast-paced, and she has some surprisingly fast rap pieces, of all things (to the point where she is the designated rapper of the group).
- The Napoleon: Both the shortest and the most irritable of the group. She even states that she has somewhat of a complex about her height.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Wears a long-sleeved pink cardigan with her school uniform as opposed to the cream-colored vest that everyone else wears. She even wears it during the summer.
- Oblivious to Their Own Description: Inverted. Nico claims that a leader must be passionate, open-minded and well-respected by everyone in the group. While the former certainly applies to her, the latter two do not, yet she has the gall to claim right afterwards that she's the only one of the group fit to be the leader (despite Honoka embodying all of the qualities she mentioned).
- Older Than They Look:
- Due to her pigtails, childish antics, and less developed body (even in comparison to the first-years), it's easy to forget that Nico's actually a third-year.
- According to her diary novel, she stopped growing since her first year of high school, much to her dismay.
- Otaku: She has a huge collection of idol-related material.
- Promotion to Parent: With her dad gone and her mother working so often to be the main breadwinner of the household, Nico ends up as this to her younger siblings.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Her charm point, as mentioned above, is her pale skin.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Downplayed. She has red eyes, but is more of a jerk.
- Ship Tease: With Maki.
- Spell My Name With An S: Official subs for the anime use Nico instead of the more literal reading "Niko".
- The Starscream: Constantly plots (unsuccessfully) to become the center of the group, although it's always played for laughs.
- Supreme Chef:
- She tries to lie about it in episode 10, claiming she has a personal chef. But later that night, she ends up cooking curry for the group, and while it was good, several of the other girls ask about what she said earlier about not cooking. Nico tries to play it off by saying idols should at least know how to cook, but no one buys it.
- This was proven in season 2 episode 4 when the girls visit her house.
- Tareme Eyes: While they contrast with her personality, they do add to her childish appearance.
- The Team Wannabe: While she was overly critical of Honoka's group early on, the latter noticed she was always watching them as well. Once they include her in the group, Nico starts being much more friendly.
- Third-Person Person: Calls herself Nico whenever she tries to act cute.
- Token Mini-Moe: Subverted. She's the youngest-looking member of the group (despite being 17, she's the most childlike in appearance and behaviour), yet personality-wise she's quite The Fake Cutie.
- Tsundere: In School Idol Festival, she acts like a Harsh, modern one, mainly towards the Player. She also behaves this way towards her friends at times.
- Troll: Prior to joining the group, she would post hateful comments on µ's' website and videos, among other things.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She's experienced several setbacks that have gotten in the way of her dream when she was younger. Even though she doesn't give up, this is most likely reason that she became quite bitter as she grew up.
- Vitriolic Best Friends: With Maki. The two are often seen together, and when Nico makes snarky comments, it is sometimes directed at Maki.
- What the Hell, Hero?: What the other girls essentially ask in episode 4 of season 2 when they find out Nico was telling her siblings she was the main idol, while the other girls were merely backup dancers. This also included (badly) photoshopping and pasting her head on the posters and pictures taken throughout the series. Although once Hanayo understands why she's doing all this after learning more about Nico's past failures from Eli, they felt sorry for her as she couldn't break her siblings' heart. Honoka comes up with the idea and they decide to help her out without having to tell her siblings the real truth.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: She gets a lot of rap verses in songs like "Listen to My Heart" and "Trouble Busters." True to this trope, they seem to come out of nowhere at first.
