Characters / PriPara SoLaMi Smile

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Laala Manaka

Voiced by: Himika Akaneya

Laala is the friendly but airheaded main character of PriPara and the older sister of Non Manaka. At first Laala was shy and hesitant about singing and because of this she had no interest in idols until one day, where she went to return a dropped bag full of Pri-Tickets. During the events of "Idol Time PriPara" Laala transfers to Avacado Academy. In both series she uses the brand Twinkle Ribbon.

General tropes

• Ambiguously Gay: Has some moments that imply this, like how she usually hug girls from behind with a blushing face. She also has a lot of Les Yay moments with some characters, but mostly with Mirei, Sophy, Falulu and Yui.
• Ascended Fangirl: Starts out as one in the pilot.
• Birthday Buddies: With Nao.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: According to Pepper, her spirit animal is a rabbit.
• Cassandra Truth: She tells Yui that she is the same Kami Idol Laala from SoLAMiSmile, but she doesn’t buy it. She changes her mind in the following episode.
• Character Catchphrase: "Capisce!" in the subs. "Kashikoma" in the original japanese version.
• Character Tic: Sometimes when she says her catchphrase, she makes a peace sign that points at the side of her right eye.
• Childish Older Sibling: She's way more childish than her younger sister Non.
• Demoted to Extra: Essentially becomes Yui's mentor in Idol Time, even losing her aged-up form when she enters Pripara. Many episodes barely feature her at all.
• Determinator: When it comes to someone she cares about or a good cause, Laala is unstoppable. She made several attempts to get Sophie to join their team and they paid off when she was able to gain the help of Sophie's fanclub and her sister to save her from Usagi's grasps. She also worked twice as hard as an independent Idol to save Falulu after she dies in order to gain the Paradise coord; and this was ONLY in season 1!
  • In season 3, after Jewlie reveals she will never be seen from after the Divine Idol Grand Prix she pays Laala a final visit and vanishes. Laala refused to let that happen though, and worked tirelessly to make Jewlie happy and keep her there.
  • Shows this spirit in Idol Time PriPara as well as early as the second episode when she worked for over a week digging a tunnel under Avocado Academy to Prism Stone. For additional proof, she started with a SPOON until a shovel was provided.
• Genki Girl: She's very cheerful and happy.
• Heroic BSoD: She gets a brief one when Nao begins to reject her after she confesses her idol secret to her. Fortunately, Mirei was able to snap her out of it.
• Idiot Hair: She has a crescent moon-shaped one at the top of her head.
• Meaningful Name: She said that her mom gave her this name so she can always sing "Lalalala" and be happy. Is also based on the sixth note of the Solfège scale (La).
• New Transfer Student: As an Avocado Academy student in Idol Time.
• Nice Girl: She's very kind and really cares about her friends.
• No Indoor Voice: She has a rather loud speaking voice, and used to be pretty self-conscious about it too.
• Punny Name:
  • Manaka means "center" and Mirei and Sophy's last names mean "south" and "north", respectively.
  • One of her beta autographs has two fives with a heart or between them that makes it like 505. Her first name is written in hiragana as らあら (Raara), as the "ra" is written like the number five (5).
• Signature Headgear: She has a pink bow with a yellow heart in the middle, that she wears both in and out of PriPara.
• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: In contrast to Hibiki in season 2
• Tender Tears: It's rare, but when Laala cries it can be heartbreaking. Case in point: [1]
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza. Her family owns a pizza restaurant and she often gets the left over pizza.
  • It may extend to other Italian foods as well, as she is shown wanting a Panini during episode 2 of Idol Time Pripara.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Mirei and Sophy.

As an elementary student

• Audience Surrogate: For PriPara's target demographic.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: The boke to Mirei's tsukkomi.
• Butt-Monkey: Not the worst case, but early on (in both series) she got a fair amount of it.
• Cool Big Sister: Tries to be one to Non, but fails.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Non's responsible.
• Got Me Doing It: Laala sometimes inadvertently says puns similar to her father.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Laala has to keep her PriPara life a secret from Gloria who has been growing suspicious of her involvement with the forbidden idol world. When Laala reveals to Nao her idol secret, Nao does not take it very well (as her PriTicket was confiscated by Gloria before Laala got hers) and the two break up. After a short while, the two reconcile and Nao becomes The Confidant for Laala.
  • In general, throughout the series Laala is shown to be struggling with keeping a secret.
• Not a Morning Person
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Episode 2, she attempts to distance herself from PriPara as she believes that she is breaking the school's anti-PriPara rules. After thinking about Mirei, she changes her mind.

As an idol

• Anime Hair: Her odango hair buns become two impractically long twintails.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: She has a Prism Voice, a legendary voice for special idols, but Kuma says that despite having it she can't use it willingly.
• Instant Expert: Impresses Mirei, Kuma, and the crowd in her debut, where she is shown to catch up with a veteran and uses a Prism Voice. That, for a girl who is just running errands for her mom, accidentally gets dragged into a pair audition with no time to practice at all, and doesn't even have her own PriTicket prior to that.
• Older Alter Ego: She is normally an elementary student, but in her idol form, she ages up to that of a middle schooler and is slightly taller. Later confirmed in Idol Time episode 47, where we see her in high school and she looks the exact same as her idol form.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: While she is taller and has longer hair in her idol form, she otherwise isn't terribly different from her human form, having the same hair color, eye color, voice, and even the same name. Especially strange when Mirei constantly gives her penalty slips, Nao is her closest friend, etc. and yet they don't see much resemblance before Lala tells them.
• Pink Means Feminine: Her default coord and most of the other coords she gains include pink on them as it is almost, if not, the main theme color.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: After running into Yui in Idol Time PriPara, her card was bent and this caused the coding from it to go haywire. As a result she is locked out of her older form when not on stage performing, where she temporarily gains it back. Eventually, this problem got fixed by Falala.
• The Reveal: After their second performance, Mirei finds out that she is actually teaming with Laala.
  • This also happened in Idol Time PriPara, when Yui finally realizes that she wasn't lying about her identity.

Mirei Minami

Voiced by: Yuu Serizawa

Mirei is a playful but highly serious Idol who until befriending Laala struggled to get along with other Idols and was unable to form a unit. Outside of PriPara she is actually the head disciplinarian with a no-nonsense attitude who gives out numerous penalties for breaking school rules. Mirei uses the brand Candy Alamode.

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General tropes

• Ambiguously Gay: Mirei usually blushes if she comes physically in contact with Laala, like holding her hand or hugging her and has shown signs of jealousy over her in many occasions. She also have some Les Yay moments with Sion.
• Ascended Fangirl: For Sophy's sister Cosmo.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: She always calculates the possibilities in all situations.
• Best Friend: Quickly becomes one to Laala and has shown to become a lot kinder since.
• Evil Counterpart: Gains one in Mimiko, from Idol Time PriPara. Both are head disciplinarians of their respective schools, and when Mirei came to help Laala get more girls interested in PriPara, they got into a fight to prove their knowledge when it came to the school rules. Mirei won and sent Mimiko off in a huff.
• Expy: Pop type idol, blue theme color, voiced by Yuu Serizawa, and with sweet motifs... Ann Fukuhara from the same franchise.
• Good with Numbers: Tends to calculate all things and can predict situations with her calculations.
• Insufferable Genius: Downplayed.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is based on the third note of the Solfège scale (Mi).
• Put on a Bus: To Aquaprium in Idol Time PriPara. She makes several cameos and appearances though.
• Split Personality: In the real world, Mirei Minami is a serious Meganekko head disciplinarian but in the Prism Paradise world, Mirei is a cheerful blondie with a Verbal Tic.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Season 2 caused Mirei to stress at different points and one of them caused her to quit PriPara. The only thing to convince her to return was watching Gaaruru perform for the first time.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Laala and Sophy.

As the head disciplinarian

• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: The tsukkomi to Lalaa's boke.
• Brainy Brunette: Has brown hair and is a modest student at her school.
• The Comically Serious: Mirei as her cheerful idol personality pops out occasionally.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Being a secret idol, she is one for Gloria. She tries to convince the headmistress to change her mind about PriPara and let the female students go there, to no avail.
• Loophole Abuse: According to her, while students are not allowed to bring any idol-related items to the school, there is no official rule that they can't participate in the idol world.
• Once an Episode: Really loves slapping penalty tickets on Laala's forehead whenever she does offenses while telling her what those are even when they are not at school. In Episode 14, she does it on Sion instead but this is reversed the following episode as Sion gives her a taste of her own medicine.
• Opt Out: After some attempts, she loses interest in helping Laala to recruit Sophy to their team. Laala manages to convince her not to give up on Sophy and eventually she ends up joining them.
• Stern Teacher: A student variant as she is the head disciplinarian.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: She wears glasses and is very smart and studious as well as the captain of the disciplinary committee of her school.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She is very serious and strict with rules, but she's also a very nice person
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Her default hairstyle

As an idol

• Animal Motif: Cat, but only in her personality. She also has a cat-like smile and her odango hair resembles cat ears. Also, according to Pepper, her spirit animal is a cat.
• Character Catchphrase: "A pop and a step and I've got ya!" This is more catchy and rhythmic in Japanese (Poppu Suteppu Getchou).
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her main coords often include two different pattern socks. Most of the Candy Alamode coords have asymmetry going on as well.
• Genki Girl: If anything, she is the most upbeat and energetic of the team.
• The Glasses Come Off: She doesn't wear her glasses in her idol form
• Heroic BSoD: Loses hope in recruiting a new member before the Sparkling Grand Prix event. Fortunately, Laala pulls her out of it with Sophy.
  • In season 2 she suffers a smaller one when she is led to believe that she lost a present from Laala and was convinced she would lose her friendship after Aroma and Mikan spoke to her.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: At first she had this attitude as an Idol. Laala quickly beats that out of her.
• The Reveal: After their second performance, Laala finds out that she is actually teaming with Mirei Minami, the strict, no-nonsense head disciplinarian who slaps her face with penalty tickets at least once per day.
• Technicolor Eyes: Mirei's eyes are bright blue with light pink in them.
• Tsundere: Shows this type of attitude towards Kuma. While she often throttles him when angered she is also shown to care a great deal about him.
• Verbal Tic: ~pri.

Sophy Hojo

Voiced by: Miyu Kubota

Sophy is an idol with many fans and admirers. Initially she had her own fan club and worked under her manager Usagi until she realizes that she longed for independence and learned that he was only using her. She stood up for herself and left to join Laala and Mirei. She uses the brand Holic Trick.

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General tropes

• Animal Motif: Bird which also serves as symbolism, as well as jellyfish.
• Be Yourself: After joining Laala's company, she starts to stay true to herself, whether as a student or as an idol.
• Child Prodigy: Became an idol when she was very young.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: She is very weak unless being fed with red flash, aka pickled plums.
• Extreme Doormat: Before she met Laala, she relied heavily on Usagi, Cosmo and her fan club due to being practically helpless in Fancy Mode, and allowed her life to be dictated by them.
• Foreshadowing: She eats pickled plums before going to the public and says a few times that she is only being cool and not being the best. This turns to be a good reason as she is really weak without her plums and cannot perform without eating at least one. After joining SoLaMi Smile, this is dropped entirely.
• Former Child Star: Idol version. She became one of the most popular idols when she debuted at the age of eight.
• Genius Ditz: One of the most talented idols at her time, but also a Cloud Cuckoo Lander.
• Idiot Hair: Gains one starting from Episode 13, indicating another part of her Character Development. It disappears when performing.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is based on the fifth note of the Solfège scale (So).
• Onee-sama: Tends to be called "Sophy-sama" by Sadako.
• Power-Up Food: Sophie eats pickled plums to energize herself before performing. Inverted with sweets as they easily send her back to it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red (or magenta) to Cosmo's blue (cyan).
• Split Personality: In her cool form is very elegant, talented, popular, and well.... cool. However, in her so called Fancy Mode she can barely move, has No Sense of Direction, is not good with people, and gets tired all the time. As of Episode 13, these personalities appear to have merged together. She still needs the plums to perform though.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pickled plums. She orders pizzas with them as toppings, and has a small glass pot of them that she regularly used to use for idol appearances, and, during a variety show performance, blitzed one of the rounds by knowing, somehow, various types by their shadows!
• Unwitting Pawn: Didn't know that Usagi was using her just for him to get fame and fortune. She is free from his Evil Plan thanks to her fanclub, Laala, and Cosmo.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Laala and Mirei.

As a middle school student

• Character Development: Near the end of Episode 9, she realizes that she can do things by herself. In Episode 10, Sophie tries to do things and come to PriPara by her own strength. It doesn't work as she passes out after a while. As of Season 3, she's almost entirely functional on her own, and there's little sign of her past problems.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: In her Fancy Mode.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Before her Character Development, in her Fancy Mode her hair covered her eyes. After befriending Laala, it covers only one of her eyes, and after joining SoLaMi Smile, it eventually stops entirely.
• Messy Hair: Used to have this in her Fancy Mode.
• No Sense of Direction: She is shown to struggle to find a way to PriPara without the guidance of anyone. As expected, she ends up lost and passes out.
• No Social Skills: She's quite introverted and not very good with talking with people she don't know.
• The Quiet One: Until her character development, She was not very talkative in Fancy Mode.
• Shrinking Violet: Her Fancy Mode plays like this and it is her actual personality.
• Verbal Tic: "Pshuu~", which originally was a warning to Cosmo and her fanclub to find some pickled plums fast.

As an idol

• The Ace: Subverted as she keeps saying that she is not aiming to be the best, instead being just cool. Turns out she has a good reason for that.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She have red hair, but her cool personality is this and she is slightly taller than Mirei. In episode 13 she drops this side to herself outside of PriPara.
• Beneath the Mask: Sophy may be cool and calm in public but in reality, she is a weak and shy girl who has to rely on eating red flash (pickled plums) to keep her composure. After the formation of SoLaMi Smile, she only keeps up her cool image in performance and has become much more independent.
• Damsel in Distress: Episode 12.
• Hime Cut: Outside of fancy mode, this was Sophy's normal hair style. Since improving this is no longer the case, as both sides have this style now.
• I Just Want to Be Free: After her team up with Laala in a variety show, she tries to do things of her own free will. This trope is symbolized in her performance in Episode 11 (see below), with her membership of SoLaMi Smile giving her the support to do so.
• A Mother to Her Men: To her own fanclub. To show that she truly cares for them, she keeps an album of their PriTickets.
• Instant Expert
• The Ojou: She gives out a very classy, elegant vibe, and is a rich girl in real life to boot.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Same as Laala but a little less subtle. When some people saw her originally self they mistake her for a cosplayer of herself.
• Pom-Pom Girl: Got this as her role during episode 102 when everyone took part in a movie and was given random personality traits and costumes.
• Rule of Cool: Sophy's fans will take anything what their beloved idol does as cool. When Sophy gives a wrong answer in a riddle quiz, her fans still cheers for her. This trope appears to have been dropped as of Episode 13.
• Symbolism: During her performance in Episode 11, she is seen in a bird cage attempting to grab the cage's key that is outside of it which she fails. During her performance with her new teammates Laala and Mirei, they grab the key and free her from her cage. In Episode 13, the roles are reversed as Sophy frees Laala and Mirei from their cage, showing their power of friendship.