Franchise / Hinatazaka46

Official logo

Hinatazaka46 (Japanese: 日向坂46) is a Japanese idol group, established as Hiragana Keyakizaka46 (けやき坂46) as a subgroup of Keyakizaka46 (now Sakurazaka46). Like most major idol groups, their range of activities, both individually and as a group, extends beyond music.

Music

Tropes related to their music (releases and live performances, including bonus content) are in the Music page.

Other works

Works with their own pages:

• Actress
• Borderless
• Hinatazaka de Aimashō
• Original Hinatazaka
• Re:Mind

Variety shows

• Hinatazaka de Aimashō (HinaAi), formerly Hiragana Oshi (GanaOshi): main variety show, hosted by the Comedy Duo Audrey (Toshiaki Kasuga and Masayasu Wakabayashi). The production team also organizes their "hit prayer" challenges when they're about to release a single or album.
• Keyakitte, Kakenai? (Keyakake): Keyakizaka's variety show, hosted by Teruyuki Tsuchida and Yu Sawabe. They occasionally appeared here before Hiragana Oshi was launched.
• Keyabingo!: Keyakizaka46's sister show to AKBingo!, hosted by Sandwichman (Mikio Date and Takeshi Tomizawa). The fourth season exclusively featured Hiragana Keyakizaka.
• Hinabingo!: their own sister show to AKBingo!, hosted by Kazutoyo Koyabu, ran for 2 seasons
• Hinatazaka46 desu, Chotto Ii desuka? (HinaChoi): in season 1, the members interview public figures, some of whom are actually their fans. In season 2, they introduce their personal interests to the other members
• Self-documentary of Hinatazaka46, a documentary series where the members interview each other^*Except Yuka Kageyama, who was the last to appear before the fourth gens joined the group, and is interviewed by the crew while they go around Tokyo to visit her nostalgic places
• Hinatazaka ni Narimasho (HinaNari): Fourth generation members' show where they learn the ropes of the industry from experienced entertainers, replaced HinaChoi Season 2 in 2023
• Hinata Academy (HinaAca), yet another program where the members interview seasoned professionals, started in August 2023
• Hinatazaka Anime-bu (Hinatazaka Anime Club): Show about learning anime production, started in August 2023

Television dramas and animated series

• Re:Mind: 2017 mystery series available internationally on Netflix
• Dasada: 2020 series about a group of fashion entrepreneur schoolgirls
• Borderless: 2021 mystery series, co-starring members of Nogizaka46 and Sakurazaka46
• Koeharu!: 2021 series about aspiring voice actresses
• Actress, 2023 sequel to Borderless

Feature films

• Third Year Debut (3年目のデビュー Sannenme no debut): 2020 documentary
• Hope and Despair (希望と絶望 Kibou to Zetsubou): 2022 documentary

Theater productions

• Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: 2018 stage adaptation of the video game
• Ayumi: 2018 theater production where each character is portrayed by a different member every other scene
• Zambi: 2018-2019 theater series, collaboration with Nogizaka46 and Kanji Keyakizaka46

Manga

• Original Hinatazaka (げんさく ひなたざか): 3-story miniseries; story by Nao Kosaka, Hinano Kamimura, Miho Watanabe; illustrated by Aka Akasaka

Video games

• Hinatazaka46 to Fushigina Toshoshitsu (Hinatosho, Hinatazaka46 and The Mysterious Library): mobile fantasy JRPG
• HinaKoi: Dating Sim, their version of Nogizaka46's NogiKoi. Has a web miniseries called Hinakoi Films.

Web video

• Hinatazaka Channel

Notable individual appearances in third-party media

• Foot x Brain: Soccer talk show, featuring Yuka Kageyama as regular Special Analyst
• Kyoccorohee: variety show started in 2021, co-hosted by Kyoko Saito and comedienne Hiccorohee
• Women's Gourmet Burger Club: 2020 series, featuring Mirei Sasaki
• Hoshi ni Naritakatta Kimi to: 2021 one-episode drama (with Multiple Endings), starring Miho Watanabe
• Kakegurui Twin: 2021 series, featuring Mirei Sasaki
• Minna no Mameo: 2022 short animated series (~1 minute per episode), starring Akari Nibu as the voice of Mami
• Kyoufu Ningyou: 2019 horror, starring Nao Kosaka
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War - Final: 2021 live action manga adaptation, featuring Yuka Kageyama as Miko Iino
• Hinomaru Soul: 2021 docudrama, featuring Nao Kosaka
• Deemo: Memorial Keys: 2021 animation, featuring Akari Nibu as the voice of Masked Lady
• Good Morning, Sleeping Lion: 2022 web action film, starring Miho Watanabe
• FIFA 22: Soccer video game, Yuka Kageyama is the Japan Ambassador and provided several special challenges
• Spy X Family 2023 stage adaptation, starring Mirei Sasaki
• Do It Yourself!! 2023 live-action adaptation, starring Hinano Kamimura

All pages follow the Western Name Order Convention.

Tropes without their own pages:

• Accidental Pervert: During her participation in a karaoke contest in Chidori no Oni-renchan in December 2021, Suzuka Tomita repeatedly brings up the incident where Kamaitachi's Hamaie, who's also a guest, mistakenly rushed into a women's restroom at a TV studio and was noticed by several of the group's members. As for the contest, she earns the highest points among both male and female idols, but unfortunately botches the very last song and doesn't win the 1 million yen prize. She finally won the prize in 2024, on her fourth attempt.
• Actor Swap:
  • An extreme example in the Ayumi stage play, where the members take turns portraying the characters each scene. The intention was so that the audience don't associate the characters with the members, and can even imagine anyone in their roles. Since there are only around three named characters per scene, this usually doesn't become too confusing, even with the occasional flashbacks.
  • Miho Watanabe took over Mirei Sasaki's role in the 2021 special episode of Women's Gourmet Burger Club, since Mirei was on hiatus.
• Alliterative Name: Manamo Miyata and Marie Morimoto are the MM Sisters.
• Alternate Character Reading:
  • The drama Koeharu! is written as 声春っ！, which can also be read as seishun, which is a homophone for "youth" (青春).
  • Miku Kanemura is sometimes called Kin-chan from the onyomi reading of Kane (金).
  • While Hinano Kamimura's given name is simply written in hiragana, the other three third generation members' given names are in kanji and have relatively uncommon readings. The kanji for Kamimura (上村) is also exactly the same as Uemura.
  • Mitsuki Hiraoka's given name (海月) can also be read as Kurage, which means "jellyfish" (her father is a fisherman and their home is by the sea). Its hiragana form (くらげ) is even used for her version of the 4th Hinatansai concert fan towels, which display the members' nicknames instead of the usual full names.
  • Yoko Shogenji (正源司陽子) and Honoka Hirao (平尾帆夏) are the Genpei War (源平合戦) duo, as the word Genpei has a kanji character from both their names (the war was aptly named after the alternate readings of its belligerents, the Minamoto and Taira clans). Yoko even half-jokingly asks Wakabayashi to call her "Minamoto" in Hinatazaka de Aimashō episode 254.
• Anthropomorphic Food: Hinano Kamimura's personal mascot is a humanoid mochi named Mochimaruko, first introduced in Hinabingo!
• The Baby of the Bunch:
  • For a little over a year, Hinano Kamimura was both the sole 3rd generation and youngest member, and a Cloudcuckoolander as well (although she prefers the term "curveball"), making her the obvious doting target for her seniors. Three other trainees were eventually promoted to her generation, but she's still the youngest of them all.
  • Hina Kawata is also this because of her innocent and all-around Nice Girl personality. She's voted the "most desirable little sister" by the other members in Hinabingo! The fact that she's the same age as the eloquent and adult-like Yuka Kageyama is often lampshaded.
  • Rina Watanabe is a subversion since others often point out that she's Wise Beyond Her Years. In HinaNari, she even reveals that she wants to learn Comical Overreacting in order to contribute more in their TV appearances; in Hinatazaka de Aimashō episode 245, she indeed shows remarkable progress by doing hilarious impressions of other members.
• Badass Boast: In the group's 2023 table tennis championship, Yoko Shogenji is 1-6 against Rio Shimizu in a 7-point match and boasts "The Tale of Shogenji begins now!" She still loses 2-7.
• Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: In the final episode of the Morinaga Ice de Breakers ad series, a female student approaches her male classmate on the school rooftop, heavily implying a Love Confession will happen... except instead of tsukiatte kudasai ("please go out with me"), she tells him to udetateshite kudasai ("please do push-ups"), knowing his sweating will summon the titular duo, including Yoko Shogenji, who'd earlier impressed her with her karate skill, and that the duo will give them free Morinaga Ice Box drinks.
• Ballet: Many members have ballet experience, and some incorporate it into their persona.
  • Kumi Sasaki shows off her ballet experience in her solo part of the "Kimi wa 0 kara 1 ni nare" choreography.
  • Konoka Matsuda did ballet for 15 years and her early gimmick was combining the dance and Mana Ashida impersonation. It's noted that her bungee jump in Hiragana Oshi is the most graceful among all members thanks to this.
  • Hiyori Hamagishi did both ballet and idol activities until she very reluctantly gave up the former.
• Bifauxnen:
  • In Keyabingo!4 episodes 4-5, where Kumiya Sasaki, Memihiko Kakizaki, Mireo Sasaki, Naoto Kosaka, and Kyoichi Saito form the K5 (an Affectionate Parody of F4).
  • In HinaAi Valentine episodes such as 95-96, they act out romantic short stories with eight members portraying the men.
  • Nao sometimes portrays both herself and her boyfriend in her modeling work.
• Big Eater: The members in general like to eat and often discuss food in their variety shows.
  • Miku Kanemura can eat 30 pieces of sushi in one sitting and habitually has big breakfasts such as steak.
  • Kumi Sasaki attempts to finish an 11 kg slab of gummy candy in Keyabingo!3, but doesn't succeed.
  • Marie Morimoto has a bottomless appetite, and several times went on stage with a stomachache as she overate before the show.
• Birthday Buddies: Marie Morimoto and Haruyo Yamaguchi were born on the exact same day and usually celebrate their birthday together on SHOWROOM live stream.
• Bookworm:
  • Manamo Miyata is passionate about classical Japanese literature and has also published a few works of her own. She's pretty close to Nao Kosaka, who's also a book lover. She has set up a small library in the group's dressing room, and a Running Gag in her blog is her attempts to get other members interested in books, especially after they were featured on the covers of special edition novels which many of them hadn't read themselves.
    • She obtained her Japanese literature degree and librarian qualification in 2021, which combined with her burikko habit make her an actual Hot Librarian.
    • She posts her book recommendations on Instagram with the hashtag "Manamo's Bookshelf" (#まなもの本棚), which is probably a reference to the title of Mana Ashida's book about enjoying reading, #Mana's Bookshelf (#まなの本棚).
    • Unlike most idols' graduation memorial books, hers included several original stories inspired by the tenth century poem collection Man'yoshu in addition to photos, which were also taken in Nara Prefecture where most of the collection was written.
  • In Keyakizaka46's 7th single, Nao Kosaka and Neru Nagahama's "Selfie TV" bonus video (Neru had already left Hiragana Keyakizaka at the time) features them browsing a book store and discussing their reading preferences.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: In the 2024 Hinatazaka46 Real Table Tennis Battle tournament, the winning team Ironna-toko-kara ("From Various Places", since all three members hail from different prefectures) borrow their most junior member Honoka Hirao's catchphrase for their victory celebration, but with their own names: Hira-ho, Nao-ho, and Shi-ho (Shiho Kato's version is just a homophone of her given name).
• Bowdlerise: In Hinabingo!, Kyoko Saito's married life skit involves her accusing her husband Koyabu of having an affair with Mao Iguchi. Mao's panicked statement that her and Koyabu's "bed photo" might have been leaked is given the subtitle "best photo" instead.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Koyabu's normal speech is in Kansai dialect and the members often imitate it in Hinabingo!, especially Suzuka Tomita, although she's from Kanagawa.
  • Ayaka Takamoto is also from Kanagawa and good at imitating the Kansai dialect.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: During her visit to Niigata Prefecture on Aiseki Shokudou in 2022, Miho Watanabe cries her heart out after around three sips of the local sake and listening to a local gentleman's song.
• Character Tics: Many of them noticeably hold their head with both hands when exasperated, which is pretty often.
• Character Title:
  • Ayumi, although the main character is named Ami and the titular character is her daughter who's born mid-story.
  • Dasada is a Portmantitle of dasai (tacky) and main character name Yuria Sada, as well as the clothing brand run by the characters.
• Childish Pillow Fight: The third installment of Daisuki! Hinatazaka46, set as a school club trial for the new 4th generation members, has a pillow fight club as the final one they try out. The match itself isn't that childish, as it follows the All-Japan Pillow Fighting Championships rules, and two of its former participants serve as referees.
• Country Mouse:
  • Hiroshima native Kirari Takeuchi's introduction documentary is about her marveling at the sights and sounds of Tokyo.
  • Tottori native Honoka Hirao reveals in her introduction documentary that when she arrived in Tokyo for the auditions, she broke down in tears at the Tokyo Station because she was confused by the complex metro network. As a fan, she once went all the way to Tokyo just to visit the 8th single "Boku Nanka" display at the Tsutaya Shibuya music store, but quickly went home because she wasn't used to large crowds.
• Covert Pervert: In the April 18, 2024, episode of Konoka Matsuda's All Night Nippon X radio program, she and Miku Kanemura expose each other's perversions, such as Miku's interest in Akari Nibu's armpits and delight at being accidentally sprayed with water from Hina Kawata's mouth, and Konoka's penchant for breaking into weird dances. As a sax player, Miku even tries to pin it on the stereotype that sax players are perverts.
• Crossover:
  • Sakamichi TV is a documentary and variety series featuring the three Sakamichi girl groups.
  • Some fashion magazines have published photoshoots featuring their exclusive models from multiple Sakamichi Series groups. Shiho Kato and Nogizaka46's Mizuki Yamashita are called the CanCam magazine's "Sakamichi Sisters" (there used to be three, with former Nogizaka46 member Sayuri Matsumura). Mirei Sasaki and Nogizaka46's Sakura Endo are the same for non-no magazine (there also used to be three with former Sakurazaka46 Risa Watanabe), while Nao Kosaka and Nogizaka46's Shiori Kubo are Seventeen magazine's version.
  • The 2021 drama Borderless features Kyoko Saito and Hiyori Hamagishi co-starring with members of Nogizaka46 and Sakurazaka46. Kyoko also appears in its 2023 sequel, Actress.
  • To promote the 26th feature film of Detective Conan, characters from that franchise appeared in a special storyline of the mobile game Hinakoi in 2023. It was preluded by Yuka Kageyama's introduction to the series in Hinatazaka de Aimashō a few months earlier, followed by Nao Kosaka's Conan-themed photoshoot in Shonen Sunday.
• Custom Uniform: In Koeharu!, the main cast wear their school uniforms in different ways (e.g. with frilly dresses underneath instead of shirts and skirts), with only the jacket being the uniform item between them.
• Dare to Be Badass: One of Kumi Sasaki's most discussed quotes is from when she called out the other members for their unsatisfactory performance and lack of seriousness during the Tokyo Idol Festival 2017.
  Kumi: Everyone, don't you feel any regret? ... Things will be bad if we don't take this seriously!
• Darker and Edgier:
  • In contrast to their current cheerful image, Re:Mind is about a group of bullies restrained in a mysterious room and forced to recall their wrongdoings. Justified since at the time they were still the subgroup of Keyakizaka46, which were known for their edgy image and songs filled with social commentary.
  • Borderless opens with a man being murdered and Kyoko Saito as a high school student obsessed with death and murder. The story was also originally written to be portrayed by Kanji and Hiragana Keyakizaka46 members.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Koyabu's hosting style. He warns them from day one that he's a Sink or Swim Mentor that would drive them to tears, but in reality this rarely happens thanks to the girls' comedic skills and he comes to respect them.
  • In variety shows, Shiho Kato often blurts out snarky comments.
• Department of Redundancy Department: According to Mirei Sasaki, the "-pan" is Miipan is already an honorific (even though it means "bread"), so adding -san or -chan is redundant.
• Does Not Like Spam:
  • Hina Kawata hated carrots and ate one on stage to show her determination.
  • Mana Takase cannot eat fish and seafood, at all. She's also a Picky Eater in general, and has been revealed to usually have some bread in her bag for when the catering isn't to her liking, allowing the other members to have seconds.
• Drugs Are Bad: In mid-2022, several members appeared in crime prevention PSAs by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, one of which is a Totally Radical anti-marijuana ad. Unfortunately, this led to criticisms against them from some marijuana advocates, even though they were probably just following a script made by the cops and not expressing their own opinions. To make things worse, the marijuana-advocating underground idol group Asa Girls was introduced around the same time, leading to jokes about the "Idol Weed Wars".
• Edible Theme Naming:
  • Members of the in-universe group Factory in Dasada took their stage names from types of sake cups or bottles: Ochoko (small cup with smooth texture), Guinomi (large cup with rough texture), Tokkuri (small sake bottle usually put next to the cup), and Sakazuki (maybe the most recognizable, shallow and wide cup; also used in Yakuza initiation ceremonies, and it's implied that the producer deliberately assigned her the name because her father's occupation happens to be Loan Shark, which is often associated with the Yakuza).
  • Akari Nibu is one half of two unofficial duos named after food: the Yubareta (tofu skin and lettuce) duo with Miku Kanemura and the Omisoshiru (miso soup) duo with Hina Kawata.
  • Miku Kanemura and Konoka Matsuda are the Nattomaki, a type of sushi which combines their favorite foods (sushi and natto, respectively).
  • Konoka Matsuda and Miho Watanabe were the Waku Waku Peanuts (Excited Peanuts). Suzuka Tomita then joined in and the trio became the Gori Gori Donuts (Pushy Donuts).
• Engrish: In the first Hinachoi episode, Yuka Kageyama has created a riddle which answer should be "A" for August, but mistakenly marks Kyoko's correct answer as false, since August is written as Ōgasuto (オーガスト) in katakana and Yuka initially set "O" as the correct answer.
• Epunymous Title: In the radio program Hoimiipan, Mirei Sasaki reads listeners' mail about their daily annoyances and casts the Hoimi healing spell to make them feel better (the spell is from Dragon Quest of the Stars, which sponsored the show).
• Etiquette Nazi: Parodied by Hinano Kamimura, one of whose gags is loudly proclaiming that she holds a "Social Manners, Level 3" certification, followed by a proper bow. The etiquette school that issued her certificate doesn't mind their course being turned into a gag, and publicly supports her.
• The Faceless: The Love Interest in each of the Hinakoi Films miniseries represents the Player Character in the game, a guy whose face is never shown and Only Known By His Nickname, "Kantoku" (it can mean "coach", "director", "manager", etc. depending on the story; the player character is the Idol Club president).
• Fan of the Past: Manamo Miyata is knowledgeable about Heian-era (circa 10th century AD) literature and culture.
• Fanservice: As per Sakamichi tradition, swimsuit and lingerie shots are only in the photobooks (and the books' promotional materials). They're actually the first Sakamichi group to have group lingerie photos (i.e. of several adult members, not the entire group) in their group photobook, Tachikogi.
  • Miho Watanabe is the only member to release a solo photobook as Hiragana, photographed in New Zealand.
  • Kyoko Saito is the first to do so as Hinatazaka. The 115,000 copies prepared for its release week proved insufficient and the publisher printed 40,000 more to meet retailers' demand. Despite showing ample amounts of skin, the book was produced by the editorial team of ar, a women's magazine where she's an exclusive model.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father:
  • As revealed in Keyakitte, Kakenai? and their documentaries, Neru Nagahama initially dropped out of the final stages of Keyakizaka46 audition due to her parents' objections. They became much more supportive after actually attending a Nogizaka46 concert and approached the management to rescind her withdrawal, who decided to admit her as the first member of a new subgroup in order to prevent conflict with the members who joined normally. She went on to concurrently become a member of Kanji Keyakizaka46, and in September 2017 she canceled her Hiragana membership and became fully dedicated to the main group.
  • As a child, Manamo Miyata had to watch anime in secret due to her strict parents. They made her sign a contract stating she'd graduate university in four years despite being an idol, before they reluctantly approved her decision (she did manage to graduate on time in 2021). Like Neru's, they became much more supportive after actually watching her seniors in a concert.
• Fire-Breathing Diner: Mirei Sasaki and Mei Higashimura take on a spicy food challenge on the TV show Ariyoshi Zemi in 2019 and become this. Despite the pain, Miipan endures to the end and becomes the first ever female idol to complete the challenge. Hinano Kamimura attempts the same challenge in 2021, with Miipan tagging along as supporter, but gives up midway. Meanwhile, Miipan tried and succeeded again in 2022. Shiho Kato, became the second member to pass the challenge in 2023.
• Friend to All Living Things: Yoko Shogenji and Honoka Kishi are shown playing with various reptiles and sea animals in their introduction videos. Honoka even brought her pet bullfrog named Hina-chan to the audition and introduced it to the judges (she apparently didn't realize that it could have offended Hina Kawata, although it turned out that the latter didn't mind).
  • Kishihono was a biology major in high school and often writes about her favorite organisms on the group's blog. When the fourth gen song for the ninth single, "Coelacanth", was announced, she made a post introducing the Not So Extinct fish along with a photo of her coelacanth plushie.
• Fun with Homophones:
  • The dorm in Koeharu! is called "Doremi-sou" (ドレミ荘 Doremi House), which is probably a play on the song "Doremisolasido".
  • Yoko Shogenji (正源司陽子) has her name rewritten on several occasions with different kanjis to have different meanings but the same reading (i.e., "Shogenji Yoko" in Japanese name order), such as "Yoko Laughgenji" (笑源司陽子) and "Fox Spirit Shogenji" (正源司妖狐).
• Gamer Chick: Several members often appear on gaming shows like Ariyoshieeeee!, playing games such as Splatoon 2 and Fortnite. Akari Nibu is particularly praised for her skills.
  • Nibu's first major voice acting role is in the movie adaptation of Deemo.
  • Yuka Kageyama was the Japan Ambassador for FIFA 22. She also played FIFA several times in Ariyoshieeeee!! and other shows.
  • Honoka Hirao is a longtime Dragon Quest fan and organizes her blog posts like the games' menu interfaces.
• Genius Ditz:
  • Nobody really knows how smart or dumb Mirei Sasaki is. For example, she's a news reporter and has revealed that she went to a prestigious Elevator School, but also constantly misreads characters in scripts and cue cards (her excuse is she lived in Taiwan for some time as a child and gets the readings mixed up). She also wasn't familiar with the term "fast food" (Hinachoi Season 2, episode 25) and the idea of eating raw vegetables (e.g. salad) until adulthood. She's crowned Queen of No Inspiration in HinaAi after placing last in their riddle-solving competition.
  • Kyoko Saito is generally a ditz, but is almost unbeatable in singing and riddle solving. She's so serious about singing that she can't even relate to the idea of going to the karaoke for "fun".
• Genre Shift:
  • GanaOshi and its successor HinaAi started out as normal idol shows where the main focus is showing off the members' cuteness. However, it wasn't long until more comedic segments were incorporated due to the members' penchant for comedy, that the occasional idol-like segments are lampshaded as the shows' attempts to "return to being idol shows".
  • HinaChoi season 2 is no longer about the members interviewing public figures, but each member presents her own interest to get other members interested in it as well. HinaChoi (roughly "Hina Moment") also became its proper name instead of an abbreviation, and is fitting since each episode is only 15 minutes long.
• Girlish Pigtails: Yoko Shogenji and Kaho Fujishima wear Anime Hair pigtails in their 2024 Morinaga ice pop web video series (they used hair extensions).
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals:
  • All the 2nd gens have a Pickles the Frog doll, which are Christmas gifts from Miku Kanemura's mother. It later lead to an official Hiragana Keyakizaka-branded line of Pickles dolls being released.
  • Shiho Kato collects teddy bears and has produced a Dasada-branded teddy bear keychain.
  • Nao Kosaka owns several dinosaur plushies, most notably a red T-rex one.
  • Dolls of their mascot Poka often show up in blogs and events, and the character was even made into fluffy slippers and collectible photo packs.
• Girly Bruiser: Akari Nibu has experience in karate and is a third dan in kendo. Marie Morimoto also holds the same kendo rank. Meanwhile, Yoko Shogenji is a karate brown belt.
  • In the Ice de Breakers ad series, in which Yoko and Kaho Fujishima play the titular free refreshment providers, the female student character, who's in the karate club, became Yoko's admirer after she effortlessly did a series of Brick Breaks. Incidentally, Yoko is the "Break" type of the duo, in the sense of "taking a break".
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: As described in other examples, they have/had Big Eaters, martial artists, a soccer expert, Gamer Chicks, etc.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: A 2023 Cupstar ramen ad campaign, titled "After All, You'll Tell Me to Take My Glasses Off" (どうせメガネを外せって言うんでしょ), was based entirely on watching them as Bespectacled Cuties slowly taking off their glasses in various situations. Of course, glasses lovers also get to see them in glasses for half the ads' length.
• Goroawase Number:
  • Kumi Sasaki and Kasuga's wife of the same name are 93.
  • Nanami Konishi is 524-773. However, she hates it when the numbers are read normally (go-ni-yon nana-nana-san).
• Gratuitous English:
  • Memi Kakizaki's catchphrase was "I am 16 years old" in English.
  • One of Yuka Kageyama's gimmicks is reciting the English route announcement given on the Shinkansen.
  • In Hinanari episode 5, the outfit put together by Mitsuki Hiraoka for Kirari Takeuchi includes a thrifted colorful pin badge... for the John McCain-Sarah Palin presidential campaign.
  • In Hinatazaka Anime-bu episode 3, after Nanami Konishi, Honoka Hirao, and Rina Watanabe reveal that they don't usually pay attention to the backdrop when watching anime, club leader Yoko Shogenji randomly switches to English and calls them "nonsense", as the episode is about learning how to create backdrops for anime scenes.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Sarina Ushio lived in Indonesia for 5 years and can speak the language a little. Her gimmick is singing the Indonesian nursery rhyme (which she calls a Rousing Lullaby) "Pok Ame Ame". She signs off her blog posts with "Sarimakashi," which is a combination of her name and the Indonesian for "thank you" (terima kasih). Even her name was inspired by the Indonesian name Sarinah, although it's a Japanese name.^note The name has fallen out of use in Indonesia itself and is now more known as a department store chain.
  • She also suggested the name "Lima Cantik" ("Five Beauties") for her subunit.
  • Her preferred nickname for HinaAi is Ushishi from the Indonesian word sisi, meaning "side", since she always wants to be at Wakabayashi's side.
  • In 2023, she started hosting her own radio show titled Sarimakashi.
• Gratuitous German: When portraying a customs officer in an episode of Toppa File, Yuka Kageyama, who has been speaking Japanese to an arriving German tourist since he speaks Japanese, suddenly confronts him in German, "Sie verstecken doch noch etwas vor uns!" ("You are still hiding something from us!").
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: In the OtsukaresaMatch Time Leap ad series, a high school boy relives the same day over and over as he tries to impress the school ace, Yuka "Kageyama-chan" Kageyama, and receive a bottle of Match sports drink from her. Unlike most examples, they do a completely different activity each day, so he doesn't have the usual advantage of foresight. He does receive the drink from her in the final episode, and it's implied that Kageyama-chan retains the memories of watching him trying hard in every iteration.
• Hates Their Parent: In her very first introduction on Keyakitte, Kakenai? episode 47, 14-year-old Memi Kakizaki mentions that during puberty (i.e., currently) she hates her father (artist Junichi Kakizaki, who she feels is too doting to her), prompting Sawabe, a father of two at the time (now three), to admonish her. Her character in Re:Mind also alludes to this.^note After she graduated in 2019, she has been credited in photographs of her father's works.
• A Hero to His Hometown: Honoka Hirao became the second Tottori native to join an all-female Sakamichi Series group after Haruyo Yamaguchi (the mixed-gender group Yoshimotozaka has the Tottori-born comedienne Mahiru), which was celebrated by many from that prefecture. Governor Shinji Hirai made a statement supporting them on NHK Tottori, comparing the pair to Tottori's famous pears.
• The Idiot from Osaka: Mirei Sasaki portrayed a charmingly ditzy and subtly seductive Kansai college student on the TV show Azatokute Nani Ga Warui No?. While some Kansai fans find her dialect unnatural (she's from Hyōgo, but was born in Kanagawa and had lived in Taiwan as a child), it was well-received and earned her the nickname "Azato-entertainer" (this was also after she centered "Azatokawaii").
• I Just Want to Be Normal: In Audrey's talk show, Achi Kochi Audrey, Hinano Kamimura reveals that she has always been called quirky, and had wanted to reinvent herself into a demure classic-type idol by joining Hiragana Keyakizaka46. She used to be stressed out when her weird side emerged, but as Hinatazaka46 prides itself on its comedy skills, she later came to embrace that side of herself.
• Important Haircut: In the Hinatazaka46 Story biography, Kyoko Saito reveals that when she made it to the final audition for Hiragana Keyakizaka46, she restyled her hair to have idol-like bangs as she resolved to become one.
• Inconsistent Spelling:
  • After Hina Kawata told Hiyori Hamagishi that her name is often mispronounced as Kawada (the kanji 河田 can be read either way, but "Kawata" is the reading used by her family), the latter started writing her name as KAWADA in her blog and it caught on, especially on social media with hashtags like #KAWADAワールド (KAWADA World) and even on official shows like HinaAi, and KAWADA-san ended up being one of her nicknames. Even Kasuga mispronounces it when they first meet in GanaOshi. After she became a Hotto Hitoiki radio show host in 2023, one of the first thing she declares on the show is that her name is Kawata.
  • Marie Morimoto's name is actually a Japanese name meaning "jasmine" (茉莉) and more commonly romanized as Mari, and she uses the hiragana まりぃ to indicate a soft trailing i instead of the usual まり. Her family was about to move to Paris when she was born and decided to give her a name easily pronounced there. Coincidentally or otherwise, they lived near Rue Jasmin in the 16th arrondissement.
    • While her name is romanized as Marie in the group's official works, some fans prefer to romanize according to the Japanese reading, Marii.
  • Ayaka Takamoto's nickname is somehow Otake, which is another common Japanese surname or can be mistaken as Takemoto.
• Innocent Bigot: Akari Nibu shares in the first Daisuki! Hinatazaka46 episode that when they were going to Korea for the 2018 Mnet Music Awards, it was her first time going abroad and she packed a lot of water because she was worried that the water in Korea is undrinkable. Of course, the bottles were confiscated before she boarded the plane.
• Insult Backfire: In Dasada, Saori Shinohara calls Yuria Sada "Dasada" from dasai (tacky) and Sada. Although she takes offense at being called tacky, Yuria decides to make it their titular fashion brand.
• Intrepid Reporter: In HinaChoi season 1, they interview public figures and are often challenged to ask increasingly outrageous questions or goad the interviewees into making embarrassing statements.
• Kids Love Dinosaurs: Nao Kosaka has loved dinosaurs and reptiles since childhood, and talks about dinosaurs and Jurassic Park in a HinaAi episode and several appearances on outside shows since.
  Kyoko Saito: When you see a girl like Nao-chan, you'd assume she likes things like strawberries and melon bread, right? But Nao-chan likes dinosaurs and reptiles. One time, she excitedly came to me to show something on her phone. I thought it was a hip new cafe or she won some raffle, but it was actually a video of a gecko. And she has a lot of such videos in her camera roll. I didn't know what to say.
  • She and Shiho Kato guested at the Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur ✕ Jurassic World crossover event opening at Universal Studios Japan. She also became the ambassador for Sony's DinoScience exhibition in 2021, but unfortunately was ill for most of the event's run, so other members appeared in her place.
  • Her character in Dasada, who is rather childlike, shares this trait and owns many dinosaur plushies.
  • Her Original Hinatazaka chapter has main characters Kumi Sasaki and Shiho Kato Trapped in Another World where dinosaurs coexist with humans.
  • Of course, dinosaurs often appear in her modeling work too. The social media accounts to promote her 2021 photobook are branded @kosakanatops after her favorite dinosaur, Triceratops.
  • She didn't take part in the 6th single, "Tteka", due to her illness, so the MV features a Triceratops doll (a DinoScience official merch) near the end to represent her.
• Kimono Is Traditional:
  • They wear lovely kimonos in several Hinabingo! episodes. They have also complained that, unlike Sakurazaka46, they rarely wear kimonos in new year episodes since the HinaAi production team prefers to make them do comedic stuff.
  • In her introduction documentary, Nanami Konishi explores the Ijinkan old town in Kobe wearing a traditional hakama (but with modern boots).
• Liquid Courage: Mirei Sasaki revealed in 2021 that she has taken to drinking the herbal wine Yomeishu every day to maintain her health and performance. She even drinks it at work, drawing comparisons to Showa-era actors from Audrey. The MV for "Suppai Jiko Kenno" alludes to this by featuring her working at a liquor store.
• Living Toys: In a Hinabingo! prank episode, Hina Kawata is put in a room with a teddy bear with a hidden speaker inside, voiced by Miku Kanemura with a voice changer, and it doesn't take much talking to convince her that it is sentient and wants her to help it walk around the room.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The stage play Ayumi has a character with that name and is about a woman walking (歩み ayumi) through life, and the cast literally walk around the circular stage for almost the entire story.
  • Miho Watanabe's character in the drama Hoshi ni Naritakatta Kimi to, who loves astronomy and stargazing, is named Nasa Kotosaka.
    • In Good Morning, Sleeping Lion, the main antagonists are named after card suits, and her name is Remi, which sounds like Rummy.
• The Mentor: As their variety show hosts and seasoned comedians, Audrey and Koyabu have this role. Kasuga even offers in several episodes to personally train some of the girls in their chosen special skills.
• Ms. Fanservice: While other members can act seductive for comedy, Manamo Miyata overtly plays it straight and likes showing some skin in Showroom broadcasts to please the fans. It's been noted that her normal speech pattern is also somewhat suggestive, and she's also prone to Erotic Eating.
  • For the Yuri Fans, she often posts her yuri manga or novel recommendations.
  • Her MM Sisters partner, Marie Morimoto, has said that she aspires to cultivate a sexy character as well, although she ended up becoming known for her "crazy" character.
• Neologizer: Yuria Sada, Nao Kosaka's character in Dasada, creates a few words of her own in an attempt to sound hip, such as okolympic ("angry-lympics", referring to the 2020 Olympics which was a hot topic when the series aired).
• The Nicknamer: Koyabu gives nicknames to several members, such as "Sexy" for Manamo Miyata, "Nakimushi" (Crybaby) for Mei Higashimura, "Otacake" for Ayaka Takamoto, "Osaka" for Mana Takase (so that the Osakans are called Osaka and Kosaka), and "Nisekoyabu" (Fake Koyabu) for Suzuka Tomita.
• No Hero to His Valet: In the TV show Achi Kochi Audrey and other shows, they discuss their confusion when they get the idol treatment (i.e. like cute "princesses") in other TV shows, since they're used to being treated like Butt-Monkey comedians in their own shows. For example, they expect to be teased or Dope Slapped when they give silly answers or act cutesy (which would become a highlighted moment), but it comes across to everyone else in those shows as cute (and less than noteworthy).
• Odd Friendship: Kyoko Saito and her Kyoccorohee co-host, chain-smoking thirty-something comedienne Hiccorohee, make a great Tomboy and Girly Girl combination, and it's said that the show's appeal is in their long-winded conversations that often lead nowhere. Even Wakabayashi has expressed his admiration for Hiccorohee, since she seems to understand Kyoko better than he could, even though he has worked with Kyoko for a longer time.
• Otaku:
  • Akari Nibu is a shonen manga fan, especially Dragon Ball.
  • Hiyori Hamagishi is passionate about Takarazuka Revue.
  • Kumi Sasaki loves One Piece and sees Luffy as her role model as captain. She has published an official "One Piece ✕ Kumi Sasaki" stamp set for the Line messaging app, as part of a campaign in which Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto and other artists also participated.
  • Kumi and Shiho Kato are Star Wars fans and sometimes appear in Jedi cosplay in handshake events. They got to interview Daisy Ridley for the Episode 9 release.
  • Yuka Kageyama and Nao Kosaka love Case Closed. In the lead-up to the 26th movie in 2023, Nao appeared on the cover of the April 12, 2023, issue of Shonen Sunday (which publishes the manga) in Sherlock Holmes cosplay and as villainesses Kir and Vermouth in the spreads, while Kage appeared as a cameo in a special anime episode involving real J-League soccer players. The next year, Nao cosplayed again as Kaito Kid, Ran Mouri, and Kazuha Toyama (even though the latter two don't have an Iconic Outfit).
  • The two-episode quiz show Daisuki Hinatazaka46 has several comedians answering trivia questions about the group, and some of them have surprisingly deep knowledge outside the given reading material, especially about their favorite members.
• Passionate Sports Girl:
  • Yuuka Kageyama is really into soccer and played in a local boys' team before joining Hiragana Keyakizaka. Being The Smart Girl, her hobby is analyzing soccer tactics, and she also holds a JFA Class 4 referee qualification. Thanks to this, she has appeared in various sport TV shows where even the hosts are impressed by her vast knowledge, and also appeared several times as a guest commentator on live match broadcasts of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Aside from soccer, she also used to play baseball often. After she left the group, she became a regular co-host for the TV show Abema Sports Time.
    • A Running Gag in Keyakake when they were still Hiragana Keyakizaka is her and fellow soccer fan Tsuchida discussing soccer among themselves until Neru stops them. She gets to talk a lot more in the soccer talk show Foot x Brain, but even there she has to be interrupted by the hosts to not dwell on one topic for too long and lose the audience.
    • Her catchphrase, "Gegenpressing to your heart" (a reference to a German soccer term meaning "counter-pressure"), was quoted by Real Betis player Marc Bartra on the club's Japanese Twitter account.
    • Her first voice acting role is for the anime adaptation of the soccer manga Farewell, My Dear Cramer.
    • She co-hosted the TV talk show Talking Football with former Japanese national team captain Yuji Nakazawa, and is a Special Analyst for Foot x Brain and recurring guest on Atsuto Uchida's Football Time.
    • In September 2021, she became the Japan Ambassador for the soccer video game FIFA 22. Unsurprisingly, some players questioned a Japanese pop singer's suitability for the role, and her fans simply listed her aforementioned credentials to shut them up. Kage herself also wrote a blog post in English clarifying that she indeed created the "Kage's Squad" lineup featured as a challenge in the game.
    • The MV for her graduation song, "Tomo yo, Ichibanboshi da", portrays the members as the Hinatazaka Football Club practicing at a stadium, and also shows Kage reminiscing as she watches a video of her child self playing in the soccer club.
    • Inspired by Kage, Sumire Miyachi also obtained a Class 4 referee qualification in 2023.
  • Mei Higashimura is very athletic and did a short hurdle run in one of their early concerts. Her special skill is color guard dance. She's also the first member of the group to participate in Ninja Warrior, or SASUKE in Japan, in 2021. Hilariously, she once proposed a similar segment she named KASUKE for their variety show in order to showcase their abilities to the Ninja Warrior people, but was invited to the real thing before that segment was produced and aired from January to February 2022.
  • Miho Watanabe is good at basketball and played at the regional level with her high school club, of which she was the captain.
  • Although she's from Chiba, Kumi Sasaki is a big fan of Tokyo's Yomiuri Giants baseball club, and got to throw a double ceremonial first pitch with Ayaka Takamoto for one of their games.
  • Haruyo Yamaguchi played baseball as a pitcher. Her individual video on the 5th single is an Affectionate Parody of baseball manga Star of the Giants (Kyojin no Hoshi), featuring her being trained by "legendary coach" Ramichan-sensei to defeat the "legendary power hitter" Ramirez, both played by Venezuelan-born former Nippon Professional Baseball player Alex Ramirez, and more training sessions after that were published on his YouTube channel. She also successfully lobbied for the revival of HinaAi's Hinatazaka Baseball Club segments (Kyoko Saito's newfound appreciation for the sport helped a lot).
    • Ramirez made a surprise appearance at the fourth Hinatansai at Yokohama Stadium to catch a pitch by Haruyo, but unfortunately her throw was way off.
  • Rio Shimizu was a high school baseball cheerleader and has earned various other athletics achievements before joining the group, Mitsuki Hiraoka was also a cheerleader, and Tamaki Ishizuka has been both a baseball player and cheerleader.^*Rina Watanabe was also a cheerleader, but don't talk about it much.
    • A photo of Rio from her cheerleading days became the cover for the 2023 Koshien national baseball championship guidebook, almost a year after she debuted with this group (and after she already graduated from high school).
  • Subverted with Hinano Kamimura, who doesn't follow baseball even though her catchphrase mentions curveballs (because the curveball is herself).
  • Kyoko Saito is far from athletic, but portrayed volleyball club captain Makoto Ogasawara in Dasada. The similarly unathletic Manamo Miyata appeared as a club member.
    • Kyoko used to hate HinaAi's baseball segments, but came to enjoy baseball for a while after watching a few games in the Tokyo Olympics, and even played Konami's Pro Yakyuu Spirits series.
• Pig Latin: Kyoko Saito is proficient in speaking a Japanese version of this known as babigo, while Kumi Sasaki is pretty much her Translator Buddy.
• Princess for a Day: In a Hinabingo! episode, Ayaka Takamoto turns into Princess Ayacherry, who can perform Magic from Technology (i.e. parlor tricks facilitated by science entertainer Hiroshi Ebitani).
• Product Placement: In the final episode of Suzuka Tomita's four-part quest to purchase a car (published on her 23rd birthday), Nao Kosaka and Hinano Kamimura appear as their Sony Sonpo car insurance ad personas to offer her car insurance. It was followed the next day by another video where the two describe the products in detail to Suzuka (and us, the audience).
  • The car is a Suzuki Jimny Sierra, and Suzuka only later realized that it has the same nickname as her, "Suzy".
• Professional Voice Dissonance:
  • Osaka native Nao Kosaka lists translating standard Japanese to Kansai-ben as her special skill, and speaks in Kansai-ben with fellow Kansai members. However, she usually speaks in formal standard Japanese since she's not fluent in formal Kansai, and Kansai comedians in other shows often lampshade this and jokingly call her a sellout.
  • Hina Kawata also uses formal standard Japanese and rarely speaks in her native Yamaguchi accent. Her character in Dasada, who's also from Yamaguchi, is told in-universe to avoid speaking in public in order to conceal her thick accent.
  • Mana Takase is the same, but often reverts to her Osaka dialect for comedic effect. Nanami Konishi also often uses her Hyogo accent.
• Prone to Tears:
  • For a long time, Mei Higashimura cried when she's happy, sad, afraid, surprised, and feeling pretty much any strong emotions.
  • Suzuka Tomita has the group's "strongest losing expression", often accompanied by crying.
  • After Mei grew out of this, Konoka Matsuda starts to cry often in her TV appearances, especially in those that aren't the group's own shows.
• Pun-Based Title:
  • Nao Kosaka's radio program title, Kosakana Radio, presented by Dragon Quest of the Stars, is obviously based on her nickname, but written as 小坂なラジオ, making the meaning more like "Kosaka-ish Radio".
  • After Mirei Sasaki replaced Nao as host due to Nao's hiatus, the show was renamed to Hoimiipan, a combination between the Dragon Quest healing spell Hoimi and her nickname.
• Pungeon Master:
  • Hinano Kamimura. For example, in HinaAi episode 33, she invents the phrase genkidashitenchou (元気田支店長), a wordplay of genkidashite (元気出して, "Cheer up!") and shitenchou (支店長, branch manager) and written with the kanji characters for a branch manager named Genkida (not a real Japanese surname).
  • Miho Watanabe's "Nabecchi" gags are based on connecting two otherwise unrelated subjects using puns.
• Punny Name:
  • Nao Kosaka's nickname Kosakana is a homophone for "small fish" (小魚). Her old Catchphrase was "Osaka, Kosaka, Keyakizaka, I'll climb to the top of all three!"
  • Kumi Sasaki is sometimes called Kiku (chrysanthemum), since her name in Japanese name order is Sasaki Kumi.
  • Mirei Sasaki's nickname Sasami is also a grilled chicken breast dish.
  • Before concerts, Manamo Miyata sometimes reminds the audience through the PA system that the event is "Manamo only", a play on "manner mode" (silent mode) on smartphones.
  • Honoka Hirao's nickname is Hiraho and her signature pose is the Hira-cannon (Hira-hou).
• Questioning Title?:
  • Hinatazaka46 desu, chotto ii desuka? ("We're Hinatazaka46, do you have a moment?")
• Recycled Premise: Hinachoi season 1, Hinatazaka ni Narimashou, and Hinata Academy are all about the members learning from experts in various fields.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The radio show Hotto Hitoiki was alternately hosted by ditzy, carefree Mirei Sasaki and sharp-witted, well-organized Yuka Kageyama, and some fans have commented that it feels like a completely different show each time. Averted in 2023 when Kage was replaced by Hina Kawata and Suzuka Tomita, who are both ditzes to some extent.
  • When Kage and Mirei did an on-stage radio broadcast as part of Kage's graduation ceremony in July 2023, Mirei was often visibly frustrated as she had trouble following Kage's Motor Mouth hosting.
• Riddle Me This: Several episodes of their variety shows feature them solving various riddles. Yuuka Kageyama's segments in Hinachoi is notable for having riddles she created herself, and the two-hour special web episode features a Room Escape Game she designed.
• Significant Birth Date:
  • Yuka Kageyama mentioned during the final audition announcement on May 8, 2016 that it was her fifteenth birthday. By pure chance, Kasuga's first daughter was also born on May 8, 2020 (as mentioned in episode 107 of Hinatazaka de Aimashō), so both of them in effect share their birthdays with the formation of Hiragana Keyakizaka46's first generation.
  • Yoko Shogenji's catchphrase mentions that her birthday is on Valentine's Day and she loves chocolate.
• Sleepyhead: Shiho Kato often falls asleep at inappropriate times, such as in the middle of a live radio broadcast, and is also known to have slept while standing.
• The Smart Girl:
  • Neru Nagahama wins the Keyakizaka46 academic quiz in Keyakitte, Kakenai? and was a finalist in her home prefecture's high school quiz tournament. She also appeared in various quiz shows.
  • Yuka Kageyama narrowly defeats Neru in their knowledge quiz duel in Keyabingo!3. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of soccer and her hobby is analyzing soccer tactics. She took a hiatus for two years to prepare for the Tokyo University entrance exams, but unfortunately didn't make it, putting her in the same "Todai rejects" team as Kasuga. She's also in the 80th percentile in Japanese proficiency and can write many rarely-used kanji characters. It's also known that during her hiatus, she won a bronze medal in a philosophy essay writing competition.
    • Her 5th single individual video is about her learning about various subjects. She has also revealed in the Hinata High School Broadcasting Club radio program that she holds certifications in many unexpected fields, including psychological counseling, world heritage, news recording, pharmaceuticals, dental assistant, and real estate.
    • In her Self-documentary episode, she reveals that she actually decided not to take the Todai exam during her hiatus due to her worsening health from the pressure.
    • In her Kyoccorohee appearance, she jokes that she has Mind Control power over Kyoko Saito as Kyoko tends to believe anything she says, even if she completely made it up.
    • She joined Mensa in 2023.
  • In their first academic ability contest, Manamo Miyata placed first in the written test and Miku Kanemura won the buzzer quiz. In the second contest, Mana Takase won the written test and Manamo the buzzer quiz (the "Academic Queen" title is given to the buzzer quiz winner). Kage won both the written test and the buzzer quiz in the third test.
    • Miku Kanemura and Konoka Matsuda are also visibly frustrated during the second buzzer quiz, since they ended up in lower positions than their written test results would suggest due to being slow at pressing the buzzer.
  • Miho Watanabe and Mirei Sasaki studied intensely and did much better in their second participation in the Japanese Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? after their disastrous first one (i.e. eliminated in the very first round), and Miho managed to answer all the questions in her third, solo attempt, but failed the double-or-nothing bonus question, so she didn't win anything.
    • The Hinano Kamimura and Mikuni Takahashi duo, Konoka Matsuda, and Yuka Kageyama also took the challenge. All of them also failed the very last question and lost their entire prize money.
    • Konoka Matsuda became the first member, and the 23rd contestant in the show's history, to win the full 3 million yen prize in October 2023.
  • The Saitama Trio (Miho Watanabe, Miku Kanemura, and Akari Nibu) and Konoka Matsuda won a Nep League quiz against a trio of university graduate comediennes, and notably made no mistakes in the English translating segment. Subverted in that Nibu is benched in several stages for being allegedly the least smart of the four, which she cheerfully accepts.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Mirei Sasaki's characters in their first two dramas are studious and wear glasses. Mana Takase collects glasses and often wears them when not in uniform.
• Speech Impediment: Although Shiho Kato does plenty of MC work, her normal speech is noted to be mumbling, which runs in her family. She has embraced it as a quirk.
• Strictly Professional Relationship: Yuka Kageyama and Manamo Miyata were the Bijiness duo, a wordplay on "bijin" (beautiful person) and "business", as they claimed that their relationship was strictly business.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Many have noted the similar looks of Neru Nagahama and Hinano Kamimura. Both of them are also soft-spoken, write their given names in hiragana only, and were the only member of their generations when they joined the group, with more members added later.
• Sweet Baker: Mirei Sasaki is good at making pastries as well as eating them, and occasionally bakes cookies for other members and the hosts of TV shows they appear in, which earned her the nickname Aunt Stella Miipan (after a bakery chain). She also did a culinary show where she ran a bakery for a day.
  • A variety show features her going around Tokyo to introduce her favorite sweet bread places. She's later reunited with a baker who used to sell her favorite bread and with whom she had lost contact, to be taught how to bake it herself.
• Team Mom:
  • Kumi Sasaki is the captain.
  • Sarina Ushio is nicknamed the "Holy Mother" and is considered the group's "counselor".
  • The unit Miipan Family, formerly Miipan Babies, are Mirei Sasaki and the three younger members she treats like her daughters (Hina Kawata, Hiyori Hamagishi, and Haruyo Yamaguchi). Shiho Kato jokingly called them the Country Mouse unit since they all happen to come from the western prefectures, and their first song as a subunit, "Suppai Jiko Kenno", indeed has noticeable Country Music influence.
• Terrible Artist: A Running Gag is Kumi Sasaki's photograph being replaced by Shiho Kato's caricature of her which looks nothing like her except for her beauty mark.
  Sasaku: Lately the fans really think I look like that!
• Through His Stomach:
  • Mirei Sasaki likes baking and often makes treats for other members and the hosts of TV shows where she appears.
  • Ayaka Takamoto's banana cake earned her the nickname "Otacake" from Koyabu. She's also good at making sashimi.
  • Manamo Miyata also made dorayaki for Koyabu, and for Shiho Kato before that.
• Tomboyish Voice: Kyoko Saito has a noticeably low voice, which helps a lot when cross-dressing or making snarky comments. She also has a rather cool demeanor that fits this, but she's not generally a tomboy, as she likes to occasionally play the burikko and one of her nicknames is the very feminine "The Nation's Girlfriend", a reference to her photobook title Special Lover (とっておきの恋人 Totteoki no Koibito).
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Ayaka "Ayacherry" Takamoto likes cherries and Mei "Meichigo" Higashimura likes strawberries.
  • Kyoko Saito's catchphrase is "I'm the ramen lover, Kyoko Saito" (it's a Shout-Out to the series Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, which first got her interested in the food). She often blogs about ramen joints and creates a top 5 list every year, and she also had a self-titled ramen tour miniseries on TV Asahi.
  • Miku Kanemura's nickname is Osushi. Her catchphrase is a pun with the nickname meaning "You have no choice but to support Miku!" (美玖のことをおすしかない！ Miku no koto wo osushikanai!). She and her catchphrase were part of the Belc supermarket chain's sushi marketing campaign in 2021.
  • Mirei Sasaki's nickname, Miipan, refers to her love of bread (pan) and she has appeared in bread-related shows, including her own one-shot baking show.
    • After she revealed on their variety show in 2021 that she drinks the herbal wine Yomeishu for health reasons, she started getting bottles of it at her jobs. The group's snack boxes also started to include Yomeishu candies.
    • Mana Takase and Miho Watanabe also like bread, although not to the extent of naming themselves after it.
  • Kumi Sasaki is "the Gummy-loving Kumi". Both words are almost pronounced the same in Japanese (グミ and クミ).
  • Mana Takase is the leader of the unofficial Udon Club. She also likes takoyaki without the tako (octopus), since she's Osakan but dislikes seafood.
  • Konoka Matsuda is the natto lover and has a matching hand gesture (each hand making a circle and then put together).
• Verbal Tic: Yoko Shogenji put "nanka" ("like", "somehow") as hers in her bio. The lyrics for "Coelacanth", for which she is the center, included the phrase a few times.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Shiho Kato and Mana Takase are the Kyouen NG ("Co-starring Banned") duo since them appearing together will supposedly get "dangerous", but they're pretty close otherwise. By the way, Kyouen NG is also a TV drama co-written by the group's producer, Yasushi Akimoto.
  • The third generation often claim that while they're good friends, they're constantly at each other's throats.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Despite her superlativeness in many things, Yuka Kageyama is afraid of... exploding balloons.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Manamo Miyata's tagline is "the Japanese-style girl who will infatuate everyone's heart". She's well-mannered, can cook, highly educated, and well-versed in Japanese culture. She's also the group's resident burikko, which covers the "infatuate" part.

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