Series / Hinatazaka de Aimashō

Kept you waiting, huh!

Hinatazaka de Aimashō (日向坂で会いましょう, "Let's Meet at Hinatazaka", HinaAi for short) is a Japanese variety show. It is the primary self-titled television show (or "crown show") of the idol group Hinatazaka46 and hosted by the Comedy Duo Audrey (Toshiaki Kasuga and Masayasu Wakabayashi). It airs every Monday after midnight on TV Tokyo and simultaneously released on the Hikari TV streaming service, where each episode is combined with the service's exclusive original show HinaChoi Season 2 (2021-2023) or Hinatazaka ni Narimashō (since 2023).

The show began airing on March 2018 as Hiragana Oshi (ひらがな推し, "Supporting Hiragana", GanaOshi for short) in reference to Hinatazaka46's former name, Hiragana Keyakizaka46, and was renamed in April 2019 following the group's rebranding.

Like in the other Sakamichi groups, the lineups for Hinatazaka46's music releases are usually announced on the show, and the "hit prayer" challenges to commemorate them are depicted here as well.

Tropes that won't keep you waiting:

• Acronym Confusion: Inverted; an episode of Hinatazaka de Aimashō is a competition to decide whether the show's Officially Shortened Title is HinaAi or HinaMasho... even though the vast majority of fans and members themselves have already unofficially voted for the former (it roughly means "Hina Meet" or "Hina Love", while the latter can mean "Let's Hina"). In fact, there are only three people on Team HinaMasho, including Kasuga, who already has "HINAMASHO" embroidered on one of his pink vests, and even his die-hard fan Mana Takase is on the other team. The HinaAi team wins at the end.
  • In 2023, a show for the fourth generation members titled Hinatazaka ni Narimashō ("Let's Become Hinatazaka") was launched, which can also be shortened as HinaMasho but is officially HinaNari.
• Affectionate Parody: Some segments are simplified copies of established TV shows and events, including those that might be more familiar to older fans.
  • Akari Nibu's "Nibumonea" segment is based on Iromonea, a game show where comedians have to make a small group of judges made up of random people laugh.
  • Episodes 19-20 features the member channeling Minami Asakura from the manga Touch in several skits.
  • Even though only Akari Nibu and Yuka Kageyama watch Hanzawa Naoki, a segment in episode 83 features several members reenacting memorable scenes from that show.
  • The second academic test is themed after the TV show Ultra Quiz, complete with its remix of the Star Trek: The Original Series theme song.
  • Mei Higashimura wanted to take part in Ninja Warrior, or SASUKE in Japan, so she proposed a segment named KASUKE to attract the attention of that show's team. Hilariously, she was invited to the real thing before the segment was produced and aired in three episodes from January to February 2022 (she wins the KASUKE games and receives Kasuga's wallet as reward... which contains about $25).
  • Episode 169 features "Reversal! Kasuga Hunter", which is pretty much Run For Money: Tousouchuu with only Kasuga as the Hunter pursuing nine lowest-scoring members through the Kamine Park Leisure Land. It was first proposed by Mei Higashimura three years prior in Hiragana Oshi, although her idea was to have the group hunt Kasuga ("Reversal!" was probably meant to reference both the members reversing their situation and the reversed role).
  • The G1 Hinatazaka Derby games are held around the same time as the real Japanese Derby horse races, even though the games are mostly neither related to horses nor racing. Having the girls as racehorses might also be inspired by Uma Musume.
  • Episode 173 features a recreation of the confessional room from the 80s variety show Oretachi Hyoukinzoku.
  • Episodes 207-208 are titled "Atsumare Ponkotsu no Mori" ("Gather Up, Forest of the Clumsy"), based on the Japanese title of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
  • Episode 222 features Yuka Kageyama's graduation quiz, which is a spoof of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with questions all about the other members' memorable moments with her. She answers correctly up to the ninth question before running out of time, and is rewarded by Kasuga with sushi buffet for the entire group during her graduation ceremony. Oh, and the caption includes a Shout-Out to the Oshi no Ko theme song with "Genius Kage-sama" (天才的なカゲ様 tensaitekina Kage-sama).
  • Episode 243, both the first one in the Year of the Dragon of 2024 and Akari Nibu's return after a long hiatus, makes numerous references to Dragon Ball and Street Fighter, such as a game segment where they have to perform Hurricane Kicks.
• All Work vs. All Play: As the group's resident "party people", Suzuka Tomita tries to cultivate an "all play" persona, but others have revealed that she's actually pretty well-prepared and meticulous in her work, and she herself has also confessed that she's not a very social person, despite having a group of admirers among the members which Marie Morimoto named the "Tomita Chiljren".
• Alter-Ego Acting: The "You're Exaggeratin'" segments of HinaAi often discuss this.
  • According to Kyoko Saito and others, Miho Watanabe's off-camera personality is more idol-like than her stage one, since she's so tense about work that Shiho Kato claims she would go into mental breakdown every three months.
  • In episode 120, Hina Kawata reveals that she once questioned Akari Nibu on whether her gratitude when signing photo cards for fans was sincere or just her staying in character off-camera.
  • In episode 121, Hinano Kamimura discusses her several "oneselves" (我 ware) and how she rarely shows her true self even to other members. The lyrics for "Am I ready?", which she centered, included the line "My confident and timid selves are fighting".
  • Honoka Hirao has revealed that during meet-and-greet events, she didn't break character even when the visitor was her own brother and father.
• Alternate Character Reading:
  • In Konoka Matsuda's Blu-ray discussion segment, she draws Kasuga with Haruhi Suzumiya's hairstyle, since their names are written the same in kanji (春日).
  • The tenth single's long-distance walking hit campaign happens to start at the Tanshou Shrine (丹生神社) in Saitama, which is written the same way as Akari Nibu's surname, unintentionally making it a Passing the Torch moment from her, the ninth single's center, to Hinano Kamimura.
• Animal Motif:
  • Mei Higashimura is called Neko (cat). In episode 176, she's put inside a human-scaled cat playground so that she'd supposedly fully turn into a cat while other members reveal trivia about her.
  • In her first appearance in episode 183, Mitsuki Hiraoka introduces herself with a "jellyfish" pose (fingers pointed down and wiggled under her chin), as her name (海月) is a homograph for the animal.
• Aroused by Their Voice: The recurring "Seduction Showdown" ("Iroke Taiketsu") segment is where the members compete to say non-sexy words in the most seductive way possible. Miku Kanemura's whispering of "Hatsugatsuo" ("first-caught skipjack tuna") was particularly well-received and is referenced in her Ganaoshi Blu-ray title. In episode 30's contest held in Miyazaki Prefecture, the judge is none other than the prefecture's governor, Shunji Kono.
  • In episode 257, Sumire Miyachi, the 4th generation's main cutesy girl, expands her assigned word (ajitama, "marinated soft-boiled egg") into a complete sentence, causing an uproar as it goes against the game's established rules. Judge Kasuga gives her the win instead of disqualifying her, as he believes she has just opened the door to a new era of the game, and also points out that even if only the assigned word was considered, she would still have won against Marie Morimoto anyway. While the members are shocked by this unexpected development, everybody does it like Sumire from that point on.
    Hinano Kamimura: The rules changed right before my eyes just now...
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: In the English sections of the academic tests, some of the girls try to pass off Japanese words like hiza (knee) and kirin (giraffe) as English by pronouncing them like English words (e.g., "hee-za" and "ki-reen"), which of course doesn't earn them any points.
• Attention Whore: In HinaAi episode 37, Suzuka Tomita cries after Kasuga only cued her for comments about halfway into the episode.
• Awesome McCoolname:
  • In episode 136, Akari Nibu complains that she doesn't know all the production crew by name, so they all wear nametags for that episode. Wakabayashi notes that most of them have quite commonplace names, but marvels at that of director Ōishibashi.
  • In episode 217, the members are asked to write names that sound strong. "Toshiaki Kasuga" is rejected since while Kasuga is a bodybuilder, his name doesn't particularly sound strong; "Yoko Shogenji" is also rejected as "Yoko" (written as "sun child") is way too cheerful. Kirari Takeuchi wins with her answer, Takaya Goumoto.
• Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: When Yuka Kageyama returns to HinaAi after her two-year hiatus, Mei Higashimura has improved her speaking skills and wants to tell Yuka something she couldn't say before. It's that Mei's now a cat.
• The Bartender: Mao Iguchi's "Mama" character in Ganaoshi's "Snack Mao" segments, assisted by part-timer Manamo Miyata, as well as Kasuga's "Master" Osamu and regular customer Waka-chan (both of whom are friends with the comedy duo Audrey), is a bartender who helps solve the problems of the other members. She aspires to open the real thing someday, and started a YouTube channel where she goes to various diners and bars after she graduated from the group.
  • In October 2019, Audrey started hosting a show with a similar concept called Achi Kochi Audrey, which has featured several of the girls (although the show normally invites older comedians as guests) in three episodes.
• Baseball Episode: They practice baseball techniques in the studio in several episodes of their variety shows, such as episodes 19-20. They've also done a location shooting in Miyazaki Prefecture and visited one of the several training camps owned by Nippon Professional Baseball clubs there, and even invited Governor Shunji Kōno to judge their seduction contest.^*By the way, the prefecture's tourism slogan is Nippon no Hinata (日本のひなた "Japan's Sunny Place")
• Beautiful All Along: Ayaka Takamoto gives Haruyo Yamaguchi (the member she considers the least style-conscious) a makeover in the style of Bis magazine. And she proceeds to pitch a few balls to Kasuga in those clothes.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The hit prayer campaigns when the main song center wasn't Nao Kosaka have been twisted interpretations of the centers' interests.
  • In her "Snack Mao" appearance, Mirei Sasaki mentions that she likes fishing and wants to catch a tuna with the other members. She later became the center of the Hinatazaka album's main song "Azatokawaii", and the hit prayer event has them going fishing at sea (people that are azatoi, or cunning in romantic matters, are also called "fishers" as they're good at catching others' hearts) to catch eight amadai fishes (Branchiostegus japonicus, considered lucky since it rhymes with 祝 iwai, "celebrate"). It takes them two days to accomplish that, and while they also caught other fishes along the way, Mirei still hasn't caught her tuna.
  • Shiho Kato often mentioned that she wanted to learn acrobatics. She gets her wish in the harshest possible way: the hit prayer event for the 5th single, of which she is the center, is to perform a full cheerleading routine to the main song, with her in the acrobatics squad, and all of them must squeeze in practice between their other activities in around 1.5 months before the dance would be performed on live streaming.
  • Downplayed with the sixth single, centered by resident illustrator and photographer Miku Kanemura, which hit campaign is them painting a 46 meter-long banner with illustrations of the group's history. Miku does mention that planning the design was quite exhausting.
  • As Kyoko Saito didn't participate in the third single's The Oner MV campaign, the eighth one is another long take MV, but this time only around half of all active members participate and the MV is much simpler.
  • The ninth campaign takes advantage of Akari Nibu's talent for Comical Overreacting and has them record 100 videos for their nigh-abandoned TikTok account in a week.
  • The tenth campaign has the choreography front-liners do a 46-kilometer power walk (the sport, not the trope), which is Hinano Kamimura's specialty.
• Behavioral Conditioning: In episode 210, Yoko Shogenji plays a train departure melody on her flute, and Wakabayashi wonders if it could actually trick people to rush to the train if she played it at the actual station.
• Beware the Quiet Ones:
  • Hinano Kamimura regularly causes uproars through her deadpan delivery of brilliant wordplays and other gags.
  • Mei Higashimura is the group's most athletic member, especially in terms of agility (she might lose in raw strength to Miho Watanabe).
  • Nao Kosaka is quiet, except when she's laughing at others' misfortunes. Also, she's almost always able to complete any challenge given to her.
• Bifauxnen: In Ganaoshi episode 26, Kyoko Saito, Miku Kanemura, and Kumi Sasaki are voted the top 3 best crossdressers by the members. Later Valentine and White Day episodes feature members portraying men in various romantic skits.
  • In episode 78, Nao Kosaka wears Kumi's '80s Hair wig from the aforementioned episode to portray a Kansai man named Naozo.
  • In episode 130, Miku Kanemura imitates the style of a typical male K-pop star.
• Big Eater:
  • In episode 93, Miku Kanemura reveals that she prefers big breakfasts like steak in the morning.
  • Morimoto Marie is revealed in episode 207 to be one, and more than once went on live shows with a stomachache because she ate too much shaved ice.
• Birthday Hater: HinaAi episode 23 is Wakabayashi's 41st birthday party. Since he hates having his birthday celebrated, the show goes to great length to reproduce the interior of his old apartment (with his best friend Kasuga's guidance) to create a comfortable house party feel, and the girls also cooked his favorite menus.
• Black Comedy: The third academic test in episodes 203-205 has incorrect answers that veer into this. Mana Takase misreads ainiku (生憎, "unfortunately") as ikenie (生贄 "living sacrifice"). Haruka Yamashita misquotes Julius Caesar's "The die is cast" as "The wife is cast", assuming it was about a domestic quarrel. Subverted with Sumire Miyachi's answer, "The pillow is cast", and Tamaki Ishizuka's "The pie is cast".^* Incidentally, "die" (sai) and "pie" (pai) also rhyme in Japanese.
• Book Dumb: The show even has its own word for it, "OBK" (obaka).
  • In both of the group's academic tests, Hiyori Hamagishi placed last, followed closely by Kyoko Saito. Hiyori actually improved a lot in her second written test, but lost the buzzer quiz both times, "earning" her the title "Baka Center" twice. Because of conflicting schedules, she doesn't take part in the third bottom 5 buzzer quiz, and the title goes to Mei Higashimura instead.
  • Kyoko has also revealed that she actually got poor grades in high school. However, she's pretty good at solving puzzles and riddles, as shown in Hinabingo!2 and Hinachoi season 2, and has uncanny intuition for answering quizzes; even Miku Kanemura, the group's first Academic Queen, acknowledges that Kyoko is better at creative thinking than her. She's the first member to solve Yuka Kageyama's escape room game in Hinachoi Special Live.
    • In HinaAi episode 137, resident explainer Yuka Kageyama reveals that among the members, explaining to Kyoko is the most difficult. After Yuka announced her graduation from the group in early 2023, Kyoko wrote on her blog that she had finally understood the offside rule in soccer, which Yuka had tried to explain to her on multiple occasions, in appreciation of her.
  • Ayaka Takamoto is quite concerned about being seen as one after she placed #17 out of 19 in the first academic test in GanaOshi, which is why she receives special treatment in the second test. She ends up in the exact same position, but it's an improvement from third worst to fifth worst since there are more members participating. In the third test, she placed #21, which is lower-middle overall but is unfortunately just below the threshold for not being sent to the "Hina-Love Underground Kingdom" (Hina-ai Chika Oukoku), making her still one of the low scorers.
  • Shiho Kato's seldom-used nickname is Cool Anpontan (Cool Fool), suggested by her own mother. Nanami Konishi's parents gave her a similar nickname, Cool Ponkotsu Konishi, which incenses her.
  • In episode 242, Mirei Sasaki reveals that she went to a school which boasts a respectable standard deviation (hensachi, a Japanese school ranking system) of 65, from elementary to high school,^*Unofficial information indicates that it's the Kobe University Elementary and Secondary School. and claims that she's actually smart. Kasuga points out that revealing her educational background doesn't change the reality that she's already long established herself as an OBK, while Wakabayashi speculates that she only survived because of the Elevator School system.
• Bookworm:
  • Manamo Miyata is passionate about classical Japanese literature and has published a few works of her own.
    • In the group's second academic test in 2020, she wins the buzzer quiz because the question happens to be about the Man'yōshū, an Older Than Print Japanese poetry collection which she has been studying for two years.
    • She compares the members to characters in The Tale of Genji (another Older Than Print work considered to be the world's first novel) in Hiragana Oshi episode 13, complete with a Love Chart.
    • In Oshi episodes 20-21's story opening passage contest, while other members wrote a few teaser sentences for their mock novels, she pretty much wrote an entire prologue. Only parts of her reading could be fitted into the actual episode, while the full one made it into the Blu-ray.
    • In HinaAi episode 78, she reenacts a famous scene from the 1991 drama 101st Marriage Proposal in Antiquated Linguistics, against Kasuga who speaks in modern Japanese.
  • Wakabayashi is an author and is elated to know that Nao has read one of his books. He also gets a limited edition copy of The Lady Who Loved Insects featuring Manamo's endorsement message in HinaAi's 2021 Christmas gift exchange episode.
  • A Running Gag is the members struggling with reading kanji characters, which is probably why there aren't too many book lovers among them.
    • Despite this, there have been several segments where the members create mock book covers and synopses, which are then read aloud, played as skits, or even produced into a concept trailer.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  • In Mirei Sasaki's bread history class in Ganaoshi, Kasuga informs the class that bread was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese, along with guns, which leads Mirei to imagine that the Portuguese distributed the bread using "bread guns". The quip was immortalized as the title of her edition of the show's Blu-ray release.
  • Following many burikko gags and oogiri segments, the Burikko Championship introduces the Burikko Oogiri contests.
• Brief Accent Imitation: In episode 77, Kanagawa (not part of Kansai) native Ayaka Takamoto shows off her Kansai accent by chatting with her best friend, Nara (part of Kansai) native Mei Higashimura.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Mao Iguchi is bad at singing and dancing, has No Indoor Voice, and great at comedy, which inevitably made her this. She's also very Self-Deprecating, declaring herself at times "unfit to be an idol" and "member of the failure race". This goes on even after her graduation, as her YouTube channel was titled Wimpy Iguchi-san (now simply Mao Iguchi) and she tends to avoid mentioning her relationship with the group. She has also revealed in a now-deleted video that she was fired from her workplace's sales department for unprofessional conduct (e.g., falling asleep or having a hangover when attending meetings) and was transferred to an online community management division created just for her.
  • Kasuga is also a target for constant teasing. Even the members' parents poke fun at him in their survey answers in HinaAi episodes 67-68. His name also happens to be a homophone for "trash" (kasu).
  • Suzuka Tomita is a "loser character" as she tries and fails at many things. She's also not very good at handling actual compliments as she always expects to be made fun of.
  • Miku Kanemura is also among the least fortunate in the show's competitive segments, especially when going against Nao Kosaka, and is also awkward at taking compliments.
    Ganaoshi episode 12, after Wakabayashi remotely electric zapped her just to test the remote: Why am I always the bullied one?!
• Camp Straight: Kasuga wears a pink vest and often refers to himself with feminine Japanese Pronouns, but is Happily Married to his wife "Kumi-san" (same name with the captain) since 2019. He's even made to cosplay as a Takarazuka Revue member by Hiyori Hamagishi in an episode.
  • The fact that the magazine Friday exposed his cheating on her (only a week after his very public marriage proposal was aired on the TV show Monitoring) is often made fun of as a Running Gag, and he's sometimes called Kinyoubi ("Friday" in Japanese).
• Candid Camera Prank: There have been several episodes where they expose the members' antics in the dressing room through hidden cameras.
  • Episodes 81 and 82 are focused on the three 3rd gen members who joined after Hinano Kamimura, whom the production team felt have yet to shine since they're always drowned out by their aggressive seniors. They're put in a room with hidden cameras to find out how they act when their seniors aren't around, and several of their seniors and Kasuga are also sent in to see how they react to them.
• Cannot Spit It Out: In episode 192, Nao Kosaka reveals that Marie Morimoto couldn't gather the courage to ask for a twofie with her even after being in the group for three years, even though Nao herself didn't have a problem with doing it. Marie was later devastated when she learned that the fourth generation members, after only being in the group for a few months, had taken such pictures with Nao ahead of her. They finally took a twofie shortly after the episode was filmed in December 2022.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • In reference to the title meaning "Let's Meet at Hinatazaka", Kasuga opens each episode with "Kept you waiting, huh?" (待たせたなぁ). It's a Shout-Out to comedian Masayuki "Leader" Watanabe, and any similarities to Solid Snake are purely coincidental.
  • Hiragana Oshi's opening catchphrase is the explosion onomatopoeia "Chu-don!" followed by Kasuga's pretend coughing. This is borrowed by the members in the discussion segments included in the show's DVD box sets.
• Chick Magnet: Unlike his Butt-Monkey partner, Wakabayashi is favored by most members and episodes 33-34 are even about them competing to win his favor. In the remote episodes, he becomes a Casanova Wannabe (he allegedly becomes more forward due to not being in the same room as them) and compliments all the girls' looks through video conference, flustering them.
  • When Wakabayashi is absent from HinaAi episode 112's cooking episode due to illness, Kasuga is offended since the members still prepare their dishes with Wakabayashi in mind, ignoring him.
• Christmas Episode: Episode 138 is an early Christmas party, aired around two weeks before Christmas 2021, where the members, hosts, and some of the crew exchange presents.
• Collector of the Strange: Sarina Ushio owns a collection of unusual items, which earned her the nickname Sariemon. She's also been called the group's Cultural Rebel since most of her stuff are from Indonesia, such as a cobek (traditional herbs mortar), gamelan balls, a huge decorative tribal mask, and a full set of Balinese kebaya outfit. Wakabayashi jokes that HinaAi should visit her house to see her full collection.
  • A fan made covers of their songs using Naccho's "gadgets" as instruments (the only "real" instrument is a kalimba, which Naccho also plays).
  • In February 2021, she reveals that the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic has cut off her supply route from Indonesia and she can't get new items.^*In an interview, she revealed that said "route" is her father who often travels to Indonesia for business.
  • Subverted when she forgets to bring her gamelan ball during her appearance in Senzai Noryoku Test, that her conversation with Wakabayashi at the time is re-enacted in HinaAi episode 124 so she can make it right.
  • Aside from physical items, she has also demonstrated the Indonesian standardized aerobics, or SKJ (specifically the 1988 edition) in a deleted scene in the Miku Kanemura edition Oshi Blu-ray.
  • In episode 70 of HinaChoi Season 2, members who have lived overseas introduce foreign board games and she introduces the traditional game mancala (known as congklak in Indonesia).
• Comedic Underwear Exposure:
  • In the first part of the KASUKE segments, Kasuga's boxers slip out of his running shorts legs, and the stripe colors happen to be the same as Hina Kawata's lightstick colors (pink and yellow).
  • In episode 196, Kasuga changes from the shorts he was wearing into track pants for a segment right in front of everyone. While the third and fourth gens hysterically cover their eyes, their seniors just laugh it off as they're already adults and are used to Kasuga's antics.
• Comical Overreacting: Episodes 201-202 are about finding the next Akari Nibu, whom Wakabayashi names the "Pure Reaction Master" (PRM), among the new fourth generation members. However, the winner turns out to be founding member Kyoko Saito, due to her rarely-seen hysterical reaction.
• Confessional: Episodes 172-173 and 242 are about the members confessing their past wrongdoings, inspired by the 7th single coupling song "Mayonaka no Zange Taikai", and repenting to Kasugamisama ("Kasugod", who cosplays as Jesus). In episode 173's repentance segment, every single one of Kasuga's verdicts are overturned, letting those he ordered to repent off the hook and vice versa, and Kasugamisama himself is also made to repent to Suzuka Tomita, who is temporarily granted God status, for the questionable verdicts.
  • Members who could not join the recording separately make their confessions into a Confession Cam.
• Cool Teacher: The recurring segment "The Number One Class I Want to Teach in the World" is where members present their subjects of interest to the others in a classroom setting.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Episodes 207-208 expose the many antics of the group's 11 most clumsy (ponkotsu or tennen) members. Kasuga is especially confused by their stories and Wakabayashi has some fun coming up with Insane Troll Logic to justify their incomprehensible actions. Honoka Kishi wins the Most Valuable Tennen title.
  • In episode 198, Honoka Kishi reveals that she randomly picks her disposable contact lenses from a bag every day, and considers the days she gets the correct prescriptions (-2.0 and -1.5) her lucky days.
  • Miku Kanemura also has plenty of klutzy moments. Despite being a favored member of Wakabayashi's, she's often flustered when he says nice things about her, such as in episode 130. In her coming-of-age party in episode 227, she dresses up as a bodyguard and her Lawman Baton slips out of her hand just as she stepped into the studio.
  • Haruka Yamashita was an office worker before she joined the group, and shares in her introduction in episode 184 about the time when she was told to order a box of 10 packs of A4 paper, but got confused and ordered 10 boxes instead. In her "Sore wa Motteru de" segment appearance, she's also revealed to often mishear words for completely different ones, and is also easily pressured by salespeople into buying frivolous items.
• Cute Sports Club Manager: A segment in the first baseball training episode features the members as baseball club managers trying to console frustrated player Kasuga.
• Daddy's Girl:
  • Ayaka Takamoto often shares stories about the way her father spoils her.
    • In episode 153, Ayaka becomes the host and quizzes newbie fathers Audrey about parenthood, based on her father's answers on the show's questionnaire which had 32 essay questions.
  • Suzuka Tomita has revealed that her father loves trying new things and used to bring her along in his adventures, which became a major influence for her idol persona.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Shiho Kato often blurts out snarky comments, especially when it comes to Wakabayashi's favoritism.
  • Mana Takase's cutting remark, "That's Exaggeratin'!" (それは盛ってるで〜！ sore wa motterude!), becomes the basis for an entire recurring HinaAi segment. She later says it in English for the 7th single promotional video.
  • Hinano Kamimura is also this and once claims that she doesn't like it if others see her laugh because it might make them happy. However, she confesses in episode 107 that it has been exaggerated for TV and she's moving away from that persona.
• Description Porn:
  • In HinaAi episode 37, scriptwriter Satomitsu's disciple Konoka Matsuda offers a professional-sounding analysis of Hiyori Hamagishi's nominated line for the Quotes Award, from when Hiyori was about to eat a centipede.
    Kono: She begins by saying a deep line, "I'm thankful for its life", and follows up with "It stinks!" It's an effective combination of lead up and punchline, like she inflated it and then blew it up.
    Wakabayashi: This isn't a post-production meeting! Just say it's funny!
  • In a deleted scene from Mirei Sasaki's bread history class included in the Blu-ray, after Mei Higashimura's voiceless reaction and Shiho Kato's modest remarks, Yuka Kageyama gives an eloquent review of the daifuku croissant she's eating that astonishes both Wakabayashi and Kasuga.
• Dirty Old Man: He's not as bad as the likes of Muramoto or Ijiri Okada, but Kasuga occasionally makes rather creepy expressions and is sometimes too fixated on Akari Nibu. Wakabayashi calls him the group's "official pervert" (after Bananaman's "official brothers" title for Nogizaka46) in episode 36, but fortunately for him, it doesn't catch on.
  • In episode 43, which is to celebrate Kasuga's birthday, the members reveal stories about Nibu and would receive a piece of Kasuga's birthday cake if the story is interesting enough. However, Kasuga turns around and gives the cake to Nibu each time, arguing that it's her actions that gave them interesting stories to tell.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: HinaAi's is "Tokimeki Sou" from the group's first single, "Kyun".
• Dope Slap: In episode 76, Miku Kanemura demonstrates her gag of telling common occurrences in a brass band club between playing the hook of "One Night Gigolo" by The Checkers on her saxophone, and insists that Kasuga smack her in the head with a slipper she'd prepared as the final punchline.
• DVD Bonus Content: The DVD releases of the show include discussion sessions lead by the member on the cover art, as well as the usual deleted scenes, with notes on how many minutes were cut and the reason.
• Eat That:
  • In her "Snack Mao" segment, Hiyori Hamagishi reveals that she wants to try eating bugs, which is then immediately granted. While Manamo Miyata doesn't bother to conceal her disgust (a proper idol reaction according to Audrey), the deleted scenes revealed that several other members were also eager to try it off-camera.
  • In her first appearance in episode 183, after looking like she's about to faint when she stepped into the studio, Honoka Kishi proves her mettle by eating a deep-fried tarantula in a cutesy manner. The next episode, the other Honoka (Hirao) drinks a cup of vinegared mozuku in less than two seconds.
• Elemental Motifs: The first three hit prayer campaigns are related to the elements of air (bungee jumping), earth (long distance relay running), and water (dragon boat rowing).
• Embarrassing Animal Suit: In episode 8, Hina Kawata describes her fantasy future where she lives with a panda named Kurage ("jellyfish") in an apartment, and performs a short depiction of their daily life with Kasuga in panda makeup.
• Embarrassing Nickname:
  • Mei Higashimura used to be compared to 5-year-old kids due to her shyness and being Prone to Tears, and had the nickname "Yancharu Mei-chan" (Bratty Mei-chan) which she dislikes. She eventually grew out of her shyness and gave the name Yancharu to her fans as their fandom name.
  • Inverted when several members request that Wakabayashi call them by nicknames he's embarrassed to call them by, such as Shiho Kato's Tenshi (Angel), Ayaka Takamoto's Aya (specifically with a stern tone), and Konoka Matsuda's Macchan (the same as Hitoshi Matsumoto of Downtown, one of the most popular and respected comedy duos in Japan). By the way, Mei's preferred nicknames are her old Yancharu and Neko (Cat).
    • Years earlier, Mana Takase calls out Wakabayashi for his reluctance to call her "Manaphy" since he claims it's weird for a middle-aged guy to call young women with their nicknames, even though he approves of his favorite Nao Kosaka's nickname Kosakana. However, in practice he uses "Manaphy" more often than "Kosakana", as he tends to call Nao "Kosaka-san".
  • In a dating skit, Kyoko Saito asks her boyfriend, played by Kasuga, to call her by the pet name "Kyonkonyou", and the hosts point out that nyou means "urine".
  • In episode 82's hidden cam segment, Haruyo Yamaguchi refers to herself with her nickname in her private life, "Haru", and is later embarrassed that it became public knowledge after being caught on camera.
  • Sumire Miyachi and Kirari Takeuchi reveal their hated nicknames in their first appearance in episode 184, and obviously Wakabayashi proceeds to call them Sumiregend (Sumire + legend) and Kirarincho. Subverted as both of them later came to accept those nicknames, which even got printed on their fan towels.
• Erotic Eating:
  • Perhaps unsurprisingly, Manamo Miyata is good at this, as seen in episode 85. She claims that people often point out that she unintentionally does this in real life as well.
  • In episode 183, Honoka Kishi does this with a deep-fried tarantula, while Sumire Miyachi does the same during episode 184's Russian Wasabi Sushi game.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Episode 214 reveals the existence of the "Entering Kosaka's Heart Squad" (小坂の懐入り隊) and "Higashimura Gentlemanly Army" (東村男前軍団), consisting of Nao Kosaka and Mei Higashimura's close friends and admirers.
• Executive Veto: Discussed In-Universe; the members has occasionally pointed out that their management prohibits various comedic routines like making funny faces, but being variety buffs, they (especially the 1st gens) do it anyway. On Hinatazaka ni Narimasho episode 4, Yoko Shogenji's funny face attempt is actually censored.
• Fancy Dinner: Kasuga loses a (heavily rigged) competition against the girls which results in him having to treat the entire group (plus the production staff) to barbecue, as shown in HinaAi episodes 11-13. The girls insist on buying expensive ingredients and snacks on their supermarket trip and Miku Kanemura later orders sushi on top of that. It's also revealed in the end that all the picnic gear and cooking equipment are bought instead of rented, and he also has to foot the rented villa bill, which brings the total Shockingly Expensive Bill to around $10000, which he pays out of pocket.
• The Fashionista: Ayaka Takamoto is the group's fashion leader and aims to improve their fashion game, especially with tacky members like Akari Nibu and Haruyo Yamaguchi.
  • Akari Nibu has revealed that she once bought a bag that turned out to be so fashion-forward that only Ayaka can look good carrying it.
  • In episode 232, the members made dioramas of their summer holiday activities. Hiyori Hamagishi's depicts her and Ayaka's vacation to Okinawa, and Wakabayashi points out that the swimsuits she made for the paper models are very old-fashioned and unbecoming of the two fashion models (the actual ones they wore aren't shown).
• Feather Boa Constrictor: In Hiragana Oshi episode 41, Kyoko Saito presents a segment idea based around the reptile lover Nao Kosaka playing with snakes and other reptiles. In the first episode of Hinabingo!, Nao actually wears a jungle carpet python for the first time.^*Incidentally, Nogizaka46 former ace and fellow reptile lover Nanase Nishino did the same years earlier in the first episode of Nogizaka Kōjichū?, with two smaller pythons.
• Femme Fatale: Manamo Miyata's burikko antics are occasionally labeled "adult only" as a joke due to their seductiveness.
  • In a Ganaoshi deleted scene, Wakabayashi comments that her way of asking for allowance is more like talking to a Sugar Daddy than her real father (which is why the scene was deleted).
  • Her MM Sisters partner, Marie Morimoto, has said that she aspires to cultivate a sexy persona as well, although she ended up becoming known for her "crazy" character.
• Fictional Currency: Contests in HinaAi often give Chacha coins, named after Kasuga's dog, as reward. In a nod to cryptocurrency, the alleged exchange rate with real money varies wildly, at one point reaching three million yen to a Chacha (after Kasuga won that amount in Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?), but so far the coins have only been exchanged for opportunities to participate in games.
• Fictional Sport: Sushi Table Tug of War in HinaAi, inspired by comedian Takushi Tanaka's reaction to a rigged Sushi Russian Roulette segment (a more common variety show game where you lose if you eat a wasabi-filled piece; all of Tanaka's sushi contained wasabi) in his prank episodes.
• Finger-Forced Smile: Mana Takase didn't smile much when she joined the group, so she often did this to herself with a duckbill-shaped smile training tool to get used to it.
• First-Name Basis:
  • In episode 148, Satomitsu's comedy partner Manabu Kishi is invited to the show and the members obtain his permission to call him "Manabu-kun" to become closer. The next episode, he even allows them to omit the honorific and just call him "Manabu". Mana Takase also gives him the nickname Manabi after her own Manaphy.
  • In episode 254, Rio Shimizu points out that the hosts call Tamaki Ishizuka by her given name and she prefers the same as well, but the Audrey duo are reluctant to do the Significant Name Shift. Despite that, Wakabayashi does start to call members such as Hinano Kamimura by given name in the following episodes.
• Fortune Teller:
  • In episodes near New Year, they get predictions for their fortune from fortune teller Love Me Do. In the 2019 Lucky Girl Ranking in Oshi episode 38, he predicts that March 2019 would be a good time for the group and Nao Kosaka would have good luck that year. The group started their activities as Hinatazaka46 with the release of "Kyun" that month with Kosakana as center. However, his predictions for 2020 were much less accurate.
  • He predicts several times that Miho Watanabe, who aspires to do more acting jobs, will be involved with the Kamen Rider franchise, and in 2022, she starred in Good Morning, Sleeping Lion, which had many Kamen Rider veterans both in front and behind the camera.
  • Wakabayashi often accuses Love Me Do as a Dirty Old Man, as he sometimes suggests the girls wear certain costumes or do certain gestures to increase their luck which border on Fanservice. Some of the girls follow his suggestions nonetheless, such as Miho Watanabe who wears Punk Rock attire in a cosplay episode and Kaho Fujishima who starts puffing her cheeks to gain attention in episode 194.
  • In episode 239, Sarina Ushio's farewell episode, her final wish is to consult a fortune teller other than Love Me Do. The entire group participate in a series of games to win as much time as possible for her consulting session.
• Friendly Rivalry:
  • They hardly hate each other, but Miho Watanabe won't let anyone forget that Kasuga has made her cry twice: when she's intimidated by him in the basketball duel in their first meeting and when he wouldn't let her have the spotlight in a skit segment, causing the scene to be cut entirely. She describes him as her "business rival", and is slightly irritated that Kasuga won three million yen in his first attempt in Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, after she went home empty-handed thrice.
    • She's also pretty much evenly matched with the Sakurazaka46 show co-host Sawabe, who also played basketball in high school.
    • In her final appearance on the show, Miho finally gets her revenge on Kasuga in a basketball rematch.
    • Episode 177 is a contest to decide Kasuga's new rival, by pitting members against him in a competition of their choosing.
  • Takushi Tanaka of the comedy duo Ungirls often expresses his desire to crush Wakabayashi. He considers the group the latter's "underlings" and sometimes makes threats to publicly humiliate them. However, he has worked with the members in several shows and is fairly nice to them. Two entire episodes of HinaAi in December 2020 are dedicated to pranking him in various ways under the guise of having him teach the girls about comedy, and in February 2021 he's invited again to the show to actually do that. Although he's not a show regular, his Rage Breaking Point rant in said prank episodes won the 2021 Hinatazaka46 Quotes Awards, presented to him by his Ariyoshieeeee! collaborator Akari Nibu.
  • Rio Shimizu and Tamaki Ishizuka declare their mutual rivalry in their first appearance on HinaAi. Rio also becomes one to Mana Takase after she confesses her admiration of Kasuga.
    • In episode 191's Christmas romance skits episode, Rio inadvertently snubs Manaphy, who's set to portray a male high school student, by requesting Kasuga to play the male lead in her high school skit instead, leaving Manaphy to portray the supporting character who loses the heroine (played by Hina Kawata) to Kasuga's character.
  • In episode 219, Sumire Miyachi and Rina Watanabe are revealed to be in a friendly "competition" to befriend Nao Kosaka.
• Full-Name Basis: Kyoko Saitō's preferred moniker in HinaAi is "Saito Kyoko", while Miho Watanabe is usually called in the Western order.
• Fun with Acronyms: In episode 252, Mana Takase reveals that she took the trouble of obtaining a manual transmission (MT) driver's license (instead of the easier automatic) because it matches her initials. Ayaka Takamoto then claims that she holds an automatic transmission (AT) license for the same reason.
• Fun with Homophones:
  • In episode 147, Kyoko Saito guesses that the reason Manabu Kishi, Satomitsu's partner, hasn't appeared on the show since 2019 is because of his appearance fee (人件費 jinkenhi), but she wrote it as "human rights fee" (人権費, also jinkenhi).
  • Episode 193 is titled "Midnight when We Decide the Lucky Girl of the Year" ("Tsuki de Nenjo ga Kimaru Midnight"), a play on the song "Tsuki to Hoshi ga Odoru Midnight", as tsuki can mean both "moon" (月) and "luck" (付き).
  • In episode 195, Kyoko Saito emerges from behind a curtain, similar to the iconic door scene from The Shining, and it's captioned "Lunatiko Saito" (齊藤狂子) pronounced the same as her name.
  • In episode 202, when Yoko Shogenji laughs in both surprise and amusement after being zapped by an electric trick pen, the caption calls her "cheerful Laughgenji" (陽気な笑源司 youkina shougenji).
  • During a dodgeball game, the ball accidentally hits a studio decoration stand and a gold-colored star falls off it. Wakabayashi gives it to Kirari Takeuchi, as her name can also mean "sparkling".
• Fun with Subtitles: HinaAi is notable for having various deep-cut Inside Jokes related to the group or Audrey in its captions. To accomplish this, the production team habitually scours their blogs, SHOWROOM live streams, news articles, and other media for even the most minor throwaway lines. They also respond to Audrey and the members' comments about them in the captions, making it a variant of Interactive Narrator as well.
• Game Show Physical Challenge: There have been several segments featuring obstacle courses, such as the "Adults vs Minors Battle" and 2022's "KASUKE". Of course, nothing is lethal, but many obstacles are quite painful.
  • A mainstay of these segments is the reflexology mat, which has little plastic stones jutting out meant to stimulate the blood vessels or pressure points on the feet. In episode 154, the contestants are required to rope skip on it.
• The Generation Gap:
  • In episodes 162-163, the members try to get Wakabayashi to share their interests, which are mostly current for girls their age.
  • In episode 254, members under age 20 are interviewed to learn more about their age group, in order to increase the low number of the show's teenage viewership, while young adults Kumi and Mirei Sasaki act as intermediaries. Among other things, they wish to receive more of both compliments and constructive criticism, rather than unconstructive scolding or excessive coddling, and to reduce the formality between them and the older Audrey duo and production crew, such as by being addressed by their given names or without Japanese Honorifics like "-san". They also inform the hosts on which Emojis shouldn't be used to avoid looking old. For their part, the hosts are surprised that the teenagers willingly call themselves "Generation Z", thinking they would dislike such labels.
• Genre Shift: GanaOshi started out as just another idol show 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".
• Gentle Giant: Kasuga, as well as Hinabingo! hosts Sandwichman, are pretty imposing guys, especially next to the girls, but they're reasonably kind people. Hina Kawata also tends to admire this kind of men, such as Sandwichman and Riki Choshu.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals:
  • In episode 176, Mei Higashimura is revealed to keep a bear doll larger than her in her apartment, and dresses it up according to season.
  • In episode 195's giveaway segment, Hina Kawata gives Yoko Shogenji her tapir doll to add to Yoko's doll collection.
• Girly Bruiser: Third dan kendo rank holders Marie Morimoto and Akari Nibu have faced off against Kasuga. Yoko Shogenji is a karate brown belt and demonstrates part of the Heian Godan kata in her first appearance.
  • Despite this, in episode 188, unathletic Hina Kawata chooses Yoko as the member she might be able to defeat in sports since she's small (Yoko is actually slightly taller than Hina), and Wakabayashi warns her that such comments might have to be cut for being politically incorrect (obviously it wasn't).
• Good Luck Charm: Sarina Ushio is fond of these and has brought several to the show, including a gamelan ball (a silver spherical bell which sounds somewhat like a gamelan orchestra, also known as "harmony ball" or "dream ball"); a guiro frog figure; an evil-warding wand made of wood with brush-like decoration; and a palm-sized "lucky bean".
  • She also believes that her lucky number is 8, which also happened to be her audition number and her student number back in school. She has revealed that two of her fans got married on August 8 in reference to this.
  • In episode 239, her farewell episode, one of the games is to find a (plastic) Four-Leaf Clover in a grass box full of clovers.
  • Conversely, her sidelocks used to be very rigid since she used large amounts of gel to style them, leading to jokes that it contained evil spirits.
• Good Parents: In HinaAi episodes 66-68, Kasuga just had a daughter in real life and they discuss the tips and stories sent in by the girls' parents, as well as the girls' own stories, to help him become one (of course, there are plenty of embarrassing stories slipped in too). Kasuga believes that parents who could raise their daughters into Hinatazaka46 members must be exceptional and hopes his own can be one too someday, and occasionally takes reference from the members' upbringing such as the lessons and school clubs they participated in.
  • Parents that have caught Audrey's attention include Ayaka Takamoto's father (who aspires to play in the Japan Football League despite his age) and Mirei's parents (according to her, they'd be excited to participate in a fishing segment).
  • Episode 153 also commemorates the birth of Wakabayashi's first daughter and the fact that both hosts are now fathers. This time, the stories are only from Ayaka's father.
• Gratuitous English:
  • In her first appearance on Ganaoshi, when Mana Takase is about to demonstrate her special skill of English translation, she can't recall the Japanese word for "translate" (翻訳 hon'yaku), and says it in English instead.
    • She loses a chance to earn points during her participation in Yuka Kageyama's Hinachoi quiz episode because she couldn't remember the Japanese word for "prefectures" (都道府県 todofuken).
  • In episode 93, Wakabayashi points out that the episode's title, "Watashi no My Rule", means "My Rule of Mine".
  • In episode 106, Shiho Kato makes Manaphy request a zoo manager's cooperation for their 7th hit prayer campaign in English, even though he's Japanese.
• Guys are Slobs: Kasuga stinginess extends to his personal hygiene, such as taking showers only twice a week and not brushing his teeth daily, leading Konoka Matsuda to call him a failed human being. He has also revealed that back when he was still a bachelor, he washed his clothes only once every six months.
  • The answers to an oogiri question in episode 194, which asks what exists in the Wakabayashi household but not Kasuga, include toothbrush, toothpaste, and bathtub in reference to this.
  • In episode 204, Shiho Kato answers that Kasuga is the funniest comedian in Japan because of his pink vests and yellow teeth.
• Gyaru Girl:
  • Hiyori Hamagishi is often called one for her carefree attitude and looks (natural tan and brown-dyed hair).
  • In episode 224, Shiho Kato's team dress like gyarus and dance the Para Para.
  • In episode 254, Nanami Konishi reveals that she usually dresses like a gyaru when going out, but unlike actual gyarus, she's actually shy and finds it hard carrying a conversation.
• Happy Dance: Kumi Sasaki once came up with a celebration dance when they receive bubble tea in the catering, which is shown in one of the Blu-ray deleted scenes collections.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": In episode 232, Sarina Ushio recites her apology poem which ends with “minta maaf" ("I'm sorry" in Indonesian). The Audrey duo are distracted by the tama ("balls" in Japanese) sound in the middle.
• Height Angst: In HinaAi episode 133's baseball practice, the members are divided into the Giants and Tigers (after Tokyo and Osaka's rivaling teams), where the Giants consists of members over 160 cm in height.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: In episode 66, Mirei Sasaki shares that she once entered a locker at their rehearsal place to find out whether she'd fit inside, and got stuck for several minutes.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Many members have pet dogs, and so does Kasuga. Akari Nibu often discusses hers. Mirei Sasaki proposes a pet dog segment in episode 52 and has stated that one day she wants to set up an animal shelter, especially for abandoned pets in disaster-struck areas.
  • In the July 2022 three-part location shooting to reward the "Boku Nanka" hit prayer campaign winners, one of the places they visit is the Tsukuba Wanwan Land dog park, delighting the winners, half of whom are dog owners (Akari Nibu, Manamo Miyata, Marie Morimoto).
  • Kirari Takeuchi has revealed that she often has her mother back home in Hiroshima put her dogs on video call while she strokes a plushie to simulate holding them, which Wakabayashi compares to an immersive metaverse experience.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Mao Iguchi's singing is simply atrocious. She is also voted the worst dancer by the members, including herself, in Hiragana Oshi episode 25. A Running Gag is her singing right before Kyoko Saito, who has the group's most Beautiful Singing Voice.
• Hopeless Suitor:
  • Shiho Kato really wants to be favored by Wakabayashi, but he already has three favorites (Nao Kosaka, Ayaka Takamoto, and Miku Kanemura).
    • Subverted in HinaAi episode 42's Yomiuri Giants discussion, where Wakabayashi is pleasantly surprised that she carries a fan towel with his name on it... which is actually a fan towel of the baseball team's Akihiro Wakabayashi.
    • In HinaAi episode 95, she reveals the criteria for her ideal man, which are simply points picked from Wakabayashi's bio.
    • Slightly subverted when Wakabayashi agrees to call her Boku no Tenshi ("My Angel") if they appear together in shows other than HinaAi. Shiho later complains that even though she has subsequently been billed as "Hinatazaka46's Angel" in several media appearances, Wakabayashi himself hasn't honored the agreement, and he explains it's because he thinks she behaves more like a Shinigami.
  • Mana Takase is the same to Kasuga, since he's more into Akari Nibu. As Master in "Snack Mao", he even explains to her that Kasuga belongs to everyone, in effect rejecting her. He later comes to appreciate her as his #1 supporter, and the "That's Exaggeratin'!" segments, based on her remark in HinaAi, is allegedly his White Day gift for her.
    • Among the 4th gens, Rio Shimizu wishes to attract Kasuga's attention, but he's already partial to Kaho Fujishima. Of course, Mana Takase also won't let her get ahead.
  • In the "Snack Mao" segments, Master secretly fancies Mama and is extremely jealous whenever she flirts with regular customer Waka-chan.
• Horrible Housing: Kasuga's infamous former apartment, the Mutsumi-sou (Mutsumi Residence), with its cramped rooms and absence of a proper bathroom, is occasionally brought up (he moved to a larger apartment after getting married).
  • In Miho Watanabe's Snack Mao segment on Ganaoshi episode 32, he jokingly suggests that Miho shares more personal information with fans to capture their hearts, and gives an example by reciting his own home address (which is already public knowledge anyway).
• Hot Librarian: Book lover Manamo Miyata holds a librarian certification and often portrays this archetype. The show's wardrobe department even reserved a pair of red glasses for her use.
• The Idiot from Osaka: The free-spirited, thrifty, Yomeishu-drinking Hyogo native Mirei Sasaki fits this the most (although she rarely speaks the dialect). While the group is rather comedy-oriented, the actual Osaka natives, Mana Takase and Nao Kosaka, unexpectedly present themselves more as tsukkomi (Straight Man) characters.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Akari Nibu has a rather peculiar fashion sense, particularly socks and sweatshirts with questionable illustrations.
  • Some of these outfits became popular with her fans, especially a mustard-colored sweatshirt with an illustration of a bear and chicks lounging on a sofa, helpfully captioned with "Bear and Chicken" (misquoted as "Chicken and Bear" by Miku Kanemura).
  • Aside from the expected bikini and lingerie shots, the most discussed pictures of her 2022 photobook include those of her changing into wool undershorts with a bear picture on it, which she found comfortable in the Aomori winter.
• Infomercial: In episode 195, since many of the new fourth generation members came from outside the Kanto region, their seniors present items they'd like to give away to help them settle in infomercial-style demonstrations. Amusingly, Hina Kawata brought in an actual bed just for offering a small stuffed tapir, which supposedly can help get a good night's sleep by "absorbing bad thoughts".
• Informed Ability: Despite being among the worst of the group in athletic prowess, Mana Takase claims to have received an "A-badge" for physical education back in the UK, where she played a sport similar to baseball called rounders. To be fair, she does pretty well in the baseball segments; her recorded 50-meter run time is also above the general average but below the group's average, since in her words, "Hinatazaka is abnormal".
  • She's vindicated in episode 188, in which the 4th gen members' athletic abilities are tested, as she would've ranked fourth in 50-meter running if compared to them (even Rio Shimizu, the 4th gen's fastest, is only ninth fastest when compared to the group).
• Intergenerational Friendship: Wakabayashi has pointed out in Audrey's TV show, Achikochi Audrey, that it's very unusual for middle-aged guys like Audrey to get along so well with young women like them, and that Audrey didn't become close with the other idol groups they worked with. He also confessed that working with the group made them realize that people in general actually want to get along beyond the superficial. The girls have also become known to often guest in Audrey's other shows. One of the show's directors remarked in an interview that unlike in other shows, the Audrey duo don't feel like mentors or seniors to the members, but equals of the same mental age.
  • When he meets Nogizaka46's Mizuki Yamashita in another show, he gifts her socks and umbrella in light blue instead of that group's purple, since he doesn't want to "betray" Hinatazaka46.
  • The group's biography book's Twitter account even mentioned that they had considered making an "Episode 0" about Audrey.
  • In episode 66, even Yuka Kageyama, who just returned from hiatus, is shocked when Wakabayashi reveals that Shiho Kato and Suzuka Tomita put him through an embarrassing body shape check when they were in Miyazaki Prefecture for location shooting.
  • The Generation Gap is apparent for example in Audrey's enthusiasm, and the girls' lack thereof, for Kinnikuman and Hanzawa Naoki. A Running Gag is that Kumi Sasaki often gets Audrey's references, solidifying her "middle-aged woman" character.
    • For Kasuga's 44th birthday in episode 196, they play retro games like Family Trainer on the Famicom and discuss Kasuga's other favorite anime, Fist of the North Star.
  • In episode 2 of Audrey's reality show Ja Night Audrey partly recorded during a HinaAi recording, the duo are given the task of making the recording enjoyable for both the members and crew, and they again discuss the importance of socializing off-camera. They also confess that the group's 2022 Tokyo Dome concert inspired them to aim higher in their career, and in March 2023, they announced that they've been scheduled to perform comedy live at the venue the next year.
  • When Kasuga was researching recent trends for the 9th single hit campaign (he wanted to help out as it's centered by his favorite member Akari Nibu), he somehow found the not-so-recent Mannequin and Ice Bucket challenges. Fortunately, he decided on having them making trending TikTok videos instead.
• Intimacy Via Horror: In episode 219, Haruyo Yamaguchi is accused of often making other members watch horror movies with her to become closer, which Kasuga points out is a dating trick from old teenage boy magazines.
• Japanese Delinquents:
  • Miho Watanabe's character, Kamisori Miho (Razor Miho). The character's costume are actually her personal items, implying that she likes to dress up as a yankee in real life.
  • Hina Kawata is normally quite soft-spoken, but she once gave a Trash Talk in yankee speak in a GanaOshi game segment, and since then the captions often imitate that speech pattern when commenting on her. Her childhood photos that have been revealed also tend to show her with a sullen expression.
  • In episode 257, Shiho Kato shares that during the filming of the "Kimi wa Honeydew" MV, she and Kumi Sasaki did impressions of yankees from the film Crows to entertain themselves between retakes. They proceed to reenact it with Kasuga portraying a male yankee, ending with Wakabayashi taking him down with a surprise Diving Kick.
• Kawaiiko:
  • The song "Azato Kawaii" ("Cunningly Cute") is about this a girl who's allegedly deliberately acting cutesy to catch the attention of the singer. The hit campaign for the album Hinatazaka, for which it's the main song, involves them fishing at sea, since cunning girls are also called "fishers" (as in catching others' hearts).
  • Memi Kakizaki narrowly beats Manamo Miyata as group's top burikko in Hiragana Oshi episode 25. Both of them often hog the camera with their burikko gestures.
  • In episode 54, Miho Watanabe marks several members as either "natural" (天⃝ maruten, literally "circled ten", short for tennen) or "faking" (や⃝ maruya, "circled ya", from やってる yatteru, "doing [on purpose]"). Since then, a Running Gag is a member (usually Miho or Manamo) doing a cutesy impression and other members sternly raising a maruya sign in response... and then doing the same thing not long after. This unfortunately started after Memi already graduated. A fan compiled their "alignment" into a handy chart.
  • They actually have done two Burikko Championships in HinaAi, first proposed by Miho Watanabe. Wakabayashi points out that the show might have invented the Burikko Oogiri (witty one-liner contest).
  • Fourth generation members such as Sumire Miyachi and Honoka Kishi have displayed their knack for this in their debut appearance on the show, ensuring that the burikko tradition would continue on despite Miho and Manamo's departure in August 2022 and January 2023.
• Last-Name Basis: Everybody calls Akari Nibu "Nibu-chan". Wakabayashi likes to tease her by calling her "Akari-chan" or "Nibu" (without honorific), both of which sound overly friendly to her.
  • In episode 168, everybody's visibly shocked that Wakabayashi calls her Akari-chan, but she doesn't react since she's too happy that they're at a theme park.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Evangelion fan Shiho Kato appears as the Bifauxnen Katoshinji in the 2022 White Day episodes, complete with interface headsets (the anime was also broadcast on TV Tokyo, which probably helped on the legal side of things).
• Leitmotif:
  • In general, a member's solo or unit song is played when she's in focus of the camera.
  • When Ayaka Takamoto's Book Dumbness is being discussed, the background music usually changes to the Doraemon BGM for the series' underachieving protagonist Nobita.
  • The burikko theme is titled "Flower Garden on the Hill".
• Lesser Star: Since it's well known that Wakabayashi came up with most of Audrey's material and he mostly takes control of the flow of this show, the members sometimes joke that Kasuga is just riding on his partner's coattails and it's more beneficial to be on Wakabayashi's good side. Of course, both of them are popular entertainers with plenty of solo and duo works, and episode 192 celebrates Kasuga being named the entertainer with the most TV appearances in 2022 by media statistics company M Data (the members point out that Nihon Monitor put him at #3).
• Lethal Chef:
  • The relay Cooking Duel in Hiragana Oshi episode 30 has to be seen to be believed (the first part in episode 29 is much more decent), especially Kyoko Saito's parts which have to be edited into still images to avoid grossing the viewers out (and embarrassing her) too much. Even the always composed Manamo Miyata loses her cool after seeing her handiwork (her horrified remark was immortalized as the title of Kyoko's edition of the show's DVD releases).
    Manamo: Kyoko-san, what have you done?!
    • Kyoko Saito demonstrates her ineptitude again in later episodes. Terrifyingly, her dream is to open a ramen shop. She's also voted the "least wife material" in Hinabingo! by the other members largely due to this.
    • A HinaAi episode about personal growth features her finally being able to serve an edible omurice, although the preparation process is far from smooth. She cooks again for a professional chef, who also praises the result but chews her out about the process, in an episode of Kyoccorohee.
  • Episodes 215-216 features twelve of the senior members in a similar duel against the fourth generation members. Among the juniors, Mitsuki Hiraoka, Sumire Miyachi, and Yoko Shogenji are good at cooking and lay out the groundwork, but their efforts are unfortunately undermined by the ineptitude of members like Tamaki Ishizuka, Nanami Konishi, and Honoka Hirao. Meanwhile, the senior members get shorter screentime as they've become much better at it (incidentally, Kyoko isn't on the team). The seniors win, although only by 3 points, as the doria they made for Kasuga is unsatisfactory and tastes more like taco rice.
• Let's Duet: In earlier episodes, Suzuka Tomita has a gag with Wakabayashi in which she persuades him to duet a Koda Kumi song.
• Love Chart: Episode 16 features a love chart describing the girls' relationships to Audrey and each other. It is later updated in episode 102, and again in episode 219 with the fourth generation members.
• Mistaken for Junkie: In episode 233, where the members propose ideas for commercials, Sarina Ushio promotes Tolak Angin cough drops (an Indonesian product, natch), but for some reason claims that it would bring calmness of the mind ("ketenangan pikiran" in Indonesian). Wakabayashi has to ask to ensure that the product is legal.
• Multiple Demographic Appeal: The bantering and generation gap between Audrey and the girls is a major appeal of the show. It's also often lampshaded that the show's creative team are mostly older men who create segments based on their interests (e.g. old TV shows, baseball, horse racing), and there have been several episodes where the girls are asked to present segment ideas that relate to their own age groups.
  • The Audrey duo often points out that the show includes segments that might be frowned upon in Reiwa-era television, such as dropping tin washbasins onto the head or showing members playing with physical cash money.
• Name Order Confusion: One of Miho Watanabe's nicknames is simply her name in the Western order.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Several nicknames have been born or popularized on the show.
  • Mei Higashimura: "Cheetah of Nara"
  • Miho Watanabe: "Last Boss", "Saitama-born Raging Detonator", "Razor Miho"
• Naturalized Name: Mana Takase reveals in episode 174 that when she lived in the UK, she was the only one in her class without a middle name and her homeroom teacher and classmates decided to give her one. It came down to either Hamster or Rosie, and in the end she became Mana Rosie Takase.
• Neologizer:
  • Kasuga often fumbles his speech and the mispronounced words are jokingly called Kasuga-ese. He has even released a calendar with his original words of the day.
  • In HinaAi episode 29's buzzer quiz game, Akari Nibu loudly yet mistakenly answers that Miyazaki Prefecture's specialty dish, fried chicken with tartar sauce, is called tartar chicken (it's actually chicken nanban). The food companies Belc and Koike-ya actually changed their Chicken Nanban product names into Tartar Chicken for some time.
    • Konoka Matsuda actually presses the buzzer first (the camera even zooms in on her), but Kasuga is biased towards Nibu and lets her answer first (Konoka answers correctly after that). Konoka's bewildered expression and "Eh, seriously?" (え、本当に？) quip also become a minor Running Gag.
    • Nibu developed her gaffe into a gag where another person gives her a word and she chains it in solo Shiritori until she arrives at "tartar chicken". This game became one of the main themes of the hit campaign for the 9th single, centered by her.
  • In HinaAi episode 33, Hinano Kamimura 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 (元気田, not a real Japanese name).
    • In the deleted scenes on the home media (Miku Kanemura's edition), Kasuga actually portrays Genkida the branch manager, who parodies Hinano's speech pattern.
    • In the long-distance walking hit campaign for the tenth single, centered by Hinano, the rest spots are called Genkidashiten in recognition of the phrase.
  • Since azatoi (cunning) generally has a negative connotation, Miho Watanabe coined the term "azative" (azatoi + positive) to describe the group's brand of burikko.
• The Nicknamer:
  • In episode 76, Yuka Kageyama shows off her special skill of coming up with nicknames consisting only of kanji characters (according to a test, she's on the 80th percentile in Japanese proficiency).
  • Kumi Sasaki is revealed to have come up with many of the members' nicknames, such as Sarina Ushio's Naccho, Nao Kosaka's Kosakana, and Yoko Shogenji's Masa.
  • In episode 172, Hina Kawata shows off her quick nicknaming ability, which is useful when fans ask for one in meet-and-greets.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Konoka Matsuda's early gag is impersonating Mana Ashida.
  • Akari Nibu's recurring Bifauxnen character is Kichi Suzuki, a parody of actor Fuku Suzuki (both 吉 kichi and 福 fuku mean "luck"). By the way, Fuku Suzuki is known for his collaborations with Mana Ashida when they were child actors.
• Noodle Incident: A Running Gag is the members referring to their 2018 stage play Ayumi and events occurring around it, and both hosts getting more and more curious about the play.
• The Nose Knows:
  • In Ganaoshi episode 2, Ayaka Takamoto demonstrates her special skill of telling the 1st generation members apart only by scent. She gets all 3 people correct.
  • In episode 259, Yoko Shogenji attempts the same skill. She gets 3 out of 5 people correct, including Kasuga, and ironically only one from the 4th generation (Rina Watanabe).
• No Sense of Direction: In episodes 207-208, Sarina Ushio reveals that she often misses the train station where she's supposed to alight and has to go back and forth several times. Honoka Kishi then comments that she's the same.
• Ojou:
  • Sarina Ushio is implied to be Secretly Wealthy several times. First is when she shows a picture of her grandparents' Japanese garden in Keyakitte, Kakenai? episode 97, then when she puts up her large collection of fridge magnets (from countries she's actually visited with her family) for barter in Keyabingo!4 episode 10, and again when it's revealed that for a long time she couldn't do simple chores like drying laundry, let alone cooking. Her speech pattern is also often pointed out to indicate a privileged upbringing.
    • She has revealed that when she first appeared in variety shows, she was very reluctant to do things that would be considered rude in real life, such as sitting on Kasuga's photo. She still got depressed after they thoroughly pranked comedian Takushi Tanaka for three episodes in late 2020.
    • She has also revealed that until middle school, her piggy bank doubled as a Swear Jar for when she spoke in a less-than-polite (not necessarily rude) manner.
    • In 2022, she got certified in "Elegance Manner" and teaches parts of it in episode 179.
  • Marie Morimoto used to live in Paris, and has revealed that her house has a private gym (which according to Mikuni Takahashi is pretty big) and sauna (although it's possibly just the portable type revealed in episode 195 instead of an actual room). Like Ushio, she's also noted for her refined gestures, and Ayaka Takamoto describes her as an "ojou natural burikko" (a contradiction since burikko is by definition faking cuteness). Of course, this doesn't prevent her from later being known for her numerous antics, which developed into her "crazy" (激ヤバ) persona.
• Older and Wiser: Kumi Sasaki yearns for the wisdom that comes with age in order to become a better mentor figure to her juniors, and in episode 245 aired in January 2024, they celebrate her 30th birthday two years early to support that goal.
• Older Than They Look: In episode 250, in which members are separated by age group into Teams Adult, Young, and Kids for the contests, Team Adult member Suzuka Tomita protests that Akari Nibu, who's the same age as her, is put into Team Young, while Team Young members complain that Haruyo Yamaguchi, who's short in stature but is actually 20, is put into Team Kids. Wakabayashi concludes that the division was based more on "lookism" than actual age.
• Old Maid: Even before she actually turned 25, Kumi Sasaki has been the butt of various "auntie" jokes. Mao Iguchi is actually older than her, but she's already so Self-Deprecating that age jokes won't work on her anymore.
  • In a 2023 episode, Rina Watanabe, the youngest member at the time, wishes that Kumi would "find happiness" soon.
  • In episode 227, Miku Kanemura reveals that she was fond of the collectible card game Love & Berry as a child, and everybody can relate to that... except Kumi. Sarina Ushio explains to the Audrey duo that it was popular among girls born in and after 1997, again accidentally making fun of Kumi, who was born in 1996.
    By the way, Miku and Mirei Sasaki, who also mentioned the game in a HinaChoi episode, get to visit the Sega offices to play the nostalgic game again in a Hinatazaka Channel video.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • During Honoka Kishi's debut appearance in episode 183, the Audrey duo point out that she shares her name with their frequent collaborator and the show's occasional guest, comedian Manabu Kishi.
  • In episode 245, Kasuga reads a letter congratulating Kumi Sasaki on her 30th (actually 28th, but she really wanted to be 30; It Makes Sense in Context) birthday, without mentioning who it's from. Near the end, the letter encourages Kumi to became a wonderful person like Kumi-san, Kasuga's real-life wife, as the letter turns out to be from Kasuga himself.
• Only Sane Man:
  • In episode 66, Wakabayashi points out that Yuka Kageyama is the only one among the members who considers how far they can make fun of the Audrey duo.
  • In episode 124, comedian Takashi Yoshimura, who co-stars with Wakabayashi in several other shows, is invited as witness to ensure that Wakabayashi honors his promise to call the members by their preferred nicknames should they appear in those shows. While he's quite a loud person himself, he's increasingly baffled by the nicknames and the scenarios the girls come up with to test them out, let alone Wakabayashi's willingness to actually adopt the nicknames. In the end, he begs to be blacklisted from the show, in contrast to him blacklisting Kanji Keyakizaka46 years before due to their lack of variety show enthusiasm.
    Yoshimura: I thought it was going to be a serious competition, but everything was just a farce! Please ban me from this show!
  • Nao Kosaka maintains a dignified presence as the group's foremost ace... except when she's geeking out about dinosaurs and reptiles.
  • Between Cloud Cuckoo Lander Hinano Kamimura, The Napoleon Haruyo Yamaguchi, and self-proclaimed Teen Genius Marie Morimoto, Mikuni Takahashi is the most level-headed of the third generation members.
• Original Character:
  • In Kasuga's birthday episode, the members present their creations that might fit into the Kinnikuman universe.
  • They do it again with different characters in a Hinabingo! episode, three of which (Hina Kawata's Gon, Kyoko Saito's Muyu, and Hinano Kamimura's Mochimaruko) are developed by professional animators into Virtual Celebrity-like interactive animated characters.
  • Before Muyu, Kyoko Saito also accidentally created Niimaru, originally her illustration of a tadpole's grown form (she didn't recognize that the given picture is of a tadpole) from their first academic test.
  • In episode 209, Honoka Hirao's old notebook is shown, in which she described her fictional original idol group and its dozens of members.
• Otaku:
  • Audrey are obsessed with Kinnikuman and baseball, and a Running Gag is them discussing those topics at length among themselves and ignoring the confused members. The group receive a Kinnikuman crash course on Kasuga's birthday episode and become slightly more knowledgeable on the subject, especially Konoka Matsuda, and memorable scenes from the manga become Running Gags as well. Another gag is Wakabayashi's refusal to reference newer works like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
    • They've also become fans of the group, or ohisama. Both, especially Wakabayashi, have a soft spot for Nao Kosaka since she's the only one in the very first episode of Hiragana Oshi who correctly guesses, and is enthusiastic, that they would be the hosts. Wakabayashi also proudly shows his bias for Ayaka Takamoto, and later Miku Kanemura also won the "right" to be favored through a competition; a Running Gag is Shiho Kato doing anything she can to also be favored by Wakabayashi. Wakabayashi has revealed that his wife disapproves of his favoritism, not out of jealousy, but because she believes it's unethical.
    • Meanwhile, Kasuga is very partial to Akari Nibu, and later comes to acknowledge Mana Takase as his #1 supporter, turning them into a Love Triangle. With the arrival of the 4th gens, Kaho Fujishima has become his next favorite, although she usually acts annoyed by it (she revealed on her blog that she exaggerated it for the show).
    • Many of the members consider themselves Audrey fans, or Little Tooses, especially Konoka Matsuda. They also pick favorites with the duo, with most apparently favoring Wakabayashi while Mana Takase is staunchly on Team Kasuga. Manaphy even celebrated Kasuga's birthday with a cake for herself like many otakus do, which surprised the other members.
  • Kumi Sasaki loves One Piece and sees Luffy as her role model as captain. In HinaAi episode 74, she sends off the members going to sea to catch amadai fishes with a rendition of "We Are" on the trumpet (which she's usually bad at playing). Her birthday and appreciation segment in episode 143 also features her in a separate section of the studio reading the manga in her pajamas, while pretending not to hear the other members singing her praises.
  • Hiyori Hamagishi is passionate about Takarazuka Revue. She has dressed up Kasuga as Takarazuka-style character Tsubasa Haruno, and in episode 96 cosplays herself as Prince Heart Royal.
    • In the Japanese name order, Haruno Tsubasa and Waka Hibiki (the stage name she came up with for Wakabayashi) are homophones for "wings of spring" (春の翼) and "echo of poetry" (和歌響).
  • Mitsuharu "Satomitsu" Sato, another comedian who's the regular host for the hit prayer challenges, is mentor to Konoka Matsuda and is known to send her gifts (mostly Audrey merch, but everybody assumed he'd given her clothes he wanted to see her wearing) and teach her some scriptwriting (he's a scriptwriter for several Hinatazaka shows). He's also known for crying Manly Tears every time the girls succeed at the given challenges, since he "also has a [young] child".
    • For the 5th single hit prayer, he sent the entire group matching T-shirts, except for Konoka's which says "Kono Shika Katan" ("Kono is the Best") instead of "Kimi Shika Katan". Konoka's shirt also has a hidden encouragement message from him.
• Pie in the Face: In her "Snack Mao" appearance, Akari Nibu gets her wish of experiencing this.
• Pom-Pom Girl:
  • Rio Shimizu and Tamaki Ishizuka were high school cheerleaders, whose schools competed in the Summer Koshien national high school baseball championship, and show off their moves in their first appearance in episode 183. Suzuka Tomita, who introduces them in the segment, takes the chance to remind everyone that she was also a child cheerleader for Team Venus, the Yomiuri Giants' cheerleading squad.
  • In episode 227, Mitsuki Hiraoka reveals a photo from her high school cheerleader days, which she had only alluded to a few times previously (her school also made it to Koshien, and as she's older than Rio and Tamaki, it means she appeared there earlier than both of them).
  • In HinaNari episode 2, Rina Watanabe reveals that she's also a former cheerleader, but didn't talk much about it as she hadn't appeared in a major event like Koshien like the others (she was in middle school, while Koshien is a high school event).
• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: In episode 170, Mikuni Takahashi reveals that a former classmate of hers doesn't watch TV and doesn't know that she's an idol, and Mikuni used to tell her that when she came to school late or left early due to work, it was for her part-time job at a fast food joint since she was embarrassed to tell the truth. Wakabayashi suggests that the entire group come to her to reveal the truth in a future episode.
• Pressure Point: Mana Takase has some knowledge in reflexology, which is handy for variety shows. One of Nao Kosaka's special skills is withstanding the pain from said treatment.
• Product Placement:
  • Promoting the group's releases is a given. Besides that, Kasuga has plugged his wife's LINE stamp collection featuring their dog Chacha.
  • In episode 227's coming-of-age celebration for members born in 2002, Miku Kanemura specifically requested the nama (literally "raw") chocolate brand Bunzoo for the afternoon tea party segment. In a Hinatazaka Channel video, Miku reveals that the brand was in fact founded and is still operated by her real granduncle, who's also credited as the inventor of nama chocolate itself, as she visits him during the New Year's holidays.
• Professional Voice Dissonance: In the episode 81, Kumi Sasaki reveals that Marie Morimoto often raises her voice pitch by almost two octaves when talking to fans to sound cuter.
• Proud Beauty:
  • In episode 174, the team that happens to be all exclusive fashion models (Mirei Sasaki, Miku Kanemura, Ayaka Takamoto) call themselves Team Osha ("Stylish"). Another team consisting of the group's tallest members (Mikuni Takahashi and two models, Kumi Sasaki and Hiyori Hamagishi) are Team Tenmade Todoku Bijotachi ("Sky-reaching Beauties").
  • Subverted in episode 179, when Sarina Ushio enlists three of the group's regular models (Mirei Sasaki, Kumi Sasaki, Shiho Kato) to demonstrate the ladylike way to carry handbags, in which they fail hilariously.
  • In episode 250, in which everyone wagers their favorite lunch box menu for the contests, Kumi Sasaki wagers the Pariya premium lunch box, popular among fashion models, subtly showing off her familiarity with the brand.
• Proverbial Wisdom: In episode 211, the members come up with proverbs inspired by their own experiences. Unsurprisingly, most of them sound more like Inside Jokes than actual wisdom.
• Purple Prose: In the Ganaoshi deleted scenes included in the Blu-ray, literature student Manamo Miyata reads her flowery original story prologue, which was partially cut from episode 21 for being way longer than the others'.
• Pursue the Dream Job: One of the main purposes of the show is to showcase the girls' individual abilities to get them jobs outside the group, and episodes like 83-86 are dedicated to this.
  • Yuka Kageyama's bio shown in Ganaoshi episode 1 mentions her admiration of actress Kanna Hashimoto. In 2021, they co-starred in a live-action adaptation of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, and became friends during production after Kanna noticed that very same bio circulating on Twitter. In Ganaoshi episode 9, she also mentions her interest in promoting soccer (in the deleted scenes) and participating in quiz shows, which also came true. Her presentation on Detective Conan in episode 179 also led to the group's collaboration with the franchise on the mobile game Hinakoi, as well as her own cameo appearance in a special Conan anime episode to commemorate the Japan League's 30th anniversary (the titular detective is also passionate about soccer).
    • In episode 222, Akari Nibu's multiple-choices question for Kage's graduation quiz has the names of the Junior Detective League members from Conan as the options, as one of them shares her name with the group's legendary stage play, Ayumi.
  • Mei Higashimura's great performance in the sport segments earned her several appearances on Ninja Warrior.
  • Suzuka Tomita first mentions that she wants to become a highway brand ambassador in Ganaoshi episode 9 in 2018, and she presents about the joys of driving on the highway in HinaAi episode 180 in October 2022. In episode 192, aired in January 2023, she reports that she actually became one for the Shuto Expressway renewal project in December 2022 (only a year later from her stated goal of 2021). She also became the host of the Super Formula information show Go On! Next Circuit de Aimashō, later shortened to just Circuit de Aimashō, and was then officially appointed the racing series' brand ambassador.
  • In episode 8, aired in 2019, Kyoko Saito reveals that she aspires to produce her own cup ramen brand, which taste would be the same as her favorite Jjigae Miso Ramen from the Hidakaya chain, and with a commercial imitating the Coco Ichibanya TV spot in which the group appeared at the time. In 2023, Hidakaya (which had honored her with the title "Jjigae Miso Angel" in 2021) actually released the Jjigae Miso limited-edition cup ramen in collaboration with Cupstar (a cup ramen brand whose commercials often feature Hinatazaka46 and Nogizaka46) and Kyoko herself, whose likeness was displayed on the lids. Kyoko even reprised the aforementioned proposed commercial in one of the promotional videos.
• The Quiet One:
  • Mei Higashimura rarely talks on TV shows and even her mother once sent Audrey a letter suggesting that they only ask her simple "yes/no" questions and rehearse them beforehand. They go further and provide her with "Yes" and "No" signs (and a "Toos!" one for when neither apply), in case she still won't respond with her voice. However, she gradually becomes more communicative and, in episode 219, is revealed to be in charge when going out with junior members, especially the fourth generation ones.
    • The similarly quiet Hina Kawata is also revealed to have grown in assertiveness in the same episode.
  • Nao Kosaka doesn't talk much in their variety shows, except when the hosts, who favor her, ask her first. She believes she's a hikikomori in a previous life, as she's a very indoor person, rarely went out with friends, and always wore a face mask back in her school days. Being from Osaka (Japan's center of comedy), she's quite an effective tsukkomi when she chooses to, and once laments that because of her looks and image, people often assume she can't be funny. In 2021, she got her own radio program, where she has proved that she can indeed be talkative.
  • Hiyori Hamagishi is also quite shy and sometimes talks in barely more than a whisper in her earlier TV appearances. She eventually grew out of it, but her shyness is somehow replaced by her tendency for uncontrollable laughter.
• Rage Against the Author: Wakabayashi often jokingly calls the show's production house, Kmax, a black company for "abusing" the members through the increasingly outrageous segments they put in the show.
  • It sometimes gets a little too real, such as in episode 168 where they didn't prepare enough breakfast for the members despite the episode being quite physical.
• Real Trailer, Fake Movie: Shiho Kato wins a teaser writing contest in Hiragana Oshi episodes 20-21 and it's produced into a trailer for an Affectionate Parody of Harry Potter and Star Wars, starring Kumi Sasaki and Mao Iguchi. Kumi's signature magic spell is "Wakabayashi", pronounced like it's an English word. The film's title, Kiku-chan's Wonderful Journey (きくちゃんの愉快な旅), would also be referenced in the title of Shiho's edition of the Ganaoshi Blu-ray box set, "Toshi-chan and Her Merry Friends" (としちゃんと愉快な仲間たち).
• Rousing Lullaby: In episode 180, Marie Morimoto gives a dubious lesson about how to fall asleep quickly, which includes eating rare cheesecake before going to bed and playing the rap song "Revenge" by Awich at maximum volume.
• Running Gag: Aside from the numerous multi-episode ones mentioned throughout this page, in Ganaoshi episode 17's oogiri (one-liner contest), Nao Kosaka makes a repeated gag by giving the same one-liner to describe four photos in succession: "Whoa, it's Kasuga!"
• The Scottish Trope: There have been so many stories of Marie Morimoto's outrageous antics, both told by herself and other members, that the Audrey duo and the narrator sometimes consider her name unspeakable as a joke and refer to her as just "That Person" (アイツ aitsu).
• The Scrooge:
  • Kasuga has long been known as a stingy person, and in several episodes he's pressured into giving huge treats to the members.
  • Mirei Sasaki is also quite thrifty and is willing to shop around for groceries in order to save pennies.
  • Despite her allegedly well-off family, Marie Morimoto has revealed that she'd rather wake up at 3 AM to switch her charger between her gadgets instead of purchasing another charger (Kumi later bought her one), and still wears her worn-out school shoes instead of buying a new pair only for her last year in school.
  • Yoko Shogenji reveals in episode 192 that she likes to turn off her air conditioner just to see how many days she could endure it, which Kasuga highly approves. In episode 209, Yoko reveals the catchphrase her parents came up with for her, "Summer-loving, AC-sparing Thrifty Girl".
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Many members wear suits in their coming-of-age episodes.
  • In episode 227, Nao Kosaka dresses up as Rio Futaba of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (although that character is a Teen Genius, not an adult), while Miku Kanemura became a bodyguard, inspired by Yoko Maki's character from the 2007 series SP (Security Police), wearing a black suit and earpiece and carrying a Lawman Baton (which slips out of her hand the moment she extends it).
  • In episode 245, which celebrates Kumi Sasaki's 30th birthday two years early, she attempts to channel Anne Hathaway's character in The Intern.
• Shirtless Scene: Kasuga occasionally takes off his top to show off his bodybuilder physique, such as in a sketching contest and the impromptu Sumo Wrestling duel with comedian Kenji Hamatani in HinaAi episode 13. He's actually a former K-1 fighter and has released his own bodybuilding videos.
• Shoe Size Angst: The show sometimes discusses the unofficial "L Senbatsu" ("L Selection"), consisting of members with large shoe sizes. It started with Kumi Sasaki, and Ayaka Takamoto, Hiyori Hamagishi, Hinano Kamimura, and Mikuni Takahashi later also qualify, to their chagrin. The only one happy to be inducted is Yoko Shogenji, whose feet became large due to karate training, as it might help her get closer to her seniors. Wakabayashi also points out that this kind of gag might be seen as outdated in modern entertainment.
• Shout-Out: The captions in their variety shows are full of these, with references ranging from the group and Audrey's own works, anime and movies, to the Sengoku Period. As a fansubber determined to provide translator's notes to each one of them remarked, "HinaAi staff are nuts".
  • Kinnikuman references come up every other episode in the early years.
  • Doraemon is also referenced at times, such as Shiho Kato's fondness of dorayaki, Ayaka Takamoto's ditziness being compared to Nobita's, and of course, Sariemon.^*In turn, a December 2020 episode of Doraemon features an unnamed idol group with more than a passing resemblance to them (being unnamed is actually telling since other famous people in the episode have names like Donald Trampoline).
  • Episode 65 compares Yuka Kageyama's return from a two-year hiatus to the film Welcome Back, Tora-san by Yoji Yamada, and burikko skills to Stands.
  • Episodes 85-87 are titled "To Be An Outside Job Master: Appearance Offers, Gotta Catch 'Em All!", complete with Game Boy and Pokemon-themed title cards.
• Shrug Take: In episode 208, Nanami Konishi pointedly shrugs after telling a story about when she wore her middle school uniform blazer to high school, and is surprised when Wakabayashi informs her that people generally don't do shrug takes to themselves.
• Significant Name Shift: In episode 219, Mitsuki Hiraoka and Haruka Yamashita reenact the moment when their senior Haruyo Yamaguchi insisted that they address her informally as "Haruyo-chan" (she's younger than both of them) and sulked when they declined at first (they eventually agreed to do so).
• Slumber Party: Episode 166, which is Miho Watanabe's farewell episode, is set up as one and everybody reveals various tidbits about her.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • A Running Gag is Kyoko Saito boasting in their variety shows' sport or academic test segments that she'll place among the top, only to end up among the bottom ranks, if not the very last. Averted with the riddle segments, in which she thrives.
    • HinaAi episode 116 is about finding out things that Kyoko is voted the best at among the members, after she had been incensed upon finding out that nobody voted for her for anything in the Hinasatsu photobook pollings. As it turns out, she's only voted the quickest at changing into costumes, and she tied with Ayaka Takamoto at that. However, she's given credit for correctly guessing all the members who got the top votes in each subject.
    • In Hinabingo!, she actually receives the top spot in a polling... of the least wife material member.
  • In the third academic test (episodes 203-205), while the studio members, who earned high ranks in the previous test, are cautiously optimistic about their results, the "labor camp" members (members who earned low scores in the previous test and are put in a separate, more austere room) are over-the-top boastful before being put in their place when their silly test answers are exposed. Subverted when Konoka Matsuda actually places in the top 5, allowing her to return to the studio (she's pretty much only down there because she got unlucky in the previous test).
• The Smart Girl: 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).
  • In the second test, Konoka Matsuda is visibly frustrated during the buzzer quiz and ended up in tenth place, after placing third in the written test, due to being slow at pressing the buzzer. Miku is also extremely dejected after not making the top 5. Both manage to redeem themselves in the third test by placing within the top 5.
  • Subverted by Marie Morimoto also during the second buzzer quiz, where she puts the word "genius" (天才) on her buzzer but ends up in 15th place out of 21.
  • In episode 174's quiz segment, Kumi Sasaki points out that Konoka and Yuka Kageyama were the only ones invited as observers for 2022's All-Japan High School Quiz, in contrast to the 2021 event which had the entire group as supporting artists, even though Konoka only placed tenth in the second academic ranking (Kumi placed third). Kage hosts the segment with the Audrey duo since even Kumi admits she'd probably steamroll everyone if she played. Kumi's team manage to make a reversal and win the quiz on the final question.
    Kumi: Kageyama didn't take part in the academic tests, so we don't really know her level!
    Kage: Kumi, do you really think you'd score higher than me?
    Kumi: Well, we won't know until we try.
  • Kageyama, in fact, didn't participate in the first two tests (she began her hiatus shortly before the first and returned in the very next episode after the second one), and in the third one in episodes 203-205, she takes first place in all subjects except English, in which she loses by one point to top scorers Kumi Sasaki and Mana Takase, so at least Kumi did best her in one subject. Kage becomes the first ever member to win both the written test and buzzer quiz (incidentally, Kumi takes second place in both).
  • In episode 190, Wakabayashi accuses Sumire Miyachi and Honoka Kishi of being dumb (probably because of their burikko behavior, even though the second Academic Queen, Manamo Miyata, was also the most burikko in the group). They prove him wrong by earning the top score in math in the third test, and Sumire even makes the top 5, despite being made fun of for several of her silly answers (Kishi placed 12th).
• Smoking Is Glamorous: Played with. While none of the members are known to smoke (and would probably get in big trouble if they did), several Running Gags in HinaAi are related to tobacco consumption.
  • Audrey often jokingly describe Kumi Sasaki as a middle-aged, chain-smoking Iron Lady with her own smoking room at events. Kumi has revealed that some fans have teasingly asked her what brand she smokes.
  • Akari Nibu once almost wore a sweatshirt with a Marlboro Red box print on it, since she was supposedly unaware of what it depicts (despite its size and her aversion to tobacco smoke), right when they were asked to wear as inoffensive clothes as possible since they were going to be recorded.
    • There's also a picture of 9-month-old Nibu biting a lighter, shown in episode 118.
    • In a Hinachoi riddle-solving episode, Yuka Kageyama presents a riddle asking what Nibu wants. The answer seems to be "cigarettes" or "tobacco" (たばこ) at first glance, but the correct one is "Tabasco" (たばすこ).
  • In episode 183 which introduces the fourth generation, Wakabayashi suggests that their seniors hang out with them in the smoking area to get closer.
  • In episode 198, in response to another of Wakabayashi's joke about them smoking, a caption says "Uchi no gaya wa suimasen!" ("Our extras don't smoke!") in reference to the Nippon TV comedy show Uchi no Gaya ga Sumimasen! ("Sorry About Our Extras!"; sumimasen often sounds like suimasen in spoken Japanese).
  • Outside HinaAi, when Kyoko Saito greets comedian Hiccorohee in the smoking area in the first episode of their show Kyoccorohee, the latter has no idea how to break the ice and innocently offers Kyoko her cigarettes (of course, Kyoko declines). The show's SNS also features Kyoko hanging out with a smoking Hiccorohee.
• Snooty Haute Cuisine: In episode 171, Mirei Sasaki shares that she recently treated her parents to caviar, and ten members are then given the opportunity to try it for the first time. Each of them gets only about half a teaspoon, and turns out several of them don't even like it; Nao Kosaka can't even look at it as it triggers her trypophobia. Even funnier considering that for episode 168's outdoor activities, Kumi Sasaki reveals that they were only given one rice ball each for breakfast by the show's crew.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: "Otoko Tomodachi Dakara", Shiho Kato's heartfelt solo song describing a platonic relationship between male and female childhood friends, is Haruyo Yamaguchi's de-stressing music of choice and featured in the comedic skit in her introduction episode. It's later played as background music for comedic moments in the 4th gen's introduction episodes (183-184), and Wakabayashi jokes that it's become the group's funniest song.
• Stealth Escort Mission: In the tenth single long-distance walking hit prayer campaign in episode 220, only the choreography front-line members participate since the other members supposedly have other jobs. However, it's revealed in the end that several members have been working behind the scenes all along, such as assisting the production crew and preparing resting spots and encouragement boards (the recording crew previously claimed that those were gifts from the local residents). Episode 221 follows the secret helpers' exploits.
• Sticky Fingers:
  • Hina Kawata is called a kleptomaniac character since she often uses other members' stuff without permission or pockets condiments meant for others. She claims to have repented, though.
    • In her coming-of-age segment in episode 165, many of her childhood stories are related to money.
    • In episode 179's Case Closed introduction class, teacher Yuka Kageyama names her the member most similar to the Phantom Thief Kaito Kid. She was previously featured in a similar role in Original Hinatazaka.
  • In episode 36, Mirei Sasaki confesses that she and several other first gens often take home boxes of catering food, particularly if there were Shine Muscat grapes, sometimes before other members even notice they were ever there. In episode 234, she pitches a Shine Muscat commercial with a thieves concept, which is then actually produced and is shown in episode 249.
  • Marie Morimoto confesses in episode 173 that she repeatedly took money from her brother's piggy bank to buy McDonald's when they were younger.
• Still Believes in Santa: Sarina Ushio still chooses to believe even as an adult, since to her it makes things more interesting. Nao Kosaka half-jokingly asks her to cover her ears when she's about to share a Christmas present story from her childhood in HinaAi episode 107, which she only pretends to do.
• Stocking Filler: Episodes 113-115 and 256-258 are a contest between the "first-rate" members who were daring enough to wear knee-high socks to school as children and the "third-rate" rest, who have to defeat them in various duels in order to be inducted into the "knee-high club".
  • In episode 257, Mirei Sasaki leans harder into this during her "seduction showdown", in which she and Haruyo Yamaguchi compete in saying "Sunpu Castle" (an actual castle ruin turned public park in Shizuoka): she calls judge Kasuga "Muttsuri Kasuga" ("Uncommunicative Kasuga"), referring to the title of his 2019 edutainment miniseries on the female body, and pulls up her trainer leg to expose her bright pink sock and tells him to look at her "Sunpu Castle", which is her knee.
• Strong Family Resemblance: According to other members in HinaAi episode 99, Mana Takase's father really looks like her and they often mistake him for her when he attends their handshake events.
• Stylistic Suck: In episode 234, Mirei Sasaki wins a mock commercial contest and the right to have it produced. In episode 249, when the finished ad spot is about to be shown, Mirei reveals that she specifically requested that it looks "cheap", which the production team managed to achieve.
• Super-Hearing:
  • In HinaAi episode 99, Hiyori Hamagishi compares Mana Takase to the legendary Prince Shotoku of 6th century Japan, who can listen and respond to multiple conversations simultaneously. She's also likened to "God" Enel in episode 178.
    • In episode 178, she displays her ability in an "eavesdropping" game, where the players have to form a word from syllables said simultaneously by several members.
  • In episode 22's improv segment, Hinano Kamimura claims to have the same skill, but gets most of the conversations wrong when tested.
• Super-Stoic Shopkeeper: In HinaAi episode 10's shopkeeping simulation, Kyoko Saito calmly shuts down Kasuga's difficult customer character. It's a shoutout to Audrey's infamous incident where they broke an Ikea Poäng chair, also advertised as unbreakable, in an afternoon TV show.
  Sir, don't you know about common sense? ... It's unthinkable that an upstanding adult like yourself would hop on a chair. Even if the manufacturer claims that the chair is unbreakable, of course doing that would cause it to break!
  • Ironically, Kyoko scores zero points in the common sense (or general knowledge) section of their second academic test.
• Tall Tale:
  • In episodes 33-34 and the deleted scenes of those episodes on the home media (Miku Kanemura's edition), several members reveal tall tales related to Wakabayashi, such as one in which Hina Kawata claims that he practices his swimming strokes during breaks in the show's recording, wearing a swimming cap and goggles.
  • Several episodes of HinaAi have the members revealing trivia about other members, with the catch being the stories must not be too embellished or Wakabayashi will push the Big Red Button unleashing Mana Takase's recorded "You're exaggeratin'!" (それは盛ってるで！). Subverted because the supposed tall tales are mostly true after all.
• Tea Is Classy: In episode 227, members born in 2002 have their coming-of-age ceremony episode, set up as an afternoon tea party with the Audrey duo. Suzuka Tomita is jealous as her and Akari Nibu's coming-of-age ceremony in episode 118 was a more modest affair (the new adults include Nao Kosaka and Miku Kanemura, both of whom are very popular members and Wakabayashi's favorites).
• 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!
  • In episode 105's drawing game, Sarina Ushio is offended when Mikuni Takahashi recognizes Marie Morimoto's drawing as a caricature of her (it has her signature sidelocks).
  • In the same episode, Manamo Miyata guesses that Yuka Kageyama's caricature is of Nao Kosaka (it's actually meant to be Hinano Kamimura, but looks like an old lady or the Female Titan), sending the latter into a Suppressed Rage.
    • In Hinachoi, Yuuka's hint illustrations for her riddles make the riddles harder to solve. Even funnier because she often claims she's good at drawing.
    • Subverted in episode 179: Kage's giving an introduction to the manga Case Closed when Shiho Kato voices her concern about identifying the characters from Kage's illustration, but it turns out they already got permission to display the official artworks by Gosho Aoyama himself.
• Through His Stomach: The members cook for Audrey in several episodes. Episode 135 features the 3rd Gen members cooking for their favorite seniors.
• Too Much Alike: When Wakabayashi is absent, he's usually replaced by comedian Kenji Hamatani, and it's been pointed out that he, like Kasuga, is more known for his large physique and loud voice than his eloquence, throwing off the balance of the hosts.
• Tournament Arc: Competitions that span multiple episodes and have clear winners include the Academic Tests, Konoka Matsuda's Music Sports Tournament, the Burikko Championships, and Mei Higashimura's KASUKE. The Hinatazaka Derby episodes are a variant, as it's the wagerers who stand to win or lose rather than the competing members.
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: In the first episode of 2023, everybody gets the same amount of New Year's sushi as the Chacha coins they've collected in the previous year, with Hinano Kamimura receiving a huge plate of 35 pieces of sushi (the show had wanted to give it according to their individual contributions, but found the coins much easier to quantify), while most of them receive none. Meanwhile, Konoka Matsuda is in the red as she'd lost big time in the previous Hinatazaka Derby segment and is forced to Work Off the Debt by washing dishes, with a few shout-outs to the gambling manga Kaiji.
• The Unreveal: Kasuga's wife Kumi is often mentioned and has met the members in the show, but her likeness is always censored to protect her privacy. This is despite the fact her face is already publicly known, since Kasuga proposed to her on TV and she has made several public appearances afterwards.
• Valentine's Day Episode: Episodes aired near Valentine's Day feature skits where members act in romantic skits they wrote themselves, with other members portraying the men.
• Verbal Tic: Discussed; Hinano Kamimura has revealed that she'd considered dropping her catchphrase prior to her debut, since she didn't want others to assume that she adds "-nano" to her speech as a cutesy verbal tic. Fortunately for her, most people don't seem to think so, but the HinaAi staff often add the suffix to captions related to her. She herself uses it as a verbal tic in-character in a skit in episode 191.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Tamaki Ishizuka often physically and verbally annoys other members, which became known as "Tamaki Harassment" (Tamahara). Episode 219 reveals the existence of the "Ishizuka Victims Association" and Mitsuki Hiraoka and Sumire Miyachi's "Rina Watanabe Protection Squad", which protects the group's youngest member from her.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: In episode 180, Mana Takase holds a class about speaking soft Kansai-ben to dispel the stereotype that it can only sound rough. The Kansai-born members struggle to restrain themselves while watching the others mostly butcher the accent. Wakabayashi points out that Haruyo Yamaguchi and Akari Nibu's conversation mixes up accents from all over Japan.

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