All of the main characters of the first three seasons of PriPara.
PriPara really is... a world every girl aspires to live in! When the time comes, every girl finds a mysterious PriTicket that grants them entry to PriPara! An invitation to a world of dreams! Where both aspiring and top idols alike are found! Where they compete in shows of song, dance, and fashion sense! Truly a paradise for idols!
—Laala and Nao, Episode 1
PriPara, short for Prism Paradise, is an arcade game from Takara Tomy and the fifth entry in the Pretty Series. An anime series by Tatsunoko Production (who also did one for Pretty Rhythm) aired in the summer of 2014 and ended with 3 seasons in early 2017. 4 films have also been made with the last one premiering in 2017.
The anime follows Laala Manaka who discovers a PriTicket, a ticket that leads her to the idol world, PriPara. Unexpectedly for her, she makes her idol debut. And unfortunately for her, she is a student of Paprika Academy, a private school that prohibits anyone from getting involved with the idol world. For that, she has to keep her idol life a secret.
After the anime's conclusion, a sequel series was announced, titled Idol Time PriPara, instead focusing on a girl named Yui, and her adventures with Laala in the system. The anime was replaced by Kiratto Pri☆Chan in 2018. In 2020, there was an announcement for a stage play spinoff centered around WIT-H titled WITH by Idol Time PriPara.
2020 also saw the announcement of a new installment in the franchise: Idol Land PriPara, a mobile game which would also have an internet anime series. Idol Land was slated for a 2021 release, but got delayed to Spring 2022 in order to make improvements to the game. To make up for this, the first episode of the anime released in August 18th, 2021 as part of an early screening, with the zeroth episode releasing on September 1st. It was later delayed to Fall 2022 in order to make MORE improvements to the game. And then, Idol Land was delayed to sometime in 2023, in order to, you guessed it: make even MORE improvements to the game. And just when the game was finally out of Development Hell when it was released on August 18th, 2023... too many people entering caused the game's servers to crash and ended up in a week-long forced maintenance until it eventually reopened on August 23rd, 2023 albeit with limited access.
A character page is under construction.
PriPara provides examples of:
- 10-Minute Retirement: The units that disband the unit are usually gonna reform after a while.
- Aromageddon was disbanded in episode 47, and they reform in episode 48.
- NonSugar was disbanded in episode 123, and they reform after Chili and Pepper rescue Non.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: The game and the anime are one to Aikatsu!.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Korean dub only uses the first opening theme of each season and none else. The endings, on the other hand are very different:
- For season 1, the dub uses the third opening of the show, "Realize!"
as the ending theme. - Season 2 uses what was originally an arcade-only song, "Hello Hello Friends".
- Season 3 doesn't have a specific ending. Each episode uses a random song from the show, sometimes in instrumental.
- Idol Time uses "After School Heartful Dash", another arcade-only song.
- For season 1, the dub uses the third opening of the show, "Realize!"
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: All of the "legendary" dresses in the series are given away in idol tournaments that take place throughout the course of each season. Dressing Pafe also get their 2nd Cyalume Coord sets in this manner from Cosmo, after Sion wins a game of Panda Igo.
- By playing the arcade game, players receive coord pieces.
- The Artifact: The line "Paradise, our goal" in the team formation ceremony speech after season 1. This refers to the Paradise Coorde, a legendary dress that was a major plot point in season one, and was never mentioned again since then.
- Ascended Fangirl: A lot of them.
- Yui Yumekawa, the new protagonist from Idol Time PriPara is probably the biggest example.
- Bat Deduction: Done at various points by Mirei and Sion.
- Beach Episode: Episode 8.
- Happens again in episode 60, featuring the expanded cast.
- And then again in episode 110.
- Idol Time gets one in episode 162!
- Best Friend Manual: Aroma gives one on Mikan to Hibiki.
- Bland-Name Product: Done with the names of various Tokyo Districts, eg. 'Parajuku', 'Akipapara', etc.
- Also done with various other real world locations. Sophy at one point, was going to be forced to transfer to 'Prifornia'. Currently, Falulu, Fuwari, and Hibiki reside at PriParis.
- In Idol Time PriPara, Laala attends Avacado Academy at Paparajuku.
- Blow You Away: In Idol Land, Amari's cyalume change summons a hurricane that literally sends the audience flying.
- Bowdlerised: The Korean version of Episode 61 is different from the Japanese. Where Sophy kisses Laala and Mirei on the cheek, she instead feeds them candies.
- The Korean version also had problems with Reona's gender, meaning they had to modify or find ways to cover up anything related to it.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Sometimes, when things are really going pear-shaped and their relationship with each other hits the skids, the leader wants to disband their unit. Examples include Dressing Pafé disbanding because Dorothy and Shion are very annoyed with each other in episode 44, Aromageddon (now Gaarumageddon) disbanding because Mikan was fed food from people other than Aroma in episode 48, and NonSugar disbanding because Non was splashed with coconut water in episode 123.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Cyalume Change!" to activate the mode of the same name, and "Idol Time Countdown!" to activate coord change in the Idol Time series.
- The Cameo: While Pretty Rhythm's Mia eventually became a supporting character in Idol Time note , plenty of other PR characters appeared in the backgrounds.
- Character Catchphrase: Laala's "Kashikoma!", Mirei's "Pop, Step, Get you!", Dorothy and Reona's "Tension Max/Relax", Sion's "Igo Yoroshiku!" (Though Igo/go also functions as a light Verbal Tic for her), Nanami's "Kyupikon", and Chiri’s “Kashikomarenasai!”.
- In season 3, the members of Triangle introduce their own, "Ju!" for Junon, "Pipi!" for Pinon, and lastly, "Kano-Pero!" for Kanon.
- In Idol Time PriPara, we have Yui, who adds "Yume" at the ends of her sentences, Michiru often says "No way. No way, no way, no way, no way..." and Shuka's "Idol time is money".
- Censor Decoy: In the TV airings, the fifth ending sequence, "Heart Clenching Love Song", featured many of the girls in revealing swimsuits and suggestive poses, with the biggest controversy surrounding Sophy's Marilyn Monroe Shout-Out attire— specifically her shoulder strap. As noted under Take That!, they did change that specific scene... but literally everything else about the ending is left intact. This ending sequence was however restored to its original form in the Blu-ray releases
- Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: Dorothy and Reona's parents.
- Clark Kenting: During Episode 9, Mirei and Laala successfully hide Sophie's Fancy Mode by simply styling her hair to match her stage appearance. Once she joins SoLaMi Smile, she uses the same method to hide that she only uses her stage appearance for performances.
- Comic-Book Time: By season 3, the characters stop aging. No matter how many seasons pass by, Laala will always be referred as a 6th grader. Lampshaded by Amari at the end of the first episode of Idol Land, who questions how does that make sense.
- Continuity Nod: Some characters from Pretty Rhythm appear such as Meganee, Cosmo note and the Saints, which is made up of the predecessor's three protagonists.
- In episode 30, silhouettes of Naru, Ann, Ito, Bell, Wakana, Otoha, and Rinne from Rainbow Live can be seen behind Falulu at one point.
- Costume Porn: Cyalume Change converts an idol's dress into a flashing display of cyalume lights with each individual part having its own particular pattern.
- Crossover: There's the crossover movie with Pretty Rhythm, and also there's the arcade game's crossover event with legendary 80s Magical Girl series Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel
- A Day in the Limelight: Episode 14 is about the rival group Dressing Pafé and its formation.
- Despite being one of the main six characters, Dorothy finally gets one in Episode 60 (along with a Making Drama she made herself), though it's promptly hijacked by Love, who's also getting her own day in the limelight.
- Dark Horse Victory: In season 3, while the main competition was between Dressing Pafe and SoLaMi Smile, Gaarumaggedon ended up winning the Second Divine Idol Grand prix at the virtual last second by default.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After Eiko and Love's tennis match where the former defeats the latter, they become friends.
- And while their first idol battle ends in a draw, SoLaMi Smile and Dressing Pafé are this to each other.
- Demoted to Extra: Sophy's fanclub, and it's even lampshaded in one episode shortly after SoLaMi Smile is formed, where they basically accept that Sophy doesn't need them and allow themselves to become regular fans.
- Disney Death: Episode 35 ends with Falulu dying after her friend ticket is snapped, since it contained her system data. With the help of SoLaMi Dressing and the fans from around the world cheering her on, she was able to come back.
- Parodied in episode 105 during Gaaromadegon's team formation ceremony. Gaaruru attempted to snap her friend ticket when SoLaMi Dressing crashes into the room. Falulu asks Unicorn to give her permission, then we see Gaaruru crying over old memories she had and then lying on the floor, which then cuts to a blackout. After this, we find out that Gaaruru was just faking her death, as only vocaldolls with friends can snap their tomotickets, and that Jewlulu had a part in not letting her die thanks to her magic, which is associated with her having the ability to turn into Jewlie and give Gaaruru a Super Cyalume Rare. Unicorn gets really angry that Gaaruru did this, which causes Gaaruru to bite her.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Though Laala gets penalty slips regularly, the punishments associated with them are largely inconsequential, likely due to the fact that most of the rules seem to be based on wordplay/knowledge. At 100 tickets, she only needed to clean the school statue and at 200, she had to manage a group of pre-schoolers.
- Played for Drama in episode 123, where Non disbands NonSugar all because Chili and Pepper covered her in coconut water.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Sophy is very weak unless being fed with red flash, aka pickled plums. I wonder what that references...
- Dramatic Wind: In episode 48, the wind blows through Aroma’s hair while she delivers her "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Mikan.
- Embarrassing Damp Sheets: In episode 2 of Idol Time, Yui tries to stop her older brother, Shogou, from annoying her by showing him a picture she took when she was younger of him crying because he wet the bed. He ran away in a huff.
- Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: Fairly common in this series.
- Extreme Doormat: Gloria can easily be outwitted by an elementary schooler. Also, pizzas are her weakness.
- Fanservice: The fourth movie has a scene of Reona and Mega-nii in biker's bodysuits, unzipping to the groin and showing off their stomachs. Same can be said for the girls as well!
- Feminist Fantasy: A magical world that only girls can enter and be idols, it focus on their friendship and own troubles.
- Goes deeper in Idol Time since in Paparajuku there isn't PriPara only DanPri and the characters don't believe girls can become idols, and that it is a thing for boys only, and Laala and Yui work to proof that they're wrong.
- Foreshadowing: Very subtle in regards to Reona's gender. Reona lacks eyelashes where girls in PriPara have them. He's also flat-chested, though this can be difficult to spot at times.
- Hibiki was opposite of this, having feminine eyes and a noticeable chest in official art. Then came her reveal.
- Friendly Rival: SoLaMi Smile and Dressing Pafé become this after their face-off end in a tie.
- Frilly Upgrade: Everytime their coords get an upgrade
- Funbag Airbag: In Episode 15, Mirei and Sion accidentally bump into Gloria with their faces landing on her somewhat slender assets. For obvious reasons though, this is subverted as the show makes it look like they bump into a brick wall.
- Genki Girl: Mirei, Laala, and Ajimi. Pepper is occasionally this.
- Gold Digger: Usagi's motivation for originally being Sophy's manager. He rides on Sophy's stardom just so he can get some for himself. He even sees Sophy as useless without her pickled plums. This quality of him by the time Season 2 started.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Played with in episode 41. When Mirei can't figure out what to do after she can't retrieve the lost gift she got from Laala, Mikan and Aroma emulate her options; Mikan suggest she tell Laala the truth, while Aroma suggests that she lie, both claiming that doing the other one would disrupt their friendship.
- Gratuitous English: Invoked in the team names, but especially in Dressing Pafé's, whose odd team name stems from a combination of Sion, Reona, and Dorothy's names, the word "sing", the fact that "dressing" described their group dynamic in terms of mixing, and "Pafé" is a strange short pronunciation of "perfect" and "parfait".
- Gratuitous Italian: Laala and her family love dishing out this.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: Mirei's parents. They are usually refined but when they argue over which snack option it is to be used, this became a reality.
- Hollywood Restraining Order: Gloria was banned from coming within 100 meters of PriPara. After she becomes good and regains her old friendship, she is free to enter PriPara again.
- Hopeless Auditionees: In Episode 11, Laala's group tries to find a third member after failing to convince Sophy to join them. None of the auditionees impress them.
- Instant Expert: Laala at her first live with Mirei, though this may be dumb luck propped up by her Prism Voice; she still had to practice posture, handshaking, etc. in the following episodes.
- Sophy is implied to be this, making her idol debut at 8 years old(!), but it's revealed that she both danced constantly at said early age and has a weak constitution, and only performs her fullest after eating a pickled pear.
- Sion is a more straight example, as her singing and dancing become top-idol material after she related them to Go.
- Yui also showed this in Idol Time PriPara during her first performance. But she did point out that she practiced in private a lot later.
- Inelegant Blubbering: In episode 134, all three members of NonSugar are reduced to a huge sobbing mess when they lose to SoLaMi Smile in one of the Grand Prix tournaments, because they're so upset that they didn't win. Luckily, Laala and her friends are able to calm them down and tell them they'll do better next time.
- It's All About Me: Originally Usagi had this attitude.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Drove the plot of the first half of the first season. Laala has to keep her PriPara life secret from Gloria who has been growing suspicious of her involvement with the forbidden idol world. Mirei and Sophy had no problems until Gloria banned it outright at her school.
- With Sophy, her fanclub and her manager Usagi had to feed her pickled plums before going to the public, or she'd turn into Fancy Mode. From Episode 9 onwards, Sophy steadily becomes more and more capable of functioning, until she only needs to eat a pickled plum before she goes on stage, with no-one able to tell she's almost constantly in Fancy Mode in public!
- The top example repeats during Idol Time PriPara, with Yui and Laala struggling to keep it from not only the Avocado Academy headmistress, but also from the disciplinary committee.
- Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Not for Hibiki. Ajimi scared Hibiki so much that now the latter has gained a fear of sentence-enders!
- Mascot: They are the idols' managers and they look like flying stuffed animals. Kuma for SoLaMi Smile, and Usagi for Dressing Pafé, Unicorn for Falulu, Neko for Aromageddon, Ham for Ajimi, Toriko for Fuwari, and now Usacha for the unit Triangle (and later Non Sugar). In Idol Time PriPara, Punikon for Yui, Chuppe for Nino, and Pitsuji for Michiru.
- Meaningful Echo: Mirei lines in the first episode when convincing Laala to become an idol were used many other times latter in the anime especially the "But you love Pripara?-Pri" part.
- Medium Blending: Most of the endings are live-action and they feature an idol group singing and dancing. The only threethat don't are "Heart-Clenching Love Song", "Rainbow Melody" and "Growin' Jewel". "Pripara Dancing" features live-action people dancing towards the end.
- In Idol Time PriPara most of the first ending song features the anime characters, but towards the end a live action segment takes place with a girl dressed in a Laala costume and dancing.
- Merchandise-Driven: The anime exists to promote the arcade game of the same name.
- Musical Theme Naming: The first two letters of the main cast's names contain the notes of the musical tonal scale (which is used to teach music to children): Dorothy, Reona, Mirei, Falulu, Sophy, Laala, Sion, hence why their names are officially spelled the way they are
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Aroma does this to Mirei when choosing the dream team names, such as SoLaMageddon Mi and Aromasoreshi Mi.
- Mythology Gag: A lot of nods are made to the original Pretty Rhythm series, whether it's in the form of silhouettes of the past main characters, clothes that were introduced, etc.
- Nao, Laala's friend, wears a dress that's nearly identical to a dress that Mion from Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream wore at one point. The only difference is that the bow on Nao's is purple as opposed to blue.
- In episode 39, Laala dances with holograms of the four members of Prizmmy from Dear My Future.
- In the same episode, girls wearing clothes from Aurora Dream can be seen at one point.
- Episode 54 features a ton of references from the previous Pretty Rhythm series.
- Episode 29 has something called "EZ DO Gloxercise", seemingly based on the Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live second OP theme "EZ DO DANCE".
- In Idol Time PriPara this appears to have been dropped.
- The One Guy: Reona to SoLaMi Dressing, though being the most feminine of the six, you'd hardly be able to tell if he didn't wear the male school uniform.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Everyone becomes worried when Laala stops saying "kashikoma".
- Outrun The Mob: WITH gets chased by, and eventually trampled by, a horde of screaming fangirls in one Idol Time episode. They tore apart Asahi and Koyoi, but Shougo was left unscathed.
- Overly Long Name: The mascots have incredibly long names. Kuma's, for example, is Klaus Henrik Poncetta Von Vogel Strobel Cash De La Manecca the Third.
- Unicorn's full name is Julius Mubampis Adamantios Nikolakopululu Anaxagoras Odysseas Procopius Tondoll=Zlatokov Nicodemus Metrophanes Kaisal Eolgos Sebastianos Zeno Partenope Crysantheme Axnacia Euterpe Harmonia Demetrian (yes, it has an "=" in it too). It takes Kuma and Usagi about 18 seconds to read the full name and they still had to speed up for the second half of it!
- Unicorn has now been surpassed by Ham, a legendary Mascot. His entire name is Hannibal Caesar Elizabeth Archimedes Newton Duke the Togo Boss Yujiro Master of the Mascot at the New Century We are the World We are the Sunflower Friedrich H.A.M. Taro the Great Golden Selime
- Palette Swap: Most coords have at least two identical palette-swapped versions, and most idol performances consist of using these. Despite being a simple color change, the palette swap also generally dictates what brand and type the coord is. Eg. the Dream Heart Lace coord used by SoLaMi Smile at the beginning of season 2 features a Lovely-type pink version from Twinkle Ribbon, a Pop-type blue version from Candy Ala Mode, and a Cool-type black/purple version from Holic Trick.
- Poor Communication Kills: The reason Gloria dedicated herself to stealing PriPara tickets. She was supposed to meet Laala's mom many years ago so that they could see each other's real forms for the first time. Because their idol and human forms looked so different however, they weren't able to recognize each other. This left Gloria feeling betrayed, and made her work so that no one else would ever experience the heartbreak she went through.
- Power Trio: SoLaMi Smile, Dressing Pafé, and Saints. Also, most events require units consisting of three idols.
- Power-Up Food: Sophy eats pickled plums to energize herself from her Fancy Mode. Inverted with sweets as they easily send her back to it.
- Pungeon Master: Laala's father has a tendency to do this, usually by combining Japanese words with food (eg. Arigatorilla).
- Put on a Bus: Falulu at the end of season 1 temporarily leaves, returning in the middle of Season 2 after a majority of the new characters have been introduced.
- At the end of Season 2, she leaves again, this time with Hibiki and Fuwari. They return later in Season 3 as a trio unit.
- This happens to Triangle once their secret is outed in the anime.
- Everyone except for Laala at the start of "Idol Time PriPara", however over the series more and more characters make appearances again.
- NonSugar in Idol Time had it the worst, because they were put on a bus after episode 153, and didn’t come back until episode 180! Then after episode 180, they were put on a bus AGAIN, it took them 8 episodes for them to come back!
- Rage Breaking Point: In episode 123, Non carries coconuts for drinking, which then Chili has the “bright idea” to use it as “Shan-Shan water”. Pepper comes and wants to put saliva on Chili, leading them to chase each other, knocking over the coconuts, and splashing poor Non with coconut water. Non’s response? She disbands NonSugar.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Aroma delivers one to Mikan on top of the school roof, after the former disbands Aromageddon.
- Recap Episode: Episode 33 is this, though most of the recap is done through the songs that were previously used for the live performances.
- Running Gag: Mirei's penchant for slapping penalty slips on Laala's (and other students') foreheads, often over unusually specific reasons. When done on Laala specifically, her head bobbles around, adding to the gag. This gag eventually dies down when the story begins to take place almost entirely in PriPara.
- Sealed Good in a Can: In Idol Land, Yui gets trapped and put into a Deep Sleep inside a barrier.
- Secret-Keeper: In the first season, elementary students who go to Paprika Private Academy and have involvement in the idol world must keep it a secret.
- This repeats in Idol Time PriPara, as more and more girl students begin to join Laala and Yui in PriPara.
- Ship Tease: Sophy and Reona can be seen on an official poster holding hands and making a heart together.
- Shout-Out: Sophy's pose in the "Heart Clenching Love Song" is taken from an old photo of Marilyn Monroe.
- Socialization Bonus: Having each others' friend tickets allows players to form teams in-game and get better scores.
- Spoiler Opening: Averted with Mirei's human identity, which is not shown in the first opening until episode 3, after it has been revealed at the end of the last episode.
- That said this opening have SoLaMi SMILE at end spoiling that Sophy eventually join Laala and Mirei's team.
- The fourth opening briefly shows the silhouette of three new characters near the end, two of which were later introduced as Fuwari and Hibiki. The 3rd one was replaced by Falulu after some point, possibly hinting that they would go on to form a unit later in the season.
- Studiopolis: The song "What a Wonderpri World" takes place on several film sets, and one scene takes place on a Radio City-style Broadway theater.
- Technician Versus Performer: Friendall and Celepara Opera Company.
- Theme Naming: The last names of the six main characters from the first season are based on cardinal directions. Laala's means center, Mirei's means south, Dorthy and Reona's is West, Sophy has the kanji for north in her last name, and Sion has the kanji for east in her last name.
- In addition to this, the first parts of their and Falulu's names match up with the Solfège scale: Dorothy, Reona, Mirei, Falulu, Sophy, Laala, Sion (Ti)
- The characters introduced in Season 2 have the five senses in their first name and colors in their last name. Eg. Aroma's first name represents smell and her last name contains the kanji for black.
- All of the members of Triangle have "-non" at the end of their name.
- Those Two Girls: Sadako and Chanko are the only named members of Sophy's fanclub. In Idol Time PriPara there is also Yui's best friends, Suzu and Hana.
- The Rival: Dressing Pafé , composed of Sion, Dorothy, and Reona, is this for SoLaMi Smile, composed of Laala, Mirei, and Sophy. In terms of one-on-one, it's Sion to Mirei.
- Toilet Humor: Averted in the first 2 seasons. Jewlulu plays this straight in Season 3, which lead to a lot of pee jokes in the show that usually involved her peeing on an object or in someone's face.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pizzas and lots of pizzas. Laala's family owns a pizza parlor. This is also Gloria's favorite food and is her weakness. Despite that, she is a regular customer there.
- For Sophy, it's pickled plums which are sour and her Power-Up Food. In Episode 3, she orders a pizza with them as toppings.
- The Idol Time characters' favorite food are carbohydrate-rich; Yui loves rice, Nino bread, Michiru noodles and Shuka potatoes.
- Transformation Sequence: Done when entering PriPara, before the performance, and near the end of the performance.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: If you're a cousin of Gloria, then you're more than likely to look exactly like her.
- Un-person: In Idol Land, an error in the Idol Land update causes PriPara to be forgotten by everyone outside it, as well as Prism Stones to disappear.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Hibiki's reveal was so shocking that while the crowd recovered after a moment, Fuwari fainted.
- Verbal Tic: At least half the characters in the show either have a verbal tic, or eventually develop one. The mascots have the most notable and sensible ones, like Kuma's "~kuma" and Usagi's "~usa". Some idols use them to give themselves more personality, such as Mirei's "~pri". Then you have the folks in the real world, such as Chanko's "~chanko" and Yui's "~yume".
- Villain with Good Publicity: Usagi, until his antagonist traits began to die down.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Laala, Mirei, and Sophy.
- Dorothy and Sion.
- Non, Chili and Pepper.
- You Shall Not Pass!: The idol world's invisible 100m-radius barrier exists for a reason: to keep off anti-PriPara people like Gloria.
