History Characters / SakuraGakuin

* AnimalMotifs: She's usually associated with cats, partly because she frequently draws a cat-like character she calls Maaya-mark in her diaries and partly because of one particular Halloween ad for ''Ciào'' in which she was wearing cat ears.

Thanks to COVID-19 pushing back the 2019 Graduation by five months, Soyoka holds the record for oldest member at RTG-time, as she'd turned sixteen 2½ months before the show.

* DisappearedDad: Soyoka [[https://ameblo.jp/sakuragakuin/entry-12493144600.html revealed]] in her 100th Diary Commemoration (which stretched over several entries) that her father had passed away some years earlier, possibly after she joined Sakura Gakuin. This naturally caused fans to cry.
-->[-[translation]-] ''"My dad fell sick a number of years ago and went to heaven, but we did various things together like camping and we were able to have a lot of experiences that I normally wouldn’t have been able to have. I love how my dad was really kind and liked helping others."''

** For one song during ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2018'', she took off her glasses (which were lensless anyway), throwing many fans watching after the fact for a loop.

** At her graduation, she gave a ShoutOut in English to international fans she knew were watching the livestream, saying she hoped they would enjoy SG's performance (aside from the word "performance" itself, her pronunciation was extremely good).
* WagTheDirector:[[invoked]] When Momoe first joined SG, she publicly expressed her desire for an Art-themed subunit. Two years later, Trico Dolls happened, and it was all but stated outright that the only reason the senseis allowed it is because Momoe, who had never been in a Club[[lablenote:*]] (nor for that matter had fellow 2016 inductee + Trico Doll Yuzumi)[[/labelnote]], kept nagging them until they gave in.

She is from Hiroshima and trained at the Actors' School, making her the third ASH alumna to join (and the first since Suzuka and Mariri both graduated in 2013).

*** Worth noting Yume has a sister, Juna [-(also part of Amuse's "Kids" division)-], who Yume stated during her first ''FRESH!'' appearance was <1cm shorter than her. She has subsequently confirmed in multiple diary entries spanning over a year (thus far) that she and Juna are the same height, which as of June 2020 is 145cm/4’9”. Juna is two years younger than Yume.

* SciFiBobHaircut: Sakia had this style when she joined Sakura Gakuin as a result of cutting it to portray mini-Nocchi in the "Let Me Know" MV.[[note]] There is some {{irony}} in this, as Bee-Hive era footage shows Nocchi had long hair until Summer 2003 (age 14¾) and did not adopt this particular style as her trademark until ~2008 – she had TomboyishShortHair in the interim.[[/note]] Sakia has said she normally wears her hair long (as in the "Pumpkin" video with Momoko), and has spent her time since joining SG growing her hair back out.

* FirstNameBasis: Explicitly defied, both to him and by him. He has said on SG livestreams and ''Mochikomi'' that he DOES NOT like calling his former "students" by their first names, even if the situation requires him to, such as when he interviewed the soon-to-graduate @onefive quartet.

** Four years later he had the same trouble with the soon-to-graduate SG Seniors who had formed and adopted new stage names for @onefive. He even discussed the trope when he repeatedly called GUMI-san "Aritomo" and admitted he felt ''really'' uncomfortable calling Kano by her given name, which is unchanged in @onefive.

** Pretty much any former Sakura girl who visits his show will still call him ''-sensei''. Airi did so during her ''Mochikomi'' appearance on Christmas Eve 2016. He tried to laugh it off since she had by that point become much more famous than him, but Airi couldn't bring herself to call him anything else. When Aiko appeared on his show two years later, she went out of her way not to name him at all, likely for the same reason. [[note]] She called him ''-san'' via twitter on his birthday a few weeks later and was questioned on it by her followers, forcing her to clarify that she'd intended it as a sign of respect for a fellow artist.[[/note]]

* SoreLoser: Sana claimed that Neo hates losing at anything.

Joined in 2018 with Sana Shiratori and Kokona Nonaka

** And of course she portrayed 'Little-Nocchi' in Music/{{Perfume}}'s music video "Let Me Know", which is probably a big part of the reason why Nocchi herself attended 2019's Transfer Ceremony and went backstage after to get photos with the group, the Seniors (with whom she'd worked in 2017), and her miniature doppelgänger.

* [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers Third Place Is For Losers]]: One of the few times prior to her final year Tsugu was caught ''not'' smiling was when she came in third in the 2018 Nendo Test after having tied Megumi for runner-up the previous year. She approached Mori-sensei silently, obviously pissed off. Not for losing to Maaya (who came in second), but for losing once again to Momoe. Tsugu told the camera bluntly her goal is to beat Momoe.
** She never did best Momoe, losing to her on the 2019 Nendo test by ''one point'' thanks to two small mistakes.

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Momoe was the third member after Yui and the bilingual Marin to sing an English song for ''Anthology'' and sounded much better than anyone not named Marin or Momoko.

** She was a backup dancer on a pumpkin-themed song sung by Momoko.

!!Aiko Yamaide (山出 愛子) 2013 - 2018

** Ironically, any time one of the other Sakura Girls challenged her to an eating contest, Aiko always lost. One can assume Aiko likes to ''enjoy'' her sweets.

Spoiler: She was able to wear the dress again 10 months later and posted photos on Halloween 2019.

* BadLiar: In their appearance in the variety show ''Music Dragon'', she blurts out that she doesn't usually wear metal accessories and isn't actually possessed by the Fox God during performances, and the hosts tease that she'll be scolded for breaking character.

* SternTeacher: She was this during her stint as leader of the Sakura Gakuin girls, and admitted in one of her final interviews that she really didn't want to be but had no idea what else to do. The other girls, for their part, told Su they appreciated her putting her foot down to give criticism and advice, and actually be their leader.

* TeamMom: Said in an interview that she felt like this for the first few years of Babymetal due to Yui and Moa's youth and inexperience, but also admitted that increasingly they would push her forward. Video from 2017 festival appearances shows she still takes it upon herself to calm them down when they get emotional.

** During a September 2019 Babymetal performance in Chicago, Avenger Riho Sayashi lost her balance and nearly rolled her right ankle (''very'' bad thing for a professional dancer). Riho saved herself by kicking her foot back and letting her knee take the weight. Su saw Riho go down and her eyes stayed laser-focused on Riho's leg for the rest of the song.

* {{Determinator}}: Many of her juniors pointed this out about Aiko in their own diaries. This was also on display in the behind the scenes footage of ''Sakura Gakuin Fest 2017''. Aiko had requested permission to play two of her piano compositions – she'd played a cover the year before – but, a week before the show, a sensei told her her work wasn't good enough to show to fans and said ''both'' her solos would be dropped. After a bout of frustration, she managed to improve enough to get her solos back onto the setlist.

*** A few weeks later, at the start of her first year of high school, she had a mandatory checkup (this is a thing in Japanese schools), and was declared to be four millimeters ''shorter'' than her official listed height. She lamented on her Twitter account that she had shrunk. In reality, 4mm is well within the margin of error for measuring height – she didn't really shrink, but she certainly hadn't grown.
*** Added Context: Upon joining Sakura Gakuin in 2014 as a 6th-grader, Megumi wasn't ''that'' much taller than Aiko – in fact, Megu was about on par with Saki Ooga - two years her senior – at first, noticeably shorter than Sara (older than Megu by about six weeks). But over the next three years, Megu underwent a major growth spurt until, by the end of 2016, she had passed Sara to become the tallest Sakura girl. Momoko (three months younger than Aiko and eleven months younger than Megumi) also started out not much taller than Aiko and had a similar if less extreme growth spurt. Constantly being left behind gave Aiko a bit of a complex, leading to…

*** In Summer 2018, she traveled to Okinawa and posted a photo of herself wearing platform ''sandals''. The main question in fans' minds was where she would even manage to ''find'' shoes like that.

* GirlyGirl: She has been known to wear kitty ears and speak like a cat. She's also known to prefer skirts and dresses in real life – by contrast, Aiko often wears overalls or blue jeans if she's not modeling or performing.
* HeightAngst: You wouldn't expect it from a girl who was, at 163.8cm (5’4½”), the tallest of the 2016 ''and'' 2017 classes and to-date the sixth-tallest graduate, but she wrote in one of her diaries of her worry that Soyoka, two years younger and seeming to grow taller by the day, would pass her by graduation. As of Summer 2019, Soyo is still at least 2cm shorter.

** As noted by Sara, with whom she'd worked as a Ciào girl before both joined Sakura Gakuin, Megumi had actually been somewhat short for her age (the photos and video from around the time she debuted in 2014 show she was nearly a head shorter than Sara), only ~7cm/2¾” taller than Aiko, until partway through her first year of Sakura Gakuin when she hit a growth spurt that did not stop until after she graduated – she is now nearly 14cm/5½” taller than Aiko.

** In her senior year, she experienced this once more. Even when she hoped to finally beat Momoe, she ultimately tied for second with ''Tsugumi''.

* TheSouthpaw: Kano is left-handed, the first lefty in Sakura Gakuin since Airi graduated. That's not why this is listed under her entry; it's the {{irony}}, shown in her first nendo test, of not knowing the meaning of the English word "southpaw" despite being one. She continued to deny the term applied to her even ''after'' Mori-sen explained it to the girls.
** In one of her final diaries, she discussed some of the difficulties of being left-handed.

* TheSouthpaw: Rau discussed this in an October 2010 diary. She is ambidextrous, but stated she was originally fully left-handed before beginning to use her right hand more once getting into school …not because anyone forced her to, but because she felt doing brush calligraphy left-handed was a massive pain.
** This is likely part of the reason why she's a multi-instrumentalist (the only one in the group's history until Neo joined in 2019) – she is known to play saxophone, piano, and guitar, though she plays guitar right-handed.

Joined in 2018 with Sana Shiratori and Yume Nozaki

* CatchPhrase: "Zettai Damé!" is hers from ''Mezase! Super Lady''. It translates to "Absolutely not!!" and is a reference to her protests and unwillingness to do things early on like her first Nendo test.

* CuddleBug: She's known to be very cuddly with Yuzumi, probably due to both pulling double-duty as Ciào girls.

Miki had the distinction for two years of being the youngest ever Sakura girl at debut, beating Aiko's record by eight days.

Joined in 2013 with Aiko Yamaide. In 2015 she was appointed as the 3rd Talk Chairman.

** She is one of the members most likely to attend performances following her own graduation. This is especially impressive when one remembers she doesn't live in or near Tokyo like most graduates (either due to work or because they're from the area to begin with), but rather returned to her hometown Niigata.

** Her hairdresser in Niigata, who is known to photograph his clients, gets shots of her from time to time, including one shortly after her 18th birthday. While Saki appeared significantly closer to her actual age than during her SG years, one could easily have mistaken her for a college girl rather than a high school senior.

* YoungerThanSheLooks: Born February 24th 2002 (about six weeks before her junior and co-initiate Megumi), she is as of 2019 just 17 years old. But due to her slightly above average height and her hair, she looks like a college girl.

** She was named Vice President in 2016 in recognition that she was technically senior to Sara. To date, no further members have held the title.

She also happens to be the first member to hail from Kanto (Tokyo metro area) since Momoe and Tsugumi in 2016.

!! Ayami Muto (武藤 彩未) 2010-2012

*** To put this in further perspective, even Moa and Yui – constantly made fun of for their shortness during their SG tenure – are now a good bit taller than Ayami. Hell, ''Saki Ooga'', the one and only Baby-chan (who was photographed in 2013-14 doing "Height-Battle" with Ayami), ended up taller by a centimeter.

** Ayaka admitted this herself during her [=LoGiRL=] cameo. This would explain the slightly racier shots in her photobook and her later (tasteful) shoot in April 2018's ''Weekly Playboy''.
* OldShame:[[invoked]] Ayaka is loyal to Sakura Gakuin – she even called it her alma mater in a 2019 message about current members – but don't put her on a talk show and air the footage from TIF 2010 where she barks. Even having her best friend (that'd be Airi) next to her won't stop her wrath.

** One behind-the-scenes moment during the filming of ''Message'' shows her silently snuggling Airi from behind while simultaneously giving the camera a look that says, "You're not seeing this."

Worth noting Airi is the only member to date to hail from the Tohoku Region [-(specifically Iwaki, Fukushima)-].[[labelnote:*]] Hinata was also born in Tohoku - Yamagata Prefecture, which is northwest of Fukushima - but she moved to Niigata (part of the Chuubu Region) when she was very young and lists that as her home prefecture. By the time SG began, Hinata was living in Kanagawa.[[/labelnote]] She was also the group's only left-handed member until Kano joined in 2015.

She is the only member to not have aged out naturally, and also the only graduate thus far to have never been in a subunit.

** Because she and Moa are only 14 days apart in age (Yui is older), and both turned out to be late-bloomers (Yui was later), she would compare her height to Moa's constantly, and her major frustration through the end of seventh grade was her tininess. Indeed, her spoken line during the original "Mesaze! Super Lady" was "Yui is not little!"

* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Kano and Soyoka revealed on ''Mochikomi'' that Momoe acts like this amongst their quartet and @onefive because she's the youngest (by three months). May or may not be part of her ''burikko'' shtick. This threw Mori-sen for a loop as he genuinely expected her to be TheLeader.

* {{Crossdresser}}: She did this during the 2019 ''Festival'' and on Episode 130 of ''FRESH!'' as part of her attempt to be Mori-sensei.

* NamesTheSame:[[invoked]] As Hayashi Mori-sensei. They are not related. Mori (literally meaning "forest") is a very common family name in Japan. Mori-sensei ''does'' have a daughter, but she's much younger than Momoe.

*** Sure enough, during a @onefive interview in Summer 2020 (shortly before her delayed graduation from SG), Momoe echoed Kano's desire to become proficient in English and, as she'd done before, one-upped Kano by saying she wanted to learn ''more'' than just English.

* WagTheDirector:[[invoked]] When Momoe first joined SG, she publicly expressed her desire for an Art-themed subunit. Two years later, Trico Dolls happened, and it was all but stated outright that the only reason the senseis allowed it is because Momoe, who had never been in a Club [-(nor for that matter had fellow 2016 inductee + Trico Doll Yuzumi)-], kept nagging them until they gave in.

!!Marina Horiuchi (堀内 まり菜) 2010-2014

Also worth noting Soyoka and Kano are the only members in Sakura Gakuin thus far to have served through three different uniform eras: Beige, Grey, Navy 2.0[[labelnote:*]] If the trend of a uniform change every three years continues, then Yume Nozaki will also gain this distinction.[[/labelnote]]\\

* HeightAngst: Discussed, a lot. Unlike most other members with a height complex, Kano doesn't single out any particular member who irks her in this department (especially since Momoe is the same height or shorter). She just wants to be taller in general, having been stuck at 155.8cm/5’1⅓” since 2018. She even wrote this when asked to give readers some English.

* BlindWithoutEm: Although several members current and former are known to wear glasses behind the scenes, Soyo is the only girl who wears hers even during performances. While she often uses a pair without lenses during photographs and music videos to eliminate glare, video footage of her wearing her ''real'' glasses show the lenses are extremely thick.

*** In her "One Hundredth Diary Commemoration" in Spring 2019, she took questions from fans. One that she answered was about her eyesight, which she said was 0.08 without her glasses. Depending on the specific metric Japan uses, that could mean her visual acuity is 20/200 (in other words, only a few steps above ''literally'' legally blind)!
** She does ''not'' wear her glasses during model shoots or @onefive activities, and sometimes doesn't use contact lenses either, so some professional photos and videos show her squinting.

* {{Meganekko}}: The first and so far only member of the group to wear glasses on stage (many other girls wear glasses behind the scenes, but not when performing). Her being a glasses-girl was used for her verse in "Mezase! Super-Lady", explicitly name-dropping this term.
** Starting in 7th Grade, Soyo began wearing contact lenses onstage so her glasses became just lensless frames (she's ''always'' shown wearing her real, much less dorky, specs behind the scenes though). She couldn't ditch the glasses entirely because they're ''that'' strongly associated with her look.

** Miku stated that, given the chance, she'd like to be reborn as a big, friendly dog. Her own dog (a Scottie or Mini-Schnauzer) occasionally appears in photos with her on SG's twitter.

* HugeSchoolgirl: She seems on her way to being one. Not long after the start of the 2018 nendo she became the second tallest member[[labelnote:*]] (tied with Maaya at Orientation time but passing her soon after)[[/labelnote]] after Soyoka, despite having just turned 12. [[note]] As an aside, Miku's birthday and Soyo's are within days of each other in mid-June, so Soyo is almost exactly two years older than Miku. Miku is taller than Soyoka was at the same age.[[/note]]

** At the 2019 Orientation, while the height measurements were questionable (several girls ''shrank'', which makes no sense), the results claimed Miku was 5mm taller than Soyo. [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1140239359674765312 Photographs]] taken after the event showed Miku smiling and Soyoka sporting a sour expression. They looked exactly the same height through the Summer. However, in November 2019, Soyoka [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1193144938898186242 said to her,]] "Stop growing!" At the same time, Miku's Amuse profile (not the SG website itself) updated to list Miku as 1cm taller than Soyoka. Indeed, [[https://imgur.com/a/leE7toK a photograph]] shot after the 2019 Festival had the girls lining up by height, as they do, and Miku is noticeably the tallest, although [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1206912671599120384 other photos]] appear to give Soyoka the edge.

Soyo is also the only member to be in the same club – Kobaibu – for five years.[[note]] Yui and Moa were in Babymetal for all five years of their tenure (and beyond), but the Heavy Music Club ceased to be an official subgroup following Suzuka's graduation at the end of SG's third year.[[/note]]

** In 2018, Soyo created her own character: an Osakan auntie named Michiko who speaks in a VERY THICK Osaka accent. While she mostly appears on ''FRESH!'' streams, Michiko made a brief vocal cameo during ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2018''. She later appeared in her full, uh, glory (leopard-print shirt, bad perm [wig], sunglasses) during the 2019 ''Festival''.
* {{Meganekko}}: The first member of the group to wear glasses on stage (many other girls wear glasses behind the scenes, but not when performing). Her being a glasses-girl has been used for her verse in "Mezase! Super-Lady", explicitly using this term.

** Her Osaka accent, which she has used both to threaten Mori-sensei and, increasingly, for comedy.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chu1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Soyoka, Tsugumi, Momoe, Kano]]
This foursome have the largest amount of institutional knowledge of any of Sakura Gakuin's classes, with a combined 18 years of experience between them at the time of their graduation.\\

Due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic forcing a delay of the ''Road to Graduation: Final'', Soyoka and Kano jointly hold the record for longest official Sakura Gakuin tenure by far -- just over five years between debut and graduation. Indeed, all four had already graduated from their real junior highs and started high school before they could officially age out of Sakura Gakuin. [[note]] Kano & Soyo would STILL have beaten Aiko's record by five days had RTG'19 occurred on its original date of 2020/03/29. As it was, SG stopped including them along with Tsugumi and Momoe in twitter messages from members at the end of April 2020. The four '''finally''' got to graduate in a livestream-only show on August 30th 2020.[[/note]]

!Current Members (2019 nendo)

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chu1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Soyoka, Tsugumi, Momoe, Kano]]
This foursome have the largest amount of institutional knowledge of any of Sakura Gakuin's classes, with a combined 18 years of experience between them at the time of their graduation.\\

In 2019, spinoff Idol unit [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMyvVqLsNun7sR_5Ca_ZqLQ @onefive]] formed around them\\
\\
Also worth noting Soyoka and Kano are the only members in Sakura Gakuin thus far to have served through three different uniform eras: Beige, Grey, Navy 2.0[[labelnote:*]] If the trend of a uniform change every three years continues, then Yume Nozaki will also gain this distinction.[[/labelnote]]\\
\\
Due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic forcing a delay of the ''Road to Graduation: Final'', Soyoka and Kano jointly hold the record for longest official Sakura Gakuin tenure by far -- just over five years between debut and graduation. Indeed, all four had already graduated from their real junior highs and started high school before they could officially age out of Sakura Gakuin. [[note]] Kano & Soyo would STILL have beaten Aiko's record by five days had RTG'19 occurred on its original date of 2020/03/29. As it was, SG stopped including them along with Tsugumi and Momoe in twitter messages from members at the end of April 2020. The four '''finally''' got to graduate in a livestream-only show on August 30th 2020.[[/note]]

!!Kano Fujihira (藤平 華乃) 2015 - 2020
!!! '''Subunits:''' Go Home Club (sleepiece) 2016-2017, 2019[[labelnote:*]] The group re-formed for ''Road To Graduation 2018 FINAL''.[[/labelnote]]
Joined in 2015 with Soyoka, Maaya, Marin, Momoko, and Mirena\\
\\
Performance Chairman in the 2018 nendo. Appointed Student Council President in 2019\\
\\
She holds the record for lowest all-time Nendo Test average (2.833) ''and'' jointly holds the record with Miko for lowest single-test score – one point.

* AnimalMotifs: A RunningJoke involves her talking in grunting noises like a gorilla (sometimes accompanied by Momoe translating). Given her strength plus some muscle gain since becoming one of Babymetal's 'Avengers' in 2019, it's even more apt.
** The gorilla-grunt was her response during Mori-sensei's rapid-fire introduction of the members during the bridge of "Mezase! Super Lady 2016".
* CatchPhrase: "Kano-non, Kano-non, Genki na Ko!" [-Translation: "Kano-non, Kano-non, Cheerful child!"-]
* {{Crossdresser}}: She did this during the 2019 ''Festival'' when she portrayed "Kanozaburo Fujihata", based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furuhata_Ninzabur%C5%8D Ninzaburo Furuhata]] (often called Japan's version of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'') while trying to figure out who killed Mori-sensei. The character returned in early-2020 during Kano's final in-studio episode of ''FRESH''.
* TheDitz: She's undeniably talented at singing and (especially) dancing, but she cannot pass a nendo test to save her life. In every single one to date but her final one she scored either last or next-to-last. Most-Genius president since Rinon.
** Due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic pushing back her graduation, fans have joked that Kano may be the first Class President to be held back (Mori-sen had said early in 2015 he wanted to do this to Ayami).
--->''"Hey, Kano worked hard to earn that honor."''
* GenkiGirl: It's part of her catch-phrase, after all.
** In the 2016 Nendo Test, she did an impromptu interpretive dance when she placed second from the bottom, ahead of Momoko. Mori-sensei knew why she was happy and told her to tell the camera how she had done the previous year…
--->''[-{enthusiastically}-]'' "LAST PLACE!!"
** Kano's increasingly bizarre attempts at the 2017 Transfer Ceremony to convince Miku to give up her dog
--->'''Mori:''' "She's still saying no, Fujihira. Try harder."\\
'''Kano:''' ''[-{pumping her left fist in the air}-]'' "YAY!! YAY!! YAY!! …GIMME YOUR DOG!!"
* GetOut: At least twice during her first year in the group, Kano told Mori-sen this during [=LoGiRL=] broadcasts as part of their tit-for-tat. Mori-sen invariably called her bluff and said she could run the show instead. This probably would have happened had the other girls not begged him to stay.
* HeightAngst: Discussed, a lot. Unlike most other members with a height complex, Kano doesn't single out any particular member who irks her in this department (especially since Momoe is the same height or shorter). She just wants to be taller in general, having been stuck at 155.8cm/5’1⅓” since 2018. She even wrote this when asked to give readers some English.
-->''Hello! My name is KANO! Recently, I’m having trouble growing tall. Is there a way to increase my height?''
** While she is shorter than the average for her age, she's still taller than the two Graduates she admires most: Saki Ooga and Moa Kikuchi.
* HiddenDepths: Despite her being otherwise completely useless when it comes to general knowledge, she's very good at geography.
** Aiko, who at the time had just started high school, posted a screenshot of a text conversation with Kano wherein the younger girl tried to help her senior remember European country names.
** At the 2018 Transfer Ceremony, when Mori-sen said Yume came from a place "kind of far away" [-(Aichi, which ironically is not ''nearly'' as far away from Tokyo as fellow entrants Sana's and Kokona's home prefectures on Kyushu)-], Kano started naming off random obscure UN Member States just because she could.
* InSeriesNickname: Kano-non. Kano-tée, Kano-chin by Momoe
** Since her name is four Roman letters anyway, she remains "KANO" in @onefive.
* LittleMissSnarker: In addition to casually insulting Mori-sensei to his face during one of her very first appearances on [=LoGiRL=], she was the one who complained at the 2018 transfer ceremony that every year they were stuck with the same teacher (Mori-sen).
* PintSizedPowerhouse: Demonstrated at her introduction by lifting Rinon – 4 years older and at the time nearly a foot (30cm) taller. She did it ''again'' at Rinon's graduation.
** For the ''Road To Graduation 2017'' Memorial Book, she was photographed carrying Tsugumi – much closer in size to Kano than Rinon was/is, but still…
--->"I am very strong." --TOP YELL NEO interview, June 2019
** Note that, as of late 2019, Kano has grown the 3rd most of any member during her time in the group (only Yui and Moa grew more) and could easily end up 2nd by her graduation. At 155.8cm, she's no longer quite so pint-sized, but still very much a powerhouse.
* [[PromotedFanboy Promoted Fangirl]]:[[invoked]] Fans and some members had since the beginning compared Kano, in both looks and temperament, to Moa Kikuchi, who graduated just six weeks before Kano joined. Kano herself respects Moa greatly to the point that she referred to Moa as '''''-sama''''' on an October 2017 episode of ''FRESH!'' after she'd participated in the Juonbu shuffle-unit (in Moa's slot). She was even caught doing the "Gimme Choco" dance in her sleep. Fast forward to June 2019 and Kano is revealed as the second of Babymetal's "Three Avengers" filling Yui's vacant slot during shows.
** For just over a month, Kano was the only person to have danced onstage with Sakura Gakuin, Perfume (at [=AmuseFest=] 2017), ''and'' Babymetal. However, her friend Momoko Okazaki also gained this distinction when she was revealed as Babymetal's Third 'Avenger' that August.
* RefusedTheCall: After hearing about her strength – which is why she chose to introduce Kano – Rinon tried several times to get Kano to join the Pro-Wrestling Circle, down to just her since Hana's graduation. However, Kano wanted to join sleepiece instead, leaving Rinon to revive Logica? with Megumi and Sara.
** As an aside, it's worth noting that 2015's sleepiece didn't have space for her – Maaya and Mirena joined Saki Ooga in the group, meaning Kano wasn't in a club at all her first year and had to wait until Saki graduated to join.
* TheSouthpaw: Kano is left-handed, the first lefty in Sakura Gakuin since Airi graduated. That's not why this is listed under her entry; it's the {{irony}}, shown in her first nendo test, of not knowing the meaning of the English word "southpaw" despite being one. She continued to deny the term applied to her even ''after'' Mori-sen explained it to the girls.
** In one of her final diaries, she discussed some of the difficulties of being left-handed.
* StudentCouncilPresident: The Ninth.
** She is the final president, and final member ''period'' along with Soyoka, to have served alongside any of the so-called "Original Dozen" – her first year was Rinon's last.


!!Soyoka Yoshida (吉田 爽葉香) 2015 - 2020
!!! '''Subunits:''' School Store Club 2015-2020
Joined in 2015 with Kano, Maaya, Marin, Momoko, and Mirena.\\

Education Chairman in the 2018 nendo. Appointed Ganbare!! Chairman in 2019 \\

She has the distinction of being the first member (but not the last) to hail from Japan's Kansai Region.\\

Soyo is also the only member to be in the same club – Kobaibu – for five years.[[note]] Yui and Moa were in Babymetal for all five years of their tenure (and beyond), but the Heavy Music Club ceased to be an official subgroup following Suzuka's graduation at the end of SG's third year.[[/note]]
----
* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Can clasp her hands behind her back, and bring them forward over her head while keeping them together.
* BlindWithoutEm: Although several members current and former are known to wear glasses behind the scenes, Soyo is the only girl who wears hers even during performances. While she often uses a pair without lenses during photographs and music videos to eliminate glare, video footage of her wearing her ''real'' glasses show the lenses are extremely thick.
** During Summer 2018, she mentioned in a diary that she got new glasses with thinner metal frames (as opposed to the brown or blue plastic frames she had used up to that point - see the photo above), but also lamented that her prescription had become even stronger – i.e. her eyesight had gotten worse.
*** In her "One Hundredth Diary Commemoration" in Spring 2019, she took questions from fans. One that she answered was about her eyesight, which she said was 0.08 without her glasses. Depending on the specific metric Japan uses, that could mean her visual acuity is 20/200 (in other words, only a few steps above ''literally'' legally blind)!
** She does ''not'' wear her glasses during model shoots or @onefive activities, and sometimes doesn't use contact lenses either, so some professional photos and videos show her squinting.
* CatchPhrase: "Garagara, Bakkyuun!", both onomatopoeias, first a rattling sound then a gunshot, in reference to her introduction at the transfer ceremony where she did a shooting motion while showing off her modeling skills. She later added a "being hit in the heart" motion to it at the end.
** This was used during the 2019 ''Festival'' as a "tell" that [[spoiler:SHE was the one who killed Mori-sensei. His "dying message" looked like "668" but was actually "GGB", which meant Soyo's catchphrase. When called on it, Soyo broke into crazy laughter and admitted it.]]
* CrazyPrepared: ''Several'' members have discussed this about Soyoka in diaries or during their weekly stream. She has a reputation for being extremely organized and quite the NeatFreak. In particular, she is said to haul around a gym bag with ''everything'' she or any other girl could possibly need.
* DisappearedDad: Soyoka [[https://ameblo.jp/sakuragakuin/entry-12493144600.html revealed]] in her 100th Diary Commemoration (which stretched over several entries) that her father had passed away some years earlier, possibly after she joined Sakura Gakuin. This naturally caused fans to cry.
-->[-[translation]-] ''"My dad fell sick a number of years ago and went to heaven, but we did various things together like camping and we were able to have a lot of experiences that I normally wouldn’t have been able to have. I love how my dad was really kind and liked helping others."''
* InSeriesNickname: Soyo, Soyo-chan; Soyo-chin by Momoe
** In @onefive she is officially "SOYO"
* KansaiRegionalAccent: Since she's from Osaka, she occasionally slips into her accent. In particular, she'll use it in her diary entries. It's also in her spoken line in "Mezase! Super Lady" 2017 and 2018. And she used it in Kobaibu skits after Tsugumi, a ''huge'' fan of Osakan comedy who isn't from Kansai but uses the accent anyway, joined her.
** At ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2016'' '''and''' the 2017 Transfer Ceremony, Mori-sensei pushed her far enough that she switched to harsh-Kansai (think Yakuza) and threatened to beat the snot out of him.
*** Note however that Soyo admitted in a subsequent ''FRESH'' episode that she was extremely uncomfortable playing such a delinquent because it's the polar opposite of her real personality.
** In 2018, Soyo created her own character: an Osakan auntie named Michiko who speaks in a VERY THICK Osaka accent. While she mostly appears on ''FRESH!'' streams, Michiko made a brief vocal cameo during ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2018''. She later appeared in her full, uh, glory (leopard-print shirt, bad perm [wig], sunglasses) during the 2019 ''Festival''.
* {{Meganekko}}: The first member of the group to wear glasses on stage (many other girls wear glasses behind the scenes, but not when performing). Her being a glasses-girl has been used for her verse in "Mezase! Super-Lady", explicitly using this term.
** Starting in 7th Grade, Soyo began wearing contact lenses onstage so her glasses became just lensless frames (she's ''always'' shown wearing her real, much less dorky, specs behind the scenes though). She couldn't ditch the glasses entirely because they're ''that'' strongly associated with her look.
** How do her glasses, real or fake, not fall off while dancing? She has an elastic strap on the back that hold them to her head like goggles.
** In 2018, she started the unofficial "Glasses-Girl" Club, taking multiple photos (some of which appeared on SG's twitter, others in diaries) with the other members who needed to wear glasses behind the scenes: Herself, Kokona, Miki, and Yume.
* PsychicPowers: During the 2017 Transfer Ceremony, she somehow managed to use her glasses as a conduit to channel Marin's mind-reading powers for herself in an attempt to guess the identity of the Transfers. Turned out crossing the proverbial streams backfired because they were ''both'' wrong.
* RunningJoke:
** Despite being part of a manga club in elementary school, her drawings mostly turn out pretty clumsy on live streams. This provides much amusement to Mori-sensei, who's always ready to tease her about it.
** Her remarkable ability to catch fish with her hand - discovered during the 2017 Outdoors Class Special - has been added to her Amuse profile and even made a return during a festival-themed ''Fresh! Monday'' episode in the 2018 nendo.
** Her Osaka accent, which she has used both to threaten Mori-sensei and, increasingly, for comedy.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Lemons
** In 2019, she said in a diary she still likes lemons but was no longer obsessed with them.
* YouDontLookLikeYou: Soyoka has admitted that many of her fans are not used to seeing her without glasses, even though (as mentioned above) she does not wear them when modeling or performing as @onefive.
-->''"I’ve wanted people to be able to remember both of my faces since a while ago!"''
** For one song during ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2018'', she took off her glasses (which were lensless anyway), throwing many fans watching after the fact for a loop.


!!Tsugumi Aritomo (有友 緒心) 2016 - 2020
!!! '''Subunits:''' School Store Club 2016-2020
Joined in 2016 with Momoe and Yuzumi. Appointed 2nd Hamidase! Chairman in 2019

* AlternateCharacterReading: Same case as Momoe, the individual kanji are usually read as 'o' and 'shin'. This also led to a joke with Momoko reading her name as 'Aritomo Oshin-chan'
* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: She plays the ''boke'' to Soyoka's ''tsukkomi'' in the School Store Club (''Koubaibu'') when addressing an audience, including making a funny face when called out for saying something dumb.
* CatchPhrase: "Oshin ja nai yo! Tsugumi da yo!" (It's not Oshin! It's Tsugumi!), a reference to both Yunano's catchphrase and the reading of her name.
* ClassClown: During her first two to three years, she may have been an even bigger clown than Kano, which is no mean feat.
** During the 2017 nendo test, she wrote on her paper, "I won't forgive you!" – meaning Mori-sensei, for pranking them yet again. When he warned her that if she pulled a stunt like that on the next test, he'd mark a point off out of spite, she stuck her tongue out at him. The other girls ''applauded''.
--->''"Why are you all applauding? Don't encourage her!!"''
* CloudCuckoolander: Especially when paired up with Yuzumi or Kano.
* TheIdiotFromOsaka: Plays this role as part of the School Store Club, complete with inflecting her speech in a Kansai manner. The irony of this is that she's from Chiba (east of Tokyo) while performing opposite ''actual'' Osakan Soyoka (who barely uses her real accent in the skits). Tsugu's just a big fan of Osaka-based comedy troupe ''Yoshimoto Shinkigeki''.[[labelnote:*]] Technically she ''is'' from Kansai; Tsugu revealed in December 2019 that she was born in Kyoto and learned to speak there, but her family moved to Chiba when she was 2 and she quickly forgot her original dialect.[[/labelnote]]
** In a September 2018 diary, Soyoka wrote about getting a bunch of facial cleansing strips that she tried out with "Maaya and the Osakan members ''(1 fake)''"… accompanied by a photo of herself, Maaya, Miki, and "fake Osakan" Tsugu.
** When Miki – also from Osaka – wrote about fellow Kansai member Yuzumi's impending graduation, she lamented the disbanding of the "Kansai Trio", but noted Tsugumi The Fake Kansai Girl could fill the slot.
* InUniverseNickname: Tsugu-chan, Tsugumin, Oshin-chan
** In @onefive she is "GUMI". [[note]] This is probably because they wanted all four girls to have four-letter nicknames and under the most common Romanization styles, "つぐ" is five letters ("Tsugu"), while "TUGU" (the 'strict' transliteration) would result in mispronunciation.[[/note]]
* PerpetualSmiler: Tsugumi is known for her wide smile showing her teeth that are a bit too big for her mouth. Given that this girl is practically ''built'' for comedy, she'll sometimes turn it into a CheshireCatGrin. Unsurprisingly, Mori-sensei is usually the one on the receiving end of her antics.
* [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers Third Place Is For Losers]]: One of the few times prior to her final year Tsugu was caught ''not'' smiling was when she came in third in the 2018 Nendo Test after having tied Megumi for runner-up the previous year. She approached Mori-sensei silently, obviously pissed off. Not for losing to Maaya (who came in second), but for losing once again to Momoe. Tsugu told the camera bluntly her goal is to beat Momoe.
** She never did best Momoe, losing to her on the 2019 Nendo test by ''one point'' thanks to two small mistakes.
* SeriousBusiness:[[invoked]] Tsugu considers her comedy to be this and, especially in her final year, often fretted about whether her shtick was still funny. Same goes for impressions – her specialty. During her solo ''FRESH!'' episode in December 2019, she attempted to do a vocal impression of Yuzumi but felt she botched it. Yuzu disagreed.
* [[ThoseTwoGuys Those Two Girls]]: She and Yuzumi joined Sakura Gakuin at the same time and over the course of three years produced hilarious comedy onstage together, inevitably capped off with their CatchPhrase, "Hai!! Yuzumin-Tsugumin."
* {{Yandere}}:[[invoked]] She jokingly alluded to this when she posted a diary near the end of 2018 that had (among many other things) a photo of herself hugging Kokona. Her only comment about it?
-->''"Nassu is mine!!"''
** Kokona said in her first ''FRESH'' appearance that Tsugu's idea of an introduction was basically to approach her and declare "We're friends!". Despite Mori-sensei's chiding, Kokona didn't seem to mind.


!!Momoe Mori (森 萌々穂) 2016 - 2020
!!! '''Subunits:''' Art Club (trico dolls) 2018 - 2019
Joined in 2016 with Tsugumi and Yuzumi. Appointed Talk Chairman in 2019\\

She holds the record for highest Nendo Test score average – 16.375 – and is one of only seven members to have never scored below 10/20.[[labelnote:*]] Nene, Saki Shirai, Mirena, Sara, Megumi, and Tsugumi are the others.[[/labelnote]]

* AlliterativeName: '''Mo'''moe '''Mo'''ri.
* AlternateCharacterReading: Her given name is incredibly unconventional. The most straight-forward readings for the kanji are 'moe' and 'ho' with the repetition symbol in between. This led to a joke at the transfer-in ceremony wherein Kano pronounced it as 'Moemoeho'.
* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Kano and Soyoka revealed on ''Mochikomi'' that Momoe acts like this amongst their quartet and @onefive because she's the youngest (by three months). May or may not be part of her ''burikko'' shtick. This threw Mori-sen for a loop as he genuinely expected her to be TheLeader.
* CatchPhrase: "Moe-Moe-Ho!" while forming a heart with her hands.
* {{Crossdresser}}: She did this during the 2019 ''Festival'' and on Episode 130 of ''FRESH!'' as part of her attempt to be Mori-sensei.
* TheFakeCutie: Reportedly can be quite harsh/mean at times despite her cute bearing.
** This may be why nearly everyone in Sakura Gakuin, ''including Mori-sensei'', has their own mocking impression of her – it generally involves speaking with a clinched jaw and snobby affect.
*** Tsugumi in particular likes to mock Momoe. But Tsugu, who joined the group with her, is also one of the girls most likely to be seen hugging her and is the girl Momoe trusts to hold her microphone while she conducts the intro of "School Days".
** During the 46th episode of ''FRESH!'' (her first appearance on the show since the 2018 Transfer Ceremony), Sana revealed that Momoe had spoken harshly to her during practice, leading Mori-sen to rebuke Momoe and saying she should treat her juniors better.
* GirlyGirl: Probably the most obviously so of the entire group, past or present.
** On the other hand, she has been photographed wearing a Music/{{Metallica}} T-shirt. This flies in the face of her image… but it makes perfect sense when one remembers she's a ''huge'' fan of Music/{{Babymetal}} (see below), who have long been on friendly terms with Metallica and opened for them in Seoul.
* InUniverseNickname: Moeho, Hime (princess); Momo-chan by Maaya after Momoko graduated.
** In @onefive she is "MOMO"
* [[{{Moe}} Moë]]: She's invoked this on herself, in part to fit with the unusual reading of her name, along with her extremely girly demeanor – her so-called ''burikko'' character. Doesn't always work.
* NamesTheSame:[[invoked]] As Hayashi Mori-sensei. They are not related. Mori (literally meaning "forest") is a very common family name in Japan. Mori-sensei ''does'' have a daughter, but she's much younger than Momoe.
** However, Mori-sen ''has'' used their shared last name to tease her. Such as, she would say something during a ''FRESH!'' episode and he would retort, "Daddy is against it!!"
* {{Neologizer}}: Momoe has a habit during livestreams of throwing unusual suffixes onto verbs, such as mangling ''ganbaruze'' to ''gambarumba''. No one, Mori-sensei included, is quite sure whether it's an extension of her ''burikko'' character or her native ''Edokko'' (i.e. inner-Tokyo) accent or just Momoe being weird.
** As an extension of this, she'll also give other members unusual nickames (see the entries for most other girls who were in this group at some point between 2016 and 2020).
* [[PromotedFanboy Promoted Fangirl]]:[[invoked]] Mainly a fan of Babymetal – she is known to have attended their Tokyo Dome concerts and owns at least a few of their T-shirts – but she had been following its former parent group for a while too. Fans who recognized Momoe from previous work like her appearance in Music/{{Perfume}}'s "Cling Cling" video or as Aiko's replacement in Takaratomy's Licca-chan doll commercials, saw her in the VIP section of the balcony during the 2015/6 Graduation Final.
* ShorterMeansSmarter: She's the shortest of the '04 quartet and placed first in the 2017, 2018, ''and'' 2019 nendo tests (in 2016 she was second behind Mirena, an even smarter shorty…er).
* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Momoe was the third member after Yui and the bilingual Marin to sing an English song for ''Anthology'' and sounded much better than anyone not named Marin or Momoko.
** During the Covid pandemic which shut Sakura Gakuin down just before graduation, all the girls wrote messages on why they were staying home, but Momoe wrote hers in (100% correct) English -- "I stay home to protect my family."
** Averted just over a year earlier during the 2018 Nendo test – one of the only questions she got wrong – when she misspelled "Fairy Tale" as "Fearie Tail". However, Momoe is well-known to be a perfectionist, so that mistake could easily have spurred her to brush up on her English.
*** Sure enough, during a @onefive interview in Summer 2020 (shortly before her delayed graduation from SG), Momoe echoed Kano's desire to become proficient in English and, as she'd done before, one-upped Kano by saying she wanted to learn ''more'' than just English.

[[folder:2nd year Junior High]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sakura2018_shot_117509_1_jpg.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Sana, Kokona]]
Worth noting both girls in this year, who transferred in at the same time, come from the island of Kyushu – Sana is from Kumamoto and Kokona is from Nagasaki. [[note]] The first Kyushu girl to join the group was Aiko (Kagoshima), followed four years later by Miku (Ōita).[[/note]]\\

* RedOniBlueOni: Sana openly admits their personalities are opposite.
** Red: Kokona. She's the more tomboyish and energetic of the two, she's also good at sports, especially sprinting.
** Blue: Sana. Generally more reserved, and has more girly interests like hair-styling.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: If it isn't obvious enough by that photo.

!!Sana Shiratori (白鳥 沙南) 2018 -
Joined in 2018 with Kokona Nonaka and Yume Nozaki\\
\\
By coincidence, she shares a birthday with Yui Mizuno (June 20th). They are exactly 6 years apart.

* AlliterativeName: '''S'''ana '''S'''hiratori
* AnimalMotifs: Elephants. Sana ''loves'' elephants, to the point she incorporates one into her signature.
--->'''Fukei 1:''' "So is there some kind of special meaning behind all the elephant stuff?"\\
'''Fukei 2:''' "I think it just means she really likes elephants."
** For one of her first diaries, she posted photos of herself at a zoo. Most of them were taken by the elephant enclosure.
** In the December 2018 livestream that included only her and Kokona, Mori-sensei showed them a collage of various animal heads and asked how many were Zodiac animals. Upon looking, Sana immediately shouted, "There's an elephant!!"
** She has a custom-stamp she'll use in diaries that has an elephant with her name in kana under it.
** However, her (assumed) family name translates to "swan", which Mori-sensei pointed out during her very first ''FRESH'' appearance.
* CoolBigSis: To more than one member.
** She has been one to Neo, according to Neo.
*** Sana herself admitted she prayed for Neo to be accepted into Sakura Gakuin in 2019.
** She's also one to Yume, who joined at the same time but is 2½ years younger. In Summer 2019, Sana gave Yume some hand-me-downs (continuing the Sakura Gakuin tradition), causing Yume to gush about her in a diary entry.
* CunningLinguist: Averted. She's monolingual Japanese, but has said she would like to be one.
** Upon meeting Sana in 2018, Marin - an actual example - assumed just from looking that the new girl would be bilingual and introduced herself in English. When Sana replied with an English greeting, Marin immediately worried she would lose her "special quality". But, it turned out that greeting was the only English Sana knew.
** She has since tried to insert more English into her diaries.
* {{Determinator}}: Par for the course for pretty much every member, really, but Sana explicitly invoked it in a June 2019 diary entry where she chided herself for not growing or working enough the previous year. She's very tough on herself even by Sakura Girl standards.
-->''"Like I said in my diary the other day, I want to become a world famous artist!!! To reach this dream, I have to work many times harder than other people. […] I will use this time more effectively than anyone else and definitely deliver a shining Sana to Fukei-sans. I want to work hard this year to be able to realize my dream. Please support me!!"''
** She then added a postscript…
--->''"Ah, I forgot!! I’m also going to study hard for my real school!! I want to be able to speak English!!"''
* TheDitz: Other members and Mori-sensei have described her as kind of an airhead.
* GenkiGirl: Described herself as one. In her first interview since transferring into the group, she said this…
-->''"I'm said to always be smiling and lively by my friends at school."''
** This has since been backed up by Mori-sensei when he referred to Sana, along with Miki, as loud.
* HeightAngst: Sana discussed this in a 2019 diary entry where she recounted herself and fellow classmates at her real school meeting a group of kids from Peru. She said she felt like an elementary school girl despite being in eighth grade because she was so short (at the time 147cm/4’10”) compared to everyone else.
* RavenHairIvorySkin: The most extreme example Sakura Gakuin has ever had. Her skin is so pale, fans and at least one member openly wondered if she's a ''haafu'' (mixed-race). Her irises are also noticeably lighter than most Japanese – light brown, almost amber, instead of the usual dark brown.
** While SG's sister-group Ciào Smiles ''has'' had at least two haafu amongst its ranks[[labelnote:*]] (Liliane Roy [half-French] and Karen Kojima [half-Czech])[[/labelnote]], there is no ''official'' confirmation that Sana herself is mixed. Sakura Girls themselves have, for the most part, only pointed out her extremely light skin and never asked ''why''.
* ShrinkingViolet: Despite the above, Sana opined she was one her first year, saying this about herself in June 2019…
-->''"I’ve always been someone easily influenced by others and am reserved. I couldn’t improve that part of me last year"''
** Note that literally no one else in SG agrees with Sana's assessment of her reservedness.
* StageNames: Prior to her being chosen for Sakura Gakuin, she was known simply as "SANA". No one knew her last name until she was chosen for Sakura Gakuin.
** During her time with a prior agency in her home prefecture Kumamoto, she went by a completely different stage name, which itself may or may not be her real name. Out of respect for her privacy, it will not be revealed here unless she confirms it (or until after she graduates).
** In May 2019, Sana posted a diary filled with old photos of herself, including a couple taken at a school sports festival. The name on her shirt is clearly visible in one photo and reads "Sumire" (a not-rare girl's name in Japan). In short, we'll probably never know what her true name is.
* SuddenlyShouting: She was prompted to do this by Mori-sensei in her first ''FRESH'' appearance and he instantly regretted it. When he told her to yell out how she felt in the moment, her scream was so loud she peaked all the microphones and her voice reverberated around the studio. The end result of Mori-sen's prodding is recounted on both his entry and the "Funny" subpage.


!!Kokona Nonaka (野中 ここな) 2018 -
Joined in 2018 with Sana Shiratori and Yume Nozaki

* AnimalMotifs: She doesn't have one herself but, shortly after her transfer into Sakura Gakuin – which she had originally thought was cool and collected only to learn that it was "a zoo" behind the scenes – she decided to associate every member with an animal. [[labelnote: Examples -]] Yuzumi was an otter and sometimes a caterpillar. Momoe was the zookeeper. Miku was a squirrel. Maaya was both a turtle and a rabbit. Tsugumi was a mouse.[[/labelnote]]
** She later changed her mind and said Sakura Gakuin was more like an aquarium. She is not known to have associated any of the other members with fish.
* BoyishShortHair: Her hair is a messy bob and her specialty is stated to be athletics.
* ClassClown: Started becoming one after coming out of her shell late in 2018. This is probably due in part to the influence of Tsugumi (who has "claimed" her), and perhaps also the reason Tsugu gravitated to her in the first place.
** In more than one official group photo, she has made a funny face. Including one where she can be seen puffing out her cheeks and poking them.
* CloudCuckoolander: In her introductory ''FRESH!'' episode – No.45 – she told Mori-sensei and the other girls that she enjoyed discussing fairies and aliens with Marin. Her weirdness was quickly confirmed by her fellow initiates Sana and Yume.
** In that same episode, she claimed to be '''46.9%''' nervous. It wasn't intended to be one of the infamous number-{{pun}}s Japanese is known for; it was simply her "logical" conclusion.
--->''"Well, it's not 50%. It's not 40%. It's not even 45%. So, 46.9%"''
** She's also reportedly often found staring at the sky alone and spinning around.
** During ''FRESH'' Episode 74 – the one with only her, Sana, and Mori-sensei – she got into an argument with him about whether the Cat is a Zodiac animal and claimed her mother was born in its year. There is no confirmation on whether or not Kokona has read or is even aware of ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' (its original run ended just a few months after she was born).
* {{Crossdresser}}: She's probably done this more than any other member, usually at ''Festival''s.
** Her character Nasuo, originally a baseball captain and then a photographer.
** At the 2019 ''Festival'' she made a cameo in full cosplay as [[Manga/DetectiveConan Detective Coconan]] for the "Who Killed Mori-sensei?" skit.
* TheDitz: Here's one example (likely the first of many)…
** Kokona wrote in her diary about losing her train-card. Soyoka, ever the level-headed one, immediately sprung into action, calling people, etc. After a couple hours of no luck, Soyo asked Kokona to search herself …and it turned out Kokona's train-card had been in her pocket the entire time. But then, shortly thereafter, [[HereWeGoAgain Kokona ACTUALLY lost her train-card]].
** Here's a second example: In late-2019, she recounted a story (complete with visual aid) of how she and Miko were so deep in conversation that they managed to wander out into traffic without noticing. Had Miku not been there to pull them back, Kokona would probably be a pancake now.
* InUniverseNickname: Koko-chan, Coconuts. Nassu by Tsugumi, quickly spreading to the other girls and herself.
** Also sometimes "Nasuo" (a masculine name) from the boy character she plays during ''Sakura Gakuin Festivals''
* {{Meganekko}}: Kokona usually wears glasses offstage, as seen in ''many'' twitter and diary photos, allowing her entry into Soyoka's unofficial Glasses-Girl Club.
** As "Nasuo" at the Sakurademy Awards skits, she wears a (fake) pair. The first time she did this, in 2018, Mori-sensei name-dropped the trope while asking her why. In a later ''FRESH'' episode she said it was her idea and Mori-sen had to convince the higher-ups because they both agreed the fake glasses would make for funnier skits. She managed to find even ''more'' absurd frames for Nasuo to use the next year.
** Detective Coconan also wears lensless glasses.
* StageNames: Kind of. Until a few days before the 2018 Transfer Ceremony, her name was listed on her Amuse profile as 「野中 瑚々菜」. Although read the same way, her given name got changed from kanji to all hiragana.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Yume and Sana both stated Kokona would do stereotypical boyish things. Kokona herself said she often played with boys, but also admitted to enjoying "girl talk".
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: White rice, because it goes with everything. She also likes ''nori'' (dried seaweed).
-->'''Mori-sensei:''' "Well, ''you're'' cheap to feed."
** She draws a character in her diaries which she named "Onichuu". It's a rice-ball (''onigiri'') with mouse ears and a NiceHat.

[[folder:1st year Junior High]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20190906_7th_graders_miki_diary.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Miki, Neo, Miku, Miko]]
Worth noting this is the second class in a row in which ''none'' of the members come from in or around Tokyo – Miku and Neo are from Kyushu, Miki is from Osaka, Miko is from Hiroshima.\\

Yes, the girls themselves are quick to point out the extreme similarities of their given names along with how Neo is the odd one out.
!!Miku Tanaka (田中 美空) 2017 -
Joined in 2017 with Miki Yagi

* AnimalMotifs: Kokona has compared her to both a puppy and a squirrel, which is a little bit ironic considering how small Miku isn't.
** Miku loves dogs and said during her introduction that she wouldn't give up her dog even for ¥350,000,000 [-(based on the exchange rate from May 7th 2017, that's over 3.1 million USD!)-].
** Miku stated that, given the chance, she'd like to be reborn as a big, friendly dog. Her own dog (a Scottie or Mini-Schnauzer) occasionally appears in photos with her on SG's twitter.
* CatchPhrase: "Zettai Damé!" is hers from ''Mezase! Super Lady''. It translates to "Absolutely not!!" and is a reference to her protests and unwillingness to do things early on like her first Nendo test.
** She's tried to coin another one after Miki had success with "Shiranga na!": "March 9th is Miku-Day!" – a {{pun}} on how 3 and 9 can respectively be read to get her name (and something she had blurted out during the 2018 ''Festival''). Mori-sensei immediately shot her down, prompting yet another sparring match.
* CuddleBug: She's known to be very cuddly with Yuzumi, probably due to both pulling double-duty as Ciào girls.
* HugeSchoolgirl: She seems on her way to being one. Not long after the start of the 2018 nendo she became the second tallest member[[labelnote:*]] (tied with Maaya at Orientation time but passing her soon after)[[/labelnote]] after Soyoka, despite having just turned 12. [[note]] As an aside, Miku's birthday and Soyo's are within days of each other in mid-June, so Soyo is almost exactly two years older than Miku. Miku is taller than Soyoka was at the same age.[[/note]]
** At the very beginning of the 2019 nendo, the nine returnees lined up by height for [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1114894815546626048 a photo.]] Soyoka had a clear edge over Miku, with Miku comically trying to stretch herself to look taller and Soyoka looking pleased with herself.
** At the 2019 Orientation, while the height measurements were questionable (several girls ''shrank'', which makes no sense), the results claimed Miku was 5mm taller than Soyo. [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1140239359674765312 Photographs]] taken after the event showed Miku smiling and Soyoka sporting a sour expression. They looked exactly the same height through the Summer. However, in November 2019, Soyoka [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1193144938898186242 said to her,]] "Stop growing!" At the same time, Miku's Amuse profile (not the SG website itself) updated to list Miku as 1cm taller than Soyoka. Indeed, [[https://imgur.com/a/leE7toK a photograph]] shot after the 2019 Festival had the girls lining up by height, as they do, and Miku is noticeably the tallest, although [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1206912671599120384 other photos]] appear to give Soyoka the edge.
--->''The SAKURA GAKUIN HEIGHT BATTLE will continue forever…'' —from the SMILE Documentary and still apt
* LittleMissSnarker: Okay, "little" is kind of a misnomer considering it's Miku, but, starting her 6th grade year, she began sparring with Mori-sensei during ''FRESH!'' livestreams.
** She was on the ''FRESH!'' episode in which Kokona debuted. Mori-sensei gushed about how "fresh" the new transfer was, saying Miku had lost this quality. Miku immediately retorted that she's younger than Kokona – which she is, by five months and thus a grade-level – and thus she felt she was still "fresh". Mori-sen disagreed, saying no one can declare ''themselves'' "fresh".
** Mori-sensei seems to relish picking on her, knowing she'll try to fight back.
--->'''Mori-sen:''' ''[-(to Miko)-]'' "Well, you don't seem to be too nervous, unlike Yagi and Tanaka."\\
'''Miki:''' "I'm always nervous."\\
'''Miku:''' ({{beat}}) "Hey, why are you including me??"
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Defied by Mori-sensei when she tried to pull this right before the 2017 end-of-year test.
* ShrinkingViolet: For most her first year she didn't talk much and looked noticeably lost in front of a camera, despite always saying she wasn't nervous.
* UnusualEars: The first member in a long time who could give Suzuka a run for her money.


!!Miki Yagi (八木 美樹) 2017 -
Joined in 2017 with Miku Tanaka.\\
\\
Miki had the distinction for two years of being the youngest ever Sakura girl at debut, beating Aiko's record by eight days.

* AsianBuckTeeth: She had them but has gone out of her way to ''avert'' this by wearing braces (the first member since Saki Ooga to do so) because, as she put it, having perfect teeth is ''non-negotiable''.
** Some active members since Ooga have also worn dental apparatuses – for instance, Aiko admitted to wearing clear tooth-aligners, Kokona and Miko have been seen wearing retainers, etc. – but Miki has full-on traditional metal studs and wires, leading to her invoking the braces trope below.
* {{Catchphrase}}: "It's Miki who <x>!" with <x> being a random fact about herself, followed by Fukei replying "Shiranga na!", which translates colloquially to "Who cares??".
* CoolBigSis: Yume considers her one despite their closeness in age, writing in diaries about how Miki offers to ride the Shinkansen train with her – Yume's home is in Nagoya, while Miki's is a few stops down the line in Osaka – and gave her one of her jerseys.[[labelnote:*]] ''SempaiKohai'' hand-me-downs are a longtime Sakura Gakuin tradition. This is why in backstage photos you can sometimes see girls wearing shirts from events that happened before they joined.[[/labelnote]]
** Aiko and Megumi both acted as hers during the 2017 nendo.
* CunningLinguist: Has been learning English since 2nd grade. As of her admission into SG, that's only three years, but still…
** She readily admits her pronunciation isn't great, especially compared to Marin. Even so, she'll throw the occasional English word into her diaries.
** She has a shtick where she'll 'faint' after croaking out "Oh my god!". When Mori-sensei tried to imitate it, his English didn't sound nearly as coherent.
* CuteButCacophonic: After finally coming out of her shell during her 6th grade year, Miki quickly earned a reputation as one of the louder {{genki girl}}s in the group.
* TheDitz: More and more obviously so. She "beat out" Kano to last place in the 2018 Nendo Test [-(Kano was next-to-last, much to her own surprise; she'd expected to come in last again)-]. In the ''FRESH'' epiosde in which Miko debuted, Mori-sensei gave the girls a mini-quiz and Miki got almost every question wrong.
** Early during the 2017 Transfer Ceremony, Momoko said she hoped for transfers who were cute and also "worse at studying than [her]!". With Miki, she got her wish.
* {{Meganekko}}: She's part of the unofficial "Glasses Club" with Soyoka, Kokona, and Yume.
** While she does not wear them during performances, in backstage photos Miki is almost always seen wearing glasses, suggesting her eyesight is nearly Soyoka levels of poor.
* JackOfAllTrades: Ever since her transfer-in ceremony, more and more specialties/skills of hers have surfaced that other girls possess. These include: Kansai dialect (Soyoka, Yuzumi), speaking English (Marin), playing with the ''kendama'' (Maaya), and ballet (Megumi), among other things.
** This led to Maaya losing her ''kendama'' shtick in "Mezase! Super Lady", replaced with Miki bringing Maaya into her own verse and asking that they do it together.
** Miki also has an interest in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakugo Rakugo]] and got to tell a story during ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2019''.
* KansaiRegionalAccent: Reported to slip into her accent at times, especially with Soyoka also being from Osaka.
** Miki almost always inserts some Kansai phrasing into her diaries.
** She has been known to write diaries about the "Happy Kansai Trio" (herself, Soyoka, and Yuzumi).
** Following Soyoka's lead, Miki also created an Osakan Granny character: Misae.
* PubescentBraces: See above.
** Note however that, for whatever reason, Amuse airbrushes them out of official photos, including the ones on her artist page. As of 2018, she's taken the hint and started wearing white rubber-bands to make the braces less noticeable in photos.
** Her braces were removed in Summer 2019, though she implied in her diary about it that it might be a two-stage process – not uncommon for kids who start braces young. Sure enough, she began her second round of braces shortly after New Year's 2020.
* ShrinkingViolet: She's not as quiet as her classmate and co-initiate Miku, but she's more likely to clam up if put on the spot. This was especially true her first year.
** Played up during her "Mezase! Super Lady" verse her first two years, as she would hide behind the boxes.
** During ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2017'', it was PlayedForLaughs during a skit with Maaya. Miki tried to "hide" by lifting up a strategically placed black curtain to conceal herself.


!!Neo Satou (佐藤 愛桜) 2019 -
Joined in 2019 with Miko Todaka and Sakia Kimura\\

She is the fifth member to hail from Kyushu, in her case Saga Prefecture [-(right next door to Kokona'a home Nagasaki)-].\\
\\
By coincidence, she shares her birthday with Aiko and Marin (December 1st).

* AlternateCharacterReading: Her given name is about as unconventional as one can get, to the point she felt the need to explain it to fans twice.
* {{Determinator}}: Neo had taken lessons with Sana and Kokona back in Kyushu. When they were chosen to join Sakura Gakuin in 2018, Neo decided to double-down so she could join them.
** Senior members have pointed out Neo's rapid improvement in dancing.
* {{Keigo}}: She's said by the other girls to use very polite speech. During her ''FRESH'' debut, she spoke quietly and politely the entire time.
* MeaningfulName: She discussed this in her earliest diaries. Her family name is common (see below), so her father apparently just picked her given name out of the blue and needed time to find kanji to fit it. "Neo" uses the kanji for "love" and "cherry blossom" respectively. Plus, she pointed out that her name means "new" in English. [[note]] She's only partly correct – "Neo" actually comes from the Greek ''Νέος'', and English uses it as a prefix to modify concepts because "New" does not work that way. The word itself has an extremely long history and etymology; ''every'' Indo-European language but one has a similar-sounding word that means the same thing, going all the way back to Sanskrit.[[/note]]
** Fans have joked that the kanji in her given name pretty much destined her to be in Sakura Gakuin.
* MellowFellow: Sana mentioned this about Neo, having worked with her prior to Sakura Gakuin.
-->''"Neo-chan’s personality is very calm. She does things at her own pace [and] is serious"''
** Neo also speaks with a noticeably slower cadence than most other members.
* NamesTheSame:[[invoked]] She has the exact same last name (kanji included) as Hinata, but they are not related. [[note]] Hinata lists her "hometown" as Niigata Prefecture [-(although she was born in Yamagata just to its north)-]. That's several hundred kilometers northeast of Saga.[[/note]]
* NiceGirl: Several fellow members, particularly Tsugumi, have discussed this. Neo herself unintentionally furthers it in her {{doorstopper}} diary entries by often spending a lot of space complimenting literally everyone.
** In Neo's introductory ''FRESH'' episode, she couldn't even find anything negative to say about Momoe – infamous for her strictness, bluntness, and [[TheFakeCutie fake-cutie]] tendencies – even after multiple "Are you serious?" follow-ups by Mori-sensei.
--->''"No, Momoe-chan is kind."''
* SoreLoser: Sana claimed that Neo hates losing at anything.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Should Neo's family name be spelled "Sato" or "Satou"? [[http://www.sakuragakuin.jp/members/sato.html Sakura Gakuin itself]] uses the former, while [[http://artist.amuse.co.jp/artist/satou_neo/ her artist page at Amuse]] uses the latter. Foreign fans thus far tend to add the extra vowel, probably to distinguish her from Hinata. Neo herself has not yet written her family name in Roman letters to indicate a preference. [[note]] For what it's worth, Hinata has written their shared last name ''both'' ways. She spelled it "Satou" on Suzuka's Farewell Book in 2013 but spells it "Sato" now.[[/note]]


!!Miko Todaka (戸高 美湖) 2019 -
Joined in 2019 with Neo Satou and Sakia Kimura\\

She is from Hiroshima and trained at the Actors' School, making her the third ASH alumna to join (and the first since Suzuka and Mariri both graduated in 2013).

* TheDitz: Returnee members have said Miko is talkative, energetic, and quite an airhead behind the scenes, but can instantly flip to 'professional' mode when she needs to, not unlike Suzuka.
* ExperiencedProtagonist: One should expect nothing less from an ASH girl. Upon her acceptance into Sakura Gakuin, other members made note of how proficient she already was at singing and dancing.
** Miko is only the fourth girl in Sakura Gakuin's history to get a full onstage solo (outside of "Anthology of Song"), during the 2019 Christmas show.[[note]] Suzuka was the first, partly by default because she was 2012's only Senior so she got the annual Seniors' song to herself, but she also had her solo cut of "My Graduation Toss" on its single. Aiko was second, with several onstage solos during her last two years in the group, with her also playing piano. Maaya was the third, singing ZONE's "Secret Base" during the ''2018 Festival'' Seniors' Drama.[[/note]]
* IdolSinger: She was part of a junior-Idol group within ASH called Kakumei Shoujo – literally translates to "Revolutionary Girls". It broke up when Miko was selected to join Sakura Gakuin, though her fellow members and ASH staff were quick to offer their congratulations.
* IncrediblyLamePun:[[invoked]] Took part in one of these during ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2019'' where for one sketch she came out onstage dressed as a ''miko'' (Shinto shrine maiden)
* [[PromotedFanboy Promoted Fangirl]]:[[invoked]] As one would expect, she's a big fan of Suzuka Nakamoto, name-dropping Su in her very first diary. Less then two months after her Sakura Gakuin debut, she – along with 10 of the other 11 members – attended the second night of Babymetal's "Awakens" show in Yokohama and got to see Su do her thing live. [[note]] The missing member was Class President Kano Fujihira, and the reason she wasn't with the rest of the girls was because she was ''onstage performing'' '''with''' ''Su and Moa''.[[/note]]
** Miko has also said she's a fan of Music/NamieAmuro.
* TemptingFate: Shortly after her Sakura Gakuin debut, Miko said she wanted to have a dance-off with Kano. Fast forward a few weeks, she goes with the rest of the girls to Yokohama Arena and sees Kano dancing with Music/{{Babymetal}} for an entire hour-plus set (unlike Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal have almost zero downtime in between songs). Still sure you want that dance-off, Miko?

[[/folder]]

[[folder:6th year Elementary]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b0c65dd58d26b47ad50ce2133b8f404f.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Yume]]
!!Yume Nozaki (野崎 結愛) 2018 -
!!! '''Subunits:''' Art Club (trico dolls) 2018 -
Joined in 2018 with Sana Shiratori and Kokona Nonaka

* AnimalMotifs: She's associated with hamsters, kept one as a pet until Hamu-hamu's passing in early 2020, and kinda looks like one.
* BerserkButton: [[https://www.reddit.com/r/SakuraGakuin/comments/cae2w6/yumes_warning_to_the_staff_fresh_72/ Don't laugh at her, please.]] Also, don't touch her stuff without asking. Her little sister is known to do the latter.
* CuddleBug: Mostly to Kano, whom she called her "boyfriend".
* {{Determinator}}: The best way to ensure Yume will excel at something? Tell her she's bad at it. She'll move mountains to prove you wrong.
** Sana and Kokona said during one of their first interviews in 2018 that despite being the youngest and smallest of the group, Yume did not want to be treated as TheBabyOfTheBunch. Kokona further explained that Yume is the type "to fight on in difficult circumstances".
** She worked tirelessly to get accepted as one of the Amuse Kids in 2nd grade and then worked even harder to make it into Sakura Gakuin the first chance she got.
** In early May 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown, Yume sent in [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1257189807748313089 this photo]] of herself studying English. She also mentions that the school year for her had not yet started (she was to enter junior high) but wanted to ''feel'' like a 7th-grader by completing some workbooks. Not too many kids would be willing to do that.
* {{Fangirl}}: Of Idols in general. She has said she's a big fan of Music/{{AKB48}} and had wanted to become an Idol since the age of 5. This desire led to her decision to audition for a spot at Amuse.
** Of Kano specifically, whom she declared to be her "boyfriend". Several photos from their two years in the group together show her snuggling up to Kano with a satisfied smile.
* GenkiGirl: Yume has one of the most outgoing and forceful personalities Sakura Gakuin has ever seen. This despite (or perhaps because of) her size.
** In her very first appearance onstage as a member in May 2018, she gave the audience two introductions: a "Genki" introduction – which played this trope for all it's worth and then some – followed by a "Cool" intro where she used quasi-delinquent speech. She repeated them during her first ''FRESH!'' appearance.
--->''"I may be small, but I'll be fine if I have milk. Yume Nozaki. Good ta meetcha."'' —her "cool" intro
** Kokona and Sana stated in their first interview that Yume would play "policewoman" and "arrest" them. Yume's response?
--->''"My sempais are playing around, so if I arrest them I thought I could play together with them. (lol)"''
** She's also been said by other members to hop around like a rabbit.
*** A [[https://twitter.com/sakura_shokuin/status/1282239459644198913 photo]] from Summer 2020 showed her and Sakia running literal circles around the far more sedate Neo, which caused the very confused Neo to start twirling.
** In both 2018 and 2019, she came up with "roles" for the other members. Kano was named "Boyfriend" both times. Miki and Miku traded off "big sister". When Sakia joined, she immediately became "little sister". Mori-sensei was "Funny old man who lives in the neighbourhood."
--->'''Mori:''' "Well, at least you think I'm a ''funny'' old man."
* InUniverseNickname: Yumeyume… at least that's what she would like; the other girls may come up with something else.
* PintSizedKid: Yume came close to beating Moa's record for shortest girl ever accepted into Sakura Gakuin. Prior to her induction in 2018, her height was officially listed at 127cm (4'2"), and the first group photo shows she was nearly a head shorter than Miki, the next-youngest girl and previous shorty of the group.
** PlayedForLaughs at the 2018 Transfer Ceremony when Tsugumi found a banana in the green room where Yume was seated and used it to measure her.
--->'''Tsugumi:''' ''[-(grabs banana and holds it to Yume's head)-]'' "Here's a banana for scale."\\
'''Mori-sen:''' "Don't use a banana! We can see she's tiny!"
** Official measurements at the Orientation Event a month later listed her at 131.3cm (4'3⅔"), taller than Yui and Moa were at the same age, meaning Moa's record stands.
** She wrote a diary in September 2018 about going to an amusement park with her family and bragged that, because she'd hit 131cm (4’3½”), she could go on all the rides.
*** Worth noting Yume has a sister, Juna [-(also part of Amuse's "Kids" division)-], who Yume stated during her first ''FRESH!'' appearance was <1cm shorter than her. She has subsequently confirmed in multiple diary entries spanning over a year (thus far) that she and Juna are the same height, which as of June 2020 is 145cm/4’9”. Juna is two years younger than Yume.

[[folder:5th year Elementary]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/members_kimura_ph_1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Sakia]]
!!Sakia Kimura (木村 咲愛) 2019 -
Joined in 2019 with Neo Satou and Miko Todaka\\

With a birth-date of February 20th 2009 [-(she turned 10 only 75 days before debuting)-], she holds the record as by far the youngest girl ever to debut in Sakura Gakuin.[[labelnote:*]] For added context: That's 3,727 days old at debut. Previous record-holder Miki was 3,800 days old; Aiko was 3,808 days old; Yume was 3,825 days old; and Rinon was 3,901 days old [-(had the Tohoku Disaster not pushed back her debut, Rinon would have been the exact same age as Yume: 3,825 days)-].[[/labelnote]]\\
\\
She also happens to be the first member to hail from Kanto (Tokyo metro area) since Momoe and Tsugumi in 2016.

* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Sakia is proud of her extreme flexibility, showing it off in diary entries by her and others. In one fellow member's diary, she was photographed laying on the floor with her legs in a position that can best be compared to a crab's.
* AnimalMotifs: She had this to say during her introductory interview, with Amuse Mobile…
-->''"I look like a bunny!"''
** She also said she likes pandas, and draws a duck or swan in the "S" of her autograph.
** Members and fans have also compared her to a mouse, which she definitely resembles.
* AsianBuckTeeth: This is ''why'' she looks like a bunny/mouse. Her front teeth are large and her lesser incisors are misaligned.
* TheBabyOfTheBunch[=/=]PintSizedKid: Dear lord. Not only does she hold the record for youngest ever transfer-in by several weeks, but she ''might'' also end up surpassing Moa's record for shortest one too. Though, again, Moa was a year older when she debuted – she'd recently turned 11 at the time while Sakia had just turned 10.
** Sakia's Transfer Orientation, held in mid-June 2019, measured her at 130cm, the same height as Yui was when she debuted in August 2010.
** On ''FRESH!'' Episode 98, her debut, the men behind the cameras can be heard mumbling in disbelief at how tiny Sakia is – note that Soyoka (then the tallest member) was also on that episode and pointed out there was >30cm (one foot) height difference between them. [[note]] At the time the gap was at least 32cm/12.6".[[/note]]
** After Sakura Gakuin's performance at Tokyo Idol Festival 2019, the girls went backstage for a quick interview, conducted by a former AKB member. Her brain practically melted upon seeing Sakia and she asked how Sakia could breathe for being so tiny. Sakia, being closest to her, also got a disproportionate amount of mic time.
* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Despite her young age at debut time, she's been around long enough to have worked with other names familiar to SG fans.
** She was a backup dancer on a pumpkin-themed song sung by Momoko.
** She was also a backup dancer on a Licca-chan commercial with Ciào Smiles member Ayaka Namiki (who was expected by many fans to join Sakura Gakuin in 2019 but didn't).
** And of course she portrayed 'Little-Nocchi' in Music/{{Perfume}}'s music video "Let Me Know", which is probably a big part of the reason why Nocchi herself attended 2019's Transfer Ceremony and went backstage after to get photos with the group, the Seniors (with whom she'd worked in 2017), and her miniature doppelgänger.
[[/folder]]

!Graduates
[[folder:Graduated in 2012]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3am.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Ayaka, Ayami, Airi]]
This group are often referred to as the 3 A.M.'s, due to their romanized initials.
!! Ayami Muto (武藤 彩未) 2010-2012
!!! '''Subunit:''' Baton Club (Twinklestars) 2010-2012
Founding member, first Student Council President\\

As the primary engine behind Sakura Gakuin (so far as members went), she started many of the traditions that the group still carries on to this day.

* ExperiencedProtagonist: Long before Sakura Gakuin existed, Ayami was the original Ciào Girl, appearing in multiple commercials and model shoots. After that, she was one of the Karen Girl's (effectively its leader due to being the oldest). When Mitsuru Kuramoto decided to create Sakura Gakuin, there was absolutely no question that experienced veteran Ayami should lead the group.
* HeightAngst: Hoo boy. After the first year, once NHMR outgrew her and Hana & Rinon started at her height or taller, she appeared to develop a complex about her short stature. Even as she joked about it, calling herself "compact" and "kind of a ''mini''", the angst was still there.
** During her "Ayami's Room" skit, she asked Rinon – the youngest member at the time – to stand up. 5th-grader Rinon was noticeably taller than 9th-grader Ayami. Mildly irritated, Ayami demanded Rinon explain how she was so tall.
** This is incredibly {{iron|y}}ic when you remember that, during an behind-the-scenes look into a Twinklestars practice, each girl was asked their fondest wish. Ayami wished to remain a child forever… and that was about the point she stopped growing taller.
** PlayedForLaughs during her graduation on March 25th 2012 when she had to follow Suzuka at the microphone. Recounted on the 'Funny' subpage, it was the first instance of the "Mic Gag".
*** And again two years later, shortly after the release of her first music video. Ayami was photographed in a hotel room, wearing her shiny pink outfit from the video, sitting inside an open suitcase. It is ''very'' obvious that, were she to curl up just a little more, she could fit completely inside and be carried around.
** Worth noting Ayami's brother is a jockey. So was her father. She never had a chance.
* HereditaryCurse: Her position as Student Council President also means scoring low on year-end tests, either low in general or the lowest of the seniors. This has been passed on to most of her successors. [[labelnote:Exceptions -]] Marina (Hinata scored lower), Aiko (Momoko scored lower), and Yuzumi (Marin scored lower).[[/labelnote]]
* IdolSinger: A solo example, which is relatively unusual in the 2010s. Hasn't quite worked out.
** Before joining Sakura Gakuin, she was a member of [[GirlGroup kid trio]] Karen Girl's with Suzuka Nakamoto (listed below) and Yuika Shima.
* InSeriesNickname: Ayami-chan. Also "AYM". She continues to use the latter for her solo career and her fans have picked it up.
* ImportantHaircut: Cut her hair into a bob style after graduating Sakura Gakuin, for her solo career.
** Upon her return to Japan, her hair had grown somewhat. Early in 2019, she posted a photo of herself wearing extensions and remarked she might want to have long hair again.
* [[OneHeadTaller One Head Shorter]]: See that photo? ''One'' head is almost an understatement. A photo taken of Ayami, Ayaka, and Airi about a year or so after their graduation shows them towering over her even more. Ayami looked like a literal doll in between them as they used her head as an armrest.
** Ayami remains to this day the shortest girl ever to graduate Sakura Gakuin, at 149cm - or ~4'10⅔" - while (as noted below) Ayaka and Airi are both 170cm (5'7") or taller. This is somewhat ironic as Ayami is also the ''oldest'' Sakura Gakuin member.
*** To put this in further perspective, even Moa and Yui – constantly made fun of for their shortness during their SG tenure – are now a good bit taller than Ayami. Hell, ''Saki Ooga'', the one and only Baby-chan (who was photographed in 2013-14 doing "Height-Battle" with Ayami), ended up taller by a centimeter.
** During Tokyo Idol Festival 2015, Ayami was set to perform on the same stage as Sakura Gakuin. She met the girls backstage and Rinon – the only member remaining to have worked with her – gave her a hug… and had to bend down to do it, as she had grown even taller in the intervening four years[[labelnote:*]] (Rinon's final update listed her as 165cm, or 5’5”)[[/labelnote]]. For the record, Ayami was wearing ''three-inch heels'' that day and Rinon ''still'' towered over her.
* ShorterMeansSmarter: Inverted. Ayaka and Airi scored near the top (and identically) in both of their nendo tests, while Ayami came in dead-last in 2010, and only avoided coming in last again in 2011 because Rinon – original Queen of the Bottom Ranking – had joined the group in the meantime.
** In the first [=LoGiRL=] episode, while discussing the history of Sakura Gakuin, Mori-sensei joked he had wanted to hold Ayami back a year because she was such an airhead.
** That said, the other girls who worked with her in Sakura Gakuin praised her intelligence in the ''SMILE'' documentary. She would often help younger girls with their homework.
* StudentCouncilPresident: The First, and so far the only one to hold the position for more than one year – the 2010 nendo had no graduates.
** Normally it's the job of the class president to do the final stand-and-bow call at the end of a class, but Ayami was so upset at coming in last on the first year-end test that she asked Nene (who came in first) do it instead. This started a tradition that continues to this day. [[note]] If two girls tie for first, as Saki Shirai and Megumi Okada did in the 2015 midterm, then the task falls to the older girl, in that case Shirai.[[/note]]
* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: After graduating Sakura Gakuin, Ayami began studying English intensively and by 2015 her pronunciation was pretty good. In 2016, after her contract with Amuse ended, she moved to New Zealand. While she mostly tweets in Japanese, foreigners who have met her since her 2018 comeback have confirmed that, while she still has an accent, she's clearly comfortable enough with English to converse with non-Japanese fans unassisted.
** In March 2019, she used her proficiency in writing English to subvert an agency-imposed firewall and told the world she had gone to a museum with Moa (who is not allowed to be publicly photographed out of uniform). While Moa was not ''in'' any photos, likely at her own request, Ayami told fans that Moa took the photos of her.
** During a November 2019 livestream with Raura, Ayami saw a comment written in colloquial English and nearly burst out laughing: "Please bring Nene-don out from the underworld." She had to explain to Rau what it meant.


!!Ayaka Miyoshi (三吉 彩花) 2010-2012
!!! '''Subunit:''' Newspaper Club (SCOOPERS) 2010-2012
Founding member

* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Her persona in Sakura Gakuin. Continued into her modeling career.
** Played with during her cameo on [=LoGiRL=]. Mori-sensei's [[IShallTauntYou teasing]] caused her to immediately break character and resume the dynamic they had had years earlier. She noted later in the show it had been so long since she had dropped her persona she was at a complete loss what to do.
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Ayaka is almost never one to do this, but it happened in June 2019 when she attended a film festival in Toronto as an invited guest – one of the films being shown was ''Dance With Me'', in which she plays a major role. Halfway down the red carpet she noticed Babymetal Funko Pops[[labelnote:*]] (these particular Pops are the focus of a project where they were first sent up into space, then taken to Hiroshima for LEGEND-S in December 2017, and have since been passed from fan to fan all over the world)[[/labelnote]] posed by the rope line and broke her stride to take a look at them. ''Then'' she saw the fan with the Pops also had a Sakura Gakuin flag and asked for it. She spent the next minute [[https://twitter.com/glennaatx/status/1138218562915487745 posing with the flag]] before realizing where she was, returning the flag, and going on her way.
* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: Acted as the Tsukkomi to Ayami, Airi, AND Suzuka.
* TheComicallySerious: Suggest that she show a more vulnerable side, and she will amusingly shoot you down with her words.
** At least three times during Sakura Gakuin, she pulled off hilarious impressions with an absolute deadpan expression. First was her debut at TIF 2010 where she barked like a dog. Later, on a TV appearance with the rest of the group, she ''very'' reluctantly spoke like a cat after the other girls begged her. She did the same thing during her and Ayami's half of the "Yearning For Friends" sketch.
** On New Year's 2019, she posted a video on her Instagram of what appeared to be herself in Seoul (in the background there are signs in Korean, English, and one in Japanese), wearing a hat that had become popular amongst Japanese girls – it has long tassels that, when you squeeze them, the ears on top perk up. Ayaka ''tried'' to play with the hat while maintaining a totally neutral expression, but eventually broke into a smile at the absurdity of it.
* CunningLinguist: She was studying Korean even before landing in Sakura Gakuin and has been known to speak it when asked. She did this as recently as 2019 at a modeling event in Seoul.
** Ayaka decided in 2018, after going to a modeling event in Milan, that she wanted to learn English too. Sure enough, when on a junket in March 2019 with several other models in Sedona, Arizona, she had a brief conversation in English with an American model in which they discussed product.
* IceQueen: Tends to be played up in public.
** Averted according to the junior girls – she comes to shows when she can and encourages the members. Several current and past members have commented on how approachable and helpful she is.
** In early 2020, then-recent SG Graduate Yuzumi Shintani got the opportunity on her fortnightly radio show to meet and interview Ayaka. Yuzu was terrified the entire time despite Ayaka trying her best to be a CoolBigSis and prove that this trope doesn't always fit her.
* HugeSchoolgirl: Was over 165cm[[labelnote:*]](5'5")[[/labelnote]] when she joined, and is listed as 171cm[[labelnote:*]] (5'7⅓", which is taller than the average Japanese man)[[/labelnote]] now. She does a lot of modeling work.
* InSeriesNickname: Miyocchan
* NaughtyByNight: Hinted several times to occur whenever off stage. When then-aged-12 Yui mentioned this during the "Ayaka's Room" skit, Nene immediately grabbed Yui and covered her mouth, insisting to Ayaka, "You didn't hear that."
** Ayaka admitted this herself during her [=LoGiRL=] cameo. This would explain the slightly racier shots in her photobook and her later (tasteful) shoot in April 2018's ''Weekly Playboy''.
* OldShame:[[invoked]] Ayaka is loyal to Sakura Gakuin – she even called it her alma mater in a 2019 message about current members – but don't put her on a talk show and air the footage from TIF 2010 where she barks. Even having her best friend (that'd be Airi) next to her won't stop her wrath.
* {{Tsundere}}: Especially with her Miyocchan personality.
** One behind-the-scenes moment during the filming of ''Message'' shows her silently snuggling Airi from behind while simultaneously giving the camera a look that says, "You're not seeing this."


!!Airi Matsui (松井 愛莉) 2010-2012
!!! '''Subunit:''' Newspaper Club (SCOOPERS) 2010-2012
Founding member.\\

Worth noting Airi is the only member to date to hail from the Tohoku Region [-(specifically Iwaki, Fukushima)-].[[labelnote:*]] Hinata was also born in Tohoku - Yamagata Prefecture, which is northwest of Fukushima - but she moved to Niigata (part of the Chuubu Region) when she was very young and lists that as her home prefecture. By the time SG began, Hinata was living in Kanagawa.[[/labelnote]] She was also the group's only left-handed member until Kano joined in 2015.

* HugeSchoolgirl: Was well over 165cm when she joined, and is listed as 170cm[[note]] (5'7", the average height of a Japanese man)[[/note]] now. She does a lot of modeling work.
** When she acted in a school-themed TV drama, they ended up casting an ''absurdly'' tall guy opposite her (we're talking well over 183cm/6ft) to keep to the "man is taller" conceit.
* InSeriesNickname: Airin, Matsuko
* MismatchedEyes: Zig-zagged. Both of Airi's irises are dark brown, as is typical of nearly all Japanese. However, at some point after 2016, she developed a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevus_of_Ota Nevus of Ota]] (that is, a sort of mole) on her right eye. It can be seen in several videos where the white of her eye is visible.
* NiceGirl: Discussed by the other members during the ''SMILE'' documentary. When asked about their impressions of Airi, nearly every girl talked about how kind she was and allowed everyone to be heard.
** Continued into her later career as a top-tier model, as she occasionally works with later Sakura Gakuin members, who quickly take to her. She's also known to attend meetups when her schedule allows, even if it's only for a few minutes.[[labelnote:†]] She reportedly put in an appearance at ''Road To Graduation 2016'', but had to leave before the group photo was taken. She also met up with her former leader Ayami upon the latter's return to Japan, but Ayami only mentioned it after the fact with no photos.[[/labelnote]]
** Aiko showed off on December 26th 2018 (Airi's 22nd birthday) a necklace Airi had given her, writing about how nice a person Airi is and how much she enjoyed working with her. Earlier in 2018, Aiko took a couple of photos of herself in the exact same spot Airi had done a model-shoot the previous year.
* OldShame: Airi explicitly invoked this with Sakura Gakuin. Not the actual group, which she has said she owes her career and some friendships to, but her 13- to 15-year-old self. She has said she wishes she could take awkward timid teenage crybaby Airi and lock her away in a box where no one could see her again.
** Airi admitted to Mori-sensei during her Coming-Of-Age Day that her time in Sakura Gakuin was the worst two years of her life, because she felt so inadequate and worthless; her greenness and shyness fed off each other.
** Despite this, Airi for some time kept Sakura Gakuin on her work history much more prominently than other graduated members who either downplay it (Ayaka) or leave it off completely (Sara, Yuzumi). Her official artist page no longer includes the little logo that links to the group, but it's still mentioned in her written bio.
* PerformanceAnxiety: Had this in a ''big'' way her first year in Sakura Gakuin and openly admitted it. It's a little bit ironic these days considering Airi now appears on television, in magazines, and in high-profile fashion shows.
* PerpetualSmiler: See that photo? Airi is notable for her big smile to the point that she's almost unrecognizable when she ''isn't'' smiling, such as in her model shoot for Vogue in late 2017. This puts her in sharp contrast to other top-tier catwalk models, including her good friend and fellow SG alumna Ayaka.
** It's kind of a tic. If she's speaking at all, she'll probably have that smile. During the ''SMILE'' documentary and ''Sakura Gakuin SUN'', she was shown to smile even when nervous (''especially'' when nervous) or complaining. The only times she wouldn't be smiling were when she was literally crying or feeling no emotion at all.
** The "Airi Smile" has become sort of her trademark and she ''has'' learned how to adjust its wattage when necessary. One of her catwalks from Summer 2018 shows her sporting a tight-lipped smile while walking onstage and then, just before she turns to face the camera, her teeth start to show…
*** During one multiple-model photoshoot for Christian Dior, every other model is pouting …then Airi's photo pops up and ''of course'' she's smiling and waving at the camera.
*** Photographers increasingly have her make a neutral face to draw more attention to whatever outfits she's modeling because her smile is ''that'' overpowering.
** That said, she has proven more than capable of acting the part of a snarling AxeCrazy nutcase if a script calls for it.
* SoreLoser: She absolutely hates losing, at least according to Ayami and Suzuka.
* TenderTears: Due to her nervousness thanks to lack of experience compared to most of the other girls, Airi was quick to cry when upset or flustered. This can be seen in ''several'' behind-the-scenes clips. At her own graduation, she held it together pretty well until the final song, "Tabidachi no Hi ni", where she tries to sing her part but is too choked up to get the words out. During the speeches, she's in tears the entire time.
* YouTalkTooMuch: Airi invoked this when Mori-sensei met the [=3AMs=] at a bar shortly after his birthday in 2019. As it was the first time he had spoken to most of them in awhile, he wanted to start by giving a formal speech …but before he could get very far into it, Airi motioned at him to hurry it up. Mori-sen recounted the incident on his radio show not long after.

[[folder:Graduated in 2013]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cg4sf5euuaahp95jpg_orig.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Suzuka, Mariri]]
Of note: both Suzuka and Mariri come from Hiroshima, and studied at ASH (Actors School Hiroshima)
!! Suzuka Nakamoto (中元 すず香) 2010-2013
!!! '''Subunits:''' Mini-Pati, 2009 (before it became part of Sakura Gakuin)\\
Heavy Music Club (a.k.a. Music/{{Babymetal}}) 2010–
Founding member. Appointed as the second Student Council President in 2012.\\
\\
She was the first member to come from Japan's Chuugoku (Far-West Honshu) Region.\\
\\
Suzuka is to date the only Class President in the group's history to be given an appreciation party in her honor by the other members.\\
\\
One of her sisters, Himeka "Hime-tan" Nakamoto, was a founding member of idol supergroup Music/{{Nogizaka46}}. [[note]] There is another sister, the eldest, who is not in show business.[[/note]]

* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Suzuka is double-jointed, which becomes very obvious any time she extends her arm during a performance (which happens a lot). Fans refer to this as her "bendy arm".
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Played straight but then intentionally averted. During the first two years of Sakura Gakuin, she hung out with the A.M.'s (due in part to already being friends with Ayami). Once they graduated and Su became second student council president by default, she realized she barely knew her juniors at all yet was expected to lead them. So she made an effort to get to know everyone. It worked.
** In the ''SMILE'' documentary, Su discussed this. In real life, as noted below, she is extremely aloof around strangers if she doesn't have to be "on" (she ''is'' a trained performer). Because of that tendency and the fact that she missed several lessons early in Sakura Gakuin's existence due to still living in Hiroshima at the time, she was pleasantly shocked when the other girls treated her as a member of the group when she did show up.
* BeautyMark: Has one on her right upper lip that, post-Karen Girl's, is usually masked with heavy makeup and airbrushed out of publicity photos, and at one point was bleached and/or unsuccessfully removed. [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DReVHWdV4AA-xBx.jpg It's back now.]]
* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: Su is a rare example of being ''both'' of these to '''''herself''''', as pointed out by other members and Mori-sensei.
** Boke Suzuka is a complete dork who laughs a lot, has {{no sense of direction}}, can't ride a bike, can't tie her shoes [-(take a close look at any photo of Babymetal that shows the girls' feet, or their Funko figurines; Su's shoes lack laces)-], and can't pass a nendo test to save her life. Also see this side occasionally come out during Babymetal live shows when she thinks no one but Moa is looking.
** Tsukkomi Su-Metal is the Metal Queen who can death-stare up to 55,000 people and get them to move as she commands.
* CloudCuckoolander: She had a reputation during her three years in Sakura Gakuin for being a [[TheDitz ditz]]. Due to her popularity amongst the fanbase, certain terms that she coined – such as "[=DeLorean=]" for optical discs of any kind – have become {{memetic|mutation}} and common fan-shorthand. Some of her most notable moments are listed under the Funny subpage.
** In ''Scoopers + Babymetal'' from the 2010 nendo, which is probably the first in-character interview of Babymetal ever, Su admitted to not being good at tying her shoes. Fast forward to the present, and the people who know her have confirmed in interviews that despite being an adult, she ''still'' can't tie her shoes or ride a bike. She has also been shown to veer off in odd directions if someone isn't guiding her.
** She has also freely admitted in interviews to having some BookDumb tendencies. In stark contrast to Yui and Moa, Su's grades in school were middling at best because she can't bring herself to care about or focus on anything that isn't connected to singing. Luckily for international fans, learning English ''does'' count.
** In a radio interview after Babymetal's Tokyo Dome concert, Mori-sensei joked that she might have made a DealWithTheDevil, sacrificing some basic daily skills in exchange for her extraordinary success.
* CuteLittleFangs: Throughout her time in Sakura Gakuin and the first six years of Babymetal, Su had a natural version of what the Japanese call ''yaeba'', which their culture considers cute in girls… although to Westerners it borders on BritishTeeth but without that trope's stereotype of poor upkeep. She had at least one oral surgery to straighten them sometime between Tokyo Dome (September 2016) and ''Road To Graduation 2016'' (March 2017).
-->''"Main girl needs braces."'' –said by more than one commenter on old Babymetal videos where Su's teeth are visible
* DeathGlare: Su has one – inherited from her dad – that puts metalhead men twice her age and size to shame. She has been seen flipping from giggling girl to glaring rock-goddess who may or may not rip your head off, within the span of two seconds. This is a big reason why when she motions to a crowd that she wants a wall-of-death or circle pit, ''she gets it''.
* ExperiencedProtagonist: She was a child model by the age of 5, got into acting school at 7, made her singing debut at 8, performed with Mini-Pati before it became a Sakura Gakuin subunit, and was chosen as one of the Karen Girl's at 10. By the time Sakura Gakuin started when she was 12, she was already quite the veteran and everyone knew it.
** During her time at Sakura Gakuin, Su was almost always the first into the booth to record a song; the other girls recorded over her scratch track.[[labelnote:*]] The major exception is the very first Sakura Gakuin song "Yume ni Mukatte"; the ''SMILE'' documentary shows Ayami was the first to record, with Su second.[[/labelnote]] The single version of "My Graduation Toss" includes her solo version of it. She also, uniquely, got a full solo song at ''Road To Graduation 2012'': [[https://youtu.be/nWp4FaCgoc8 "Sakurairo no Avenue".]] [[note]] Graduating seniors typically get their own song or medley, but they sing it together. Su was her year's only senior (Mariri graduated elementary school), so this was partly by default.[[/note]]
* FriendlyRivalry: She and Riho Sayashi, one of Music/{{Babymetal}}'s Avengers and former [[Music/HelloProject Morning Musume]] center, had this back in their Actor's School Hiroshima days. [[RedBaron They're known as]] "Sayashi of Dancing and Nakamoto of Singing" (ダンスの鞘師、歌の中元), and fans and fellow students alike often tried to guess which one of them would get which solo parts during performances.
* GenerationXerox: Gender-flipped variant. She bears an uncanny resemblance to her father when he was younger, and he was also a musician – playing bass in a punk band called "Hooligans" that released an album in the early 90's. They also have the same DeathGlare, as can be seen on said album's cover.
* GrinOfAudacity: Su has been known to do this before some shows. Or ''during'' shows, such as "I.D.Z" at Budokan Black Night. Just goes to show how unflappable this girl is.
* IdolSinger: She was a pint-sized version even before joining Sakura Gakuin, having been one of the Karen Girl's. In fact, she was the youngest of the trio by well over a year. [[note]] For the record, Ayami was born 1996/04/29; Yuika was born 1996/09/20; and Su was born 1997/12/20.[[/note]]
* InSeriesNickname: Su-chan
* ItRunsInTheFamily: Three out of five Nakamotos are/have been professional musicians: Suzuka's father was a bassist (see above), and her sister was a member of Music/{{Nogizaka46}} for several years.
* MotorMouth: Often happens when she's excited or flustered. Because her singing style necessitates having quite the lung capacity, she can talk for a long time without taking a breath.
** Didn't stop after Sakura Gakuin either. In most Babymetal interviews, she does 90% of the talking unless the interviewer specifically talked to Moa or Yui; and her answers, especially if in Japanese, tend to ramble.
* NervesOfSteel: After shows she has claimed to have been nervous before going on, but none of her fellow members see it that way. Moa once literally rolled her eyes upon hearing Su say it. Why? Examples:
** Karen Girl's did their final live performance at an anime festival at the Satima Super Arena – the largest venue by far they had played, with a capacity of 20,000. Several years later the other two members, Ayami Muto and Yuika Shima, said that they were both extremely nervous before their performance. Meanwhile, Suzuka was snoozing in the dressing room and had to be woken up in time to perform.
** Was reported to give a small smile when she saw the size of the crowd at their first UK performance at [=SoniSphere=] 2014, estimated at over 50,000 British metalheads.[[note]] Babymetal was originally meant to perform on a side-stage, where they would be dealing with a few thousand of their loyal fans. At the last minute, the roster was shifted and they ended up opening the Main Stage where 95% of the gathered crowd had never heard of them.[[/note]] You would expect ''anyone'', much less a 16-year-old Japanese girl with minimal English skills, to be more than a bit nervous in that situation.
*** In an interview conducted by ''Hedoban'' Magazine not long afterward, she said she saw the huge stage and those thousands of bored metalheads and her immediate resolve was, essentially, "Let's give these guys the absolute best show we can!"
* NeverLearnedToRead: Downplayed. Obviously she can ''read'', since she can write. However, Mori-sensei has said she doesn’t know the correct way to read panels in manga.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Ayami notes that Su can change tack when it's time for her to take the reins, in contrast to her usual happy-go-lucky self. Yui and Moa have backed this up.
* ReclusiveArtist: Discussed and invoked. Suzuka readily admitted in the ''SMILE'' documentary she is one and always has been, diary writing during Sakura Gakuin aside. This has not changed one iota since Babymetal split off – in fact, it intensified. When she gave an interview to ''PMC Magazine'' in April 2019, it had been two and a half years since her last interview (right after Tokyo Dome), despite her performing regularly in the interim. The only information about Su to make it past Koba's (and possibly her own) firewall came from members of her own family, mostly Himeka before she retired from Nogizaka.
* SiblingTeam: Performed with Himeka as ''Tween'' when they were both attending Actor's School Hiroshima. Interestingly, they wore each other's future group colors during their performance at ASH's 2009 Autumn Act: Su was wearing purplish blue and black while Himeka was in red and black (neither Music/{{Nogizaka46}} nor obviously Music/{{Babymetal}} had existed at the time).
** Himeka stated in a radio interview that when she and Su meet, they'll often do karaoke together and sing up to a hundred songs, running the musical gamut until their voices are shot.
* SternTeacher: She was this during her stint as leader of the Sakura Gakuin girls, and admitted in one of her final interviews that she really didn't want to be but had no idea what else to do. The other girls, for their part, told Su they appreciated her putting her foot down to give criticism and advice, and actually be their leader.
* StudentCouncilPresident: The Second
* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: She's been working to improve her English skills and her pronunciation has become pretty good, although she has yet to reach fluency. Still, listen to her English during her Sakura Gakuin days versus interviews and singing in 2019; her improvement is undeniable even if she still has an accent.
** [[invoked]] At "LEGEND S", her 20th birthday concert, she had precorded several minutes worth of narration entirely in English – which, while accented, was understandable ([[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible even if the subject matter itself was not]]) – and, as has become standard, she spoke to the audience in English despite 95% of attendees being Japanese.
** When Su makes mistakes in English, they tend to be grammatical and often become {{memetic|mutation}}.
--->i-Po'''''t''''' --her most treasured possession, as indicated in her very first diary, May 15th 2010\\
"'''''I''''' name is Suzuka!!" --her spoken line in "Mezase! Super Lady" [-(maybe intended to say "My" but that's not how the mic picked it up)-]\\
"Take care your neck!" --LEGEND Z, Tokyo, February 2013\\
"You are guys amazing!" --Wembley, April 2016\\
"Sing with me now Choco. ♥︎Okay?♥︎" --Miami, April 2017
* TeamMom: Said in an interview that she felt like this for the first few years of Babymetal due to Yui and Moa's youth and inexperience, but also admitted that increasingly they would push her forward. Video from 2017 festival appearances shows she still takes it upon herself to calm them down when they get emotional.
** As noted above, she reluctantly became this during her tenure as Sakura Gakuin Class President. One of the things she had to do was try and resolve escalating tensions between Raura, Marina, Nene, and Hinata. Nene spoke glowingly of Su's efforts at the Surprise Appreciation Party.
** During a September 2019 Babymetal performance in Chicago, Avenger Riho Sayashi lost her balance and nearly rolled her right ankle (''very'' bad thing for a professional dancer). Riho saved herself by kicking her foot back and letting her knee take the weight. Su saw Riho go down and her eyes stayed laser-focused on Riho's leg for the rest of the song.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: The juniors' parody song at Su's Surprise Appreciation Party was titled "Cheese and Su-chan" in recognition of Su's love of cheese and cheesecake.
** She's also known to enjoy ''okonomiyaki'', a specialty of her hometown Hiroshima. One okonomiyaki restaurant she frequented when she still lived in the city has a large photograph of her (with her autograph) on its "celebrity wall".
** Because of Babymetal's most-known song ("Gimme Chocolate"), one interview asked what type of chocolate each of the trio preferred. Su was the only one who gave a single answer: Dark/Bitter.
* TryingNotToCry: She claims to have made a promise to Mikiko-sensei during her ASH days to never cry onstage. To this day, she hasn't broken – though she came ''very'' close during Ayami's graduation (she cracked backstage ''immedately after'' the show).
** During her "Surprise Appreciation Party" in March 2013, Nene's message to her ''did'' cause her to shed at least one tear, but [[ExactWords it wasn't onstage, so she technically didn't break her promise to Mikiko-sensei]]. It ''is'', however, one of the only times Su has been seen crying on camera.
** At the same party, Yui's speech to Su specifically mentioned her stiff upper lip.
--->"Even though Su-chan was the one who wanted to cry the most, she encouraged everyone to smile."
* UnusualEars: Su's ears stick out noticeably. It's a family trait – Himeka has a less extreme version – and she invoked it early on as one of her "charm points". As one random commenter who saw a Babymetal video for the first time put it:
-->"Main girl's ears are huuuuuuge!"
** Su mentioned in an early Sakura Gakuin diary entry that she likes her ears because they [[DaddysGirl remind her of her father]], although she lamented that it hurts to wear earmuffs and she can't hear people behind her.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: When the Babymetal trio still made appearances on variety shows, they took part in a Taiwanese rendition of "Guess What's In The Box". Su was noticeably nervous even before the reveal showed the mystery thing to be a large bullfrog, at which point she just about lost it. While Moa soon picked up the amphibian and Yui eventually let it sit on her arm (though she did startle when it unexpectedly jumped to her other arm), Su ''refused'' to be within two yards of it. As Moa carried the frog towards Su, Su backed away to the point she left the set and a close-up of her face shows she was TryingNotToCry while uttering a LittleNo.


!!Mariri Sugimoto (杉本 愛莉鈴) 2012-2013
Joined in 2012 with Yunano Notsu and Saki Ooga. She graduated early to concentrate on a modeling career in her hometown after elementary school.\\

She is the only member to not have aged out naturally, and also the only graduate thus far to have never been in a subunit.

* CelebrityResemblance: With Suzuka. Mariri has been told they look alike (even though they don't). During the 2012 nendo's "Introduce Someone" series, Su stated Mariri has an eccentric personality, to which Mariri replied their personalities are almost the same. This isn't too surprising considering they both come from Hiroshima and went to ASH.
-->''"We are often told we are alike and asked, 'Is everyone from Hiroshima like you?'."'' —Suzuka
* CloudCuckoolander: Discussed. Suzuka called Mariri "strange" and "eccentric" ([[{{Hypocrite}} like Su has room to talk]]). On the surface, Mariri seems almost boringly normal. …Then you see her doing things like wearing a Carp uniform underneath her clothes during a Sei-Kore interview and stripping to reveal it (she also somehow managed to sneak in a minibat). Earlier, after being named one of the six winners of the Sei-Kore competition which earned her her first mini-photobook – it's just over 40 pages and several photos have her wearing nothing but a bikini that shows off her modest cleavage – and she was so proud of it that she decided to show it to her ''grandparents''.
** [[https://twitter.com/sugimoto_mariri/status/1218621404641234945 Here she is doing a surprisingly good chicken impression.]]
* CoolBigSis: Even though Mariri was only in Sakura Gakuin for a year, it had a profound effect on her by her own admission, and for years she made a habit of attending as many SG live events as she could to show her support for current members, just as older members had supported her.
** She was notably close to the three members in her grade (including Saki Shirai, her replacement), as well as her co-initiate Yunano.
** Her loyalty to Sakura Gakuin was such that, unlike the many other graduates who skipped, she felt duty-bound to apologize ahead of time for missing ''Road To Graduation 2017'' due to work commitments.
*** She stopped going to lives as her schooling and career both intensified. The last show she attended to date was ''Sakura Gakuin Festival 2017''. However, she posted [[https://imgur.com/AKTrA0b a photo of herself wearing the group's 2019 T-shirt,]] proudly pointing to the logo, so her continuing support is not even remotely in doubt.
** Suzuka was this to her, as they had known each other for years before Sakura Gakuin thanks to their time at ASH.
*** In late 2017, Mariri did a Q&A on her Twitter, responding to the question of "Who is your idol?" by saying it was and always will be Suzuka.
* HiddenDepths: She's a model by profession and has been since at least 2012 but, as noted above, she trained at ASH. In fact, she enrolled at a ''much'' younger age than Suzuka did (so, about the same time). She can act, she can dance, and she can sing – Suzuka said Mariri was a good singer, and old videos from before she entered Sakura Gakuin show she had an unusually powerful voice, which is amusing given she tends to speak softly.
** She got the opportunity to act in a play shortly after graduating high school.
** A ''Yan-Yan Girls'' broadcast from mid-2019 showed her singing karaoke in front of several other girls and honestly not sounding great. She [[https://twitter.com/sugimoto_mariri/status/1162741644141088768 has openly worried]] about possible deterioration of her voice. A couple months later, she sang again and sounded much better -- her voice once again being powerful enough to reverberate around the room (needless to say she won the singing competition that night).
** She did well on her only Nendo Test, better than Suzuka (not a high bar), but she's also a genuine [[TheSmartGuy smart girl]].
*** [[https://twitter.com/sugimoto_mariri/status/944076878452637696 Here]] is a photo of her certification for passing a major (difficult) kanji test her junior year of high school. The test in question is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_Kentei Japan Kanji Aptitude Exam.]][[labelnote:*]] 「日本漢字能力検定」 ''Nihon Kanji Nōryoku Kentei'', often shortened to just ''Kanji Kentei'' or ''Kanken''.[[/labelnote]] Mariri's certificate shows she passed Grade-2. That level has a pass-rate of '''22%''' and can be used as a selling-point when applying for jobs.
*** [[https://twitter.com/sugimoto_mariri/status/1020170812354019329 Here she is]] showing off her Eiken (National English Exam) Grade 2 certification her senior year. That level of competence allows her to study abroad if she feels like it.
*** As of 2019, she's the only Sakura Gakuin graduate still active in the industry known to be attending university (other graduated members are in or have had tertiary ed. – e.g. Nene & Yunano – but are not active), and she said she got into her first choice school. She's also the only Sakura girl thus far known to have earned a driver's license, which is not easy to do in Japan.
* HugeSchoolgirl: She was already close to 160cm (5’3”) before her 12th birthday. During her sole year in Sakura Gakuin, she was ''the'' tallest member despite being second-youngest.[[note]] The youngest member that year, just like the previous year, was Rinon, who amusingly enough is also significantly taller than the average Japanese girl, ~157.5cm/5’2” at the time and topping out in 2016 at 165cm/5’5”.[[/note]]
** In May 2017, she stated her height was 168cm/5’6.14” and hoped to reach 169cm. Her billed height is still 168cm, making her the confirmed third-talled member after Ayaka and Airi.[[note]] However, Yunano was also measured at 168cm shortly before both left Amuse. While they ''have'' been photographed together since they stopped growing, no one has given them a formal "Height Battle" to see if either is actually taller than the other. Mariri looks taller in photos.[[/note]]
** Someone unearthed an old ASH video where Mariri is performing in a group with Suzuka (they mentioned this in their "Introduce A Member" sketch). Despite it being some time before Sakura Gakuin, she was ''already'' taller than Su even then.
** She was one of the four runners-up of the ''Sei-Kore 18'' model contest in 2018 and is by far the tallest. [[note]] There were other tall girls amongst the original entrants, but Mariri was the only tall to win. She also happened to be the oldest winner (by less than one week), though other girls who didn't make the cut are older.[[/note]]
* {{Meganekko}}: Self-invocation. She doesn't usually wear glasses in public, but mentioned in a ''Sei-Kore'' interview that she had a tendency to lose them when at home. She has a few photos on her twitter of her wearing her glasses. [[https://twitter.com/sugimoto_mariri/status/749829396194746369 Proof.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Footage from ''Road to Graduation 2012'' sort of casts her in this light. While most of the girls are sad (to see Suzuka go), Mariri is noticeably upset – not only about her idol Su, but also over her own leaving. Suzuka giving her a heartfelt sendoff and encouragement causes her to completely break down. For the rest of the performance, she's practically ''bawling''.
* NiceGirl:[[invoked]] She never got much of any kind of spotlight during her year in Sakura Gakuin, but gained this reputation since leaving due to her frequent appearances at SG live events and interaction with other members and fans.
* InSeriesNickname: Maririn
* RememberedTooLate: She was the unfortunate butt of this when Mori-sensei asked a later crop of girls to talk about the 2012 class. Everyone could name Suzuka without hesitation, but Mariri was completely forgotten until Mori-sensei pointedly name-dropped her to jog the girls' memories.
** [[invoked]] The irony of this is that she is something of an EnsembleDarkhorse amongst some of the Sakura Gakuin fanbase thanks to her active career and social media presence coupled with her sweet personality.
* ShortRunner: She was in Sakura Gakuin for just one year. To date, she remains the only single-year member.
** The reason for this, as mentioned above, is that she already had regular modeling work in Hiroshima and, unlike Suzuka, did not relocate to Tokyo until after graduating high school. Su spoke in her own ''touji'' speech about the brutality of the commute and the guilt of having to miss practices due to living so far away.
* StopBeingStereotypical: Discussed. She and Suzuka both agree they are strange Hiroshiman.
* TomboyishVoice: Despite being one of the girliest girls in existence, Mariri's voice has a noticeable huskiness to it and has since at least age 11. Even as she entered young-adulthood and has tried to make her voice sound cuter for her job, if she talks for more than a sentence or two the husk will assert itself. This is likely due in part to her height.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Graduated in 2014]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nmhr.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Raura, Nene, Marina, Hinata]]
Sometimes referred to as NHMR, for their given names. Or the '98s, as their birth dates all fall in that year.
!!Marina Horiuchi (堀内 まり菜) 2010-2014
!!! '''Subunits:''' Cooking Club (Mini-Pati) 2009-2011\\
Baton Club (Twinklestars) 2010-2012\\
Go Home Club (sleepiece) 2011-2013\\
Tennis Club (Pastel Wind) 2012-2013\\
Science Club (Kagaku Kyumei Kikoh Logica?) 2011-2014
Founding member. Appointed Vice President in 2012 and Student Council President in 2013.\\
\\
By coincidence, she shares a birthday with Ayami (April 29th).

* CloudCuckoolander: Her fellow members and Mori-sensei have discussed this, and her introduction in ''Sakura Gakuin SUN'' all but uses the term outright. For four years, all evidence suggested her brain operates on a plane of existence many universes removed from our own. Especially during year-end tests, where her completely off-the-wall bizarre answers tend to be a highlight.
** Let's put it this way – there are ''so'' many instances of this during Sakura Gakuin alone, she takes up a signficant chunk of the "Funny" subpage by herself; it's simply easier to list her exploits there.
** Marina's ''still'' highly eccentric, even more than half a decade after her graduation. She makes an attempt to hold it together as a young adult vying for a career in entertainment, but sometimes she just can't help herself. This was her self-introduction to an interviewer in Fall 2019.
--->''"I'm Marina Horiuchi. I like finding cheese-naan restaurants and riding monorails!"''
** Marina transcended herself on June 19th 2019 when [[https://twitter.com/horimari_429/status/1141325119165366274 she posted]] one of her doodles. Masafumi Goto, original creator of ''[=KutsuDaru=]'' (in which Marina had voiced a character), saw it and immediately felt he had to [[https://twitter.com/goto_masafumi/status/1141336209358147585 draw a coloured version.]] Marina [[https://twitter.com/horimari_429/status/1141643137447628800 was pleased]] with the result. Here's her description (translated)…
--->''"This character was born from my current state of mind. It's called Don York. It's kind of like tapioca, but more gummy. Very elastic. Coated in Vitamin C. Brought up in NY. Appears in times of desire, like when you want to change your status quo, when you feel a drive for a challenge, when you want to unlock your hidden potential, when you're full of motivation. That's Don York. Hope you'll get along well."''
* CloudCuckooLanguage[=/=]{{Neologizer}}: Marina had a habit of answering quiz questions with terms she made up that were so out-there (and usually [[TheUnpronounceable gibberish]]) even a "robot" inquisitor was reduced to laughter.
** Examples include "Kope Kope Koperuu Kiratto-san"[[labelnote:*]] (the correct answer was "Copernicus")[[/labelnote]] and "Pitamausu Surii Kirakkirakiratto" from Logica? quizzes; and "Papparakakkiin Riibohrugu" from Nendo Test 2013.[[labelnote:*]] "Kakkiin" is the Japanese onomotapoeia for hitting a baseball. The correct answer was "Pacific". For added context, Aiko got this one wrong too, writing "Paris".[[/labelnote]]
** Years after graduating Sakura Gakuin, this ''still'' pops up from time to time. She decided to make an IncrediblyLamePun out of her love of cheese-covered naan bread by starting a couple of twitter posts with "Konnicheese-naan!".
* CuteLittleFangs: Well, '''fang''' singular. During Sakura Gakuin, her upper-right canine was misaligned (by coincidence, so was Yui's). Rinon commented in a diary she thought Marina's fang was cute. However, after entering high school, Marina began wearing a retainer to force her errant tooth into place, which it now is.
* CuteWitch: She becomes one in the 2011 Nendo drama, putting Yui in Airi's body so she can experience being tall and switching Ayami and Ayaka's bodies to help the former embrace her quirkiness and the latter loosen up a bit.
* DeathOfTheAuthor: Marina invoked this without using the term when she attempted to explain her first self-written song, "Nanohana", saying its meaning was ultimately up to the listener, although she then spent the next seven minutes trying to describe the feelings she wanted to get across.
* EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped: Why would dogs be buried in dirt? Marina says "「ここ掘れワンワン」ってあるから それの… あの… ※△◯♨︎■" (''Koko Hore Wan Wan''… that is… um… ※△◯♨︎■)
* GenkiGirl: Discussed as part of her introduction in every episode of ''Sakura Gakuin SUN''. Nothing has ever been seen to faze her. Even as a young adult she usually plays excitable characters on stage and TV. That said, see "Stepford Smiler" below…
* HereditaryCurse: Averted, barely. She wasn't the lowest-scoring senior on the nendo test during her presidency (Hinata was, by one point).
* InSeriesNickname: Marippe, Marimari
* MemeticHandGesture: Likes to wiggle her hand around a lot. Some fans who follow her ''Kinder TV'' appearances watch closely to see if one of her hand-wiggles makes it into the final cut.
** A late-2019 twitter video of her attempting to promote ''The Disappearance of Rabbit Island'' (a play she was cast in) but being distracted by people behind the camera talking to her and getting her excited that she ends up reduced to babbling and waving her arms for a bit before finishing her spiel, causing everyone else in the room to bust out laughing.
* [[MrImagination Miss Imagination]]: She'd have to be to come up with some of her crazy test answers.
** Along with some of her antics during Saku-saku segments, especially if she was paired with Nene.
** Don York, mentioned above, full-stop.
* {{Seiyuu}}:
** Voiced Kaoru Nekota in the anime ''[=KutsuDaru=]''
** Voiced Antares in ''[=Sanrio Characters PonPonJump=]''
** Plays Ami Akise [-(part of the "NO PRINCESS" group)-] in ''IDOL-bu SHOW''
* SingerSongwriter: Marina became one in 2020 shortly after she opened [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCShvUu7Ce_jMd-vWWvNgHZg her Youtube channel]] by releasing a demo song she called [[https://youtu.be/GhNvSlFWe-U "Nano*Hana".]] To date (August 2020) she has created 4 additional short songs.
* StepfordSmiler: According to Ayami, she indeed hides her tears while working her hardest.
** This is on display at all three ''Road to Graduation''s she took part in. She was the last non-graduating member to speak at the first two and managed to give heartfelt sendoffs without even coming close to breaking either time.
** At the end of 2018, Marina wrote a note that confirmed what a lot of her fans had been thinking. She had received very little work since 2016 and her fans couldn't understand why. Turned out Marina was just as frustrated but wasn't willing to say it. Luckily for her, 2018 was the year her career got a bit of a jolt.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: She has a tendency to give just about ''everything'' the honorific "-kun" (a casual suffix). This includes most but not all other Sakura Gakuin members, inanimate objects, food, medieval shoguns, animals she encounters in her dreams, celestial bodies, and probably the internet itself. When she set up a twitter account in September 2018, fans immediately declared the platform would henceforth be "Twitter-kun". Sure enough, on Christmas Eve 2018, she wrote about getting to eat some "pumpkin-''kun''".
** When at the end of April 2019, Emperor Akihito abdicated in favour of his son Naruhito, Marina said this on twitter. No clue whether she was referring to the men themselves or the eras. Or both.
--->''"Farewell, Heisei-san. Hello, Reiwa-kun."''
** She also tends to slur the polite copula です ''desu'' to っす ''ssu''. Yes, even when tweeting.[[labelnote:*]] The change does nothing to save space; "っ" has the same value as "で".[[/labelnote]] Yes, even if the rest of the sentence is in English.
--->[-{after trying a maple-flavoured milkshake}-] ''"So Deliciousっす！"''
* StudentCouncilPresident: The Third.
** She was also Sakura Gakuin's first "Vice President" (under Suzuka).
* TeamMom: Probably a big part of the reason she was chosen for president over Nene, Raura, or Hinata. She takes the ethos of "Kizuna" (camaraderie) '''''very''''' seriously, something her predecessors Ayami and Suzuka (and her successor Moa) noted.
** As an extension of this, she has attended '''every''' graduation ceremony to date ''and'' most of the transfer ceremonies.
** She also agreed to briefly return to the group (with Raura) for Tokyo Idol Festival 2014 when Yui and Moa were absent due to being stuck touring California as Babymetal.
* TheUnintelligible: Occasionally falls back to this when explaining something while trying to talk quickly. Here's an example from the "Ayami's Room" sketch.
-->''[Marina moves her right hand up and down, fidgeting frantically while attempting to speak]''\\
'''Ayami:''' "You're very polite. What does that gesture mean?"\\
'''Marina:''' ''[-(after a few more seconds)-]'' "…Yo."


!!Raura Iida (飯田 來麗) 2010-2014
!!! '''Subunits:''' Cooking Club (Mini-Pati) 2009-2011\\
Baton Club (Twinklestars) 2010-2012\\
Go Home Club (sleepiece) 2011-2014
Founding member. Appointed Vice Vice President in 2012 and Performance Chairman in 2013.\\
\\
She has the distinction of the being the oldest (relative) member upon aging out, turning 16 just ten days after her graduation.

* AnimalMotifs: Rau is known to really like pandas – the T-shirt she designed during the 2010 nendo has a panda on the front and her Sleepiece uniform was covered in tiny pandas. This is part of the reason some fans have referred to her as "Boss Panda".
* TheCameo: Not counting her livestream appearances, she was in two Sakura Gakuin shows post-graduation.
** The first was at Tokyo Idol Festival 2014 (a few months after she aged out) where she and Marina filled in for Yui and Moa, who were absent due to Babymetal activities much to their own irritation.
** Two years later she joined Hinata as one of the high school characters in the ''Shuoh Gakuin'' play.
* CoolBigSis: Normally she acted more like a boss than anything (even though Suzuka and Marina outranked her), but she was undeniably this to Aiko, possibly even more than the rest of NHMR. Aiko holds Rau in high regard to this day because of it.
** She also proved to be one towards Megumi. Although their tenures in Sakura Gakuin didn't overlap – Megu joined a few weeks after Rau graduated – they met when Rau filled in for Yui (and Marina for Moa) at TIF 2014, then again when Rau joined Hinata to play the high schoolers in ''Shuoh Gakuin'' in 2016. They still see each other from time to time, although "Big" Sis is almost a misnomer these days since Megumi is now noticeably taller than Rau.[[labelnote:*]] Raura herself is the tallest of the NHMR quartet at 161cm. Nene is 160cm. Hinata is 159cm. Marina is 155cm. Megumi, as noted on her own entry, was 163.8cm before graduation and is 165cm today.[[/labelnote]]
* CuteButCacophonic: Tends to make really distinct screaming and laughing sounds. A good example is during the "Introduce A Member" shorts from the 2012/3 year when, after Rinon speaks, Rau squees and bear-hugs her.
* ImportantHaircut: Discussed. When Sakura Gakuin started in 2010, Raura had the longest hair of any member, but she bobbed it in March 2011, allegedly to remind herself to work harder. Ayami asked her why during "Ayami's Room" and Rau replied, “Image?♡”.
** Worth noting Raura was the first member to bob her hair, and one of the few to do it while active in the group.[[note]] Many members do so after graduation, some within weeks. The only other members to date who have bobbed their hair ''during'' active tenure are Rinon (in 2015) and Yuzumi (in 2016).[[/note]]
* InSeriesNickname: Rau-chan, Rau-tam, or even Rau-panda.
* NeverGetsDrunk: Recounted on ''Mochikomi''. During his 41st birthday dinner held by NHMR, Mori-sensei – who is himself known to be able to pack it away – learned the hard way that Raura can drink him under the table.
* TheSouthpaw: Rau discussed this in an October 2010 diary. She is ambidextrous, but stated she was originally fully left-handed before beginning to use her right hand more once getting into school …not because anyone forced her to, but because she felt doing brush calligraphy left-handed was a massive pain.
** This is likely part of the reason why she's a multi-instrumentalist (the only one in the group's history until Neo joined in 2019) – she is known to play saxophone, piano, and guitar, though she plays guitar right-handed.
* TeamMom: Apparently this part of her personality greatly overshadows her earlier stern image, with a report claiming that she looks more like a mother than an idol.
** One Babymetal fan early on managed to mistake her for ''Moa's mother'' in a 2013 photo because of this and Moa's being a late-bloomer. [[note]] According to those who encountered the real thing in Utrecht in 2018, Mrs Kikuchi looks exactly like her famous daughter except older (obviously) and sporting a constant stern expression befitting the most terrifying woman on Earth.[[/note]]
** Rau guest-starred on a Sakura Gakuin [=LoGiRL=] episode during the 2015 nendo and the new girls took an immediate liking to her. For her part, she hugged Kano after Kano nonchalantly insulted Mori-sensei to his face while calling out his tricks.
** As noted above, she came back to Sakura Gakuin again in 2016 along with Hinata to take part in the ''Shuoh Gakuin'' musical play. There she met and worked with Yuzumi, who returned the favor by attending Raura's play ''Re:turn Kakomori'' along with Marina.
* TryingNotToCry: At the very first graduation ceremony, she tells the graduates this with a calm expression, prompting "ooh"s from the girls and the audience. Literally three seconds later (count it), she [[ImmediateSelfContradiction breaks into tears]] and the [=3AMs=] [[LampshadeHanging call her out on it]].
-->'''Ayami:''' ''"Hey! Liar!!"''
** A similar event occurs at the next year's graduation, which Suzuka and Nene are quick to point out. [[note]] Though in that case, Raura never actually ''said'' she wouldn't cry. She backed away from Su when Su reached out to her and refused to look Su in the eye because she knew what would happen once she did. Sure enough…[[/note]]
--->'''Suzuka:''' ''"You're doing it again!"''


!!Creator/HinataSato (佐藤 日向) 2010-2014
!!! '''Subunits:''' Baton Club (Twinklestars) 2010-2012\\
Science Club (Kagaku Kyumei Kikoh Logica?) 2012-2014
Founding member. Appointed as Mood Chairman in 2013.

* CoolBigSis: To Maaya, at least according to Maaya. They were never in Sakura Gakuin at the same time [-(Maaya officially joined 14 months after Hinata left)-], but did have singing classes together and did work together for ''Shuoh Gakuin''. Maaya wrote about all this after going to see Hinata in a ''Starlight'' show.
* CuddleBug: Especially to Nene. At one point during the ''SMILE'' documentary, Nene is speaking to the camera and Hinata walks up behind and starts snuggling her. Nene neither seems to notice nor mind.
* CunningLinguist: Her English skills were already apparent (though rarely if ever commented upon) during her time in Sakura Gakuin. These days, she will occasionally write her Twitter posts in both Japanese and English.
** An example from 2012, when Rinon and Raura introduce each other:
--->'''Raura:''' "Rinon is… well… she… doesn't follow the crowds and goes at her own pace. That's her quality, unlike Rau."\\
'''Rinon:''' "That means she's clever, right?"\\
'''Raura:''' "Sorry. I don't understand you. You just puzzled me."\\
'''Hinata:''' ''[-(behind the camera, in English)-]'' "'I am clever', she means."
** In Spring 2018, an American Twitch streamer riding his bike through a crowded district of Tokyo (kind of a jerk move, but anyway) happened to run into Hinata and her friends and asked for directions. Hinata was tasked with talking to him, being the best English speaker amongst the group. She has an accent and some grammar flubs, but was still able to converse understandably on the fly.
** She noted with some excitement on twitter in November 2018 that, when voicing Junna for the mobile game ''Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight [=ReLive=]'', some of her lines were in English. Specifically, she recites the first bit of Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'s soliloquy.
** Her English abilities allowed her to be an invited guest for 2019's Anime Central convention in Chicago, making her the fourth Sakura Girl (after Suzuka, Moa, & Yui) to visit the USA as a professional.[[labelnote:*]] Other Sakura girls have visted the USA or its Territories, but only on vacation and not for work.[[/labelnote]] She posted a short video on her twitter of her ordering Starbucks – her vice – in English. She was also invited to a convention in Los Angeles later that year.
* GoodSamaritan: According to Ayami.
* InSeriesNickname: Hii-chan. Natahi to Suzuka. Hinahina to ''Love Live'' and ''Revue Starlight'' fans
* TheNoseKnows: Said to be able to remember every member's smell and tell their possessions apart solely by following her nose.
* ThePrankster: Often tried kicking the other members at the back of their legs. She was caught doing it to Ayami on camera during the ''Making of “Please!³”'' video. Hinata later said Suzuka was the only one who laughed at her pranks.
* {{Seiyuu}}
** Plays Rin Karasawa in the anime ''[=KutsuDaru=]''
** Plays Leah Kazuno in ''Anime/LoveLiveSunshine''
** Plays Junna Hoshimi in ''Anime/ShoujoKagekiRevueStarlight''
*** She also plays Junna in the stage show. As a result, she became the fourth Sakura Gakuin alumna to have performed at Tokyo Dome (again, after Suzuka, Moa, and Yui).
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Hinata is an unusual case of this because she has spelled her last name both with and without that extra "u" in the long-vowel. Through 2013 she used "Satou" (even if Sakura Gakuin and Amuse itself did not), but later dropped the extra vowel and now goes by "Sato" officially.


!!Nene Sugisaki (杉﨑 寧々) 2010-2014
!!! '''Subunits:''' Cooking Club (Mini-Pati) 2009-2011\\
Baton Club (Twinklestars) 2010-2012\\
Go Home Club (sleepiece) 2011-2014\\
Tennis Club (Pastel Wind) 2012-2014
Founding member, first Talk Chairman.\\

Nene left Amuse – and show business entirely – after she graduated Sakura Gakuin to concentrate on her high school studies, with the intention of following her mother into a nursing career. She was the first, but not the last, member to voluntarily leave the spotlight. Mori-sensei revealed that, as of 2018, she had been accepted into a nursing program.

* BigEater: Often referred to as Nene-don, referencing her ability to eat udon noodles very quickly.
** Some behind the scenes videos show a hot mic picking up the sound of her stomach growling.
* BrilliantButLazy: Stated in the graduation photobook interview that she considered herself this, chastising herself for not working as hard as she should have.
* CatchPhrase: 「平和が一番、笑顔が一番。」[[labelnote:*]]''Heiwa ga ichiban. Egao ga ichiban.''[[/labelnote]] "Peace is the best; smiles are the best."
** Worth noting Nene was the first member to ''have'' a catchphrase that she'd always say at live shows. Moa and Yunano would follow her lead soon after.
** "Ichiban!" ('number-one'/'the best') was her interjection during her verse of "Mezase! Super Lady", referring to her being the best in academics and eating… and a couple of other things.
** It was invoked several years after her graduation by Tsugumi Aritomo, who was trying to figure out the missing parts of a jingle for Nagasaki Castella Cakes. Mori-sensei immediately noticed and pointed it out.
* CoolBigSis: Is shown in much footage to be this, immediately moving to assist Moa after Moa breaks down in emotions during a July 2012 livestream event in which the producers suddenly wheeled out a birthday cake for her.
** She did the same thing at ''Road to Graduation 2012'' when Saki Ooga is trying to give her farewell message to Suzuka and Mariri, whispering encouragement to Saki. By the end, she's got her arms around both Saki ''and'' Mariri, trying to keep them from breaking down.
** The irony of the above is that Nene herself had a reputation for being quite the crybaby, which Moa pointed out in her ''souji'' speech at Nene's graduation in 2014.
* [[DoesNotLikeSpam Does Not Like Natto]]: Nene noted in an early diary that she hates ''natto'' (fermented soybeans) despite it being a specialty of her home prefecture Ibaraki. It's one of the few foods she's known to not eat. Corn is appearently another.
* InSeriesNickname: Nene-don, to just about everyone (members and fans). She acknowledged it often.
** Since she left the industry, she has been referred to as "The Nurse From Ibaraki" in reference to her desired profession (although she's not one just yet).
** As of 2018, Hinata has corrupted Nene's nickname to the point that she now calls her "Jon-jon".[[labelnote:*]] (Nene-don → Don-don → Jon-jon)[[/labelnote]]
* LittleMissSnarker: Does this often when she talks, according to Ayami. It's on display in plenty of official footage too, both behind the scenes and sometimes onstage.
** Didn't change one iota after leaving the industry. When Raura posted a photo of Nene in ''furisode'' on Coming-of-Age Day 2019, she also relayed Nene's message:
--->"As chilly weather continues, try not to catch cold. If I get sick, don't expect me to take care of you (lol)"
* ObsessedWithFood: She was known to talk about food in her diary entries. Seems to be more of this than a BigEater, as she states she just likes eating food, not necessarily lots of it.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: During the interview for their graduation photobook, Nene recounted that, when the feud between between the 98's was at its nastiest, she broke and decided to leave Sakura Gakuin, going so far as to tell Kuramoto she wanted out. Kuramoto refused to accept her resignation and Suzuka had several heart-to-heart talks with her that convinced her to stay until she aged out naturally. Even though she reconciled with the other three, the experience – for which she blamed herself – left her jaded about show business and she dropped out of the limelight the moment she was able to.
** A less serious instance was, as noted on the main page, during the 2012 Nendo Test after Mori-sensei popped out from behind a curtain to surprise them. Nene was the closest girl to the door and can be heard saying off-camera "Let's get out of here!" before Mori-sen stops them.
* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: Averted when Saki Shirai beat her her senior year, as Nene was just glad to leave with good standing.
* [[TheSmartGuy The Smart Girl]]: She chose to leave show business for a field that requires good academics, and she scored first place in the Nendo tests three years in a row (granted the competition wasn't as stiff during her time). When newcomer Saki Shirai knocked her down to 2nd place her final year, it was referred to as a curse being broken.
* TenderTears: As mentioned just about everywhere else on this page, Nene had a well-earned reputation for being a crybaby and wearing her heart on her sleeve. Special note goes to the first two graduation shows. Especially the first, where she's all but reduced to InelegantBlubbering.
* ThrowItIn:[[invoked]] By the end of ''Road To Graduation 2012'', Nene couldn't hold back her emotions any longer and, during one of her solo bits in "My Graduation Toss", ad libbed her own personal message to Suzuka.
-->'''Nene:''' ''[-(not singing)-]'' "Su-san, thank you for everything! I love you!!" ''[-(hugs her, to much applause)-]''
* TryingNotToCry: Nene attempted this '''''once''''', at Suzuka's graduation. She provided running (snarky) commentary during other girls' speeches to Su, including calling out Raura. Once it was her turn, she seemed lost in thought trying to think of what to say. Everyone was shocked she wasn't crying, to which Nene replied, "Yeah. Strange, isn't it?" However, once she made eye contact with Su and started speaking to her, she broke down bawling by her second sentence.

[[folder:Graduated in 2015]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yuimoahanayuna.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Hana, Moa, Yui, Yunano]]
Yui Mizuno & Moa Kikuchi were intended to be part of the original lineup. For some reason this changed, and they were added as Sakura Gakuin's first "transfer students" in August 2010, a few days before the group's public debut – '''''all''''' 2010-era shows, videos, and skits include them. It has been speculated by Mori-sensei (and fans) that the reason was to establish the precedent of students being transferred in every year. Many therefore consider Yui and Moa as founding members, even if they're "officially" not.

!!Moa Kikuchi (菊地 最愛) 2010-2015
!!! '''Subunits:''' Baton Club (Twinklestars) 2010-2012, 2014-2015\\
Cooking Club (Mini-Pati) 2011-2015\\
Heavy Music Club (BABYMETAL) 2010–
Officially joined the group in 2010 with Yui Mizuno. Appointed as Student Council President in 2014.

* AlmightyMom: In Babymetal's interview with Nylon, she stated the thing she fears the most is her mother when she's angry. Moa also wrote in diary entries how her mother has ''very'' high expectations for her (including chewing her out for breaking a promise that logistics made impossible for her to keep). Mrs Kikuchi also refused to sign the contract allowing Moa to continue in Babymetal after it spun off of Sakura Gakuin unless Moa proved she could keep her grades up.
** However, Moa often implies that they're quite close otherwise. This is likely due to Moa being an only-child.
** Fans have, of course, taken this to memetic levels and declared Mrs Kikuchi, regardless of what she's really like, to be the most terrifying entity on the planet.
--->"We all know Koba keeps Babymetal in a compound in the mountains guarded by tigers, ninjas, and Moa's mom."\\
"Moa's mom is just there in case someone manages to get past the ninjas."
* CatchPhrase: "Value love the most" (最も愛を大切に), which [[AlternateCharacterReading contains both kanji characters of her given name]].
* CheerfulChild: This girl has a thousand-watt smile accompanied by noticeable dimples. She's generally a smiley person anyway. It's actually unusual to see her ''not'' smile, such as in the "Heart no Hoshi" music video where she plays the grumpy suspicious nymph leader whom the other girls have to cheer up.
** As Moa is known to wear her emotions on her sleeve, this means when she ''isn't'' cheerful, everyone around her knows it. A UK journalist who met Babymetal in 2014 noted that for the first few minutes of the interview, Moa was "in a right huff" and "just really pissed off" until he started asking questions that interested her. [[note]] This particular journalist had done his research, and pointed out when recounting the interview to a friend how Moa was upset to be away from Sakura Gakuin, which she loves, especially as she was Class President that year. Also, the interview was early in the morning (and she's not a morning person), which required Moa to go through hair, makeup, etc. when she'd rather be sleeping – Babymetal are '''''always''''' in full costume when giving onscreen interviews. His question that broke the ice was asking about her guitar playing.[[/note]]
* ClassClown: Her antics were a frequent source of comedy during her half-decade in Sakura Gakuin, and still pop up from time to time in Babymetal, because she enjoys seeing people's reactions.
** The "Making Of" video of Twinklestars' ''Please! Please! Please!'' has a disproportionate amount of footage of Moa messing around, sometimes getting Yui or other girls (often Ayami or Hinata) to join in too.
*** The ''Heart no Hoshi'' video mentioned above also had a "Making of" segment, where Moa can be seen in between takes trying to get a reaction out of the famously unflappable Hana.
** Starting perhaps in 2015, and only increasing in frequency since, Moa will use certain parts of Babymetal choreography (especially if she knows a camera will be on her) to stick out her tongue, just because she can.
*** Even when Babymetal went sort of DarkerAndEdgier in 2018, Moa promptly ignored the aesthetic and continued to stick out her tongue and mess with Suzuka, because that's how she enjoys herself onstage.
* CovertPervert: Frequently accused of this. Blog posts such as the one on [[http://ameblo.jp/sakuragakuin/entry-12006300115.html March 26th 2015]] (including a picture with a caption "Fanning her skirt up, I wanna see inside") may have something to do with this.
** A bit less covert was her her antics on ''Mujack'' during the 2013 Nendo, mentioned on "Funny".
* CuddleBug: Especially to Yui and Suzuka during Sakura Gakuin. She also hugged Ayami on camera at least twice – once during the 2011 nendo test where they both wrote the same (wrong) answer to a question, and then again during Ayami's graduation.
** She's also known to hug various people she meets on her world travels – e.g. the Fine Brothers, and Head from Music/{{Korn}} when he joined Babymetal onstage for their final tour date in Idaho.
** According to those who were there, when the girls entered the studio floor for their appearance on ''[[Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert Colbert]]'', they bowed to Stephen and then did a three-way group-hug (prompting much of the studio audience to "Aww") before assuming their position. Thus, no sign so far Moa's grown out of it.
* {{Engrish}}: Her spoken English can be this, as she has not reached Suzuka's level in pronunciation. Unlike Yui, Moa is not too difficult to understand once one accounts for her accent, since she speaks with much more confidence.
** She clearly ''understands'' English to a significant degree. There exist several instances of Moa hearing something in English and responding (usually in Japanese) without needing to wait for a translation.
** However, it ''did'' take her about four attempts to say "trying" (it started off sounding like "twirling").
*** She naturally elides to 'L' [-(Japanese famously makes no distinction between L and R, less famously it also makes no distinction between H and F)-]. In that same interview, she apologized for tripping over her words by saying "Solly", which fans found absolutely adorable.
* {{Fangirl}}: Of the Idol Group ℃-ute [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B299QE6CUAAE281.jpg (here she is meeting Airi Suzuki)]], and the anime/multimedia franchise ''Franchise/LoveLive''. [[http://i.imgur.com/HpyHtwF.png She even dressed up as Nozomi for Halloween]] and has a pretty sizeable [[http://i.imgur.com/A83FC9I.png collection of figurines.]]
** Her verse in "Mezase! Super Lady" notes the {{irony}} of her Idol otakudom despite being an Idol herself. Indeed, most if not all of her real-life friends are Idols with whom she would take (censored) photos.
* GenkiGirl: If it isn't obvious from these entries. It's difficult to ''get'' more genki than Moa.
** She stated very early in Sakura Gakuin her goal was to become "Super Moa-chan". As noted below, her fans argue that, as of December 2017, she succeeded.
* HeightAngst: Her constantly comparing her height to Yui's helped start the Sakura Gakuin tradition of the Height Battle. [[note]] In Moa's case, she started out shorter than Yui, suddenly passed her in April 2011, stayed taller than Yui into 2013, but Yui eventually caught up and is now officially 2cm taller. Since they've both passed 20, it's highly unlikely either one of them will have another height spurt. Though Yui could shrink depending on how poor her physical health really is.[[/note]]
** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEmhMA0KKMk this radio interview...]]
--->'''Moa:''' When I was little, I used to play tennis.\\
'''Interviewer:''' ''When'' you were little? ''Now'' you are little.\\
'''Moa:''' I'm not little.\\
'''Su:''' You ''are'' little!\\
'''Moa:''' I'm NOT little!
** Worth noting for the record Moa's official height is 154.5cm (or 5’0.8”), making her the 6th-shortest graduate to date. She is at least 5.5cm (2.2”) shorter than Su and looks even shorter when they're both in costume due to Su's inch-heels and high-ponytail.
* InUniverseNickname: Went by "Moamoa" early on. Most just call her Moa-chan.
** …Except Kano, who called her Moa-''sama'' prior to working with her (Kano now calls her Moa-chan)
** Since LEGEND S – when Yui's absence from the group began, leaving Moa to perform solo – fans have been calling her "Super Moa-chan", in reference to her stated goal early in Sakura Gakuin.
* ObsessedWithFood:[[invoked]] Famous for it in Babymetal to the point of MemeticMutation, but not often discussed during Sakura Gakuin as Nene had the shtick first. However, the "Making of Please! Please! Please!" video shows her doggedly searching for a bento-box with meat in it.
* ThePrankster: Among other things, she and Yui gave Suzuka a good JumpScare right before Suzuka's surprise appreciation party. They then pursued her, caught her, and led her back into the room with Moa yelling "Suspect secured!"
** The examples mentioned in CovertPervert above also count.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: According to Mori-sensei, Moa tried to resign her position when she came in third from the bottom in the 2014 Nendo Test. Evidently it didn't stick since she continued to refer to herself as Class President until her graduation.
* SpoiledBrat: She called ''herself'' this during the "Airi Matsui's Room" video after she got bored of Airi's lack of initiative during the chat and moved across the room to sit in her lap.
* StudentCouncilPresident: The Fourth. She was the first to be a fifth-year member.
* TenderTears: Moa is a girl who utterly fails at hiding her emotions, to the point that there was a RunningGag amongst the girls over who would be the first to break down in a given situation: Moa or Nene.
** Demonstrated in mid-2012 when, during a Tower Records livestream that happened to be on her 13th birthday, the producers wheeled her out a cake. She was so shocked and overwhelmed that, when prompted to blow out the candles, all that came out was crying. It took [[CoolBigSis Nene]] literally holding her to get her composed enough to finish the deed. Then she started hiccuping while eating a strawberry.
** At both Suzuka's Surprise Appreciation Party and ''Road to Graduation 2012'', Moa spent much of the main event in tears.
--->'''Moa:''' "Su-chan's main trait is laughter… ''{audible sob!}''"\\
'''Su:''' ''(laughs)''
** She cried at ''every'' RTG she was a part of, though she at least ''attempted'' to hold it together during her own.
** In June 2017, while on tour with Korn, she got emotional after the crowd wished Yui a happy 18th birthday. Su was forced to use an old Sakura Gakuin psyche-up technique (smacking her on the back) so Moa could finish the show.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: '''''Everything.'''''
** No, really. One time during Sakura Gakuin when asked her favourite food, she replied, "Everything my mother gives me."
** Some jokes were made at her expense by other members over her liking fried chicken cartilage.
* TryingNotToCry: She never even ''tried'' during Sakura Gakuin, but she does in Babymetal, such as when she injured her left leg during Budokan Red Night. Close-ups during "I.D.Z" show her gamely attempting to hide that she's in a lot of pain and holding back her tears with a strained smile.
** The screenshots from ''LEGEND S'' – Su's 20th birthday concert in Hiroshima which Yui had to drop out of at the last minute due to an unspecified medical issue, leaving Moa to back up Su (and perform BBM songs) alone – suggest this. At most concerts, 90% of shots will show Moa with her usual light-up-the-room smile. Not this time. In a number of close-up shots of her face during BBM songs, particularly on the first night, she looks to be in a whirlwind of emotions, liable to break down at the slightest touch, even with vocal support from the fans (who also took it upon themselves to sing Yui's parts).
** Evidently the first part of Babymetal's 2018 tour brought this out. Not only was it the first time – LEGEND S notwithstanding – that she was truly put front-and-center during a show, but it turned out she was ''very'' aware of the backlash from both Japanese and Western fans over Yui's then-unexplained absence, and she said in their first 2019 interview that during that tour she sometimes just wanted to run and hide.


!!Yui Mizuno (水野 由結) 2010-2015
!!! '''Subunits:''' Baton Club (Twinklestars) 2010-2012, 2014-2015\\
Cooking Club (Mini-Pati) 2011-2015\\
Heavy Music Club (BABYMETAL) 2010-2018

Officially joined the group in 2010 with Moa Kikuchi. Appointed as Production Chairman in 2014.\\

She holds the record for having grown the most of any member during her tenure: 26cm (10¼”) between her debut in August 2010 and her graduation in March 2015.

* BerserkButton: As much as one can have from a lowkey personality like hers – Don't call her short. Likely became less of an issue once she ''finally'' beat Moa in the height battle and ended up taller than several graduates including Marina.
** Also, don't mislabel the title/position she held during her fifth year in Sakura Gakuin. It's "Production" Chair, ''not'' "Performance" Chair. Mori-sensei learned this the hard way.
* CatSmile: She has a natural one that shows up in some photos and videos.
* DeadpanSnarker: You wouldn't expect it from a girl like her, but towards the end of her tenure in Sakura Gakuin, Mori-sensei would do something over-the-top just to get Yui to react, once he finally realized her potential for comedy. For example, this [=LoGiRL=] exchange:
-->'''Mori:''' ''[-(in weird effeminate voice, hugging himself)-]'' "Hi~! I treat my wife the best!"\\
'''Yui:''' ''[-(stares up at him)-]'' "Ew."
** Her "alter-ego" Tomato-kun is a good example. Yui drops into a deep (for her) masculine voice with a total monotone. Shortly before her graduation from Sakura Gakuin, when Tower Records CEO Ikuo Minewaki asked her to do the impression, Yui did so but was desperately trying not to {{corps|ing}}e the whole time.
* {{Determinator}}: Laid back, Yui is not. She's known to be a perfectionist especially regarding her dancing, which earned her the affectionate nickname "Yui-Bot".
** For her acapella exercise, Yui decided to sing Music/CyndiLauper's "True Colors". This despite her having even less English proficiency than she does now (which isn't a lot). She practiced it for months. Her effort put her in Sakura Gakuin history as the first girl to sing an entirely English song.
** On her 15th birthday, Yui recounted the story of how, in 2008, one of her close family members (possibly a parent) ended up in the hospital with a life-threatening ailment. She was too young to visit, so she spent hours in the waiting room listening to the ''Karen Girl's'' album. Once her relative had recovered, everyone wanted Yui to take a step back from being a child model due to the stress… but the first words out of Yui's mouth were "I want to be a Karen Girl's!", and she worked even harder to make it in the business.
* {{Fangirl}}: Of Rena Nounen and Music/ArianaGrande. She's met both, and Rena considers herself a fan of Yui's.
** She was also a big fan of Karen Girl's (particularly Ayami) as a child, which led to her decision to audition for Sakura Gakuin.
* FlatWhat: Her reaction to some of Mori-sensei's comments about her in [=LoGiRL=] episodes.
* HeightAngst: Yui's having this was at the core her & Airi's half of ''Yearning For Friends'', and was also mentioned in the very first "FRIENDS" mini-play in 2011.
** Because she and Moa are only 14 days apart in age (Yui is older), and both turned out to be late-bloomers (Yui was later), she would compare her height to Moa's constantly, and her major frustration through the end of seventh grade was her tininess. Indeed, her spoken line during the original "Mesaze! Super Lady" was "Yui is not little!"
*** However, not long after beginning her 8th-grade year, she ''finally'' began her growth spurt in earnest and her voice deepened slightly. That plus the addition of Aiko meant she was no longer even remotely the littlest member.[[labelnote:*]] Aiko and Saki Ooga were shorter than Yui from the get-go, though Yui's advantage over Saki the previous year was maybe 1cm. During 2013, Yui also passed Moa and Marina.[[/labelnote]] So, her line changed to, "Yui is not little anymore!"
** Yui's response during the 2012 Nendo to Hinata (who's only six months older) calling her "short and cute", detailed, along with most of the other ''Introduce A Member'' skits, on the Funny subpage.
** One little {{irony}} of Yui's height angst is that, according to public records, she grew the most of any member to date over the course of her tenure – 26cm [-(plus another 5mm minimum after graduating)-] – and today her height is close to the average for a grown Japanese girl.
* HiddenDepths: Yui's introductory blurb in ''Sakura Gakuin SUN'' explicitly calls attention to this, stating that even though she's small and quiet, it's best to not underestimate her.
** She rarely spoke in interviews on either side of the Pacific but, when she ''did'', her answers were often very well-thought-out and insightful. Sometimes she'd even catch Suzuka and Moa off-guard. Examples:
*** Yui stated in the Nylon interview she liked America due to its emphasis on personal freedom, and framed it in contrast to Japanese society's expectation of conformity.
*** Backstage at ''Rock On The Range 2015'', Yui unexpectedly expressed a willingness for Babymetal's costumes to show more skin in the future. Su tried to laugh it off while Moa put her hands over her own stomach.
** With the exception of 2013 (where she was third from the bottom), she tended to score well on nendo tests. Equal to or better than Moa. In real life, Koba noted she and Moa focused heavily on academics since they can't beat Su at singing.
*** Note that Su called Yui "an airhead" in a 2013 interview, [[{{Hypocrite}} yet Yui usually scored better than Su did on tests]]. Although, Yui ''is'' sometimes slow on the uptake, as if her brain is busy elsewhere before snapping her back to the moment.
** At ''some'' point (no one on the outside knows when), Yui gave Aiko [[[https://twitter.com/aiko_yamaide/status/1105825273273032704 a chalkboard]] with a message written on it …entirely in English. While most of it is blocked by a baseball in that photo, [[https://twitter.com/aiko_yamaide/status/1200793192095834112 a video Aiko posted]] on her own 17th birthday unintentionally revealed the entire thing.
--->''Dear: Aiko''\\
''Happy Birthday to you!!!''\\
''Hope your BIG BRIGHT STAR keeps on shining. Stand by me♡''\\
''You're the best! —Yui.''
* InUniverseNickname: Yui-chan. Yui-tan and Yuiyui during her first two years in the group.
* InsistentTerminology: Yui's position in the 2014 nendo was ''Production'' Chair, '''''not''''' "Performance" Chair (the former has more responsibility). When Mori-sensei accidentally got it wrong, Yui interrupted with a weirdly hilarious groan.
* NiceGirl: Discussed. During [=LoGiRL=] Episode 3, Mori-sensei asked some Sakura Gakuin juniors to dish gossip about the four seniors – Moa, Yui, Hana, Yunano. In Episode 4, he stated to Yui no one had anything negative at all to say about her[[labelnote:*]] (the only thing close was Rinon saying Yui would talk during movies when they went out together)[[/labelnote]], teasing that Yui must have blackmailed them.
** During the "Mystery Tube" special from her final year in Sakura Gakuin, her "embarrassing secret" was that she was pretty sure she loved Sakura Gakuin more than anyone.
** In March 2018, Aiko wrote in one of her final diary entries that she spoke to Yui some time during the previous year (prior to Yui's disappearance from public life) and apologized for losing a letter Yui had given her. Yui replied that she was glad Aiko had kept the letter as long as she had. Aiko's response to this was, "Yui-chan is always so nice."
*** Aiko has since stated outright that Yui is her favourite ''sempai''.
* [[OlderThanTheyLook Older Than She Looks]]: For her first three years in Sakura Gakuin, she looked ''much'' younger than her age. This was due in part to her shortness, partly to her natural babyface, and partly due to being a ''very'' late-bloomer (to the point there was a two-year period where even Moa was taller than her). She is older than Moa, Hana, Rinon, and Yunano, despite being - at the time - shorter than all of them. She eventually surpassed Moa at least.
* OneeSama: Applicable to all the 2014 seniors, but particularly to Yui.
* PerformanceAnxiety: An ironic example. In the very first [=LoGiRL=] episode, Yui said that the camera frightened her, and in a subsequent episode she talked about being nervous. Keep in mind these episodes were shot nearly a year ''after'' she had danced in front of 10,000 people at the Nippon Budokan (and also fallen off the stage in front of those same people).
* TheQuietOne: Compared to Su and Moa. In interviews, she rarely spoke unless directly asked a question, and even then her voice was noticeably soft and her cadence slower than Moa or Su.
** In one [=LoGiRL=] episode, Mori-sensei had written a note saying "Mizuno needs to speak louder." When Yui failed to do so, he crashed the set to berate her before the girls could introduce him.
* RavenHairIvorySkin: Yui is a textbook example. Her hair is black and several girls during her years in Sakura Gakuin made a point of complimenting her lighter than average skin tone.
** Mori-sensei used this against her. In the very first [=LoGiRL=] episode, this happened:
--->''"In fact, the staff have put up a sign saying your face is too white. Mizuno, what do they want us to do about this whiteness? Right, let's try and add some blush to your face."''
** This also means, unlike Suzuka and Moa, Yui does not tan; she sunburns. During Rock In Japan 2016, which was notoriously hot and sunny, Yui's face resembled a tomato.
* ReclusiveArtist:[[invoked]] She has not been seen in public since October 2017 (her final Babymetal performance). More oddly, ''no one'' outside of Babymetal or Amuse HQ is known to have spoken with her since then either – graduates with social media and members via diary often talk about meeting up with other members. Much of this is probably due to whatever health issues she had/has that caused her to quit Babymetal. As a result, there is significant doubt amongst her fanbase as to whether she ever plans to return to the spotlight at all.
** In June 2019, Amuse's CEO, evidently anticipating questions about her, told attendees at the annual shareholders' meeting that Yui had recovered enough to begin working towards her "other dream".
** Aiko strongly hinted that she ''wanted'' to contact her – a March 2019 tweet purporting to show off her "Nasuo" baseball has an old message from Yui in the background, and the ball itself is on a stand made of tiny Mizuno-brand bats. What this might actually ''mean'' beyond Aiko's love of wordplay and in-jokes is unknown.
* ShrinkingViolet: Yes, even a seasoned performer who's danced in front of 55,000 people can be one. During some [=LoGiRL=] appearances, she would talk about being nervous, or say that she's trying not to think about being nervous since doing so makes her nervous.
** The infamous interview with Nylon's Mickey Stanley, who made a point of sitting in between Suzuka and Yui, instead to the girls' side like most press people. He simultaneously managed to get Yui to open up to him yet also showed just how shy she is as she blushed, smiled, and tried to hide when he asked if she was able to sing any Ariana Grande songs. Yui spoke most of her answers in a near-whisper.
** During Babymetal's 2017 support tour for Music/{{Korn}}, one performance was on Yui's birthday and Su pointed it out to the crowd (several of whom were wearing party hats). Yui smiled, bowed politely, then tried to blend into the backdrop while still on her platform.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Tomatoes. She has said she likes eating them raw like one would an apple. She also likes cucumbers and ''omurice'' (a rice-omelet often served with ketchup).
** Though it wasn't known until after the fact, she visited a seafood restaurant in Tohoku and said in her autograph thank-you note that she liked the ''uni'' (sea urchin).
* TheUnintelligible: Of the original Babymetal trio, Yui was by far the least proficient at English, and when she tried to speak it, fans were often confused at first of what she meant to say. Her soft voice didn't help.
** She used to be even ''less'' intelligible. A short clip of a 2011 interview shows the Japanese interviewer asking the girls, in English, what bands they like. While Moa repeats the question back to him, Yui's response can best be described as a talking toy whose batteries are nearly dead: "Urrrrerrrirrrurrurr."


!!Hana Taguchi (田口 華) 2011-2015
!!! '''Subunits:''' Cooking Club (Mini-Pati) 2011-2015\\
Tennis Club (Pastel Wind) 2012-2014\\
Wrestling Club 2014-2015
Joined the group in 2011 with Rinon Isono. Appointed as Spirit (''Kiai'') Chairman in 2014.

* CatchPhrase: "Everyone, how are you?" ''*audience cheers*'' "If you're in a good mood you can do anything!" [[note]] (this is also Wrestling/AntonioInoki's catchphrase)[[/note]]
** After that she would thumb-point to herself while chanting her name, followed by a shrug. The first time she did this, the other members were absolutely flummoxed – Japanese girls don't shrug like that – so she performed it again.
* HimeCut: Her main distinction. Occasionally she puts her hair into a ponytail or pigtails, but she's mostly recognised by her almost impossibly straight, long hair.
** Slight irony – On February 11th 2011, the day she and Rinon met the original 10 members, the ''SMILE'' documentary shows her hair had been styled into loose curls. She is not known to have ever had her hair curled since, though she braids it often.
* HiredForTheirLooks: According to a personality report shown on the SG episode of ''Mujack'', the only thing [[{{IdolSinger}} idol-like]] about her is her appearance. Though she ''is'' a fine singer and dancer.
* {{Fangirl}}
** Of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, particularly Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada
** Of the Amuse Café revue/theatre group Torahime Ichiza (lit. Tiger Princess Troupe), which she later joined as a trainee after graduating from Sakura Gakuin, becoming a full member upon graduating high school
** Of Disney in general. She states on her twitter bio that she has a year-pass to Tokyo Disneyland and so visits fairly often. She has been known to post photos of her TDL exploits on twitter and her blog.
*** One of her favourite accessorites to wear in selfies is a Minnie Mouse hairbow.
*** At one point her twitter banner was her arm holding up a Mickey Mouse plushie wearing a wrestling belt, which is about as perfect a distillation of Hana as one can get.
* InSeriesNickname: Hana-chan, Hanapu, Ohanabou
** In Torahime she called herself "The Youngest Flower".[[note]] Hana's own name does not use the standard kanji for "flower" (花), but rather an archaic variant which has additional meanings mostly centering around beauty.[[/note]] This is due to having officially joined the group at just 18. She noted a few months after becoming a full member that literally everyone else associated with Torahime, including prospective trainees, was older than her.
* ShrinkingViolet: Initially this, according to Ayami. This can be seen in the ''SMILE'' documentary.
* {{Tomboy}}: Undeniably has shades of this despite her looks and job. In addition to being an avid wrestling fan, she dislikes overly girly things. In her final appearance on [=LoGiRL=], all four seniors (herself, Moa, Yui, Yunano) introduced themselves using ultra-cutesy ''burikko''-speak. They tried to keep it going but, shortly thereafter, Hana broke character and literally yelled, "I can't do this anymore! It's too gross!"
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Surume (dried squid). The other girls point how un-Idol-like this is, even though [[{{Hypocrite}} they eat similar kinds of snacks]].
* {{Troll}}:[[invoked]] In early 2019, Hana posted photos of herself on her twitter account with her hair styled to make it look like she'd bobbed it in a style similar to what Marina had done in 2015, and even captioned the photos with "New Hairstyle". Of course, she'd just put her hair into a braid and felt like messing with her fans.
* YouDontLookLikeYou: In Fall 2019, Hana posted some photos of herself with her trademark bangs (fringe) pinned back, showing her forehead and eyebrows, which until that point had rarely if ever been seen in public. Forehead-Hana looks like a totally different person. Of course she knew this and, in typical Hana fashion, simply wanted to have some fun melting her followers' brains.


!!Yunano Notsu (野津 友那乃) 2012-2015
!!! '''Subunits:''' Tennis Club (Pastel Wind) 2012-2014\\
Baton Club (Twinklestars) 2014-2015\\
School Store Club, 2014-2015
Joined the group in 2012 with Saki Ooga and Mariri Sugimoto. Appointed second Talk Chairman in 2014.

* BigEater: Revealed in her final year that she ate six meals a day. Despite this, she was still the beanpole of Sakura Gakuin. She's filled out somewhat since, if Aiko's 2019 photo of her is any indication.
* CatchPhrase: "It's not Yunáno, It's Yúnano." (different intonation/stress on the syllables).
* {{Fangirl}}: Of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', particularly Levi
* HugeSchoolgirl: She didn't start out this way – Yunano was average height when she joined Sakura Gakuin – but became one towards the end of her tenure and especially after thanks to a late growth spurt. Officially, she's tied with Mariri as third-tallest member at 168cm (5’6⅛”).
* LittleMissSnarker: Even before she was appointed as Talk Chairman. Sakura Gakuin's official twitter has made note on more than one occasion of her "acid tongue".
* StageNames: Changed her name from 野津 友那乃 (Yunano Notsu) to 本条 友奈埜 (Yunano Honjyo) in 2015. The motivation for this is unclear - possibly a more unique name was desired. Sakura Gakuin still uses the original kanji when referring to her.
** Despite this, she officially left entertainment less than a year after her graduation from Sakura Gakuin. In 2018, Mori-sensei informed the world that she had been accepted into a university to study economics.
* TryingNotToCry: Has been shown crying over various situations, such as placing last on the ''nendo'' test, or reaching into a box to touch something. She also had even more trouble than Moa holding it together during graduations.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Graduated in 2016]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/risasa.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Saki Shirai, Saki Ooga, Rinon]]
!!Rinon Isono (磯野 莉音) 2011 - 2016
!!! '''Subunits:''' Science Club (Kagaku Kyumei Kikoh Logica?) 2012-2014, 2015-2016\\
Pro-Wrestling Circle 2014-2015
Rinon joined in 2011 along with Hana Taguchi. In 2015 she was appointed Student Council president.\\

At the time of her induction, she was the youngest girl Sakura Gakuin had accepted[[labelnote:*]] (she was 10 while Yui, Moa, and Hana were all 11 when they debuted)[[/labelnote]] – a record she held until Aiko came along two years later. She was the first member to be a part of the maximum five ''Road To Graduation''s. [[note]] As the very first nendo (2010) had no graduates, Yui and Moa only took part in four RTG's.[[/note]]\\

She is the only member to date to have a band named after her (which she wasn't even part of).

* CatchPhrase: "I am… Rinon!" (name to be chorused by rest of group/fans)
** She even wrote it on the inner cover of the 2015 Graduates' Photobook.
* {{Determinator}}: According to Ayami and several of her juniors.
* {{Fangirl}}: Of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling after Hana got her into it.
** In an early [=LoGiRL=] episode in which Hana also appeared, Rinon came in wearing a sash that said (in English): "No NJPW, No Life".
** By mid-2015, she had gotten so into it that she tried multiple times her senior year to get Kano Fujihira – abnormally strong for her size – to join her Wrestling Club (in place of the graduated Hana).
* InSeriesNickname: Rinonon, Tensai (genius)
** She was sometimes seen in rehearsal photos wearing a black T-shirt with the ''tensai'' kanji on it.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Insisted she was a genius in spite of scoring low – usually the lowest – on class tests and the occasional quizzes on [=LoGiRL=] streams.
* LongRunner: Prior to 2020, Rinon held the ''unofficial'' record for longest tenure in Sakura Gakuin, although her debut was pushed back from May to late-July due to the Tohoku Disaster. While later transfer students were introduced to returning members in early April, the ''SMILE'' documentary shows Rinon and Hana met the Founding Ten on February 11th 2011. Rinon graduated on March 27th 2016, giving her a total time in the group of 1,872 days.[[labelnote:*]] That's five years, one month, and seventeen days. For comparison's sake, Aiko met the returnees on April 7th 2013 (according to footage from the "Cult Quiz") and graduated March 24th 2018, for a total of 1,813 days.[[/labelnote]]
* MellowFellow: On stage or screen she usually appears relaxed, often to the point of nonchalance.
* MoodWhiplash: At the very first graduation ceremony, tears are being shed as the members give their farewell messages to the [=3AMs=]. When it's Rinon's turn to speak, everyone breaks into laughter due to her extremely mellow expression and calm tone.
** Happened again at the 2012 graduation when Moa was bawling while giving her farewell message to Suzuka. Su then pointed out that Rinon, standing immediately to Moa's right, looked like she was about to laugh.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: During the 2015 nendo midterm test, Mori-sensei finally pushed her too far and she broke down crying. Watching this girl's mask that had never cracked once in nearly five years shatter into pieces as she talks about how worthless she feels is enough to make anyone cry.
* PickyEater: Although she's getting better about it, she wrote in a diary entry that she couldn't eat any meat (as in: non-fish) or vegetables for a long time.
** In an early diary, she said she won't put octopus in takoyaki, which is stuffed ''octopus'' balls – she used franks instead. The translation made it unclear whether she simply didn't like octopus or was allergic to it.
* RunningGag: Constantly making mistakes when writing kanji.
** (almost) Always scoring dead last on nendo tests. It was Mori-sensei lampshading this that caused her breakdown.
--->'''Rinon:''' ''[-(voice-over)-]'' "Here are the scores from last year's test. Please pay no attention to mine."\\
'''Mori:''' "Right. Now who came in last last year?"\\
''(camera zooms in on Rinon)''\\
'''Mori:''' "The camera moved before I could say it. So, are you aiming for last again this year, Isono?"\\
''(Rinon unexpectedly starts to cry)''\\
'''Mori:''' "Don't cry now! It's too early! You don't ''know'' you'll be last." [[note]] Somewhat ironically, Rinon ''didn't'' come in last on this test – she was 7th out of 12 – but the damage was done. From that test onward until 2018, last place became a battle between Kano and Momoko.[[/note]]
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Rinon was given one and passed. She had long expressed interest in behind-the-scenes work – she was joyful at getting to wear a director's headset and look at notes during an early [=LoGiRL=] episode – and wrote about her admiration for Sakura Gakuin's stage manager. As she recounted in her graduation diary, years earlier she was given a piece of set and asked to keep it even though she was expected to lose it, but if she still had it by the time of her graduation, to show a photo. When she proved she still had the piece of set, the manager gave her his business card and said, "If you still have your dream of being a stage manager when you graduate high school, give me a call."
* SternTeacher: According to Megumi, Rinon could be this during practice, in contrast to her blasé stage persona.
* StudentCouncilPresident: The Fifth. She was the last to have worked with all the founding members.
* TryingNotToCry: Rinon is famous as the member who does not cry on stage. '''''Ever.''''' Off-stage is a different matter…
** Okay, it happened '''one time''', during the 2015 Orientation when she lost a challenge and had to drink a large glass of vegetable juice (which, as a self-admitted picky eater, she hated) as punishment. To be fair to her, whatever was in that glass was ''not'' normal vegetable juice and probably tasted awful.
** She ''may'' have attempted this during Suzuka's Appreciation Party and subsequent graduation, as she can be seen stepping back and bouncing on her feet a little – her nervous tic – trying to find her words, and eventually came up with some very odd (even by Rinon standards) compliments.


!!Saki Ooga (大賀 咲希) 2012 - 2016
!!! '''Subunits:''' Tennis club (Pastel Wind) 2013-2014\\
Go Home Club (sleepiece) 2015-2016
Joined in 2012 along with Yunano Notsu and Mariri Sugimoto.\\