Characters / Love Live! – Liella!

Love Live! Character Index
Love Live! (μ's) | Love Live! Sunshine!! (Aqours) (Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR-) | Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club (NijiGaku) | Love Live! Superstar!! (Liella!) | Link! Like! Love Live! | Love Live! School idol festival

This is the character sheet for the members of Liella! from Love Live! Superstar!!.

Unmarked spoilers from the 2nd Season and onwards are present here.

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Liella!

"The story of my dreams coming true" - Liella! in Season 1

"The new us begins now!" - Liella! in Season 2

The school idol group of Yuigaoka Girls High School. Founded by Keke Tang to pursue her school idol dreams, their goal is "to connect different-colored lights as school idols and by doing so, create an entirely new light that they could not make by themselves as they and their school are a blank canvas".

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In General

Song for me! Song for you! Song for all!

• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Liella began with only five members who are all first-years (since the school they go to is a brand new institution, so every student there is a first-year), as opposed to the nine members evenly split across all three high-school grades that the previous Love Live groups initially start with.
  • They are also the first group to explicitly enforce One Game for the Price of Two, with various singles releasing in pairs that have different B-sides as well as different voice dramas depending on which version you pick up.
  • The lineup of voice actresses is also a trend-breaker of sorts, with almost all of them being complete newbies to the industry, while previous groups had a mix of newbies, veterans, and relatively unknown voice actresses.
  • Kanon is the group's composer and she plays the guitar rather than the piano. The position of a piano player is given to Ren instead.
  • This is the first group that aged between seasons as the original five members moved up a year in Season 2.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • The five initial members of the group fit in this dynamic:
    • Kanon is phlegmatic type 2 (the more eclectic variety).
    • Keke and Chisato are sanguine.
    • Ren is melancholic.
    • Sumire is choleric.
  • The 2nd generation members also fit in this dynamic:
    • Kinako is sanguine (very friendly in spite of her clumsy nature).
    • Mei is melancholic (shy, agitated and nervous).
    • Natsumi is choleric (egotistical, greedy and somewhat aggressive).
    • Shiki is phlegmatic (quiet, reserved and soft-spoken).
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Kanon is the Conflicted (or Optimist later on), Keke is the Optimist, Chisato is the Realist (though, of course, far more on the optimistic side), Sumire is the Apathetic and Ren is the Cynic (at least initially, but it's subverted with her becoming later on a Realist at the very least, if not outright an Optimist like the others).
  • Of the first years: Natsumi is The Cynic, Kinako is the Optimist, Shiki is the Realist and Mei is the Conflicted.
• Genre Shift: Liella!'s first few songs are noticeably more orchestral than previous units with fewer electric and electronic background instruments, giving their music a somewhat softer and "floatier" quality.
• Meaningful Name: "Liella" is a Portmanteau of two French words: "lier", which means "to link" (which is similar to the "yui" in Yuigaoka) and "brillante", which means "shining".
• Nice Mean And In Between: With Sumire joining Kanon and Keke while they were a duo, they fit the dynamic: Kanon is nice (all-loving, sweet, selfless and empathetic), Sumire is mean (brash, vain and somewhat egotistical and bossy) and Keke is in-between (generally outgoing and has Infectious Enthusiasm, but is much more argumentative and vitriolic towards Sumire).
  • The last joining members in S2 fit the dynamic as well. Shiki is nice (stoic and reserved but kind at heart, and does her best to support Mei following her dream), Natsumi is mean (greedy and egotistical, though she eventually undergoes a Heel–Face Turn) and Mei is in-between (initially hides her shyness and awkwardness behind a brash tsundere attitude).
• Workout Fanservice: In the first season, Sumire and Chisato wear a belly shirt as part of their training outfits, while in the second there's Shiki wearing a particular outfit that consists of a two-toned shirt tied up on the right side, modestly exposing a slice of her belly, and a right trouser leg pulled to above her knee, with a modest Leg Focus.
• Worthy Opponent: Sunny Passion acknowledges them as their strongest opponent in the Love Live tournament.

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CatChu!

CatChu!'s first single, "Distortion"

The "Cool" sub-unit, consisting of Kanon Shibuya, Sumire Heanna, and Mei Yoneme. Their primary style is rock, with some songs particularly evoking a girls' rock band.

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• Animal Motifs: Cats. One of the reasons for their name is that all three members display some cat-like traits, such as Tsurime Eyes.
• Breaking Old Trends: This is the first "cool"-style subunit in the franchise to feature the protagonist and leader of the group.
• Large Ham: "Alternate" is very, very dramatic.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The unfettered, rockin' red to KALEIDOSCORE's blue. It's even in their image colors.

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Kanon Shibuya

Image Color: Marigold

Grade: First Year (Season 1), Second Year (Season 2), Third Year (Season 3)

Birthday: May 1 (Taurus)

Blood Type: A

Height: 159cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Baked apples, tomatoes, hamburg steak, cafe au lait

Symbol: Headphones

Generation: 1st

Voiced by: Sayuri Date (Japanese), Kristi Rothrock (English)

An ordinary high school girl with an extraordinary singing voice who suffers from crippling Performance Anxiety. Despite her remarkable talent, her failure to enroll in the music course at Yuigaoka High School leads her to becoming a school idol to shake up her seemingly-ordinary life. Kanon has a tendency to keep to herself and avoid singing in public, but at first she's also quite bitter, has a bit of a snarky side and can be confrontational when the situation calls for it. That said it's quickly revealed she's a very kind and selfless Nice Girl who genuinely wants to make others happy and befriend them. Her mother runs a local cafe and her father works as a translator. She also keeps a pet Scops owl named "Manmaru" who doubles as the cafe's mascot.

Kanon serves as the group's lyricist and composer with Ren, shifting more towards lyricist once Mei starts helping with composing. Later in Season 2, she volunteered as the student council vice president.

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• The Ace: By Season 2, Kanon is regarded as the best singer in Yuigaoka despite being in the general course.
• Affectionate Nickname: Prior to properly introducing themselves to each other, Keke refers to Kanon as "subarashii koe no hito", or "amazing voice person".
• All-Loving Hero: She can be considered kind of a deconstruction. Kanon is a kind, selfless girl who obstinately sees the best in everyone, and she constantly wants to befriend others: there's not a single person she dislikes in the entire series, and if someone is a jerk to her, she nonetheless tries to befriend them. However, this makes her naive in some situations: she is nevertheless persistent in her willingness to befriend an arrogant jerk like Margarete and is still immensely kind to her, despite the blatant way she treats her like crap, and is the only one who believes Con Man Natsumi has good intentions when they first interact with her. Given the idealistic nature of the series, the trope is reconstructed, as she's ultimately right about seeing the good in them - and Margarete and Natsumi become Liella! members in the end.
• Animal Motifs: While her subunit has the cat motif, Kanon herself as an individual can be seen as having it very much, especially the orange/reddish cat - she has that color of hair herself, is sweet and cheerful, and indeed she's also a kind individual who is fond of cats (and is also seen playing with a stray cat).
• Beautiful Singing Voice: She loves music and has an excellent singing voice, which is noted by other characters; Keke even calls her "amazing voice person" before learning her name.
• Bully Hunter: She hates bullies and people who look down on others just because. She stands up to Ren when she witnesses her putting Keke down for trying to form a school idol club in Yuigaoka even though Keke is well within her rights to do so and a flashback to Kanon and Chisato's childhood shows that Kanon was Chisato's primary defender against her bullies when they were younger.
• But Not Too Foreign: Her grandmother is Spanish.
• Childhood Friends: With Chisato.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
  • Whereas previous Love Live! main characters were upbeat, energetic, and proactive Genki Girls who were immediately enthralled with the idea of school idols, Kanon is more demure, reserved, and hesitant. While she loves music, she isn't into school idols and has to be convinced to become one. That type of character, instead, definitely belongs more to Keke.
  • Unlike previous main characters, who are basically Jack of All Stats in regards to idol-related skills (good at singing and dancing but not the best at them out of their respective groups), Kanon excels in at least one field: she has a beautiful voice and is a very good singer (she even gets better when she became the best singer not just in Liella!, but also in Yuigaoka as said above).
• Deer in the Headlights: Her stage fright manifests in the form of her voice completely stopping up while she stares at the audience in sheer terror before her eyes roll to the back of her head and she collapses.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the initial reveal and later promotional materials, Kanon has Proper Tights with a Skirt. In the anime, she just wears knee-high socks.
• Family Theme Naming: The Shibuya sisters are named after music terms.
• First-Name Basis: In Season 1 Episode 3, Kanon asks Keke to call her by her first name without any honorifics.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Conflicted. While idealistic, she initially lacks the much more optimistic outlook on life that characterizes Keke and suffers more inner conflict due to her stage fright and initial lack of confidence. This changes later on and she outright becomes an Optimist, finding happiness and cheerfulness again thanks to the others, especially Keke.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic Type 2 (or Eclectic). A well-balanced individual, levelheaded, initially starts off as something of a Shrinking Violet but becomes more open overtime, though she still remains on the softspoken side.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Has a more boyish and blunt side to her that can only be displayed at home, though this is eventually phased out as it largely was due to her former bitterness. Her casual outfits also tend to lean a bit towards the tomboy side.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Not that Natsumi is evil by any means, but even with her initial greedy nature and Con Man behavior, Kanon still sees the best in her due to her altruistic nature. This is lampshaded by Sumire, who is something of an Attention Whore herself.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Because she doesn't have an advanced understanding of Mandarin, she can only respond to Keke with "Nǐ hǎo! Xiè xiè! Xiǎo lóng bāo! Zài jiàn!" during their first encounter.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: Kanon is often seen wearing headphones outside so she can block out noise and sing without being distracted by others. As if to solidify this symbolism, when Kanon accidentally knocks Keke's flyers out of her hands after insisting that she doesn't want to be a school idol, she puts on her headphones and tries to walk away, but once she changes her mind she rushes back while removing them. In Season 1 Episode 12, she stops wearing headphones at school, a proof that she now can sing more confidently.
• The Heart: Easily the glue in the group that keeps others together thanks to her empathetic and charismatic nature. She also has no issues with befriending arrogant and unfriendly people.
• I Just Want to Be Special: The reason why she wants to be a school idol. Ironically, she's already special in a certain way; her beautiful singing voice is commented on by many of her peers.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Lampshaded by Sumire, who tells Kanon she's too much of a good person when she believes that Natsumi has good intentions towards them and is not the Gold Digger Sumire describes her to be.
• Informed Attribute: Her Spanish heritage is basically non-existent in the anime, which is particularly weird when compared to the other token foreigners in the franchise.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: She has a fondness for cats, and is seen playing with a stray in at least one instance.
• The Leader: Shares this role with Keke. As a Charismatic type, Kanon holds the group together with her magnetic personality.
• Nice Girl: Her most admirable trait in spades is that she completely lacks malice and is kind, compassionate, generous and selfless. Even to a fault.
• Performance Anxiety:
  • Kanon is deathly afraid of singing in front of an audience despite her wonderful singing voice. Any attempt to do so results in her choking up before fainting on-stage. She failed to enter Yuigaoka's music course for this reason, and because of this she initially pushes away Keke's requests to become a school idol. By the end of the first episode she finds herself singing in front of a crowd, albeit accidentally since she ran into town while performing "Mirai Yohou Hallelujah!".
  • Kanon is also camera shy, so when Liella has to do live streams and video recordings, she will stammer a few words, quickly pass the spotlight to someone else, then run offscreen. Unlike the above example, this is very much Played for Laughs.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: Views herself as such as she has no special skills and no ambition...or so she says. Turns out, she's actually really talented in singing and is acknowledged for it by many characters, so it's more of a self-esteem issue for her on her end.
• Second Year Protagonist: In Season 2, after having moved up a grade.
• Tsurime Eyes: Contrast to the previous Love Live! leaders who all had Tareme Eyes. Kanon's eyes are especially Tsurime when she's upset or when her boyish side comes out, though they generally don't exactly fit her personality.

Sumire Heanna

Image Color: Melon Green

Grade: First Year (Season 1), Second Year (Season 2), Third Year (Season 3)

Birthday: September 28 (Libra)

Blood Type: AB

Height: 161cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Tamago kake gohan^note A popular Japanese breakfast food consisting of cooked rice mixed with raw egg and soy sauce, green tea, melon

Symbol: Saturn

Generation: 1st

Voiced by: Naomi Payton (Japanese), Lizzie Freeman (English)

A girl who experienced showbiz from a young age. At some point, she stopped to focus on her studies and private life. Upon entering high school and learning about school idols, Sumire wanted to be one in order to once again step into the spotlight. Her dream is to be popular throughout the whole universe as a "Charisma Galaxy School Idol". She lives in a shrine and her hobby is live streaming.

Late in Season 2, she begins assisting Keke with costume design.

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• Always Someone Better: Landing only minor roles despite her talent during her showbiz days broke her self-confidence, which leads to her current Inferiority Superiority Complex.
• Attention Whore:
  • She attempts (repeatedly) to attract potential stray talent scouts by standing in the middle of a heavily populated shopping district and reacting with over-the-top astonishment at her crepe dessert while she has a dollop of whipped cream strategically placed on her nose. This doesn't work due in part to both a lack of stray talent scouts and the popularity of school idols exceeding her own.
  • She joins the School Idol Club with the explicit intent of becoming famous, although the other girls don't pick up on this initially.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Her prior training and experience allows her to copy virtually any dance routine flawlessly upon seeing it once.
• Butt-Monkey: Keke (and Chisato to a much lesser extent) constantly takes potshots at her, dismissing Sumire and her influence at every turn and essentially treating her with about the same level of respect as a generic background character.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Galaxy!". Oddly, it's used as a weird cross between a catchphrase and a Verbal Tic, as she tends to exclaim it whenever she's shocked or surprised.
  • She refers to her experiences as coming from "the world of showbiz" to try and make herself seem more prominent than she actually is. Keke would often retorts to it by reminding her of her giant isopod dance.
  • She also has a habit of repetition and Punctuated! For! Emphasis! even at times when it's unnecessary, mostly to seek attention to herself.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: She's quirky and eccentric, and not exactly down-to-earth to say the least.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: While she wants to be a star, she doesn't want to just be handed a leading role out of pity and wants to feel like she's earned her keep. This ends up being the primary conflict of Season 1 Episode 10 where she thinks Kanon is giving her a center position for their preliminary song out of pity, in spite of their classmates' feedback saying they think Sumire isn't suited for it.
• Dumb Blond: Downplayed. She's not outright stupid, but she's quite a goofball and slightly scatterbrained.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Keke and Chisato appear to treat her this way, especially in S1E7; though it's not completely unwarranted due to her Attention Whore behavior and brash nature. Subverted as they ultimately all appreciate her friendship.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Apathetic. It's also lampshaded by Keke when she attacks Sumire for not really being passionate about idols, and (at least initially) she joined the group for different goals, namely just to continue her career as a performer in some way.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric. A brash, self-absorbed Attention Whore with a pretentious streak, acting as if she's more famous than she really is and frequently engaging in overdramatic behavior.
• I Just Want to Be Special: It turns out that her "prior experience in showbiz" is playing bit roles in various TV shows as a child while never getting the stardom she desired. This resulted in her present-day Attention Whore personality due to desperately seeking a road to fame for the effort she put into being on TV.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Despite her attempts to show herself as a more prominent member from showbiz, she usually shoves the center position to other members, thinking she isn't worth it, and refuses when she has the chance as she thinks it is out of pity.
• I Owe You My Life: To Keke. Keke's words truly saved her in Season 1 Episode 10. Because of it, she wants to repay the favor by making sure Keke gets to enjoy her school idol life for their three years in high school together with her and the rest of Liella.
• Jack of All Stats: Discussed by the other girls in Season 1 Episode 10 as a possible reason why Sumire has a hard time being seen as a song center. Within the group, Kanon is the best singer, Chisato the best dancer, Ren the most elegant, and Keke the most eye-catching. By contrast, Sumire has talent in all of those aspects, yet doesn't surpass any one of them at their specialty, leading to a feeling of something missing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's a little brash, cocky and egotistical, and initially joins for the image as the star she wants to portray herself. But make no mistake, she's much kinder than she looks and loves her friends.
• Large Ham: She's highly dramatic, very pretentious and over-the-top. Downplayed in Season 2 as she's mellowed out, though she still does have her hammy moments.
• Miko: She works as a miko in her family's shrine.
• Ojou Ringlets: In Season 1 Episode 10, she gets a proper one for her center song, "Nonfiction".
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Let's just say that Keke wouldn't let her live down her embarrassing giant isopod dance from her childhood for a while.
• Plucky Comic Relief: She's this along with Keke, as they provide the most comedic moments in the anime.
• Quirky Curls: While she does have Ojou Ringlets, she's rather quirky to qualify, making her this.
• Recurring Element: Follows in the footsteps of Nico, Yoshiko and Kasumi as the designated Butt-Monkey and comic relief of the group with Attention Whore tendencies.
• Slasher Smile: Briefly sports one while playing a crane machine, when she thinks she's got the isopod doll.
• Small Name, Big Ego: For all intents and purposes, Sumire is a nobody but because of her acting experience, she fancies herself a potential star who simply hasn't been discovered yet and carries herself as such despite the odd looks she gets from other people.
• Secret-Keeper: Keeps the secret of Keke having to go back to Shanghai if she doesn't show results in the Love Live tournament.
• Supreme Chef: Among her many talents, she's proven herself to be an excellent cook and a handy person to have in the kitchen.
• Tsundere: She used to have a somewhat haughty, brash and arrogant attitude towards the others, claiming she was bigger than she actually is and also pretending not to care. Keke, who is a bit of a tsundere towards her as well, calls her out on her uncaring attitude towards school idols. Later on, she and Keke still have some slightly cranky moments towards each other, and it provides several comedic moments.
• Tsurime Eyes: Highlighting her brash, assertive and attention-seeking personality.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Sumire and Keke weren't off to a great start to begin with when Sumire first joined the club, but even after becoming genuine friends, she and Keke continue to bicker over the smallest things and get into petty arguments every now and then though they do still care for each other.

Mei Yoneme

Image Color: Rouge

Grade: First Year (Season 2), Second Year (Season 3)

Birthday: October 29 (Scorpio)

Blood Type: A

Height: 155cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Blueberries, souffles, parfaits

Symbol: Paw print

Generation: 2nd

Voiced by: Akane Yabushima (Japanese)

A shy girl with with a brash attitude and a complex about her looks. She comes off as aloof and intimidating at first glance but she is actually a passionate school idol fan and enrolled in Yuigaoka because her favorite school idol group goes there.

She and Shiki share a unique bond that started during middle school. Late in Season 2, she starts assisting Ren as a composer for the group.

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• Ascended Fangirl: Easily Liella!'s biggest fan among the new students at Yuigaoka in Season 2. She formally joins the group at the end of Season 2 Episode 4.
• Animal Eyes: She has cat-like eyes, which is a first for the franchise.
• Childhood Friends: With Shiki. They've known each other since middle school.
• Closet Geek: Her first scene in which she appears in has her hiding behind a tree the day before school starts, cooing about the fact that Liella! are practicing on the school roof, before running off in a huff after realizing Kinako spotted her. In class, she tries to act disinterested in school idols.
• Death Glare: Stuck with a perpetual one, brought on by her being near-sighted and too stubborn to wear glasses.
• Face of a Thug: Claims that her facial expressions scares off other kids since she was little. In the anime, it's revealed that this is due to her having poor eyesight, so she glares to try and see more clearly.
• Fangirl: Of school idols and her favorite group is Liella.
• Fiery Redhead: She's a passionate, red-headed avid idol fan, and also a tsundere.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Conflicted of the first years, since she's initially very shy and indecisive about joining, and hides her insecurities behind a brash attitude.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic - shy, anxious, turbulent and insecure about herself.
• I Am Not Pretty: Mei seems to dislike her appearance, due to the fact she comes across as intimidating. This is not due to her actual looks, but her surly expression, due to the fact she has bad eyesight and is too stubborn to wear glasses.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She was rather cranky and brash before joining Liella!, but never was a bad person by any means. In truth, she's just terribly shy and can't express herself any better. She softens up after joining.
• Mistaken for Gay: In Season 2 Episode 7, her peers believe that she is dating Ren when they see them having a serious conversation in secret.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: She doesn't wear the uniform tie. It makes her stand out since everyone else wears their uniforms properly.
• Rapid-Fire "Shut Up!": She says "uruse"^note A ruder form of the more common "urusai", which means "shut up" three times in her initial SR story in Love Live! School idol festival as a response for calling her cute. It's since become her call-and-response during live appearances and concerts.
• Recurring Element: She's both the passionate school idol fan (even more than Keke) and the redhead who plays the piano.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Shiki's blue. Interestingly, Mei has red hair with blue eyes, while Shiki has blue hair and reddish amber eyes. It's a subtle hint that while Mei is a passionate fangirl and a Tsundere, she also comes off as an aloof individual.
• Secret-Keeper: She's the first one to find out Ren's new gaming obsession after she accidentally caught her playing a mobile game. She agrees to keep it secret until Ren herself decided to tell the others.
• Shrinking Violet: Her true personality is this. While she comes across as a temperamental tsundere at first glance, in truth she's just shy and does this to try to express herself better.
• Tsundere: She might come off as harsh, but in reality she's just shy and doesn't know how to properly express her love about something.
• Tsurime Eyes: Fitting her tsundere nature and intimidating Face of a Thug expressions.

KALEIDOSCORE

KALEIDOSCORE's first single, "Neutral"

The "Pure" sub-unit, consisting of Keke Tang, Ren Hazuki, and Margarete Wien. Their music ranges from ballads to faster pop style tunes, but all prominently feature strings arrangements to match their elegant image.

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• Multinational Team: Keke is Chinese-Japanese from Shanghai, Ren is Japanese, and Margarete is Austrian.
• Proper Lady: The unit's intended image. Character-wise, Ren's the only one who really fits, though.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The elegant, classical blue to CatChu!'s red.
• True Blue Femininity: Going along with the feminine elegance evoked in their music, both the sub-unit as a whole and two of its members have blue as their image color. And the exception, Margarete's elegant purple, isn't very far off.

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Keke Tang

Image Color: Pastel Blue

Grade: First Year (Season 1), Second Year (Season 2), Third Year (Season 3)

Birthday: July 17 (Cancer)

Blood Type: O

Height: 159cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Napolitan, chocolate banana, milk tea

Symbol: Ice cream

Generation: 1st

Voiced by: Liyuu (Japanese), Julia Gu (English)

A Chinese-Japanese girl who moved from Shanghai to Japan to enroll in Yuigaoka as a foreign transfer student. Her love of school idols is practically boundless, so much so that she moved to Japan to become one and recruit like-minded students to join in her endeavors. Even more boundless is her energy, and she has a tendency to get so excited that she lapses into her native Mandarin. She has a decent enough grasp on Japanese and passed the N1 Japanese-Language Proficiency Test^note The test has five levels, starting from N5, N1 being the highest but still makes mistakes, which she considers her charm point.

Keke is the group's founder and handles the costumes, props and stage design.

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• Anime Chinese Girl: Downplayed; despite being a Chinese girl in an anime, Keke has very few of this trope's stereotypical hallmarks. By appearance alone she fits right in with the rest of the girls, being only distinguished by her Chinese name, her abnormal speech patterns, her huge collection of panda-themed items, and the fact that she speaks Mandarin. Notably, her voice actress is also Chinese.
• But Not Too Foreign: She's a Chinese transfer student who hails from Shanghai, but she's also part Japanese from her mother's side.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Her antics are rather eccentric, and when she is around school idols and anything related, she lacks common sense and becomes hyperactive.
• Determinator: She believes that a person has to be one to be a school idol, and upholds this philosophy as a school idol.
  Keke: Most important of all are smiles and passion. After that is to never give up — as long as you have the never give up mind, you can become a school idol ♪
• Ditzy Genius: She's highly intelligent and can effortlessly do schoolwork, in her sleep no less, but lacks common sense around anything to do with school idols. Among other things, despite wanting to be a school idol herself, she initially starts off with practically no stamina and tires out after performing even simple dance steps. She also drags Kanon into her loud antics to try and get the School Idol club going, much to Kanon's embarrassment.
• Education Mama: She mostly just studied back in Shanghai due to her parents being strict about her academics and it wasn't until she came across school idols that she found something that she could be passionate about. Her being able to stay in Japan though is contingent on her winning Love Live competitions.
• Fangirl: She's a huge SunnyPa fan. She even keeps a huge portrait of them in her house, though this doesn't stop her from wanting to win whenever Liella's up against them in the Love Live competitions.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Keke has several reasons to dislike Sumire but the events of Season 1 Episode 10 allowed them to finally understand each other and become friends.
• First-Name Basis: Keke and Sumire call each other by their first names for the first time in Season 1 Episode 10.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Optimist. No one is as cheerful, passionate, optimistic and persistent as Keke, the Genki Girl who always has a bright outlook on life, no matter what.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine. Very cheerful and extroverted, and she always has a glass half-full worldview, though her energetic nature can lead to her being pushy sometimes.
• Gamer Chick: Keke claims in Season 1 Episode 2 that she's really good at getting Full Combos in rhythm games. In Season 2, she also revealed to have a Nintendo Switch-like portable console in her apartment.
• Genki Girl: Incredibly upbeat and incredibly loud. Her very first on-screen appearance is to invade Kanon's personal space while shouting Mandarin at her, and doggedly pursues Kanon for essentially half the first episode because of her singing voice.
• Hey, You!: Keke usually doesn't call Sumire by her actual name, preferring to call her as "[this] giant isopod".
• Jerkass to One: She's a friendly person overall, but she's a lot more vitriolic towards Sumire since she initially looks down on school idols and only joined Liella with the intent of becoming famous, and most of their interactions consist of Keke taking potshots at her. They come to better terms in Season 1 Episode 10, though they still bicker frequently.
• The Leader: Shares this role with Kanon. As a Headstrong type, Keke is the instigator of the group such as going to Kozushima for a live concert or entering the Love Live tournament.
• Lethal Chef: She's a terrible cook, something she becomes bitter over when Sumire proves to be an excellent chef in the kitchen.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: Keke's pushy, hyperactive nature and zero sense of personal space initially overwhelm Kanon and generally throw others for a loop, but beneath it all she's a genuinely friendly girl and her idealistic nature helped Kanon and Sumire through a difficult period of their lives.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl:
  • Keke is this for Kanon; she first meets Kanon while the latter is going through a particularly sour spot in life, and she spurs Kanon into acting on her unrealized dreams and opening up to both herself and others by practically dragging her into the world of school idols as a side effect of wanting to pursue her own school idol dreams. Being a Genki Girl foreigner also means she's bursting with energy, quirky, generally chaotic, and a solid comic relief.
  • Keke is also this for Sumire; while they started out on bad terms, Keke's firm belief that she could stand as the center of Liella in an important moment in their first Love Live tournament instilled confidence in Sumire that she previously lacked.
• Minor Living Alone: She lives alone in Japan.
• Nice Girl: All in all, though she can be pushy and loud, Keke is a kind girl who wants to make her friends happy and infect others with her cheerful, positive attitude.
• No Sense of Personal Space: She gets too close to Kanon for comfort when inviting her to become school idols together, in Mandarin.
• Otaku: Likes school idols so much that she went to Japan to become one.
  • She owns a ridiculous number of panda-themed items. She has a panda hoodie in the Hajimari wa Kimi no Sora MV, and in the anime she has a panda sleeping bag, a panda pencil bag, a panda picnic blanket, and a panda smartphone case, just to name a few.
  • She has panda ice cream in the ending animation.
• Plucky Comic Relief: She and Sumire have the most comedic moments in the anime.
• Recurring Element: Every Love Live group has a member with grayish-brown hair, and Keke is Liella's, as Kotori, You, and Kasumi were for µ's, Aqours, and NijiGaku, respectively.
• Reused Character Design: Her short gray hair and blue eyes make her very similar to You Watanabe, though her hair is neater and more curled than You's and she also has lavender highlights.
• Shown Their Work: Aside from the accurate Mandarin from having an actual Chinese actress, the use of some of Keke's speech patterns is pretty on point. For example, doubling up on someone's first name (or part of that name) like she does with Ren-Ren, Mei-Mei, and Kina-Kina, is very typically Chinese, with similar connotations of cutesy/childish affection as the Japanese use of "-chan".
• Sweet Tooth: Loves sweets, such as egg tart.
• Token Minority: The only character of non-Japanese nationality in the group.
• Third-Person Person: Occasionally refers to herself as Keke.
• Verbal Tic: It's a little more subtle, but she has a tendency to append "desu" a lot more often than is required, and her pronunciation of the particle (along with other formal/polite particles) has more emphasis than a natural speaker.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Sumire and Keke weren't off to a great start to begin with when Sumire first joined the club, but even after becoming genuine friends, she and Keke continue to bicker over the smallest things and get into petty arguments every now and then though they do still care for each other.
• Vocal Evolution: Liyuu's potrayal of Keke's Mandarin has significantly improved over time, complete with a proper Shanghai accent.
• Wrench Wench: A downplayed example as she doesn't do anything advanced like Shiki might, but she does have a knack for building things, such as the large cart she made Kanon pull while they advertised for school idols, the giant banners she hangs off the school roof, stage improvements for Sunny Passion on Kozushima, etc.
• You No Take Candle: Her Japanese fluency is not quite all the way there yet, resulting in some broken grammar and phrasing. She has passed JLPT N1 (the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test), though.

Ren Hazuki

Image Color: Sapphire Blue

Grade: First Year (Season 1), Second Year (Season 2), Third Year (Season 3)

Birthday: November 24 (Sagittarius)

Blood Type: A

Height: 163cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Consommé, strawberries, Darjeeling tea

Symbol: Teacup

Generation: 1st

Voiced by: Nagisa Aoyama (Japanese), Natalie Van Sistine (English)

Yuigaoka's serious and diligent Student Council President. Ren has great respect for her mother and sees it as her duty to make the school her mother created to be the best in town. Due to her past, she did not believe that the school needs school idols but meeting Kanon and her friends changed her mind.

Ren serves as the group's composer alongside Kanon, and later Mei.

---

• The Ace: She studied calligraphy, painting, English conversation, ballet, swimming and more. She's particularly good at piano and figure skating.
• Affectionate Nickname: Keke calls her "Ren-Ren".
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Attractive, with black hair and a rather stoic demeanor. Downplayed as she does have her quirky side,, and while she remains composed and polite she becomes much less cynical overtime.
• Ambiguously Gay: In Season 1 Episode 11, Ren opens, out of curiosity, what is implied to be lesbian porn in the clubroom laptop. She's very worried about it, though.
• Character Development: Becomes far more cheerful and optimistic after joining Liella!, a far cry from her initial Obstructive Bureaucrat nature.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Mild example. She's usually one of the most levelheaded girls in the group, but given her cluelessness about many modern topics, she acts weird at times.
• Ditzy Genius: She's generally an intelligent and levelheaded honor student, but she has a surprisingly more airheaded and eccentric side and easily gets obsessed with things that entertain her, such as video games.
• Endearingly Dorky: Justified to an extent as she comes from a sheltered background, but Ren is quite the dork despite her (initially) stoic exterior. Not only is she Hopeless with Tech at first (additionally, she also struggles with modern topics such as rap), but once she becomes interested in video games, she turns out to be completely obsessed with them. At events on-stage, she's also arguably the member who's moved to tears more easily.
• Fire-Forged Friends: She and Kanon did not start out in good terms in the beginning of the series, and most of their interactions later on are mostly antagonistic and tense, mostly on Ren's end. However, once Kanon learns about her circumstances and helps Ren realize what her mother had always wanted all along, reconciling Ren's feelings towards her deceased mother, they become close friends.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Initially starts off as the Cynic, being an Obstructive Bureaucrat who believes school idols have no place at Yuigaoka. Later on, she's mostly a Realist, still levelheaded yet with a more positive and playful streak.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic. She's independent, strong-willed, and a perfectionist, and starts off as rather aloof and distant, though the latter changes a lot later on.
• Gamer Chick: Ren is revealed to be secretly addicted to video games due to her absentee father sending her games and consoles as gifts. She even has a dedicated room for gaming.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Has a pet dog named "Chibi".
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Puts up an abrasive front but is soon revealed to be a kind girl who struggles with unpleasant feelings.
• Hopeless with Tech: She's not knowledgeable about modern technology, as she was advised to refrain from spending too much time online when she was little.
  • Downplayed in Season 2, where she can now do proper video calls with the other members in her laptop. However, she is still occasionally amazed by other relatively mundane technological devices such as Keke's portable game console.
• Impoverished Patrician: Implied and Downplayed. Ren comes from a wealthy family but currently lives by herself along with a maid in her mansion due to her father leaving the family and her mother dying. The rest of the group find out that she's run through all of her money and is no longer able to pay her servants or fund the school. Despite that, she still acts like a Proper Lady, and is well-respected at school.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While it's acknowledged that she’s overstepping her bounds by being an Obstructive Bureaucrat, her argument about the school's reputation does have merit. Yuigaoka was formerly a prestigious music school before it became a high school, and as such it has a top-class music and performances course; having a school idol club, an amateur production by nature, run by general course students and performing poorly could severely affect the school.
• Jerkass to One: Kanon and Keke (at least whenever they're together) are the only students Ren treats with a tangible level of indifference and coldness for the better part of Season 1. Otherwise she's very well-mannered (if not rather distant) towards the other students, such as Chisato. She later acknowledges that she wronged Kanon for her unfair treatment of her previously, and this initially makes her reluctant to join the School Idol Club, though Kanon won't have any of it.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: She and her mother are straightforward and strong-willed.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Ren starts off as serious and somewhat aloof, but the natural kindness of Kanon, Keke and Chisato turn her into a more cheerful and playful person and allow for her to show the better side of her personality more.
• Mistaken for Gay: While Mei was her Secret-Keeper during her period of game addiction, the others saw the two girls together, believing they were dating. Though, it's not granted that she ''isn't'' gay.
• Nice Girl: Despite initial appearances, Ren is a gentle, kind and compassionate girl.
• Not So Above It All: Unexpectedly for her diligent, serious and hard-working personality, Ren turns out in S2 to have become addicted to video games, and is very self-conscious about this.
• Not So Stoic: She is initially presented as the serious and stubborn type like Eli and Dia before her, but Season 1 Episode 6 reveals that she's a lot nicer than she initially lets on. Taken further with Season 2, Episode 7 which shows she's secretly an obsessed Gamer Chick who is freaked out over the possibility of being ostracized over this fact.
  • Then, it also turns out she's one of the most emotional members and very easily moved to tears, being shown crying quite often in S2.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: As the school founder's daughter, she tried to use her influence to prevent Kanon and Keke from forming the School Idol Club, believing that a couple of non-music course students could ruin Yuigaoka's reputation as a school that puts music in high regard. Then, it turns out she did have her reasons, and what she really wants to do is keeping her mother's dream alive.
• Parental Abandonment: Her father left the family when she was young, while her mother has passed away prior to the story.
  • Later Subverted as Ren's father fully supports her decision to become a school idol, even donating a large sum of money for Yuigaoka, enough for the school to last for at least another year.
• The Quiet One: Starting out as such a serious character predictably makes her not exactly small-talk oriented. Though things change later on, and conversations come far easier to her, she still remains one of the more composed and quiet members.
• Recurring Element:
  • Like Kotori, Mari and Lanzhu, Ren has direct ties to someone close to the school; in this case, her mother bought the building and founded Yuigaoka.
  • As seems to be tradition at this point, she plays the role of the Obstructive Bureaucrat Student Council President who opposes the idea of a school idol club.
• Student Council President: Played with in that she only serves as acting student council president for the spring term since no actual student council has been formed by this point. During the fall term, she has to run in the student council president elections like the other candidates, and wins easily, since her only competition was Sumire.
• Tareme Eyes: Which is strange at first glance, since her eyes contrast with her initially sullen and serious personality. That said, they match her later on thanks to Character Development since she's definitely mellowed out and has become far more cheerful.
• Tender Tears: Since joining Liella! and losing her cool facade, Ren is shown to actually be one of the most emotional members in the group and is seen crying quite often. It's portrayed in a positive light, though, since they're usually Tears of Joy when she feels moved by something on-stage.
• Token Rich Student: Subverted. She lives in a grandiose mansion, but much of the mansion has fallen into disuse, and Hazuki herself reveals that her family has run out of money, with the girls catching her attempting to lay off the last housemaid.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Very much so. She goes from a withdrawn, aloof and cynical Obstructive Bureaucrat to a cheerful, friendly girl who's open about her feelings and is also somewhat of a cloudcuckoolander despite still being well-put together and intelligent.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Ren starts off as a rather sullen and cynical Obstructive Bureaucrat who wants nothing to do with school idols, but Character Development helps her overcome this and she's much more approachable from there on out.
• Workaholic: It is implied that Ren is overworking herself since she's busy with both the school idol club and the student council (of which she's the only member until Kanon volunteered) while being an honor student.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: She's attractive with black hair, and personality-wise she's serious, diligent, hardworking and polite.

Margarete Wien

Image Color: Elegant Purple

Grade: Third Year Middle School (Season 2), First Year High School (Season 3)

Birthday: January 20 (Aquarius)

Blood Type: A

Height: 161cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate

Symbol: Butterfly

Generation: 3rd

Voiced by: Yuina (Japanese)

A mysterious middle school student who first showed up at the end of Episode 2 in the 2nd Season. She quickly becomes a rival to Liella! and antagonistic towards Kanon in particular.

---

• The Ace: One of the best school idols in the anime despite being in middle school and being a solo idol. Not only had she won the Yoyogi School Idol Festival, she also secured a spot in the Tokyo Regionals.
• Aerith and Bob: Her name, "Margarete Wien" somewhat stands out compared to the rest of mostly Japanese cast. Justified, as she's a foreign student from Austria.
• Call-Back: She shares a lot of character traits with the R3BIRTH trio from Nijigasaki. She's a foreign (Lanzhu and Mia) talented middle-schooler (Mia) whose MVs show abundant clock iconography, with music that places emphasis on traditional instrumentation (Shioriko). She shares the arrogance that the ALL STARS versions of Lanzhu/Mia had pre-development, and on top of that she's a solo performer, like the Nijigasaki idols. She even pulls a Heel–Face Turn!
• Foreign Exchange Student: Season 2 Episode 11 reveals that she's from Vienna, Austria.
• Jerkass: She is an extremely arrogant individual who looks down on school idols, and in her small introductory video for the online conference in Season 2 Episode 10, she outright says that she's only entering Love Live to show off what real singing is and prove just how low level the competition is. Many of her appearances in series also consist of her directly confronting Kanon to throw some barbs her way.
  • She's also particularly mean to the announcer when she doesn't accept that she's second to Liella!, almost punching her for this.
• Punny Name: Phonetically, the 'Wien' (ウィーン) part of her name is pronounced similarly to 'win', which relates to the main theme of the second season. True to the pun, she wins quite effortlessly against Liella! in the Yoyogi School Idol festival and outright crushes Sunny Passion, the winners from last year, in the Tokyo regional preliminaries.
• The Rival: To Liella! in Season 2.
• Say My Name: She always addresses Kanon with a dramatic "Shibuya Kanon!".
• Spell My Name With An S: Her name has been spelled "Margarete" and "Marugarete" in back-to-back episodes.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: This is her usual method to appear on-screen in front of Kanon, yelling her full name before questioning her and disappearing.
• Younger than She Looks: Given her looks, it's easy to overlook that she's actually a third year middle-schooler/first year high-schooler. Kanon herself briefly laments over how Liella! got beat by a middle-schooler at the Yoyogi School Idol Festival.

5yncri5e!

5yncri5e!'s first single, "Jellyfish"

The "Smile" sub-unit, consisting of Chisato Arashi, Kinako Sakurakoji, Shiki Wakana, Natsumi Onitsuka, and Tomari Onitsuka. Aside from emphasizing the group's dance skills, their music has a distinctly K-Pop vibe.

---

• Breaking Old Trends: The franchise's first five-person sub-unit.
• Choreography Porn: Even in a franchise that's known for high-level dancing, 5yncri5e! is specifically intended to be dance-focused and to wow audiences with their choreographies.
• Letters 2 Numbers: The name is pronounced "Syncrise", with "5"'s replacing the "s"'s.
• Sibling Team: Both Onitsuka sisters are in the unit.

---

Chisato Arashi

Image Color: Peach Pink

Grade: First Year (Season 1), Second Year (Season 2), Third Year (Season 3)

Birthday: February 25 (Pisces)

Blood Type: B

Height: 155cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Takoyaki, peaches, soda

Symbol: Takoyaki

Generation: 1st

Voiced by: Nako Misaki (Japanese), Maddie Matsumoto (English)

Kanon's childhood friend, Chisato loves to dance and entered into Yuigaoka's music course for it. Meeting Kanon and Keke as well as getting involved in their school idol activities made her want to be a school idol too. She works part-time in a takoyaki store.

Chisato serves as the group's choreographer and physical trainer. In Season 2, she also serves as the club president.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: Kanon calls her "Chii-chan".
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's one of the friendliest girls in the series, but people tell her that she can be scary when angry.
• Bully Magnet: She used to be picked on a lot by other kids when she was younger for being meek and a little withdrawn.
• Character Catchphrase: "Uissu!", which she uses as a form of greeting. The English subtitles translate this line as "'sup".
• Childhood Friends: With Kanon.
• Does Not Like Spam: She's not super picky about food, but she absolutely hates bell peppers.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Realist. She generally has a very positive outlook on life, to be fair, making her overall optimistic, but she's also more grounded and quiet than Keke.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine mostly, with tendencies of a Phlegmatic. She's cheerful and outgoing, but she's a lot more levelheaded than Keke.
• Genki Girl: A very bright and friendly person, though she's more subdued than Keke.
• Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in long pigtails, combined with two small buns, which fit her energetic and girly nature.
• Nice Girl: Very kind and friendly, and is a supportive and loyal friend to Kanon and the rest of Liella even before she joins.
• Supreme Chef: She claims that she's good at cooking.
• Tareme Eyes: They highlight her cheerful, friendly personality.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Takoyaki, and round-shaped things in general. Not only is it her character symbol, she also helps run a food truck in the area that deals in takoyaki.

Kinako Sakurakoji

Image Color: Maize Yellow

Grade: First Year (Season 2), Second Year (Season 3)

Birthday: April 10 (Aries)

Blood Type: O

Height: 159cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Potatoes, pumpkins, corn

Symbol: Fox

Generation: 2nd

Voiced by: Nozomi Suzuhara (Japanese)

A student from Hokkaido. Due to a chance meeting, she met the senior members of Liella and that encounter led to her interest in school idols.

She later becomes the Student Council secretary, and the group's second lyricist.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: Keke calls her "Kina-Kina".
• Animal Lover: Talking to animals is her hobby, and her absolute favourite animal is Ezo red fox.
• Big Eater: Implied. She regularly has snacks with her and in the ending, she already finished her cake before Natsumi can even give her her strawberry.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She's somewhat eccentric and comes across as a bit of an airhead. However, she's shown to be level-headed at the end of the day.
• Country Mouse: Being from the more rural island of Hokkaido, she's not used to a huge metropolis like Tokyo. She also has a hard time catching up with slangs and loanwords.
• Expy: Of Hanamaru Kunikida from Aqours; a somewhat eccentric Big Eater and Country Mouse with a Verbal Tic, very low stamina and self-esteem issues about being normal. They even share the same image color.
• Formerly Fat: Downplayed as she wasn't exacly fat, but she looks a bit chubby in her childhood photo.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Optimist of the first years. She's cheerful and positive despite her somewhat low self-esteem, and never stops pursuing her dreams.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine - with Phlegmatic tendencies as well. She's optimistic, cheerful, sociable, friendly, kind and accomodating.
• Girlish Pigtails: Her pigtails emphasizes her innocence as a Country Mouse living in Tokyo.
• Innocently Insensitive: Her assessments can come off as this since she's honest to a fault. One example is when she thought Kanon was already the club president by virtue of Ren being the student council president and everyone else not being suited for it.
• Minor Living Alone: Upon transferring to Yuigaoka in Tokyo, she moves to an apartment and lives there by herself.
• Nice Girl: Easily one of the sweetest and friendliest Liella! girls. It's no surprise that, once they meet her, the initial group members suddenly grow fond of her.
• No Sense of Direction: Easily gets lost in Harajuku looking for her apartment. Justified since she's only been in Tokyo for a day.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Wears these to go with her shy and sweet personality.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: States that she doesn't have any particular skills.
• Verbal Tic: Ending her sentences with "-ssu".

Shiki Wakana

Image Color: Ice Green White

Grade: First Year (Season 2), Second Year (Season 3)

Birthday: June 17 (Gemini)

Blood Type: B

Height: 161cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Chestnuts, mont blanc

Symbol: Flask

Generation: 2nd

Voiced by: Wakana Ookuma (Japanese)

The president and founder of the newly established science club. She is a natural loner and speaks in a composed and concise manner.

She and Mei share a unique bond that started during middle school. Late in Season 2, she starts assisting Chisato with the group's choreography.

---

• Ambiguously Gay: Heavily implied to have a crush on Mei. Not only is she listed as one of Shiki's "favourite things" in her profile, but several of their interactions have her suddenly devolving into extensive blushing while talking about how cute she is.
  • In the episode where she tells the others about how she and Mei met in the past, when they ask her if they are friends, she doesn't exactly know what to answer. She very likely considers Mei as more than a friend... Oh, and what about the episode where she thinks that Mei has a secret relationship with Ren? She becomes absurdly jealous.
• Animal Motif: Butterflies. Shiki has a personal love for insects and she wears a few butterfly-themed accessories- the clasp on her purse and her choker ornament being two of them. Also, the emergence and her accepting of her new identity as a school idol parallels the metamorphosis that characterizes the life cycle of a butterfly.
• Artistic License – Physics: Her gadgets are really cool, but defy basic mechanics. For example, the bracelets which can force someone to move defy the third law of motion.
• Badass Bookworm: Shiki has spent most of her middle school days reading quietly by herself in the classroom, but surprisingly can dance proficiently on her own. Later, when she officially joins the school idol club, she has no problem keeping up with the physical demands of their training, being able to demonstrate a degree of flexibility that Keke apparently does not possess even as a seasoned idol. In Episode 8, Shiki is also shown to have excellent core strength and balance as she perches utterly still on a balance beam with one leg raised in gym class while Sumire flails about helplessly.
• Childhood Friends: With Mei. They've known each other since middle school.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She becomes incredibly jealous when suspecting that Mei has a secret relationship with Ren, to the point the normally stoic Shiki suddenly acts irrational and worried around her best friend.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Her way of expressing herself and interacting with others is pretty eccentric, but despite this she's generally levelheaded. Her thoughts and creativity often run wild, though.
• The Comically Serious: She comes across as deadpan and almost emotionless, but her eccentric way of interacting, and her wild imagination and creativity which manifest through her creation of cool scientific gadgets, make her an entertaining and fun character.
• Deadpan Snarker: Downplayed. Most of the humor around Shiki is more due to her having a naturally-reserved, blunt and straightforward emotional disposition resulting in her coming off as deadpan, instead of any intentional effort to snark on her part.
• Emotionless Girl: As typical for the trope, it's not that she doesn't have emotions, she just finds it difficult to express them.
• Expy: Of Rina Tennoji from NijiGaku. Both are quiet first-year students with reserved dispositions who had a single friend before joining their idol clubs, and are very skilled with technology. Then, both are very kind, sweet and supportive individuals underneath their eccentricities and their shy and emotionally stunted exterior.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her training attire consists of quite a stylish two-toned blue shirt that is tied up on the right side while her right trouser leg is pulled to above her knee, showing that Shiki is quite fashionable despite her geeky, quiet nature.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: In spite of her eccentricities, she's probably the most balanced of the first years, neither too idealistic nor too cynical, and very good at taking into consideration more points of view, so she fits the Realist position.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic - a meek Shy Blue-Haired Girl and The Quiet One who, despite her emotionless appearance, is a genuinely helpful individual who helps Mei join Liella and quietly supports the group union.
• Friendless Background: Shiki spent most of her childhood withdrawn, preferring to read books by herself rather than spending any meaningful time with anyone. Even after they entered high school Mei notices immediately that she hasn't changed, pointing out her continuing habit of not bothering to get close to her classmates.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She has a bunch of various gadgets at her disposal, including a leg lock device to help Kinako run up towards the schooltop roof, microscope goggles, and automated roller skates to move around in.
• Gratuitous English: Beginning in Episode 5 of Season 2, Shiki begins expressing herself in English occasionally.
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Wears one when she is in the science club.
• Mad Scientist: Despite her quiet and demure nature, she is very creative and passionate about science, and definitely has an eccentric and unpredictable side, mainly reserved to the cool gadgets she creates.
• Nice Girl: Although she's withdrawn and introverted, once she opens up she's a kind and supportive friend, doing everything to help Mei cultivate her passion for idols and eventually developing an interest in idols herself.
• Not So Stoic: She's a lot more expressive around Mei, especially when they're alone.
• The Quiet One: She's reserved, soft-spoken and quiet.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to Mei's red. Interestingly, Mei has red hair with blue eyes, while Shiki has blue hair and reddish amber eyes. It's a subtle hint that while Shiki is stoic and quiet, she's also unpredictable at times, as Kinako can attest to.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Oh boy, let's check. Short, bobbed blue hair and red eyes? Check. Monotone Spock Speak? Check. A stoic, quiet cloudcuckoolander who comes across as almost emotionless due to her difficulty at expressing feelings which she later overcomes? Definitely. Heck, if a comedy example, she still fits the description perfectly.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Mei even tells her she's very pretty. Though she doesn't look halfway bad in her school uniform or in her science lab coat, her training outfit gives her a more fashionable and alluring vibe. Shiki also has a love for chokers that sets off her casual attire well in Episode 6.
• Shrinking Violet: It's even pointed out by Kanon that both Shiki and Mei are very shy and don't know how to properly express themselves. Contrarily to Mei, whose desire to be more expressive results in brash tsundere behavior because of her shyness, Shiki keeps to herself with a stoic demeanor and generally prefers not to express her feelings to begin with. Starting in Episode 5 of Season 2, Shiki starts to become more expressive.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: She doesn't talk much and is rather reserved.
• Spock Speak: Has a stoic, almost monotone way of speaking and expressing herself.
• The Stoic: She's extremely calm and soft-spoken in every situation, almost to the point of coming across as emotionless.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Played With. It's not exactly that she's icy indeed, but her difficulties in socializing and expressing her emotions make her come across as somewhat cold. Then, she actually might be just shy, and as she interacts more and more with the group and then joins, we actually see she's a genuinely sweet girl.
• Tsundere: Not to Mei's extent, but has some slight shades of this at times in regards to the latter, being embarrassed and blushing a lot while talking about her and saying she's cute, and stating she doesn't exactly know if they are friends indeed... Which heavily implies her homosexuality and crush on her best friend.

Natsumi Onitsuka

Image Color: OniNattsu Pink

Grade: First Year (Season 2), Second Year (Season 3)

Birthday: August 7 (Leo)

Blood Type: AB

Height: 152cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Natto

Symbol: Smoothie

Generation: 2nd

Voiced by: Aya Emori (Japanese)

Introducing herself as president and CEO of her own company, she is an L-tuber who is obsessed with money. After a few failed instances of making money herself, she overheard from her classmates about the school's idol group, Liella!, and thinks that maybe she could use them to easily make money.

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• Attention Whore: She comes across as kind of an attention seeker; understandable, due to her being an influencer.
• Big Eater: Implied with how many plates there are in the background during her still in the ending credits.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While not evil, beneath her cheerful and friendly demeanor, Natsumi is rather selfish and very greedy. Not surprisingly, a more cynical character such as Sumire suddenly understands her willingness to use Liella! to make money, dismissing the more idealistic views of characters like Keke and Kanon instead, even telling the latter she's too much of a good person to still believe Natsumi has good intentions.
  • However, later on it's shown she really isn't bad. Her obsession with money comes from heavy insecurities, as she thinks she'll never be really good at anything and will always fail, so making money would be her only safety. Kanon, of course, understands her and tells her to join Liella! instead of being their CEO.
• Con Man: Natsumi jumps on an opportunity to make money off Liella! by acting as their producer and getting them to sign a contract where they must give her all money made off of any Liella! videos, to cover production costs. It becomes clear however that she's making far more money than what production should cover and she's actually just pocketing all of it while boosting her own subscriber count without doing much to be a legitimate producer for Liella!.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Attempts to sell takoyaki smoothies at the school festival, but is unable to sell any of them. The other club members call her out on her weird creation, though Shiki does mention that it actually tastes pretty good.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": In her focus episode, her back cracks multiple times due to the time she spends doing laborious, physically demanding part-time jobs.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Cynic of the first years. She's rather self-absorbed and egotistical, and at first had only the intention to be the group's manager to make money. She's also a person who stopped dreaming, thinking she's not good enough.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric - egotistical, greedy, self-absorbed and task-oriented. She also turns out to be more aggressive and cynical than her cheerful demeanor suggests.
• Infectious Enthusiasm: Spending time with Kinako, Mei and Shiki during their summer training camp slowly reignited her motivation to dream big.
• In-Universe Nickname: OniNattsu.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite her blatant Bitch in Sheep's Clothing tendencies, greed and rather self-absorbed nature, Natsumi isn't a bad person at the end of the day. Thanks to the group, she stops thinking only about personal gain, starts caring for them and they create a genuine friendship.
• Money Fetish: She's quite obsessed with money, often saying "money", taking on multiple part-times jobs just to get money, and getting upset when her monetization strategies for her channel don't pan out.
• Only in It for the Money: She offers to become Liella!'s producer so that they can focus on practice and she can focus on PR for them. In actually, she's just using their rising popularity in order to make money herself, helped by the fact that she got Kanon to sign to a contract stating she'd keep any revenue that was made to cover production costs.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: Always has her phone on hand to livestream whenever she can.
• Precision F-Strike: When she sees a bad review of her being one minute late for a delivery.
  God damn!
• Small Name, Big Ego: Much like Sumire, Natsumi fashions herself as being more prominent than she actually is, introducing herself as a CEO of her own company to others, but she didn't even break 100 subscribers prior to getting in contact with Liella!.
• Stopped Caring: Natsumi as a child is a lofty dreamer who gives up at the first sign of not being good enough for her current dream. Over time, she just stopped dreaming altogether and only settled on gaining money so that she could eventually retire peacefully. Despite this, she doesn't stop people like Kinako from pursuing their dreams and even gives advice based on her own experiences.
• Temporal Theme Naming: Her name contains the kanji for summer (夏); her sister Tomari's contains the character for winter (冬).
• Valley Girl: The English subtitles has her speaks this way. She also ends most of her sentences with "desu no".
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: The clearest cut example in the franchise to date. Natsumi's an egotistical, money-grubbing con artist whose spotlight episode is her flat out attempting to scam Liella! out of money for her own benefit. She's also one of the funniest characters in the series, owing to how badly her money-making efforts fall through, and her many outlandish facial expressions. She becomes more sympathetic as she joins Liella!, though.
• Workaholic: When she isn't making videos or streaming, she's found working various jobs outside of school, from food delivery to mover.

Tomari Onitsuka

Image Color: Smoky Blue

Grade: First Year (Season 3)

Birthday: December 28 (Capricorn)

Blood Type: B

Height: 163cm

Trademark Favorite Food: Baked sweet potatoes

Symbol: Jellyfish

Generation: 3rd

Voiced by: Sakura Sakakura (Japanese)

Natsumi's younger sister.

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• Antiquated Linguistics: In contrast to Natsumi who uses slangs like a stereotypical gyaru, Tomari's speech uses more outdated vocabulary, such as referring to Natsumi as "aneja" (姉者), a rather archaic way to refers to one's elder sister.
  • Expospeak Gag: At the same time, however, she has a habit of peppering her speech with foreign (usually English) loanwords, such as "synergy" and "commit", even though there's no reason not to use the Japanese equivalents.
• Big Little Sister: She's 11cm taller than her older sister, Natsumi.
• Temporal Theme Naming: Her name contains the kanji for winter (冬); her sister Natsumi's contains the one for summer (夏).