Honoka Kosaka

Spoiler Alert! This article contains details about plotlines described in the anime. Do not proceed unless you want to be spoiled.

Honoka Kousaka
Character PortraitWinterSummerS1 TrainingS2 Training
Kanji	高坂穂乃果
Romaji	Kousaka Honoka
Statistics
Birthday	August 3rd
Year	2nd
Height	157cm
Blood Type	O
Three Sizes	B 78, W 58, H 82
Other
Zodiac Sign	Leo
Favorite Food	Strawberries
Disliked Food	Bell Peppers
Charm Point	Her charming smile
Debut
Debut	Season 1, Episode 1
Japanese Voice Actress/Actor
Seiyuu Kanji	新田恵海
Seiyuu Romaji	Nitta Emi
Other Language Voice Actor/Actress
English	Marieve Herington
Icon and Signature
Icon
Signature

Honoka Kosaka is the primary protagonist in Love Live!. She was a second-year student at Otonokizaka High School until she graduated at the end of Love Live! The School Idol Movie. She is the leader of Printemps, a sub-unit under µ's and is the leader and founder of the group. Her image color is orange, though she is also represented with pink sometimes.

Background

Honoka's family owns a Japanese sweets shop named Homura. She lives at the back of the shop with her mother, father and her younger sister, Yukiho Kousaka. Since she was young, she has been friends with Kotori Minami, and she befriended Umi Sonoda after inviting her to a game of hide-and-seek. She is also friends with Fumiko, Hideko and Mika at school. Her grandmother and her mother are both graduates from Otonokizaka.

Personality

Honoka is an optimist who is never afraid to take risks. She is always in a good mood and likes to look at the bright side of things. She is determined and once her mind is set on something, nothing can stop her. This is believed to be the driving force behind μ's formation and success. But because of her persistent personality, she often overexerts herself.

Her personality is similar to Rin Hoshizora's because they are both determined, hard-working, and fun-loving. For example, in Season 1 Episode 7, Honoka, Rin and Nico Yazawa had to work hard to pass exams in order to enter Love Live! and are known as the "Three Idiots".

She likes to eat bread, but she doesn't like eating red bean paste or white bean paste despite working at her family's Japanese sweets shop.

Clubs and Hobbies

Honoka enjoys swimming and collecting stickers. Her special skill is often finding money on the streets, which she attributes to good luck. She is also the leader of the school idol group μ's. Starting from the second season, she succeeds Eli Ayase as Otonokizaka High School's student council president. In the manga version, before starting an idol club, Honoka is in the Kendo club with Umi and is good enough to win a tournament.

Appearance

Honoka has a slim build. She has brownish orange hair that she ties into a ponytail on the right side and blue eyes.

Songs

General election results and positions

Rank	Song	Position
	Bokura no LIVE Kimi to no LIFE (僕らのLIVE 君とのLIFE)	Center
1	Snow halation	Center
4	Natsuiro Egao de 1,2,Jump! (夏色えがおで1,2,Jump!)
1	Mogyutto "love" de Sekkin Chuu! (もぎゅっと"love"で接近中!)	Center
6	Wonderful Rush
3	Music S.T.A.R.T!!

Honoka came in first in the first and third elections, and was the center twice. Honoka is the only member of the Love Live! series to have won first place twice in the center elections (although, apart from Love Live!, the only other series to have held a center election more than twice is Love Live! Sunshine!! ).

Soloµ'sPrintempsDuo & TrioCollaboration

Ai wa Taiyou Ja Nai?
Mou Hitori Ja Nai yo
Someday of my life
Senkou Resolution
Yume Naki Yume wa Yume ja nai
Shiawase Iki no SMILING!

Bokura no LIVE Kimi to no LIFE
Yuujou No Change
Snow halation
Baby maybe Koi no Button
Natsuiro Egao de 1,2,Jump!
Mermaid festa vol.1
Mogyutto "love" de Sekkin Chuu!
Aishiteru Banzai!
Wonderful Rush
Oh,Love&Peace!
Bokura wa Ima no Naka de
WILD STARS
Kitto Seishun ga Kikoeru
Kaguya no Shiro de Odoritai
START:DASH!!
Korekara no Someday
Wonder zone
No brand girls
Kakumei desu ne? Kamisama!
LONELIEST BABY
Music S.T.A.R.T!!
LOVELESS WORLD
Takaramonozu
Paradise Live
ENDLESS PARADE
Koremade no Love Live!
Sore wa Bokutachi no Kiseki
Datte Datte Aa Mujou
Donna Toki mo Zutto
COLORFUL VOICE
Yume no Tobira
SENTIMENTAL StepS
Dancing stars on me!
KiRa-KiRa Sensation!
Happy maker!
Soshite Saigo no Page ni wa
Shangri-La Shower
Ruteshi Kisuki Shiteru
Dreamin' Go! Go!!
Mi wa µ'sic no Mi
Super LOVE=Super LIVE!
Angelic Angel
SUNNY DAY SONG
Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari
HEART to HEART!
Arashi no Naka no Koi dakara
Korekara
MOMENT RING
Sayounara e Sayonara!
A song for You! You? You!!
Natte Shimatta!

Love marginal
Sweet&sweet holiday
Pure girls project
UNBALANCED LOVE
Puwa Puwa-O!
Eien Friends
Nightingale Love Song
CheerDay CheerGirl!
MUSEUM de Dou Shitai?
WAO-WAO Powerful day!
NO EXIT ORION

Mermaid festa vol.2 ~Passionate~
Susume→Tomorrow
Future style

Bring the LOVE! (Featuring You Watanabe, Ayumu Uehara, Kanon Shibuya, and Kaho Hinoshita)

Chronology

Manga

In the manga by Tokiota Arumi, Honoka is depicted as someone who, rather than planning ahead, focuses wholeheartedly on the important matters right in front of them. She places complete trust in the μ's members, and this unshakable confidence generates a positive cycle of trust from the members in return. That said, during their first live performance, when the audience mocked them, they felt the sting of their own powerlessness, and along with Kotori, Rin, and Hanayo, they burst into tears (at this time, Umi remarked that it was the first time she saw Honoka cry).

In their first year of high school, she was part of the kendo club and had the skill to win competitions.

However, when the closure of Otonokizaka High School couldn't be overturned, they fell into a slump. It was during this period that she happened to watch A-RISE's live performance, which motivated her to work toward establishing the idol club. To prevent the closure of Otonokizaka, she decided to participate in "Love Live!" aiming to stop the school's shutdown. However, challenges like the lack of students and insufficient budget, along with a change in school rules requiring nine members for a new club, sent her on a mission to gather members. As the ninth member, they considered herchildhood friend and student council president, Eli, and even before Eli formally joined, she wrote the group name "μ's" on the entry form for "Love Live!" and submitted it.

In short, Honoka in the manga version is the one who named μ's.

All Stars

In School Idol Festival All Stars, Honoka appears as both an admired figure and a friend to the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. Before the story begins, μ's had already become close to Aqours, and Chika Takami directly expressed to them that μ's was an inspiration and the reason for starting Aqours.

During the organization of the School Idol Festival, Honoka worked alongside other school leaders, contributing ideas as the leader of μ's.

In the main story's Chapters 5 and 6, the μ's vs. Nijigasaki 9-match showdown includes a 'Charisma Battle.' In this challenge at a ranch, the goal was to gather as many sheep as possible. Ayumu Uehara calmly and steadily collected the sheep, while Honoka, simply holding sheep feed, was hilariously chased by a massive flock of sheep. Despite the chaos, Honoka emerged victorious (due to Nico, the judge, insisting it was not cheating).

Etymology

• The name Honoka means "grain" (穂) (ho), "from" (乃) (no) and "fruit, reward, carry out, achieve, complete, end, finish, succeed" (果) (ka).
• Honoka's surname Kosaka means "tall, high" (高) (ko) and "slope, hill" (坂) (saka).

Trivia

• Honoka fulfills the smile attribute of the µ's second years.
• Honoka's practice shirt has the Japanese character "ほ" (ho), the first syllable of her name, which became her character icon. In My Wish, she wears a sweater with the romanization of her first syllable as "Ho".
• Although Honoka's image color is orange, her outfits are usually pink.
• Honoka liked milk when she was in elementary school.
• As Honoka is seen eating bread in the Anime, the profile data of the strawberries being her favorite food may be considered as an informed attribute.
• The only thing Honoka is good at, other than cheering people up, is making rice cakes.
• The various media in the project disagree on the relationships between the second-years. In the manga which was published earlier, Honoka is closer to Umi as the two of them are childhood friends and not Kotori, but in the anime and other newer media, the three of them are all childhood friends.
  • There has also been a Q&A answered in a magazine which stated that Honoka and Kotori are childhood friends because their mothers were also childhood friends, and they've always been living on the same street.
• In the manga, which was published before the anime, both Umi and Honoka were portrayed to be members of the kendo club.
• While in the anime, it was not revealed which area of Tokyo Honoka lives in, she lives in the lower district of Chiyoda, near Akihabara in the manga.
• According to Kotori's Q&A answer, Honoka's side ponytail was originally made by Kotori back when they were children.
• While Honoka commonly refers to herself in first person in the anime, she usually speaks in third person in School Idol Festival.
• Honoka is the favorite µ's member of fan and Aqours leader Chika Takami.
  • In Love Live! Sunshine!! Season 1 Episode 12, a child who looked similar to Honoka appeared during their visit to Otonokizaka High School as a homage to her character, giving Chika a push forward.
• Honoka is the first second year student to hold the position of the student council president, the second would be Setsuna Yuki.
  • She is the only leader in the series who has served as student council president.