Riko Sakurauchi

Riko Sakurauchi is one of the nine main characters of Love Live! Sunshine!!. She is a second year in Uranohoshi Girls' High School. Her image color is cherry pink. She is a member of Guilty Kiss, a sub-unit under the reformed Aqours and co-founder of the group itself. Riko has a slim figure. She has burgundy hair that she ties into a half ponytail and gold-colored eyes. Riko is a reserved, kind, polite and modest girl who likes indoor activities, acting as a foil to her friends, the more energetic Chika and You. She is rather shy, but is nevertheless affable and friendly. However, while she is calm and mature, she often flies into a panic when under pressure, jumping to conclusions and making mistakes. Because of this, and a previous incident on which she failed to play the piano in front of a live audience, she doesn't think she's special, and doesn't want to become a school idol. However, her friend Chika drags her into it, in the hopes this would inspire her to keep playing the piano. In spite of her quiet and reserved personality, Riko has cynophobia: she loses her calm when she sees a dog (or anything she deems similar to one), to the point of moving recklessly when faced with one directly. This is commonly seen throughout most of Season 1 (starting with Episode 2) and is finally expanded upon in Season 2 Episode 5. After she and Yoshiko Tsushima temporarily take care of a dog in the same episode, her fear of dogs is revoked and she eventually understands she likes them, getting her own in Season 2 Episode 13. Riko can also be quite playful, this is especially seen with Chika, an example being when she copies Chika's "normal monster" act to help Chika combat her hopelessness in Season 2 Epsiode 1. Additionally, after the events of Season 2 Episode 5, her interactions with Yoshiko cause Riko to start acting like her at times and be called "Lili" (Riri) by her, which annoys Riko. (This name is derived from Lilith, a demon in Jewish mythology, and is also the double pronunciation of the first syllable of her name.) Riko is also a fan of certain types of girls' love doujinshi, and is very timid about this. As seen in Season 1 Episode 7 and Episode 12, when her friends see her with said doujinshi, she panics and acts defensively by hiding them, saying they were only gifts.