Shinobu Kudo

Shinobu is a girl who has dreamed of being an idol since childhood and grew up admiring and listening to them from afar on her radio. Both her parents and her friends say she isn't cut out to be an idol, but she moves to Tokyo on her own nonetheless to join the Producer's talent agency. Ultimately, she is able to follow her dreams of stardom in spite of everyone around discouraging her. In her plus card, her parents call to apologize. She was initially paired up with another idol themed around hard work, Honoka Ayase. Since then, both Azuki Momoi and Yuzu Kitami have seemed to join their group of friends. In the tie-in Cinderella Girls Theater skits, Shinobu reveals that she wants to be a Top Idol so she can pay back the Producer for all of his hard work. Shinobu had a Tohoku regional accent as a child but devoted a great deal of time to listening to Tokyo radio and improving her diction to lose it. She likes the school uniforms her job as an idol allows her to wear. She dreamt of Kako Takafuji on the first day of the New Year and wound up winning a lottery prize. She is rather rigid when compared to some of the adult idols, but she sets up a goal to become more laid back. Shinobu occasionally worries that her comic collection qualifies her as an otaku. Shinobu met Honoka Ayase while playing a crane game, hoping to help her friend get a Kuma Tomo bear as a prize. Honoka’s pursuit to catch a green cat-like doll (which she later name Pinyakorata) allowed her to get several other stuffed animals. When Shinobu couldn’t manage to get any toys herself, Honoka gave her several of her own and Shinobu created a “Honoka zone” in her room for them. The two became extremely close friends while going out to eat together, and drew in Yuzu Kitami and Azuki Momoi into their group. Since then, the four girls were usually shown together with Pinyakorata as their major theme. When going to the amusement park, Honoka’s interest in her green cat plushie carried over to a matching hat set, and the quartet decided to get Pinyakorata hats.