(Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3!!)
^ Look at all that LL! content to read~!l

Just like that we’re (almost) at the halfway mark with TriviAqours, which (if you haven’t read last week’s entry) is a bit of mix between a profile of the members of Love Live! Sunshine!!’s idol group Aqours along with some of our favorite facts and trivia about ’em. Keep in mind as these are our “favorite” facts so all these won’t so much be some mindblowing eye-catch trivia (though some of them could be) but just stuff we took note of arbitrarily. By we, of course, I mean myself and Al (from SliceOfAlfredo) who’s also the one who came up with this little project — as well as being the man solely responsible for these awesome header photos (!!!).

As you may have noticed, I have Volumes 2 and (now) 4 on my side, and you’ll find 1 and 3 over at Al’s. We did a classic schoolyard pick to see who writes about which member. Last week I featured Rikyako as my first pick (obviously) and this week, as the post title would have you, I’ll be talking to ya’ll about Arisha for a bit <3

ーー

Ｋｏｍｉｙａ　Ａｒｉｓａ (小宮有紗)

• Born February 5th, 1994
• Called “Arisha”, primarily by her fans
• Her image color is Pure Red
  
• Lists both “Drawing Portraits” and “Classical Ballet” as her special skills
• Hobbies include reading shoujo manga and sleeping
• Favorite Food: Tochigi Strawberries, OmuRice
  
• Hates boiled tofu
• Voices Kurosawa Dia from Love Live! Sunshine!!

＃１　Ｙｅｌｌｏｗ　Ｂｕｓｔｅｒ

As a tokusatsu fan (albeit more Kamen Rider than Super Sentai) I will always appreciate the fact the Arisha was once a part of that world having played the role of Usami Yoko, aka the Yellow Buster for Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters (!!!). This would’ve been a good three-four years prior to her involvement to Love Live! Sunshine!! as a burgeoning live action prospect at the age of 18. She has since slowly started to get back to that side of the TV/movie business following her continued success as both a member of Aqours and as a relatively known personality in live action circles.

＃２　Ｂｏｍ　Ｄｉａ
A bit of an actual fact this time (xD), Arisha’s current call and response actually had a little more to it during its early inception, wherein  “Daiyaho” was meant to be responded with “Bom Dia”, as mirror pun greetings of foreign origin. This has been canned in favor of the C&R we have now for unclear reasons, but one can assume it was because it just didn’t catch on.

＃３　”Ａｒｉｓｈａ”
Despite having been “given” a nickname, Arisha very rarely (if at all) uses it to refer to herself, even for their self-introductions — wherein she just drops it altogether (whereas other members make it a point to add it in /if you listen to the entirety of her self-intro above you’ll notice she doesn’t say it there either). It’s interesting to note too that during her time as a co-host for UraGirls Radio (as part of GuuRinPa alongside Kobayashi Aika and Inami Anju), she has repeatedly expressed having difficulty in pronouncing words that have –sh- sounds to them (which might also be related to the slight lisp that she has as well) whenever they do tongue twisters.

＃４　Ｐｏｎｋｏｔｓｕ*

*Note colloq. “dork”

In the last volume we note how Rikyako messes up quite a bit during their broadcasts, Arisha does so too — but where Rikyako more often than not commits faux pas (like, say, attempting to breakdance on camera and all but flashing the audience as a result), Arisha’s blunders almost always occur because she’s so out of it a lot of the times. She’ll space out, fumble her words, and lose the train of thought in a conversation and say something off or unrelated (the exception of course is when she decides to be goofy just because), thus earning her the moniker “ponkotsu”. Fans have attributed this to the fact that she at times appears to be lacking in sleep owing to her many activities outside of Aqours and Love Live!.

＃５　ＡＺＡＬＥＡ　ｎｏ　Ｓｅｋｕｓｈｉｉ　Ｔａｎｔｏu*

*Note “AZALEA’s Designated Sexy Person

AZALEA is the name of the subunit that Arisha is a part of — and in Hakodate Unit Carnival last April she gave herself the title of “AZALEA’s Designated Sexy Person” because, well, she is (:3). As the member most known primarily for her extensive gravure portfolio (well, for now…) as well as the only member so far to have been not only been featured on Japan’s Weekly Playboy, but actually get an entire wall devoted to her likeness; she has most certainly earned being called as such.

＃６　ＴＡＢＥＹＯ☆

*Note “Let’s eat”

This is in reference to a tweet/reply to her by Rikyako about a plan they had to eat ramen together. In what would appear to be a disconnect from the above fact, Arisha is allegedly quite the foodie — often being the one to bring up food (like, what delicious food they ate during one of their tours) on broadcasts and programs. One stand out anecdote is how in her youth she claims to knock down two of those large soft-serve ice cream cones from a convenience store near the train station she gets off of on her way home on a daily basis.

＃７　Ｉｉｗａｋｅ　Ｊｏｓｈｉ

*Note “Excuses Girl”

In line with Arisha’s growing list of live action credentials, she has also featured in a bunch of commercials — having the most out of her fellow Sunshines (at least in terms of actual CMs). One of favorites has to be the series devoted to FamiDebi (a group debit/credit service) that features Arisha as “Excuses Girl” who, in contrived situations, makes excuses to the person she’s talking to (the viewer) that eventually leads to her suggesting they use the points back system that the FamiDebi card has. Here’s ALL of the commercials. You’re welcome ..or so I’d planned to share, but the FamiDebi official website has since been taken down (glad I archived them :3)

＃８　Ｋｏｒｅａｂｕｕ

*Credit to yujachacha for the subs

When Aqours go to foreign countries for their Fan Meetings, they make it a point to either learn a few commonplace words in the local tongue or outright learn the direct equivalent of lines that they would normally say. In one such instance, Arisha displayed an amazing and really uncanny fluency when she spoke Korean during their live event at Seoul. It’s worth noting that Arisha has said in the past that she’s actually a fan of K-Pop.

＃９　Ｔｈｅ　Ｃｏｎｓｕｍｍａｔｅ　Ｐｒｏｆｅｓｓｉｏｎａｌ

But perhaps my favorite “fact” about Arisha, amidst all my favorite facts I’ve listed here, is how she never “misses” the camera during their performances on stage. Now, I don’t mean that she’s able to make contact every single time and I do know too that that’s part of stage practice and shot lists are given ahead of time. But rather it’s her ability to project whenever the camera finds itself on her is to me the amazing part (more so when you think of how many camera spots there are in a single song, let alone an entire set). While we can attribute this mostly to Arisha’s live action experience, I at least would like to think that this is also reflection of her professionalism in learning not only all (or nearly all) of the shots to a given song, but she always knows what to do when she does find herself in the camera’s crosshairs. 

She’s also one to never falter during her MCs — always giving very measured messages to fans in attendance; and as noted previously, she’ll even go so far as to learn whole lines in a different language (and deliver ’em perfectly at that). While not among who fans would consider the best dancers and/or singers of Aqours, Arisha’s reliable consistency as a performer is equally impressive in my opinion. Say what you will about her sleep-deprived zombie robot mode, when the lights are on, she’s on.

－－

Nine facts about Arisha: done!

As much as it pains me to admit it, I feel like I have a better set of facts lined up for Arisha than I did for Rikyako (I swear I just had trouble deciding on just nine Rikyako!). What’d you guys think? (xD).

This is Volume 4 of  9(? :D) so do catch Volume 3 of TriviAqours over at Al’s of you haven’t yet (and likewise for all other previous volumes!)

See ya next week~!!