(Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5)
That’s two-thirds of Aqours right here!

Welcome back to TriviAqours; a series of profiles-slash-trivia posts dedicated to introducing to you guys the nine wonderful women of Love Live! Sunshine!!’s Aqours, through nine of our favorite facts about ’em. I say “our”, of course, as I have not been alone in this venture. More than that this little project is actually Al (from SliceOfAlfredo)‘s creation — to which he called upon myself to help out. Keep in mind as these are our “favorite” facts, all these aren’t necessarily any sort of mind-blowing trivia, and are really just facts that we personally find entertaining and worth mentioning. SO, whether you find yourself here as a fellow fan of Aqours or not, for sure stick around. Ill be sure to make it worth your time.

We did a classic school yard pick to decide on who gets to write about who, and as for my third choice (and sixth overall pick), I’ll be here to tell you some stuff about Anchan!

ーー

Ｉｎａｍｉ　Ａｎｊｕ (伊波 杏樹)

• Born February 7th, 1996
• Has taken the nickname “Anchan”
• Her image color is Ora– Mikan-Iro
  
• Lists both “Singing” and “Karate” as her special skills
• Hobbies include watching movies and playing video games
• Favorite Food: Meat (specifically Chicken)
• Hates eggplants
• Voices Takami Chika from Love Live! Sunshine!!

＃１　Ｙａｍａｎａｋａ　Ｉｎｏ

I don’t really know how many of y’all know this by now (probably a lot) but yeah, no, Anchan definitely used to be a ninja (xD) — among other things she used to be in the roles she played as a burgeoning stage play actress as part of her pre-LL! career. In particular she took on the role of Naruto’s resident body switcher Yamanaka Ino! I’ve always thought that was a cool of Anchan to have under her belt because I don’t believe there’s much crossover between the world of play acting and seiyuu work (I’d say for idol work as well, but we I can’t really say for sure since, idol backgrounds tend to be all over the place in general). We do see Anchan’s stage play prowess bleed into her idol performances though, specifically when she does Chika’s monologue for Mirai Ticket, with how she delivers her lines and the way she carries herself on stage.

＃２　Ｍａｗａｓｈｉ　Ｇｅｒｉ*

*Note Roundhouse Kick

In line with Anchan being formerly a resident of Konoha, she actually does have some background in martial arts — granted it’s not Taijutsu, but still (xD). For three years during her time in middle school Anchan took up Karate because she “wanted to become stronger”. We don’t know whether she had been given a belt in that time, but on multiple occasions, Anchan has brought up that she’s at least fairly confident with her mawashi geri; a traditional Karate roundhouse kick . So confident, in fact, that she’s actually gone and shown it, as you’ll see above (bonus Arisha clip, so eyy).

＃３　Ｔｏ　Ｉｕ　Ｋｏｔｏ　Ｄｅ*

*Note lit. “that being said”

As Aqours’ de facto leader, Anchan has to talk a little bit more than the rest whenever all nine of ’em are present (either for MCs or in broadcasts), mostly to direct one segment to the next. In direct consequence to this, fans have picked up sort-of a verbal tic for Anchan in the phrase “to iu koto de” which she says A LOT and can say a lot over the course of just a couple of minutes of talking. Now, for me personally, I don’t really blame her (xD). It’s a nice utility phrase that I too use very often in my writing (the English equivalent of course) to transition from one topic to another.

＃４　Ｂｙｅ　Bｙｅ　～

Although not so much a habit as it is a… preference, Anchan has taken to a unique (well, unique in relation to the conventional) way of saying “good bye” whenever she says it on video broadcasts and radio programs (and even in videos she posts herself for when she self-promotes stuff). It’s become so much of a thing that Kobayashi “Aikyan” Aika not only picked up on it, but even imitated it in one of their recent broadcasts.

＃５　Ｋａｎ？　Ｋａｎ？　Ｍｉｋａｎ！

The inception of Anchan’s current call and response that lead to it’s now hype status is just amusingly incredible to me. It started out as something that both Saitou “Shukashuu” Shuka and Furihata “Aiai” Ai came up with for Anchan to use (as both of ’em already had their catch phrases more or less locked down in “Yousoro” and “Ganbaruby” respectively) during one of their first public broadcasts as the subunit CYaRon!. After an initial wave of embarrassment for the otherwise nonsensical phrase that is “Kan Kan Mikan”, Anchan almost immediately after, opts to modify it to a cheer in the spur of the moment — and the rest is history. Of course, the cynic in everyone might say “there was no spontaneity to be had and everyone knew what they were doing” (which is possible) but that’s not a fun way to think about things 😀

＃６　Ｔｅｃｈｎｏｌｏｇｙ

Anchan being technologically inept has become a running gag for fans who follow content that she regularly appears. Most of it comes from her regular gaffes on Twitter  — which include, but are not limited to; misspellings, incorrect character inputs, and prematurely sent Tweets. She has admitted on several occasions to not be all that good with using a computer apart from browsing the Net and online shopping, and has also expressed to be living a relatively minimalist lifestyle. 

＃７　Ｒｏｃｋ，　Ｐａｐｅｒ，　Ｓｃｉｓｓｏｒｓ

Oftentimes, when the members of Aqours have to decide on an order (ie to present something for a prompt) they play Rock-Paper-Scissors with each other — with the  overall winner almost always ultimately choosing to go first and the overall loser being left to perform last (the reasoning being that those who perform last are expected to have thus had enough time to actually come up with something good). Until only recently, Anchan held a pretty incredible losing streak in Sunshine Janken (their version of RPS), which lasted months across different platforms and events. 

＃８　Ｔｈｅ　Ｎｏｒｍａｌ　Ｍｏｎｓｔｅｒ

Anchan is very much unassuming as an idol performer (and I don’t really mean that negatively) in that she doesn’t really stand out with her singing (like, say, Suzuki “Ainya” Aina and Takatsuki “King/Kinchan” Kanako) or with her dancing (like with Saitou “Shukashuu” Shuka and Kobayashi “Aikyan” Aika). She’s markedly consistent as with the likes of Rikyako and Arisha — actually a bit more so in that Anchan does keep her vocals “in-character” better than the two as with Suwa “Suwawa” Nanaka and Furihata “Aiai” Ai. What she does boast uniquely though, compared to the others, is her ability to rise to the occasion; whether it’s belting out some very respectable vocal runs for MY Mai☆TONIGHT or going beat for beat in dance moves with Aikyan and Shukashuu for Daydream Warrior. Oh, and of course, MIRACLE WAVE was a thing.

＃９　Ｔｈｅ　Ｒｅｌｉａｂｌｅ　Ｌｅａｄｅｒ

At the end of the day though, when I think of Anchan, I think of her being just an absolute pillar of support for everyone whenever they’re out doing what they do. The huddles that she leads before they set out to perform are all riveting and filled with heartfelt inspirational words for her companions. Her MC messages are always in earnest appreciation for everyone else’s hard work before her own.

For more specific instances of Anchan’s leadership; she was the first person up the stairs to Rikyako’s rescue when “The Rikyako Incident” happened — with one of the most reassuring smile you’d ever see in tow — all to bring Rikyako back on her feet and in better spirits to continue with the live (to which she did). She also attended to Ainya when Ainya injured her ankle in one their stops during their Fan Meeting Tour (rendering her unable to perform and had only been brought out to the stage for the last song). Anchan never let Ainya out of her sight and held her hand throughout as they sang Yuuki wa Doko ni, Kimi no Mune ni to close out the show with the rest of the members of Aqours.

ーー

There you have it — nine of my favorite things about Anchan~
Did I get it right? (xD)

We’re now down to three Sunshines left! Till then!
(Ooh, and don’t forget to check out Al’s entry this week if you haven’t yet!!)