Riko Sakurauchi

Riko Sakurauchi is a main character of Love Live! Sunshine!!. Initially a first year at Otonokizaka High School, she was a second year student at Uranohoshi Girls' High School prior to its closure and is currently a third year student at Numazu High School, being temporarily integrated at Seishin High School before the former's opening. She is a member of Guilty Kiss, a sub-unit under Aqours. Her image color is cherry pink.

Background
Riko is a second year transfer student from Otonokizaka High School, who joined Uranohoshi after moving from Akihabara, Tokyo. She is in Chika Takami's class and is also neighbors with her.

When Riko lived in Tokyo, she used to play the piano, practicing in the same room as former student and μ's member Maki Nishikino did at Otonokizaka. However, an incident happened at a live play on which she was unable to play the piano due to scenic panic, and since then she wasn't able to improve on her play. After moving to Uchiura, Chika learns of this in Season 1 Episode 2, and suggests that Riko should become a school idol with her and You Watanabe, in hopes it would inspire Riko.

Personality
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 generally quite levelheaded, 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 and dorky, 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 Episode 1. Additionally, after the events of Season 2 Episode 5, her interactions with Yoshiko causes 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 Episodes 7 and 12, when her friends see her with said doujinshi, she panics and acts defensively by hiding them, saying they were only gifts.

Clubs and Hobbies
Her talents are playing the piano and viola, she is also the composer for Aqours. Her hobbies are painting, handicraft, and cooking. She is also a fan of doujinshi manga belonging to two niche sub-genres of kabedon and agokui, under the girls' love (ガールズラブ gāruzu rabu) or yuri (百合) genre.

Appearance
Riko has a slim figure. She has burgundy hair that she ties into a half ponytail, wears two hairclips in her hair and has gold-colored eyes.

Other Data

 * Note: Dengeki G's Magazine is a monthly magazine that is part of the Love Live! and Love Live! Sunshine!! multimedia projects. As it is usually the first source of news for all major projects under these titles, its monthly sections will detail how the project has progressed over time. The issues are usually published a month ahead of time. For example, the July 2010 issue would've been released on 30th May 2010.

Audio

 * Does not work on iPad, or any medium that does not support the .ogg audio format.

Songs
The songs featuring Riko are:

Etymology

 * The name Riko means "pear" (梨) (ri) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Riko's surname Sakurauchi means "cherry blossom" (桜) (sakura) and "inside, within" (内) (uchi).

General

 * Riko fulfills the cool attribute of the Aqours second years.
 * Riko wore pigtails as a child, as seen in Season 1 Episode 2, the HAPPY PARTY TRAIN PV and the beginning of Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over The Rainbow, during the flashback scene.
 * In real life, Riko's home is based on an apartment next to Yasudaya Ryokan. There is actually a road between the two buildings which had their distance shortened in the anime.
 * Unlike the other members of Aqours, Riko wears a slightly longer skirt in her school uniform.
 * Riko's favourite phrase is "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye." It is a sentence from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Media-specific (Anime, Manga, Novels)

 * In Season 2 Episode 5, Yoshiko calls her Lili/Lily/Riri as mentioned in the Dengeki G's November 2016 prose story. Her little demon name Lili/Lily (or Riri due to phonetic change) is named after "Lilith", a character in Jewish mythology and is often envisioned as a dangerous demon of the night. Riri is also the double pronunciation of the first syllable of her first name.

Gallery

 * Please refer to this character's Image Gallery.