Umi Sonoda

Sonoda Umi is one of the nine main characters in Love Live!. She is 16 years old, and is a second year at Otonokizaka High School. Umi was born on March 15. She has long navy blue hair and brown eyes. Her main color is deep blue. She is the leader of lily white, a mini idol unit, and her solo album is called "Umiiro Shōjo ni Miserarete (海色少女に魅せられて)".

Background
Since she was young, Umi has been Kousaka Honoka and Minami Kotori's childhood friend thanks to Honoka inviting her to a game of hide and seek. She is also a member of the school's archery club, which she is quite good at. She believes Honoka is bossy and pushy, but also realizes the perks of having an adventurous friend. Among the members of μ's, Umi takes the role of being their physical trainer.

Her father is a martial-arts trainer while her mother teaches traditional Japanese dance, and she is expected to inherit the combined dojo of both.

Personality
Umi is normally a shy girl, but she has a strong will and has some qualities of a leader. Despite this, she is content to stay reserved and always thinks logically. Umi is uncomfortable with wearing short skirts, but gets used to it after their first live. Apparently, if awakened while sleeping, Umi takes on a completely different and angry personality, and she has the ability to throw "supersonic pillows," according to Season 1 Episode 10.

Clubs and Hobbies
As the daughter of a traditional family, Umi experts in Kendo,, archery, calligraphy, and traditional dancing. Starting from the second season, she becomes Otonokizaka High School's new student council vice president, taking over Toujou Nozomi's role. She likes reading as well.

Umi became the group's main lyricist, and wrote the song "START:DASH!!", along with most of the rest of their songs. She also trained the members of the group, before Ayase Eli took over the role. She either created the dance steps for START:DASH!! or she aided Kotori in coming up with the choreography.

Chronology
Season I = Season II =

Trivia

 * "Umi" is also the Japanese word for sea. Whenever Honoka mentions the sea and calls out "Umi", Umi thinks Honoka is calling her name out instead.
 * The various media in the project disagree on the relationships between the second-years. In the manga which was published earlier, Honoka is closer to Umi as the two of them are childhood friends and not Kotori, but in the anime and other newer media, the three of them are all childhood friends.
 * She didn't like to eat sticky food when she was in elementary school.
 * In early PVs, Umi and Eli were often shown together, implying they seemed closer before the story for the anime was established.

Gallery
Official Art=