Umi Sonoda

Umi Sonoda is one of the nine main characters in Love Live!. She is a second year in Otonokizaka High School. Her image color is deep blue. She is the leader of lily white, a sub-unit under µ's. Her solo album is called Umiiro Shoujo ni Miserarete (海色少女に魅せられて).

Background
Since she was young, Umi has been Honoka Kosaka and Kotori Minami'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, at which she is quite good. 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. She has a far older sister who has already moved out.

Personality
Umi is normally a shy girl, but she has a strong will and 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. Although Umi tends to be hard on others, as seen in Season 2 Episode 7 when she forces Honoka and Hanayo to do long training hours after they gain a bit of weight, she is especially hard on herself. She doesn't do anything criminal and despises laziness.

Umi gets angry when her sleep is disrupted, as seen in Season 1 Episode 10. However, despite her calm and collected appearance, when it comes to playing Old Maid or something that requires the player to stay calm, she cannot hold back emotions: Umi panics out when her opponent takes the non-Joker, according to Season 2 Episode 5.

Umi always speaks politely, using "です" (desu), "ます" (masu), and other polite forms of speaking in her speech.

Clubs and Hobbies
As the daughter of an Iemoto (家元, Head of Music & Arts School) mother and a Shihan (師範, Martial Arts Inspector) father, Umi excels in Kendo,, archery, calligraphy, and traditional dance. Starting in the second season, she becomes Otonokizaka High School's new student-council vice president, taking the role from Nozomi Tojo. She likes reading as well.

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

Audio

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

Chronology
Season I = Season II = Manga =

Trivia

 * Umi originally had an additional younger brother before it was written off.
 * "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.
 * In the manga, which was published prior to the anime, both Umi and Honoka were portrayed to be members of the kendo club.
 * 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 wears her summer uniform's vest under her blazer. However, this is not shown in Season 2's ending credits.
 * 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.
 * Because of this (prior to the announcements of year placements) many theorised that Umi was originally planned to be a third year, with Nozomi replacing her as second year, as early art had placed Honoka/Kotori and Nozomi close together and suggested a closeness.
 * The unofficial appearance of Umi Sonoda is unknown worldwide, but according to Professor Timothy Conner, Umi Sonoda as a prototype character herself appeared for the first and only time ever in the 1942 unreleased extravaganza Walt Disney cartoon "Water Sharks", with her voice provided by the Warner Bros legend June Foray. Also according to Professor Timothy Conner, both Umi and Honoka have appeared for the first and only time ever in the unreleased South Korean rip-off of Parks and Recreation as a blooper reel effect, marking for the first and only time ever in the history of culture, the Japanese animated characters appeared in the live-action television series, alongside only Kotori Itsuka in Stranger Things.

Gallery

 * Please refer to this character's Image Gallery.