Yu Takasaki

Yu Takasaki is the primary protagonist in Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. She is a second year student of Nijigasaki High School. She is the manager and co-founder of the reformed Nijigaku. Her image color is black.

She also served as the adaptation's representation of the player character in Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS.

Background
Yu is the budding school idol enthusiast of Nijigasaki High School, and is often seen with her characteristic thigh-high socks and twin-tails tips dyed green. She is Ayumu Uehara's inseparable childhood friend, having grown up as neighbors in the same apartment building near Odaiba. Eventually, the two of them ended up at Nijigasaki together and are now classmates. Yu's love for school idols blossomed after seeing a performance of the legendary school idol, Setsuna Yuki. Along with Ayumu, Yu's very first experience of school idols that day would lead her to seek out Nijigasaki's School Idol Club.

Personality
Yu adopted a lot of the player character's personality prior to the anime. She is described as insightful, reliable, quick to take action, and very caring of the Nijigasaki idols. She is shown to have a deep passion for idols, which inspires her goals and actions just like her game counterpart.

Appearance
Yu has a slim figure with medium black hair with green tips that she has tied into twintails and has green eyes.

Etymology

 * The name Yu means "urge to eat" (侑).
 * Yu's surname Takasaki means "tall, high" (高) (taka) and "blossom" (咲) (saki).

General

 * Prior to the reveal of her name, the character was nicknamed "Anata (あなた)", which literally means "You".
 * This also results in a recurring joke of the fans designating Yu as a fictionalized version of themselves, generally referring to her as "We/Our/Us".
 * The meaning of her name (高咲 侑) was given by a fan, who chose the 高 kanji because of Kousaka (高坂) and Takami (高海). 咲 is because she comes from Nijigasaki. 侑 is because as it is written, "Anata" means "You". It sounds like "Yu", which could also mean "To help" which fits Yu's personality and role as the club's manager.
 * Unlike the player character who is initially enrolled in the music course, Yu is initially enrolled in the general curriculum course before she applied for the music course. Yu is also missing the electronic keyboard in her room where the player character had placed it until Everyone's Dream, My Dream, in which she mentioned that she has been practicing a lot.
 * Yu briefly plays the piano in Shout Out Your Love. However, not until Summer Begins and Blossoming Feelings did she show proficiency in playing it.
 * Yu plays a snippet of Yume ga Koko Kara Hajimaru yo in Blossoming Feelings' post-credits scene, which ended up being a song in School Idol Festival (The Place Where Everyone's Dreams Come True). This implies that Yu will be adopted as the club's song composer much like her game counterpart, until recent episodes confirms it.
 * Like Honoka Kosaka and Chika Takami, Yu also wears a shirt with a Japanese character, though it was used on her childhood. However, unlike the two, the character in question is not the first syllable of her name ("Yu / ゆ"). Instead, it says "Pa (ぱ)".
 * Yu is the only main character to not have an official birthday. This is mostly because her game counterpart's birthday is defined by the player in ALL STARS. However, some fans have regarded her unofficial birthday to be January 29, as it is the day when her design was unveiled to the public.
 * Aside from several merchandises such as Gyugyutto keychain the Movic plush, and the AQUA SHOOTERS! figure. Yu Takasaki is also the only main character that is yet to be released as a scale figurine until the eventual reveal on July 10, 2022.
 * The Chobirume figurine of Yu Takasaki by FuRyu features the anime version of the bowtie, making her seemingly inconsistent with the previous waves' figurines with the game version of the tie.
 * Prior to the reveal of the second visual and her voiced appearance, some fans speculated whether Yu's energetic personality is merely an informed attribute since she is shown to have an emotionless expression on her design, even though she is said to be enthusiastic as written in the description.
 * There's speculation regarding Yu's image color: as black is the absence of color and cannot be used as a lightstick color. This was likely meant to represent her role as a supporter rather than being a school idol.
 * Hinaki Yano's line "I can't just choose one! (ヒトリナンテエラベナイヨー!, Hitori dake nante erabenai yo!)" in the pre-Episode airing live streams has led fans to view it as her signature quote, or even as her "call-and-response". This was also officially acknowledged by the official staff in a 3-panel comic for the 3rd Live.
 * Prior to being canonized, the 9th part of Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS ' Chapter 25 features a coincidental reference to that meme, as the player responded to Karin that "I can't choose that either." as the latter asked who's the number one.
 * Japanese fans online have mixed reactions to the possibility of Yu ever becoming an idol. On one hand, some would like to see her voice actress sing and dance live, while others argue that taking away Yu's role as a manager would simply "rehash" the plot from the previous Love Live! shows, rather than bring something fresh and new to the series. But many are at least open to the idea of having a character song released.
 * This was later lampshaded in the 13th episode of the anime's second season, where the Nijigasaki Idol Club viewed Yu as one of them.

Appearances in illustrated media
As she doesn't appear in the ALL-STARS illustrations due to being a separate character from her original counterpart, Yu only appears in illustrations and other published media that is tied with the anime timeline.
 * The poster for the 11th volume of the Love Live! Days magazine, drawn by Mebachi, features Yu as part of the group.
 * Yu appears as a cameo in a chapter of a 4koma drawn by Miyako Hito, as part of the huge display 4komas for the Odaiba Tokimeki Stamp Rally. While the comics' art style are the same as the Nijiyon 4komas, the stories' continuity took place in the Anime timeline, as the ribbons on the girls' uniforms are slightly different to separate from their original ALL-STARS counterparts.
 * Yu also appears in the illustrations for the "Rainbow Days" Honest Photo Essay Series, which also takes place in the anime timeline.
 * The cover for the 4th novel also had Yu being drawn in the original School Idol Festival ALL-STARS art style.
 * The visuals for the Dengeki Clear File Magazine  Love Live! Nijigaku book and the Suntory collab that features Yu are drawn in a style blurring between the ALL-STARS (notably the eyes) and the TV Anime art aesthetic.
 * The Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club 3rd Live! School Idol Festival ~Yume no Hajimari~ concert:
 * Yu appears in the one-panel comics for the Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club 3rd Live! School Idol Festival ~Yume no Hajimari~ concert, also drawn by Miyako, serving as both the introduction of the 9 School Idols and the concert's countdown.
 * The Miyako-styled Yu eventually appears in full body for the 3-panel comic promoting the first day of the concert.
 * The giveaway brochure had one of the illustrations featuring Yu, with her being drawn in entirely the style of the classic Love Live! Series/School Idol Festival ALL-STARS game.
 * She also appears in the concert's (anime-oriented) chibi intermission drama, making this her first official debut to the series.
 * Yu was also included in the SEGA's "LIVE with a Smile" collaboration, appearing on the drink and food coasters.

The Player's Identity
Even though she is the anime equivalent of the Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS player, there is a debate about whether she is the true POV protagonist of the game, as many English-speaking players commonly inferred the player as her (mainly due to the international version of the game explicitly refers to the player character as such by several characters) though her unique personality may clash with the player's featureless characteristic.
 * The original Japanese version of the game and the books such as the kizuna comics refers to the player character as "あの子", it can also imply “that girl” or “that boy". The word "子" has more of a feminine implication (as lots of girls' names end in 子), so it's often translated to as “that girl.”
 * It's noted that the usage of "She/Her" in the global version is mainly due to the translation team's choice to not use gender-neutral pronouns in an English-speaking perspective, and that Nijigasaki High is presumably an all-girls school so it would not make sense if a male POV character attended the school.
 * The girl appearing in the still from the 18th episode of Mari's Bond Story is speculated to be the player character's real identity, as she shares the same neck towel with Mari's.
 * In the 17th episode of Nozomi's Bond Story (SIFAS), Nozomi, Rin, Umi and the player character went to the Uranohoshi High School. However, Dia caught the four of them sneaking around and she mentioned afterwards that the whole school was talking about a suspicious group of four girls.
 * The drink and food coasters for the SEGA's "LIVE with a Smile" collaboration also features Yu as part of the artwork. Combined with the inclusion of Lanzhu and Mia in their video game hairstyles, this may possibly indicate the POV player's true identity as Yu herself, unless this is a case of artist inconsistency.
 * The "Yu-Sanpo" segment for the NijiGaku Fan Disc had a game-based bowtie on Hinaki's uniform, though the chibi art of Yu still retains the Anime-styled bowtie.

Gallery

 * Please refer to this character's Image Gallery.