Maki Nishikino

Nishikino Maki is one of the nine main characters in Love Live!. She is 15 years old and a first year in high school. Maki was born on April 19 and is an Aries. She has crimson hair and purple eyes. Her main color is red/red-pink. She is 161 centimeters tall, and her blood type is AB. She is part of BiBi, a mini idol unit. Maki is voiced by Pile.

Background
Maki comes from a wealthy family of doctors and is somewhat pressured to become a doctor like her parents, which would lead her into giving up music. Because of her wealth, it is discovered in Episode 10  that Maki's parents own a beach house. Therefore, μ's gladly insisted Maki to go ask her parents if they could use it, which they allow.

Personality
Maki has tsundere qualities and has a hard time admitting her true feelings to her peers. She's also stubborn like when she was being invited to play at the beach. During the beach episode, Maki was withdrawn from the group and not participating in playing. It wasn't until Toujou Nozomi started a pillow fight in the middle of the night that Maki began to get involved.

Clubs and Hobbies
Maki is skilled at playing the piano, and is the composer of the group. Her other hobbies are photography and stargazing.

Chronology
In Episode 1, Kousaka Honoka overhears Maki playing the piano and singing "Aishiteru Banzai!" inside one of the music rooms. Honoka asks Maki if she wants to become a school idol, but Maki quickly declines.

In Episode 2, Honoka asks Maki to compose a song for them, but she declines. However, Honoka manages to get Maki to read the lyrics Sonoda Umi composed. After class, Maki remembers Honoka telling her about them training by the local shrine, and decides to take a look. While watching them train behind a wall, Nozomi sneaks up on her and grabs her breasts, causing Maki to scream. Nozomi gives Maki advice to secretly help them, and Maki decides to compose a song using Umi's lyrics. She mails the CD to Honoka's house. Maki also votes for them on an idol ranking site. However, when asked about the song, she denies it.

In Episode 4, Maki's student ID was found by Koizumi Hanayo, who goes to her house to return it. While there, Maki explains to Hanayo that she'll probably have to quit music in order to study medicine and inherit her family's hospital. However, Maki tells her she'll support Hanayo to become an idol. Later on, Maki goes with Hanayo up the rooftop to where μ's is practicing, along with Hanayo's friend Hoshizora Rin. Both Maki and Rin give Hanayo a push to accept μ's offer of joining, and they both decide to join as well.

In Episode 5, while in fast food joint, trying to think of a place to practice during the rainy season, Honoka realizes that there's enough members to form an official club. However, the girls learn that there's already another an Idol Research Club. It ends up, however, that a girl named Yazawa Niko is the sole member of the club. The girls ask her if they can merge their groups together, but Niko flatly rejects them, based on the fact that they don't have personas. After learning from Nozomi that Niko once tried, and failed, to become a school idol, Honoka comes up with the idea to join the Idol Research Club and have Niko teach them how to be proper idols. Niko happily accepts.

In Episode 6, Nozomi films interviews with each member of μ's. When Honoka was being interviewed, Nozomi asked her why she's the leader when she does nothing for the group. It then leads to a singing and dancing contest to determine the leader. The member with the most points becomes the leader. However, in the end, everyone gets similar scores. Honoka then suggests that maybe μ's doesn't need a leader, causing everyone to agree with her, but also making them believe that she is the most worthy of becoming the leader.

In Episode 7, Hanayo tells μ's about the Love Live! tournament, a concert where the top 20 school idol groups compete in. Needing permission to enter, the girls then go over to the chairwoman for permission. The chairwoman tells them that they can enter, but only if they all pass the upcoming exams. Maki and Hanayo both help Rin, who generally has bad grades. Once the exams are done and everyone passes, everyone goes to the chairwoman's office, but overhear her telling the student council president Ayase Eri that the school would be shutting down next year.

In Episode 8, following the events of the previous episode, the chairwoman clarifies to μ's that the school will shut down if the upcoming open day is received negatively. Umi suggests to the group to get Eri to teach them how to dance. Eri agrees to their offer and puts the group into intense training, but is surprised by their willingness to continue. Nozomi tells μ's that Eri wants to join, but believes she can't because of how she treated them in the past. μ's go to Eri and formally invite her to join. Eri becomes honest with her feelings and joins, along with Nozomi who reveals that she came up with the group's name: μ's, which refers to the nine goddesses of music. Coincidentally, there are nine members in μ's. The now complete group performs "Bokura no LIVE, Kimi to no LIFE" at the open day to a pleased crowd, making the open day a success.

In Episode 9, after μ's discover Minami Kotori working secretly in Akihabara, Eri finds Akiba a good place to have a concert and, since Kotori knows it best, assigns Kotori to write lyrics based on Akiba culture. However, Kotori struggles with writing the lyrics, but with the help of Honoka and Umi, Kotori is able to write lyrics to create the new song "Wonder Zone" by recalling her feelings when she works in Akihabara.

In Episode 10, μ's decide to go to Maki's beach house after getting permission from her parents. Eri creates a rule that no one is allowed to use the honorifics "senpai" for the duration of the trip, so they can break down the barrier between upper and underclassmen. The girls spend the whole day at the beach playing, but Nozomi and Eri are quick to notice Maki not participating. At night, Nozomi initiates a pillow fight, and all of μ's begin to play except Umi, who is fast asleep. However, two pillows hit Umi while she was sleeping, causing her to get cranky and throw "supersonic pillows" at everyone, hitting Niko, Honoka, and Eri. Just as she was about to hit Hanayo and Rin, Maki knocks Umi out with a pillow, knocking her out. The episode ends with all the members of μ's finally breaking down the barrier between upper and underclassmen, and holding hands while watching the sunrise.

In Episode 11, μ's has manage to reach rank #19 on the school idol ranking site, making them eligible to apply to the Love Live! tournament. This puts pressure on μ's to keep their position. However, Niko fails to win a lottery spin to use the auditorium, causing μ's to think of where to have a concert. Honoka comes up with the idea that they can use the rooftop to hold their performance, and the group hesitantly agrees. On the day of the concert, it's raining, but the group decides to perform, anyway. After performing "No Brand Girls", Honoka faints, surprising μ's and the audience.

In Episode 12, following the events of the previous episode, μ's go to Honoka's house to check on her. They discover that she's still recovering and has a sprained leg. They sadly tell Honoka that they dropped out of the Love Live! tournament, meaning their ranking was removed. Honoka blames herself for the incident, but μ's tell her that it's everyone's fault, instead. Everyone gets depressed from this event, but Honoka the most. On the rooftop, Maki, Hanayo, and Rin announce that the school has been saved, thus the group decides to have a celebration. At the party, however, Umi and Kotori are noticed to not be in jolly spirits. Umi then reveals to μ's that Kotori is moving to a fashion boarding school for the rest of her high school career. Everyone is surprised by the announcement, but Honoka gets angry at Kotori for not telling her earlier. Kotori explains to her that she wanted to tell them but couldn't, and runs away.

The next day, on the rooftop, μ's reveals that they're planning to do a final live with everybody before Kotori leaves. But Honoka tells them that it was her fault and that none of this would've happened if it wasn't for the accident. The members tell her to stop saying that, but Honoka then says that the school is saved, therefore there's no reason to keep on performing and that it's impossible to go against a group like A-Rise. Honoka tells them that she quits, but before she leaves, Umi slaps her cheek, saying that she didn't think that she's that kind of person and that she's the worst there is.

In Episode 13, Eri decides to put μ's on hiatus. Niko disagrees with Eri, saying that she wants to continue being a school idol. Maki tells her that they can't continue without Honoka. Later, Maki goes into the music room and remembers Honoka clapping after playing "Aishiteru Banzai!". After fetching Kotori at the airport, later on in the episode, Honoka runs into the backstage of the school auditorium and slips, hurting her butt. Kotori also comes in and μ's perform "Start:Dash!!", despite wearing their school uniforms, and this time with the auditorium full of people. Afterwards, Honoka tells the crowd to say "μ's Music Start!" and μ's are in the school idol ratings again.