Kanan Matsuura

Kanan Matsuura is a main character in Love Live! Sunshine!!. She was a third year student at Uranohoshi Girls' High School until she graduated in the anime's series finale. She is a member of AZALEA, a sub-unit under Aqours and was the leader and founder of the original group. Her image color is emerald green.

Background
Kanan is a third year student living on the offshore island of Awashima with her grandfather, who runs a diving shop there. In the anime, she had a hard time attending classes as she must take care of the shop while her father recovers from a fractured bone. She is able to attend classes from Season 1 Episode 9 onwards. Kanan is childhood friends with Chika Takami, You Watanabe, Dia Kurosawa and Mari Ohara.

In Season 1 Episodes 6, 8 and 9, it is revealed Kanan had actually formed a school idol group with Mari and Dia two years ago, having convinced the former to join. However, Mari had suffered an injury right before their performance, so she and Dia decided to step down and not perform. After Mari travels to study abroad, she becomes more distant to her peers. It is until Mari learns the truth when Kanan reconciles with her old friend, and decides to become a school idol once again.

Personality
Breezily mature, Kanan rarely sweats the details and usually maintains a calm, cool and even stoic demeanor. Though she may seem a bit bland at first, she loves sports and nature, claiming that she is happy every day just by being able to see the dazzling sun, the blue skies and the sea. She isn't as talkative as her fellow third years, speaking the least of them in the anime, but is nevertheless friendly and laid-back.

Kanan is a very kind, warm-hearted and altruistic individual. She deeply cares for her friends, being very supportive and often putting their needs above her own, going to great lengths to ensure they get what she thinks is best for them. However, due to this, Kanan can fail to realize the others' feelings the same way she does, and she will go to the same lengths to hide the truth if it will hurt the person. This particularly caused her friend, Mari, to accept the chance of studying abroad when in reality she didn't want to, as Mari was content with being with her friends.

After Mari goes to study abroad, this causes Kanan to live with the weight of her lie, acting much more distant and aloof to Mari when she returns a year and a half later to Uranohoshi. When Mari learns the truth in Season 1 Episode 9, confronting Kanan and expressing how much she cares for her, Kanan finally reconciles with her old friend, stops being distant, and becomes friendly once again.

Due to the fact the second years are considered "the heart" of Aqours, Kanan has some difficulty relating to the first years, which is shared with Mari; this is due to her preference for the outdoors and for sports. Season 2 Episode 2 explores this, and after a rainy evening forces the girls to stay indoors, the first and third years are able to relate to the others, with Kanan seemingly relating to Hanamaru Kunikida the most.

While athletic, mature and composed, Kanan has a sweet and soft personality. She is also afraid of strange, creaking sounds as seen in Season 2 Episode 2, and afraid of heights as seen in Season 2 Episode 8. She also likes hugs ever since her childhood, and will often hug her friends if given the opportunity, usually declaring her catchphrase "Hagu shiyo" (ハグしよ) before so.

Although Kanan is intelligent and level-headed, she doesn't get very good grades. This is due to her poor attendance at school due to the fact she must help her family with work; with that said, it's also seen she doesn't like reading and easily gets tired of it.

Clubs and Hobbies
She is talented in diving and ship handling, likely from being brought up in a diving-gear shop. She also loves astronomical observation and swimming. She has incredible stamina as she often goes diving and jogs every morning, which causes the rest of Aqours to find it difficult to keep up with her. During practice, she leads the training of the group.

Appearance
Kanan has an athletic figure. She has long dark blue hair that she ties up into a high ponytail and purple eyes. She's often considered to be physically very attractive.

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 Kanan are:

Gallery

 * Please refer to this character's Image Gallery.

Etymology

 * The name Kanan means "fruit, reward, carry out, achieve, complete, end, finish, succeed" (果) (ka) and "south" (南) (nan).
 * Kanan's surname Matsuura means "pine tree, fir tree" (松) (matsu) and "inlet, bay, gulf, creek, cove" (浦) (ura).

Trivia

 * Kanan fulfills the pure attribute of the Aqours third years.
 * In real life, Kanan's diving shop is based on the frog museum in Awashima Marine Park.
 * Kanan is the second character to be slapped by her childhood friend, the first being Honoka Kosaka.