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 During the beach episode, Maki was withdrawn from the group and not participating in playing.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
Season I = 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 Nico is the sole member of the club. The girls ask her if they can merge their groups together, but Nico flatly rejects them, based on the fact that they don't have personas. After learning from Nozomi that Nico once tried, and failed, to become a school idol, Honoka comes up with the idea to join the Idol Research Club and have Nico teach them how to be proper idols. Nico 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 Eli 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 Eli to teach them how to dance. Eli agrees to their offer and puts the group into intense training, but is surprised by their willingness to continue. Nozomi tells μ's that Eli wants to join, but believes she can't because of how she treated them in the past. μ's go to Eli and formally invite her to join. Eli 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, Eli 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. Eli 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 Eli 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 Nico, Honoka, and Eli. 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, Nico 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, Eli decides to put μ's on hiatus. Nico disagrees with Eli, 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. Season II = In Episode 1, Princpal Minami announces that Otonokizaka will still accept student applications for next year. After the announcement, the podium is then passed on to the succeeding student council president, Kousaka Honoka, to deliver her speech. Honoka managed to introduce herself but had forgotten the contents of her speech.

At the student council room, Umi scolds Honoka for forgetting her speech that they wrote together then places a large amount of student council work in front of her. Eli arrives at the student council room together with Nozomi to check on the trio.

On the rooftop, Nico shows Rin, Hanayo, and Maki the results of her "special training". Maki tells her that it was disgusting and Nico accidentally told them her true motive for trying to help them. Just then, Hanayo receives a notification on her phone. Hanayo quickly ran to their club room's computer to confirm the news. After confirming, the four of them ran and looked for Honoka. They eventually found her eating bread while sitting under a tree. They told her that it's going to be held once again.

μ's talked about the news about Love Live! being held once more. They were hesitant at first because of the thought that they have to compete against A-RISE for the preliminaries, but after Umi stated that it was too early to give up, they all agreed to give it a shot, except for Honoka who told them that it's okay for them not to enter Love Live!. All of them were shocked at Honoka's statement and asked her if there was anything wrong with her but she said that she was happy just being able to sing and dance with everyone. Honoka then suggests that they all hang out together after school for a change of pace.

That night, the members of μ's, except for Honoka, talked about Honoka's weird behaviour. Nozomi told them that the regular dance practices and sessions may be enough for Honoka.

The next day, Nico challenges Honoka to a race to decide whether the group enters Love Live! or not. During the race, Honoka finally understood the meaning of Yukiho's words, as at that time, Eli, Nozomi, and Nico will graduate and no longer be school idols, making this year's Love Live the last opportunity for μ's to perform together as a group of nine.

Everyone told Honoka their feelings about entering Love Live! making Honoka state her true desire to enter Love Live! as well. They all sang "Susume→Tomorrow" and Honoka told them that they will aim for victory.

In Episode 2, Hanayo tells everyone that only unreleased songs are allowed to be performed at Love Live!, meaning they can't use any of their existing songs. Eli tells them that they have no choice but to make a new song and decides to go on a camping trip.

They were amazed that Maki's family had a vacation house even at the mountains. When they were about to leave the train station and head for the bus, Rin told them that they might be forgetting something. They forgot about Honoka who was still sleeping on the train.

Everyone was amazed yet again when they saw the house and the things inside. They found out that Maki still believed in Santa when they were talking about the fireplace. Nico was about to laugh and mock her for it but the others prevented her from doing so, claiming that it was a serious crime to say it. After settling down, Maki, Umi, and Kotori proceeded to doing their jobs upstairs while the others proceeded to doing some basic drills outside.

While in the living room, Honoka noticed that Maki wasn't anywhere near the piano and decides to take the tea that Hanayo made to the girls upstairs. Honoka opens the door to where Umi was staying but found no one inside, finding a note on the table stating "Please don't look for me" instead. Panicked, Honoka proceeded to Kotori's room and found no one inside as well, finding a picture on the wall with the words "Help me" instead. Honoka soon noticed that there was cloth tied by the window that leads outside. She looks outside and finds the three sighing.

The others found out that the three were in a slump because of the pressure and decides to split the work to all of them. They decided on forming three groups, with the first group consisting of Kotori, Hanayo and Honoka to work on the costumes, the second group consisting of Umi, Rin and Nozomi to work on the lyrics, and the third group consisting of Maki, Nico, and Eli to work on the music. There was no progress for the first few hours but after hearing some encouraging words from their group mates, the three who're originally assigned for the tasks met on the house and was able to finish everything that night. The others found the three of them sleeping in the living room with their finish products and decided to let them sleep for a while. They immediately started practicing as soon as the three woke up and continued to practice hard even after returning from their trip, aiming to win Love Live!.

In Episode 3, Honoka, Hanayo, and Eli were browsing the Love Live! site. They saw the different stages prepared for the preliminaries. Hanayo told them that because of the number of groups that will enter the preliminaries, they are allowed to perform anywhere other than the concert halls. After practice, μ's talked about the mechanics of the contest. Four groups will be able to move on to the final round of the preliminaries. They also concluded that there will only be three spots to compete for, knowing that A-Rise will get a place for sure. Honoka suggests that they use their school as their stage so that they can perform comfortably. Nico and Hanayo told Honoka that she was naive and that they only have one shot at it. They needed something original to stand out and catch everyone's attention. But before they can decide the place, they still needed to practice being on air so they asked the broadcasting club for help. Honoka, Umi, and Hanayo were the ones who tried out the mic. The results wasn't what they really wanted but at least it was very μ's-like.

After that, μ's decided to look for a place to hold their live but it turns out that they're out of new stages. They looked elsewhere and ended up in front of the UTX building. The group saw A-Rise's promotion and Honoka says that they won't lose. Just then, A-Rise's Kira Tsubasa appeared in front of the sceond year trio. Tsubasa hushed Honoka before others could see her then she grabbed Honoka's arm and ran, dragging her inside the building. Hanayo and Nico noticed that Tsubasa was there, running with Honoka and chased after them.

A-Rise revealed to μ's that they've been watching and keeping an eye on the group for quite a while. They thought that μ's was going to be their biggest rivals during the last Love Live!. Tsubasa, Erina, and Anju then revealed each of μ's members' good points. Eli asked them why they knew so much and Tsubasa answers that it was because it was rare to see a group with a caliber like μ's and that they didn't want to lose to μ's. Honoka also states that they won't lose either and says thank you to them. Tsubasa then offers to perform with μ's on the same stage, which is their school's rooftop, to which Honoka immediately agrees, surprising the rest of μ's members.

The day of the preliminaries came, A-Rise's Tsubasa and μ's Honoka agreed to give it their all and shook hands. Arisa and Yukiho are shown watching with a laptop at the Kousaka residence. Arisa was worried but Yukiho assured her that they will be fine. A-Rise performed their new song, "Shocking Party". Seeing A-Rise perform, most of μ's members were starting to feel that they can't win. Honoka immediately disagreed and cheered everyone up. Some of there schoolmates came and cheered them on as well. μ's found a new hope and was ready to perform. μ's performed their new song, "Yume no Tobira" and received good responses from their audience.