Sakuraba Haruka

## Sakuraba Haruka桜庭(さくらば) 遥花(はるか)

Sakuraba Haruka promoting PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS

**Sakuraba Haruka** (桜庭遥花) was a Japanese trainee who participated in PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS. She was eliminated in the finals, placing 19th.

## Biography

### Early Life

Sakuraba Haruka was born on January 29, 2006 in Hokkaido, Japan.

### 2023

On September 3, Sakuraba was revealed to be a contestant of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS.

On December 16, Sakuraba was eliminated from PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS.

## PRODUCE 101 JAPAN Participation

### Teams

* **Audition Team:** Cool Girls
* **Group Battle Team:** Mel-fish (sub vocalist 1)
* **Position Battle Team:** realize (sub vocalist)
* **Concept Battle Team:** Tokimekkii (sub vocalist 5)
* **Debut Evaluation Team:** CHOPPY CHOPPY (sub vocalist 5)

### Rankings

Online votes
* **Week 2:** 34th place
* **Week 3:** 36th place (-2)
* **First Ranking Announcement:** 42nd place (-6)
* **Week 6:** 32nd place (+10)
* **Second Ranking Announcement:** 33th place (-1)
* **Third Ranking Announcement:** 19th place (+14)
* **Final Ranking Announcement:** 19th place (=)

On-site votes
* **Group Battle:** 7th place in team, 68th place overall (tied)
* **Position Battle:** 3rd place in team, 30th place overall
* **Concept Battle:** 1st place in team, 12th place overall

### First Voting Period

In episode 1, Sakuraba is introduced in Cool Girls, and she was ranked by the other trainees as 89th place. She is evaluated at a level **F** by the trainers. This is not because they view her as unskilled, but they want Sakuraba to push herself. She stays in level **F** after the level reevaluations.

In episode 3, Sakuraba is one of the first trainees to be picked in the group battle. In episode 4, she performs "TOKYO GIRL" and places 68th overall.

* **First Ranking Announcement (Hint):** Quote needed.
* **First Ranking Announcement:** Quote needed.

### Second Voting Period

In episode 6, Sakuraba chooses to perform "Omokage" for the position battle. In episode 7, she works on developing her singing voice. In the end, she places 30th in the dance position.

In episode 8, Sakuraba narrowly makes it passed the second ranking announcement, placing 33rd place. She got a total of 451,639 votes.

* **Second Ranking Announcement (Hint):** Quote needed.
* **Second Ranking Announcement:** Quote needed.

### Third Voting Period

In episode 9, Sakuraba stays as sub vocalist 5 in the "AtoZ" team. That night, she places 12th place, overall.

Sakuraba is the first trainee revealed to make it to the finals, having placed 19th. She received 175,250 votes. Knowing that she'll get moved if she picks a higher position, Sakuraba chooses to be sub vocalist 5 in "CHOPPY CHOPPY".

* **Third Ranking Announcement (Hint):** Quote needed.
* **Third Ranking Announcement:** Quote needed.

### Final Voting Period

In episode 11, Sakuraba performs "CHOPPY CHOPPY" and "FLY UP SO HIGH" on the final stage. Unfortunately, she does not place in the debut range, and is thus eliminated.

### Penalties

From November 28-30, Sakuraba had her fancams temporarily taken down due to accumulating over 10 penalty points (from being late 3 times and losing an item 1 time, each time being 3 penalty points).

## Personal Life

* Family
* Education
* Friendships
* Nicknames

In episode 11, Sakuraba's family made a surprise support message for her.

Sakuraba was a third-year high school student at the time of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS. Her high school does not allow students to be an idol trainee simultaneously, so she had to drop out in order to participate in the show.

Sakuraba is seen to be close with Aita Rin, both being part of Cool Girls.

The following list are nicknames that have been used to refer to Sakuraba Haruka:

* **Paru-tan** (ぱるたん): Nickname used by fans.

## Trivia

* Her hobbies are to read manga and novels and to play basketball.
* Her special skills are playing the electone and sleeping for a long time
* Her pledge for debuting in the top 11 was holding a sweets party (cake, candy, etc.).

## References

1. ↑ "櫻井美羽、桜庭遥花「推しカメラ」公開停止のお知らせ（追記あり） (in Japanese). Official PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS Website. 2023-11-28."
2. ↑ "1分PR┊✧ 桜庭遥花（SAKURABA HARUKA）✧┊ PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS" YouTube. 2023-09-04.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS Profile" PRODUCE 101 JAPAN. 2023-09-04.

 Extended Plays