Yuya Niyodo

**Yuya Niyodo** (仁淀 ユウヤ, *Niyodo Yūya*) is the main character in Phantom of the Idol series. He is a scruffy idol with a nice face but zero motivation who became an idol to earn money for fun. He is a member of ZINGS.

## Appearance

Niyodo has brown hair with a cowlick sticking out and his eyes have black dot pupils.

His voice is low and deep and often tired.

When Asahi posses Niyodo he still retains his original voice, just in a higher pitch and energetic tone.

Whenever Asahi posses Niyodo his usual black dot pupils become larger and show his true eye color which is pinkish brown, and is usually blushing.

His idol costume consists of a white shirt with a red tie covered by a teal work-jacket with a white neck-pillow, his pants are chocolate brown coupled with shiny black work boots.

## Personality

Yuya’s apathetic attitude toward the fans and inability to take his job seriously causes his manager to give him an ultimatum: unless he starts putting in more effort, he will be fired.He never smiles on stage, when forgetting song lyrics he gets the audience to sing for him.

Despite putting as little effort as possible into being an idol, Niyodo memorizes his group's song and dance numbers with ease, even if Asahi is the one in control of the body when learning the routine.

Niyodo willingly shares his body with the ghost of Asahi, he's pretty relaxed about it, but gets angry if she overexerts their body or spends too much of his money. They split up who does the idol work for the day like a chore chart.

While Niyodo starts out as an annoying protagonist who just complains and gripes with a deadpan tone, his interaction with the other characters is what elevates him and brings color to an otherwise stereotypical “I hate my life” man. His shallow disposition gives way to a person who’s surprisingly insightful, intelligent, and confident. He might not care for much in life and just wants a job that allows him to never worry about his future, but his self-awareness and self-reassurance makes him a perfect match for the two other protagonists. While he was eager to let Asahi take over his body and do all the hard work in the beginning, she taught him pretty early on that he couldn’t always rely on her. But by the end of Season One, while Niyodo is still lazy and looking for easy ways out, he definitely endures for the sake of the fans, and will give his performance more energy than before.

However, when Asahi is inside Niyodo’s body, Niyodo acts more cheerful and idol-like. Yuya and Asahi are a great odd couple representing the toxic extremes of idol culture: Yuya in it only for money and attention, and Asahi's identity so tied to serving the fans that she cultivates dangerous parasocial relationships.

In episode 7,Asahi has stated that Niyodo is an idol that makes his fans commit “sins”.

## Etymology

* Yuya's surname **Niyodo** means "compassionate" (仁) (**ni**) and "pool, eddy" (淀) (**yodo**).

* Yuya (ユウヤ) doesn’t really mean anything in hiragana.

## Trivia

* His image color in ZINGS is green. Ironically, his favorite colors are blue and grey.
* Yuya’s voice actor also voiced Shinonome Akito from Project Sekai
* ZINGS fans are under the impression that Niyodo has a spilt personality that they calls his "God Mode", which in reality is just Asahi possessing him.