Love Live! Rhapsody

**Love Live! Rhapsody** is a fan series by Firechick12012. The concept of this fanseries is school idols being formed as a way to both express themselves, find reprieve from their troubled home lives, and rebel against their school's overly strict authority.

## Plot

School idols are all the rage right now, but you won’t find any in the tiny, overly traditionalist countryside town of Sotoba. Mahiru and Nono are two young girls who feel suffocated by their new high school and how it places tradition and overly high standards before everything else, but transferring schools isn’t an option. But when Nono brings up the idea of starting a school idol club, along with recruiting other members, the girls jump at the idea, hoping becoming school idols will be just what they need to kill their lingering boredom and rebel against their high school’s stringent control. But while a good majority of the kids in school like the idea and give their full support, they have to deal with adversaries such as bullies, the control freak principal, and the occasional overbearing PTA soccer mom trying to put a stop to the school idol club. But as long as the girls of Moonbow can do what they want and spice up their lives, they won’t let a few obstacles like these get in their way.

## Characters

### First Years

* **Mahiru Hino** - One of the main central characters in the series. She is a brash, reckless, cynical, hot-tempered, tomboyish girl who doesn’t mince words and is prone to getting into fights. As a result of her behavior, she has a bit of a bad reputation in her hometown. But this doesn’t mean she’s a bad person. She’s actually rather nice, as she protects her friend Nono from bullies and is generally upbeat and carefree otherwise. But she feels stifled and dissatisfied with life in her small town and wants to do something to spice it up a bit. When Nono suggests becoming school idols, Mahiru at first isn’t fond of the idea, but after doing some research, she decides to go through with it, thinking it’d be a good stepping stone to becoming a rock star. Her main color is red.
* **Nono Miyama** - The second main central character in the series, and she’s a sweet, nice, gentle girl, the complete opposite of Mahiru, but can be a bit of a doormat and wishes she was stronger and more outspoken like Mahiru. She likes school idols a lot, often writing her own songs and composing her own music, but isn’t good with instruments except for the violin. She is able to create her own music with her DAW and other machines and software she has. She’s autistic as well. But as much as she’d like to be a school idol, her overprotective mother refuses to let her do anything, under the belief that because she's autistic, she can’t handle it no matter what, something Nono has started to hate about her. Her main color is pink, and she is the one who comes up with the group's name, Moonbow.
* **Koyuki Kamisato** - Unlike her classmates, who have lived in Sotoba their whole lives, Koyuki is from a much larger city and is very put off by her new surroundings and the attitudes of the adults she’s encountered. Not only is everything much farther away, she hates the fact that everyone will instantly know about everything she does the second they see her, and wishes her parents didn’t have to take up a job here. Thankfully, she does become friends with Mahiru, Nono, and the rest of the school idol club, and joins them because she thinks being a school idol will provide some relief and cure her boredom. While she is generally very nice when she wants to be, she is also very serious, responsible, and has a no-nonsense attitude. She and Mahiru frequently clash over a lot of things. She is Afro-Japanese, with a pure African father and an Afro-Japanese mother. Her main color is blue.

### Second Years

* **Akemi Isuzu** - A girl who has a passion for video games, and is always seen either at the arcade or at a computer working on her programming and coding. She is spirited, cheerful, and caring, if a little slow on the uptake. Though at first, when asked to join the school idol club, she was against it, as she doesn’t like the idea of being up on stage in front of a bunch of people, and due to thinking she’d hold them back due to not being good at dancing or singing. After trying it out and finding herself liking it, she eventually joins the school idol club, though is still committed to her dream of making her own video games. She puts in the most effort to learn how to sing and dance, though she has no intention of becoming a school idol permanently. She’s the most technologically literate of all the girls, so she specializes in things like making and editing videos. She also has a pet tarantula named Charlotte. Her main color is orange.
* **Hiyoko Ohmura** - She doesn’t talk much and is rather shy and awkward, but is hardly antisocial, and most people she knows get along with her very well. Like Nono, she is also autistic, and though the two are a grade apart, they’ve become very close upon learning more about each other. She’s always been bad at expressing her thoughts and feelings, with many having gotten angry at her due to interpreting what she says as rude and offensive when she doesn’t mean to come off as such. Because of this, she rarely speaks unless she’s spoken to, and is often startled when she is. She’s a member of the student council and is the primary liaison between the students and the student council president. She allows the girls to start their own school idol club and has no problem with it. While she has plans to become a fashion designer, she doesn’t mind the idea of becoming a school idol and even helps design their costumes alongside Nono and Nono’s grandmother. Her main color is yellow.
* **Iroha Shirayuri** - Yozora's girlfriend. Iroha's the kind of girl everyone goes crazy over: Polite, mature, elegant, and comes from a rich family that’s been in Sotoba for centuries. But like Mahiru, she also feels stifled by the town’s overadherence towards tradition, so she and Yozora plan on moving out when they get older. She often gives the younger girls advice on how to deal with their problems, and is often the mediator when there’s conflict. She has ADHD, so while she often maintains a cool, collected demeanor, she often struggles with being organized and focusing on a task for longer than five minutes. She’s very good at archery and absolutely loves reading crime novels and watching crime movies and shows. Her main color is white, though her outfits incorporate light gray to balance it out.

### Third Years

* **Jun Yoshida** - Out of all the girls in the school idol club, she’s the best dancer and arranges all of the choreography. She’s also the most athletic, and was the star of her middle school track team. But for all her talent in track and field, her biggest passion lies with dance and music, and she’s a huge fan of school idols in particular. She’s the current president of the idol club, and had wanted to start it originally, but the principal wouldn’t let her, even with unanimous approval from everyone else. Thankfully, Nono, Mahiru, Iroha, and Yozora met the membership requirements, so Jun was able to start the club like she always wanted. She’s friendly, responsible and hardworking, but inside, she’s actually rather petty, passive-aggressive, and is constantly seeking validation from people around her, something she admits she isn’t proud of. Her main color is green.
* **Chise Nikkaido** - Don’t let her glasses and bookworm-esque appearance fool you, as she’s actually an enthusiastic, outgoing, and free spirited girl who has had a passion for music and idols since she was very little. She doesn’t think she’s anything special, considering herself fairly average, but she’s always eager to help people in need, even if her methods don’t always work. She is, however, a great cook, and is in charge of catering and refreshments for the girls whenever they need a break. She doesn’t like to admit it, but her family is actually very poor, and the reason she’s such a good cook is because she had to learn to make good food out of the few ingredients her family could afford. She’s also in charge of managing the club’s finances. Her main color is dark purple.
* **Yozora Amahane** - Yozora is a confident, energetic, headstrong young woman who always faces obstacles and adversaries head-on. She’s actually a decently successful internet idol going under the moniker Night Sky. She and Jun wanted to start the idol club together, but when the principal put a stop to that idea, Yozora took things into her own hands and refused to let that stop her. She lost her left arm in an alligator attack when she was 12, but she rarely lets that bother her. She is also a lesbian and is dating Iroha. But her headstrong personality often leads to her being rather blunt and stubborn, something that has driven people away, both kids and adults. She is always one to stick to her guns and rarely ever changes her mind about anything. Her main color is black, though she does incorporate dark blue and indigo to balance it out.

## Other Characters

### Rivals

* **Sena Fujioka** - The lead singer of the idol group Passiflora. To her friends, she’s amiable, cheerful, and a bundle of sunshine...but underneath her beaming smile is a needy, desperate girl who absolutely needs to be on top at all costs, and fears Moonbow will upstage her (even though they have no interest in competition or anything of the like). This is because her parents are pushing her extremely hard and only see her as a hen they can use to lay golden eggs, and are trying to get her to devote her whole life to being an idol, even at the expense of everything else, especially her well-being and mental health, something Tamao realizes is wrong. Her main color is light blue.
* **Tamao Daichi** - The second member of the idol group Passiflora. Out of all three members, she’s the most level headed and responsible, keeping Izumi from slacking off and scolding Sena for whenever she’s mean to someone. She doesn’t see what the big deal is about Moonbow, as she likes them just fine, and can’t understand why Sena is so dead set on sabotaging them every chance she gets. She even gives Koyuki, Mahiru, Iroha, and Nono some much needed advice on how to deal with people who see them as detriments to society, as she herself has Dyslexia and was rescued from her abusive family when she was 10. She is also Sena's best friend, and is desperately trying to be there for her and help her, as she knows what her family is doing to her, but is afraid Sena will go off the deep end. Her main color is crimson.
* **Izumi Tanezaki** - The third and youngest member of the idol group Passiflora. She is a perpetually sleepy girl who never misses an opportunity to take a cat nap when she isn't on stage. But like Tamao, she is also worried about Sena and the effects that her parents' pressure is having on her, but isn't sure how to really help her. She often likes to crack dumb jokes and lighten the mood when things get serious, and she really loves cats. She has a big cat named Brownie, whom she always takes pictures of. Her main color is light purple/lilac/lavender.

### Family Members, Classmates, and School Staff

* **Nami Nakamura** - The principal of Tsukimi High School, having been so for 40 years, and is very proud of it. But the problem is, none of the students or teachers like her because she is extremely old-fashioned and wants the school to fervently adhere to outdated traditions rather than embrace change and modernization, even if said changes would actually benefit the school and the students going there. No one can argue that she has helped the school go on for as long as it has, but they also don’t like that she’s bossy, opinionated, and has a strong distaste for anything alternative or different. For example, she refuses to implement accommodations for people with developmental disabilities like autism (Nono and Hiyoko) or ADHD (Iroha), thinking anyone who has them are just troublemakers acting out or trying to get attention, and thinks people who don't go to college are lazy lowlifes, refusing to take into account whether they can afford it or not (Chise). Basically, she thinks her own ideas and views are the only ones that are important.
* **Shuri Nakamura** - Nami's granddaughter, one of Hiyoko's friends, and a member of the student council. While she shares her grandmother’s unrestrained, sassy, occasionally bossy personality, she is still nothing like her. Shuri is much nicer, more open-minded, and feels suffocated and stifled by her grandmother’s controlling nature, frequently calling her out on the way she treats other people and how she puts the school’s reputation and standing above her students’ welfare and well-being. Nami is constantly trying to get her to become more involved with the school, like making her apply to become student council president, but Shuri wants no part of it. She wants to leave her hometown, move to the big city, and make her own movies. She particularly loves violent action movies. She also likes school idols and is more than happy to give the club its full support, no matter what her grandmother feels about it.
* **Shinra Tsujiai** - A boy who has been best friends with Mahiru and Nono since childhood. He’s a fairly nice, caring, laid-back kid who lives in the moment, in the middle of Nono’s optimistic nature and Mahiru’s hot temper and cynicism. He’s the kind of person who is easy to lean on and tell your problems to, no matter how small, and he’s always willing to help a friend in need. He has a crush on Nono, but has chosen not to tell her about it, afraid that it’ll somehow ruin their friendship. While he’s not particularly interested in school idols, he does support Nono and Mahiru making their own school idol club and often helps them out when he can.
* **Ayu Ueda** - Ayu is the student council president of Tsukimi High School and Shuri’s friend. She’s nice, responsible, hardworking, and open-minded, always wanting to help make school a better place for her peers. Like many she knows, she isn’t fond of Nami’s over adherence to tradition and outdated values, and is actually okay with the girls starting the school idol club. She has tried many times to convince the principal to focus her efforts on making school a better experience for students by putting their well-being and happiness first, but her efforts have come up empty no thanks to Nami’s stubbornness. Having lived in Sotoba her whole life, she knows the town well enough to help people who are lost, looking for a place to eat or sleep, and is fairly well-liked by many of the townspeople. She only wishes the same townspeople would be more open-minded and less quick to assume today’s youth are bad no matter what just because their experiences aren’t like their own. She has known Shuri and Hiyoko since childhood.
* **Otome Isuzu** - Akemi's 20-year-old older sister and her primary guardian, having been so for a few months because her parents are working in another city. She was originally very kind, supportive, and caring, even if she and Akemi had their squabbles at times, and had gotten into college to become a dancer. But when her parents lost their old jobs and had to go far away for new ones, leaving her to take care of Akemi for an unspecified amount of time, she was forced to drop out and is now unable to spend time with her friends like she used to. Now that she’s unable to fulfill her dreams, she has become bitter, cynical, and easily angered, and has begun to resent Akemi to the point of scolding her for every little slight, even when Akemi hasn’t done anything wrong, frequently saying she’s an ungrateful brat who doesn’t appreciate the sacrifices she’s made and taking her anger out on her.
* **Reika Miyama** - Nono's mother. For the most part, she’s a fairly nice, kind, caring person and a good mother to her kids, though she overthinks things a lot and gets nervous fairly easily. She’s also a very passionate person, always determined to see anything she sets her mind on through no matter what...and not always for the better. As good as her intentions are, she’s rather overprotective of Nono to the point of smothering her and often actively preventing her from doing anything remotely strenuous because she thinks she can’t handle it due to being autistic. She is actively opposed to Nono becoming an idol, both for reasonable (doesn’t want her daughter to be harassed by creeps on the internet) and unreasonable (thinks no autistic person can ever be an idol and wants to prevent Nono from doing anything even remotely risky) reasons. She’s started to see Nono more as a fragile porcelain doll she feels has to be protected no matter what, something Nono caught onto and is beginning to resent her for it. Most kids don’t like her, jokingly referring to her as Karen because of her overzealous, demanding nature.
* **Aoba Tokura** - One of Shinra's friends. He’s a quiet, sheepish, nerdy young boy who absolutely loves poetry and reading fantasy books. He becomes friends with Hiyoko after becoming a member of the Moonbow Fan Club, and even develops a crush on her. Unfortunately, he, along with many other kids, is a frequent victim of Yuuichi’s bullying. In fact, Yuuichi has sent him to the hospital multiple times. Not only that, even though he genuinely likes Moonbow, his mother is opposed to the idea of school idols and wants the idol club shut down on the grounds that it “encourages disobedience and disrespect towards authority,” even though Aoba knows she’s just full of it. He is one of four characters whose last name contains a kanji for a power of ten, and his is ten.
* **Chihiro Momoi** - Chihiro is a girl in the same class as Mahiru. She has a reputation of being a bit of a troublemaker, though that’s mainly the adults’ exaggerating or blowing her actions out of proportion. She’s actually a happy, energetic, amiable girl who, like her peers, feels stifled and suffocated by her high school’s strict adherence to tradition and outdated standards. Unlike her peers, she’s much more open about her distaste for them, and while Nami is constantly on her case over little things, Chihiro doesn’t care what other people say about her. She starts the Moonbow fan club and tries to promote Moonbow any way she can. She is one of four characters whose last name contains a kanji for a power of ten, and hers is one hundred.
* **Daisuke Chiba** - Another one of Yozora's friends, and Kanon's boyfriend. He’s a member of the archery club. He’s headstrong, determined, and amiable like Yozora is, but isn’t as stubborn as she can be at times. He is also one of Night Sky’s biggest supporters despite not generally being a fan of school idols. He and Kanon join the Moonbow fan club Chihiro started because they genuinely want to see them succeed. But he is admittedly afraid of Principal Nakamura and really doesn’t want her to get on his case as she does with others. He is one of four characters whose last name contains a kanji for a power of ten, and his is one thousand.
* **Kanon Amano** - Yozora's childhood best friend. They've known each other since infancy. Yozora originally had a crush on her, but Kanon, being straight, wouldn’t have been able to reciprocate her feelings, though they’re still on friendly terms. Kanon does support Yozora dating Iroha and often gives her relationship and romance advice, since she herself has a boyfriend in Daisuke. She's an outgoing, friendly girl with a good head on her shoulders and while she isn't necessarily a fan of school idols, she does support Yozora's dreams of idolhood and Moonbow's ambitions. She is one of four characters whose last name contains a kanji for a power of ten, and hers is ten thousand.
* **Yuuichi Urabe** - Yuuichi is a classmate at Nono and Mahiru’s school, but he’s not very nice. In fact, the second he meets Nono, the first thing he does is pick on her, though runs away when Mahiru threatens him. He is notorious in school for being outright rude, entitled, mean, and convinced that he’s the best person ever when he really isn’t, often bullying younger students because he thinks they need to know who’s boss at Tsukimi High School. He frequently gets into fights and has little care for how his actions affect others. Despite the principal’s best attempts to discipline him and rectify his behavior, Yuuichi refuses to change his ways. Needless to say, nobody likes him. He’s also infamous for constantly getting into violent brawls and fights with other people over the slightest provocation, and has gotten kicked out of other schools previously because of his behavior.

## Trivia

* Unlike most LL series, both canon and fanon, Rhapsody will feature male characters, both major and minor.
* The main shows often have minor characters with numbers in their names. This fanseries will continue it, but instead of having number-based first names, like Ichiko or Yotsuba, some characters will have surnames containing kanjis for a power of ten, staying true to the number theming.