There are a lot of main characters in Love Live. With 10 teenage girls all vying to make their school idol dreams come true, it’s easy to want to root for some more than others, especially since it’s impossible for them all to spend a lot of time as center girl.
While some of the girls seem like they really deserve that opportunity and have worked hard for it, others seem like they don’t really want it as badly or don’t have attitudes that make us feel like they’ve earned it. Here are five idols from Love Live we think earned their time as center girl and five idols we think didn’t.
10 DESERVES IT: Nico Yazawa
While not everyone in the series (or among its viewers, probably) likes Nico Yazawa, we have to admit that we admire her determination and confidence when it comes to being a school idol. Proudly declaring herself as the best school idol - even when there are so many girls who are good at it or even better - is probably something of a jerk move.
Still, we really like how much she’s into being an idol and how certain of her own skills she is. That level of confidence makes her deserving of a spot as center girl in our book.
9 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: Ayumu Uehara
Ayumu Uehara works really hard at being a school idol, but she doesn’t really have the talent for it. This is generally okay, because she’s good natured and she works really hard, despite the fact that she’s not as good at being an idol as her friends are.
But that also means that maybe she doesn’t deserve a spot as center girl, when so many other girls are doing really well with less effort. Add in the fact that she’s not confident in her abilities, and this makes her less likely to seem confident on stage - which is an important factor of being in the center.
8 DESERVES IT: Maki Nishikino
Maki Nishikino is a pretty reserved person with a tendency toward being pretty stubborn. But her skills as a school idol definitely draw attention away from the fact that she can be somewhat difficult. She plays piano and is actually the composer for her idol group, which makes her indispensable to them.
She’s also their vocal coach, making sure that everyone’s able to stay on key. Maki puts a lot of hard work into the idol group outside of just singing. This definitely means she deserves her time in the spotlight.
7 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: Umi Sonoda
Umi Sonoda is Honoka Kosaka’s childhood best friend. She’s pretty quiet but also has good ideas that would make her a pretty good leader for the group.
Still, she’s hard on the other girls in her school idol group and often holds them to ridiculously high standards, which can be a positive thing but also means she can go overboard from time to time. She also often doesn’t want to take the position of a leader, which makes it seem like she wouldn’t be a good fit for the position of center girl.
6 DESERVES IT: Honoka Kosaka
Honoka Kosaka is the main character of the series which, of course, means that she had to end up on the deserving side of this list. Honoka is the driving force behind her school idol group’s success. She is determined and cheerful, with an optimistic outlook, and often overexerts herself, working too hard to make sure that her dreams can come true.
All of these are positive attributes that make her a good leader, which is the exact kind of person who should be in the center of the stage.
5 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: Kotori Minami
Kotori Minami is sweet and gullible, but she’s also not quite all there most of the time. While she does contribute to her school idol group by being in charge of the fashion design and clothing, she is often not super focused on what’s happening.
She also isn’t a good decision maker and often just follows along with whatever the people around her think that she should be doing. These aren’t great qualities for a center girl, who should be someone who is confident and decisive and ready to take the lead.
4 DESERVES IT: Setsuna Yuki
Setsuna Yuki felt like she was fated to be a school idol, and that is a pretty strong argument that she makes a really good center girl. So many of the characters in Love Live were dragged into it by their friends or tagged along because their friends were doing it.
She also decided all on her own that being a school idol was her dream, and she sought that dream determinedly from there. Setsuna is passionate and talented, and those are two qualities that definitely belong in a center girl.
3 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: Eli Ayase
Eli Ayase is a very serious person, and she works hard to support her idol group, acting as a strategist in promotional campaigns. She’s also pretty popular because she’s beautiful and tall and has brought a lot of good attention to the group now that she’s joined it.
But Eli was once a ballet dancer who wasn’t very good at ballet at all and ended up giving it up because it was too difficult to love to dance and not be able to do it well. While not being able to dance isn’t a great quality in an idol, it’s more her decision to give up and shut away her passion for it that makes us think she’s not the right fit for a center girl.
2 DESERVES IT: Ai Miyashita
Ai Miyashita has the perfect sort of personality for being a center girl. She’s involved in lots of different activities, including sports and clubs, and works really hard at everything she does. She has good grades and is cheerful and well-liked, despite the fact that people sometimes think she’s a troublemaker because of how she looks.
The other girls in her school idol group think of her as being someone who can set the mood and cheer everyone up, which is really important to being a center girl who’s in charge of keeping everyone’s energy up.
1 DOESN'T DESERVE IT: Nozomi Tojo
Nozomi Tojo is definitely a great friend and supportive person who helps the school idol groups get things done by using her influence as vice-president of the student council. She is mostly in an idol group not because she’s especially interested in being a celebrity, but because she wants to hang out with and spend time with people she considers friends.
This is a really nice sentiment, and it makes sense for teenage girls to want to do this. But her passion isn’t in the idol group itself. This means that, even though she might make a great center girl, there are other girls who just deserve that spotlight more.