Kotori Minami

Kotori Minami is one of the nine main characters in Love Live!. She is 16 years old and a second year in high school. She is also known as "Legendary Maid Minalinsky" while working in Akihabara. Kotori was born on September 12 and is a Virgo. She has grayish-brown hair, normally styled in some way, and amber eyes. Her main color is gray. She is 159 centimeters tall, and her blood type is O. She is part of Printemps, a mini idol unit. Her solo album is called "Kotori, Lovin' You". Kotori is voiced by Aya Uchida.

Background
Since she was young, Kotori has been friends with Honoka Kousaka and Umi Sonoda. Her mother is the chairwoman of the school board.

Personality
Kotori Minami is known for having her head in the clouds. Despite this, she is the group's designer along with Niko Yazawa. Kotori has a very huge aptitude for fashion, and is very good at drawing the costumes for the group. Kotori is shown to be very kind to her friends, and does genuinely care about them, especially about their feelings.

Kotori is also shown as the most indecisive person among all nine members, and tends to have Umi Sonoda and Honoka Kousaka, her childhood friends, make decisions for her. She also has a hard time expressing her feelings, since she always takes other people's feelings into consideration.

Clubs and Hobbies
She is μ's wardrobe supervisor and helps with the choreography. It was discovered in episode 9 that Kotori works in a maid café in Akihabara and is a famous maid named "Minalinsky". She is known as a "Legendary Maid" in Akihabara due to her kindness, cuteness, and soft voice.

Chronology
In Episode 1, after discovering that Otonokizaka High School is closing after all of the students graduate, student council president Eri Ayase and her friend Nozomi Toujou approach Kotori and her friends. They ask her if she ever heard her mother tell her anything about the school shutting down. When Kotori says no, Eri and Nozomi both excuse themselves. Honoka, Umi, and Kotori begin trying to think of a way to attract students to prevent their school from shutting down. Honoka then gets the idea to start an idol group with Kotori and Umi to save the school. Later, Kotori shows Umi how Honoka is working hard on becoming a school idol and both of them join Honoka. They are set on becoming idols, even though their idea of a school idol club was rejected by Eri.

In Episode 2, after they book the school's auditorium for a concert, Kotori shows the two the design of the outfit they're going to wear for the performance that she's going to make herself. They realize they need to come up with a name for their idol group, and hold a contest for it. They also realize they don't have a song to perform yet, so Kotori and Honoka convince Umi to take the job of writing the lyrics. In return, Umi has Kotori and Honoka exercise to get more stamina.

In Episode 3, it is the day before μ's first concert. Umi starts to get more nervous about performing. Honoka and Kotori have her hand out fliers for their concert to build confidence. When Kotori reveals the costumes μ's would be performing in, Umi gets more anxious by how short it is. When it's finally time for the concert, nobody is there. However, before the girls gave up, a student named Hanayo Koizumi shows up to see the concert, quickly followed by her best friend Rin Hoshizora. Despite there barely being an audience, μ's perform their song "Start:Dash!!" which attracts a small crowd. After the song, Eri walks down the stage and asks them what they plan on doing, to which Honoka replies that μ's will keep on performing until they can fill up the whole auditorium.

In Episode 4, Hanayo debates with herself whether or not to join μ's. Sometime later, Hanayo comes across Honoka's sweet shop, where Umi and Kotori also are and where they notice a video of their performance of "Start:Dash!!" gaining views on the internet. The girls then ask Hanayo to join the club. Maki Nishikino and Rin know about Hanayo's shyness, so they both give Hanayo a push, which then helps Hanayo agree to join μ's. Rin and Maki both decide to join, as well.

In Episode 5, while training, Honoka and Kotori come across a girl named Niko Yazawa, who threatens them to disband μ's and runs away. While in fast food joint, trying to think of a place to practice during the rainy season, Honoka suddenly realizes that there's enough members to form an official club. However, the girls learn that there's already another Idol Research Club. When the girls go to the Idol Research Club's room, they learn that Niko is the sole member. The girls ask her if they can merge their groups together, but Niko flatly rejects them, based on the fact that they don't have personas. After learning from Nozomi that Niko once tried, and failed, to become a school idol, Honoka comes up with the idea to join the Idol Research Club and have Niko teach them how to be proper idols. Niko 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. Kotori and Umi both help Honoka study, who generally has bad grades. Once the exams are done and everyone passes, Honoka and everyone excitingly go to the chairwoman's office, but overhear her telling Eri 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 Eri to teach them how to dance. Eri agrees to their offer and puts the group into intense training, but is surprised by their willingness to continue. Nozomi tells μ's that Eri wants to join, but believes she can't because of how she treated them in the past. μ's go to Eri and formally invite her to join. Eri 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 Kotori working secretly in Akihabara, Eri 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, which then begin to affect her studies. Honoka and Umi help Kotori to come up with an idea by working with her in the café. Kotori then comes up with lyrics to create the new song "Wonder Zone" by recalling her feelings when she works in Akihabara. After the performance, Honoka, Umi, and Kotori go pray at a shrine for μ's success. Then, as they were leaving, they look up at the stars and promise to each other they'll be together forever.

In Episode 10, μ's decide to go to Maki's beach house after getting permission from her parents. Eri 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 Maki is the only one not participating. At night, Nozomi initiates a pillow fight, and all of μ's begin to play, except Umi, who is sleeping. However, two pillows hit Umi while she was sleeping, causing her to get cranky and throw "supersonic pillows" at everyone, hitting Niko, Honoka, and Eri. Just as she was about to hit Hanayo and Rin, Maki knocks Umi out with a pillow, causing her to fall back asleep. The episode ends with all the members of μ's breaking down the barrier between upper and underclassmen, and holding hands while watching the sunrise.

In Episode 11, μ's 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, when Niko fails to win a lottery spin to use the auditorium, μ's is forced 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.

While warming up on the rooftop, Umi was telling Honoka that she shouldn't be working herself too hard, but Honoka said that it's all right. When asked by Umi to tell Honoka to stop, Kotori didn't reply at first because she seemed to be in deep thought. After Umi snapped Kotori out of her daze, Kotori said that Honoka should do whatever she wants, disappointing Umi and making Honoka happy.

Later on, Umi calls Kotori. Kotori then explains her situation to Umi, but the audience don't get to hear the conversation.

While getting ready for the concert, Umi asks Kotori if she was fine with her decision, to which Kotori says yes and that she'd tell everyone about it after the concert. After performing "No Brand Girls," Honoka faints, surprising μ's and the audience.

In Episode 12, 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 that their ranking was removed from the site. Honoka blames herself for the incident, but everyone tells her that it's all of their fault. Everyone gets depressed from this event, but Honoka the most. On the rooftop, Maki, Hanayo, and Rin all 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, Eri decides to put μ's on a hiatus. Niko disagrees with Eri, saying that she wants to continue being a school idol. Umi visits Kotori and asks her if she really is going to study aboard. But Kotori tells her that there's nothing they can do about it at this point which really makes Umi sad.

At the airport, Kotori's mother drops her off and Kotori tells her that she can walk by herself at this point. While waiting for her flight, Kotori sings the third verse of "Susume→Tomorrow," coincidentally with Honoka and Umi singing the first and second.

Before Kotori could get on her plane, Honoka manages to get to the airport and grabs Kotori's arm. She tells her that she wants to continue being a school idol with her, and hugs her, telling her not to go. Kotori then cries and that she's the one to say sorry.

After Honoka brings back Kotori from the airport, later on in the episode, μ's performs "Start:Dash!!" in the auditorium, despite wearing their school uniforms, and this time with the auditorium filled with people. Afterwards, Honoka tells the crowd to say "μ's Music Start!" and μ's are in the school idol ratings again.