Ayumu Uehara

Ayumu Uehara (上原歩夢, Uehara Ayumu) is a second year student of Nijigasaki High School and a member of the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. Initially leading a normal high school life with not much confidence in herself, she discovers the wonders of school idols with her best friend Yu, and is inspired to become a school idol, wanting her best friend to see the dream through with her.
Other Names: "Ayupyon/Ayubun", "Pomu"
Year: Second year (~16 years old)
Birthday: March 1st (Pisces)
Height: 159cm (5'2")
Image Color: Light pink
Subunit: A・ZU・NA
Seiyuu: Aguri Onishi
Type: Hard-working Type School Idol (previously), Sincere Type School Idol (currently)

personality

Despite difficulties with confidence, Ayumu is hardworking and never tries to give up on her goals. Though she initially couldn't see herself wearing cute clothing as she once did, the shine of school idols showed her that she could be herself and embraced that, although she is still insecure about not being skilled at school idol activities. She is best described as "pure and sweet", often trying to help others and interacts with her club in an honest manner. Due to her already low self-confidence and attachment to Yu, Ayumu gets easily worried about being left in the dark, and her dream could very quickly fall apart on that fact.

why I love Ayumu

ayumu is my nijigaku oshi and my all time favorite love live! character. looking at her gives you the appearance of a usual (sort of shy) genki girl like honoka and chika before her (which is a great character trope for me on it's own, don't get me wrong). however, also like those before her, the story switches up your expectations as you find out that she has her own personal, real issues she has to overcome

i'm not a fan of people labelling her a "yandere" because it greatly undermines her character. learning to accept that people will change is a very pivitol part of her character and i absolutely love how the anime handled it, additionally with how that feeling doesn't entirely go away so easily. i personally read her as a character with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and it makes me happy knowing the show itself knows that the attachment isn't healthy, but does not make ayumu a bad person and shows her perspective and a chance to learn and grow (and yu not villainizing her for it). from her acceptance of femininity to learning to follow her own path, i believe she's a very underrated character

besides simply being a great character, she's just downright cute. it's really overdone to say you'd kill for a smile, but i would in fact kill someone for her smile, no questions asked. she's endearing (and also really fucking funny in the famitsu 4-komas lol) and has no genuine hard feelings towards anyone. she's the embodiment of peace and love, you just want to root for her and get rid of all the doubts she has

in general, she deserves more then most fans give her credit for

fun facts

- Ayumu is the only Love Live! group leader to not have an orange image color

- She's often associated with bunnies due to her attachment towards them as a child
+ Her nickname "Ayupyon" also derives from this. She's called this by Yu and Ai, much to her embarrassment

- Her nickname "Pomu" was given by fans by reading the kanji in her first name a different way. Surprisingly, it's used more widely in shipping then her actual name

- She's also associated with space, specifically Mars in the Famitsu 4-komas. This association would make way into her call-and-response and her solo song "Break The System"

- She is semi-fluent in English, as she was able to read an email sent by a fan from England and speak in a conversational level

- She has a pet snake named Sasuke. Sasuke himself has appeared in multiple pieces of Nijigaku related content

- Ayumu likes Pokemon, has played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and has the fastest time in an in-universe game similar to Fall Guys