#liella

The Anxiety She Carried for Years After Joining, Finally Cleared Away on the 6th Live Tour

──It has been four years since you joined as a second-generation member. How do you honestly feel right now?

Suzuhara Nozomi (below, Suzuhara): Four years is a pretty long stretch of time, but it feels like it flew by. That said, each of those memories is still vivid. Like how nervous I was during the roulette talk the four of us second-generation members did at the fan meeting where I stood in front of everyone for the first time, or the racing heart I had the first time I got to appear on a TV program, or the 3rd live tour that built around the TV anime (Love Live! Superstar!! Liella! 3rd LoveLive! Tour ～WE WILL!!～). I remember all of it clearly, it's just the passage of time itself that feels so fast. It was the fastest four years of my life so far.

──Joining the existing members as a second-generation member must have been nerve-wracking, too.

Suzuhara: It was. I kept feeling, "Am I going to be okay?" I received the news that I would be joining Liella! before the first generation even debuted, and watching the five of them make their way from up close, I came to love them more and more, and at the same time, my anxiety kept growing too.

──"And I'm the one joining this group."

Suzuhara: Yes. So I kept thinking, "Am I going to be okay?" the whole time.

──When did that feeling finally go away?

Suzuhara: Honestly, around the 3rd live tour I was still quite anxious. During an MC segment, Liyuu-chan (voice of Tang Keke) asked the audience, "How do you like the nine-member Liella!?", and everyone who came to see us applauded (at the time, cheering from the audience was prohibited due to the COVID-19 pandemic). That was a relief, but I still couldn't say it was fully "wiped away."

Suzuhara: When it truly cleared... it ends up being around the 6th live tour (Love Live! Superstar!! Liella! 6th LoveLive! Tour ～Let's be ONE～), a while after the third generation joined. Thinking about it that way, that's really recent (laughs). It was only around then that it hit me all over again, "I really love Liella!" and "This group is precious to me," and I could finally accept that I belong here.

──What memory stands out most for you?

Suzuhara: The biggest one is, after all, the 3rd live tour. It was a live carrying season 2 of the TV anime, and for someone like me who has loved the Love Live! series since way back, a live built on the TV anime is something special. I was moved, thinking, "I'm wearing the same outfit as Kinako-chan, standing on stage as Kinako-chan," and I thought, "I'm so glad I joined Liella!", "I'm so glad to be alive." Hearing fans tell me "You were Kinako-chan herself" made me so happy, too. It was a live overflowing with joy.

Hitting a Wall at the 6th Live: "I Have to Raise My Expressiveness"

──"Standing on stage as Kinako" seems to be a major theme for you. Is that also what you focus on in your live performances?

Suzuhara: Yes. The performance itself, of course, but I also pay attention to how I walk, how I run, how I shape my expressions, things like that. Kinako-chan is a calm girl with a soft, floaty air about her, so even when the staging requires me to run to my next position, I think things like, "She probably wouldn't go into a full sprint." Also, she often holds a closed fist to her chest, so I actively work that in.

Suzuhara: Winks during lives are another key point. Kinako-chan winks relatively often, so I compile my own notes on which eye and the exact timing, like "this song starts from the right" or "left wink at this minute and second," and keep them in a folder on my phone. That way I can quickly run through them right before a show.

──You go that far! Actually, last year we did a relay interview with Aqours (*1), and we often heard similar stories then too, about faithfully recreating even the winks their characters do in the anime and MVs. *1: https://realsound.jp/tag/aqours-relay-interview Aqours also did this relay interview style with Real Sound JP in 2025.

Suzuhara: I've always loved Aqours-san. I knew about the wink stories from interviews and such, and I'd been thinking, "If I ever get to be part of the Love Live! series, I'm absolutely going to do that too!" Like, "That kind of dedication is exactly what the Love Live! series is about!"

──I see. So for you, it's a tradition.

Suzuhara: By the way, Egao no Promise is Kinako-chan's center song, and the dance scene in the TV anime shows a whole lot of her, so that phone folder of mine filled right up (laughs). Also, in the ochi-sabi [TL note: the stripped-down, quiet chorus right before the final chorus] of Superstar!!, Kinako-chan closes her eyes at this mysterious moment, and the instant I saw it I went, "...Oh!" Like, "So that's where you put one! I see, I see" (laughs). Beyond that, whenever Kinako-chan is doing anything, I zoom in on it first thing and work it into my performance.

──Next, please tell us which lives have left the strongest impression on you so far.

Suzuhara: The 3rd and 6th (Live) are, as you'd expect, the most memorable, since they carried the TV anime. From the 6th, the sequence flowing from Afureru Kotoba [TL note: Kinako's solo insert song in Season 3] into Egao no Promise is burned into my memory... the rehearsals turned into days I truly can't forget. How do I put it... I was getting scolded so much.

──Why was that?

Suzuhara: Back then, my expressiveness still wasn't enough. I was told over and over, "That won't get the feelings across!" Like I mentioned earlier, I was set on faithfully recreating Kinako-chan's movements, but I realized, "That alone isn't enough," "On top of recreating them, I have to raise my expressiveness one more level," and it really made me brace myself. How do I make my movements look bigger? How do I make my voice reach even one more person? I thought, and thought, and thought... It was a period of constant pursuit, so it's deeply memorable for me.

The Love Live! Series Is Her Very Reason for Living

──Please tell us one Liella! song that's special to you.

Suzuhara: It's Bye Bye Shichaeba!?.

──A song from before the second generation joined.

Suzuhara: That's right! What I love about this song is the lyrics. It became the song that gives the negative me a push, and it supported me through the times I often felt down, before I joined as a second-gen member and through my first year or two after joining. I don't remember who it was, but back then, someone in the second-gen group chat posted this song along with the message "Let's do our best!", and that's a good memory too. It's a song that brings back the bonds we second-gen members built, and even the kindness of the first-gen members who stayed close by our side.

Bye Bye Shichaeba!?

──Then, following that thread, let us ask about Hyper Glowing!, the new song on the mini album released on July 8. What did you think when you heard it?

Suzuhara: From the very first listen, I thought it sounded like a song that would get the crowd seriously hyped. The part where we call out "L, i, e, l, l, a, Liella!" is especially unusual for a Liella! song. It has full-on rap in it too, and while the sound is adventurous, it also carries this feeling of a culmination. It's a song where the power of "We're going to show off how bright Liella! shines!" comes through. I'm happy we have one more song to look forward to at lives.

──Also, please tell us what the Love Live! series, Liella!, and Kinako have come to mean to you.

Suzuhara: Oh, they're my very reason for living. This was the first time in my life I could go so far as to think, "I was born to do this." That's how big they are to me, and the entire series, all of it, is special. And Liella! and Kinako-chan have been a constant support for me. For someone who walked a completely flat, uneventful life until entering the audition, they're a "light."

──You did join Liella! through the open public audition, after all. Your world must have changed completely.

Suzuhara: It did. But I feel like, whatever form it took, I would have absolutely ended up involved with the Love Live! series someday. It's that much a part of who I am, so it feels like fate.

──Now, to close, let us ask the relay interview questions. The question you received from Yabushima Akane (voice of Yoneme Mei) is: "If you were going out with me right now, where would you want to go?" We hear the two of you go out together often.

Suzuhara: We do. There's actually a place we've promised to visit together sometime soon.

──We may have heard about that from Yabushima as well. Was it the potato competition?

Suzuhara: Yes, that's it! We're planning to go to the competition that decides Japan's number one French Fries (laughs). Since that one's already settled, where else would I go...? Ah, I want to go to Kyoto. Touring cafes in Kyoto sounds fun. Riiight? We're going, okaaay? (she says, as if calling out to Yabushima in another room)

──By the way, Yabushima said this about you: "She looks delicate, but she has a really strong core," and "The way she keeps working to make Kinako-chan's performance even better is amazing."

Suzuhara: (A little embarrassed) You think so? That makes me happy, thank you. I can't say I'm actually aware of it myself, but I do set goals for myself, and I often tell myself I can't stop working until I reach them, so maybe that's the side of me she's been seeing.

──Also, we'd like to hear what you respect about Aoyama Nagisa (voice of Hazuki Ren), and your question for her.

Suzuhara: Nagi-chan is truly strict with herself. There isn't even a single second of her slacking off. She's always sharp and put together, and it's so cool. That's what I respect about her.

──I see.

Suzuhara: And then, she has these rare spacey, absent-minded moments, which is what makes her adorable! Like she's 99 percent solid and just 1 percent absent-minded. ...Ah, but I think Nagi-chan would be sad if she heard that coming from me, so you don't need to pass this part on to her!

──(Laughs) Is it all right to put it in the article?

Suzuhara: Oh, that part's totally fine!

──Then, your question for Aoyama as well.

Suzuhara: I love potatoes, but Nagi-chan loves sweet potatoes. So I'll go with, "Honestly, what do you think of potatoes?" We don't usually talk about that kind of thing, so I want to take this chance to find out!