Mao Otoha

Mao Otoha (音羽 舞桜) is the main protagonist of the Aikatsu Planet! series. She is a student at Seirei Private High School. Mao's avatar in Aikatsu Planet is Hana.

Appearance
Mao has fair skin. She has dark brown eyes with thin lips, with a small beauty mark under the right side. She has straight bangs above her brows, her jet black hair at chest length. Mao is usually shown in her school uniform.

Personality
Mao is an energetic and bright girl who faces every new challenge with all her might. When Mao first learned to be an idol as Hana, she is shown to be inexperienced and oblivious to many things. Mao is easily impressed with the new things she learned as an idol. She also admires her friends, Ruli and Beat, and is shown to be in a rivalry with Q-pit, albeit a friendly one.

Mao is also a supportive friend as she helped Shiori practice for her debut as a new idol. Mao however can be said as slightly clueless and oblivious, as she wasn't aware that Q-Pit is used by Ayumi until her classmates informed her about it. In contrast to Meisa as Hana who radiates a serious, yet mature and elegant feeling around her, Mao as Hana radiates friendly, fun, and bubbly energy.

However, when taken under pressure, Mao can feel heavily burdened and timid, as seen when she was supposed to reveal her identity later, but was confronted by her classmate Keito who initially refused to believe the truth.

Shiori stated that Mao is also a very selfless person that would give to the people around her, albeit too selfless. Shiori states that Mao would not give her a fair match because she is a friend of hers, although Mao would then later learn to give a serious challenge.

Overall, Mao is an everyday friendly run-on-the-mill girl who is willing to help and is ready to take the next step.

Background
Mao has been trained in classical ballet ever since she was young, and has won awards at ballet competitions. She has also befriended Shiori from a very early age, when the latter approached Shiori who is reading a storybook and asks about it.

In present time, Izumi saw Mao dance (to help Mao's classmates) from afar, and was awestruck and reminded herself of when she first saw Meisa performed. Izumi then soon receive news from her co-worker, Itsuki, that Meisa has left without a word, leaving her role as Hana. Although hope seems lost at first. Izumi then remembered Mao, and then seeks to meet her in person.

Izumi explains to Mao that she is the perfect subtitute for Hana, and that she can become the new Hana. Although skeptical at first, Mao agreed and decided to become the new user of Hana., although they have to keep it a secret for a while.

Time passes, and both Mao and Izumi knew that there will be the time where they have to reveal the new Hana to the public.

Relationships

 * Shiori Motoya / Shiori


 * Shiori is Mao's childhood friend, the two are shown to be always together and have a good relationship with each other. When Mao chosen to be the new user of Hana, Shiori supported her new activity as an idol and even helped Mao prepare for certain activities as Hana, and when Shiori announced to Mao, Ruli, and Kyōko that she wants to become an idol, Mao (as well as the others) are shown to be incredibly supportive of Shiori and helped her prepare in becoming a new idol. When Mao revealed her identity to her fans as Hana, she asked Shiori to accompany her, as Shiori is the person who makes Mao the most comfortable and can be herself with. Despite often being on good terms, Shiori dislikes the fact that Mao often goes easy on her, giving everything to Shiori without providing a real challenge, the two would later come to understand each other and be on good terms again.


 * Ruli Tamaki / Ruli


 * Mao and Ruli enrolls in the same High School. Mao was having trouble preparing and practicing for her photoshoot (as Hana), there Ruli stepped into the frame and gave Mao valuable tips to help her pose more naturally. At Aikatsu Planet, they saw Ruli (the avatar) as she was reintroduced as the creator of MELTYHOUSE, a clothing brand popular for young people and those who wants to be trendy. Hana and Ruli took photos together for a magazine (although Hana was the only one who is supposed to be taking photos, but Ruli decided to join unprompted). When the two went back to the agency for the first time, Ruli was surprised to not see Meisa anywhere, and instead sees Mao, learning that she is the new user of Hana. After learning the full circumstances of how everything became what it is, Ruli decided to help Mao learn properly as an idol (mostly in the fashion aspect of it).


 * Kyōko Umekōji / Beat


 * Mao and Kyōko enroll in the same high school. Just like everyone else in their high school, Mao highly respects and admires Kyōko, with the many achievements and talents Kyōko possesses, she is seen as an ideal figure for everyone. When Kyōko revealed her identity in Aikatsu Planet as Beat, Mao is greatly surprised by the reveal, but then soon realizes that Kyōko and Beat are in fact one and the same. Mao was feeling down as she felt like she doesn't live up to the former Hana (Meisa), but Kyōko assures her that Mao can be herself, even as Hana.


 * Tsukishiro Ayumi / Q-pit


 * Mao (Hana) first met Q-pit during their tournament in episode 1, where the battle stage will decide if Hana retains her position as Number 1 Idol or if Q-pit will dethrone her. At the end of the battle stage, Hana (Mao) successfully retained her position, but Q-pit grew suspicious as the Hana she knew (Meisa) uses Flower type Dressia, but the Hana she just battled (Mao) uses Fairy type Dressia. They met again at episode 5, where both Hana and Q-pit auditioned in a movie remake of Cinderella for the role of Cinderella. Q-pit's mesmerizing acting performance has captivated everyone in the audition room, including Mao, which led Mao to become a huge fan of Q-pit. It was revealed at the next episode that Ayumi Tsukishiro, a model herself, also does idol activities as Q-pit. Mao desires to meet Ayumi by person, and so was taken by Ruli to Ayumi's agency. In there, Mao fangirls and excites over Ayumi's activities, and also asking her multiple questions along the way. Q-pit and Ruli had a battle stage together, in which Ayumi emerged victorious and retained her status as number 1 idol (in episode 2, Hana lost to Ruli while Ayumi was on an audition with another idol and gain points which results in Ayumi becoming the number 1, replacing Hana). Hana greatly admires both Q-pit and Ayumi and soon learns from her manager, Izumi, that it takes a lot of hard-work and effort to reach the position where she is, her main motive being the former Hana (Meisa). At episode 10, Q-pit and Ann were invited to Hana's fan meeting exhibition, in which they also learned that Mao is the new Hana, which answers Q-pit's suspicion but left wondering why Meisa left her role as Hana.


 * Meisa Hinata/Rose


 * Meisa was Hana's previous user, until she abandoned her role as Hana for unknown reasons. Mao was then chosen by Izumi to replace Meisa and become the new Hana. When Meisa saw Hana for the first time on screen (used by Mao), she felt an excitement within her, and aims to meet Mao in person and perform on stage with her.

Etymology
Otoha (音羽) - Oto (音) means sound and ha (羽) means feather.

Mao (舞桜) - Ma (舞) means dance and o (桜) means cherry blossom.

Trivia

 * Her favorite things are sweets (especially parfait, macaron and cake), animals, and cute things.
 * Her specialties are ballet and concentrating.
 * This makes Mao the first main protagonist to specialize in dancing.
 * She is the first and only main protagonist whose given name is written in kanji.
 * She is the first and only main protagonist to start off the series as a high schooler.