Rika Takashina

Rika Takashina
Statistics
Japanese Name	高科里佳
Rōmaji Name	Takashina Rika
English Name	Rika Takashina
Birth Date	January 17
Gender	Female
Height	163cm
Weight	48kg
Three Sizes	B79-W57-H82
Horoscope	Capricorn
Affiliation
Unit(s)	I-1club
Character Voice
Reina Ueda (上田麗奈, Ueda Reina?)
Debut
Anime	Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom

Rika Takashina (高科 里佳, Takashina Rika^?) is a fifth-generation member of the I-1club and the newest member so far in the main seven. She also has the nickname of "Rikacchi" mainly given by Shiho Iwasaki. 

Appearance

Rika is fairly average in terms of height and body type when it comes to the main I-1club group. She has round dark black hair (which has a very very small slight blue tint to it and she also grew significantly in the time skip between "Beyond the Bottom" and "New Chapter".

During practices, Rika typically wears a peachy colored hoodie and regular blue shorts. She also wears pink trainers with lime-green laces and white socks.

Personality

Whilst Rika may not necessarily be the youngest out of the main I-1club members, she is still the newest and therefore least experienced member out of the group. When she first appeared in the group, she was nervous and appeared in awe of the other I-1club members. However, she did eventually a close friendship with Shiho Iwasaki, sort of as her mentor, and she is sad when they must separate from the main I-1club. She is also a hard worker, as examined by her training for the 2015 Idol Festival. 

Plot

Little Challenger: Wake Up, Girls! Side I-1 Club Story

Rika is introduced as originally being in the I-3 Army but having also always admired the I-1club. When she is first selected, she is taken in by Shiho and develops a relationship with her as her mentor, but she also gets on well with Mai and Megumi as friends as well as showing great admiration for Moka, She also remains close with her friends from I-3 who still support her with her move up to I-1. A big element of Rika’s time in training with I-1 is the other members’ recollections of Mayu when she was still with the club before she was kicked out. Rika ends up performing on the same stage as the rest of the I-1club and performs well. When examining the stage after the end of the concert, she is one of the rare few members to have an actual conversation with Toru Shiraki. These events then lead directly into "Beyond the Bottom".

Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom

Rika is first shown in her normal clothes in Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom and is visibly upset at the demotion of Shiho after losing the team center battle against Moka. She then exclaims that she will always admire Shiho. She still sticks to this, and practices very diligently as she feels she has to now live up to Shiho in the sense that she has now replaced her spot in the club. She has a very small appearance in the rest of the movie apart from the 2015 Idol Festival, where she is nervous but happy still to see Shiho again. She wishes her well during the I-1club ritual and performs "Tomaranai Mirai" with the rest of the I-1club, however they eventually lose to Wake Up, Girls!.

Media Appearances

Anime

• Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom
• Wake Up, Girls! New Chapter

Manga

• Little Challenger: Wake Up, Girls! I-1 Club Side Story
• Wake Up, Girls! Eternal Senses (non-speaking)

Discography

I-1Club

• Shirts to Blouse*
• Tomaranai Mirai

* Shirts to Blouse was only practiced in the manga story, Rika is not actually featured on the studio track, only as seen in manga panels.

Etymology

• The name Rika means "village" (里) (ri) and "good, beautiful" (佳) (ka).
• Rika's surname Takashina means "tall, high" (高) (taka) and "department, course, section" (科) (shina).

Trivia

• There is only one main single anime-era interaction between Shiho Iwasaki and Rika and that was only a promotional art which features the two high-fiving, presumably in between the NEXT STORM and I-1club performances.

Gallery

For more information, see Rika Takashina/Image Gallery