Aira Harune

Aira Harune
Kanji	春音あいら
Rōmaji	Harune Aira
Information
Gender	Female
Age (Aurora Dream)	14-15
Birthday	September 3
Astrological Sign	Virgo
Hometown	Yokohama, Japan
Current Residence	Yokohama, Japan
Romantic Interest(s)	Shou
Theme Color	Pink
Fashion Element	Lovely
Blood Type	O
Professional Statistics
Affiliation	Pretty Top MARs
Animal Coach	Rabi-chi
Personal Status
Relatives	Hiroshi Harune (Father) Omi Harune (Mother) Itsuki Harune (Younger Brother) Eru & Uru Harune (Younger Sisters)
Debut
Aurora Dream	Episode 1
Dear My Future	Episode 1
Voice Actors
Japanese	Kana Asumi

Aira Harune is the main protagonist of the anime Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream. A friendly girl who loves fashion and is known for being clumsy. She was roped into performing alongside Rizumu Amamiya after Jun witnessed her jump to avoid running into her.

She went on to officially debut and later, with Rizumu and Mion Takamine, formed the pop idol unit, MARs.

Bio

Appearance

Aira in "Aurora Dream" at 14 years old.

Aira is a young teenage girl with a light complexion and big, gentle auburn eyes with many lashes. Her shoulder length hair partially fans out, and on each side is a thick, curled section that hangs out from the bottom over her shoulder. Her bangs are spiked evenly, with a few straightened locks mixed through them. When performing she pulls her hair back into a ponytail with few loose strands.

In Dear My Future, Aira's hair grows a few inches and is a lot smoother, with her shoulder segments cut much shorter to frame her face. Her bangs are split off center and are tucked beneath her shoulder-length forelocks. When performing she wears her ponytail but now has a segment left loose.

Casually, Aira wears girly outfits ranging from cute and flirty to mature and sexy. But due to her love of fashion, she enjoys trying out a variety of styles.

Personality

Aira is kind and caring, and she is often shown to worry over others and want to help them. However, she is also quite shy and struggles to stand up for herself or be honest about her feelings, which often causes her to stress out or get distracted. She is also sensitive and at times impatient, but although she seems fragile she is shown to be very strong. She is determined to keep trying and she overcomes many obstacles for the sake of others and herself. She deeply cares about her friends and family and wants more than anything to make everyone happy and inspire them to follow their dreams.

In comparison to Rizumu and Mion, Aira is a girly-girl obsessed with fashion and shopping. She is also shown to have a knack for understanding the "voice of clothing" and likes to modify them to look better or to help others find what makes them shine. While she initially desired to become a model one day, she didn't entirely know what she wanted to do with her life until she encountered Prism Shows.

Over the series, Aira is shown to grow and mature into a wise Prism Star who inspires others. She gains more confidence and begins to become more honest with herself.

Plot Role

From Klutz to Grace

Aira and Rizumu become fast friends, both at school and at work.

Initially, Aira failed to see what made Prism Shows so amazing when one day her father asked her to get some fruit from the market. After finishing she decided to do some window shopping when she nearly ran into another girl, Rizumu. Both girls made an amazing jump to avoid running into each other, which was noticed by Jun Takigawa, who saw potential in her an quickly grabbed her hand to bring her back to Pretty Top. Because of Mion Takamine going missing so suddenly they need someone to take her place- although Aira refused because of being a poor dancer.

Before she could leave, she was quickly thrust upon the stage alongside Rizumu, where she froze until she began to watch her skate. She reminded herself to have courage, and she discovered that once out on the ice she felt a deep happiness and fun she had never experienced. Her ability to perform a Prism Jump despite no former training quickly earned her a spot as a new, up-and-coming Prism Star.

"Thank you".

Soon, Aira befriended Rizumu and personally met Shou, a member of the popular boy band Callings. Both of whom quickly took to Aira but often lost their patience with her lack of serious dedication to Prism Shows. On top of this her just-starting career was nearly ended on a few occasions; such as her dad discovering she was a Prism Star, and when she got into disputes with others and temporarily quit.

Although she doubts herself and struggled, she remained the strong shoulder of support for others and pushed herself to keep going, overcoming one hurdle at a time.

Meeting Mion and MARs' Birth

MARs's promotional shot in the anime.

After winning the tournament, Aira was amazed and shocked when Mion overshadowed her victory and made her official re-debut as a Prism Star. She adores Mion and was very excited to see her join their agency, unlike Rizumu. But eventually Mion began growing closer to the girls as she got to know them and their performance capabilities, and they began to bond after the Summer Queen Cup.

As Aira and Rizumu were celebrating their birthday, the girls were surprised after Kyoko informed them of their plans to have them become an official trio unit, and since then they went on to perform together in various programs, attempt new activities, and gained a rival in the unit Serenon With K.

Becoming Queen

In order to focus on the final tournament, MARs went on Hiatus and each girl went solo to begin training. Aira was one of the competitors who made it to the finals, and with the help of Shou and the rest of the crowd, she went on to perform the Aurora Rising Dream. This sealed her the win and she became the current Prism Queen.

In the final episode, Aira is shown going out on a date with Shou -their relationship has become more serious over the season- and they reminisce over the past year. While on their date, Shou affectionately embraces her as a few girls pass by to observe them.

Pretty Rhythm Dear My Future

The Queen's Trials

Aira as seen in Pretty Rhythm Dear My Future (casual)

After becoming Prism Queen, Aira was left with no real goals or plans, however, she still wished to perform with Rizumu and Mion and brought up restarting their old unit. The girls agreed and their fame quickly returned.

In this time, it is also revealed that Aira and Shou aren't dating due to their status as performers, but they are often shown to flirt with each other. She also meets Mia, who witnessed her beautiful Aurora Rising and wholly supports her dream to become a Prism Star. She begins to help Mia and her friends with training and giving them tips.

Eventually, Aira realized she had become stuck between two men. Besides Shou, who she adored entirely, she met Yun-su and fell in love with his designs as he had her. But because of Shou's hesitation to officially become a couple her feelings began to waver and she finds herself conflicted when both he and Yun-su begin to push her to choose one of them and their designs. 

Dark Aira

During this time of extreme unease, a mysterious figure known as Don Bonby approaches her with a Symphonia Series stone and offers it to her. Torn between choosing either Shou's or Yun-su's designs, Aira quickly falls under his influence and is brainwashed by the Stone. In her trance, Aira announces that MARs will be joining the Road to Symphonia during a press conference prior to the Crystal High Heel Cup- much to Mion and Rizumu's shock.

During the tournament, Aira wears a Symphonia dress and triggers the Prism Act, "Road to Symphonia". She enters the door, and the amazing Act gives MARs the win. Aira then announces that MARs will be quitting Pretty Top and joining the Symphonia Company and backstage, convincing Rizumu and Mion of this last-minute decision. This causes them to extremely worry and try to determine what is going on as Kei uses her tarot cards to realize that Aira's soul has already been swallowed by death.

Shou confesses his love to Aira in the inferno

As MARs take off, Shou and Yun-su yell out for her to come back. Hearing Shou's voice, Aira flinches and she drops their stones to the ground.

Eventually, she returns to her former self due to PURETTY's efforts and Shou's love.

The Queen's Future

During the Symphonia Selection for the center position, Aira was delightfully surprised when Mia won against her. She congratulated her for achieving her dream and was soon given a ticket to New York by Shou while attending Rizumu's wedding, silently hinting that he wanted her to come with him to continue designing and live with him. 

Although Shou waits on the bench at the airport and she does not come on time, she arrives, and they run to each other. However, first, she falls over herself. He laughs and kisses her forehead like when they first met and they make conversation while preparing to board the plane.

They are last seen in New York City together, walking along the streets and smiling. In the vision of the future, they have become an official couple and design together.

Relationships

Rizumu Amamiya

Aira first met Rizumu after the latter ran into her at the mall outside of Prism Stone. To Aira's surprise, after being recruited by Jun in order to debut as a Prism Star, she met Rizumu again and wowed her when she performed a Prism Jump during her first performance. Initially, they had a rocky start, with Rizumu angry that someone so clumsy and un-trained was capable of such a feat, but after Aira began to help her with her style and got to know her, they quickly hit it off.

They think a lot alike and they share the same birthday, and they later discovered that Aira's mother, Omi, used to be a Prism Stylist for Rizumu's mother, Sonata. Aira is very supportive towards Rizumu, but sometimes she is forced to help her stay grounded.

Mion Takamine

Aira idolized Mion prior to the series as a beautiful and talented model and followed her blog. They first met in person when the latter overshadowed her victory at a Prism Cup tournament, but Aira remained spellbound as she joined her and Rizumu at the agency. Respectively Aira addresses her as "Mion-sama" until they became friends. 

Shou

Shou and Aira fell for each other at first sight, but Aira assumed he had no interest in her, while he seemed to only flirt with her because of his play-boy personality. Aira initially began to think she had feelings for him until discovering the reason why she felt the way she did was because of him being her favorite shops designer until these feelings began to grow stronger between them.

But just when it seemed that they would get closer, Shou would say or do something to push her away, such as nearly kissing her during the summer festival and remind her that they needed to be professional and could not encourage dating. There was also Nana Ichijou, a selfish girl who loves Shou and eagerly got to work alongside him and caused Aira much stress, along with Yun-su, who met Aira and fell in love with her in Dear My Future.

As obvious as their romance was to everyone else, Shou could not bear to bring himself closer to her as a lover having been scarred by his parents divorce, and he believed that "love is the most beautiful when there is distance" under the assumption that their feelings would fade if they got closer to each other. However, he erased this philosophy after jumping in to save her as she fell into an inferno during the Road to Symphonia. He told her that even if they fought sometimes, he would always embrace and love her when she turned away from him. Both admit their feelings for each other at this point and kiss passionately.

When Shou invites Aira to move with him to New York and take up fashion design, Aira chooses to go and spend her life with him. The two can be seen walking through New York together in Dear My Future's ending, and it is shown that true to his word, she has now become his design partner and they are still in love.

In the Pretty Rhythm Movie, Penguin-sensei makes a remark that Aira is currently very happy with Shou.

Mia Ageha

Aira is Mia's mentor and senpai. Three years prior to Dear My Future, during the finale of the Prism Queen Cup, Mia was entranced and inspired by Aira managing to complete the Aurora Rising Dream, which led her to her desire to one day beat Aira. Three years later, Mia interrupted MAR's Prism Show at Venus Odaiba and swore to defeat her on stage, much to everyone's shock.

While Mia can be quite rude and stubborn when interacting with Aira, she also begrudgingly respects her and her abilities. In return, Aira respects her potential as a Prism Star, often giving her words of advice and encouragement, although she still gets flustered whenever Mia's tantrums get out of hand.

Family

Aira is shown to get along very well with her mother and younger twin sisters. She has a typical sibling relationship with Itsuki Harune, and he often criticized her and made fun of her during the first season, although he remained supportive. In Dear My Future, they are shown to be on closer terms.

However, Aira has a rocky relationship with her dad. Not only because of his dream for her to one day take over the Sweet Shop, but because he failed to see her as the young woman she was growing up to be and wanted to preserve the image of the sweet child he remembered. He also dislikes the idea of her dating or having a crush on someone. But after realizing how hard she was trying and how difficult he was being, he eventually gave in and began to give her some space while remaining stern.

Image Songs

Dream Goes On

Etymology

Aira's given name is written in hiragana and not kanji, but there is a certain meaning behind her name. Like Rizumu's name makes the "Rhythm" in Pretty Rhythm, Aira's name comes from the Japanese words "Ai Rashii", which means lovely, or "Pretty". Her name is also used as a pun from the Japanese rendition of the words, "I love you" (AI RABU YUU). Her surname means "sound of spring."

Trivia

• In many promotional pieces for the series and official merchandise, Aira is shown with her hair down while wearing her Prism Star outfit. But in the anime, she puts her hair up when performing and training.
  • She is the only main character who changes her hairstyle casually.
• According to director Masakazu Hishida in the final Pretty Rhythm guidebook, ten years after Dear My Future, Aira will be a slightly pudgy mother with lots of kids.
• In the spin-off PriPara, Aira is shown to have become a legendary trio unit with

  

  Aira Nanahoshi

  Mia and Naru. They were shown performing together in cameo appearances throughout the series, and appear in person in the movie.
• In the second spin-off series, Kiratto Pri☆Chan, Aira has a parallel version of herself: Aira Nanahoshi. She is the designer of the brand Sweet Honey, and she is in a duo unit with an idol she mentored. She is still voiced by Kana Asumi.
  • She is the second main character of Pretty Rhythm to have a parallel version of herself in a spin-off Pretty series, following Mia Ageha who appeared in PriPara as Mia Hanazono.
• Aira is the only protagonist with siblings.
• Aira is the only protagonist in the first season to have the same hair and eye color.

Gallery

Main article: Aira Harune/Image Gallery

Characters

MARs Aira Harune • Rizumu Amamiya • Mion Takamine Serenon With K Serena Jounouchi • Kanon Toudou • Kaname Amamiya Prizmmy☆ Mia Ageha • Karin Shijimi • Reina Miyama • Ayami Ooruri PURETTY Hye In • Shi Yoon • Jae Eun • Chae Kyoung • So Min Happy Rain♪ Naru Ayase • Ito Suzuno • Ann Fukuhara Bell Rose Bell Renjouji • Otoha Takanashi • Wakana Morizono Others Omi Harune • Hiroshi Harune • Itsuki Harune • Eru & Uru Harune Ryutaro Amamiya • Sonata Amamiya • Ryutaro & Sonata's Second Daughter Pietro Takamine • Anna Takamine Steven Jounouchi • Karen Jounouchi Yoshimitsu Toudou • Shino Toudou • Hibiki Toudou Callings • COSMOs • P&P • Sprouts