Name: Iikubo Haruna
Born: November 7th, 1994 in Tokyo Prefecture
Group: Morning Musume
Nickname: Harunan, Chokubo, Harupee, Kubo-chan
Blog: Ameba Blog
Hobbies: Shopping, reading
Talent: Flower arrangement, staring contests
Trivia:
Currently the sub-leader of Morning Musume along with Fukumura Mizuki.
Joined Hello!Project and Morning Musume in 2011 after passing the 10th generation Morning Musume audition.
She is the oldest member out of the 9th and 10th generation at 18 years of age.
Her motto is “Do 100 good deeds a day”.
Her favorite colors are pink, black, red, orange and light blue.
Her favorite foods are ramen, chocolate, takoyaki and okonomiyaki.
Her favorite manga include Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Kimi ni Todoke and Ao Haru Ride.
The people she looks up to the most are Michishige Sayumi and Tsugunaga Momoko.
She has two younger sisters.
“Morning Musume” was one of her high school career choices.
In elementary school her mom says she used to always draw pictures of Michishige Sayumi and Niigaki Risa.
She is a former fashion model for the magazine Love Berry.
She is close friends with fellow Morning Musume member Ishida Ayumi and S/mileage member Wada Ayaka.
She considers fellow Morning Musume member Fukumura Mizuki to be her biggest rival.
Picspam:
Garry (with help from @Riochyu):
I’m going to be honest with you guys, I don’t know a ton about Iikubo Haruna. That’s partly my fault and partly because she isn’t talked about as much as a lot of the other members are. At least in the circles I’m active in. However, that doesn’t mean to say I can’t talk about the things I do know and do like about her. But first a video, because why not right?
If I was feeling really lazy I could have just put that video in here and called it a day. It’s a pretty decent overview of Harunan but there are a few things that it leaves out or doesn’t cover very well. Things that I personally like about her, like how she’s so positive about everything. You saw it in the video but she even finds the good in other people, no matter who they are.
This kind of earnest personality can be seen as being a bit weird (and Iikubo is a bit weird by idol standards) but I think it’s a really good thing to have. Especially in a group dynamic like Morning Musume. I can really see how Iikubo’s smile and positive outlook could really light up the room and that’s a fantastic thing to be able to do as an idol. Her “Do 100 good deeds a day” motto might be pushing her luck a little but if anyone could do it then it would be Iikubo Haruna.
It also can’t be denied that Iikubo Haruna is really quite pretty. Perhaps not in the traditional idol sense but I suppose someone else agrees with me because she had a pretty regular modeling gig before joining Morning Musume. I personally think she should still be getting a ton of modelling work and it’s a real shame that she isn’t but hopefully that will all come in time.
A pretty girl with an endearing personality, oh and she likes manga too. I suppose “likes manga” might not be a strong enough way of phrasing that as I’m sure you saw in the video. Her love of manga comes from her father who apparently has a lot of old books around the family home. She particularly enjoys the “Jojo’s” series and is known to quote lines and strike poses from it on a regular basis.
The final thing that I want to mention is getting pretty cliche at this point but Harunan really is a hard worker. Tsunku himself said that she passed the auditions mainly on looks and personality and not so much because of her singing and dancing ability at the time. He was however confident that she could bring those abilities up to par if given time.
While she still isn’t the best singer or dancer in Morning Musume, Iikubo really has come on a lot from when she first joined. Her belief that hard work pays off appears to be ringing true and I’m sure she’s just going to keep getting better and better as time goes on.
So there you have Iikubo Haruna. Morning Musume’s hard working, bundle of positive energy manga otaku. Hopefully this write-up did her justice but hey, if you have anything to add or would just like to leave a friendly message then the feel free to do so in the comment section below.
Biography and trivia courtesy of Hello!Project Wiki