Trivia / Majisuka Gakuen

• Acting for Two: In the Majimuri stage play, Yokoyama Yui portrays Lily's mother in a Dream Sequence in addition to her main role as Ero-sensei. She reappears as Ero-sensei right after said dream sequence. Even better, the two characters knew each other.
• Actor-Shared Background: Many of the yankii nicknames and characterizations are taken from their actresses' quirks, gimmicks, incidents, or just their actual nicknames. To name several:
  • Salt's actress, Shimazaki Haruka/Paruru, is known to be salty (apathetic) towards her fans.
  • Miyawaki Sakura is also from Kagoshima in real life.
  • Otabe and her actress are both from Kyoto. Otabe is a famous brand from that city.
  • Center's nickname alludes to her actress, Matsui Jurina, being the youngest member to ever center an AKB major single ("Oogoe Diamond" in 2008). Season's 3 Nobunaga, also portrayed by Matsui, alludes to her leadership of SKE48 which is sometimes described as militaristic (Oda Nobunaga was also from Nagoya).
  • Coby's actress, Watanabe Miyuki/Milky, is very good at flattery (kobii). Her Catchphrase "jabu-jabu" ("jab-jab") parodies her actress's catch-phrase "chapu-chapu" ("splash-splash", i.e. bathing).
  • Bakamono's name and idiocy came from her actress's "stupid girl" public image, which was cemented by her placing last in the Mechaike variety show knowledge test and thus being appointed the leader of AKB48's idiots subunit BKA48. Bakamono literally means "stupid person".^* Her actress somewhat redeemed herself by successfully completing a challenge of passing a food coordinator certification, but is still not the brightest bulb in the box.
  • Wota's actress, Sashihara Rino, was a wota (idol superfan) before becoming an idol herself.
    • Her later nickname, Scandal, came from a high-profile sex scandal which led to her being reassigned to HKT48, then a newer and less-popular sister group, also referred to in the show as her being transferred to a school in Fukuoka. Whether or not the accusations were true, she acquired a reputation of being a sexually assertive woman who managed to use the scandal as a springboard to boost her popularity.^* As of 2017, she is the only 48 Group member to have topped their popularity election 3 times in a row. This is alluded to in the one-shot Majisuka Gakuen 0, as she (known as Ageman in the story, meaning "a woman who brings good fortune to a man") is the only character in the entire series shown to kiss a man, her ex-boyfriend named after and portrayed by Show of rock band Kishidan, and tells him that breaking up with him has made her stronger.
    • Her actress's transfer to JKT48 is often joked about in real life should she be caught in another scandal. TV shows in real life also often deliberately confuse HKT48 with JKT48 for comedic effect due to the similar name.
  • Katsuzetsu's name, meaning "speaking clearly", is an Ironic Nickname that pokes fun at her actress's lisp.
  • Katabutsu's name, meaning "straight-laced", refers to her actress's reputation of being a serious, straight-laced person.
    • In Cabasuka, she tries to drive away a stalking customer by telling him she's a lesbian. Her actress, Okada Nana, has come out as bisexual.
    • Her hostess name attentiveness to the awkward customer may be inspired by episode 266 of AKBingo!, where her actress was shown to have a remarkable level of attentiveness.
  • Jisedai's name, meaning "next generation", refers to her actress's status as one of AKB48's potential new aces after most of the original generation have graduated. In late 2018, she's nominated as the next General Manager of the group.
    • Her hostess name in Cabasuka, Fugu ("pufferfish"), refers to her chubby cheeks, which many find appealing especially when she's eating, which earned her actress, Mukaichi Mion, the nickname "Mogu Mogu Mion" ("Munching Mion").
  • Bunker in season 3 is named after sand traps in golf courses. Both she and her actress, Yamauchi Suzuran, love to play golf.
  • Lemon's actress is obsessed with the fruit. Sudachi, whom she also portrayed, is also a citrus fruit.
  • Shibuya is named after a fashion district in Tokyo and its iconic department store Shibuya109, of which her actress, Itano Tomomi, was a spokesperson.
  • Hachiko is named after a famous statue in the Shibuya district, because her actress's actual name is Shibuya Nagisa.
  • Black's nickname came from a TV prank in which her actress, Kashiwagi Yuki, was tricked into giving a very mean nickname to a studio crew member, leading the other members to call her "black-hearted".
  • Gekikara means "spicy"; both she and her actress, Matsui Rena, can eat very spicy food.
  • Yoga's actress, Iriyama Anna, is known for her "cool beauty" image. Her hostess name, Iruka (dolphin), probably came from the fact that the dolphin is one of the most inteligent marine lifeforms and her actress placed first in the same Mechaike test in which Bakamono's actress placed last.
  • Kenpou's actress, Uchiyama Natsuki, is said to know the whole Japanese Kenpou (national constitution) by heart, and has co-authored a book on the subject. She is currently known as a "constitution idol" and often appears in political TV shows.
  • Bungee's actress was the fastest to complete a bungee jumping challenge in a variety show.
  • Minami's restaurant's name, Asobina, is a homophone of her actress's catchphrase, which means "go play" or "have fun", but written with different kanji.
  • Mirror's actress, Kojina Yui, infamously checked herself in a mirror just before accepting her Senbatsu Election award. And did it again the next year.
  • Shaku's nickname means "screentime"; her actress, Minegishi Minami, has a gimmick of being obsessed with obtaining TV screentime.
  • Kurofune's nickname means "black ship", referring to those used by the United States Navy in 19th century's Perry Expedition to force Japan to abandon its isolationist policy. Her actress, Hirata Rina, was raised in Arizona, USA.
  • Tetsugaku (philosophy) refers to her actress, Sutou Ririka, who is an aspiring philosopher (her favorite seems to be whom she calls Nietzsche-senpai) and has co-written a book on the subject.
  • Kaibun (palindrome), otherwise known as Tsun, refers to her actress, Mutou Tomu, who has a tsundere image and whose name is a palindrome if written in Japanese script (むとう とむ).
• Compressed Adaptation - The fact that Black was a single mom was meant to be shown in Season 1, but therewas not enough time to write in it, so they moved it to Season 2.
• The Danza: The majority of the characters' known real names are the names of the idols playing them, even though they're only known by their nicknames.
  • Salt is revealed in season 5 to share her real name with her actress, Shimazaki Haruka. However, in Cabasuka, which is set in an Alternate Universe where the events in season 5 never happen, she is revealed to be an undercover police detective working with Detective Asaba from the police drama Keishichou Nasi Goreng-ka, also starring Shimazaki Haruka, which implies that the Salt in Cabasuka's timeline and the detective portrayed by her actress in Keishichou are the same person: Kazahaya Kyoko, Chief of the Nasi Goreng Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. On the other hand, Kazahaya Kyoko might also have been a new name she created to distance herself with her past.
  • Averted in Majimuri Gakuen.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Justified since the yankees are poor students and therefore Held Back in School. Yokoyama Yui (Otabe) had been in the cast since season 2, when she was actually high school-aged, and was almost 23 by the time Cabasuka aired.
  • Three out of six Hana-gumi members, namely Mukaichi Mion (Bara), Okabe Rin (Hina), and Takahashi Ayane (Tsubaki), were in their early twenties. So were all the stage play's named Arechi students, except for Fukuoka Seina (Zombie).
  • The Strongest Men in History in Majimuri are supposed to be high school yankees. The youngest actor portraying them is Suzuki Takayuki, then 28, and the oldest is Dramatic Dream Team's Sakaguchi Yukio (Gigant Kong) at 45.
• Edited for Syndication - In some regions of Japan, some of the more bloody and gory scenes in Episode 8 (due to Gekikara's gory character) were edited/censored, or even completely cut.
  • Banned Episode - In Season 5, due to being Bloodier and Gorier than any other season, only two episodes aired on TV, and the rest were only accessible on Hulu.
• Playing Against Type: While most of the characters have quirks based on those of the actresses portraying them, in general they are your typical fresh-faced and bubbly idol singers playing tough teenage fighters.
  • Oguri Yui is generally regarded as one of the bishoujo of the group and representative of kawaii in both looks and personality, yet her character Lily in Majimuri, while ladylike, is pretty much a Perpetual Frowner.
• Underage Casting: Ero-sensei seems like a normal young schoolteacher, until she reveals in the stage play that she went to school with Lily's mother, despite Yokoyama Yui being only 9 years older than Oguri Yui. She also portrays said mother in a Dream Sequence.
• You Look Familiar: There are several members who play multiple roles throughout the series.
  • Matsui Jurina - Center/Kurage and Nobunaga
  • Shimazaki Haruka - Kanburi, Paru, and Salt
  • Kizaki Yuria - Peace and Magic
  • Yokoyama Yui appeared in all iterations of the series except for season 3, 0 (all-HKT48 cast), Lost in the Supermarket, and Rai (all-Team 8 cast). She was an unnamed background character in season 1, Otabe in the rest of Majisuka, and Ero-sensei in Majimuri.
  • Some members who appear in the musicals play different roles from their drama counterparts.
    • The second musical (which took place after Season 5) actually had Takahashi Juri, Oshima Ryoka, Kojima Mako, and Tano Yuka portray the younger sisters of their drama counterparts because... they died.