Kirari Tsukishima (starring Koharu Kusumi)

KIRARI TSUKISHIMA (starring KOHARU KUSUMI)
In March 2006, Koharu Kusumi was announced to be the voice actress for the anime character, Kirari Tsukishima, of Kirarin☆Revolution, a new hit anime series to be released in Summer 2006. Koharu would not also be Kirari's voice actress, but also Kirari's live action character, which led Koharu to become an acting regular on the popular variety kids' show Oha Star. The anime, Kirarin☆Revolution is featured on TV Tokyo at 6:00 pm, the same station that hosts Morning Musume's variety show, Hello!Morning. Kirarin☆Revolution is an anime series based on the manga of the same title that has appeared in popular girls Shoujo Manga magazine, Ciao. Koharu has appeared in the magazine numerous times during her solo debut.

KIRARIN☆REVOLUTION SYNOPSIS
Kirarin☆Revolution is based on the story of a gluttonous 14-year-old beauty named Kirari Tsukishima, who cares nothing but of food, the main source of her social well being. Being a popular girl at her school already, she gives no fleeting thought to boys and peer pressure, nor does she care much for the idol boy group SHIPS, which the other girls are fond of. One day, she encounters a strange boy looking for his pet turtle, whom she saves, and in the act of removing it from a tree, she falls. The strange person catches her, and she seeks to find out who he is. Once given conert tour tickets to a SHIPS event, she attends looking to find him, only to find out that he is actually Seiji Hiwatari, a member of the SHIPS group. She also meets Hiroto Kazama, the other member. Her desire is to become an idol to be with Seiji. As the show progresses, Kirari finds that eventually becoming an idol is hard work. The show follows her and Naa-san (her pet...thing) as she progresses through the idol life, falls in love, and becomes an independent girl.

Kirari's domestic life involves her father, Takashi Tsukishima, her grandmother, and her older brother Subaru (who is also aspiring to be an idol, but in the US).

She attends an idol school, so she has to have friends and rivals. Her initial rival is Erina Ogura. Her stalker childhood friend with a huge nosebleed crush on her is Arashi Amamiya. Her friends before entering the idol school are Miyu and Sayaka.

As the anime continues, Kirari encounters more friends and enemies along the way. These include Hikaru Mizuki (Mai Hagiwara) who began as a rival and ended as a friend, Noel Yukino (Sayaka Kitahara) who is a 14 years old tomboyish girl and Cobeni Hanasaki (Yuu Kikkawa) who is a strange 14 years old girl. She is usually seen with a crystal ball.

KIRARI + FRIENDS
Koharu has released several singles and an album for the show. her first debut single was "Koi☆Kana", coupled with the ending song of the anime which she also sang called SUGAO flavor. Her biggest success was the song "Balalaika" for the second opening, coupled with "Mizuiro Melody", the third ending for the show. Video games for Nintendo DS such as Kira Kira Idol Audition and Naa-san to Issho have been released as well. in 2006, Koharu was the highest selling solo artist in H!P. In February 2008, Kirarin☆Revolution achieved a success of 400 million plays for the arcade dressing game, one of the biggest feats for like-styled arcade games in Japan.

Kirari's success did not end there. In 2007, the subgroup Kira☆Pika was formed based on Koharu and Mai Hagiwara (of C-ute)'s rival characters in the anime. They released the single "Hana wo Pun". Since then, KiraRebo's subgroups have only seen success. In 2008, MilkyWay, a group based on Koharu, Yuu Kikkawa, and Sayaka Kitahara's characters of the anime were formed; they released the popular single "Anataboshi". Also in 2008, the seiyuu for SHIPS members Seiji Hiwatari and Hiroto Kazama were changed to a more youthful Shikou Kanai and Takuya Ide (respectfully) to fit in for the new duo single release project the group was to participate in. The duo released "TOKYO friendSHIPS" that year as well. On the kids show "Oha Star", there were several VTR series made on the basis of these characters.