Lily Hoshikawa

"“No, I’m never growing up!; Yes, I can and I’m going to (stay like this forever). I’ll always be just like this!”"

Lily Hoshikawa (星川 リリィ, Hoshikawa Ririi) was a breakout star in a long-running drama show and a famous actress who starred in multiple primetime shows of multiple networks.

After being resurrected from the dead, she becomes a member of the idol group Franchouchou and is titled as The Legendary Child Actress Prodigy (伝説の天才子役 Densetsu no Tensai Koyaku).

Personality
Lily is often seen with a smile, and due to her young age, she is also shown to be quite playful. She has also shown a professional aspect of her experiences before her death.

As befits her age, Lily is rather blunt, to the point it borders on rudeness. For example, when Kotaro reveals the Franchouchou shirts that they must wear for the Gatalympics, she immediately and gleefully declares that the shirts are trash-looking.

Shortly before her death, Lily was very concerned when her body began to enter puberty because she never wanted to become an adult and develop a body that would conflict with her gender identity.

One of her interests listed on the official site is heavy machinery magazines, which she will often be seen reading in the background. The end credits of Episode 8 also reveal a flashback of Lily and her father sitting together on a bulldozer.

She also has a relationship with Yugiri and likes to be told nice things, Despite being so young, she is quite mature mentally, possibly even more than the other girls who are older than her. Emotionally, however, she is still a young girl. When Sakura got depressed she got very sad knowing that she no longer remembered her and that the girl who once told her she was a star was no longer there. After trying to convince her, she was hurt Sakura's attitude and went to cry.

Despite not having a good relationship with her father before her death, it shows that she still loves him for everything he did for her. At first, she was puzzled and nervous when he appeared at the girls' performances. However, thanks to her and Franchouchou's efforts, she was able to patch the wound left by her last fight years ago and let go of the residual guilt. Her father was also able to let go of his guilt and move forward with his life after hearing the song she wrote for him.

Human
As a human, Lily has two bright blue pigtails with dark blue bows. She also has a large orange star and other stars in the middle of her hair. She has orange/yellow eyes and pale skin. She wears a school uniform which consists of a green shirt, a dark blue bow, a white skirt, brown shoes with white socks.

Lily had four stars on her head: the largest orange star represents pappy; the red second largest star represents her mother; the tiny yellow star hiding behind the large orange one represents Lily's role as Masao (the compliant son behind pappy's back); the tiny yellow star between the Orange and the Red represents Lily herself; Lily kept all four stars on her head until she saw pappy coming to her concert at the last moment, then she removed the Masao star.

Zombie
As a zombie, Lily has her literal heart stuck outside her body and like the other zombies, has blue-gray skin.

Idol
Her idol outfit changes throughout the series: On episodes 1-6, Lily wears a multi-colored t-shirt with light blue, pink and yellow, with the word "six" written on it, along with an yellow skirt with white ruffles. Using makeup, she and the other zombies make their skin look like a normal human. Lily also wears contact lenses to achieve her golden eyes that she had as a living person.

After Saga rock, her idol outfit changed to a red jacket with a plaid decoration, yellow skirt with cotton inside it and knee-high boots.

Skillset

 * Musical Talent - Lily has proven her musical abilities during her time as a successful child prodigy in the music industry.
 * Dancing - Similar to her musical talent, she is also adept at dancing.
 * Survival - Because she previously took part in a summer camp, she remembers her workouts and helps the girls start fires and other things when she is on the mountain.

Natural Abilities

 * Non-senescence - Because she is a zombie, Lily is given the ability to remain the age at which she died forever, so upon discovering this, Lily is happy with her new life. There is also no physical change after the resurrection process, as well as immunity against death. As she, along with the other girls, is able to endure circumstances that human bodies normally cannot handle, like the lightning bolt in the seventh episode, and instead of suffering a third degree burn, the girls end up becoming luminous and self-possessed -tuned voices.
 * Detachable Limbs - As a zombie, she also have the ability to detach and reattach parts of her body from their sockets with little to no effort, either intentionally or accidentally. This is partially demonstrated with her heart in various episodes that due to different circumstances is able to go out of its usual place and beat quite fast.
 * Phosphorescent Vision - Her undead blood-red eyes are shown to be able to glow in the dark.
 * Element Absorption - Their zombie bodies can speed up the process of absorbing chemicals like those seen in Episode 4 by instantly absorbing the medicinal patches causing their muscles to relax and not be as stiff, in addition to their subsequent concerts and practices continue to use the patches. In Episode 7, their bodies demonstrate a similar capacity to batteries by receiving an electrical discharge from lightning and glow a pale blue, as well as releasing laser beams with their fingers.

Etymology

 * The name Lily  is a feminine given name directly derived from the flower, lily.
 * Lillies are often used to represent purity, passion and rebirth.
 * Lily was also the name of the first woman to get SRS in Japan, as well as the chosen name for another popular trans character in anime (though they only chose the name in a part which the anime did not adapt)
 * Lily's former name Masao means "right, proper" (正) (masa) and "hero, manly" (雄) (o), which literally means "righteous man".
 * Lily's surname Hoshikawa means "star" (星) (hoshi) and "river, stream" (川) (kawa), which a possible homage to the stars she has in her hair and her attire (idol ribbon and in a flashback on Episode 8).



Trivia

 * Staff said they were aware of the "childish" aspects of Lily's design, like the width of her shoulders. They liked designing Lily's clothes, as she seems to be particularly important to the cuteness of the show.
 * Lily was only 12 years old when she died in 2011.
 * Lily died one month after her twelfth birthday.
 * Lily is the only one out of the zombie girls with an exposed organ. Her exposed and often rapidly beating heart represents her cause of death, a heart attack/cardiac arrest which was caused by mental shock.
 * Lily is the only zombie not shown with bandages or stitches (likely due to her death not being from an outward injury).
 * Lily is the first (and so far only) official LGBT+ character in the series and the first canonically transgender character in a popular idol franchise.
 * Lily was initially considered to be a pair of twins but was later merged into just one character.
 * Some people predicted her identity as a transgender female.
 * She is seen reading a magazine on heavy machinery.
 * Her reaction when Kotaro said they were going to the hot springs
 * The phrase "Age, gender and timeless" in the introduction of the official website
 * In the illustration of the swimsuit, she does not wear a bikini but pants.
 * In the description of the relation b/w/h
 * The name Lily itself has an alternate meaning, "a feminine man", although this would contradict Lily's identity as a girl.
 * She is the first to have her relatives be shown in the show. In her case, being her parents.
 * Lily does not like seaweed because it reminds her of the moment of her death.
 * She shares the same English voice actor as Yuki Kusakabe from Interviews with Monster Girls, and Tohru from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.
 * Her English voice actor also voices Ruby Kurosawa, another idol character from the anime series Love Live! Sunshine!!.
 * As of “Episode 13”, she works part-time for the local milk delivery service of their area.