Misakoko

"(If I were Misaki now, I wouldn't be able to say it back. But because I'm Michelle...) ... I love you too, Kokoro-chan."

- Misaki while wearing Michelle in "On Such A Day You Can't Take It Off" Ending Chapter

Misakoko is the femslash ship between Misaki Okusawa and Kokoro Tsurumaki from the BanG Dream! fandom.

Canon
Misaki and Kokoro are second-year high school students at Hanasakigawa Girls High School as well as members of the band Hello, Happy World!, where Kokoro is their vocalist and Misaki serves the band's composer, as well as the DJ under the guise of Michelle the bear. The two are polar opposites: while Kokoro is hyperactive, extremely optimistic, impulsive, does anything as long as it seems fun and regarded as bit of a crazy girl, Misaki is more logical, calmer, and tends to be deadpan, but she also tends to get swayed by Kokoro's antics and ideas. Although she initially disliked her role as Michelle, Misaki comes to tolerate it and eventually like it thanks to Kokoro's help and endless enthusiasm. Misaki is also the only one who can decipher Kokoro's hums and melodies and able to compose them into songs, which shocks many characters and is something Misaki thinks as nothing special.

I Need You!
In Hello, Happy World!'s Second Band Story, as Hello, Happy World! proposes to revive the Smile Land in order to keep it from closing, Misaki starts being worried about her position in the band. She starts feeling unwanted and useless because she is nothing but "Michelle's agent" and thinks that everyone only wants Michelle around, especially because everyone else starts taking her other jobs and she has been doing nothing but performing as Michelle. In Chapter 8, Kokoro and Hagumi approach Misaki and apologize for not taking Misaki's feelings into consideration. Misaki claims she only took her other jobs in the band because nobody else could do them and how they particularly didn't make her happy, which leads to Kokoro asking why she's not smiling if that's the case. Misaki gets agitated and dodges the question by mentioning that the lesson is going to start.

In Chapter 10, after school Kokoro greets Misaki in the sunset-tinted classroom and invites her to go to Smile Land together. Misaki rejects her invitation and the two end up having a discussion where Kokoro suggests different things to ease Misaki's pain. Misaki gets mad at Kokoro and yells at her, telling she could never understand what Misaki is going through because Kokoro never has any serious worries. Kokoro then runs into Kanon at the school gates and the latter realizes Kokoro is feeling sad over not being able to help Misaki. In Chapter 11, Kokoro goes back to the classroom to talk to Misaki, even when Misaki is trying to push her away. Kokoro says she stopped trying to understand Misaki, and Misaki brings up an old memory where Kokoro told Misaki how she "has a hard time dealing with people who are being pessimistic". Kokoro asks if she truly said that and Misaki grieves, before Kokoro points out Misaki isn't being negative, but she's just rather looking for a reason to be part of the band, which is super positive. Misaki gives up and tells Kokoro to leave her alone, but Kokoro tells her she shouldn't be alone when she's thinking about something positive and fun. Kokoro starts talking how the band could only have so much fun because they were together, and starts mentioning times Misaki made others happy and how only she could have done that, but Misaki debases Kokoro's mentions claiming they wouldn't have necessarily needed her. Misaki tells Kokoro to not make a big deal out of them, and Kokoro asks why Misak should be the one to decide that when it should be the people who started smiling instead. Kokoro says she'll go to the courtyard to draw just how big her smile was when Misaki made her happy, and Misaki starts laughing and thanks Kokoro as she realizes how much she's done for the band after all.

We're All Here! New Year's Party!!
In the event, all of the 25 girls assemble at CiRCLE for the New Year's party and host a talent show, with Kasumi and Aya narrating the whole thing. Misaki and Kokoro end up participating in it and their part is shown in Chapter 4. They show off their juggling skills and Misaki mentions how she had to a lot of training while Kokoro basically realized how it's all done after a few attempts. Misaki claims she's only there because Kokoro forced her to, but the two end up doing their act perfectly, and Saaya points out they look while professional jugglers, while Arisa comments "Okusawa-san made it sound like she didn't really care, but she clearly spent a lot of time practicing. There's no way she'd be able to do all this if she hadn't". Kokoro is surprised that everyone is shocked before telling Misaki they need to move to their main act and how the beginning was just a warm-up. After their whole show, Aya is impressed that Kokoro juggled while riding a unicycle. Kokoro suggests they should add juggling as a staple for their band's performances, but Misaki shoots down her idea, and Kokoro asks if just Michelle should do it instead.

Fanon
Misakoko one of the most popular ships in the fandom. It is Kokoro's most popular, and Misaki's 2nd popular (with Misakanon being her most popular alternative) in the Western fandom, and also the 10th most written ship on AO3. Meanwhile it is both Kokoro and Misaki's most popular ship in the Eastern fandom.

The ship is often praised for its very well-written and likeable portrayal of weirdo x straight man dynamics that strike a good balance between comedic scenes and bonding moments between characters, while other such popular ships like the Kaochisa or KasuAri are sometimes criticized for having too strong classic tsundere and love-hate tropes. This also has a positive effect on the ship's popularity among those who ship Misakoko as BrOTP, which is why this ship is incredibly popular even among those who are not involved in shipping and read the girls' relationship as platonic.

Although initially Misaki was very salty or even irritable towards Kokoro, whom she calls "one of the three dummies", she gradually begins to become more sympathetic and understanding towards her, leading to her attitude towards Kokoro gradually turning into tsudereness and Misaki increasingly blushing as she realizes that she wants to be friends with Kokoro and appreciates her interactions with her. This naturally fueled their shipping more and more, making the Misakoko one of the most popular and positively rated ships in fandom, even leading to the relationship between Rinku and Maho, D4DJ's central characters, being inspired by this ship.

However, it has also had its fair share of drama, most of it happening during 2018, when the Worldwide server went live. The biggest ones accusing the ship having a power imbalance, as well as being abusive due to the way Kokoro used to treat Misaki in the beginning (such as her not remembering who Misaki is, making some speculate that Kokoro hates or is trying to manipulate Misaki), or how shipping Kokoro with anyone - especially Misaki - is problematic due to her hyperactive and childish personality. What also added fuel to the fire was people claiming that Misaki hates Hello, Happy World! because of her constant sarcastic jabs and grumbling about the band and especially Kokoro's ideas, even after the first Misaki-centered event "Hello, My Happy World" happened.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Misaki/Kokoro tag on FanFiction.net
 * Misaki/Kokoro tag on FanFiction.net

FAN ART

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * In one of the early area conversations, Kokoro invites Misaki to walk home with her, and Misaki starts blushing after Kokoro says she wants to talk and hang out with her more.
 * The two were classmates in their first high school year.
 * Misaki and Kokoro were the 3rd pair for bilibili's collaboration with the Chinese server of Girls Band Party (and specifically, bilibili's 12th Anniversary).