SayoHina

"Before, it was constantly raining. It was so cold and unrelenting that even using an umbrella felt meaningless. The sounds around me were all drowned out and it was nearly impossible to see a path forwards. But after a while, it was like something gradually came into view. Cautiously, I lowered the umbrella I was holding. I looked up at the sky I hadn't seen in a long time, and it wasn't as dark as I expected. Instead, the light of a radiant sun was peeking through the gaps in the clouds."

- Band life with Change, translation by Rachael

SayoHina is the family ship between Sayo Hikawa and Hina Hikawa from the BanG Dream! fandom.

Canon
Hina and Sayo are twin sisters; Sayo is the elder, while Hina is the younger. Hina is a genius who can do things at first try, but easily gets bored of them while Sayo is a hard worker who often spends a lot of time mastering her skills and needs more time to learn. Sayo is serious, stiff and stoic, while in contrast Hina is very bubbly, carefree and optimistic; however due to her genius nature she has trouble understanding peoples' struggles. Both were also members of their schools' student councils: Hina was Haneoka Girls' Academy's student council president during her third year, while Sayo also doubled as a discipline committee member in Hanasakigawa Girls' Academy. They both currently attend Keiho Women's University where Hina majors in Humanities and Sayo majors in Law.

Ever since the two were young, Hina had always bested Sayo in everything due to her genius nature, from simple things to test scores. As a result Sayo formed a severe inferiority complex towards Hina, and as they got older, Sayo's feeling of inadequacy caused her to drift away from her twin, until eventually she began trying to shut her out of her life entirely.

In Roselia's First Band Story, which tells the story of how Roselia was formed, Hina and Sayo's strained relationship is shown in detail. Sayo dislikes the burden of being Hina's older sister and getting constantly compared to her. She even started playing guitar only because it was something Hina wasn't doing, and because she wanted to beat Hina at something for once. This is also her biggest motive for joining and creating Roselia together with the band's vocalist Yukina.

Their first scene together is shown when Hina invites Sayo to come and watch a TV show about dogs with her and their father, where Sayo reveals Hina doesn't even like dogs, but the latter just wants to spend time with Sayo. This leads to Sayo getting angry, saying how just because they were born on the same day doesn't mean they need to do everything together, and how they promised to not get in each other's hair once they started high school. Hina then apologizes and leaves Sayo's room.

In Chapter 10, Hina talks to Lisa asking whether she'd really joined a band with Sayo, and then reveals that Sayo never tells Hina anything about herself. She then proceeds to ask whether Sayo has fun and looks happy while Roselia is practicing. When Sayo finds out that Hina has joined Pastel*Palettes as their guitarist in Chapter 11, she becomes enraged and ends up blowing off at Roselia due to Ako praising her older sister Tomoe. In Chapter 13, she almost passes out due to practicing too hard at home, which leads to Hina entering her room in worry, and Sayo yelling at her to leave. In Chapter 17, after Roselia broke up due to Yukina hiding her true intentions for creating Roselia, Hina finds Sayo practicing in her room and asks if she's going to quit playing. She then goes to comment how Sayo's playing sounds more individual and not as robotic as it used, which leads to Sayo telling her to leave but in a softer tone. In the final Chapter of their Band Story, one of Hina's fans approaches Sayo while they're at the family restaurant, asking if she's related Hina. Sayo answers "yes" and after the girls leave, thinks how she'll most likely never be able to escape Hina's shadow.

In the third chapter of the event "Past Aspirations and Pastel Futures", after Hina and her band members talk about their aspirations and why they got into music, Hina tells Sayo that she is the reason why Hina started playing the guitar. She talks about how being in the band has made her more aware of people and understanding the importance of teamwork, and it's all thanks to Sayo; after that, Sayo says that while it was very stressful that Hina quickly exceeded her, but it also motivated to push her harder and join Roselia, which is something Sayo is also thankful for. The two then make a promise that neither will stop playing the guitar, and if they do, they'll never forgive each other.

Their first major event together (outside of their respective band stories) in the game is "Wish Upon a Tanzaku". Hina wants to invite Sayo to the Tanabata Festival, but the latter is not warming up to the idea as she dislikes big crowds and festivals. Hina then goes to the festival all by herself, and while writing her tanzaku, she ends up running to Sayo who was running an errand for their parents. The two stand around awkwardly before a bird steals Hina's tanzaku and they start chasing after it. They arrive at a park which the two used to frequently go to when they were younger, and find Hina's tanzaku from the ground while reminiscing old times. Sayo also learns that Hina is part of Haneoka's Astronomy Club, which is also called the "Weirdos Club". After a while the twins return downtown where they spend time together, and Sayo writes a tanzaku as well wishing "they could be open and honest with each other", while thinking it'll eventually happen. Hina also reveals that her wish on her tanzaku was "having a fun day together with Sis". Aside from being the 4★ pair for the event gacha, they are featured in each others' untrained arts, and wear costumes inspired by Orihime and Hikoboshi in their trained arts. Lisa also compares them to Orihime and Hikoboshi in the event-related 4-panel comic titled "Hikawa Tanabata Legend", thinking "Sayo and Hina... It's as if there's a strange something that separates the two of them."

The second, and most popular event between them, is the "Umbrella For The Autumn Rain" event which begins with Sayo seeing Hina perform on TV, leading to her compare their sounds and wonder if hers is lifeless and dull, despite being a precise player, and Hina constantly complimenting how much better her playing started sounding earlier in the story. This leads to Sayo falling into a slump, performing badly during Roselia's practices, comparing herself to the other band members and eventually refusing to play the guitar. After talking with Yukina, and Ako's older sister Tomoe, she realizes she needs to face Hina head-first and talk to her about her complex. Sayo ends up skipping Roselia's practice that day, and it suddenly starts raining heavily. Hina barges into Roselia's practice wanting to bring an umbrella for Sayo, but ends up finding that Sayo has gone somewhere else. The two then meet downtown, and Sayo ends up breaking down due to realizing how she always keeps rejecting and pushing Hina away, yet Hina still keeps coming back to her.

In Sayo's 3★ card story, their moment before heading home is shown. As the two walk downtown, Hina asks if Sayo is okay, with the latter telling her not to be concerned over her. She then thinks how pathetic it must be to just make Hina do nothing but worry about her. Hina proceeds to break the ice by talking about Pastel*Palettes, with Sayo thinking how she's being considerate of her feelings. Sayo then asks if Hina enjoys being in Pastel*Palettes, the latter answers positively, and then invites Sayo to come and visit their agency's office because everyone else in Pastel*Palettes has wanted a chance to talk with Sayo, thanks to how much Hina talks about her. She then mentions place near the office that makes "yummy beef stew," before apologizing and remembering that Sayo hates carrots. Sayo pays no mind to it before Hina asks if she remembers just why Sayo hates carrots a lot, before Hina reminisces how she was the one who hated carrots, but Sayo would always eat Hina's, before being scolded by their parents for not eating hers, leading her to develop her distaste for the vegetable. Surprisingly, the memory was so terrible to Sayo that she blocked it from her mind, as she confesses that she can't even remember what caused her to develop her distaste for them. Hina apologizes for being able to stand them while she "just kept making Sayo's life harder," before Sayo is surprised by the fact that she was actually able to do something for the former. Hina then thanks her and the two continue their walk home.

When the two get home, Sayo apologizes for crying and then decides to confront Hina about everything. During their confrontation Sayo explains her inferiority complex towards Hina, how she loathes herself for not being able to make the wish on her tanzaku come true, and how her playing is truly dull. Hina gets mad at Sayo saying she'll quit the guitar, and reminds Sayo that she is the reason why Hina started playing guitar in the first place; how she doesn't care if Sayo ends up hating her more, as long as she keeps playing. This causes Sayo to snap out of her state and tell Hina how she wishes to be able to walk by her side one day and feel pride in the sound she makes. The event's main song Determination Symphony's lyrics also talks about their relationship, with lines such as "Play it with your fingers that are tied to a promise" and "The one that greeted this pouring sadness is the umbrella of smiles; it's watching over us, kindly holding on".

Their third event together is "Twin Star Ensemble", in which Hina finds out that her Astronomy Club is going to be disbanded unless she provides tangible proof her club is doing its activities properly. She asks Sayo for help, and despite reprimanding her, decides to help Hina out with planning a stargazing event. Sayo goes and lends out astronomical books from Hanasakigawa's student library and tries reading the club's journals in order to understand what Hina finds so fascinating about them. Hina later shares a story to Lisa, Kokoro and Tsugumi how Sayo has always been a serious and sweet older sister to the point where Hina made her cry thinking about a reason for why animals could talk in a book they were reading together. Their stargazing event ends up being successful and Sayo says that it's fine they don't think the same way about everything and how everyone should be brilliant in their own way, similarly to the Gemini constellation.

Their fourth and most recent event together is "Prismatic Duo", where the twins' past is shown, as well as the present Sayo struggling with creating Hina the perfect song as her Christmas present. In the event, it's also shown that Sayo used to refer to Hina with the -chan honorific, while Hina has always referred to Sayo as "Onee-chan."

The event begins with Sayo thinking how she's finally started loving her own sound and has been able to move forward, not only because of Roselia, but because of Hina as well. While composing, Hina knocks on her door, telling she's coming in before Sayo tells her to wait for her to clean up, with Hina commenting how Sayo's room is way cleaner than hers. Despite this she waits like Sayo told her to, and when entering Hina notices Sayo has a lot of notebooks on her table, before saying she's happy Sayo's still using Hina's late-summer greeting card as a decoration. Sayo then says she also watched one of Hina's TV programs, which makes Hina express how happy she is over learning that Sayo watches all of the programs Hina is in, which Sayo tries hiding with a "I'm just worried about what you might say while being filmed." Hina then asks if Sayo is free on Christmas Eve, and excitedly invites her to hang out and spend the day together with her. After mentioning just how important it would be for her, Sayo accepts her offer, after which Hina asks if there are any specific places Sayo wants to visit, and promises she'll plan out the greatest day for the two of them. In the next Chapter, Sayo runs into Tomoe after doing some solo practice in CiRCLE, and Tomoe asks if she was composing a new song. The two proceed to talk a bit about Ako, which ends with Sayo complimenting Tomoe for being a wonderful sister. Tomoe then asks what Sayo and Hina will be gifting each other this year. Sayo flinches a bit, before telling how "no matter what I give to Hina, she's always over the moon about it", and how both relate to how hard it is sometimes to choose gifts. Sayo then proceeds to tell Tomoe about one of the Christmas memories she has with Hina.

The young Sayo is about to go outside for an errand, before Hina excitedly runs to her and asks if she can come with her. Sayo tells her no, because Hina always ends up going somewhere in the middle of it, but Hina loudly insists she's coming. Their parents then ask if they're fighting, and Sayo tells them Hina is just being selfish. Hina starts crying a bit, before Sayo's expression softens and she extends her hand, telling her to hold tight so they won't get separated. Hina, being as energetic as ever, decides to start chasing a leaf that's going down the riverside's stream while holding Sayo's hand, and after a while Sayo tells her to stop and let go of her hand. Out of breath, she tells her they need to go and buy the things their parents asked them to, and warns Hina about running since she might accidentally drop something, especially the shopping list. Hina asks why she'd need it when she already memorized everything that their mother told to Sayo after one time, before listing off everything on the list. Sayo, left in awe, then declines she can't remember things so easily as Hina does, showing one of the things that caused Sayo to slowly but surely form her inferiority complex. Hina then starts chasing a bird and the two get separated. Sayo then starts crying, thinking she's failed her duty as an older sister, before telling herself to go and find Hina. Sayo runs downtown before getting lost herself and starts yelling Hina's name, before coming across a huge Christmas tree.

In Sayo's 4★ card story, as the young Sayo and Hina are on their way home, they end up in front of a fast food restaurant. Hina begs Sayo to go in with her because she found the smell coming out of the restaurant delicious. Sayo scolds her because they still have to eat dinner at home, but then Hina manages to convince her to go in there. The two of them order french fries for the first time, and after struggling a bit with money, manage to buy them and start walking home while eating them. Both twins find them delicious, and then Sayo tells Hina to keep it a secret from their parents.

In the "We're All Here! New Year's Party!!" event, in which all of the 25 girls assemble at CiRCLE for the New Year's party, Hina signed her and Sayo up for the party's talent contest without the latter's knowledge, though she accepts the challenge. In their part they pull off two tablecloths off the table without breaking anything, where Hina also reveals they used to do it often when they were younger. After they successfully pull the trick off, Kasumi and Aya comment how in sync they are.

In BanG Dream! 2nd Season, Hina confronts Sayo and Rinko Shirokane, Sayo's fellow bandmate and their school's student council president, about holding a joint cultural festival. In the 9th episode, "School Festival Symphony", where the girls perform in order to buy time for Poppin'Party's cultural festival performance, Hina offers Sayo her guitar which she uses to play Determination Symphony with. In BanG Dream! 3rd Season, Hina is shown taking care of Sayo when she is laying in her bed due to a high fever.

Hina is also very affectionate and often says she loves Sayo, which tends to embarrass and make the latter blush. Hina has also expressed envy for her bandmate Aya for attending the same school as Sayo. In one of the Lounge conversations between Tsugumi and Hina, Hina is talking about what she and Sayo had done together. Tsugumi then giggles and says that Hina truly likes Sayo, which the latter confirms, and then proceeds to say that she loves Sayo. Adding to this, in one of their Live interactions, Hina yells "I love you, Sis! ("Onee-chan, daiiisuki!" in Japanese)".

Quotes
"You want to know more about Hina? She's someone I treasu... no, it's nothing."

- Sayo's Menu Line

"... Now, I need to clean up and get back to my room before Hina gets here. I already know what she'll say if she sees me. "Sis, you look so happy~! Something good happened to you, didn't it~?!" ... Fufu."

- Sayo in "Yukina's Special Cookies"

"No, I am looking forward to what will happen next. Since we will be able to gain a great deal of experience after we debut... We should be able to take what we've developed so far, and develop it dozens of times over. Just as we have up until now, the five of us will continue to work together to face the music we create. If we can do that, then I am certain... This is kind of personal, but... I think that then, I might be able to stand with pride on the same stage as Hina."

- Sayo in "At Her Side"

Fanon
Sayohina has a very mixed reception in the fandom.

In the Eastern side of the fandom, it is the most popular ship, has the most fanart and fanfictions and even had a doujin event (which was held on March 21, 2019) solely dedicated to the ship and both girls separately, and it is ultimately treated as a femslash ship. Most of the fanart is romantic or angsty in nature. Though some people shipped them before any major events, the ship's popularity raised through the roof with the Wish Upon a Tanzaku and Umbrella For The Autumn Rain events, which both deepened their complex relationship. The fact that the two were also depicted as Orihime and Hikoboshi, the star-crossed lovers, as the gacha 4* pair for the Wish Upon a Tanzaku event also helped. This positive feedback has somehow led Craftegg to be more or less neutral about pairing so as not to quarrel with the fanbase, although sometimes they make efforts to support or launch other ships with twins. For example, when Sayo dramatically increased interaction with other characters, including Tsugumi, or when Hina became the center of several events paired with other characters. After Season 2 of the franchise started, and with Hina becoming the student council president of Haneoka, she started getting paired up with Tsugumi more; through this the poly ship Sayotsuguhina was born.

In the Western side of the fandom, people who support it romantically are in the minority. While there are people who support it platonically and expressed their love for their sibling relationship, as well as their development, the ship itself is heavily disliked and controversial due to their blood relation. In fact many people have even gone as far sent death threats to people who ship Sayohina romantically, tried getting players who shipped it openly banned from the game and ignored its prevalence in the Eastern side of the fandom. Other examples of the fandom acting aggressive towards the shippers include Hina or Sayo roleplaying accounts on Twitter claiming the girls would hate everyone who ships them together.

At some point, the hate reached such a level that any use of the word "Sayohina" as an abbreviation for twins, or even a simple expression of love for both twins, could be regarded as supporting incest or incest fantasy, and as a result, get strong negative reactions like to the person and the characters themselves. The ship is also disliked by many people who either ship Ayahina and Sayotsugu or both.

The hate for the ship in the Western side of the fandom culminated when an user named "tsuugusayo" started spamming the comment sections for most, if not all Sayohina fanfics in AO3 with lyrics of certain BanG Dream! songs in August 2020. They even went as far spamming 10 fanfictions in the same tag, with all of the fics being filled with nothing but death threats and insults, and name-calling and insulting everyone who expressed concern over the AO3 account's obsessive nature in their fanfictions' comment sections.

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Trivia

 * Sayo is 161 cm tall, while Hina is 156 cm.
 * The girls' names are parallel to each other; the "Yo" in Sayo's name means "Night", while the "Hi" in Hina's name means "Day".
 * One of their alternative ship names, "3417", which is also commonly used in the Eastern fandom, is a play on words with their names (34 meaning "Sayo" and 17 meaning "Hina").
 * Both of them love trash food, especially french fries (despite Sayo stubbornly denying it).
 * Hina and Sayo's voice actresses, Ari Ozawa and Haruka Kudou, have also shown support for the ship multiple times. Haruka even quote-tweeted a tweet talking about a BanG Dream! 3rd Season pre-release event with one of the Japanese tags for the ship.
 * In an interview, Ari also mentioned that she has asked Craftegg multiple times for a Sayohina cover song, and even suggested certain songs as the cover, but they have not done this yet.
 * However they later sang the line "The more we learn about each other, the more we learn about happiness" together in CiRCLE THANKS MUSiC♪.
 * In BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO Episode 24, which is titled "Twin Rhythm", it is shown that the two share some kind of telepathic connection.
 * As of February 2023, the episode is the second most watched video, and the most watched BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO episode on the official English BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! channel with over 1 million views.
 * Hina is the only person Sayo refers to with her first name and without honorifics.
 * According to the 4-frame comic titled "The Translators", Sayo is somewhat able to understand "people who speak through their feelings" especially because of Hina.
 * In the Pastel*Palettes! Deserted Island Idols event, where Hina and her band members go into a deserted island in order to film a TV special, each of the members was allowed to bring one item with them. Hina bought a picture of Sayo with her, saying that she can sleep like a baby while around it.
 * In one of Hina's 2019 Birthday lounge conversations, Sayo gives her a present which happens to be a pendant with the Gemini constellation on it. Lisa, who is also there with them, says Sayo spent a lot of time looking for it, which in turn makes Sayo blush and tell Lisa to not "say anything unnecessary". In another, the other members of Pastel*Palettes give Hina tickets to the planetarium as a present, and Chisato suggests that she should invite Sayo to go with her.
 * In one of the lounge conversations between Sayo and Kokoro (titled "Stargazing"), Kokoro mentions that she had gone stargazing with Hina the other day. Right after that, Kokoro says that Hina talked about nothing but Sayo throughout their trip, which leads to Sayo blushing and stuttering.
 * In a New Year's map conversation, Hina is crying over the fact that Sayo didn't send her a New Year's card, which just makes Sayo shrug it off with a "we live in the same house, so why should I?"
 * In the opening chapter of TITLE IDOL, Hina says she wishes they could have more free time so she could spend even more time with Sayo.
 * The two frequently mention each other in their menu dialogues. Examples include:
 * In a 2021's Summer menu dialogue, Hina mentions that she and Sayo are going to wear matching yukatas while going to watch the fireworks show. Sayo also mentions this in her one of her dialogues.
 * Hina mentions Sayo in two of her 2021 Autumn dialogues. In one of them, she says she'll buy enough of the limited autumn-flavored french fries to share with her, while in the second, she tells herself to remember and tell Sayo about how beautiful the autumn moon looks.
 * In Hina's 2021 Halloween menu dialogue, Hina says Trick or Treat before asking Sayo for candy. In Sayo's, she says that Hina always causes a ruckus during Halloween.
 * In one of Sayo's 2022 Spring dialogues, she says she was predicting that Hina would invite her to go watch the cherry blossoms with her, so she [Sayo] started already looking up perfect spots for cherry blossom viewing.
 * In one of Sayo's 2022 Summer dialogues, she states she is worried about Hina's nutritional balance because the latter is eating ice cream every day, while Hina excitedly mentions she's going to share the ice cream she bought with Sayo.
 * In Hina's 2023 Valentine's menu dialogue, she smugly reminds herself to give some chocolate to Sayo after work.
 * In one of Sayo's 2023 Summer menu dialogues, she mentions having to turn off the air conditioning after Hina fell asleep while using it.
 * In one of Hina's 2023 Autumn dialogues, she mentions while smiling and blushing that she's going to go harvest some pears with Sayo after school.
 * In an area conversation between Pastel*Palettes in the special Christmas area, Hina mentions she often wished for matching things (such as gloves) or the same thing as Sayo for Christmas presents.
 * After it was revealed that Sayo would be Makima in the in-game collaboration with Chainsaw Man, many people joked that Hina would willingly and gladly become Sayo-Makima's dog.