Why does Super Sonico always wear headphones?

Question

Just as the title asks, why does Super Sonico always wear those headphones? Is there a reason behind it, or is this just the design Nitroplus came up with?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:54

I discovered an interesting piece of information to add to Dimitri mx's answer while I was researching my answer to Why is Super Sonico famous?. It turns out that Super Sonico was originally designed as the mascot for Nitroplus's music festival, Nitro Super Sonico, as documented on Super Sonico Wiki and Wikipedia. Nitroplus, though primarily a visual novel company, had apparently held this music festival for several years before they introduced Super Sonico as its mascot in 2006. In-universe, Super Sonico is a singer (and gravure model, of course); she had some very out-of-universe albums and singles released, which may have set off the tidal rush of Super Sonico love that resulted in the manga, visual novel, and anime.

So it made sense, when Super Sonico was first designed, to give her a pair of headphones: she was the mascot for a music festival, after all, and a singer herself. Dimitri mx's answer explains why she almost never takes them off.

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:17

I believe this is an example of the Never Bareheaded trope in combination with the Nice Hat trope.

Never Bareheaded: A character always appears wearing a headdress of some kind, and never, ever takes it off. It doesn't have to be a hat, any kind of headgear is fine. Furthermore, it doesn't always have to be the same headgear, the point is that this character is never seen bare-headed. This gives him a certain mystique, since while it might just be that he wears the hat because he feels like it, the fact remains that we never learn what his hatless head looks like.

Nice Hat: To show that you mean business, it's important to have style. Enter: the nice hat. It may actually have utility — even conveying special powers — but more often than not it just looks cool, or even just sexy.

Considering that Super Sonic is pretty much a half-naked model for Nitroplus, the Nice Hat trope "sexy" part does most certainly fit this description.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 30 '14 at 11:20

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Character design distinction. Remove the headphones and she'll be any anime character with pink long hair and yeah, large oppai.
Conceal ears. Idk, I haven't probably seen an ear of a long haired female character.
Her headphones can be also sold as a character product so yeah, more $$$.

This is just my opinion though.

edited May 30 '14 at 11:20

Izumi-reiLuLu

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answered Jan 22 '14 at 09:29

Dahh

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 31 '15 at 19:17

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Sonico is a robot, pretty much. If you take the headphones off, she breaks. See this link:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/01/22-1/super-sonico-child-version-figure-previewed

answered Dec 31 '15 at 19:17

chelsea

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((it was pretty much confirmed by sentai filmworks, not nitroplus, but whatever – chelsea Dec 31 '15 at 19:19

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 15 '17 at 12:36

In the game Sonicomi, there is a secret ending (ending 18), where if you touch Sonico's headphones she will say "- the demonic signal will be released and something terrible will happen! Everyone will die! So you can't touch them!". Touching them will result in a zombie apocalypse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROcp5DJQBu4). Not sure if this answers the question though.

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 10 '17 at 06:59

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Maybe Super Sonico has hearing problems and the headphones are hearing aids. In the anime she uses 4 alarm clocks to wake up.

answered Mar 10 '17 at 06:59

AlliSEMS-San

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This was already proposed in another answer and disproven in a comment on that answer. Please read all other answers before posting to be sure you're adding something new. – Torisuda Mar 12 '17 at 01:45

score -3 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 26 '15 at 08:13

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She could be deaf and those headphones serve to help her hear, I mean if it is never addressed then it should be assumed that the information is common knowledge in that universe, maybe they serve to let her hear

I see them in a similar way as a blind man's shades, only with the augmenting ability that they let her hear

answered Apr 26 '15 at 08:13

Joe

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She is seen without her headphone in episode 5 when she is in the bath, and during that scene, she could hold a conversation with the editor normally. Therefore, it's confirmed that she is not deaf. – nhahtdh Apr 26 '15 at 13:01

Why does Super Sonico always wear headphones?

7 Answers7