When I first started watching Love Live I thought Maki would be my fave at first because I also played the piano, or Kotori because I liked her design the most. Then, everything changed when Hanayo strived to move heaven and earth just make it to μ's first live in Episode 3. She was literally the very first fan of μ's, the only one at that time really, to show her open, unwavering support, and her earnestness and passion is what made the original three believe that it was worth it to go on, and gave them the encouragement they needed to do so. If she never showed up at that live just like she promised, μ's would most likely never have taken off at all. Just by being there, and I mean really going out of her way to be there to lend support, she has impacted μ's very existence, and she has probably never even realized it. It floored me so much. Then when the next episode showed that she was struggling with shyness and how she managed to come through with the help of her friends to do what she loves in the end, there was no doubt anymore who took up the biggest place in my heart

my first ever love live fanart, drawn shortly after watching episode 5

and a quick redraw more than two years later ;v;

It's been years now and Hanayo is still my number one favorite girl of all time in the entire franchise. Honestly if you asked me what it is about her that made me love her so much, I wouldn't be able to answer. A lot of people seem to find her boring or normal or not really worth noticing. She doesn't have an angsty backstory or serious internal struggles compared to the other girls. She's a dork, staying quiet and by the side 90% of the time but the moment something related to what she loves comes up she can't shut up about it, just like me. She's just a girl who found the courage to grasp her childhood dream and had the will and perseverance and an amazing support system to see it through. And that makes me genuinely happy. Like, literally just looking at her and how far she's come makes me feel immediately better, and I can't even explain why. She just inspires me so much

birthday art that i sadly wasn't able to finish due to real life circumstances :(

When I'm doing something for Hanayo I don't even notice how hard what I'm doing is. I only grind until T2 for collection purposes and I'm usually just going through the motions by the end. If it's her, however, I barely even notice how much time passes when I'm playing. I'm always one of the first 10 to get her first SR every time she has an event. When I sprained my wrist playing too hard for her final solo event, my primary concern wasn't the fact that I literally injured myself tiering, but how it was gonna be more challenging to maintain being in Top 100 when all I can do is slap the screen with a bandaged hand. I managed to resist scouting for seven months bc all I thought about was how much more worth it it'd be if I pulled in a box that only had her

broken wrists who

Last year, even though I was already playing the game, I missed her birthday box because 1) I was on an island with no internet at that time and 2) I didn't even know birthday boxes were a thing because I was a noob. When my brother showed me a scouting video a few weeks later about the then-recently introduced step-up boxes, I legit started crying when I realized I won't have that chance again for a solid year. Like, literally cried for like 10 minutes non stop, it surprised me as well. I'm not very rich, I don't have enough merch of her to make a proper shrine nor do I have enough gems to scout and tier for her as much as I want. But I saved since the start of July and for her birthday I was able to save over 1500 gems across two servers -- way way more than I thought I'd ever have in my life. I'm always getting surprised by how far I could go for her, and I would always gladly go beyond what I thought I could achieve every time not just with SIF but with my dreams in life, just like she did

final gem count on EN/WW feat. my first ever SR+ card of her

final gem count on JP feat. my first ever hanayo UR anywhere

i even made a summoning circle for her bday UR with the few hanayo merch i had

HANAYO SHOUKAN

I try to show my love in other little ways, like making sure I'm awake at rollover to post all the information threads about her birthday on Reddit, or making her my first ever idolized UR on both servers

WEEPS

OPENLY

And of course, having the Dream Team™ on both servers

There's so much more I want to say but I really can't do justice to how happy she's made me and how important she is to me, so I'll just leave this post at that and continue loving her and showing it through whatever means I can, for as long as I can

Happy (is it 21st now? 22nd? Oh my gOD) birthday Hanayo, my best girl for life. I hope you know everyday how absolutely loved you are by me and all your friends and fans

HanayoBirthdayGiveaway