June 16, 2018, 4:29 p.m.
Sorrel EN

long post be cautious

How to even start? I’ve devoted countless hours to Umi; playing SIF, watching the anime, cosplaying, drawing, etc. She is a god, is perfect in every way and I love her beyond words.

(if you don’t want to read my story please skip down but take a look at my art!)

some history

When I first made my account on SIF, I picked umi as my starter because I thought she was both really pretty and cool. I admired her hobbies (reading and calligraphy), because my noob self didn’t realize they had basically nothing to do with the character. She had such a nice voice too, do there was basically no other choice when choosing her over the other girls. I wasn't that into the game though.

Until the Retro Pop Event hit EN

I was completely invested. I had been playing off and on in the summer of 2016, but somehow that event changed how i played the game and looked at the whole series. It's just such a beautiful card. I needed it. But I had just gotten back from a trip, and ended up playing until 4 AM trying to just get 1 copy of the card (I was level ~40/50 so it was slow-going through medley festivals). She was already solidly my Best Girl™, and this was the first Umi SR I ever got.

The first Umi UR I’ve gotten was yukata Umi, scouting in her birthday box last year! A few months later, I got another copy, and idolized her.

I love her seiyuu, as well, and have spent the last year and a half with only love live songs on phone. Lily whitw is my fav sub unit, and Umi/Mimori has the best voice imo out of all 18 (though they’re all frigging amazing don’t get me wrong I’m just biased) and I could listen to her sing all day.

on a more serious note...

Now I'm a senior in high school, there are naturally going to be a lot more stresses for me this year in particular. University applications and scholarships, along with grades and all that stuff. On top of that, I've had a some serious medical issues this year that made it super hard to deal with just basic stuff on top of it all. Loads of people on this site talk about how they use SIF as a de-stress tool, and honestly, that's so true. Even when I couldn't play (because it actually wasn't ok for my physical recovery), just the fandom was so fun to immerse myself in. I set my sights on 1000 gems, and though I didn't quite me make it (870!), I feel satisfied with the results. The goal kept me playing, kept me going, kept me happy. The pirate SSR looks so good in the idolized oh my gosh. When Crayon Umi came out I positively dIED because she was just so gorgeous. Waiting for new UR(s) of my best girl to come out has been a serious help for me, and has helped me going through both my LL gem accumulation for her birthday scouting (results below soon ! :) ) and my schoolwork, which has been just so hard this year.

Really, Umi, I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me. You've kept me going through the toughest year of my life so far, both through inspiration from your own work ethic and motivation to find my own. Thank you ♡

Anyways, with that aside, please take a look at what I've done to celebrate this wonderful girl's birthday!!

scouting !!

in celebration of this most special day, a shrine which combines my merch and Rougekid's, along with some additional printouts ;)

(the drawings on the left were done by someone not looking at the page and they're of honoka and umi and are my favourite things ever)

Nozomi and Honoka were there too!

(and yes that is a drawing mannequin with a wig; I have no figurines so I make do)

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edits :)

Ok so!!

I prepared a few things for this beauty’s special day! To start, some edits :

I chose my favourite 4 URs/SSR from Aqours that had water in the background because...well... Umi

♡♡Autumn Viewing Chika→Umi!

♡♡Wonderland Riko→Umi!

♡♡Initial You→Umi!

I made this one a long time ago in anticipation of her birthday if you couldn’t tell bc it’s been my profile for a while

♡♡Animal Yoshiko→Umi!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

artwork

this is something i've been working on for Umi for the past week now, based on what I believe are the two best URs in the whole game (umi's devil/white day urs are just absolutely stunning and i'm not sure i've done them justice they just look so good oh my god ahhhhhh)

Its not quite done, but I like how they're turned out and I hope you all do too