A sorta-kinda long post, but happy birthday Mari!!!
What can I say about miss Mari Ohara? I admittedly wasn't sure how I would feel about her at first. Then her introduction episode came about. Immediately, her silliness and bright personality shone through, and at that moment, I just knew she was the one. Surely enough, she became my best girl in the whole franchise.
From then on, I just loved her more and more. She's brimming with optimism, and its such a beautiful quality. Aqours wouldn't even be a thing if she hadn't stepped in with her support. Her backstory with the other 3rd years broke my heart. Imagine having everything in the world, but no friends to really share it with? Her relationship with them is so precious. Even after everything went south, all she wanted to do was sing and do something special with her friends. She had her 2 best friends in the world trying to stop her, and she just kept going. Her persistence in the face of everything is inspiring to say the least.
There's so much more to love about her. She's smart, and I've always loved the brainy characters. Plus she likes rock/metal music, which is a big part of my music taste.(Honestly bless guilty kiss for existing.) And god, her personality is just so endearing. She's full of so much energy and quirkiness, but has a sense of maturity to perfectly contrast that. Her random English is pretty funny and kinda adorable. Everything about this girl screams perfection.
I'll never forget the day I finally pulled one of her URs after many failed attempts.
my current collection on my EN account
I did a small doodle of her for her birthday!!
I've never spent this much money on any character ever haha. Here's my Mari collection so far, minus a few posters that i couldn't get a good picture of together, (featuring second best girl Yohane in the ita bag)!
All in all, I really love you Mari. Love live already made me the happiest I've been in a while, and you added to that joy tenfold. Cause to me, you're not just some fictional character. You're a reason to smile :)
Edit: I don't know how I forgot to put this, but Mari also has a stellar voice. Her vocals are sooo good in her solo song. Aina does such a great job voicing her <3
Also gonna add this. Its something I made a while back but its definitely relevant today
MariBirthdayGiveaway2018