Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-24187738-20180225155956/@comment-34939687-20180308211054

Favorite girl: Riko

Twitter: @silverkanon_klk

Discord: SilverKanon#8027

I wasn't very positive the time I decided to approach Love Live. I thought:"I'm sure I'm going to hate all this stuff" and the reasons were mainly two: my facebook dashboard overflowing everyday with endless posts of people screaming -both in a positive and negative way- about their 10+1 scouts/scores/combos and tons of cosplayers who wanted to cosplay the characters, often without even knowing them well, just because the costumes were cute. They made me view the whole thing as nothing more than the typical anime trend that would soon fade away like all the other ones. Plus, I had never been interested too much in cute female characters and idols and I was kinda hostile to the whole "kawaii" thing. However, all this widespread interest for Love Live made me curious about what could make it that special and I thought that, before giving a negative judgment, I should first try the game and watch a few episodes of the anime. Well, it ended up all opposite to my expectations. I fell in love with both the characters and the story and found them being completely different from the initial idea I had of them. I even found many relatable aspects, despite some kind of situations and behaviours looking odd to me (but that's just a matter of cultural difference, I guess). Then, while searching informations about the characters' seiyuus (thing that I usually do only when I get REALLY into an anime) I came to learn about niconamas and lives. I was immediately captivated by Muse's attitude and performances and I was so impressed by how much they were good at dancing, singing and enterataining the audience for such a long time. However, I discovered them pretty late, so I had lost a big part of their world and story and I didn't know that there was much more behind that.

Things went differently with Aqours and Love Live! Sunshine. I started paying attention to them almost from the beginning and, since they gave me a positive impression, I started searching informations, reading and watching their translated contents and following the seiyuus' activities with interest to know them better: they were good, nice and funny and I ended up liking them a lot. I admire them for their hard work, their constant improvement but, most of all, their courage to face fans' expectations and the difficulties of being Muse's successors. There are many artists and famous people I like, but Aqours has that special spark that makes my heart flutter whenever I see them, being in a niconama, concert or simple pics. I 've found myself being particularly intrigued by Rikyako for some reasons and my admiration for her and the whole group went up to the stars after the first live: Rikyako dealing with something I'm so scared of (that is to say, mistakes and showing your fragile side in front of the others) and eventually overcoming it with the help of her fellow members and their fans was truly inspiring for me, just like the themes and the story Sunshine tells about and which I'm really fond of.

Aqours helped me being more conscious of my girly side too. I used to refuse paying attention to clothing, makeup etc.: I'm pretty lazy, not very confident about my body and, because of some bad experiences in middle school, I kinda ended up unconsciously associating the idea of good looking people with shallow. But, seeing 9 simple girls around my age being beautiful just by being themselves with no shame, made the girl inside me wake up and try to be pretty and take care of herself more, not for the others, but for her own sake. I'm still lazy and have difficulties showing up with something cute or unusual for me, but I feel like I've become braver, more curious and better at trying new things and figuring out how my personal style should be.

Last, but not least, they are an amazing source for my art: both the SIF cards and the seiyuus' photoshoots in magazines are gorgeous and they are helping me a lot improving with drawing female characters, whom I usually have trouble with. Oh, and their songs... I love drawing while listening to them! Sometimes they make me even too much energetic that I feel the need to leave the paper and my drawing tools for a while to dance, lol.

And that's all! I hope I haven't forgotten anything! Actually, I can't tell if Love Live has changed me as a person, but, as you could read, it introduced some positive and useful aspects to my life, so I'm happy I've approached it and, even if I live far away from Japan and I can't afford buying all the stuff I want or attend lives and events, I will always try to support Aqours and give them love in the best way I can!

Thank you for reading!

SilverKanon

Imgur album with some of my stuff, if you want to take a look! > https://imgur.com/a/moLQN