Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-24187738-20170416093730/@comment-31015333-20170416175737

 Ohara Mari (twitter: @kei_pointo)

I don’t believe in love at first sight, and in Mari’s case, I’d say my initial reaction more of an “uh… Eli + Nozomi?”.

 With that mentality, I figured she would remain a character I didn’t think much about, and I instead took interest in pretty bomber heads like Ruby.

 However, Aqours’ little sister isn’t the one I’m writing about. Now, my favorite Sunshine character is definitely Ohara Mari.

 Throughout the franchise, Mari has something that no other character does: sheer independent will. She’s basically a walking America (in the case of the Numazu Burger radio drama, this is taken to quite the extreme), doing whatever comes to her mind without batting an eyelid. This lack of hesitation leads to situations I would never imagine seeing in a series like Love Live!, such as when she outright feels bad for a penguin because she accidentally mistook it for Dia. I can’t imagine this scenario coming from anybody except Mari, and it’s times like these where I'm certain the series wouldn't be the same without her. Taking it a bit further with her sense of freedom, Mari also brings in themes from a temptress’ side of things. A song like Guilty Night, Guilty Kiss! couldn’t even hope to exist without Mari; her daring personality is what gives the song its life. When it comes to songs with flying kisses and “guilty night” wotagei,  Mari’s the one to thank, and that’s something I’ll never be able to appreciate enough.

 Then there are Mari’s more obvious points: her charm, humor, and overall brighten-up-your-day personality. It’s nearly impossible to write about Mari and not talk about how “LIFE. IS. BEAUTIFUL~.” This, coupled with Ainya’s go-to-bed worthy English, leaves us with an absolutely adorable what’s-she-going-to-say-this-time? character. This erraticness, I guess I could call it, especially shows with her naming sense. When she calls out to Michael, David, and Steve, there’s no way I couldn’t smile and think, “what the heck?” Somehow an untsukkomi-able boke, Mari takes the cake in just being cute.

 I’ll be honest, though: everything I’ve said up to this point wouldn’t be enough to make Mari my favorite, especially with my not-so-good first impression. The turning point that made me love Mari was season 1, episode 9: Mijuku DREAMER. For the first 8 episodes, she’s quite frankly a spoiled brat, acting pretty inconsiderately toward Kanan and all the other girls. However, episode 9 rolls along, and suddenly all of her mistakes are strewn out in front of her. For her sake, Kanan decided not to sing at Tokyo. For her sake, Dia kept it a secret from her. Everything was done all for her sake, and in a scene I’ll never forget, she absolutely hates this. Realizing just how selfish she’d been, running through the rain, tripping---but getting up and still running anyway---, she lives through a coming-of-age moment so life-changing and impactful where, after everything had passed, I couldn’t help but fall in love (yes!!).