Fair warning, this is a long read.

Hi, my name’s James but online I normally go by my handle Hammy45 or just Hammy. I’m a male, He/Him, 27, from regional NSW in Australia. I’m a reserved person and not particularly outgoing but make no mistake, I love this franchise. My top 3 characters for each group in order are:

μ’s: Kotori, Honoka, Umi Aqours: Ruby, Riko, Hanamaru Nijigasaki: Shizuku, Ayumu, Setsuna

As for favourite songs, it’s a bit more difficult as there are so many good ones but I’ll just list a few for each group:

μ’s: Yume no Tobira; Bokutachi no Hitotsu no Hikari; Natsu, Owaranai de; Arifureta Kanashimi no Hate Aqours: Kokoro Magic A to Z (I know it’s not released yet but dammit it’s a good song); Yozora wa Nandemo Shitteru no?; WONDERFUL STORIES; WHITE FIRST LOVE Nijigasaki: CHASE; Yume e no Ippo; Anata no Risou no Heroine; Meccha Going!!

Now the story part. I think this is the first time I’ve told my full story anywhere. I got into Love Live around 2014. I was skimming through Crunchyroll for something to watch and I came across a show called “Love Live! School Idol Project” (I think the second season had just ended at this point). As soon as the OP started, I was taken aback. I had never seen anything quite like it, I even watched Glee back in the day. By the end of the third episode with 2nd years only START:DASH!!, I was completely sold on the show; costumes, music and everything. I think I rewatched both seasons multiple times, played SIF a fair bit and even went out of my way to see the movie when a screening came to Sydney. After the movie, I started to waver on the franchise and eventually succumbed to the “This show isn’t made for you” feeling I was getting and made a decision to give up on it.

Around Aqours second season I saw LL pop up in my Twitter feed and realised my love for this franchise and it’s characters never disappeared. I started to marathon everything again and caught up around Awaken the Power. I had taken a particular liking to Ruby ever since the first Aqours episode, so this was a particularly special episode for me. I absolutely adored the growth that she had achieved in that time and the heartwarming relationship she and Dia had with each other.

Ever since then, I’ve tried to keep up on almost everything the franchise has to offer, including the introduction of the Nijigasaki girls. I’m currently playing EN SIF (currently rank 193), JP All Stars and I’ll play EN All Stars when it gets released (I still don’t know if I’ll keep playing JP when it happens yet). This has literally taken me hours to write and several rereads so if you’ve made it this far, I want to thank you so much for reading this.