Might as well join in the event. My last intro was meh too so here's a replacement lol.
I first discovered this franchise somewhere in July of 2014. I decided to leave my comfort zone and do an art trade with somebody and, lo and behind, my partner asked me to draw Maki. I knew absolutely nothing about the series before hand, and tbh thought a title like "Love Live! School Idol Project" was the dumbest, most childish thing ever, and the pictures she sent as references made the show look low budget af (I didn't judge tho cause I like a lot of childish and/or low budget stuff so y'know. Just a little hypocrite over here). Regardless I accepted and got to work. Since it was a character I knew nothing about and was going purely off reference pics, I decided I should give the show a watch to better capture Maki's personality. I bet you can figure out what happened after that.
Maki instantly became Best Girl, and she stayed that way for years; I still love her to death but I recently discovered a massive love and respect for Honoka but anyway. At the time I liked the show, I enjoyed it, I looked forward to the movie after the announcement at the end of the...OVA? Season 2? frig man I gotta rewatch this my memory is fuzzy. Anyway, I was a fan but I wasn't a stan you know what I'm sayin'?
Three or so months later, I kinda sorta forgot about it but not really because. After midnight one night in early October I was bored in bed and decided to just search "anime" into the apple app store just to see what I could find. About an hour passes, countless anime trivia and "word guess" games later, and Honk's smiling face slides over. Real og's remember when the app icon was Wonderful Rush R unidolized Honk. I paused, staring. "Wait, is that? Is that Honoka? Holy crap that's Honoka dude there's a rhythm game for this series DOWNLOAD THAT RIGHT NOW THAT'S HONOKA" hard to believe I was just a "fan" at this point, right?
Weeks went by, months, years, with me never missing a log in. I spent every day learning more and more about these 9 girls and eventually came to love them all with every inch of my being. And I don't regret it at all. While I do enjoy Aqours and the Nijigasaki girls, my heart lies with u's, who helped ease my loneliness over many years.
While I have had points where I just fall out of the series, I have always returned with a stronger passion. I love these girls, I love these songs, I love these stories, and I love the friends I've made because of it. I've grown as a person from this series and they've helped me accept who I am. Even though they're fictional, they've helped me through so much.
And that, I guess, is my Love Live! Story. I got unexpectedly sappy at the end, haha