Happy (belated) birthday, Shioriko Mifune!
Your initial inclusion in the Nijigaku idol group made me so excited for what the future of the Love Live! franchise had in store, and I was ecstatic to learn more about another character in the ever-expanding Love Live! character roster!
When you were first introduced, you were this aloof girl that seemed to be concerned about making sure that students were using their skills efficiently in whatever activities they pursued instead of whether they really had any passion for what they did. You fearlessly took on Nana Nakagawa for the position of student council president because you didn’t feel that she was taking her role seriously, threatening to end any school idol activities on campus if you were successful in a manner typical for many student council presidents in the Love Live! universe – much to the dismay of he Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. A lot of people in the fandom hated you for it, too. I won’t lie, it put a bad taste in my mouth as well, but I tried to keep an open mind regardless and see where you were coming from.
We later learned that the reason that you were so bitter towards school idols was because of your older sister. When she was younger, she threw away a very important role in order to become a school idol. You didn’t think that there was any merit to her actions since you figured that happiness only came from success. You were very good at determining the skills of others and made some good points in your rebuttal against Nana (effectively winning over the student body and beating her), but you didn’t pay any mind to what was in the heart. Soon enough, Ayumu convinced you to join the Nijigasaki Idol Club, and its members taught you how to be more empathetic and see things from different points of view over time. You’re a better person and president because of it!
Watching you open up to others, learning new ways to express yourself, and opening your eyes to new perspectives wasn’t just good for giving you character development and giving me hope that I can someday do the same, but it also gave us great songs like Aoi Canaria. I can’t get enough of your traditional style infused with rock! It reminds me a lot of your character – powerful and bold, but elegant. I want to see more character development and hear more phenomenal vocals from you, so I can’t wait to see what the second season of the Nijigaku anime does with your character and what kinds of bops R3BIRTH will belt out!
Keep on being the jade-green, fang-bearing queen that you are, and keep on utilizing that aptitude!
