| Mariya Saijou | |
|---|---|
| |
| Kanji |
西城 まりや |
| Rōmaji |
Saijō Mariya |
| Gender |
Female |
| Birthday |
July (Cancer) |
| Age |
16 |
| Hair Color |
brown |
| Eye Color |
brown |
| Occupation |
Shuusei High School Student |
| Manga Debut | |
| Anime Debut | |
| Japanese Voice |
Rena Maeda |
| English Voice |
Stephanie Wittels |
| Image Gallery | |
Mariya Saijou (西城 まりや, Saijō Mariya) is Takeo's classmate who develops a crush on him after he helps her in their sports relay race.
Appearance
Mariya is a pretty teenage girl with parted brown hair, brown eyes, & peach skin tone. She's short & not much taller than Yamato, but is noted in the series for her curvaceous figure. She puts her hair up for casual outings & track meets, but wears it down with the Shuusei uniform. She was introduced in episode 15.
Personality
Mariya is a kind but insecure individual. She is not athletic, which she is aware of. She does not take ridicule well, as shown when her team was depressed at how slow she was and she decided to skip because she believed she was bringing the team down. She has somewhat of a short temper, as she quickly got angry and defensive to Takeo after he caught her eating a crepe when she said her stomach hurt, saying he wouldn't know how she felt. She also got defensive towards Suna in a similar manner, saying he was guilt tripping her for taking advantage of Takeo and Yamato's kindness to stay close to Takeo. Her more jealous side also showed through how she ridiculed the idea of Takeo having matching cell phone straps with Yamato. Despite these flaws, she is a good person. She was able to see past Takeo's appearance and love him for his kind personality as he waited for her and had confidence in her during the relay. She also managed to get along with Yamato and got angered when Yamato mentioned a pervert groped her saying she deserved it, saying that that pervert had a big problem. She didn't have confidence in her own feelings so kept them hidden from both Yamato and Takeo but felt guilty about this. This proves that she cares for her friends and doesn't want to bother others with her problem. She is also a very emotional, expressive person, often changing expressions from happy to a funny sad face whenever Suna accompanied her and Takeo when the two ended up alone. She cried a lot when she was rejected. However, she is forgiving as she understood why Takeo rejected her and continued to be friends with him.
Background
Not much is known about her background other than that she attends Shuei High School alongside Takeo.
Plot
Relationships
Takeo Gouda
At first, like everyone else, she was afraid of Takeo because of his big intimidating height and scary face. However, upon getting to know him, she started to like him. When the two were part of a team for the track portion of a sports festival, she was a slow runner which everyone disliked, causing them to say they would lose. As a result, she faked a stomachache to get out of it. Takeo caught her but was more relieved at the aspect she was fine. She yelled at him saying that he wouldn't understand because he was fast but he stated he thought she was average and would help her. He chased after her, as it scared her into running faster. When she trips during the actual relay, he doesn't move and waits for her, saying it will be okay. This, along with his drive to run as fast as possible to make up for her fall made her fall in love with him. She "confessed" to him at the chicken coop, pretended her feelings were that she liked him as a person and that she wanted to call him master. However, after spending time with him and his girlfriend, and some advice from Suna, she confesses to him for real, only to be rejected since Takeo only loves Yamato, much to her pain and sadness. Even after being rejected, she decides to continue talking to him and be his friend which made Takeo happy as he believed he hurt her and stayed up all night worrying about it. For Valentines she gives him a friendship chocolate, showing she still cares for him. She has stated what she likes most about him was how he helped her practice for the relay and how when she fell during the relay, even after everyone left he still waited for her and how impressed she was when he ran ahead of everyone and won. However, what was really important wasn't that he won but that he ran with everything he had.
Makoto Sunakawa
The two have a friendly relationship. He met her after she twisted her ankle going after Takeo to apologize to him about ridiculing his cellphone strap that he got from his girlfriend, saying it was lame. He offered to carry her which made her upset and show a funny face, which implies that he probably isn't her type. He began to notice she had feelings and told Yamato that she was "confessing" to Takeo behind the chicken coop. When Makoto helped pick up trash, he asked what she meant when she said she liked Takeo as a person. She lied and said it was the same like as Suna had for Takeo but Suna said that couldn't be right. When she tried getting closer to Takeo during their time as committee members, she kept looking over her shoulder as Suna kept looking at her. Eventually, she broke down and told him to stop guilt tripping her as she knew she was taking advantage of Takeo and Yamato's kindness to remain close to Takeo. However, Makoto told her he felt sorry for her as she had to hold her feelings in and that the two will never know if she didn't say anything, causing her to confess. He brings her tissues and listens to her after her rejection. She calls him savvy, attentive, and kind which annoyed her as she was crying after her rejection. Despite this, he manages to calm her down and the two seem to be on good terms. On Valentines day, she gives him friendship chocolate, showing she considers him a friend and he accepts. Considering he rejected other chocolates given to him by other girls, this means he accepts her friendship.
Rinko Yamato
She met her when she went to Takeo's school to give him something. While Yamato was slightly jealous because she thought Mariya had feelings for him (which was true), she was relieved when she heard Mariya confess to Takeo that she liked him as a person. Even when Yamato was suspicious of Mariya's feelings, she believed she could be good friends with Mariya because the two both liked Takeo and could see his good points. Mariya herself was very jealous of Yamato as well and looked sad every time she saw her with Takeo. However, when the two went to Hakuto U school festival and were left alone, the two immediately hit it off as friends. Mariya herself admits she knows Yamato is a good person and that she is taking advantage of that to remain close with Takeo. At times she did ridicule their relationship as being too cutesy like when he was talking about having a matching cell phone strap as Yamato but this was done out of jealousy not spite and she still cares for Yamato as a friend.
Quotes
Trivia
She is the third female character in the series to have developed a crush on Takeo.
She is the second female character to not immediately fall for Suna's looks.