This is gonna be a bit of a story so get comfy with your choco cornets.

I didn’t get into Bandori until the English release of the game. A couple of months before the game was released, I was looking through all of the character profiles, and trying to decide on a best girl.

At that point, Ran caught my eye. She seemed like a strong, fierce, yet awkward girl who really cared about her friends. I liked her character a lot, and I still do! But today, we’re not here to talk about Ran, but another girl who stole my heart.

So anyway, the night before the English release, I decided that I would reroll until I got a 4*, since I hear that it would help my teams a lot in the earlier events. At that point though, only the Poppin’ Party girls had 4*s. I hopped into the shower that night, hoping to decide who was my best Popipa girl once and for all since I had been trying to decide for the past week or so. So I went through them all one by one.

Kasumi- a genki leader. I generally have a soft spot of genki leaders. Arisa- a Tsundere. I liked the way she spoke, because it sounded a lot harsher than a lot of female tsunderes. Rimi- she wants to stand on her own two feet. She’s shy, but she wants to change that about herself, which I really liked. Tae- she seemed pretty chill, and she likes bunnies.

And then there was Saya.

I had never really considered Saya before that point. In fact, she was the one from Popipa that stood out to me the least. She had a nice design, but she kinda just seemed like a typical mom friend. She was just…there. She was neutral (like she is to a lot of people). There’s not a whole lot to dislike about her.

But anyway, I took a closer look at Saya, read up on her character a bit. Her family owns a bakery? Baked goods a.k.a. my favourite type of food in the world? I think she went a bit further up my list. She seems really nice and I like her design, so I’ll reroll for her, I thought.

On my 7th or 8th reroll account, I got her!! I got her 4*!! I was so happy I was screaming.

The first thing I learned from her card was that she likes scrunchies! Honestly, I thought that was really cute, and it was something that (kind of) came up in the anime when she had matching scrunchies with her old bandmates. Though they didn't explicitly say it, I thought it added a nice touch, and I'm really glad they added it. I thought that the fact that she wanted matching scrunchies with the rest of Popipa was really sweet as well!

The more I got into the stories, the more I learned of her character, the more I grew to like her, and she eventually ended up becoming my best girl. Which is why I find the name of this contest so ironic; Saya Yamabuki literally changed my mind.

I felt like Saya was the complete opposite of me; she cared about the people around her, she was supportive, and she was friendly. She’s mature, but she can still be silly at times. The fact that she can manage a band on top of helping out at her family’s bakery and looking after her siblings is something I really admire about her. My favourite characters have at least one aspect that I really relate to; Saya was was different. She was someone I look up to, and she’s someone I want to be like. She’s someone I’d want to be friends with, since I’ve felt like I’ve always had to be the ‘mom friend’ in my group of friends. I’ve always what it would be like if I had a mom friend. Not too long ago I started watching the anime, and I’ve gotten up to a couple of episodes after Saya’s joined Popipa.

At that point I realised maybe Saya wasn’t the complete opposite of me. Saya kept a lot of her feelings to herself. She tried to do her best to help the people around her, and to make sure that she wasn’t causing anyone problems, so she’ll decide things on her own. That’s why she pushed Kasumi away, even if she wanted to join. That’s something I really relate to a lot. I want to make sure I’m not bothering anyone most of the time, I make a lot of decisions without consulting anyone because of that. That only grew to make me love her more though, because I understood what she was going through.

I almost cried a couple of times during her arc. When Saya finally joined Popipa, when she finally decided to do something for herself, rather than for the people around her, I was almost in tears. She grew so much as a character, and I think I grew to love her more than I already do.

I made a few edits for her birthday, which I've posted on here and on twitter! I also wrote a little letter to her on my twitter post ♡

To sum it up, Saya Yamabuki is a sweet, supportive girl who deserves all the happiness in the world. I hope this mini-essay is enough to raise you’re opinion of her, even if it’s a little bit. Thanks for reading! Since you’ve made it this far, here’s a choco cornet from Yamabuki Bakery ♡