Mari Sakurano (Brave Raideen)

Mari Sakurano (桜野マリ) is the main female protagonist of . She is a fifteen year old girl attending Rinkai Academy as a third-year student, and the main leader of the Copelander Corps. She was voiced by Makoto Kousaka (episodes 1-30) and Kiyoko Shibata (episodes 31-50).
==Personality==
Mari is curious, childlike and kind-hearted, and is ready to help her friends whenever they need it. She has a temper that she can't control, but tries her best to make up afterwards. 
==History==
Mari is the adopted daughter of Daizaburo Higashiyama, a prominent scientist who's friends with the Hibiki family. At some point she attended Rinkai Academy where she became the manager of the football team. Because she had a passion for singing, she also became Rinkai Academy's idol.
When Akira activated Raideen and fulfilled the prophecy of becoming the hero that wouls save the Earth in it's time of need, Mari and Akira's friends other from school wanted to help him, and would often try to get involved in his battles with the Demon Empire. Unfortunately, due to their lack of experience, instead they would often get kidnapped or slow him down. As a result, he often had to put the mission aside to save them. Eventually Mari honed her skills as a fighter, and joined the Copelander Corps as their leader. Similar to how Akira drives the Sparker, Mari drives her own car.
When Junguuji was injured, Mari piloted the Bluegear on his behalf. She would help Akira in battle and was elated when he reunited with Lemuria, his mother.
===Relationships===
===Akira Hibiki===
Mari is Akira's girlfriend. She attended the same school as Akira, where she first gained a crush on him. However, Akira didn't know this. He viewed her as a friend and would often prank her, which led to her angrily attacking him in return. However, she still cares a lot for him and worries whenever Akira's in battle.
She gets angry when other girls approached him, and belittled Rei Asuka because she also had a crush on Akira. Eventually, Mari would unlearn her jealous tendencies. She and Akira eventually became a couple. 
===Princess Lemuria===
Lemuria is Akira's mother, and knows Mari is his girlfriend. Aware of her kind nature, Lemuria vented her struggles to Mari one day, where she admitted that she felt like a horrible mother to her son. She said that she was always cold to him because she didn't want him to lose focus of his mission. In turn, Mari wrapped a pink shawl around her shoulders. Lemuria was surprised and thanked her.
===Rei Asuka===
Mari called Rei an amazing woman to Dan at first, but she became jealous when she realized that Rei, like her, also has a crush on Akira. As a result she began acting catty and rude to her and accused her of dating him behind her back. Later, she apologized. The two are allies in the Copelander Corps together.
==Quotes==
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==Further reading==
*Mari Sakurano on TV Tropes
*Mari Sakurano on Encirobot
==Trivia==
*Mari tends to have a lot of scenes where her underwear is shown.
*She has a lot of similarities to Chizuru from Combattler V; coincidentially both characters were written by Tadao Nagahama.
==Gallery==