Mari Tamaki

**Mari Tamaki** (玉木 マリ *Tamaki Mari*), who goes by the nickname **Kimari** (キマリ), is one of the main characters in *A Place Further Than the Universe*.

## Appearance

Mari is a teenage girl with neck-length light brown hair stylized into a bob-cut, hazelnut eyes, and a fresh, youthful face. She is the second tallest of the group, possessing a thin and petite build. She is still extremely expressive, making a wide variety of faces.

Mari is usually seen in her school uniform which consists of a blue blazer, a red bow-tie, a gray skirt, black socks that go above her shins, and pink-white sneakers. Like the other girls, she has a wide variety of casual outfits, one consisting of a red shirt and red pants, with a blue jacket worn over it.

Kimari is a bed hog. In several episodes she is seen sprawled across the bed that she is sharing. The others comment about how annoying it is to sleep next to her.

## Personality

Mari is a very idle yet self-aware person that lives every day doing the same thing, a fact that she hates about herself, desiring to make the most of her youth instead of letting it pass by with the wind. Her idleness is exemplified when observing the condition of her room, not making much of an effort to clean it up.

Despite her desire to change her life, she is easily scared of stepping into new territory in order to change her life. She has short bursts of determination to try new things, and go to new places, but time and time again she is held back by thoughts and worries of failure or disaster, causing her to quickly back down at the last second. Even the prospect of ditching school makes her nervous. She may be self-aware about her life, but can sometimes be oblivious to her surroundings when a certain subject interests her enough, becoming so plugged in that she speaks aloud, like how she read an article on an expedition to Antarctica during class. She also tends to roll around in her sleep, much to the discomfort of Hinata Miyake.

Although she is scared of trying new things, she is still very noble and loyal when it comes to her friends, as she created an excuse to cause a pair of bullies to go away while bullying Shirase Kobuchizawa. Her loyalty is further defined when she continues to support and join Shirase on her journey to Antarctica, despite the many rumors surrounding them. Mari continues to stay loyal and keep in touch with Megumi Takahashi(Mari's childhood friend) after becoming friends with Hinata and Shirase, even inviting her to come with them to Karaoke.

She is a very friendly, supportive and sympathetic person as evidenced by the fact that she decided to return an envelope containing one million yen instead of keeping it for herself in Episode 1.

After meeting up with Shirase, Mari gains much more consistency with her goals and determination, even gaining a part-time job to help pay for the trip.

She holds a bit of fear for her mother, as the latter is rather intimidating and punishes her occasionally when secrets are kept from her, like when Mari postponed telling her mother about her plans to travel to Antarctica which resulted in her being chased and beaten by her mother with a soup ladle.

Mari is noted to be a bit of a goofball sometimes, usually becoming the source of laughter for the group and sometimes her family back home, such as when she gets tan on her face (except around her eyes) after working in the Antarctica sun without a full face-covering.

## Background

Mari is a normal second-year high school student who realizes that she hasn't done anything special or memorable in her youth, and notices that it will eventually slip away. Her desire is to go on a journey. Although every time time she attempts to do or go somewhere new on her own, she ends up getting scared and backing out, accomplishing nothing.

After backing out once again, and a conversation with Megumi Takahashi(Mari's friend), she heads on the train home, but a girl runs past her and drops an envelope of money while on the stairs. Mari picks it up and sees that it is full of one million yen. She attempts to find the owner the next day, who is revealed to be Shirase Kobuchizawa. She learns that Shirase plans to use the money to go on a journey to Antarctica. This sparks a fire in Mari as she admires Shirase's goal to do something amazing in her youth, prompting her to come along, effectively taking a spin on her idle life as she desires.

## Quotes

* “I’m going on a journey. This time, I *am* going on a journey. I’ll get on the train that goes opposite the usual way, so that I can see things I’ve never seen before… I’m scared, it’s true… I want to call it off… It might all turn out to be pointless… But… My youth sprang into action!” - Episode 1
* "Isn't trouble just the best?" - Episode 4
* "We always had a choice. But we chose to be here. We chose this ourselves!” - Episode 8
* "It means that even when we're not together, we can be together. After all... we're still who we are." - Episode 13

## Etymology

* The name **Mari (2)** is written in katakana (マリ), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (真理 or 真里), it could possibly mean:
	+ 真理 - "truth, verity".
	+ 真里 - "real, genuine" (真) (**ma**) and "village" (里) (**ri**).
* Mari's surname **Tamaki** means "ball, sphere, bullet, lens, jade, bulb, bead, gem, shot, jewel, shell, coin, bowl, pretty girl" (玉) (**tama**) and "tree, wood" (木) (**ki**).

## Trivia

* *YouTube*: Koko Kara, Koko Kara ~ Mari ver. - Sora Yori
* Mari can play the shamisen.
* Xanthe Huynh (Mari's English voice actress) has had such lead roles as Takina in *Lycoris Recoil*, and Siesta the titular detective in *The Detective Is Already Dead*. She also did the voices of Sachi in *Sword Art Online*, and Yui's sister Ui in *K-On!*.
	+ Huynh has previously shared two roles with Mari's Japanese voice Inori Minase, both in video games: Altina Orion from *The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III*, and Agnea Bristani from *Octopath Traveler 2*.

## Gallery

Orange Parka StyleEpisode 2 - Kimari running for her youthEpisode 4 - Kimari hogs the bedEpisode 6 - Kimari hogs the bedBirthday card by manga creator Meme Yoimachi