Mari Tsutsui

* Manga
* Anime

**Mari Tsutsui** (筒井 まり, *Tsutsui Mari*?) is one of the four female deuteragonists. She is the love interest and later on girlfriend of Tomoya Matsunaga who is an attractive girl, but she doesn't have many friends because of her harsh attitude towards people that she also had a hatred against men due to her past experiences. Her only friend is Anna Kobayakawa, whom she thinks she is in love with.

## Appearance

Mari is considered to be a very attractive and beautiful teenage girl with curly mid-length dark purple hair that she wears in pig-tails where it has small pieces of hair with bangs hanging on the right side, violet-colored eyes, she is said to have very long eyelashes, glossy nails and beautiful pale skin by Anna Kobayakawa, an average build and below average height.

In her childhood and middle school, she wore her hair out for the most time.

Mari is usually depicted in her school uniform.

## Personality

As a child, Mari was a very kind, sweet and cheerful girl where she says that she has always been bold and confident, but even more as a child than now. Despite her parents working most of the time, she didn't feel lonely as Masaomi Tsutsui was there for her. In middle school, due to things happening to her, like teasing and bullying, Mari started bearing mistrust and disgust towards both men and women, which is why she was alone most of the time, but she was fine with it as her older brother was still there for her. With her brother, Mari was always cheerful and happy. However, when he decided to marry and move out, Mari felt betrayed and her hate for men became even stronger, seeing them as annoying and nuisances.

Mari's personality started to change drastically in high school as she was bored and indifferent towards everyone and saw everything around her as boring. She always kept to herself and acted excessively rude to people so they stopped approaching her eventually. She never saw any person she wanted to get along with and thought it would be better to be by herself. This changed when she met and became friends with Anna Kobayakawa. Like her brother, she accepted Mari just the way she was, which made Mari love and become very protective of her. Even though she acts loving and kind towards Anna, Mari was perceived by others as being short-tempered, violent and especially distrustful of all men. She was generally rude and foulmouthed to them, especially (Tomoya Matsunaga). She also disliked Natsuki Hashiba considering how he always gets in between her and Anna. Mari was most affectionate and loving to Anna and acted the opposite when Mattsun is around, which involved her calling him creepy or a jerk at many occasions, physically harming him whenever he harassed or bothered her. She could even be manipulative towards Anna because of how often she pushed her away from Natsuki due to her intense love for her and her need to keep Anna all to herself. She also sometimes displayed *tsundere* tendencies in which she isn't very honest with her own feelings. However, as the series goes on, she becomes more bearable with the group as seen when she said that she considers them as her friends and she also decides to become more honest regarding her own feelings though she still tended to be dishonest. According to Anna, Mari is kind-hearted as she always thinks about and put other people before herself.

Underneath her aggressive personality, Mari is actually very emotional, insecure and lonely where she has it difficult to trust people ever since the incident with her brother because she has a fear of being betrayed and left alone. When she does start to trust people, she becomes very attached and lets her guard down completely. She wants to be someone's top priority and realizes that Anna, who was always only by her side, started to love Natsuki and look at his direction. She apparently does not know what romantic love is, but Mari herself stated that she has always tried to find the right person for her. She later comes to acknowledge Mattsun's love towards her and slowly starts to reciprocate it, saying that she was able to move forward because he waited for her. She feels guilty for having hurt Anna and acknowledges her mistakes as a person, but feels like she just can't treat people nicely and expects serious repercussions for her past mistakes. However, after confessing to Anna and being told that she is Mattsun's top priority, Mari's less cold side is shown later on. Although her rude personality begins to die down after a while, her violent tendencies still sometimes leashed out.

## Background

    Mari was a nice girl when she was a child. Her parents were out working most of the time and she used to spend a lot of time alone, but she wasn't bothered by it as her older brother Masaomi Tsutsui was always there for her. Mari was very attached to him to and was also in love with him to the point where she wanted to marry him once they were older. These feelings didn't falter as she felt like he was the only one who understood and cherished her: he was one of a kind.

She slowly started to change throughout the years. One day in elementary school, Masaomi had curled Mari's hair and she was confident until one of her male classmates started teasing her and pulled her hair. When she slapped him, the boys, in turn, started to view her as a wild and unattractive girl. Mari felt guilty about this, but she was confronted by the girls in her class either way where they all went against her and messed up her hairstyle in the end. Although Mari was sad, she was sadder because her brother's hard work went to vain. When he reassured her that it was okay and that he would do it as many times as she would want to, Mari started to feel like he was the only one on her side. In middle school, people would tease her for no reason at all. Her disgust towards men started as one boy lifted her skirt, only to become disappointed to see that Mari was wearing shorts underneath. With both girls and boys teasing her and making fun of her, Mari developed a sense of distrust towards both genders. She was also always alone at school, but despite that, Mari was fine with it as Masaomi was still there for her. However, when he decided to get married, she felt like she got betrayed and started disliking men in particular. Mari's brother later claimed that she went through a "rebellious stage".

In high school, she was uninterested in everything and generally rude to people, especially boys. When Anna Kobayakawa started being friendly with her, Mari didn't understand why Anna wanted to be with her, despite her rudeness. However, Anna explained that she simply liked being with her and the two became inseparable best friends.

## Relationships

### Anna Kobayakawa

Anna is Mari's best friend. Although Mari didn't really particularly care for Anna and didn't want to do anything with her when they first met, Anna always initiated conversations with her which Mari thought was quite annoying but she digressed. Mari was a bit confused because Anna always talked to her since she had a reputation of being a rude and violent girl, but Anna thought otherwise, saying that she really enjoyed being her friend. From there, Mari fell in love with Anna and the two became inseparable. Mari is also utterly devoted to her, cares for her extremely much in which she always puts Anna before herself. She is willing to do almost everything for her sake and follows her wherever she goes. They have always been together, just the two of them, so whenever a boy likes Anna, such as Natsuki Hashiba or Wataru Mochizuki, Mari tends to become very hostile, rude and jealous and tries to separate them at all costs. Mari has stated that she is in love with Anna and acts very loving towards and is always very kind and sweet around her. She loves and cherishes Anna deeply; she feels like Anna is one of the few who truly understands her in which Mari says that as long as Anna is by her side, she'll be fine. Mari is very protective of Anna and has always wanted to be alone with her forever and has an intense need to keep Anna all to herself, which is why she can act selfishly and manipulative because she wants to separate Anna from others.

When Anna became friends with Natsuki and the others, Mari was left in dismay as her beloved Anna had started to like Natsuki, when the two of them had always been together and Mari's dream of being alone with her forever, shattered. Mari felt like Anna had really changed and since Mari herself didn't do anything to separate Anna to Natsuki, Mari began thinking that she didn't actually love Anna anymore as she "wasn't acting like herself", as in being jealous of Anna's new friends. However, Tomoya Matsunaga later revealed that Mari couldn't actually get herself to hate the others as she already considered them (and him) her friends and Mari does accept this statement, but she still remains devoted to Anna and is always by her side and still can become quite aggressive when boys get too close to her (Natsuki excluded).

    However, Mari is left in hopelessness as she knows that Natsuki in considering to confess to Anna, and although she isn't planning to interrupt due to his sincere feelings, Mari thinks that she needs to do to something about her own situation, as in her romantic feelings for Anna. Mari knows all the horrible and selfish things she had done because of her need to keep Anna all to herself and is deeply guilty. She then decided to confess to Anna and said her feelings went deeper than only friends. Although Anna couldn't return her feelings, both Mari and Anna promised to continue to be by each other's side as true friends forever, not wanting to be separated. Mari is then ready to move on from her, now yearning only for Anna to be happy. Despite getting together with Mattsun later on, spending time with Anna is still immensely important to her.

In Episode 23, when Yukiko Asai insists on "How about we all cosplay sometime?", Mari comments on how "I'd love to see you cosplay, Anna! You're so cute, you'd look good in anything!"

### Tomoya Matsunaga

Mattsun and Mari's relationship could be described as a cats and dogs relationship. When they first met, Mari spits on Mattsun as a response to his attempted seduction routine, making them have an initially strained relationship. Mattsun starts calling her "Spit Woman" when Mari begins addressing him as a creep or as someone gross. Mari disliked Mattsun, and after he gave her an unwarranted kiss, she became even more aggressive towards him. Every time they meet, they were at each other's throats and Mari often scratched his face in response to his inappropriate remarks which makes Mattsun get angry at her. He also tended to get irritated with her reaction to his "saving" her from several situations.

However, when Mattsun falls in love with her, he tries to become friendlier and flirt with her which Mari coldly rejected as she doesn't know whether he's being serious or not when he is "confessing" to her since she didn't really understand romantic love. She also knew that he plays around with other girls, which is why she saw him as a disgusting man. Once, Mari and Anna Kobayakawa even saw him with another girl trying to kiss him. However, Mattsun still shows his affection for her from time to time, which irritated Mari. However, after Mattsun properly confesses that he loves her, Mari becomes quite touched and decides to believe him even though she is aware that he played around with girls before. After the confession, she becomes slightly friendlier towards him, even changing his name from "Gross Bastard" to his real name on her phone. Even though she fights less with him, Mari tended to get violent and annoyed with Mattsun.

Later on, Mari decides to explain her past to Mattsun even though she didn't see any point in it before, in which she also told him about her own insecurities, how she was scared of people close to her leaving her and how much she had endured.

    Mattsun is one of the few people to have seen Mari's fragile and emotional side that she also doesn't mind physical contact which is shown as she didn't resist being embraced by Mattsun while being comforted by him. She was also feeling really anxious about how sure she was Mattsun would leave her too someday, meaning that Mattsun actually had become a precious person to her, even though she doesn't really show it. She becomes very touched as well when he told her that he was sure that he would never leave her and spoil her as much as she wanted since Mari had always wanted to become someones top priority. She also states that she had always tried, in reality, to find someone for her, who might just have been Mattsun.

Mari later confesses to and gets rejected by Anna Kobayakawa to move on with the help on Mattsun; she feels like he really understood and supported her when it came to her struggles. He has always been by her side during this time and promised to wait for her, to which Mari acknowledges that she wouldn't have been able to move on without him. Mattsun then promises to always be by her side and treasure her, making Mari blush in response. And although she thought he was being impatient, she couldn't forget the feeling of his hands that were bigger and warmer than Anna's, indicating that she had moved on from Anna and had started to develop feelings for Mattsun instead. This also leads to Mari taking the initiative, as she even asked Mattsun herself that she wanted to walk home with him while holding hands.

Later, she starts to slowly reciprocate Mattsun's feelings and they become a couple. Mari becomes friendlier towards and despite not showing it, she thinks of him as a really nice and kind guy and denies negative things said about him. They also become more casual and don't fight at all though they do tease each other and Mari still scratched him sometimes, much to his chagrin. She didn't really like being affectionate with him and says that she wouldn't be really jealous if he was with other girls since it's his own business. Mattsun thinks that she indirectly trusts him and Mari didn't really mind it being interpreted in that way. This means that Mari actually cares a lot for Mattsun even though she was a bit hostile towards him at times.

### Natsuki Hashiba

Mari disliked Natsuki considering how he always gets in between her and Anna Kobayakawa. Whenever she is around him, Mari tended to become very rude and cold, and whenever he is alone with Anna, Mari became absolutely furious with him and tries to separate the two. Mari's dislike of him made her call Natsuki "Little Monkey". However, when the group went to the amusement park and hotel, Mari realized that she hasn't been "acting herself" lately since she didn't try to interfere and was worried that she might have stopped loving Anna. However, Tomoya Matsunaga revealed that this was false, it wasn't that she had stopped loving Anna, it's just that Mari couldn't hate Natsuki and the others anymore considering how much time they had spent with each other. After this, Mari confessed to Natsuki that she actually does consider him a friend. However, even though she still can't accept a part of Anna and Natsuki's relationship, she doesn't try to interfere anymore as she only wants Anna to be happy. She doesn't really mind when Natsuki and Anna spend time alone together although she still occasionally got annoyed at him. Despite that, Mari thinks Natsuki is a really sincere guy when it comes to his feelings towards Anna. She also apologized for her rude behavior towards him and due to always getting in his way, but after confessing to the Anna, Mari acknowledges that Natsuki can make Anna happy and decides to let Natsuki take care of her.

### Masaomi Tsutsui

Masaomi is Mari's older brother whom she calls "Maa-kun" where she was always sticking close to her brother when they were younger and he always took care of her. When Mari was a little girl, they were very close up to the point where she wanted to marry him, like a typical little sister would say so. Even though Mari constantly got teased and was alone at school, Masaomi was always there for her and constantly encouraged her. Because of this, Mari said she would fine as long as he was there and felt like he was one of a kind and loved him deeply. However, he got married to another woman when Mari was in her third year in middle school, which caused her to lose her bond with him. Mari felt like she got betrayed by him and begin thinking that she didn't really get older brothers. With this, her brother's decisions are part of the reason she has a hatred for men. Every time they meet now, she always gives him a cold look which gives him the impression that she hates him. However, it is shown that she still genuinely cares for her brother as she mumbled his name in her sleep when she got injured, to which Tomoya Matsunaga overheard. Mari also said that since Masaomi accepted her just the way she was, Mari thought he was special which is why she loved him. Although these feelings for him has faltered, her brother is a very precious person to Mari and she always feels comfortable around him.

### Yukiko Asai & Nozomi Matsunaga

Although Mari doesn't interact with Yukirin and Nozomi much, there were a few episodes where she has like:

* In Episode 13, the four girls chat with each other in the hot springs where Yukirin talks about how "A while back, I went to Shiretoko with Tsuyopon. The open-air baths there were amazing, too! The scenery was breathtaking!" When Nozomi asks, "Do you go on a lot of vacations", Yukirin replies by saying, "Once in a while. We went to Tokyo during summer break!" Mari is shocked when she learns that Tsuyoshi Naoe is Yukirin's boyfriend.
* In Episode 23, Yukirin makes plans with the girls to meet up in a café as Tsuyoshi tells Natsuki Hashiba that "Well, Yukirin did mention about giving souvenirs from Tokyo." When Mari learns that Yukirin loves to cosplay, Mari asks "Why would you do that stuff?" and Yukirin replies by saying "What can I say? It's my hobby!", much to Mari's shock. When Yukirin insists on "How about we all cosplay sometime?", Mari declines her offer.

Despite hanging out with the two, Mari doesn't seem fond of Yukirin as seen in Chapter 5.1/Special Episode 1 when Yukirin notices Mari and Anna Kobayakawa hanging out a restaurant and joind them, Mari starts showing hostility towards Yukirin and she angrily yells at her to "don't call me Marippe." before Nozomi joins in the conversation (only in the anime).

When Yukirin and Nozomi leave the restaurant and said their goodbyes, Mari didn't return the gesture.

### Tsuyoshi Naoe

Although Mari and Tsuyoshi haven't interacted much, they have talked with each other once like:

* In Chapter 51, when Tsuyoshi asks Mari "Why did Kobayakawa-san choose to study at Nanahoro?", she replies by saying "She mentioned that she can get into the law department with an average passing score. To be an administrative scrivener or something like that." After which, Tsuyoshi asks Mari "How about you, Tsutsui-san?", she replies with "I want to take nutrition welfare. I almost decided on cosmetology, but I think taking nutrition welfare is important! Beauty comes from within!!"

## Etymology

* The name **Mari (2)** is written in hiragana (まり), 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 **Tsutsui** means "cylinder, pipe, tube, gun barrel, sleeve" (筒) (**tsutsu**) and "well, mine shaft, pit" (井) (**i**).

### Miscellaneous

* Yumi Uchiyama (Mari's voice actress) has voiced two characters from each of the same anime series along with Takuya Eguchi (Tomoya Matsunaga's voice actor):
	+ Tokyo Revengers
		- Yumi voices Emma Sano.
		- Takuya voices Shuji Hanma.
	+ Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World
		- Yumi voices Puck.
		- Takuya voices Julius Euclius.

## Gallery

* Manga
* Anime

Mari's debut.Mari on the Chapter 15 cover.Mari on the cover of the fifth volume.Mari on the cover of the tenth volume.Mattsun tells Mari he'll treasure her.Mattsun and Mari kiss during the special chapter.

Mari's anime character design.Mari talking with Natsuki Hashiba.Mari shows her disgust towards Mattsun at their first meeting.Mari falls in love with Anna Kobayakawa.Mari smiling.Mari with her hair down.