| Marika Tachibana | |
|---|---|
| Japanese | 橘 万里花 |
| Translation | Tachibana Marika |
| Character information | |
| Other names | Mari Ojou-sama |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 15 (1st Year Arc) 16 (2nd Year Arc) |
| Date of birth | March 3rd (Pisces) |
| Blood type | O |
| Height | 151 cm (1st Year Arc) 152 cm (2nd Year Arc) |
| Weight | 41 kg |
| Occupation | High School Student (formerly) |
| Home town | Kyushu |
| Home country | Japan |
| Goal | To have Raku fall in love with her and get rid of his girlfriend in the process Save up enough money to buy the home Raku had imagined ten years ago To accomplish the conditions in her mother's contract |
| Likes | Raku Ichijō Her father Her pet parrot |
| Dislikes | Girls with long hair Her mother |
| Quote | "Nothing in this world becomes yours if you do not move to acquire it." |
| Background information | |
| Chapter | "Mayhem" |
| Episode | "Ordeal" |
| Japanese | Kana Asumi |
| English | Kira Buckland |
| Image gallery (6) | |
Marika Tachibana (橘 万里花, Tachibana Marika) is one of the main characters of the Nisekoi series. She is the daughter of Gen Tachibana and Chika Tachibana and Marika is also introduced as the fiancé of Raku Ichijō.
Appearance
Marika's Full Appearance during first year
Marika is a fair-skinned girl with long orange hair which she neatly divides into two locks that sports a calendula/marigold hairpin she received from Raku Ichijō in their childhood and orange eyes.
As a child, Marika kept her hair very short, but once she met Raku, she let her hair grow out when he told her he liked girls with long hair. She also changed the way she spoke to get closer to Raku's liking for all the changes she did for him but whenever she becomes flustered or embarrassed, Marika returns to her bad speaking habits and becomes timid and soft-spoken, a far cry from her usual behavior.
She wears a different uniform compared to everyone else's at the school due to her transferring. She also wears a sailor uniform with a long, striped black skirt that reaches around her knees, matched with a white-grey shirt and a yellow cravat.
In Ordeal, Marika is considered to be a beautiful girl in class that people were awed by her beauty as they wonder if she is a model or not.
Personality
Marika is predominantly attracted to Raku Ichijō and is bold enough to claim herself to be the most suitable girlfriend he can ever have. In fact, among the girls who are attracted to Raku, Marika is the most vocal and upfront as she does not hold second thoughts in her attempts to claim Raku for herself. She does her best to do anything that might appeal to Raku, noting her sheer dedication for him, even as a child, into shaping herself to what she conceives an ideal girl for Raku, putting aside the time that would have been spent for her treatment. All this, coupled with the frail physique she inherited and was born with, Marika always tries to keep her composure in front of her friends and only shows her frailty to her aide - Honda - or whenever nobody is around. Yet this would not yield her in doing something as bodacious such as sculpting Raku a huge chocolate statue in his likeness. However, in the face of her mother, Marika is shown to feel desperate and hopeless, obeying her mother's words to the letter even if it meant hurting the ones she holds dear.
Despite this, however, Marika is usually shown in high-spirits, optimistic yet somewhat prideful. She is not afraid of making bold statements to herself and towards others and is rarely shown to lose composure. If so, Marika turns violent, reverts to her vulgar speaking habits and capable enough to throw off Yakuza, Bee Hive and police force members. Back when she was a middle-schooler, Marika is also revealed to be quite manipulative and cunning that she single-handedly was able to beat the ring-leader of the ones who had bullied her and eventually controlling an entire school from the shadows.
Though not apparent, Marika genuinely cares for her friends and is usually delighted by their company. She is also shown to be quite perceptive by the agendas that occur between her friends, such as the fake relationship Raku and Chitoge Kirisaki share, as is her being secretive in this regard as well as other matters. Overall, Marika remained a loyal and supportive friend, adamant to her emotions, and a very competitive love rival vying for Raku's affection.
Relationships
Main Article: Relationships of Marika Tachibana
Background
Marika was born with an underlying illness that has been passed down from her mother, so Marika spent most of her childhood bedridden and in solitude. At one point, Marika resided alongside her father at Tenku plateau due to the clean environment. There she met the young Raku Ichijō, whom Marika affectionately calls "Rakkun", whereas the latter recognize Marika by the name "Mari". In their leisure, Raku would voluntarily go to where Marika is staying and bring with him objects he gathered from the forest such as twigs and bugs. Raku also gifted Marika her trademark calendula/marigold hairpin.
Marika finds great pleasure in her times with Raku and eventually fell in love with him, asking his father to have them marry in the future. To commemorate this promise, Raku and Marika took a photo together with Raku's father.
Abilities
- Marika is known to have all qualities that would have made her the 'ideal wife' for anyone. But her ability to carry them out are hampered sometimes due to recurrent attacks of anemia.
- Singing: Marika is known to be a great singer as she took rigorous classes to train her voice for suit Raku's liking. However, she is a very bad teacher of the same, as she continuously gave up when she was asked to teach Yui Kanakura.
- Cooking: Marika is shown to be extremely good in cooking, especially if it's for Raku. She had made him a gigantic chocolate statue of himself and even had a cooking contest with Chitoge. Although Chitoge won the last round, Raku thought Marika's cooking was very delicious.
Story
First Year Arc
Marika makes her first appearance in Ordeal when she transfers to Raku Ichijō's school so that she can be with him. She goes on a date with him to make new memories about her in his mind. She presents him to Gen Tachibana (Marika's father), who is shown to be a very nice man despite his intimidating looking.
Second Year Arc
Marika keeps trying to convince Raku Ichijō that she is the ultimate wife-form.
Due to an unexpected visit of her friend Mikage Shinohara, Marika tells to Raku to pretend being her boyfriend for a day, to fake the fact that she was still trying to get in a relationship with him. After being asked why she were deeply thoughtful all the day, in a Ferris wheel, she asks him about having a kiss saying that's a normal thing for boyfriends, despite his immense shame, he could not stand against, but had not to, because she was trying to see his deep emotions [0] .
Third Year Arc
After Raku Ichijō thinks previously about his relationships and his future, he rejects Marika.
After that, she cuts her hair and her disease gets completely cured. She now looks for a man who is equivalent to her as Raku would be. Toward the end of the series, Marika helps Chitoge Kirisaki confess her feelings to Raku, affirming her friendship with her former rival.
Trivia
- The name Marika mean "real, genuine" (真) (ma), "reason, logic" (理) or "village" (里) (ri) and "flower" (花) (ka).
- Marika's surname Tachibana means "orange, tangerine" (橘).
- Marika speaks with a Hakata dialect when she's flustered, embarrassed or angry. She has tried to stop this type of speaking because it wasn't 'girl-like'.
- Marika had once claimed to have a distaste towards girls who have long hair in general as this reflects to Raku Ichijō's childhood interest in women despite having long hair herself.
- Both Marika and Yui Kanakura were forced to get married by their kin and both protested against it (and succeeded) because of Raku Ichijō.
- Marika has a pet parrot named "Raku-sama" despite her extreme fear of animals which was triggered due to a childhood incident where her pet hamster ate her own pups.
- Marika has kissed Raku Ichijō thrice [Twice in airports - After saying goodbye to Mikage Shinohara (on cheek) and before Marika left for USA (on forehead) and once in the end of their first date (on cheek) ] . [1] [2][[3]]
- Marika later admits to Raku Ichijō that she isn't the "promised girl", but she says she won't give up if he ends his relationship with the girl he chooses.
- Marika only appears once fully in the first opening of Nisekoi, since the first 13 episodes she just appeared as a silhouette and after the 14th episode the opening changes.
- Marika doesn't seem to care about her grades unless it has to do something with Raku.
- In early promotional trailers for the Nisekoi Anime, Marika had brown hair instead of her now, orange hair.
- In the manga, it is revealed that Marika is afraid of animals since she had a pet hamster that ate her own babies.
- Marika initially had forgotten about the promise made by Raku Ichijō ten years ago but on perusal of the picture book found in Kosaki Onodera's home, she is reminded of the events. However, since she realizes that she wasn't the promise girl, she did not tell the others feeling her chances to win over Raku might die. But, Shū Maiko realizes she is keeping something to herself and tries to confront her but she was reluctant to accept.
- There seems to be an unspoken confusion regarding the flower in Marika's hair pin. In the manga, Raku Ichijō states that the flower is called a "Marigold". However in reality, the flower has two names, it can either be called a "Marigold" or a "Calendula".
- Marika may be aware that she and the others are only but an entertainment as mention on the manga, Nisekoi Chapter 112. As explaining the "readers" that Migisuke is her "dog".