#ami ria

Ria Ami's swimsuit is AWESOME SAUCE, and I need everyone to look at this right now.

Hot pink halter bikini, deep V, tropical flower print on the bottoms, actual flowers in her hair. She is standing on a rock over the sea and laughing and she looks like she has never once in her life had the thought "can I get away with keeping my shirt on."

I have never once in my life not done that calculation. I spent years being self-conscious about my body at the beach, just finding reasons to stay covered, watching other people in swimwear like it was nothing while I'm running numbers in my head. So, when I tell you Ria standing there laughing in that bikini hits different, I mean it.

And for a trans girl specifically this is everything. Because swimwear is one of those categories where dysphoria just lives. The exposure, the way it shows your body from every angle, whether you'll pass, whether people will clock you, whether your proportions are going to betray you the second you stop posing carefully — it's exhausting. A lot of trans girls don't go to the beach at all. And Ria is out there doing beach tennis.

That's the part that gets me actually. The costume story has her doing long distance swimming, beach flags, beach tennis — she's being athletic and physical and taking up space in a way that has nothing to do with how she looks. She wished to be naturally beautiful and then she went and lived in that body like it was always hers, because the wish made it, so it always was.

That's the fantasy. Not just the body. The timeline where you never had to fight for it.

The flowers in her hair and the tropical print are doing something too — she picked those because she likes them, not because she's trying to prove something. There's a difference between femininity as armor and femininity as just. what you wanted to wear today. Ria is so far past having to justify her choices that she just put flowers in her hair and went to the beach.

After Ria is told that she’s too conventionally attractive for what the modeling agency wants to do next, she falls into depression and wonders what to do with herself.  One day while lost in thought, she bumps into another girl, who turns out to be a fan of hers, and says that she was inspired by Ria to audition for the new unit.  Though happy to receive praise, Ria quickly realizes how inexperienced this girl is, so resolves to coach her through it; she owes her fan at least that much, and if she could teach Nanami Yachiyo to act, how hard could it be?  

Progress is very slow, and the younger girl is discouraged by how many mistakes she keeps making, so steps out for a break.  While out, the girl runs into Kyuubey, who offers to grant her wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl, only for Ria to show up and literally kick him away.  She then rounds on the other girl and tells her in no uncertain terms that there are no shortcuts to success; If she needs a foot in the door, Ria swears to do everything in her power to give her that chance, but the rest has to come through hard work and practice.  The girl agrees, and the two resume their work.