#pinci

I feel like its hard to overstate just how much people fell in love with Mariya Takeuchi in 2019. Her introduction to the King for Another Day Tournament to me initially left me scratching my head, because it seemed to be referencing a part of YouTube's algorithm of recommended videos that I had personally never encountered. Nevertheless, I saw a lot of people happy with her inclusion, and just sort of shrugged and kept watching the SiIva Direct in which she was unveiled. That complete apathy toward her inclusion persisted for me, and likely many others, until we got a tease of her full powers in the final SiIva Direct, held on the 21st of September leading up to the Tournament's premiere (hey, September! Remember that?). Aside from that one arrangement, we'd be teased with the introduction of character mash-up rips through one with Mariya herself in it - The Whims of Plastic Love. The rip positively exploded when it was uploaded on its own two months later, and it to me marked the point when Mariya Takeuchi's popularity in the tournament truly spiked.

The year therafter, the tournament had long since concluded, and we were all waiting for DJ Professor K's takeover event to begin. We all knew the results, and at least personally I'd finally accepted that the tournament would only have one winner. Yet we all still loved all the contestants - their impact hadn't gone away just from not reaching first place. And so, it didn't take long for rips like Plastic Love of the Stars to become appearing - rips that reminded us that these contestants were now forever part of SiIva's legacy, even if they wouldn't get a day to themselves.

Keep in mind, this was long before 11 Minutes of City Pop, and long before the DJ Professor K takeover itself would remind of us just how much the team also loved all of the tournament's contestants, with rips like Agent H (HOBaRT the Funny Mixer Theme). So really, it was stuff like Plastic Love of the Stars that sort of stealth-started the celebrations that were to come later in the year, bringing everyone together after all those months of excitement in the year that had just passed.