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tl;dr: two different things that happened to be the same words; which "nico nico nii" is it, really? | the nico-nii as the meme and nico-nii as the girl her father trusted her to become and as the elder sister that her siblings looked up to—welcome to my nico nico ted talk XD

-i know y'all ain't reading that a lot, lol. i'm dumping this here anw-

since it’s Nico’s birthday, i might as well write about this. i saw this on insta posted by niconiidaily, and while i wholeheartedly agree on this, i’d like to ‘break down’ the different “faces” of the nico nico nii. cuz, really, it depends on which version we’re talking about.

there’s this popular sentiment that resurfaces now and then among love live! fans, especially around Nico’s birthday. though, to be fair, it’s actually something so prominent and normalized, it’s not even that much of a surprise at this point. on its face, it is difficult to disagree with, because when you spend enough time online, what was supposed to mean something for a character gets reduced to a meme, a punchline.

and for many people, Nico Yazawa begins and ends there. that’s it.

of course, most people outside the niche or who had never even known about the franchise or series got to know it because of Nico’s catchphrase. it’s even one of the things that made her really popular, whether people wanted to acknowledge that or not. but again, the frustration of the other side is also understandable, mostly because Nico was one of the most layered characters in the series, and yet, discussions about her often collapse into the same joke repeated for over a decade. pretty crazy, but i guarantee you—it’s unfortunately true.

some would even argue, ‘why bother, she’s still annoying or funny’ or ‘i get that, but i’m more comfortable with this’ (heard exactly that from a few people). and honestly, i don’t blame them. to each their own—liking/hating a character for something or investing time and emotions in a fictional character is each other’s business. we’ve got to acknowledge that.

that doesn’t mean the rest of us who care shouldn’t bother anymore, though. behind every show of confidence so exaggerated it’s almost either annoying or embarrassing was also the same girl who shoulders a whole ton of responsibilities far beyond what anyone expects of a high school girl. i’d even argue she’s been carrying those likely since middle school, seeing her siblings’ ages.

she was playing the role of an elder sister, and in many ways, already became one of the “adults” in the household. heck, she stretches every yen they got, and raises her younger siblings while chasing a dream that often seems determined to reject her. and i think this is something some people should also acknowledge and understand: to know only the meme is to know remarkably little about Nico herself.

now, i’m not saying that’s a crime or such a bad thing to do. like i said, to each their own. and honestly, hear me out: i always felt that the statement “don’t reduce her to nico nico nii” is slightly incomplete.

what am i even yapping about? well, buckle up, it’s about to get even longer, lol.

it depends on which “nico nico nii” we’re talking about.

obviously, the one being mentioned on the image is the internet version of it. the meme— the catchphrase stripped of context and repeated simply because it’s recognizable. technically, it’s serving one of its purposes really well, so there’s that.

basically, it’s the ‘face’ people imitate, the voice they exaggerate, the clip that appears in every compilation and reaction vids. kinda like your usual beginner introduction to a character/series. it’s also unfortunately the version that quite flattened Nico into, yk, a caricature. takes one small part of her personality and mistakes it for the whole thing.

so, yes, if this is the face of “nico nico nii” we’re reducing her into, we’ve got to stop at some point, even if only for a while.

but i’m sure you also know the other face of it, the other version of the “nico nico nii” that had existed long before it became the widespread meme.

many knew of it by now, though never really read up on the specifics. more so back then. it was the catchphrase that her late father entrusted to her. whether we think of it as a phrase, an idea, or simply a fatherly lullaby for his dear daughter, it’s important to know that it was never meant to draw attention. especially for all the wrong reasons (touché).

it was about making people smile. yep, as simple as that. it represented a way of facing the world, one her father believed was worth passing on to his daughter. for the limited people who knew and have read about the father piece i wrote last year about Nico and her dad, it addressed it there nicely. not the point here tho, lol.

anyway. nico did not simply ‘inherit’ the catchphrase but the responsibility that came with it. you might ask, ‘what kinda freaking responsibility are you talking about, it ain’t that deep bro’— well, it is lowkey that deep, yo. every performance of that gesture was a continuation of something far, much older than her school idol career.

now, viewed this way, “nico nico nii” becomes something that no longer diminishes her character, but rather one of the clearest windows into who she is. we actually got a glimpse of it when we saw her home situation in season 2!

and among her siblings, Nico is not treated as some kind of joke or an overconfident brat with a tendency to lie out of insecurity and desire for recognition (this ain’t your ticket to twist the narrative btw, shoo~). if anything, she was an extraordinary older sister for them.

i mean, yeah, she edits her posters to preserve the little illusion that the group revolves around her, but hey, that’s not the point i’m trying to make. the point IS that she’s someone who smiles through disappointments they are too young to understand. she also chooses the temporary fantasy over honesty because she knows it’d protect their happiness, if only for a longer while.

in short, the confidence she projects at home is every bit as performative as the confidence she projects on stage. the only difference was the purpose: one was out of selfless desire to protect the smiles that matter to her most and the other was out of the desire to protect herself from the cruelty of the world.

big claims, i know. but well that, too, is “nico nico nii”.

so yeah, pretty much that’s how it is. it’s easy to dismiss the catchphrase when all we see is the performance. it’s even harder to do so when we do realize that it was never for shallow reasons, but for the siblings waiting for her at home, for her mother, for the promise she made to her father who taught her that making people smile mattered.

it’s the entire “your name meant ‘smile’, and smiles have magic” thing. which also basically tells us this: the catchphrase and the nico-nii at home (and technically who she really was) cannot be separated because another version of it somehow exists stripped of meaning.

nico yazawa—the girl who was more than a meme, yet also not more than what the phrase had actually meant.

and in the end, it was simply two entirely different things that happened to share the same words.

why? eh, i think it’s because the internet is pretty great in preserving “symbols” or whatever, but pretty bad at preserving “meanings”.

welp, peace out, ey.

Drawn by 日景日香.

Drawn by としあき.

Drawn by YAZQWQ_NICO.

Drawn by あじゃぱ.

Nico-chan, Happy Birthday! The team and all of your fans wish you a day full of blessings, full of love, and full of smiles!

Thank you for existing. Thank you for the catchphrase that was never just a catchphrase. Thank you for wanting to make people smile. And thank you for being the kind of person who makes other people want to become someone who makes other people smile.

Happy Birthday to our beloved Number 1 Idol in the Universe!~

— Nico nii Nico-chan | Under the Spotlight: Tales of Nico Yazawa | Stories of Light

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICO

yo, rynx at your (and nico's) service!

there are a few reasons why i tried making these. one, i miss nico. two, did it for fun for an article i wrote. i doubt it'd be used for that, i just wanted to make chibi nicos for visual of sort.

this one is from nico's scene on season 1, episode 5 of LLSIP.

i might actually consider making a few more in my free time...

anyway, i really have issues with shading (shadows). i should have looked more closely, but i got too tired, and all that. so yea, pls don't ask me why it looked wrong. xD idk either

I hope this counts here because it was a nico-expression that led me to this tragedy (lol)🥹 it's also nico whom i lowkey cried for the most while making this (sorry maki, no offense).

Nyway, i almoat forgot to share this here cause i got busy with a ton of things xD

I'm skipping the fancy words here, but basically, from the first version of the site where we technically stitched multiple things together to have something, now we rebuilt it into something more functional!

Many features were added, of course, and many things were also re-categorized. Also, I'm so lonely there with no one to talk. TT_TT Are nico fans introverts, or y'all just old and too tired? I'm old, too! (I'm 24), lol.

Still, the website was and will always be for Nico and for her fans. We hope that anyone who visits it enjoys their stay, however long or short.

Anyway, every day is Nico day if we Nico Nico Nii hard enough!

Nico Website is called Under the Spotlight: Tales of Nico Yazawa [ no1idolniconii.com ]

Interact with us and submit your love for Nico at Stories of Light [ instagram.com/stories.of_light ]

If you're on Facebook, interact with us, too, at Nico nii Nico-chan FB Page

Or honestly, do whatever~ Interact with me here as well!