Mari grew up in a small apartment in Brooklyn. While the apartment was small, her family lived comfortably off the combined salaries of a professional hero and a social worker, with some hard patches here and there due to the economy. She often got up to mischief with her friends -- eventually forming an artistic collective in the later years of middle school. Both of her parents were busy, leaving her best friend’s grandma to practically look after her and the other troublemakers if they ever got back from school early. Her parents do take the time and effort to make sure that the family was together during the weekends and holidays.

In school, Mari kept up easily with the sciences and mathematics, but she loved English class and would often hang out at either the neighborhood community center where there was a decent library or make the trip out to the New York Public Library out in the heart of Manhattan to read books. However, she mostly didn’t take school seriously, coasting through elementary and middle school with decent grades.

After middle school, Mari’s mother’s parents fell ill, prompting her mom’s return to Japan. Mari came along since she was inspired to become a hero because of her father’s work and had heard about U.A. and Shiketsu’s distinguished reputations. She applied and somehow scraped together a good enough score on the practical exam to make it into U.A.

The art collective that Mari is part of is informally known as [cnstlltn] and has an actual presence online. They mainly organize large murals in conspicuous places but have moved on to other ventures, such as fashion shows and music-related stuff since most of the group is scattered.

RELATIONSHIPS

Marcos Rose-Garcia | Father

Marcos is an amicable but overworked father. His quirk is [Ink Walls], which allows him to project semi-solid walls of ink or paint from lines found on surfaces, such as the median lines on a road or graffiti on building walls. He used his quirk a lot in his pro-hero work, often to get over buildings quickly or to block fleeing villains, but his work eventually put a lot of strain on both his body and mind so he retired and went to law school to become a public defender/criminal lawyer. He is fabulously busy and Mari remembers that he would come home late all days of the week before zooming back to work early the morning after. Despite this, Marcos has a tendency to spoil her and often tried to take Mari along with him whenever he visited his former agency.

He's currently in the United States since his job is demanding and he can't be easily pulled away to Japan. He adores it when Mari and Amaryllis comes back to visit during long holidays such as Thanksgiving and Easter.

Amaryllis Yoshida | Mother

Amaryllis is jokingly referred to as the "tiger mom" of the family, though it's not for nothing. Knowing about Marcos’s laissez-faire approach to parenting, she imposed somewhat strict curfews on Mari and made sure that she did well in school. Mari knew the exact distance to when a rule would be broken, but Amaryllis didn't mind as long as she didn't get into legal troubles. Moreover, she's quirkless, a subject of touchiness for Mari. Amaryllis is a capable social worker, handling post-operation cases from hero agencies with ease, especially in regards to families, children, and even villains.

Amaryllis is actually living in Japan at the moment, making sure that Mari actually goes to school. She's secretly proud that Mari got into UA, even though she does not publicly agree with the decision.