July 25, 2007

Saimoe first prelim: Summary

Below is a list of all the characters who qualified for the main tournament from the first prelim round, in no particular order. (Yeah, I could have collated them with vote totals and all that, but it wouldn't have been as instructive as you might think - voting really did vary from round to round depending on how heavy the competition was, and to factor that out you'd practically have to do a regression on the numbers... which I'm not quite bored enough to do. ;p)

So far, sheer numbers point to StrikerS - even though there's some junk characters in there, there's at least five or six serious contenders, enough that the organizers will have a hell of a time clumping them (to prevent them from carrying the whole damn bracket) without having a Nanoha-only block or something. Still, expect Fate, Nanoha, and Hayate to all end up in the same block (and maybe Rein too!)

Rozen Maiden qualified six of the seven dolls plus Tomoe, and both of the -seiseki twins, Shinku, and Suigintou are perennial high-performers.

Kanon essentially qualified every major female character. It's another one where it's hard to pick out which are the characters to look for (aside from Ayu, heh). That makes it hard to stack them in a block...

Other shows with a whole passel of qualifiers are Utawarerumono (which had Aruru and Eruru do well last year), Hayate (not every last female character, but most of 'em), Hidamari Sketch (which actually hurt me to watch, so no witty comment here), Negima ("only" seven girls qualified, heh), Lucky Star (the main cast, the DWI cop, the hellion of Lucky Channel, and a photo), Higurashi (the whole main cast), and Code Geass (haven't watched much of this, but there's seven of 'em).

Lots of characters is not necessarily a good thing, though. Last year, Gokujou Seitoukai had a dozen characters in the main tourney, but none of them advanced past the second round. One of the major disadvantages of having too many characters, especially if the show's popular enough to have secondary characters beat out other shows' leads, is that you tend to generate a lot of revenge votes later on...

Ah well, 'nuff said there. Still too early to go calling it one way or the other; there's still half the participants to pick, some of which had more votes in their round than the characters who made it below.
Here's the qualifiers:

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

Reinforce
Reinforce Zwei (Rein)
Yagami Hayate
Signum
Shamal
Vita
Fate T. Harlaown
Arf
Ginga Nakajima
Subaru Nakajima
Teana Lanster
Caro Ru Lushe
Takamachi Nanoha
Tsukimura Suzuka
Alisa Bannings
Vivio

Rozen Maiden

Suiseiseki
Souseiseki
Shinku
Suigintou
Kanaria
Hinaichigo
Kashiwaba Tomoe

Utawarerumono

Aruruu
Eruruu
Karura
Kamu
Yuzuha
Kuuya
Touka

Zero’s Familiar

Queen Henrietta
Siesta
Tabitha
Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière

Kanon

Minase Akiko
Minase Nayuki
Kurata Sayuri
Sawatari Makoto
Kawasumi Mai
Misaka Kaori
Misaka Shiori
Tsukimiya Ayu

Hayate the Combat Butler

Katsura Hinagiku
Sanzenin Nagi
Maria
Nishizawa Ayumu
Saginomiya Isumi
Aizawa Sakuya

Hidamari Sketch

Yuno
Miyako
Hiro
Yoshinoya-sensei
Sae

ARIA the Natural

Alice Caroll
Aika S. Granzchesta
Alicia Florence
Mizunashi Akari

Hitohira

Kanna Chitose (Orinaru)
Asai Mugi

Nagasarete Airantou

Suzu
Ayane
Machi
Yukino
Rin

Shuffle! Memories

Fuyou Kaede
Primula(Rimu)

Negima!?

Kagurazaka Asuna
Ayase Yue
Konoe Konoka
Miyazaki Nodoka
Sakurazaki Setsuna
Hasegawa Chisame
Evangeline A.K. McDowell

School Rumble

Ichijou Karen
Sawachika Eri
Tsukamoto Tenma
Tsukamoto Yakumo

Sola

Ishizuki Mana
Ishizuki Koyori
Morimiya Aono
Shihou Matsuri

Lucky Star

Hiiragi Tsukasa
Hiiragi Kagami
Takara Miyuki
Izumi Konata
Izumi Kanata (Konata’s mom)
Kogami Akira
Narumi Yui

Seto no Hanayome

Seto San
Edomae Runa
Iinchou (class rep)
Zenigata Mawari

Strawberry Panic

Minamoto Chikaru
Nanto Yaya
Suzumi Tamao

Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru

Itsukushima Takako
Takashima Ichiko

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Sonozaki Shion
Sonozaki Mion
Ryuuguu Rena
Houjou Satoko
Furude Rika

Shakugan no Shana

Hirai Yukari
Wilhelmina Carmel
Shana
Yoshida Kazumi

Darker than Black

Yin

iDOLM@STER XENOGLOSSIA

Hagiwara Yukiho
Amami Haruka

Code Geass

C.C.
Euphemia Li Britannia
Nunnally Lamperouge (Nunnally Vi Britannia)
Kallen Stadtfeld
Shirley Fenette
Milly Ashford
Sumeragi Kaguya

Saint October

Shirafuji Natsuki(White Loli)
Hayama Kotono(Black Loli)

Kaibutsu Oujo

Hime
Frandre

Strawberry Marshmallow

Ana Coppola
Itou Nobue
Itou Chika
Matsuoka Miu

Sumomomomomomo

Miyamoto Iroha
Kuzuryuu Momoko

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Nia
Yoko

Manabi Straight!

Eto Mei (Mee)
Inamori Mika (Mikan)

Ouran High School Host Club

Fujioka Haruhi

Happiness!

Watarase Jun

Otogi Jushi Akazukin

Kinoshita Ringo
Gretel (Shizumori Erika)
Akazukin

Inukami!

Youko

Gintama

Kagura

Maria-sama ga Miteru

Toudou Shimako

Crescent Love

Feena Fam Earthlight

Welcome to the NHK

Nakahara Misaki

To Heart 2

Kousaka Tamaki

Detective Conan

Haibara Ai

Asatte no Houkou

Iokawa Karada

Black Lagoon

Revy

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at 08:07 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 781 words, total size 16 kb.

1 I can't believe that Wilhelmina from Shakugan no Shana made it into this round. She won't go further.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 26, 2007 02:38 AM (+rSRq)

2 The only reason Eururu did well last year was because she was in a weak block. Her block had the lowest vote totla of any voting block in the Entire Saimoe. Her block essentially had no heavy weights. Put a heavy weight form any of the other blocks and she would have been steam roll over. 

Posted by: Xellos-_^ at July 26, 2007 11:01 AM (12gxe)

3 Well, you could say that about Rin last year too - she got fewer votes winning than -any- other block finalist lost with, excepting Nanoha (and that only because Nanoha-fandom threw in behind Fate, since Nanoha won the tourney in 2005). And it's not like Rin is totally devoid of moe! ;p

But there are definitely weak blocks and strong blocks. Since the tourney organizers are fond of sequestering the strongest entries from a series in a single block, I fully expect a Nanoha block, a Rozen block, and a Lucky Star block... and if you're a character from a different series in one of those blocks, you're essentially screwed to begin with. Not formally or anything, sure. Up against one of the big names, the only hope a character has is some heavy strategic voting by factions opposed to that show. But there's no point in attempting strategic voting against one character from show A if you then have to do the same thing with another popular character from show A later. In fact, it's much better to arrange for the two to meet, split the fanbase of that show, and throw the entire strategic vote you can muster behind the perceived weaker character of the two - you're a lot more likely to sink the stronger moe that way!

Also, on a personal level, the "down-card" rounds are interesting as a kind of filter. I don't need somebody to tell me to go watch Rozen or Nanoha or Lucky Star at this point, but characters doing well from shows I've never heard of at least indicate that somebody finds that show and character enjoyable. I hadn't seen any FSN until Rin made it into the quarterfinals last year, and I would have also watched Utawarerumono if it wasn't being worked on by the local crowd. ;p Shana's just waiting funds, for that matter...

The only worry I have this year is Nanoha, simply because there's just SO MANY characters qualified already, and enough contenders that putting all six or seven of them into a single block would feel pretty raw. But it's not good for the tourney if two or three of the quarterfinalists are from the same show, moe or not...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at July 26, 2007 04:00 PM (LMDdY)

4

Hidamari Sketch (which actually hurt me to watch, so no witty comment here)

...and here I was, thinking you had taste.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 27, 2007 07:43 PM (6krEN)

5 I liked it, but it -actually hurt me to watch-. The wide, wide, wide faces kept doing funny things to my eyeballs. ;p

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at July 27, 2007 08:41 PM (LMDdY)

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