Saimoe: Prelim 1, Group 1-4

Saimoe

Well, it's that time of year again! The time of the great Saimoe moe anime girls tournament!!

The what?

You know the Olympics, right? So this is just like that except that instead of getting the best athletes from around the world you get the best animes from Japan and have the most moe characters from them square off in a tournament where the winner is chosen by 2ch users.

Oh uh that sounds horribly uninteresting

Well it probably is for most people. But since the only thing I love more than moe anime is people getting mad at each other on the internet, this is like non-stop Christmas.

Last year my coverage of the event, while still substantial, was way out of proportion with how fascinated I was by it. This was because I figured no one would care to read about it. This year I've gotten over that insecurity. Now I'm sure no one would care, and I absolutely don't care about that.

So yeah let's take a look at the first four groups of the first prelims!!

First Prelims, Groups 1-4

You can see an overview of this stuff here, it should update realtime: https://s3.amazonaws.com/SaimoeArchive/Saimoe2012/FirstPreliminariesOverview.png

Okay so the top 12 enter the tournament proper, 13th-42^nd go to second prelims for a shot of making top 16.

Group 1

Chitanda taking top spot is no surprise. Last few episodes of Hyouka have been pretty great lately, haven't they? I liked the final solution of the movie arc, that all concluded pretty nicely I think. The pool bonus one was pretty nice too, although I wish they'd just left a mystery out of it and gone pure slice of life. But it was the festival episode that really won me over. Chitanda was extremely moe getting sidetracked by all the booths, Oreki's stationary trade quest is gonna be funny, the other two had interesting plots too. Moreover I feel like that episode captured the feel of a student festival... wait, what the hell would I know about this? Anyways I'm getting sidetracked. Chitanda beats out Another's main girl with the eyepatch and all by one vote. All I know about Another is that gif of them dancing and that it gets creepy. Saki also representing hard, I should probably watch that, I didn't cause I don't know how to play mahjong and the art didn't appeal to me right away, but when has that ever stopped me before? I kinda hoped Shinobu'd do better. Likewise I hoped Nano would make first prelims but I'm pretty happy with 14^th, she has a good shot in second prelims. Saber just getting 12^th surprises me.

Group 2

Wow and now a Saki character has dethroned the mighty Ika Musume aaaand Tsuhiki to boot. Wow! Last year I didn't know TWGOK so well so I didn't realize how Elsea really did deserve these high placements. Hopefully this recently announced new season of it will bring in even more great characters. I didn't watch C Cubed or Mysterious Girlfriend X but their maingirls did decently. Gertrud in 8^th is alright considering this is probably gonna be an off-year for Strike Witches. Sorta surprised that Charlotte ranks lower, though. I didn't watch Kill Me Baby so I don't get this Unused Character thing but she looks moe enough. Two more Saki characters in 13^th and 14^th, sheesh.

Group 3

Nagi proving she is still a force to be reckoned with after all this time. A real Saimoe veteran. I think that's the maingirl in Accel World as well, right, the butterfly girl? And Iori is probably gonna be one of the most successful Idols. I'm just glad Yuno beat out Charlotte by a couple of votes, SoL will never fall to harem! The two Milky Holmeses in 10^th and 11^th suggest that this is likely an off-year for them in general as I think those two ought to be the most popular. What's with Chinatsu barely hanging on at 12^th, though?? Is she the least popular YuruYuri? After the cutoff there's some pretty fierce competition,

Yozora, Hiro, Tooru and whoever this Saki character is are all likely to appear, I'd think. Is Yozora not the most hated Tomodachi in Japan though? 'Cause Maria is even lower, I dunno.

Group 4

Glad Poplar won, she deserves it. Yayoi has pretty major potential, though, probably more than any other Cure in recent memory. Not really a whole lot else I want to say about this group, really, except that I didn't realize Toradora was eligible this year. That could make things EVEN CRAZIER. Glad to see that Minna made the cut, she's one of my favorite Witches these days. I also like that Akane made 27^th even though I don't think she appeared once in YuruYuri's first season. That's hype.

I guess that's it for now.