Saimoe 2011: Round 1, Block A
Click to viewOkay, back after a long delay! Kicking things off, let's catchup on this year's highly anticipated Anime Saimoe Tournament, where the top anime girls of the past year compete against each other for top moe spot! Last year's final match-up was a grueling head-to-head with Azusa (K-ON) & Nagi (Hayate the Combat Butler), with Azunyan ultimately being crowned the winner.
But now we're in 2011, the 10th year for Saimoe! & going into this year, three new series stuck out in my mind instantly for having high Saimoe potential- Oreimo, Madoka Magica, & Squid Girl. I expect the girls in these three shows to do quite well this year. That's not to say returning competitors don't have a chance, though. K-ON returns for it's third straight year, & we also have favorites like Biribiri & the rest of the Magical Index girls. Plus, Shana returns ONCE AGAIN, hoping to finally make 2011 her year (if not, she already has a guaranteed seat for 2012, most likely her last one ever). But time usually doesn't aid the contestants in this tournament. With K-On especially, after having finalists for two years in a row, many will likely be under the mentality "alright, they've had their time in the sun." That's not to the the likes of Yui & Azusa wont perform strongly. They likely will, just not strong enough to make it to the end.
In the end, I fully expect one of the Madoka girls to win. But we're still way off from that, & I have a lot of catching up to do! I will be using this post to cover the first part of Round 1- groups A & B.
Day 1 started off with a bang, with a match-up worthy of the finals- Mikoto (Index) vs Homura (Madoka)! While it pained me to lose Biribiri so quickly into the games, I figured Homura's win was pretty much assured. Unbelievably, Mikoto won! Many had expected Homura to win it all this year, so this was easily one of the biggest first-round upsets in Saimoe history! Meanwhile, Suzu Hagimura (Seitokai Yakuindomo) won her round, beating weak competition including Ai Haibara (Detective Conan). Itsuwa (Magical Index) also easily won her round, which included Rio (Rio) & Nodoka (K-ON).
Day 2 wasn't really a day in upsets, but was an example of how I can really be off in predicting winners. Winners were Astraea (Sora no Otoshimono), Mizuki Himeji (Baka & Test), & Yoshino Hide (Sengoku Otome). Two busty winners, so not bad. I was really only suprised that Eucliwood from "Zombie Desu ka" lost.
Day 3 included one of my new favorite characters of the past year & one of my favs to win this year, Tooru from "A-Channel." It was a close one, but she was barely able to fend off Ricotta (Dog Days). Victorique (Gosick) easily won her round, as expected. & the final winner was Miya (Amagami SS).
Day 4 had two extremely close matches & a total blowout. Karina (Tiger & Bunny) almost proved that if you're awesome enough, you don't have to be moe to win. But the super moe Chaos (Sora no Otoshimono) got the last laugh. Kurisu (Steins;Gate) also narrowly defeated Ai (Amagami SS). For the last match, even though K-ON's Jun greatly improved her moe image over the past two years (her fan base grew quite substantially since just last year), it wasn't even close to matching the overwhelming power of Astarotte (Astarotte's Toy). This is one Rie Kugumiya loli that you don't wanna mess with, & is definitely a favorite to win it all this year.
Come back for the B Block!