Anime Saimoe Tournament 2014 (Japan)
 

Welcome to the official AnimeSuki thread for the 13th annual Anime Saimoe Tournament, one that has become somewhat of a favored pastime for some people here. More information on the tournament will be added to this post and the supplementary websites as it becomes available.

Links, info, etc. will be provided when available.

The Anime Saimoe Tournament (Saimoe or AST for short) is a tournament held annually on the 2channel Japanese forums. People all around the world participate in the tournament to vote for the most moe anime character of the past year. (Though if last year was any indication, odds on you'll be blocked out from voting unless you're in Japan.) The tournament page is currently here and a twitter page is here, in Japanese only. However, a plethora of information in English can also be found at this site which does live tracking of the tournament as well.

The rules of how to properly participate in this thread:
To vote for characters, they must first be elected to participate in the tournament.

Character Nomination

Any female characters (including female characters without names, gyroids, and guys who become girls at least once in a series) who have appeared in any anime which has aired, is airing, or will air in Japan between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014; appearances on these dates also make a girl eligible. For OVAs, the release date must be between or on these dates. For films, the premiere date in Japan must fall between or on these dates.

Girls are nominated by the first kana letter of their family name, if it's a Japanese name (foreign names use the first letter of the first name, which will usually be the given name). The letters are grouped in the traditional Japanese way, by grouping letters by the starting letter of the letter row. All starting letters have あ sounds. If you're not familiar with this aspect of the Japanese language, go here or ask about it in this thread.

Nominations are ordered by the first Japanese letter of anime. This also applies to anime with non-Japanese titles. Different letters enter nominations on designated days. In order to nominate this year, you need a code.

Each date and time listed is in JST (Japan Standard Time). To find out how your computer's internal clock compares with JST, here's an international clock.

Saimoe 2014 Schedule:

5/26- Series beginning with A, E, I, O, U or V
5/27- Series beginning with G, K or Q
5/28- Series beginning with J, S or Z
5/29- Series beginning with C, D, N or T
5/30- Series beginning with B, F, H, P or V
5/31- Series beginning with L, M, R, W or Y
6/1, 6/7, 6/8, 6/14, 6/15- Additional Entry
7/5- Final Additional Entry

The schedule from what I've found so far is

5/26- Series beginning with A, E, I, O, U or V
5/27- Series beginning with G, K or Q
5/28- Series beginning with J, S or Z
5/29- Series beginning with C, D, N or T
5/30- Series beginning with B, F, H, P or V
5/31- Series beginning with L, M, R, W or Y
6/1, 6/7, 6/8, 6/14, 6/15- Additional Entry
7/5- Final Additional Entry

Meh, I wonder if both Saki and Madoka weakened a good bit this year.

Moe warship all day, every day.

Edit: Ok, I'm a bit confused on the rules. How is it that Madoka was in last year (presuming that July of the previous year to June of this year is the standard for each year)? Is Rebellion alone getting them in for both 2013 and 2014?

As for Saki, I'm curious to see what impact Zenkoku-hen might have. If nothing else, I would expect relative intra-series strength levels to be at least a bit changed. And I could see a few new Saki girls (Toyone for example) doing well.

I'm also curious to see if Love Live! can have a bit more impact this time. By all accounts, Love Live! is crazy popular in Japan. Probably now more than ever after Episode 9.

Mahouka and No Game No Life are two new anime shows that might put in some strong competitors.

One question - Is Kantai Collection going to be in this? Because if people thought Saki was overly dominant... :heh:

Madoka managed to get into 2013 because of Beginning/Eternal movies aired in October 2012. They get to be in this year due to Rebellion airing on October 2013. For Kantai Collection they might dominate AST 2015 due to it seems like their anime is going to air in July 2014.

As for new entries I see Kiniro Mosaic, Non Non Biyori, and Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka dishing out strong competitors, while No Game No Life might be a 50/50 when it comes to this. I honestly see Love Live getting stronger, same with Symphogear due its season 2 having more positive reception than season 1. I wonder if Rozen Maiden will stay strong. At least if Precure ends up very weak this year I wouldn't mind much since I have a lot of factions I like this time.


Now to think of it, I definitely agree with this since it is mostly likely that anti-Saki out numbers the pro-Sakis now. Who knows Madoka might get that same fate too.

Thanks for your answer, Ichuki. I honestly have mixed feelings about Madoka being in this year.

This is one year I probably won't be supporting them much as a faction, since they've already claimed two J-SaiMoe championships as a faction, while being dominant in 2011 and 2013. I'll still support Sayaka, but the others will be much more of a match-by-match basis. Mami and Madoka have already won before, and Homura winning could be seen as an endorsement of a movie ending that I don't know if I want to see endorsed. :heh: Kyouko I'll probably support against most competitors.

At a faction level, Love Live! is where my heart is this year. I might watch a bit more Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka to get a better sense of the characters in that show.

It also depends on if there is any sort of support left for Saimoe in terms of an active voting pool. With the really big matches getting only a little over 1,000 votes and most struggling to get over 500 votes, I'm not sure about things this year.

My expectation is Saki characters are washed up. None of them showed much strength after the change to the anti-vote stuffing system last year. There are a lot of Saki characters and they might still have enough strength to get a bunch of them past preliminaries. However, few, if any, will advance past Round 1 and none will be any threat to winning.

Personally, I wish those two titles (as well as Rozen Maiden) were banned from this year's Saimoe tournament as a way to give other titles a fair chance.

They're actually going to do it?
I hope that Love Live! can do it better than last year.
And Yoshino to make it to the top 16 again.

Ain't participating after what happened last year. Shit those unclear rules.

They're still at it?

Well maybe this year will actually turn out to be slightly better oh who am I kidding anyways

Melda Dietz for Saimoe '14

I'm half joking since I doubt a serious looking character can make it that far into Saimoe.

As a foreigner living in Japan here's the "feel" I have:

Madoka got a surge of attention after the movie, but by now enthusiasm seems on the wane. I still see some merchandise on the store shelves, and it's still generally popular, but by this point I think Madoka has passed its prime. It will do OK, but I have a hard time seeing it go all the way.

Saki? Well, I see manga on the shelves but I don't think it will do terribly well either.

Rozen Maiden won't go far, I think. It's just not that popular now.

As TripleR mentioned, Love Live! is quite popular nowadays. I expect it to do at least reasonably well. Maybe very well. I expect Love Live! to outperform Saki and Rozen Maiden at least. Wouldn't at all be surprised if it outperformed Madoka too.

As for the crown, I have no idea.

I wouldn't really expect much from Love Live. The characters weren't that strong before. Even if they are stronger now, I don't think they'll be championship material. Saki is washed up and probably so is Rozen Maiden so Love Live might still beat them.

Still waiting for this contest to die Maybe next year...

Are you aware of the recent record-making sales success of Love Live?

The first volume of Season 2 sold over 80K on Blu-Ray (granted, it had a special event ticket promotion going on, but still...)

In my experience, anime shows that have clear moe appeal and also sell well tend to do well in moe competitions. You see this with Angel Beats!, Madoka Magica, Ore no Imouto, K-On, etc...

Besides, who do you see as obvious "championship material" this year?

You think that Saki and Rozen Maiden are washed up, and some here think that Madoka Magica is going to decline. Ok, maybe so... so who's rising up then?

Somebody has to rise up if all the strong competitors of recent years are going to decline. Love Live! and its characters being that "somebody" makes just as much sense to me as any other anime show or character.

Love Live may be bigger now but it was already a big series to begin with. Season 1 also had very, very high sales. To me the fact that they weren't already a top tier series in Saimoe means that their fanbase just isn't really represented in the voting base.

I'm actually not sure who will win this year. I'm not really sure anyone from Summer or Fall 2013 is that strong. Maybe a Chitoge from Nisekoi has a shot. I haven't watched enough of the Spring season yet to comment. The winner really could be another Puella Magi. I'll believe they can lose when they actually do lose (in a fair fight). They were a mile ahead of everyone else. A small amount of decline and no real strong new challenges might be the recipe for a threepeat.

And then the votes get even lesser . . . I remember when I was excited for this. :(

Agreed, and this is the reason why I don't want Madoka Magica to take part in the tournament: a show that is way too dominant for the tournament's own good ends up having a negative effect on it, resulting in lower voter turnout and and disgust from those people who are unable to vote in the tournament.