[Teiran]

I stopped at eight, but looking over the list, I realize I could have chosen most of the others and felt almost the same conviction about my selections. I'll edit in my rationale behind each choice later; thanks to Saimoe, I've had some practice articulating the reasons that certain characters resonate with me.

Just to record my votes for now, in the order in which they appear in the poll: Konata, Kagami, Miyuki, Soujirou, Kanata, Nanako, Misao, Matsuri.

Misao is bound to do extraordinarily well in this poll for a side character--it helps that she probably has the highest adorability-to-lines-uttered ratio in the series. I'm sure she'll get a deservedly large share of votes based upon Mizuhara Kaoru's performance.