[Team Rocket Elite]

A good set of matches to kick off ISML for the year. Largely it seems the characters that finished in first didn't beat down everyone else as badly as they normally would in a 1 on 1 match. This makes it difficult to judge whether they changed in strength or not. From the Nova division I was quite impressed with Menma. She looks a fair bit stronger than when she lost to Ika Musume in an exhibition match last year. I think she would win a rematch fairly easily now. The two Fairy Tail characters looked quite good this year. I'm looking forward to seeing how well Erza Scarlet does in the next set of matches. If Kisaragi Chihaya's performance is any indication, the Idolm@ster characters don't look too hot. I expected her to at least be able to beat Poplar. It's too bad since I really like Chihaya a lot. While Ohana isn't weak, I also expected a bit more from her. I thought she can stick a bit closer to Yuno. For the second year in a row, the off season is not kind to the Hayate characters. Nagi once again took a fair sized hit in strength and falls below Ui and Last Order. Despite the ability to vote for two character, some characters are still getting hammered by split votes. Houki should still be way stronger than Poplar. Isayama Yomi really shouldn't doing better than Rei and Asuka.