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Spoiler for I agree with the following statements:

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Angel Beats this year has a massive advantage over everyone else in Nova, but they will pass to Stella next year (those that survive the change). With the top (Kanade is dominatingly top) gone, the remainder will have a chance to prove themselves better against this year's wave (plus this year's wave can prove their power better if they have some "benchmark" girls to compare with). If the entire Nova is only newbies each year, there will be years were we get basically chaff for half or more than half the entries. Those sorts of duels are fairly uninteresting and voters will ignore them if they are able to do so (and focus on Stella matches).

(The 2011 vets have an advantage not just because people recongnize them, but also they did have to face the likes of Shana, Yuki, Haruhi, and Makoto. The Nova group next year will only have been crushed by Kanade and some of those other 2011 vets. Unless they are really good and get necklace spots against the Stella group, we won't know what they are made up until 2013).

Originally Posted by ion475

As far as creating a "Nova" with only girls that haven't been here before - I don't see how it would generate more excitement. More unpredictable, yes, but exciting? This year's Nova already features 3 Haganai girls, 3 BakaTest girls (None of them doing good), 4 Kaminomi girls (None of them doing good either). Then, you start limiting Nova to "Really new to ISML only", you'll only get people voting in those 3rd/4th best girls from a poplar series just to feel up space. You then have a few really good girls start demolishing everyone else.

Originally Posted by ion475

I do agree. But I can also argue that AB is the exception, not the norm. Take out AB and Oreimo and there goes 7 out of 13 returning girls in Nova. And the phenomenon of "Few series dominating the main season field" applied to both side (Hack, if the Fire Sisters is given just a month more in nomination, you'll have 5 Nisemonogatari girls. Then there's Clannad, around for forever and guess what? 4 girls get in this year with 3 of them that probably won't go away until god knows when. Haruhi trio is the same, of course...K-On...). At least with the current Nova format, you took out at least 10 girls right there. Problem? Just the way prelim work for the most part...

These are the reasons why I think we should stick with this years format for at least one more year before thinking in anything else would make it better. Like ion475 said, this year Nova division has girls like Angel Beats!, Ore no Imouto, Eucliwood, Charolette, and the like. By next year, they will be gone, and girls like Erio, Inori, and Aria can show off their true colors. I think the complaint here is that those from last year are dominating the newer girls and slowing them less potential. Considering where all of them statistically stand last year, isn't that pretty evident where they stand now compared to the newer girls. This is why I claim that if we wait one more year, we can see those girls as well as the other newcomers of next get the full potential they need while the Stella side would be ISML 2011 all over again.

This leads me to another thing that ion475 pointed out that I believe makes sense. Triple R, you stated that Nova should only be girls that appeared within one year. I fear what ion475 stated about having 4th/5th most popular girl of series coming in only to fill up space. I believe that one year just may be not enough time in the case of voting them in. You may state that two years is too much time, but I think two years is quite sufficient in that we can get to see girls like Haganai, Aria, and others to show their true worth against every other new girl here. I think the complaint is mostly going to happen for this year. Next year may have less qualms about this topic.

Upon the "Nova = girls who have not been to ISML before" idea, while yes, I agree that there may be people who would take high interest in it, myself included; however, I feel that that version of Nova would actually be more boring in terms of excitement. I think that that version would make an even finer line on where the top and bottom is (post 2011 vs everyone else). Sure, girls like Shirayuki (Aria), Ayase (Guilty Crown), and the Fire Sisters would be the exception of making noise at the top, but does one believe the same can be stated for girls like Madoka, Ika-Musume, and Ritsu? While I, too, would like to see such girls in ISML one of these days, by the end of the day, they are just not that popular as I would have liked them to be.