International Saimoe League 2014

[mistress_kisara]

ARENA 01: Yūki Mikan [Abstained] Kudō Asuka
ARENA 02: Noire [Abstained] Dekomori Sanae
ARENA 03: Haqua du Lot Herminium [Tsuchimikado Natsume]
ARENA 04: Nyarlathotep [Abstained] Yūōji Ōka
ARENA 05: Frenda Seivelun [Roromiya Karuta]
ARENA 06: [Kurugaya Yuiko] Shiomiya Shiori
ARENA 07: Sakura Kyōko [Abstained] Momo Belia Deviluke
ARENA 08: Shokuhō Misaki [Abstained] Miyauchi Renge
ARENA 09: Leticia Draculair [Abstained] Charlotte Belew
ARENA 10: Akatsuki [Abstained] Chocolat
ARENA 11: Laura Bodewig [Yuigahama Yui]
ARENA 12: Kasukabe Yō [Shirakiin Ririchiyo]
ARENA 13: Nōmi Kudryavka [Nase Mitsuki]
ARENA 14: Frey [Abstained] Yukihira Furano
ARENA 15: [Natsume Rin] Cthugha
ARENA 16: [Shindō Ai] Himeragi Yukina
ARENA 17: Takanashi Tōka [Yukinoshita Yukino] Yui Tobiichi Origami
ARENA 18: Yatogami Tōka [Chitanda Eru] Kurousagi Kirigaya Suguha
ARENA 19: Yaya Yoshino Azuki Azusa [Kuriyama Mirai]
ARENA 20: [Abstained] Itsuka Kotori Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko Yūki Asuna Nibutani Shinka
ARENA 21: [Abstained] Tokisaki Kurumi Takanashi Rikka Kuroyukihime Aoyama Nanami
ARENA 22: [Saber] Mikazuki Yozora Honma Meiko Kasugano Sora
ARENA 23: [Iwasawa Masami] Tōwa Erio Illyasviel von Einzbern Nagato Yuki
ARENA 24: [Oshino Shinobu] Kashiwazaki Sena Kirishima Shōko Victorique de Blois
ARENA 25: [Senjōgahara Hitagi] Yuzuriha Inori Last Order Suzumiya Haruhi
ARENA 26: Sengoku Nadeko [Nakamura Yuri] Katsura Hinagiku Hirasawa Yui
ARENA 27: Nakano Azusa [Kōsaka Kirino] Makise Kurisu Charlotte Dunois
ARENA 28: Aisaka Taiga Hasegawa Kobato [Akiyama Mio] Konjiki no Yami

[hinakatbklyn]

ARENA 01: [Yūki Mikan] Kudō Asuka
ARENA 02: [Noire] Dekomori Sanae
ARENA 03: Haqua du Lot Herminium [Tsuchimikado Natsume]
* (Can't believe I voted against Haqua..... but then again, I also want to see (Raven) Natsume advance. Either way, one very good choice will advance)
ARENA 04: Nyarlathotep [Yūōji Ōka]
ARENA 05: [Frenda Seivelun] Roromiya Karuta
ARENA 06: Kurugaya Yuiko [Shiomiya Shiori]
ARENA 07: Sakura Kyōko [Momo Belia Deviluke]
ARENA 08: Shokuhō Misaki [Miyauchi Renge]
ARENA 09: Leticia Draculair [Charlotte Belew]
ARENA 10: Akatsuki [Chocolat]
ARENA 11: Laura Bodewig [Yuigahama Yui]
ARENA 12: Kasukabe Yō [Shirakiin Ririchiyo]
ARENA 13: [Nōmi Kudryavka] Nase Mitsuki
ARENA 14: [Frey] Yukihira Furano
ARENA 15: Natsume Rin [Cthugha]
* (Another pick one priority over another. My first thought was Rin Natsume, but same reason as Arena 3, want to see Cthugha advance for once.
ARENA 16: Shindō Ai [Himeragi Yukina]
ARENA 17: Takanashi Tōka Yukinoshita Yukino Yui [Tobiichi Origami]
ARENA 18: Yatogami Tōka Chitanda Eru Kurousagi [Kirigaya Suguha]
ARENA 19: Yaya Yoshino [Azuki Azusa] Kuriyama Mirai
ARENA 20: [Itsuka Kotori] Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko Yūki Asuna Nibutani Shinka
ARENA 21: Tokisaki Kurumi Takanashi Rikka Kuroyukihime [Aoyama Nanami]
ARENA 22: Saber Mikazuki Yozora Honma Meiko [Kasugano Sora]
ARENA 23: Iwasawa Masami Tōwa Erio [Illyasviel von Einzbern] Nagato Yuki
ARENA 24: Oshino Shinobu [Kashiwazaki Sena] Kirishima Shōko Victorique de Blois
ARENA 25: Senjōgahara Hitagi Yuzuriha Inori [Last Order] Suzumiya Haruhi
ARENA 26: Sengoku Nadeko Nakamura Yuri [Katsura Hinagiku] Hirasawa Yui
ARENA 27: [Nakano Azusa] Kōsaka Kirino Makise Kurisu Charlotte Dunois
ARENA 28: Aisaka Taiga [Hasegawa Kobato] Akiyama Mio Konjiki no Yami
* (Tough group with Kobato, Mio and Yami to choose from)

[krusty_may]

ARENA 01: Yūki Mikan [Kudō Asuka]
ARENA 02: [Noire] Dekomori Sanae
ARENA 03: Haqua du Lot Herminium [Tsuchimikado Natsume]
ARENA 04: Nyarlathotep [Abstained] Yūōji Ōka
ARENA 05: Frenda Seivelun [Roromiya Karuta]
ARENA 06: Kurugaya Yuiko [Shiomiya Shiori]
ARENA 07: [Sakura Kyōko] Momo Belia Deviluke
ARENA 08: Shokuhō Misaki [Miyauchi Renge]
ARENA 09: Leticia Draculair [Abstained] Charlotte Belew
ARENA 10: [Akatsuki] Chocolat
ARENA 11: Laura Bodewig [Yuigahama Yui]
ARENA 12: Kasukabe Yō [Shirakiin Ririchiyo]
ARENA 13: Nōmi Kudryavka [Nase Mitsuki]
ARENA 14: Frey [Yukihira Furano]
ARENA 15: [Natsume Rin] Cthugha
ARENA 16: Shindō Ai [Himeragi Yukina]
ARENA 17: Takanashi Tōka [Yukinoshita Yukino] Yui Tobiichi Origami
ARENA 18: Yatogami Tōka Chitanda Eru [Kurousagi] Kirigaya Suguha
ARENA 19: Yaya [Yoshino] Azuki Azusa Kuriyama Mirai
ARENA 20: [Itsuka Kotori] Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko Yūki Asuna Nibutani Shinka
ARENA 21: Tokisaki Kurumi Takanashi Rikka Kuroyukihime [Aoyama Nanami]
ARENA 22: [Saber] Mikazuki Yozora Honma Meiko Kasugano Sora
ARENA 23: Iwasawa Masami Tōwa Erio [Illyasviel von Einzbern] Nagato Yuki
ARENA 24: Oshino Shinobu Kashiwazaki Sena Kirishima Shōko [Victorique de Blois]
ARENA 25: Senjōgahara Hitagi Yuzuriha Inori [Last Order] Suzumiya Haruhi
ARENA 26: Sengoku Nadeko [Nakamura Yuri] Katsura Hinagiku Hirasawa Yui
ARENA 27: Nakano Azusa Kōsaka Kirino [Makise Kurisu] Charlotte Dunois
ARENA 28: [Aisaka Taiga] Hasegawa Kobato Akiyama Mio Konjiki no Yami


Go, go, Ren-chon go!!

[Eisdrache]

ARENA 01: [Yūki Mikan] Kudō Asuka
ARENA 02: [Noire] Dekomori Sanae
ARENA 03: [Haqua du Lot Herminium] Tsuchimikado Natsume
ARENA 04: Nyarlathotep [Abstained] Yūōji Ōka
ARENA 05: Frenda Seivelun [Roromiya Karuta]
ARENA 06: Kurugaya Yuiko [Shiomiya Shiori]
ARENA 07: Sakura Kyōko [Momo Belia Deviluke]
ARENA 08: Shokuhō Misaki [Miyauchi Renge]
ARENA 09: [Leticia Draculair] Charlotte Belew
ARENA 10: [Akatsuki] Chocolat
ARENA 11: Laura Bodewig [Yuigahama Yui]
ARENA 12: Kasukabe Yō [Shirakiin Ririchiyo]
ARENA 13: [Nōmi Kudryavka] Nase Mitsuki
ARENA 14: [Frey] Yukihira Furano
ARENA 15: [Natsume Rin] Cthugha
ARENA 16: Shindō Ai [Himeragi Yukina]
ARENA 17: Takanashi Tōka Yukinoshita Yukino Yui [Tobiichi Origami]
ARENA 18: Yatogami Tōka [Chitanda Eru] Kurousagi Kirigaya Suguha
ARENA 19: Yaya Yoshino [Azuki Azusa] Kuriyama Mirai
ARENA 20: [Itsuka Kotori] Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko Yūki Asuna Nibutani Shinka
ARENA 21: Tokisaki Kurumi [Takanashi Rikka] Kuroyukihime Aoyama Nanami
ARENA 22: Saber Mikazuki Yozora Honma Meiko [Kasugano Sora]
ARENA 23: Iwasawa Masami Tōwa Erio Illyasviel von Einzbern [Nagato Yuki]
ARENA 24: Oshino Shinobu Kashiwazaki Sena [Kirishima Shōko] Victorique de Blois
ARENA 25: Senjōgahara Hitagi Yuzuriha Inori [Last Order] Suzumiya Haruhi
ARENA 26: [Sengoku Nadeko] Nakamura Yuri Katsura Hinagiku Hirasawa Yui
ARENA 27: [Nakano Azusa] Kōsaka Kirino Makise Kurisu Charlotte Dunois
ARENA 28: [Aisaka Taiga] Hasegawa Kobato Akiyama Mio Konjiki no Yami

Mondaiji characters had it rough this round.

[Team Rocket Elite]

A pretty strong rally by Yuuouji Ouka here but it isn't enough to beat Nyarlathotep. Kudryavka is more successful. I didn't really expect her to be able to beat Mitsuki. Dekomori has another bad performance. Back in Preliminary II-2, she got 60% on Nepgear and now she's doing noticible worse on Noire. However, she did make it in this year unlike last year. I thought Frey could beat Furano but it wasn't meant to be. Yukihira barely hangs on to a win. Tough luck for Renge. It's unfortunate she had to draw an opponent like Misaki but even so I expected Renge to put up a bit more of a fight.

Yuuki Asuna manages to strike a blow against Date A Live. It seems like they will have competition in Nova... at least until Date A Live season 2 starts. Kurumi powers through her match, though. I expect less and less from Kirino and she continues to fail me anyways. While Kurisu is stronger than she was last year, Kirino really shouldn't have lost this badly. It'll be interesting to see how Kirino does in the regular season and how much a result against a 2013 opponent can change in just a year.

[HasuMasu]

Somehow I was surprised Asuna beat Kotori.

[Houreki]

I'm glad that at least 2 noucome girls made it through the regular season
but I'm kind of disappointed for shindou ai, nase mitsuki and renge.

[Kotohono]

Warning this rant is not directed to the kind people who run ISML, but rather the voter base and some people may find my comments and opinions offensive.

<rant/opinions>
This years represents to me the death of ISML deserving to be called "saimoe" because of the amount of absurd genre bias that the voting base has shown and been gradually shifting towards for quite a few years in a row now. This year almost 100% of the new girls in Nova were harem or harem-esque series, this bias to me is absolutely absurd and is killing ISML's legitimacy in my eyes, when 3 of some the most successful SoL series post-K-on! (in japan) from the past year couldn't even manage to get a single heroine into ISML this year. (Love Live, Kirino, and NNB). It really shows how disgustingly bias the voter base is for ISML is becoming. Even heroines from action, fantasy, and other genres have no chance here if they aren't part of a harem , the likes of Symphogear, Madoka, Nanoha, AKB0048, Vividred, Galilei Donna, Neptunia, Jinrui, Shingeki no Kyojin, Shinsekai Yori, and Kill la Kill none of them had anything come close to making it this year. ISML shows it doesn't care about popularity, real moe or cuteness, it cares about the heroines being part of a harem. As not even love triangles are good enough now as shown by girls like Shizuku, Setsuna, and Kasuza disappointing performance.

tl;dr ISML is unfit for it's name and should be renamed International SaiHarem League because that's what it's becoming.
</rant/opinions>

[Sackett]

Kuriyama Mirai isn't from a harem is she? So don't give up hope.

That said, the one change I would like is to simplify the qualifications to Stella to one single rule:

Previously a Regular Contestant

Any character who has been a regular contestant is in Stella, anyone who has not appeared in the Regular Season is eligible for Nova.

That way Nova really will be a wide open field of all new girls.

Next year might be a good time to do it to. Looks like most of the really strong girls this year are repeats from last year so they are moving over to Stella next year anyway.

By the way... why is Yuki Asuna listed as a first year participant?

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by Sackett

Kuriyama Mirai isn't from a harem is she? So don't give up hope.

Well I dunno Kyoani characters are an exception as always . So I don't know.

[Ithekro]

There are a total of 11 KyoAni characters this year.

[Sackett]

Still wondering why Yuki Asuna is listed as a first year participant.

[Houreki]

Takanashi Tōka has the same problem.

[Sackett]

Originally Posted by Houreki

Takanashi Tōka has the same problem.

And Laura Bodewig (she competed in 2011)

[broken270]

Originally Posted by Sackett

That said, the one change I would like is to simplify the qualifications to Stella to one single rule:

Previously a Regular Contestant

Any character who has been a regular contestant is in Stella, anyone who has not appeared in the Regular Season is eligible for Nova.

That way Nova really will be a wide open field of all new girls

Seeing how most Nova leads are basically returnees from last year, I think this might be a good implementation. We already know these girls are strong enough to told their own, so seeing them in Stella as quickly as possible while some powerhouse girls still have it in them to fight go at it. The problem then would be what would happen to all the mid-carders and lower-tier Nova's who would join Stella. It technically would not be fair to them to jump into the Stella pack. Maybe instead of the one who wins the sapphire bracket, i.e. the Nova winner, have the top 4 or top 8 transfer to Stella and give the mid-to-low tiers some time to develop and then transfer to Stella. Top 4 sounds like a nice number; Top 8 might be too much. We can still keep the 2 rule thing if we move more top girls from nova to stella instead of just one.

[Sackett]

*shrug*

The way I figure it Stella is for the moe characters of legend. So low to mid-tier Nova characters shouldn't expect to make it into Stella unless a new season or something bumps them up (like happened with Mikoto Misaka).

It's more important to give new girls a chance to compete in Nova. For a couple reasons:

1: A more diverse mix of characters is important to keeping a broad interest among anime fans. Otherwise we can see something like what is turning off Konakaga. One subset of anime fans starts to dominate the preliminaries, and so turns off other anime fans.

2: Some characters are missing out on their chance to compete when at their strongest because of the repeat characters in Nova. I mean... how many characters are repeats? I think it's more then half this year.

[ion475]

<rant/opinions>
This years represents to me the death of ISML deserving to be called "saimoe" because of the amount of absurd genre bias that the voting base has shown and been gradually shifting towards for quite a few years in a row now. This year almost 100% of the new girls in Nova were harem or harem-esque series, this bias to me is absolutely absurd and is killing ISML's legitimacy in my eyes, when 3 of some the most successful SoL series post-K-on! (in japan) from the past year couldn't even manage to get a single heroine into ISML this year. (Love Live, Kirino, and NNB). It really shows how disgustingly bias the voter base is for ISML is becoming. Even heroines from action, fantasy, and other genres have no chance here if they aren't part of a harem , the likes of Symphogear, Madoka, Nanoha, AKB0048, Vividred, Galilei Donna, Neptunia, Jinrui, Shingeki no Kyojin, Shinsekai Yori, and Kill la Kill none of them had anything come close to making it this year. ISML shows it doesn't care about popularity, real moe or cuteness, it cares about the heroines being part of a harem. As not even love triangles are good enough now as shown by girls like Shizuku, Setsuna, and Kasuza disappointing performance.

tl;dr ISML is unfit for it's name and should be renamed International SaiHarem League because that's what it's becoming.
</rant/opinions>

To be fair in terms of "harem" show...you have 1 single show having 4 or 5 girls that gets in, and that usually happen every single year...

On the other hand, I do agree with the part as to how ISML voter base is a joke...all I've ever see is a bunch of girls from a relatively popular series gets in, no matter how unimportant those girls are. Then you have some show (The SoL girls in particular) not even having half a chance (And it's nothing new...just look at how the like of Yuno and Miyako never did good). The even worst part is somehow the dominating girls have staying power for years after they get in even if they're not exactly from popular series.

At the end, it's always harem, Kyoani, and nothing else...that's ISML voters for you. Seriously, MadoMagi never did good. The like of LL/IM@S never went anywhere. SoL with the exception of Lucky Star (B/c it's a Kyoani show) always suck at ISML. Separate the voting into Nova and Stella and you still have a few series taking a bunch of spot.

YES, I'M RANTING ABOUT DAL...

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by ion475

To be fair in terms of "harem" show...you have 1 single show having 4 or 5 girls that gets in, and that usually happen every single year...

On the other hand, I do agree with the part as to how ISML voter base is a joke...all I've ever see is a bunch of girls from a relatively popular series gets in, no matter how unimportant those girls are. Then you have some show (The SoL girls in particular) not even having half a chance (And it's nothing new...just look at how the like of Yuno and Miyako never did good). The even worst part is somehow the dominating girls have staying power for years after they get in even if they're not exactly from popular series.

At the end, it's always harem, Kyoani, and nothing else...that's ISML voters for you. Seriously, MadoMagi never did good. The like of LL/IM@S never went anywhere. SoL with the exception of Lucky Star (B/c it's a Kyoani show) always suck at ISML. Separate the voting into Nova and Stella and you still have a few series taking a bunch of spot.

YES, I'M RANTING ABOUT DAL...

I'm with you there. It's actually rather surprising how the SOL girls really never go anywhere. Maybe it goes to show just how unpopular the genre is amongst the kind of people that take the time to vote in ISML. I would go further and claim that there's a serious lack of popularity for the genre outside of Japan but that may be stretching it a bit.

For me I'll stick by my Akari-chans (Aria) and my Chihayas (iM@S)

[Sackett]

?

Does SOL stand for slice of life? If so... the K-On girls and Lucky Star girls both did really well.

[hinakatbklyn]

3 Neptunia games, 2 reboots, an idol game, even Noire was (or is going to be) the heroine of her own game. If the anime had that much support, I would think Noire would have advanced to the regular season. Turns out no one from the summer season advanced..... (not even summer season tournament winner K. Kyouko).

As for Renge (Non Non Biyori)..... as close as she was to advancing to the regular season..... well the prior performances from Phase I and II determine the challengers, but had Renge not faced Misaki S (Railgun), maybe she would have advanced.

(I have seen Non Non Biyori so I wanted to see at least one advance.)

Originally Posted by Sackett

2: Some characters are missing out on their chance to compete when at their strongest because of the repeat characters in Nova. I mean... how many characters are repeats? I think it's more then half this year.

I've counted New vs. Repeats: 17-19 which is more than half, but not by much