International Saimoe League 2010

[HitoriTomoyo]

I personally prefer the Hayate manga over the adaptation; I'm not entirely sure presently, but I feel that the manga possess an appeal that the anime doesn't: I just don't know how to explain that phenomenon. The manga feels a lot more consistent than the anime, what with everything occuring in a comprehensible order as opposed to a random sequence of events.

Also, concerning Hinagiku's character, I admit that beyond a certain point

Spoiler:

which was Hinagiku's epiphany atop the clock tower with Hayate

, she didn't really develop much (keep in mind, I'm arguably not as far as everyone else is), but the same argument could be applied to Shana (at least, in the anime adaptations): after she becomes much more of a social character and accepting of others, she still hasn't come (completely) to terms with dealing with her feelings towards Yuji (read: she still acts like a textbook modern tsundere). Granted, she doesn't completely screw everything up like she did in the first season, but she's nowhere close to expressing a resolute answer for her feelings towards Yuji (or even Wilhelmina for that matter).

tl;dr: Both characters are developing gradually at an inconsistent pace, but I personally don't think neither character is necessarily ahead of the other, particularly when it concerns love.

[Game8910]

Originally Posted by Mentar

You might want to read up at least till the end of the Greece arc, which certainly was the best part of Hayate so far. It will give you some new insights, also on who Game8910's avatar is, and why he won't find it hard to discard Hina - this heretic!! :P

I didnt discard her though! ;A;

It took EotW and then about 4-5 chapters into the greece arc to finally succumb...either way Hina is still awesome...but against Shana, well...people already know what I would pick

[hinakatbklyn]

OK! To have all 4 favorites as the final 4 would have been anti-climatic for me. Now that Hina is out, I am all for Azusa to win her match against Shana by alot.

[Seishi]

Originally Posted by hinakatbklyn

OK! To have all 4 favorites as the final 4 would have been anti-climatic for me. Now that Hina is out, I am all for Azusa to win her match against Shana by alot.

Damn, my favourite didn't even make the top 16. Nice to see that Misaka can finish no worse than 4th, though.

[Team Rocket Elite]

Shana looks pretty good for once. I was pretty sure Hinagiku was going to win but Shana shows everyone that she isn't finished just yet. While Hinagiku didn't seem to be in her usual form, Sanzin'in Nagi looked good in her match with Tomoyo. I expected the two to be pretty much equal but Nagi manged to put a little bit of distance between them. Azusa and Yui pretty much did as expected in their matches. It doesn't seem like K-On is going to be getting any significant boost from the finale. I've been hyping up Azusa for a while now but now she's finally going to have to show some results. She outdid Shana's percentage on Hinagiku and beat Taiga by more than Misaka did. but now she's got the challenge of taking out the 1 seed. Eliminating Shana, especially if it's the Shana that just beat Hinagiku, is not going to be an easy task but I hope that Azusa will prove that she's up to the challenge.

Spoiler for Top 16 Ranking:

Nakano Azusa
Misaka Mikoto
Shana
Katsura Hinagiku
Akiyama Mio
Aisaka Taiga
Nagato Yuki
Suzumiya Haruhi
Hirasawa Yui
Sanzen'in Nagi
Sakagami Tomoyo
Saber
Fujibayashi Kyō
Senjōgahara Hitagi
Hiiragi Kagami
Sengoku Nadeko

Hinagiku down, Shana up. My stats call for Azusa to win with 50.08% of the votes. She's pretty much equal to Shana. I have no idea how Misaka somehow ended up in the small gap but she's pretty much equal to Shana and Azusa as well.

[Himeji]

Wtf - Shana won by a small margin!? Sh*t happens...
At least Azusa and Yui won
Other wins are also good, except that Keena didn't win.

[Zeroryoko1974]

Interesting. Shoko got more votes then Hideyoshi

[Patchy]

Match Poster for tomorrow

[HitoriTomoyo]

SHAAAAAAANNNNNNNAAAAAAA!!!1!!1

That was a lot less closer than expected. Sad to see Hinagiku go, but hopefully Shana rides her present seed ranking and completely obliterates everyone she faces from this point on.

...which will be a HUGE challenge, which I think will be the most difficult bracket to go through: Shana will have to defeat both premier K-ON! members along the way AND the very same character that was the reason she was in the Losers' Bracket to begin with.

Nonetheless, I'm rooting for her AND Mikoto to duke it out in the finals. I don't want to see Azusa or Mio in the Championship Match.

ALSO, GO KUROKO!

[Mentar]

I think that several of the anti-Shana votes which carried Hina to victory last time switched back to her this time - and being the reigning champion didn't help either. Still, a relatively close (150 votes) difference, and going out against Shana is no shame

Good luck to Shana in the upcoming rounds. I think she'd deserve at least one tiara.

[Nochgo]

So Shana advances after all. Awesome I'll be rooting for her all the way.
Also, a very good job on the poster! Maid is always win.

And Skuld! Man, that sure brings me back to my middle school times. Keep those semi-oldies coming~

[WBoon]

Not seeing a lot of 'intelligent posts' rooting for Mio - they're all either 'Yay, Mio rules' or 'mio iz kewl!'. Whatever.

As awesome as that Winners' Bracket promo poster is, I still don't understand the idea of maid outfits and Japan (females are meant for servitude?). lol But yeah, really excited for the match tonight (night time for my case). Looks like Azusa pulled through. That second round of senior vs. junior might just come true. Erm, fight for the chance to compete with Azusa, Mio? :P I wouldn't want Azusa to have to compete with any other characters.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by WBoon

Not seeing a lot of 'intelligent posts' rooting for Mio - they're all either 'Yay, Mio rules' or 'mio iz kewl!'. Whatever.

As awesome as that Winners' Bracket promo poster is, I still don't understand the idea of maid outfits and Japan (females are meant for servitude?). lol But yeah, really excited for the match tonight (night time for my case). Looks like Azusa pulled through. That second round of senior vs. junior might just come true. Erm, fight for the chance to compete with Azusa, Mio? :P I wouldn't want Azusa to have to compete with any other characters.

I think that maid outfits are actually a fetish in other countries too, but of course otaku always take fetishes to a whole new level.

The maid outfits in that picture are pretty nice looking but I generally consider myself a miko man.

I think I'll be backing Azusa now that Taiga is down and out. Too bad, I would have actually liked to see her make a triple crown run.

[hinakatbklyn]

It would be nice to see Shana win a tiara for once, but it's more fun to have a rivalry where you don't want to see a certain character win. The fun match, Azusa vs. Shana. Not so fun, Mio vs. Mikoto since I can't pick between my favorites.

[wontaek]

For those who are wondering about the Exhibition match characters


Princess Sapphire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribbon_No_Kishi

Yumeno Sally

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_the_Witch

A Wall of text explaining why they were chosen

-M7: Princess Sapphire (Ribbon no Kishi) vs. Yumeno Sally (Sally the Witch)
사파이어 공주 (사파이어 왕자) 대 유메노 셀리 (요술공주 세리)

The beginning

Who are these girls? If your parents are living in China, Korea, or Japan( and perhaps many many other countries), then these are anime characters your parents watched when they were young. Ribbon no Kishi dates from 1953 while Sally the Witch dates from 1966, but both of them has a remake film in 1990s. If you consider that your parents age groups are the ones who are the bosses in the companies, then I think you can understand why these characters are relevant. Their importance goes beyond merely being old. Princess Sapphire challenged gender status quo in the 1950s. The Wikipedia says 'It also had a profound influence on the women who would eventually come to revolutionize the genre of shōjo manga.' Without this character, the idea of female character being the active mover of plots, in contrast to women who just deals with the hardship fate had thrown at her, would not have become as prevalent as now, and characters like Shana, Saber, Sakagami Tomoyo, and Katsura Hinagiku might not have came into existence. Sally the Witch is of no less importance. Quoting Wikipedia 'Sally the Witch (魔法使いサリー, Mahōtsukai Sarī?), is the first magical girl manga and anime in Japan (it is not the kind about a transforming one, e.g. Sailor Moon), and was of the first such anime series produced.' Not only did this series influenced the magical girl series, this series's format is copied by many series that has anything to do with magic users. Furthermore the international success of this series made Japanese anime company much more aware of foreign market and tastes. Elements found in Yumeno Sally can be found in diverse characters as Shana, Tohsaka Rin, Fate Testarossa, and many many others. In fact, due to age and fame of both of the characters, you can find elements from both characters in many of the ISML contestants. So how are they different? Princess Sapphire is very adventurous, takes much risk, and has conflicting wishes of physically beating up her adversaries and acting meek and tame like a proper lady. Yumeno Sally is very proper, thoughtful, playful in her own way, and tries to act responsibly. If Sapphire acts like a rebellious girl struggling for her freedom, Sally acts like someone destined to rule both men and women, which she is. Please consider finding out more about these two worthy characters who are the foundations upon which most of our heroines are built upon.

여러분들뿐 아니라 여러분의 부모님들 마저 사파이어 왕자(공주)와 요술공주 세리를 알 것 입니다. 여러분의 부모님 세대가 지금 사회의 정치와 경제의 핵심이라는 것을 생각하면 이들이 지금 애니에 많은 영향을 주었다는 것은 당연하게 느껴질 수 있을 것 입니다. 사파이어 왕자는 1953년에 처음 만화에 나와서 그당시 여성의 권리에 대한 논쟁에 부채질을 한 애니라 할 수 있습니다. 사파이어 공주는 고전처럼 운명이 던져준 고난을 극복하는 해결사적인 여주인공이 아닌, 본인이 직접 사건을 만들고 그 사건을 이용하여 자신이 생각하는 정의를 실천하는 여자 주인공 이었습니다. 이런 능동적인 여성의 모습은 동양 사회에서 받아들이기 힘든 모습이었다는 것을 생각하면 이 만화가 얼마나 위험을 무릅쓰고 그려진 만화인지 생각할 수 있습니다. 사파이어 공주가 없었으면 샤나, 세이버, 사카가미 토모요, 카츠라 히나기쿠 같은 능동적인 여주인공들이 지금처럼 많이 있을 수 없다고 생각합니다. 세리공주는 사파이어 왕자와 달리 처음부터 마법의 나라의 최고 권력자가 될 사람인 것을 알고 이에 맞게 행동하는 인물입니다. 그렇지만 나름 정상적인 어린시절을 보내기 위해서 자신의 정체를 감추고 지구에 온 여주인공이지요. 요술공주 세리는 마법소녀물의 첫 작품으로써 이후 모든 마법소녀물에 영향을 주었을 뿐 아니라, 극중 여러 요소는 일본 애니에서 마법사가 등장하는 거의 모든 작품에서 찾을 수 있을정도로 광범위하게 영향을 주었다고 할 수 있습니다. 그리고 일본 애니 초기 국제적 성공 사례가 되어서 일본 애니계가 국제 시장과 취향을 의식하게 만든 작품이라고도 할 수 있습니다. 마지막으로 이 두 신화적 인물들의 차이를 살펴 봅시다. 사파이어 왕자는 두려움 없이 위험한 상황에 뛰어드는 인물이며, 상황 해결을 위해서 상당히 어려운 일도 마다하지 않지만 적을 직접 상대하여 싸우고 싶어하면서도 공주처럼 연약하고 순종적으로 살고 싶어하기도 하는 모순된 소원을 가진 인물입니다. 세리는 예의 바르고 정중하며 사례가 깊고 책임감이 많은 모범생이라 할 수 있습니다. 사파이어 왕자가 자유를 얻기위해서 저항하고 있는 반항심 많은 소녀라면, 세리는 한 나라의 모든 남자와 여자위에 군림하게 될 운명을 가진 사람처럼 행동한다고 할 수 있습니다. 요즘 애니의 거의 모든 여주인공들의 기초라고 불릴 수 있는 이 두 인물들에 대하여 여러분들 나름대로 조사하여 보시면 흥미로운 사실들을 발견 할 수 있을 것입니다.

Thanks to my wife for proofreading the Korean

Please point out any part of my writing I should change, or should delete.


And as for my feelings about the results

[Kotohono]

Azusa, Yui, and Shana won, wow I am bit surprised they all won, and I can say I am happy about this [too bad Tomoyo didn't too though], and also Chise showed never underestimate the tsundere ojou-sama even from a minor show , seriously didn't expect her to win by 2,000 votes almost, and Noel was just beaten brutally wow I mean that has to be some kind of record for an ISML match...

[Zeroryoko1974]

I am pulling for Azu-nyan to win it all, beating Mio in the final

[Ithekro]

It is hard to win from the losing bracket. You still have to beat the Winner side twice, correct?

[WBoon]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

It is hard to win from the losing bracket. You still have to beat the Winner side twice, correct?

Perhaps fate itself would have Mio benevolently offer the junior the tiara as a parting gift. Sigh, such love between the two, it moves me to tears.

[exec]

ARENA 01: [Misaka Mikoto] Akiyama Mio
ARENA 02: [Sanzen'in Nagi] Hirasawa Yui
ARENA 03: Saber [Sakagami Tomoyo]
ARENA 04: Himeji Mizuki [Shimada Minami]
ARENA 05: Inami Mahiru [Taneshima Poplar]
ARENA 06: Busujima Saeko [Kumashiro Maya]
ARENA 07: Isara Gunther [Skuld]
ARENA 08: [Index Librorum Prohibitorum] Shirai Kuroko
ARENA 09: Primula [Seto Sun]
ARENA 10: Princess Sapphire [Abstained] Yumeno Sally