And the draw for the top eight is finally Rievealed!
The fourth round of this year’s Saimoe basically featured complete and utter domination from the Saki faction. With both Akari and Yayoi out, there are very few remaining options left before the tournament officially becomes known as Sakimoe 2012. The fact that so many of the matches in the last round were either tipped in one side’s favour or inter-series matches made for a rather anticlimactic race to the final eight. And now with the draw for the final rounds finally completed, Saimoe is now coming down to the wire. Below you can view what the set up for the finals looks like.
Amazing series diversity, I know? Also, Nodoka vs. Saki, Kuro vs. Yuu? The draw totally wasn’t rigged and is 100% completely randomized.
This is undoubtedly the least amount of variety that Saimoe has ever seen. While 2009 featured 4/8 spots dominated by Saki and 2011 had 4/8 positions falling to the Madoka girls, 6/8 shows just how unstoppable of a force Saki really is. The faction has really done well to ensure 6 of its girls have made it this far, not only rallying more support than any other series but ensuring good match ups due to tactical voting, sniping and fog of war strategies (ie. fake votes and final rushes). Of course, for everyone else who isn’t a die-hard Saki fan, it leaves little to really look forward to since most of the matches undoubtedly will be inter-series (meaning the only people who care will be those who supported Saki in the first place). Last year already proved that vote totals tend to drop if matches are just between two characters of the same series (when they really should be doing the exact opposite for the final rounds). But anyway, what’s done is done and it’s time to move forward.
Since it’s becoming rather tiresome to make individual posts for a bunch of rather straightforward matches, I’ll be doing all my predictions at once here and only making a new post for the semis and final showdown.
Prediction Record R4: (6-2) – 75% (predicted Akari and Ako to win)
Total: (116-36) – 76.2%
Quarter Final 1 – Louise vs. Toki
Of the two non inter-series matches in the quarters, this is sadly a one sided-affair. Though Louise has done well to make it this far in what is likely to be her last ever Saimoe, Toki is just way out of her league. Akari was undoubtedly the strongest non-Saki character prior to the quarters, and she was nowhere near Toki’s level of strength in their heated confrontation. However, being one of the few non-Saki characters left, Louise probably will get a bit of support from any voters who haven’t completely lost faith in the tournament. Unfortunately, it’s likely that they won’t be enough to tip the scales in her favour since if that was true, Akari would have emerged victorious.
Prediction: Toki
Quarter Final 2 – Nodoka vs. Saki
A fated match up in the eyes of many Saki fans (do I smell a conspiracy?). While both characters are only separated by a few votes, in terms of past records, Nodoka is definitely higher up on the pecking order. However, Saki’s victory over Koromo does show that she’s been able to overcome characters from her series who are supposedly more popular than her. Fans of the couple will also probably see it fit to send Saki forward over Nodoka, but being the match of the century, it’s a tricky call.
Prediction: Saki
Quarter Final 3 – Kuro vs. Yuu
Both characters here are currently ranked 2nd and 3rd in terms of vote totals. While they’ve both proven to be untouchable throughout the tournament, one of them will have to kick the bucket here. Unfortunately for Kuro, it’s likely going to be her. The vote totals alone basically show that Yuu is in a prime position to seize the crown.
Prediction: Yuu
Quarter Final 4 – Shana vs. Hisa
And to end off the quarters, we’re treated to what is likely to be the most heated (no pun intended) match up. While Hisa is definitely the weakest Saki character who made it to the quarters, she’s still a Saki character meaning she’ll receive plenty of support. Shana is extremely lucky that she got matched up against Hisa, because otherwise, she would definitely burn out against any of the other girls (especially the Achiga Sakis since they can easily procure 500+ votes). Being her final year as well as probably the last remaining torch of hope for non-Saki voters, she will receive quite a bit of support in this match. Whether it’s enough to surpass the weakest Saki left remains to be seen. Shana’s victories over her last few opponents have been extremely narrow, and perhaps another close call will save her yet again.
Prediction: Shana
Finally, to give a rough idea how I see the rest of Saimoe playing out.
2012 is a depressing year.
I ‘d pretty much ignored Saimoe since 2007 when it began to seem pointless, stupid and unrepresentative of anything at all. This blog caught my eye on the nano listing, so out of a slight feeling of nostalgia I took a look to see what was happening.
Seems it only managed to get even worse. I’ll check again in 2017 .
Basically. Saimoe has always just been a dirty popularity contest composed of faction wars, tactical voting and other underhand methods which you’d expect of 2ch. I pretty well stuck with it due to force of habit but it’s definitely been going downhill since 2011. This year was an absolute low in terms of series diversity, which makes the rest of the tournament incredibly predictable and boring to follow unless you’re rooting for a specific girl.
I might take your advice and check back in 2017 if my obligation doesn’t get the better out of me next year (read: it probably will).
I admire your tenacity. I hope Saimoe improves for you.
I want Hisa to win. Just to make this a ridiculous year as ridiculous as possible. In all seriousness, Shana vs Sena vote graph looks incredibly suspicious. Shana had a final rush of 75 votes. I’ve noticed a magic number of 75 early on, and at times was as high as 125. Maybe the Saki faction rigged a weaker character to make it to the quarter-finals.
Thus I predict an all-Saki semi-finals and finals, although I’m not well versed in the art of prediction.
I’m probably a bit biased in saying this since I’ve yet to watch Achiga, but out of all the Saki girls left, Hisa is probably the one who I can tolerate the most. I doubt she’ll win though since she’s the most realistic of the bunch (and hence, the least moe).
Now in terms of Hisa vs. Shana, I predicted the later to win mostly on the basis that Louise will lose against Toki meaning all anti-Saki voters left will pool to support Shana. Of course, that’s assuming everyone who doesn’t support Saki is still following the tournament and that they are greater in number than the Saki faction (Akari and Yayoi’s loses would indicate otherwise). Shana’s last few matches have also been a bit too close for comfort, so she may not be the right character for the job. Honestly though, the prospect of an all Saki semifinal does seem highly likely, especially considering Saimoe has never had a full inter-series semi.
But like you said, might as well make this year’s Saimoe as ridiculous as possible since it’s already gone to the dumps.
DDK and I are totally motivated to cover this -___-.
Oh yes, we’re just brimming with excitement as can be seen by the lack of posts in the past week.
But seriously, my interest dropped once im@s got booted, with Cure Peace being the final straw.
Where have you been DDK? It’s gotta be at least a few month after you fan boy period after watching a GREAT animu and all but isn’t it time to move on and prioritize your time on things like writing and uh.. the rael wuorld? :I
Regardless, I think I must be missing out on this great animu called Saki..? Sees like a well done carbon copy of Idolatry #2, but I guess we’ll see what where it heads after my viewing of ep 1. Anyways, glad these are finally back (and not with BS-ed photos, since I like my idols 4-D) and continue the entertaining blogging you’ve got going.
Yeah, I should probably try and resume those im@S posts again. Kind of got sidetracked from doing them by more im@s stuff.
Well, objectively speaking, Saki is pretty sub-par though it still can be a fun watch. Just be prepared to suspend your disbelief at times and enjoy a game of mahjong which isn’t focused on skill but rather who has the most broken ability. Of course none of that really matters here since the results show that 2ch still loves the franchise to bits and pieces.
Saki’s all trashy overblown fun. If you just want to watch something that doesn’t require too much brain or just for the heck of it, Saki’s a great anime. Personally, just the plain fact that it’s so fun to watch made me like this show a lot more than I thought I would.