There’s no more need to see one turn ahead because . . .TOKI WO TOMARE!
11/03: Grand Final
1st 311 Toki Onjouji @ Saki
2nd 291 Kuro Matsumi @ Saki
3 THINGS SAIMOE NEEDS TO DO SO NEXT YEAR WOULDN’T BE AS TERRIBLE AS THIS ONE:
1) LET US GAIJIN VOTE.
2) LET US GAIJIN VOTE.
3) LET US GAIJIN VOTE
DDK’s Final Saimoe Wrap Up
Overall Prediction Record: (120-39) – 75.5% Not bad for a first go
Personally, I don’t agree with ahelo on 1) and 2), but 3) would be nice. Damn Xenophobes and their voting restrictions.
Well, and there you have it folks, Saimoe 2012 has finally come to a close. And my goodness, what an amazing final match! I thought for a moment there we would have our first ever championship match where both characters failed to break 100 votes. But alas, the characteristic final rush of the Sakis appeared the save the day so one Saki could reign supreme over the other. Though the Kana Hana-powered Saki tried her best, she was no match for the fearsome strength of time herself.
Yes, Congratulation Toki Onjouji for winning Saimoe 2012!
To be perfectly fair, Toki probably deserved this win more than anybody else. She was clearly on top of her game the whole way through, putting forth huge vote totals and never breaking a sweat either. So for all the Toki fans out there, you should be proud and do some celebrating with that pillow of your’s.
Of course, Toki’s victory still doesn’t excuse the fact that the tail end of Saimoe was a total shit-hole. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one out there who found myself gradually losing interest as the rest of the competition exited and what should have been the most intense rounds degraded into an inter series tournament. The low voter turnabout this year was also quite depressing as it was not nearly as exciting to see characters barely able to break 200 votes.
So yeah, the future of Saimoe does look pretty bleak. It’s hard to know if the tournament will even be up and running again next year. As for both of us, I think we can now breath a sigh of relief and give ourselves a pat on the back for continually sticking with these posts for a grand total of 3 months (okay, we kind of got lazy at the end, but still). Not sure if we have plans to cover Saimoe 2013 as that’s still a ways away, but if both of us still haven’t outgrown Chinese cartoons by then, we’ll make sure to give the announcement.
Finally, a round of applause from me to ahelo for all his help these last three months. I couldn’t have done it without him as his will to cover the tournament kept me motivated to do so as well. Even if he never bothered to insert a damn picture when he made the post or corrected the format of the text to fit my OCD needs, he was still a great blogging partner to have. So ahelo, I salute you and hope to see you back again in the future (or you could, you know, just come back now and start working on your Tonari no Kaibutsu Kun posts like you said you would).
Anyway, peace out everyone who has followed us throughout the tournament. If you enjoyed our analyses, be sure to check out our regular postings for currently airing shows.
Idols will always be the true winners of Saimoe in my heart.
Americans think America is best.
British think British is best.
Japanese think Japanese is best.
Nothing new.
HAHAHAHA u mad? No really I’m still here don’t worry.
No, I’m not mad. But I do want all those combined hours I spent searching Pixiv + Danbooru + Google for post pictures back. >:3
But ahelo, PLS STAY!
Whether Saimoe is exciting or not is not important at all. Saimoe is about which character you think is most moe. Of course, the definition of moe is subjective among different people. As long as a character won vote and make it to the next round, then she deserve it regardless of whether it will make the tournament more or less exciting.
As for the lower number of votes, to be honest, after Toki beat Akarin, the championship have pretty much been decided. Even Toki fan lost interest. Notice, the decrease number of vote in Toki after she beat Akarin. Toki fan probably think the championship is already in the bag when the biggest threat Akarin lost and there’s no point following it further. Had Toki vs Akarin happen in the final, the total number of votes will be more.
Well, if we’re going to argue subjectiveness, then the tournament being interesting and coming down to close matches is just as important as the whole definition of moe. There are people out there who really only follow Saimoe for this aspect (besides cheering on their favourite girl), so it’s unfair to just dismiss them because they were frustrated at how one-sided the match-ups had become. I know the original purpose of Saimoe was to determine who is the most moe, but over time the tournament has evolved into a contest of faction wars. You’ll see characters who fit the definition of moe perfectly get snipped in the first round because they posed a threat to another character (ie. Hinagiku this year). That’s hardly letting the most moe character win in my eyes, which is why I see the tournament as being more about these “strategic” faction battles and upsets.
Likewise, once Toki had beaten Akarin, the winner was already decided. I’d say this was around the point where most people lost interest since Akarin was the strongest Non-Saki character left (and if she lost to Toki, then who would prevent her from winning). It’s unfortunate in some ways that Toki and Akarin had to be placed in the same block (but tis the nature of the random draw), since the vote totals would have sky-rocketed had that match up been for the crown.
Well, whether the character is moe or not is also subjective. Just because you think certain character is moe that does not mean other will think her as moe. Strategic voting against big threat is pretty much common and is nature of voting that has been going since long time ago.
Gaijin or not, voters vote for people who they want to advance. Let just say 7 Idol Master characters make it to the quarter final, and you have your No 1. favorite Idol Master character battle against a non Idol Master character for the last quarter final spot. Will you vote against your own favorite just so the non Idol Master character advance to make things interesting? If you do, then you are a saint but most people will not do that. People don’t vote to please other people so that the tournament become interesting.
Yes, to be perfectly honest if such a situation ever arose where the finals were composed of 7 im@s characters, I still wouldn’t place my vote to support a character I didn’t want to win. I’d assume that would be most people’s rationale as well since that would be their entire reason for wanting to vote in the first place. However, the issue at hand isn’t the people supporting Saki, but rather the lack of any other prominent faction to ensure complete domination. Saimoe 2006 is probably the best example of as ideal a tournament as I can think of (the top 8 were composed of characters from 8 different series). Whereas these past two years have featured complete mono-series domination, with the situation only getting worse due to voter restrictions. The problem with this year was that none of the other factions even had the same level of support as Saki, allowing them to effectively control the entire playing field. I’m not sure, maybe the tournament is at its last leg here, but I’m hoping 2013 will spark some interest since it will feature the two most overpowered factions going head to head (Saki vs. Madoka).