Saimoe Tournament 2009

It seems like just yesterday, but Saimoe 2009 is starting up! For those who are uninitiated, the annual Saimoe (最萌) tournament hosted by 2ch is a single-elimination tournament to determine the most moe female character from the anime broadcasted in that same year. Due to the fact that moe is extremely subjective and the ‘one and done’ structure, there are usually lots of upsets, which makes it very fun to follow. Started in 2002, it has since spawned other moe tournaments, such as the Korean Best Moe tournament and the English ISML. Last year’s winner was Lucky Star‘s Hiiragi Kagami.

Vital links for this year’s tournament:

Saimoe 2009 main site (JP)
Official site for the tournament. Matches and results will be posted here.

Animesuki discussion thread
The place to be for English discussion about the tourney.

Saimoe synchroom wiki
English information about the tourney plus useful links.

Saimoe 09 wiki (JP)
Japanese wiki for this year.

Saimoe Chinese wiki (CN)
Results and match posters in Chinese.

More information on schedule, my opinions on the tournament and blogging plans after the jump.

Here is the condensed schedule, with some breaks in between. Seems like it will end earlier than last year.

• 06/20 ~ 07/01: Nominations
• 07/05 ~ 07/13: First preliminaries
• 07/26 ~ 08/01: Second preliminaries
• 08/04 ~ 09/01: First round
• 09/03 ~ 09/19: Second round
• 09/21 ~ 09/28: Third round
• 09/30 ~ 10/07: Block finals
• 10/09 ~ 10/12: Quarterfinals
• 10/14 ~ 10/15: Semifinals
• 10/17: Final

While the Japanese Saimoe tournament is quite restrictive with its voting system (it bans foreign IPs) and there are numerous cases of block, hate or revenge voting, I still believe it is the best tournament out there. To me, it’s less about who’s the winner, but about the showing of support for all characters. Of course, I won’t be happy when my favorite characters lose, but I get to learn more about other characters and series, while hoarding tons of ascii art and support/match pictures. It’s so much more than just a popularity contest.

Just as always, I will be voting strictly on the premise of personal moe and nothing else. No revenge voting. That being said, the ones I’m definitely supporting are:

• Furukawa Nagisa (CLANNAD)
• Sunohara Mei (CLANNAD)
• Shirakawa Kotori (Da Capo)
• Arihara Ayumi (Hatsukoi Limited)
• Katsura Hinagiku (Hayate no Gotoku!!)
• Nishizawa Ayumu (Hayate no Gotoku!!)
• Yuno (Hidamari Sketch)
• Ryuuguu Rena (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni)
• Hirasawa Yui (K-ON!)
• Nakano Azusa (K-ON!)
• Shuri (Koihime Musou)
• Hiiragi Tsukasa (Lucky Star)
• Kobayakawa Yutaka (Lucky Star)
• Nogizaka Mika (Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu)
• Takanashi Yumina (Tayutama)
• Misaka Mikoto (To Aru Majutsu no Index)

Since it takes a lot of time to follow and write up recaps, I’ll be limiting my Saimoe posts this year to only covering the results at the end of each round (including preliminaries). At the same time, I’ll be offering my picks and predictions just like last year.

Usual questions:

• Will KyoAni dominate again?
• Who will be the darkhorse?
• Will Maria finally get out of the first round?