The '06 Moé Invitational Tournament - Championship

[ayareiko]

In order to be declared the winner of the '06 Moé Invitational Tournament, one character must earn over 50% of the vote. Otherwise, a run-off vote will be held.

It's down to the final six.

Kaho (http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kaho4lh.jpg) vs. Kurumi Momose (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kurumi2qm.jpg) vs. Marie (http://img213.imageshack.us/my.php?image=marie5pa.jpg) vs. Anna Coppola (http://img226.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ana3do.jpg) vs. Hinako (http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hinako5jk.jpg) vs. Haruka (http://img504.imageshack.us/my.php?image=haruka.jpg)

Please choose who you think is more ''moé''.

[TnAdct1]

In the end it's four girls from Sister Princess vs. a Mamiko Noto-voiced character vs. the "plain girl".

[touma]

[ QUOTE ]
Aya Reiko said:
In order to be declared the winner of the '06 Moé Invitational Tournament, one character must earn over 50% of the vote. Otherwise, a run-off vote will be held.

[/ QUOTE ]
I will be very surprised if anybody even gets close to 50% in the first round.
How many will be in the run-off?

For the record, I voted for Hinako and would like to see her win this, but I think that they are all worthy.

[Splitter]

Kurumi. Because there's no sense in stopping one hell of an R2 runaway train.

[ayareiko]

[ QUOTE ]
Touma said:
[ QUOTE ]
Aya Reiko said:
In order to be declared the winner of the '06 Moé Invitational Tournament, one character must earn over 50% of the vote. Otherwise, a run-off vote will be held.

[/ QUOTE ]
I will be very surprised if anybody even gets close to 50% in the first round.
How many will be in the run-off?

For the record, I voted for Hinako and would like to see her win this, but I think that they are all worthy.

[/ QUOTE ]
Depends entirely on how spread out the votes are.

In case of a run-off, whoever placed 6th is obviously gone. If the combined total of votes for both 5th and 6th place characters is less than the leader, then both whoever placed 5th and 6th place are gone. Continue on to whoever placed 4th. If the total votes of the 4th, 5th, and 6th is less the whoever placed 1st, then all three are gone. And so on.

[Victor Lewandowski]

Put in my vote for Kurumi.

The chances of a run-off vote loom very high with the cute SisPri carnage. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[bci110]

Here are brief descriptions of the six finalists along with how they reached the final round:

Bracket I Champion: Kaho

Anime: Sister Princess
R1 Licensor: ADV Films
Birthdate: January 7
Japanese VA: Hisayo Mochizuki
English VA: Cynthia Martinez
Synopsis: Very energetic and always striving to do her best, cheerleading fits Kaho very well. She’s very optimistic and always encourages herself and everyone around her, although she can be klutzy at times and has problems with self-esteem. Kaho loves to grow flowers.

Round 1 – def. Kiki 28-26
Round 2 – def. Kokoro 29-18
Round 3 – def. Miharu Sena Kanaka 55-14
Quarters – def. Sae Sawanoguchi 50-17
Semifinals – def. Puchiko 48-18
Finals – def. Hazuki 44-23

Bracket II Champion – Kurumi Momose

Anime: Pani Poni Dash!
R1 Licensor: none
Birthdate: unknown
Japanese VA: Kana Ueda
English VA: N/A
Synopsis: Kurumi is a girl who despite being average in appearance, athleticism, and academics, suffers from being called “plain.� If there’s even a hint that somebody called her plain, she sulks in the rabbit cage with Becky’s pet Mesousa. She has been known to fade almost completely out of existence when she gets ignored too much.

Round 1 – def. Nonomi Higashihara 26-21
Round 2 – def. Melfina 27-25
Round 3 – def. Kozue Aoba 44-26
Quarters – def. Miu 52-14
Semifinals – def. Nemu Asakura 48-12
Finals – def. Midori Kasugano 45-25

Bracket III Champion – Marie

Anime: Sister Princess
R1 Licensor: ADV Films
Birthdate: April 4
Japanese VA: Ryoka Yuzuki
English VA: Sasha Paysinger
Synposis: Marie enjoys reading romance and adventure novels, walking along the beach, and listening to seashells. Because of her sickly nature, she can’t be as active as the rest of her sisters. However, being with her brother Wataru gives her the strength and happiness she needs in her life. Marie is always accompanied by her dog Michael.

Round 1 – bye
Round 2 – def. Hotaru Tomoe 39-21
Round 3 – def. Yue Ayase 52-18
Quarters – def. Uematsu Koboshi 44-19
Semifinals – def. Shira 48-16
Finals – def. Momo 50-16

Bracket IV Champion – Anna Coppola

Anime: Ichigo Mashimaro
R1 Licensor: Geneon Entertainment
Birthdate: unknown
Japanese VA: Mamiko Noto
English VA: TBD
Synopsis: An 11-year old girl who came from England, but seems to have forgotten how to speak English. Anna is oftern teased because her name in kanji reads frm left to right as “hole�, “bones�, and “cave�. She has a very traditional feminine and polite speaking style, speaks in a high falsetto, and ends every sentence with “wa�.

Round 1 – def. Skuld (Mythical Detective Loki) 35-15
Round 2 – def. Juliet Nao Zhang 36-20
Round 3 – def. Nadoka Miyazaki 20-13
Quarters – def. Azmaria Hendric 37-28
Semifinals – def. Nayuki Minase 50-13
Finals – def. Sarara 56-12

Bracket V Champion – Hinako

Anime: Sister Princess
R1 Licensor: ADV Films
Birthdate: August 15
Japanese VA: Chiemi Chiba
English VA: Serena Varghese
Synopsis: The youngest of the SisPri girls, Hina enjoys playing all sort of games, drawing, writing cute letters, and storybooks, most especially when Watatu reads them to her. Like most girls her age, Hina has a weak spot for stuffed animals, particually teddy bears. She’s very enthusiastic and expresses her love for “Bro-bro� in a very direct manner.

Round 1 – bye
Round 2 – def. Kagome Higurasi 49-13
Round 3 – def. Kuyou Senjyou 52-14
Quarters – def. Momoko Koigakubo 53-9
Semifinals – def. Miina Miyafugi 49-14
Finals – def. Kotori Shirakawa 46-17

Bracket VI Champion – Haruka

Anime: Sister Princess
R1 Licensor: ADV Films
Birthdate: May 16
Japanese VA: Yumi Kakazu
English VA: Tiffany Grant
Synopsis: Haruka represents the image of the ideal Japanese women, although she originates from Germany. She is very skilled in archery and the naginata, and enjoys tea ceremonies, singing, and dancing. Although she is shy in nature and constantly blushes, Haruka is quick to defend Wataru whenever he is in danger.

Round 1 – bye
Round 2 – def. Kirie Kojima 55-12
Round 3 – def. Ayu Tsukimiya 37-19
Quarters – def. Shampoo 54-13
Semifinals – def. Yucie 50-15
Finals – def. Momoko Asuka 51-16

[bci110]

My vote went to Kaho. We Capricorns have to stick together. /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

Amazing. For a show that everyone freely disdains and not many admit liking, the characters sure are popular. I recently finished the show and I will freely admit to saying that the show ain't half as bad as most people make it out to be.

But now voting kinda tears me apart. I have no clue who the non-Sister Princess characters are so I can't really back them with my vote. But as for the four sisters, it's kinda hard to do. I'll debate a little longer.

[Suwako Moriya]

I will personally admit to liking Sister Princess. Sure it's nothing any deep, but it gave me exactly what I expected. Minus a few flaws, but every show is flawed. There are times I wonder if the cute images convinced everyone that Sister Princess was supposed to be an angst series with a complex plot... What?

[XenoCrisis0153]

wow, battle of the sister princesses...

Kaho for me, mostly because I got to talk with Cynthia Martinez about her... though Marie was a very close second.

[touma]

[ QUOTE ]
Aya Reiko said:
In case of a run-off, whoever placed 6th is obviously gone. If the combined total of votes for both 5th and 6th place characters is less than the leader, then both whoever placed 5th and 6th place are gone. Continue on to whoever placed 4th. If the total votes of the 4th, 5th, and 6th is less the whoever placed 1st, then all three are gone. And so on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I am glad that I do not have to figure it out.

And, I would like to thank you, Aya Reiko, for doing this.
There have been a few complaints about some of the results, but mostly these poll threads have been very civil and a lot of fun. No matter what the final result is I have enjoyed the ride.
I know that you have put a lot of time into this, so I hope that it has been fun for you.

[Suwako Moriya]

After carefully considering all the choices, I have decided to vote for Kurumi Momose of Pani Poni Dash. It is my destiny.

[bci110]

[ QUOTE ]
Touma said:And, I would like to thank you, Aya Reiko, for doing this. There have been a few complaints about some of the results, but mostly these poll threads have been very civil and a lot of fun. No matter what the final result is I have enjoyed the ride.
I know that you have put a lot of time into this, so I hope that it has been fun for you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ditto. This was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it. There were some questionable entrants (like the Major from GiTS and Hello Kitty) and results, but like Touma said, the discussions were very civil and friendly. I hope you do this again next year, Aya.

Another thing about the tourney that was beneficial for me is that thanks to this tournament, I developed a newfound interest in some of the anime titles that originally I haven't recognized before, so this was a good way to scout some of the characters I might not have had a second thought of watching. I added at least 5 titles to my ANN "Want to See" list mainly because of this tournament, so thanks Aya for taking the time to put this together. /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[martod]

Of the three shows, one is unlicensed, one is licensed but not released, and one is released but not particularly well-known, and loathed by about half who saw it. There are 4 SP girls in the finals even though two of the most moe girls in it(Karen and Aria) were out in the first round. One finalist is a girl whose claim to fame is that she's plain(and by PPD standards, she is very plain).

I think the only thing we can glean from this tournament is that nobody really knows exactly what moe means. /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif

Anyway, My vote goes to Marie. Tough call between her and Kaho, but I went for the more softspoken, sickly, and peaceful one, even though she's older than Kaho.

Incidentally, I'm one of the half of Sister Princess viewers who liked it. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[EmperorBrandon]

Well, it's definitely been interesting for sure, even with some odd results in there. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

My final vote was for Marie. I only ever saw one volume of the series, but she's the one I liked the most out of them, so she gets my vote here. The others (non-SisPri characters) I'm just not familiar with.

[bci110]

[ QUOTE ]
marko said:I think the only thing we can glean from this tournament is that nobody really knows exactly what moe means. /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not necessarily true. I don't think that the concept of moe even has an exact definition to be honest. People have different perspectives of what a moe character is supposed to be. You can look at the character's appearance, attitude, behavior patters, age, and so on to determine if a character can be deemed as moe or not. It's hard to tell whether the voting was honest or not; let’s remember that we had people voting in this tourney that didn't post any comments in the accompanying threads, so we have no idea what their thought process was in choosing whatever character they though was more moe. Some might have treated it as a popularity contest instead of a moe contest. But then, with 264 participants, it's nearly impossible to come up with at least brief descriptions of the characters in order to give the voter at least some background to a particular character, especially one you might have never seen before. Aya took the time to provide pictures of the characters, so at least we had the appearance perspective of moe covered in this tournament. I’m pretty sure the comments made on the accompanying threads helped in some way, and I took the time to post brief descriptions of the six finalists so that you have some background to play with. I know for a fact that I was completely honest with all of my selections, and I made an effort to vote on every match in this tournament, with the exception being the Sae-Kaho match, where I treated both girls as equals. Even though this tournament is supposed to be for fun (and I had a blast participating in it), I was very serious in my voting.

[weaksoul]

[ QUOTE ]
bci110 said:
[ QUOTE ]
marko said:I think the only thing we can glean from this tournament is that nobody really knows exactly what moe means. /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not necessarily true. I don't think that the concept of moe even has an exact definition to be honest. People have different perspectives of what a moe character is supposed to be. You can look at the character's appearance, attitude, behavior patters, age, and so on to determine if a character can be deemed as moe or not. It's hard to tell whether the voting was honest or not; let’s remember that we had people voting in this tourney that didn't post any comments in the accompanying threads, so we have no idea what their thought process was in choosing whatever character they though was more moe. Some might have treated it as a popularity contest instead of a moe contest. But then, with 264 participants, it's nearly impossible to come up with at least brief descriptions of the characters in order to give the voter at least some background to a particular character, especially one you might have never seen before. Aya took the time to provide pictures of the characters, so at least we had the appearance perspective of moe covered in this tournament. I’m pretty sure the comments made on the accompanying threads helped in some way, and I took the time to post brief descriptions of the six finalists so that you have some background to play with. I know for a fact that I was completely honest with all of my selections, and I made an effort to vote on every match in this tournament, with the exception being the Sae-Kaho match, where I treated both girls as equals. Even though this tournament is supposed to be for fun (and I had a blast participating in it), I was very serious in my voting.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it IS true. The GitS Motoko and Slayers Naga competition says there are at least 50 active voters in the contest who do not know what moe is. That's more than enough to skew the results.

EDIT: Familiarity is not an excuse either. If you are familiar with either of them, then you know they are not moe by any definition.

[ayareiko]

[ QUOTE ]
weaksoul said:
EDIT: Familiarity is not an excuse either. If you are familiar with either of them, then you know they are not moe by any definition.

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, there is such a thing called Google.

[weaksoul]

[ QUOTE ]
Aya Reiko said:
[ QUOTE ]
weaksoul said:
EDIT: Familiarity is not an excuse either. If you are familiar with either of them, then you know they are not moe by any definition.

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, there is such a thing called Google.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure if that's directed at me. What do you mean? Or are you saying there's such thing as google for the people who voted for Motoko and Naga based on familiarity?

All right, I decided who to vote for (not that I stewed it over the past two down days). I'm going with Kaho. It was either her or Marie. But it landed tails, so Kaho. And besides, look at her. She's utterly adorable.

[SnowfairyX]

My final vote goes to Anna Coppola. All the truly strong competition is gone and the only character left that I know is her so that's my vote. It's been fun /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif.

[bci110]

The votes are in:

1. Kaho - 22 votes (28%)
2. Hinako - 19 votes (24%)
3. Anna Coppola - 16 votes (20%)
4. Marie - 10 votes (12%)
5. Kurumi Mommose - 9 votes (11%)
6. Haruka - 1 vote (yes, just one vote!)

Since no one achieved over 50% of the total votes, who will be involved in the run-off? It's a safe bet that Haruka is eliminated from the finals. (I feel sorry for the one person that voted for her. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif)

[Victor Lewandowski]

[ QUOTE ]
bci110 said:
The votes are in:

1. Kaho - 22 votes (28%)
2. Hinako - 19 votes (24%)
3. Anna Coppola - 16 votes (20%)
4. Marie - 10 votes (12%)
5. Kurumi Mommose - 9 votes (11%)
6. Haruka - 1 vote (yes, just one vote!)

Since no one achieved over 50% of the total votes, who will be involved in the run-off? It's a safe bet that Haruka is eliminated from the finals. (I feel sorry for the one person that voted for her. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif)

[/ QUOTE ]

1. Kaho - 22 votes (28%)
2. Hinako - 19 votes (24%)
3. Anna Coppola - 16 votes (20%)

Marie, Kurumi, and Haruka have only 20 votes between the three, so they are out. The run-off would be between Kaho and Hinako (Sister Princess), and Anna Coppola (Ichigo Marshmallow, and the only non-SisPri girl left).

[bci110]

[ QUOTE ]
Victor Lewandowski said:
1. Kaho - 22 votes (28%)
2. Hinako - 19 votes (24%)
3. Anna Coppola - 16 votes (20%)

Marie, Kurumi, and Haruka have only 20 votes between the three, so they are out. The run-off would be between Kaho and Hinako (Sister Princess), and Anna Coppola (Ichigo Marshmallow, and the only non-SisPri girl left).

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks. This should be an interesting battle. Of course, my vote will go to my girl Kaho, but whoever wins this tournament it's been a lot of fun! /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[ayareiko]

[ QUOTE ]
bci110 said:
The votes are in:

1. Kaho - 22 votes (28%)
2. Hinako - 19 votes (24%)
3. Anna Coppola - 16 votes (20%)
4. Marie - 10 votes (12%)
5. Kurumi Mommose - 9 votes (11%)
6. Haruka - 1 vote (yes, just one vote!)

Since no one achieved over 50% of the total votes, who will be involved in the run-off? It's a safe bet that Haruka is eliminated from the finals. (I feel sorry for the one person that voted for her. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif)

[/ QUOTE ]
<Kurumi> I guess I'm really just plain after all... sniffle, sniffle... (fades)

/images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif