Devil’s Advocate
Not sure if birthday was TANOSHII or not…
有効コードがある票の順位
1位 192票 原村和＠咲-Saki- 阿知賀編 episode of side-A
2位 178票 宮永咲＠咲-Saki- 阿知賀編 episode of side-A
This result is confirmed.
***
So Nodoka’s through to the semis yet again, achieving that 3 from 3 record and sealing her place in Saimoe folklore. She’d have preferred to win by a greater margin though, but a big victory margin would be a tad too cruel on Saki who bows out of the tournament on her birthday. Still, the Tanoshii Devil’s done well – not many people expected her to reach the QF, but she certainly has exceeded expectations. As for Nodocchi, her next challenge will be break her semi-final duck, but this will probably be the hardest test yet. On that note, here’s a fun fact: the previous two opponents that Nodocchi faced in the semis have both gone ahead to become Saimoe champions. Hmm…
Matsumi Kuro
Rank: 3
Average vote: 353
Average vote %: 57.67
Highlight of the tournament: Beating Nyaruko and Ririchiyo
Matsumi Yuu
Rank: 1
Average vote: 421
Average vote %: 62.74
Highlight of the tournament: Top percentage
The second all-Saki QF match sees the Matsumi sisters duking it out in a high-stakes match – the winner here will be the favorite to make it to the final. The sisters would have preferred to meet in the finals instead, but I probably jinxed their chances by mentioning the possibility of it happening the last time out (heh). Still, this promises to be an intriguing match – both sisters have performed superbly so far, Yuu thrashing her opponents with ease while Kuro emerged out as the victor of this year’s Block of Death – getting rid of 4 prelim group winners in the process with more-than-satisfactory victory margins. It is this very reason that Kuro’s the slight favorite here, as she has dealt with tough opposition before unlike her elder sis. Yuu’s true potential is still unknown as she has had it easy, but that could work in her favor. However, the Saki fandom in general apparently favors the younger Matsumi sister, so let’s see if it follows through here.
tl;dr Prediction: Kuro
Well, looks like Saki is playing plus minus zero again to allow her Nodoka to advance.
haha, everyone don’t like a demon but need a boobs…
The start of this round was REALLY slow-going. If I had to wager, I’d say the Saki fandom was just extremely conflicted on how to go about voting in this dream match: continue pushing the ace? Or go with the main character, who finally managed to get the furthest she’s ever gotten, and on her birthday no less? Ultimately, however, Nodoka got through, and I couldn’t be happier. She broke another record, and she’s looking at finally winning the championship.
Toki might be a problem in the future, but one has to consider that she’s from the same series as Nodoka, and in that regard, Nodoka might have the advantage. Sure, her numbers in past rounds hasn’t been all that great, but you should keep the Nodoka/Ako fight in mind. Ako has pushed nearly 400 votes before, whereas Nodoka just barely got over 300. In that round, however, Nodoka still managed to win, and I’m guessing that’s because several of the series’ fans still view her as the ace that they should go with (and why wouldn’t they be? She was essentially the faction’s greatest success story for two years in a row, and now that Shana’s the only thing standing in the way of a guaranteed Saki victory, who better to finally take the crown?). If that really is the case, then it’s possible that even Yuu’s ridiculously inflated stats aren’t going to matter much in the coming rounds (for that matter, Toki’s high vote counts in the past two rounds were mainly the result of her facing tough competition, YuruYuri’s ace and a Kugimiya tsundere). Though, maybe I’m just being too hopeful for Nodoka as champion.
Looking past the inter-series competition, I’d say that at this point, the worst possible opponent Nodoka could face now is Shana, who’s in the same position as her in that she neared the championship multiple times. Worse, this might be her final tournament (assuming JC Staff doesn’t release another Shana-tan OVA), and the fandom’s no doubt thirsty for revenge against Nodoka, who defeated Shana before. Perhaps the Kugimiya Killer could still manage to come through in that worst case scenario, but if they really wanna play it safe, the Saki faction will hopefully be able to shut her down with Yuu/Kuro, or possibly even Buchou (whose numbers look weak, but is likely going to be pushed by her strong faction, especially if they want to break MadoMagi’s record and succeed in Saimoe’s first mono-series semi-final).
(this post was made after the following day’s round ended)
aw crap, I sorely underestimated Hisa again. Sorry about that ^^’ (aside from beating Peace, I really don’t have anything against her).
http://saimoe.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/peace-out/
Might’ve been because I was recalling this article mentioning how she was “the weakest Saki girl left” (and in all fairness, she didn’t get very far in previous years). While focusing on Hisa’s weakness by comparison to others in her series, I seem to have overlooked how weak Shana actually was. I mean, her block victory was even more narrow (the vote difference being in the single digits; the round before that one was even worse). I really overestimated her fandom, whom I totally expected to get desperate by this point…. but I guess in the end, they were all bark, no bite. “This will be her year”, but all they turned out to be were a bunch of seiyuu fanboys who could do little more than cast fake votes, while Hisa won by a rather comfortable margin (comfortable compared to some of the past few rounds, at least). Disgraceful on their part. They couldn’t even break 300 votes the entire tournament, either. At any rate, congrats to Hisa, and the Saki faction for making the mono-series semi-finals a reality.
Btw, this may seem kinda off-topic…But doesn’t the picture for this kinda remind you of that Madoka-Sayaka picture at the quarterfinals last year? You know, best friends and all?