Catnipped

Yes, she still nyan.

B03
1位　288票　忍野忍＠偽物語
2位　220票　星伽白雪＠緋弾のアリア
3位　150票　著莪あやめ（湖の麗人）＠ベン・トー

B07
1位　293票　中野梓＠映画 けいおん!
2位　256票　大室櫻子＠ゆるゆり
3位　167票　ゆの＠ひだまりスケッチ×SP

B11
1位　259票　三日月夜空＠僕は友達が少ない
2位　255票　綾瀬千早＠ちはやふる
3位　151票　なずな＠ひだまりスケッチ×SP

This result is confirmed.

***

Almost, got there Chihaya. Not enough poetic justice to put her over the top though as Yozora proves that third time’s a charm – finally holding on after choking direct qualification in her Prelim One group, and coughing up the win in her Prelim Two group. She did hold on when it mattered the most, so props to her on that.

Shinobu also came through when needed, and the Hidan no Aria freefall continues.

Azusa finally avoids the dubious distinction of losing twice in the opening round after winning the championship, while at the same time clinching her tenth all-time Saimoe victory. This is also K-On’s first win since that championship season, so they are off to the races again. Yuno gets denied Round One perfection. Meanwhile, Yuruyuri’s support characters are struggling against high-tier competition – they’re hanging in there, but couldn’t quite get the job done.

Predictions: 3-0 (19-2)

Picks: 0-3  (Yuno, Chihaya, Shaga) (12-9)

Poll Results:

On Deck:

B04-B08-B12

Three more matches before Saimoe takes a one-day break. Three more matches that can’t easily be dismissed insofar as predictions are concerned.

Nori and Sae face each other but Chris will try to steal this one. So yeah, it doesn’t get much better for Hidamari after Yuno and Nazuna both crashed out in the same day. The struggles will continue, I think. Although Nori got a bit better of Chris in their prelims match, I think Chris will reverse that here. The split could play a decisive role here, making it an interesting dynamic in an already interesting (re)match. If you’ve seen animesaimoe.org’s match poster, you’d also know that this is the first time that Hidamaris are in the same match.

Run-Ami-Ritsu is one of the hardest matches that I have to predict in this year’s tournament so far. I feel that all these three are evenly matched. As aforementioned in the block preview:

This is one of those Saimoe-fantasy nightmare matchups, all three have a good chance of winning – no one’s really a fresh rookie here, and A-Channel, the newest of the bunch looked nowhere like their 2011 selves in the prelims.

We never saw Ami’s full potential other than her winning a preliminary group back in 2009 (a group that featured Clannad’s Nagisa, among others) as she had to pass the torch to eventual champ Taiga in an intra-series match.

As for Ritsu, her streak of Round one wins ended last year falling to the would-be finalist Sakura Kyouko. She hopes to avoid that fate again here.

After some deliberation, I ended up with Ritsu bouncing back with the win here, as she does figure to have performed the best against what I deemed to be better competition in the prelims.

Yeah, it looks like I would have to stick with Ritsu here, especially with Azusa proving that K-On has (at least) some of its mojo back. I’d be surprised the most if Ami ends up taking this, although again I have to mention all these three are more than capable of winning during their prime.

Finally, Minna is the slight favorite here to finally get the Strike Witches going – Ichika winning is a foreign thought to me, and Mako’s one of the not-really-popular girls in Saki, and faction power alone will not be enough to topple one of Strike Witches’ mains.

Lun’s take

(X x_x)

Oh well, I underestimated Sakurako, but it was the ex-champ who showed the calibre. And Yozora almost choked for the third time in a row, but regained her composure just in time.

Let’s move on to the final Round 1 match in Block B. Two tight matches today – firstly, the Hidamari girls vs Chris. It will be interesting to see how the split will affect proceedings – will one be sacrificed for the other? Chris should seize the initiative, but the Symphogears have only managed to get into the main round by getting 12th spot in their respective groups. However, Nori barely edged out Chris when they did battle in their prelim groups, beating her by 5 votes.

Run-Ritsu-Ami will be the main highlight of the day. Run, surprisingly, has the better stats among the three of them during the prelims. However, she barely edged out Minorin in her prelim group. K-ON’s recent performance seems to indicate a slight revival, but Ritsu is the least popular among the main five. Meanwhile, Ami looks rusty after a two-year absence. If there’s any form of strategic play that might go on, Akarin supporters might want to play it safe and force a split between Azusa and Ritsu in R2… but that probably wouldn’t have much of an effect. So yeah, this is perhaps the most difficult match to predict thus far…

Pick: Chris, Ami, Minna
Prediction (17-4): Chris, Ritsu, Minna