Preliminaries 1-8




The voting began with a fairly competitive preliminary group 1. Chitanda Eru won first place, beating Misaki Mei by only a single vote and Saki's Tacos by 4. Saki claimed 3rd, 4th, and 6th with Wakanne~, the commentator also known as Mihirogi, keeping up with Senjougahara and Inami. Struggling to overcome a minor joke character makes Senjougahara look like a lightweight, and Inami took a beating. It was much worse for Idolm@ster, though: Haruka was tied for 8th, and Ami is headed to the second preliminaries. This audition was a disaster, and there's no way they'll score a gig in the finals with this kind of performance.

It was actually ideal for Saki that Tacos and Shizuno came in below Chitanda and Mei, since excessive domination in the preliminaries could lead to anti-voting in the main tournament. However, there was little subtlety in group 2 as Matsumi Yuu's warmth deep fried Ika Musume 244 to 196. Mako and Hatsuse were sent to the second preliminaries, but there's no question that Saki is the faction to beat after sinking one of last year's finalists by a killer whale size margin. Sadly, Ika's friend Tomomi missed the cutoff by one vote and has been eliminated. Meanwhile, Kill Me Baby's Unused Character found a role in the main tournament.

Nagi spanked group 3 with 192 votes. The Hayate faction is still alive and well, so expect some good tactical voting in the future. Kuroyukihime was one of the most promising new entrants, but garnered only 166 votes. That's good, but not good enough to take on championship level opponents. Iori got the show started for Idolm@ster. She must have had some of Nagi's Rie fans on her side, but anyone who can shoot down IS's Charlotte is a hit, even if Charlotte seems to be weaker than last year. Is IS over the hill? PreCure's Beauty and Another's Izumi were close behind, so look forward to good results from Cure Peace soon. Finally, Chinatsu qualified with 12th place. Don't underestimate Yuru Yuri because of this, though: Chinatsu is the villain of the show.

Victory, peace, or scissors? No matter which, most opponents were paper tigers to Yayoi, and Kanna who won the 3rdp lace with 182 votes for Ano Natsu. Peace's 184 votes mean we'll finally have a competitive cure in Saimoe, which has been hard on this particular species of magical girl after Nagisa's 2004 finals appearance. The only other cure to win a main tournament match was Erika, who proceeded to get broken like a dish by Yamada in round 2. Coincidentally, today's preliminary winner was Yamada's co-worker Poplar. Don't overlook her; that 223 vote total isn't small. Now she has more than two things super-sized. Meanwhile, Hurricane Saki made a quiet but respectable advance as Teru came in right behind Kanna with 175 votes. It's expected to make landfall tomorrow: Toki and Saki herself are in the next group.

Riichi ippatsu tsumo, 3 dora. Saki characters took 3 of the top 5 places today, and Toki demonstrated her championship potential with 333 votes, more than a hundred votes above the highest-scoring non-Saki character so far. Among the defeated opponents are Chihaya and Azusa of Idolm@ster, who advanced safely but had mediocre scores which indicate franchise weakness outside of Iori. Houki is headed to the second preliminaries, so IS is in trouble. Chitose and the President of Yuru Yuri ended up 17th and 18th in a sign that only Akari will have any presence in Saimoe.

Preliminary group 6 was topped by Shana and Taiga. There's no question that Rie tsunderes are a major faction now. Getting Iori to a level far above the other Idolm@ster characters as one thing, but pushing Taiga, a former winner, to a vote count on par with Miyanaga Saki and Matsumi Yuu? (Compare her 245 to fellow winner Rika's 168 today) Has the championship hangover run its course, or is this only preliminary round shenanigans? Either way, we're going to see some big showdowns in the future when Kyuguus attempt to get payback for past events involving Nodoka.

Oribe Yasuna is alive, and well (even more so than Strike Witches love, taking second place above Erica Hartmann 190-189). This surprise performance isn't that odd if you only consider how moe she is, but it goes to show that popularity, series quality, and sales aren't everything. Today's lesson was that being in high school while looking like an eight year old is totally awesome. Amae Koromo dominated the match with 263 votes despite having a cameo role in the new series. Perhaps 2012 Saimoe's dominant theme will be girls who could drive themselves to the amusement park but not be allowed on the roller coaster. (Toki's doctor would forbid it, and Akarin~ would never get pulled over even though she's not legal to drive)

Group 8 was the most competitive yet. Ako completed a quick hand just ahead of TOSHINO KYOUKO 347-341. Both surpassed Toki's 333 record. Toki's match had 4707 votes cast (each person can vote for up to 10 characters, so that's a minimum 471 people) and today's had 5028. If you take out the top two scores, 3rd and lower in Toki's added up to 4126, and 3rd and lower today added up to 4340. The excitement of a close battle brought more voters into the match, but not enough to explain the recordbreaking scores. It looks like both girls really are that strong, and we're going to be seeing some exciting yuri on yuri action later on.

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