Preliminaries 9-16

The voting resumed after a short break with quite a group of death. Nyaruko crawled to the top with an impressive 281 votes over Yamada of Working, Louise the Rie Tsundere, Takei Hisa of Saki, Hinata of Ro Kyu Bu, Erio of Denpa Onna, and Yui of Yuru Yuri, all of who broke 200 votes. Miki and Yukiho (Idolm@ster) qualified, but with scores that don't indicate stardom: They were neck and neck with Yae from Saki, a character so minor that people can't keep track of whether her last name is Kobashire or Kobashiri. Idolm@ster's other contestant, Makoto, was woefully out of tune and fell down to the second preliminaries. Somebody in Japan isn't into tomboys, since she seems a bit underrated there. But not as underrated as Yunoha Thrul from Aquarion, who's disappearing with only 92 votes. Finally, Haibara Ai (the character with the world record for consistently qualifying for Saimoe) came in 18th, and will likely get in through the second preliminaries.

Another triumph for Saki. Kuro lead with 328, and Mihoko followed with 281. Touka and Cela also qualified directly. The main opposition today was Kuuko, who ensured that the top 3 would all be yuri characters. Yayoi of Idolm@ster did decently, and Rin upheld the trend of successful veteran tsunderes this year.

Saki has a realistic shot at taking half the first place preliminary titles and breaking Negima's record for most qualified contestants. However, they'll likely need to sweep groups 11-13, since they have no serious candidates in 14 and 16, and Arata will be up against Ririchiyo and Kobato in 15.

Group 11 ended with a first place draw: Azusa and Ryuuka both got 327 votes. Mugi almost made it a threesome with 326. Yui wasn't far behind either, so K-ON took 3 of the top 4 spots in a display of renewed strength. Ringo of Dansei Nichijou did better than expected with 6th place. However, Upotte's FNC didn't make the first round cut.

Haramura Nodoka simply had more meat than Sena in group 12. Ayano and Himawari of Yuru Yuri took 3rd and 4th in impressive performances that demonstrate Yuru Yuri's strength. Cure Sunny was on fire with a 5th place tie against the Ice Witch of Ben-to. Rounding out the array of surprises was Gibbard Sakurako. Who? Yes, that's the girl with the round eyes in Saki. She got 9th, beating out some recognizable names. You can now officially upgrade the state of the preliminaries to lesbian pandemonium. That's not such good news for the straight girls: Zessica was 20th, but at least that's better than her love rival Mikono did in her match. Evangeline, once a powerhouse, settled at 21st.

With this 337-302 win, Saki has now reached first place (counting the draw) in 7 preliminary groups. The next match in group 13 features Hanada Kirame (very cute) versus Nadeko of Nisemonogatari, Miniwa of Acchi Kocchi, and others. Since groups 14-16 will be tough for them, this is Saki's chance to accomplish the absurd feat of winning half the preliminary groups. I'm going to bet that Momo will pull it off. Don't forget that she's in 13, too~su.

Saki has achieved the feat of reaching first place in half of all preliminary groups. Subara! Kirame won with 292 votes, followed closely by Momo, who, true to her stealthy nature, chose to lurk in the less noticeable second place with 281. Nadeko took third, and Kokaji, the pro player, surprisingly won fourth for Saki over Hanekawa. The failure of the day was Miniwa Tsumiki, who languished at 17th with 98 votes.

In the years I have preliminary data for (which isn't all of them), the highest number of first places before now was five, achieved by Saki in '09 and Madoka last year.

2012 is Hinagiku's year! (In the preliminaries, at least) She beat out Mio, Ohana, and Lotte in an otherwise fairly weak group. Atago Hiroe, a Saki girl with the most minor of cameos who has only been properly introduced to the audience in the manga, seized 6th place. Fellow Saki character Izumi wasn't so lucky, and ended in 14th, one slot below the infamous Shijima Sui: The granny from Hanasaku Iroha who made a name for herself last year.

As expected, group 15 was topped by Ririchiyo with Kobato and Arata taking the next two spots. The outlier of the group is Tsubakino Miyuki, one of those "wait, who was that again?" characters from Saki who nevertheless managed to defeat the likes of Ilyasviel von Einzbern. This match saw blatant fake voting, so be prepared for some nonsense when the real matches start.

Group 16 is Akarin~'s time to shine. Did you expect a cute joke about how hard to notice Akari is? Too bad,

AKARI

AKAZA

IS ON A

RAMPAGE

The final result was 369 votes for Akari, the highest of the preliminaries. Nobody else came close at all. A number of competitors were weaker than expected this time: Maria and Isumi of Hayate struggled, Hina and Karuta were mediocre, and Chiaki was 20th.