Exhibition matches featured characters that participated in previous Saimoe tournaments (very early ones or those who lost round 1) from not-so-well-known anime. There were even some from hentai.

Aside from that, the relegation matches should end now. Congratulations to Mikoto, Louise, Mai, Sayuri, and Ayu for being eligible for the prelims. Too bad for Reimu.

Source: ISML

ARENA 02: [Evangeline McDowell] Index Prohibitorum

ARENA 03: [Hakurei Reimu] Kamio Misuzu

ARENA 04: Index Prohibitorum [Misaka Mikoto]

ARENA 05: Kamio Misuzu [Kurata Sayuri]

ARENA 06: Katagiri Yūhi [Chii]

ARENA 07: [Kawasumi Mai] Minase Nayuki

ARENA 08: [Kurata Sayuri] Vita

ARENA 09: [Louise Vallière] Yagami Hayate

ARENA 10: [Minase Nayuki] Louise Vallière

ARENA 11: [Misaka Mikoto] Katagiri Yūhi

ARENA 12: Tsukimiya Ayu [Evangeline McDowell]

ARENA 13: Vita [Tsukimiya Ayu]

ARENA 14: Yagami Hayate [Kawasumi Mai]

ARENA 15: Contestant 1A [Abstained] Contestant 1B

ARENA 16: Contestant 2A [Abstained] Contestant 2B

ARENA 17: Contestant 3A [Abstained] Contestant 3B

ARENA 18: Contestant 4A [Abstained] Contestant 4B

ARENA 19: Contestant 5A [Abstained] Contestant 5B

ARENA 20: Contestant 6A [Abstained] Contestant 6B

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Not much to say here. Hoping Mikoto and Reimu get into the prelims. Kanon girls are good too. I accepted the fact Louise will be in.

Exhibition matches are a complete mystery. I am only shown the pictures of the contestant, but their names and anime are not given. I only tracked down one of them seeing the animation before. Point is, I do not know any of them, so I abstained from all matches. More on this when they are revealed.

Source: ISML

ISML 2009 ends today (at least the main tournament). Hinagiku has beaten Shana by 11 points once again upsetting the top seed. With that, Hinagiku is crowned the champion of ISML 2009. Congratulation Hinagiku! Shana had a good run here with this being her third loss for the entire year, but she couldn’t win where it mattered most.

Here are the overall results of the top 16:

Champion: #11 Hinagiku Katsura (HnG) (51-12, 5-0; Ruby)

Runner-up: #1 Shana (SnS) (62-1, 4-2; Sapphire)

3rd: #3 Tomoyo Sakagami (Clannad) (58-5, 5-2; Aquamarine)

4th: #7 Yuki Nagato (SHnY) (53-10, 3-2; Topaz)

5th: #4 Kyou Fujibayashi (Clannad) (57-6, 3-2)

6th: #6 Fate Testerossa (MSLN) (55-8, 3-3)

7th: #10 Taiga Aisaka (TD) (52-11, 3-2)

8th: #9 Kagami Hiiragi (LS) (52-11, 2-3)

9th: #2 Haruhi Suzumiya (SHnY) (59-4, 3-2)

10th: #8 Rin Tohsaka (FSN) (53-10, 2-3)

11th: #12 Mikuru Asahina (SHnY) (50-13, 2-3)

12th: #5 Suigintou (RM) (56-7, 1-4; Amethyst)

13th: #16 Horo (SaW) (47-16, 2-2)

14th: #14 Nanoha Takamichi (MSLN) (49-14, 1-3)

15th: #13 Suiseiseki (RM) (49-14, 1-3; Emerald)

16th: #15 Shinku (RM) (48-15, 0-4; Diamond)

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Again, congratulations to Hinagiku! Next year, I will be going for Mio Akiyama all the way. Nominations are set for New Year’s Day, so I’ll see what happens then. I’m interested to see how it works since I didn’t start paying attention to ISML until it actually began this year.

We cannot forget about the other matches that took place. Here are the characters who would advance if the relegation matches ended today:

• #42 Mikoto Misaka (Index) (23-40, 10-1)
• #37 Louise Valliere (ZnT) (27-36, 10-1)
• #35 Mai Kawasumi (Kanon) (31-32, 9-2)
• #36 Sayuri Kurata (Kanon) (27-36, 7-1-3)
• #43 Reimu Hakurei (Touhou) (23-40, 7-4)

Finally, I would also like to congratulate Haruka in this round’s exhibition matchup. She accumulated the highest vote total in this final match at 2766. It seems that this was because she was facing a weak character (she got over twice the amount of votes than her opponent) at the same time  as the championship match which drew a lot of votes. This might actually be a record for ISML not that it matters much.

Well, it’s not over yet. Another round for the relegation matches will occur this Thursday (rounds 12 and 13). It appears that each character will have 2 matches at once, so it may be confusing a bit. There will also be 6 exhibition matchups featuring 12 characters which are unknown at the moment. I hope for this to be interesting. I’m expecting a lower turnout for the next matches.

Otherwise, until ISML 2010 in a few months…

Source: ISML

ARENA 01: Katsura Hinagiku [Shana]

ARENA 02: [Chii] Index Prohibitorum

ARENA 03: Minase Nayuki [Kurata Sayuri]

ARENA 04: [Evangeline McDowell] Katagiri Yūhi

ARENA 05: [Hakurei Reimu] Kawasumi Mai

ARENA 06: [Vita] Yagami Hayate

ARENA 07: Kamio Misuzu [Misaka Mikoto]

ARENA 08: [Tsukimiya Ayu] Louise Vallière

ARENA 09: [Nogizaka Haruka] Yin

This matchup will go on for an additional 4 hours because of the downtime of the site earlier, so results may be delayed.

We have Shana going up against Hinagiku again, but she’s back more powerful than before after a fresh OVA is released (it was good too) and after destroying Tomoyo last time. Here are statistics of the characters in the matchup:

Shana (SnS)

• Anime Saimoe: 3rd place 2006 (Lost to champion Suiseiseki (RM)), 11th place 2007 (Lost to runner-up Nagi Sanzenin (HnG)), 14th place 2008 (Lost to Tamaki Kawazoe (BB))
• Best Moe: 4th place 2006 (Lost to champion Suiseiseki (RM)), runner-up 2007 (Lost to champion Hinagiku Katsura (HnG)), 4th place 2008 (Lost to champion Horo (SaW))
• Champion of Super Best Moe 2006-07
• ISML: 6th place 2008 (59-4, 2-2), 2008 Aquamarine necklace winner
• 2009: Ranked #1 (62-1, 4-1), losses: Tomoyo (regulation), Hinagiku; Sapphire necklace winner

Hinagiku Katsura (HnG)

• Anime Saimoe: Second Round loss to Runa Edomae (SnH) 2007, 3rd place 2008 (Lost to runner-up Tsukasa Hiiragi (LS)), Third round loss to runner-up Yui Hirasawa (K-ON!) 2009
• Best Moe: 2007 Champion, 3rd place 2008 (lost to runner-up Kyou Fujibayashi), 5th place 2009 (lost to champion Taiga Aisaka)
• 5th Place Korea Super Best Moe 2006-2007
• ISML: 11th place 2008 (54-9, 1-2)
• 2009: Ranked #11 (51-12, 4-0), losses: Mikuru, Fate, Kyou, Rika, Nagisa, Yuki, Saber, Shana, Shinku, Suigintou, Suiseiseki, Haruhi; Ruby necklace winner

Match History:

• Best Moe 2007 Final Match (10/26-27): Shana 2013, Hinagiku 2015
• Korean Super Best Moe 2006-07: Shana 1304, Hinagiku 1230
• ISML 2008 Aquamarine 1 (4/1-ISML’s debut): Shana 144, Hinagiku 104
• ISML 2009 Diamond 9 (8/28): Shana 2107, Hinagiku 1438
• ISML 2009 3rd Round of Revelation (10/22): Shana 1395, Hinagiku 1677

Again, Shana has more successes in tournaments, although Hinagiku did beat her in Best Moe 2007 to take the crown. Shana also has been doing well here in ISML as well going in ranked #1. Hinagiku has been really impressive being in the finals ranked #11. She has had a lot of losses for a possible champion in making.

Looking at the past records, Shana has the advantage with a 3-2 record over her. She could have been Best Moe Champion if Hinagiku hadn’t beat her by only 2 points (closer than even this year’s close match with Taiga and Kagami).

My final predictions say that Shana will pull an upset. Hinagiku has done really well in tournament play beating #6, #3, #7, and #1, but she’s still #11 and beating #1 again is a difficult task. Shana appears to be even more powerful than before because of the recent OVA (which came a tad too late last time). This is shown with her recent victory against Tomoyo.

Hinagiku only has to win one more time to win the tiara while Shana needs to win twice. Could Shana pull this off, or will Hinagiku triumph over her again? Again, one win for Hinagiku and it’s over.

This may also be the last of the relegation matches. I don’t think Reimu will be able to beat Mai, so Louise, Mikoto, Mai, Ayu, and Sayuri should be eligible for next year’s ISML. I’m not 100% sure though.

In exhibition, once again it’s a character I know vs. a character I don’t know. This does not make things too interesting. In this case, I only know Haruka, so I’ll go for her. I never really saw Darker than Black, but I do plan on watching both seasons. This matchup just came too early for me to go for Yin. I would’ve probably go for Haruka anyways. Maybe.

Good luck Shana!

Source: ISML

Elimination Match. Shana exacts revenge on Tomoyo for beating her 2 times by over 500 votes eliminating my favorite Clannad character. She earns a rematch against Hinagiku that has a potential to go differently from last time thanks to the OVA maybe. Once again, Shana is my favorite to win. Tomoyo settles for 3rd place.

5th Place Match. Another upset here. Although Tomoyo fell hard, Kyou picks up a win against last year’s champion Fate. Kyou settles for 5th place while Fate is 6th.

Relegation. Since the tournament is almost over, I thought I should give some thoughts to this. With 9 wins, it looks like Louise, Mai, and Mikoto will be in the nominations for ISML 2010 for sure. Reimu, Ayu, and Sayuri are in the running with 6 wins each (the latter 2 had ties meaning less losses). The rest are pretty much out, although Hayate and Misuzu Kamio have 5 wins each.

I think out of these Mikoto has the best chance of actually being in ISML. My guess is that Ayu and Sayuri will be the other two characters to be eligible for nomination unless they lose and Reimu wins. I won’t know who they’re up against until the match gets closer.

Exhibition. It was close, but Misuzu Kusakabe wins. Hopefully the next exhibition matchup will be between characters I know.

Next: Championship match: Shana vs. Hinagiku (last match if Hinagiku wins), Relegation, possible exhibition

Source: ISML

ARENA 01: [Sakagami Tomoyo] Shana

ARENA 02: Fujibayashi Kyō [Fate Testarossa]

ARENA 03: Chii [Vita]

ARENA 04: Minase Nayuki [Evangeline McDowell]

ARENA 05: Kurata Sayuri [Kawasumi Mai]

ARENA 06: Index Prohibitorum [Hakurei Reimu]

ARENA 07: Katagiri Yūhi [Louise Vallière]

ARENA 08: [Misaka Mikoto] Yagami Hayate

ARENA 09: [Tsukimiya Ayu] Kamio Misuzu

ARENA 10: Kusakabe Misuzu [Abstained] Ikaros

Elimination match. Today will be the last matchup before the championship match. We have Shana against Tomoyo. Let’s have a look back on their past tournament history:

Shana (SnS)

• Anime Saimoe: 3rd place 2006 (Lost to champion Suiseiseki), 11th place 2007 (Lost to runner-up Nagi Sanzenin), 14th place 2008 (Lost to Tamaki Kawazoe)
• Best Moe: 4th place 2006 (Lost to champion Suiseiseki), runner-up 2007 (Lost to champion Hinagiku Katsura), 4th place 2008 (Lost to champion Horo)
• Champion of Super Best Moe 2006-07
• ISML: 6th place 2008 (59-4, 2-2), 2008 Aquamarine necklace winner
• 2009: Ranked #1 (62-1, 3-1), losses: Tomoyo, Hinagiku; Sapphire necklace winner

Tomoyo Sakagami (Clannad)

• Anime Saimoe: 7th place 2008 (Lost to champion Kagami Hiiragi), Round 2 loss to Ayumi Nishizawa 2009
• Best Moe: 7th place 2008 (Lost to Kyou Fujibayashi), 36th place 2009 (lost to Horo)
• ISML: 7th place 2008 (60-3)
• 2009: Ranked #3 (58-5, 5-1), losses: Kyou (reg.), Nagisa, Kotomi, Hinagiku (reg.), Yuki (reg.), Hinagiku (Championship); Aquamarine necklace winner

Past Matches:

• ISML 2008 Topaz 3 (4/26/2008)- Tomoyo 263, Shana 254
• ISML 2009 Aquamarine 9 (4/3/2009)- Tomoyo 1411, Shana 1306

Seems to me that Shana has more successes than Tomoyo, but Tomoyo has beaten Shana before. She’s one of only two characters to beat her this year (the other being Hinagiku). I say that Shana has the advantage here with the new OVA and the fact she has a better record, but Tomoyo can very well beat her again for the third straight time.

Although I said I would go for Shana all the way, I’m probably going for Tomoyo, my favorite from Clannad. This could also be because there’s no winning streak for Shana to extend now. Anyways, I’ll be satisfied with whoever wins. Either way, I think Hinagiku will win no matter who wins this one seeing how she has already beaten both of them (Shana once, Tomoyo twice).

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5th place match: Kyou vs. Fate. Fate is win. I’m going for her over Kyou, but either way, they are already out.

Others: Relegation matches are still going. I will post the final results as the last round finishes. For once, I’m going for Louise. Glad Mikoto’s doing well.

For the exhibition match, I am going to abstain from that since I do not know Misuzu nor Ikaros since I do not watch or plan to watch 11eyes and Sora no Otoshimono. The past matches have been a character I don’t know vs. one I do know. Now I don’t know both of them.

Source: ISML

The runner-up of last year is eliminated. Tomoyo defeats Yuki limiting her only to 4th place. Next, she gets to take on Shana. Three characters remain in the tournament.

Taiga beats Kagami again. After a 3 point win in Best Moe, Taiga beats 3rd place of last year Kagami by less than 50. She finishes with 7th place while Kagami gets 8th.

Kurimu pounds that Kampfer girl by over 500 votes. In the exhibition match, Seno was no match for Kurimu. Can Kurimu become a contestant of ISML 2010? Looks possible, even with the reduction to 50 characters.

Next up: Elimination Round 6: Shana vs. Tomoyo, 5th place match: Fate vs. Kyou, other matches.

Source: ISML

Picks:

ARENA 01: [Sakagami Tomoyo] Nagato Yuki

ARENA 02: Hiiragi Kagami [Aisaka Taiga]

ARENA 03: Kamio Misuzu [Index Prohibitorum]

ARENA 04: [Minase Nayuki] Chii

ARENA 05: Evangeline McDowell [Kawasumi Mai]

ARENA 06: [Hakurei Reimu] Louise Vallière

ARENA 07: [Kurata Sayuri] Yagami Hayate

ARENA 08: [Vita] Katagiri Yūhi

ARENA 09: [Misaka Mikoto] Tsukimiya Ayu

ARENA 10: Senō Natsuru [Sakurano Kurimu]

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The end is near! Four characters remain. After this match, there will be only 3. Today, Tomoyo is up against Yuki, last year’s runner up.  Both were eliminated by Hinagiku who’s currently the only character not in the elimination matches. Whoever wins will be up against #1 Shana. Yuki has the advantage here, but I am going for Tomoyo.

For 7th place, we have a rematch of the Best Moe finals: Kagami vs. Taiga. Could Taiga pull off another win against Kagami, or will she avenge her 3 point loss. Going for Taiga for 7th place.

Lastly, we have our exhibition matchup between Seno and Kurimu. For me, this is one-sided since I am not watching Kampfer. Even if I did, I would probably go for Kurimu anyways. She is currently my favorite character that is new this season (The only new shows this season that I’m watching are Seitokai no Ichizon and Kobato. The rest are second seasons or spinoffs).

Source: ISML

Shana’s winning streak has ended at 57. Hinagiku upsets Shana sending her to the loser’s bracket. I’m disappointed, but I gotta hand it to Hinagiku who ranks 11th. Hinagiku may be favored to take the tiara now that she secured her spot in the finals. I think the only way for her to lose is for her to lose the championship match twice.

However, Shana’s not out yet. If she can win in the loser’s bracket against Yuki or Tomoyo (the only other character to beat her in the entire tournament), she can earn a rematch against Hinagiku. Shana is my favorite to win by the way. She has also been sparked just now because of the recent OVA.

As of now, there are only 4 characters left fighting for the tiara with Hina most favored. How will this finish?

Picks: Shana > Hinagiku > Tomoyo > Yuki (sorry.)

Predictions: Hinagiku > Shana > Yuki > Tomoyo

Haruhi takes 9th place as she defeats Rin by a large amount. Go Haruhi! So Rin takes 10th, Mikuru takes 11th, and Suigintou takes 12th.

Finally, Kobato wins the exhibition matchup. That’s all good. I originally voted for Kuroko, but recently I started watching Kobato, and I liked what I saw. Actually, I would have voted for Kobato if I watched earlier.

Next up: Yuki vs. Tomoyo in elimination, Taiga vs. Kagami for 7th (rematch of Best Moe finals?), and others

Source: ISML

ARENA 02: [Suzumiya Haruhi] Tōsaka Rin

ARENA 03: Suigintou [Asahina Mikuru]

ARENA 04: [Misaka Mikoto] Louise Vallière

ARENA 05: [Index Prohibitorum] Minase Nayuki

ARENA 06: Evangeline McDowell [Kurata Sayuri]

ARENA 07: Chii [Kawasumi Mai]

ARENA 08: [Hakurei Reimu] Vita

ARENA 09: Yagami Hayate [Kamio Misuzu]

ARENA 10: Katagiri Yūhi [Tsukimiya Ayu]

ARENA 11: Hanato Kobato [Shirai Kuroko]

Not many matches today now that where heading towards the final matches. Today, the main focus is on Shana vs. Hinagiku. I heard they met before in the finals of Best Moe 2007 with Hinagiku winning by 2. I’ll be cheering for Shana here to continue her winning streak. It’s been six months since she lost!

Other than that, we have our 9th place match. I hope Haruhi will win here, but I bet Rin will grab 9th. Thanks again to Taiga for eliminating her. Also cheering for Mikuru for 11th place.

Lastly, we have our exhibition match between two characters from the current season. I’ve only seen Railgun so far, but not Kobato. However, I may choose to watch soon since it may have potential. Probably very soon. For now, I’ll have to go with Kuroko on this one, but I think she’ll lose here.

Again, go Shana! And sorry Hinagiku…still love you though.

Source: ISML