Akari (Aria) defeats
Chihiro (ef) 634-522

‘Twas actually a much closer fight between Chihiro and Akari than I thought; despite a low vote count in the first few rounds, Chihiro made a good stand here against everyone’s most sutekiiiiiiii~ prima. And I respect her for that; I still like Chihiro a lot and I’m looking forward to seeing at least a glimpse of her (perhaps less broken) in ef ~melodies~.

But on the other hand, I’ve already picked Akari as my Feel-Good Story of Saimoe, if she can get much farther, so the vote-split here kind of worries me as to her actual strength. Oh well. I’m glad to see this match got votes in either case, because that means people care.

…Although it was less votes than all the other Round 3 matches so far.

Hinagiku (Hayate) defeats
Eika (Sky Girls) 830-356

Yes, Hinagiku is strong. If things mess up in the G-H brackets we may very well see a clash between her and Nagi later on to see who is the more popular of the top two in Hayate. However, I’m still hoping for Akari, Noe, or both to make a stand.

I guess this is notable for being the widest margin of defeat in Round 3 so far.

If this is one-half as furious as I think it’ll be, this will be an incredible match. All the power of the Nanoha / Shana standoff, which was intensely fought in its own, with added angles in every direction.

You’ve got the KyoAni vote / anti-vote, the pity vote / anti-vote (Nagi was runner-up last year, Maria’s been hammered already, etc), a bit of a tactical vote (although the bracket final will probably be sadly trivial for either girl), and probably more. I should expect the English vote to lean in favor of Tsukasa and the Japanese vote to side with Nagi.

The girls are nearly as different as they come; in one corner, you’ve got a tsundere, high-class girl with a minor in otaku culture, and in the other corner, you’ve got a spacey, bumbling, naive girl who seems more naturally imbued with that which we call ‘moe’. But different tastes for different palettes, and about the only thing these two have in common are a form of immaturity (mental, physical, and otherwise)…

Prediction:
Who do I want to win? Hell if I know.
Who do I think will win? C’mon, if I can’t even answer the first question … Nagi has probably a bit more sympathy at this point, since Lucky Star has shown an inability to step up to the plate in tough battles … but really, it depends on how the KyoAni vote swings. Tsukasa’s got what appears to be a subjective edge in moe quality … but … in Saimoe, that’s the last thing that matters.

Coin flip says Nagi.

Noe, she is moe, but just how so?

True Tears has been somewhat of an enigma in this year’s tournament; it seems to have all the power of a Bamboo Blade or similar undercover contender, but hasn’t done much to show for it yet. It’s tough to call whether this is some real power backing Noe and Hiromi (who very nearly toppled Nanoha in Round 1), or if this is just the power of strategic and hate votes at work.

Either way, I can say two things, one, that today will not be the test of True Tears’s strength – rather, that day is in next round when she takes on Hinagiku, queen of one of the most consistently strong shows in Saimoe.

The second thing, is that I’m glad to see True Tears in the spotlight again. It kind of hurts how while it was praised so much a few months ago, it’s being reduced quicker and quicker to ‘dark horse show with chicken allegory’ in at least my mind. I’m sure this is similar to the plot of at least one dramatic anime – Byousoku 5cm is the first that I could cite – contemplating whether it’s better to cling to what I think I remember of True Tears, or just to move on.

In any case, I’m glad that Saimoe brings these shows back to the spotlight, if only for a little bit.

Prediction:
Noe. I want to see at least one underdog in the top eight this year, and this is just the first step…