Anime Madness

[Dr. Insomniac]

[LumRanmaYasha]

Alright, so last year I participated in this thing and my bracket was immediately utterly destroyed because Attack on Titan lost to fucking Hatsune Miku in the first goddamn round. But it was a learning experience, as I realized that the general anime fandom had shittier different tastes and preferences than I had originally figured! And now that I know not to underestimate the power of moeshit, I feel confident that this year, I will do much better, and possibly even win! Here's the bracket I came up with:



My basic thought process with this one was that if something old and obscure was going up against anything new, whatever it was, it was going to lose. In general, the newer and more relevant a series has been as of late, the chances of it moving on are significantly higher. If it's a rom-com/moe series of significant popularity, it's also likely to beat out anything against it that isn't an perennial favorite like Sailor Moon or Evangelion. Last year I thought AoT's popularity would make it go far in this thing, but it lost by a huge margin to Hatsune Miku, so clearly most of the people who voted on this last year don't care about it that much. SM is a perennial favorite and it's been as big as ever in the western fandom thanks to all the stuff related to it that came out last year, so even against AoT, I don't think it will lose. JoJo's vs. Evangelion was trickiest of these for me to call, but even with JJBA's increased popularity these days, I think Eva's popularity is still far higher even now, so I'm going to bank on it beating it. Now, I might be overestimating how popular KLK and SM are, and I could see that semi-finals going the other way, but I feel that their relevance in the community in the last year has been much stronger so I'm confident on the chance both will make it to the finals. 

The prizes for this year aren't nearly as interesting to me as last year's, but I still could get the first 8 volumes of Gundam: The Origin, so I'm hoping for the best this time. I feel pretty confident about my bracket, but I felt the same way last year too, so who knows, maybe I've fucked up and KLK is going to lose to Magical Girl Apocalypse in the first round. I might break something if that happens.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Jojo losing to NGE?

Really?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As someone who enjoys both but is not a mega fan of either, I see that as a reasonable outcome. While NGE has had some movies in recent years to keep it relevant to modern anime audiences, JoJo has had 2 full seasons in the past 2 years, and a 3rd that is currently running, all on a legal streaming service that makes it easy to watch the show for free. It makes perfect sense the it has had a much bigger popularity boost advantage over NGE.

[gunswordfist]

Oh, thank God Jojo whooped that emo shit.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Whoops, I wrote that backwards. 

I would have actually expected Jojo to get to near the end.

[gunswordfist]

  Well at least you don't think NGEmo should lose to JoJo. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

You guys do know that I just posted my bracket I submitted, not the results, right? Anime Madness doesn't begin until tomorrow; nothing has won or lost yet. 

JoJo's v. Evangelion was a tough prediction for me to figure, but ultimately I went with the latter because based on last year's results the general consumer base over there didn't seem to favor shonen action over more otaku-centered favorites, and I feel that'll give Eva the edge at the end of the day. Obviously, I could be wrong about that, though, so we'll see how it all plays out when and if it comes to pass.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I was questioning your choice, yeah. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

Aight.

All I know is that last year I was dead certain that Attack on Titan would make it to the final round, and it got crushed in the very first. That's made me a bit skeptical that a recent popularity boost advantage is going to be worth that much against one of an average Rightstuf buyer's mainstay favorites.

[Avaitor]

Anime fans can be pretty fickle, so it's hard to tell how it'll go sometimes.

[Lord Il]

I know not to underestimate the power of moeshit,

Yep. Love it or hate it, it's an undeniable force to be reckoned with. Especially when considering how those results went last year.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Welp, round 1 is over. Here are the results!



As I expected, KLK crushed MGA here. This one was really a no-brainer.



Very close call, but I ended up lucking out.



Didn't doubt Noragami's victory here. The manga is surprisingly popular over here, and I didn't hear anything about Tarot Cafe before this competition.



Dammit. My first loss of the competition. I don't know if the fact that it was a close one makes me feel any better about that or not. Well, hopefully Recca loses out against Noragami in the next round.



This was a match I might not have minded losing, even though that would have screwed my entire bracket. I thought Oreimo would win and make it far in this thing because of it's results last year, and it so far it has. It's a victory for me since I got the point, but it's a loss in regards to reflecting any good taste in the anime fandom.



Ugh. Why did I bet against T&B? I should have had more faith in that series' fandom and my own personal preference and love for it. I can only hope it doesn't win any matches after this and screw me over further.



Closer than I thought, but have you seen Nisekoi's popularity with casuals and it's sales? I don't doubt it making it past the next round either.



I remember the graphs looking much closer on Friday, but Dandy pulled out a hefty victory over it by the end. Too bad it'll lose against Nisekoi in the next round (at least I hope so, lest my bracket get wrecked).



Eva is Eva.



The fact that this wasn't a curbstomp victory should be the most surprising thing about this match.



Poor Cat's Eye had no chance, really. But if it makes it feel any better I have been planning to watch it for a while, and will...sometime.



Devil curbstomped the shit out of Psy-comm. That's great for this round, but it makes me worried that I may have miscalled the next...



OMG's competition hadn't much fanfare, so this is another one I smartly called.



Shit. I have Citrus making it to round 3 in my bracket. I sure fucked up here.



Yep.



Double Yep.

Overall, I did much better than last year in regards to the first round, but miscalling the Citrus v. Bokurano match will definitely cost me because of how far I expected Citrus to go in my bracket. Still, I'm not out of the game yet, so if everything else goes the way I called it in my bracket in this round, I should be in a pretty good place. I can only hope for the best!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Good luck, Cartoon Seer.

Some tough matches up ahead.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Good luck, CX!

On another note, Space Brothers losing to Oreimo is a perfect example of what's wrong with the current anime fandom in the West.