CAAMoe Character Tournament 2013: The 2nd Strike

[Davidizer13]

It's that time again, folks, time to decide who's top of the Japanese cartoon heap. "Didn't we already do this?" you might ask. "We've gone through this before, and we've picked the best already." And you would be right. But this time is different.

CAA is different. In the past year, people have come, people have gone, people have watched more anime, and people have changed their opinions. It's time to get an assessment of the new zeitgeist of the membership.

Anime is different. 2013 has been a good year for anime so far by all accounts - between the breaststroking bishie boys, fabulously fashionable fist-fighters, titan-thrashing teens, cop conflagaration cut-out comedy, and gung-ho gunshooting girls and more, there's been a little something for everyone. Combined with this and the fact that our memories tend to skew towards the recent, I guarantee characters from more recent shows will be well-represented, including characters that weren't around last year to be nominated.

The tournament is different. It's not a huge change, but the wild card rounds (previously known as the repechage because French) have been streamlined to keep the momentum from flagging like last year - no longer will we spend a week voting over and over on the same four characters. More details on that below.

For those who missed it last time, in 2012, hot off of Olympic statistical overload, I created CAAMoe, a tournament to decide CAA's favorite anime character, very loosely based on the year-long Saimoe tourneys on certain Japanese message boards. Rather than limit it to female characters from that year's shows as Saimoe does, however, I opened it up to the whole of anime, and the hunt was on. The 2012 thread was lost in the update, but fortunately, the results live on in our hearts and on my hard drive.

Last year, the Fullmetal Alchemist team dominated, taking home first and third; had it not been for the intervention of Durarara! fans, they would have gone one-two, and this despite missing a few of their big guns. Will they be able to repeat their success this time around, or has CAA's love for Arakawa's magnum opus grown cold?

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PAST CHAMPIONS/RUNNERS UP
2012: Riza Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist), Shizuo Heiwajima (Durarara!)
2013: Could it be your character???
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CAAMoe Rules

NOMINATION

Vote for up to 16 characters. One vote per character per person, please!

These characters must have appeared in an anime/manga/manhwa; you must name the series they're from when they're nominated, otherwise, pretty much anything is fair game! Gender, species, age, era of creation, genre (except for out-and-out pornography, of course - this is still CAA, after all), good or evil, hot or not...all that matters is that they're anime and that you thought that they were an awesome character.

You can only nominate a character once. This counts between series in the same universe, too - if you nominate, for example, Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam, you have nominated 0079!Char, Quattro Bajeena from Zeta Gundam, and Char's Counterattack!Char, because they're all the same character. The exception is historical figures and series with alternate universe tellings - if you nominate Oda Nobunaga, for example, you have to specify which series' version you're wanting to nominate.

The characters with the highest totals of votes, such that the total number of those characters is less than or equal to 32, move on to the pool round (see below). In the very likely case there are still pool slots unfilled, the ones with the next highest vote totals move on to...

WILD CARDS

If there are more characters who qualify for the next round, based on their nomination counts, than spots open in the 32 available for the next round, we go through wild card rounds.

The way this is going to work, is that there's going to be three rounds of voting, with a tiebreaker round if necessary. You will have as many votes as there are slots open in the next round, and again, you can only vote for a given character once per round. At the end of each round, the characters with the most cumulative votes over all wild card rounds that have occured will move on, and the characters with the least cumulative votes will be eliminated. If, after three rounds, there's still slots to fill or too many characters getting votes, there will be a special round to break the tie and fill the slots.

For example:

After nominations, 20 characters have 2 or more votes and qualify for the next round; 50 have 1 each and they all go into the wild cards. Everyone gets to vote for 12 characters of the 50, since there are 12 slots still open out of the 32. After the votes are tallied, 2 characters get 5 votes, 23 get 1, and the rest have zero. The ones with 5 votes move on, the 25 with no votes are eliminated, and we revote, with 23 characters competing for 10 slots, and one vote to each of their credit that carries onto the next round. Rinse and repeat.

POOL ROUND

The 32 remaining characters are divided into eight 4-character pools; each pool will have one character each from the top 8, 9-16, 17-24, and bottom 8 (all decided on previous vote totals from the previous round/round in which they were lifted out of the wild card rounds/random draw, in that order of precedence).

Each character goes through 1v1 round-robin matches with all the others in its pool: the winner in each match, of course, is decided by who gets the most votes. Just like in soccer, wins are worth 3 points, draws are worth 1, and losses are zero. After every character has gone through its matches, the top two points-getters from each pool move on to the next round, the others are eliminated. Ties will be decided by vote differentials (votes for minus votes against)/total number of votes in pool matches/total overall votes, in that order.

ELIMINATION ROUND

A single elimination, head-to-head tournament bracket. For the first round, a character who won their pool is paired with one who got second. You vote for the better character, the winner lives to fight another winner, the loser gets eliminated. Simple, right? Right. We go until there's two left, and from them, we have a final match to decide CAA's Favorite Anime Character for 2013.

Got all that? Well, you will! Character fight all set! Ready? GO!

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Let's kick this thing off with the...
NOMINATION ROUND:

Nominate up to 16 different anime/manga characters, according to the rules set forth previously!

At the end of voting, the characters with the highest counts of votes, such that the total number of characters that move on is less than 32, will move on to the pool rounds automatically; the characters with the next fewest number of votes will go to the wild card rounds.

You have until 8 PM Pacific Time, September 16th, to get your nominations in. (And make sure you count your nominations this time. That means you, Hat.)

[Crossfire]

This will be my one and only nomination; Kazama Shin from Area 88.



Look at this face.

LOOK AT IT.

[goldenspines]

My nominations:

- ALBERTO THE IMPACT (Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still) The hope lives on! \(;A;)/

- Hanekawa Tsubasa (Monogatari series: Bake, Nise, Neko (Kuro and Shiro), etc.)

- Shinobu Oshino (Monogatari series: Bake, Nise, Neko, etc.)

- Tamaki Suoh (Ouran High School Host Club)

- Nico Robin (One Piece)

- Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)

- Lag Seeing (Tegami Bachi)

- Penguin #2 (Mawaru Penguindrum)

- Ringo (Casshern Sins) Not to be confused with creepy stalker Ringo from Penguindrum. The Casshern Sins' Ringo is an adorable little girl who is the best.

- Olivier Armstrong (FMA: Brotherhood)

- Joseph Joestar (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)

- Caesar Zeppeli (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)

- Ross (Senyuu)

- Mother "The Black Prince" Shimogamo (Uchouten Kazoku)

- Toshiro Hijikata (Gintama)

- Mahiru Inami (Working!!)

Not included because other people are going to include them: Houtarou Oreki, Haruka Nanase, and all those other moe KyoAni characters~

[Ante Bellum]

"breaststroking bishie boys, fabulously fashionable fist-fighters, titan-thrashing teens, cop conflagaration cut-out comedy, and gung-ho gunshooting girls"

How long did it take you to write that?

[ForeverInspired]

- Houtarou Oreki (Hyouka)
- Haruka Nanase (Free!)
- Lelouch (Code Geass)
- Yasaburou Shimogamo (Uchouten Kazoku)
- Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin)
- Kyouko Kirigiri (Danganronpa)
- Taichi Mashima (Chihayafuru)
- Izaya Orihara (Durarara!!)
- Takumi Usui (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!)
- Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss)
- Aika Fuwa (Zetsuen no Tempest)
- Shinra Kishitani (Durarara!!)
- Celty (Durarara!!)
- Fakir (Princess Tutu)
- Kazuto Kirigaya (Sword Art Online)
- Sousuke Sagara (Full Metal Panic!)

[Davidizer13]

How long did it take you to write that?

Less time than I thought it would, more time than I probably should have taken.

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Kamille Bidan - Zeta Gundam
Char Aznable - Mobile Suit Gundam
Simon - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Alberto the Impact - Giant Robo: TDTESS
Alphonse Elric - Fullmetal Alchemist
Izumi Curtis - Fullmetal Alchemist
Noriko Takaya - Gunbuster
Misato Katsuragi - Neon Genesis Evangelion
Akemi Homura - Mahou Shojo Madoka Magica
Roger Smith - The Big O
Monkey D. Luffy - One Piece
Nakiami - Xam'd: Lost Memories
Yotsuba - Yotsuba&!
Master Asia - G Gundam
Amuro Ray - Mobile Suit Gundam
Mic Sounders the 13th - GaoGaiGar