Nichijou 16 - Nobody messes with Mio-chan

Mio-chan is scary :D

Rage mode ON!

You don't mess with Mio-chan.

International Saimoe League 2011 - Aquamarine

ヘ(^_^ヘ) Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ (ノ^_^)ノ

The Aquamarine period has concluded and Misaka Mikoto won!!

Her victory came, to me, quite unexpected. The strongest character right now is Tachibana Kanade, no one can rival her. She won every match until now and all by quite a margin. So how was Misaka's victory possible?

Misaka is at the moment the second strongest character out there, as you can see from the graph for the final match of the Aquamarine period:

Number of votes for the seven contestants of the Aquamarine periods as a function of time.

As you can see Tachibana won the last showdown, as usual, but there is also the rank to consider. Each contestant has a rank and no two contestants can have the same rank at the same time. Basically Misaka had a higher rank because she happened to defeat stronger opponents than Tachibana. The rank enters as a multiplier and as Misaka fought harder matches she was finally rewarded by the Aquamarine jewel!

Tachibana won the Necklace Match, but Misaka had a higher ranking and won the jewel

This involves a randomness and a bit of luck and the system might be a little convoluted, but I think it is in the end fair. A character can only win one necklace and Tachibana is most definitely going to win the next one. If the last match was to decide the winner by votes majority alone, they would have just swapped :)

So congratulations to Misaka for her victory!

Madoka Magica - Finale

Best show this season and one of the best things I have ever watched. EVER.

The last two episodes have aired together and what is my reaction?
I think the ending was beautiful, amazing and masterfully executed, like the rest of the series.

I always thought the ending would see one between Madoka and Homura to make a final sacrifice to stop the loop, but for Madoka to actually make THAT wish!

This show has surprised me in many ways. Always keeping me on the edge, revealing small elements of a disturbing world once at a time.
And in the end it did not let me down. It is impressive how it managed to do so despite my expectations being so high. Despite having had the time to think over it and wait for it so eagerly.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is truly a masterpiece.

International Saimoe League 2011: End of the preliminary phase!

The preliminary phase of ISML 2011 is complete. From 144 characters 50 have been selected after three elimination phases.

Here are the results of the last seeding phase that will determine how the regular season groups will be formed based on the rankings:
 

The only missing character is Shiina from Angle Beats who will be the 50th seed.

This is a photograph of the current balance of power. Here are my considerations:

• Pool 1: Tachibana Kanade is the strongest character at the moment, by far. Group 1 has the characters with the best rankings from the previous seeding phasese and she still comes out with more than 1000 votes over Azunian!
• Pool 2: Misaka dominates group 2 and Hellscythe confirms as a strong character. I don't know if she can keep up in the long term as Kore Zombie has already finished airing. Misaka could fare better if she gets a second season for Railgun (which I hope!).
• Pool 3: Yuis dominate this group. Yui from Angel Beats made me cry like a little girl, still I am positively surprised to see her top this group! Yui from K-ON comes out second close to Kirino.
• Pool 4: No big surpises here for me with Yurippe and Saber. I only wished Last Order would do better... I am happy that she made it into the regular season though :D
• Pool 5: Bakemonogatari dominates the group with Hitagi and Nadeko.
• Pool 6: C.C. is still quite popular and Index gets the second place.
• Pool 7: Zero no Luise tops the last group and Seraphim comes out second. This group seems quite balanced.

There are some notable characters missing from the final 50:

• Ika Musume: many thought she could do well. Too bad she was eliminated in the preliminaries, I was supporting her :(
• Ritsu from K-ON which I placed second after Misaka in my guesses.
• Rose from Dragon Crysis. I wasn't supporting her, but I thought she might have done fine.
• Merry from Yumekui Merry.

The road to the heavenly tiara is still long and we will see which characters will better withstand the test of time!

Solution to Homura's Math Problem

In episode 10 of Madoka Magica Homura is presented with a math problem she can't solve. Poor Homura, she has been in bed for the last 6 months and as soon as she goes back to school she has to face this!

Let's help her!
Homura-chan, the next time you go back in time, please check this before going to school!

This is Homura's problem:

and this is the solution:

Immediately before her problem, we are briefely shown another problem on the electronic whiteboard:

Everytime she goes back in time something changes. We don't want her to learn the solution to the first problem just to be asked to solve this one! Homura-chan, here is the solution to this problem:

By the way, the technological level of the world they live in seems slightly superior to our own, but the same can be said for the problems they get in school considering they should be 14 years old!

In episode 9 we learned about entropy and the heat death of the universe and now we get these math problems. If the awesome story and shocking moments were not enough!
This anime never ceases to amaze me :D

By the way, can anyone help me with the translation of the left side of the whiteboard in this image?

I am tempted to try, but unfortunately my japanese level is not good enough yet and it will take me some time!

Pdf version of the solutions, if anyone is interested XD

Madoka Magica - 10 - Homura's story(ies)

Disclaimer: this post is made of spoilers.

Homura is in a time loop trying to save Madoka, her only friend, from becoming a puella magi.
It happens that this is not only her own wish, Madoka herself in one of Homura's many attempts asked to prevent her from making a contract with Kyubei.

The wish that started all

We all knew Homura was a time traveler and many already speculated she was in a time loop. After all, this would have gone well with her cold attitude. For her, this life is not the only one. She has made many attempts already and she doesn't care if something goes wrong. She can always restart if she doesn't like the outcome. She became cold after all her incredibly sad experiences... the fact she hasn't become a witch yet shows her determination.
She was close once, she was ready to give up and condemn the world to destruction, but Madoka saved her and gave her the strenght to continue, the will to not give up.

Homura will go on trying and trying until she finds a way out of the loop. Until she finds a way to save her only friend.

It also turns out Madoka's dream at the beginning of the series was Homura's last failed attempt, the one where Madoka defeated the Walpurgis Night with one hit and was on her way to become the incredibly strong witch who would destroy the world. It seems Madoka keeps some faint memory, at least she knew Homura's name.

One thing said by Kyubei makes me think that the world they live on might not be Earth, but only one of the many worlds used as power plants by the Incubators. He said even if this world is destroyed he didn't care since he collected energy already in excess of his quota. So they probably went the industrial way and increased the entropy-independent energy collection efficiency by planting humans in many worlds...

Above all this, and even if we were mostly expecting this development by now, I think the execution was awesome.

The way Homura trasformed from an extremely weak and shy girl to the powerful and cold puella magi she is now is told via her experiences. She saw her friend die so many times.
Her reaction in the last episode, all her behaviour until now makes sense. Including her hate for Kyubei.

She started out as an extremely weak puella magi. Her weapon? A golf bat :). She grew from a weak girl to this:

Her real strenght was her ability to stop time and she took advantage of it by preparing bombs. She expanded her arsenal after Sayaka's comment that her bombs were dangerous also for her allies. She razed armouries for guns (stopping time it's quite easy to loot everything). She improved to the point of being far above all the other puella magi, yet this is not enough to face the Walpurgis Night.

I was so worked up about Homura, but we also finally get to see Madoka as a puella magi! Her weapon is a bow and she is indeed strong.

Exagerated specula 1: Kyubei is using Homura to repeat Madoka's transformations and harvest infinite energy from her. I doubt it's true since Kyubei seemed to have no memories about the previous timelines, but we all know how manipulator he is. The possible "good" end is for them to break the loop and possibly save themselves.

Exagerated specula 2: Homura is the Walpurgis Night. She becomes a witch in the last timeline, the current one, after defeating herself. She sends herself to the past just before becoming a witch knowing that she would be defeated by herself and saving Madoka. This would be awesome, the ultimate sacrifice to break the time loop! The fact that her witch form existed in all timelines would be a consequence of her time abilities making her transcend time.
This is supported by the gears on the Walpurgis witch. The same gears that activate everytime she uses her power.

If they manage to keep up this level of awesomenes until the end for me this is going to be one of the best anime ever.

Ah, and the title should be "Puella Magi Homura Magica" :)

ISML 2011 Preliminary Period, Phase 1, Day 5 - My Votes and Results!

For three of the first 8 groups there is one character leading alone. They are very strong and are probably going to win. For the other 5 groups things are far from decided!

These are my votes:

And these are the results:

Reactions:

• (Group 1) Mio and Elsie first. Mio was indeed expected, but Elsie is the real exploit. She won in Arena 2 by a mere 8 votes over Asami! Merry is just behind with 10 points. In the next match Elsie will face Mio, so Merry and Elsie will most probably end up seconds together.
• (Group 2) Misaka is leading the group by herself with Ritsu, Last Order and Ikaros seconds. Ikaros was defeated by Last Order in Arena 1, she helped her onee-sama in getting the first place!
• (Group 3) Shinonono is still there with Shana, but next time the two will have to face each other and it will be hard for the haremette to defeat the flame haze! Saten wins in Arena 1 and grabs the second place. If all goes well she might keep it.
• (Group 4) Azunian wins over france-tan in Arena 1 and this was expected. The surpising thing is that the margin is not so high. Azusa won with about 3000 votes of difference the previous matches, this time they were less than 1000. This is a testament of the strength of Charlotte! Nymph shows that the good results of the Sora no Otoshimono characters was not random. She is now second with france-tan. In the last match she will face Azunian though, so Charlotte will be second alone.
• (Group 5) Hinagiku and Ika-Musume are leading the group and the last match will decide who will pass the preliminary phase! Judging by the quantity of the votes they get, Hinagiku has a definite advantage.
• (Group 6) Apparently this group is balanced since there are three characters first at 12 points. The truth is that they still have to face each other and they will do so in the next match. The first three positions will be decided there! Ui and Lingyin are very close, while Taiga is definitely the favourite.
• (Group 7) Yuki and Sora are leading the group. In the next match Yuki will probably take the lead and win the group.
• (Group 8) Haruhi won this group when she defeated Yurippe in the last match. The second place is basically also decided, as Index has to face the leader of the SOS Dan in the last match. So Haruhi first, Yurippe second and Index third.

Next match will see the second half of the groups!

ISML 2011 Preliminary Period, Phase 1, Day 4 - My Votes and Results!

With half the matches of the preliminaries done the balance of power starts to be clear. While there are still some strong characters who have not faced each other, for some to the groups the winner is almost already decided.

After seen so many strong characters from Hayate no Gotoku I started watching it :)
I can now support also Nagi and Hinagiku!

These were my votes for Day 4:

And these are the results:

Reactions:

• (Group 9) Its up to Ui and Victorica. i think Ui is still the favourite and the announcement of the new K-ON! manga can help even more. In Arena 2 Mikuru wins by a small margin on Laura. The last IS episode was not enough for german-tan to win, but still I think she gained a lot of support!
• (Group 10) Tsumugi and Konata lead the group, but they have not faced each other yet. Astraea and Nagi are close seconds and can still recover. It will be difficult to steal the first position though.
• (Group 11) Hellscyte-sama seems the favourite. She must pay attention to Tomoyo and C.C. who she will face in the next to matches.
• (Group 12) Yui defeats Saber! Seraphim wins in Arena 2 and Holo comes out first over Haruna by just 89 votes! This group really surprised me. It's the most balanced together with group 8. This victory for Yui probably gave her the first place.
• (Group 13) Another surprise here (for me at least!): Mami wins over Madoka, who comes out third in her arena! Kirino defeats Fate and takes the lead, the only real threat coming from Kyo.
• (Group 14) Kagami and Nagisa are first with 4 points of margin over the others. Only their showdown will decide the winner of this group.
• (Group 15) This is a group with 3 strong characters who have yet to face each other. Kuroneko, Senjogahara and Mafuyu are first with 4 points of distance from the seconds. I don't know about Mafuyu, but I still think Kuroneko is the favourite.
• (Group 16) Kanade is crushing any resistance! It will be very difficult for Rin and Nadeko to defeat her!

That's it for today!

ISML 2011 Preliminary Period, Phase 1, Day 3 - My Votes and Results!

The third day sees the second matches of the first half of the groups. These are my votes:

And these are the results:

Reactions:

• (Group 1) Mio is clearly favourite and Elfi is the only one keeping her pace with two victories. In the first Arena Merry suffers a defeat by the hand of Iwasawa!
• (Group 2) Misaka and Ikaros lead the group. Last Order shows what she is capable of when she doesn't have to fight her onee-san.
• (Group 3) Shana confirms the lead, but she must be careful of Shinonono. She is going to get some focus in the next IS episodes and might be a strong opponent. Saten-san wins by a good margin her Arena.
• (Group 4) There is little doubt that Azunyan will come out first of this group. The question is how big a threat france-tan can be. The latest IS episodes are focusing more on Laura and porbably the next will shift to Shinonono, so she might lose some power.
• (Group 5) Katsura is the favourite and Ika Musume wins by just 22 votes on Kiriya! She won also the first match by a few votes, now I doubt she can go against the Katsura.
• (Group 6) This group is one of the most equilibrated, but only because Taiga has not faced Ui and Lingyin.
• (Group 7) Yuki is in a strong position here, I don't think Kasugano Sora can defeat her.
• (Group 8) Haruhi won the showdown with Yurippe! Although the separation was only about 200 votes. I was also very divided between the two and only chose Haruhi because I support Kanade more (I know it's a stupid reason... I would have voted for both if only I could....)

Madoka Magica - 9

Usual disclaimer: this post is made of spoilers.

The full explaination from Kuybei:

• he is either a member or some device from an alien civilization
• this civilization searched for a way to contrast the increase of entropy of the universe and finally developed the technology to harvest entropy-independent energy from emotions (!!)
• they don't have emotions...
• they found out that puella magi emit big quantities of this kind of energy, the quantity going by the height of their emotions
• thus, they setup the contract thing to turn young girls (who happen to have the strongest emotions and produce the most energy) into puella magi:
• when they first become one getting a wish they emit energy from happines
• when they turn into witches they do also emit energy from grief

A nice little plan to contrast the entropy increase in the universe. Yet, it seems a little limited to resort to a single species living on a single planet, or have they planted humans in many other planets effectively using them as energy generators?
Anyway, let's not diverge to much...

Koyouko's sacrifice is the other big element in this episode. It seems the balancing of emotions happens also between puella magi. The most Sayaka was descending into grief, the most Kyouko regained her humanity and finally sacrificed herself to help Sayaka out of her misery.

Homura is the one who knows very well what is going on. The fact she suppresses her emotions looks like some protest against Kyubei too.

Madoka finally sees Kyubei as an enemy. I liked how the colors changed during his explaination to Madoka.

Kyubei has orchestrated everything to force her to to make a choice. With the incoming Walpurgis night she will either see Homura get killed or make a contract.
I seriously hope there is third option.

In the end everything sums up to Kyubei being a liar. If he could really grant _any_ wish he could just ask Madoka to wish for another mean of controlling entropy.

Madoka Magica - 8

This episode had so many shocking moments!

Spoilers:

• Madoka was very close to becoming a puella magi, but Homura saved her again killing Kyubei
• Homura in tears :’(
• Kyubei reveals to have many bodies. Another of his bodies appears and eats his own corpse
• Sayaka becomes a witch
• Kyubei's full name is Incubator
• Homura is a time traveler
• Kyubei reveals his true purpose: to make girls into puella magi. Puella magi grow into witches.

So the source of witches are puella magi themselves and Kyubei feeds himself with grief seeds.
There are also familiars that turn into witches so maybe once a puella magi turns into a witch she starts spawning familiars.
The one who killed Mami evolved from a familiar, yet she left a grief seed... It could be that familiars are generated by the grief seeds recycled by Kyubei while puella magi turn directly into powerful witches and can then spawn grief seed-less familiars and witches.

By the way, the Mami-killer was trying to eat them, it makes me think of Kyouko but ok...

The references to Sayaka's outfit by the witch in the first episode were shown since long and have now much more foundation.

I liked a lot the detail of Sayaka's lifeless body thrown away like a ragdoll when she finally turns into a witch.

Things are probably going downhill from now. With only 4 episodes left there is some time to collect all the loose ends!

ISML 2011 Preliminary Period, Phase I, Day 2 - My Votes and Results!

The results for Day 2 are out! This concludes the first Round.
But let's go in order, these are my votes for this day:

And these are the results:

Reactions:

• (Group9) Yui takes the lead as expected and Asahina seems to get quite some votes. Victorica is struggling a little bit, but she was against Ichinose from Clannad (and the other Clannad characters have won their arenas) and Laura german-tan. Laura could be getting more votes in the future depending on the next IS episodes. Poor Uiharu found Yui in her first arena :(
• (Group 10) Nagi gets the most votes with Tsumugi following closely. Konata wins her arena which also had Astraea and Mikan who could still do well in the future.
• (Group 11) Hellscyte-sama dominates her arena and Sakagami from Clannad does very well in hers. C.C. wins in the third arena and I wonder how she will do when pitted against these two.
• (Group 12) Yui from Angel Beats is doing good, followed closely by Saber. Haruna wins in her arena!
• (Group 13) If anyone still had doubts, Kirino is dominating this group. Fate is doing well too and Fujibayashi wins by a smaller marigin her arena.
• (Group 14) This group seems very equilibrated with all the characters taking less than 4000 votes (even less than 3000 in the third arena). Kagami seems the favourite for now, but in arena two Luise and Furukawa were not so far away.
• (Group 15) Koroneko wins by far and leads the group, but Senjogahara must not be underestimated.
• (Group 16) Kanade is the single character taking most votes in this first Round with 6009 votes! Nadeko and Rin can try as much as they want but it will be very difficult to defeat her!

ISML 2011 Preliminary Period, Phase I, Day 1 - My Votes and Results!

The first preliminary round is over, this is how I voted:

I had to skip Arena 24 because I don't really know the three of them.

And these are the results!

I am generally happy with them and there are a few surprises (for me at least) and some close matches. Notable things:

• (Group 1) Mio has the stronger position as expected. Merry is struggling and Elfi is a good confirmation!
• (Group 2) Misaka has the lead and Ikaros seems to be also a strong one. Ritsu won her Arena but it was a close one.
• (Group 3) Shana still has a strong fanbase. Ayase won her battle but Saten-san was so close!! Shinonono confirms the good trend of IS characters. If france-tan wasn't against Azunian...
• (Group4) To me the biggest surprise of the preliminaries is Nymph defeating Nanoha. I was totally expecting Azunian to dominate this group and she is the single character taking the most votes in this phase. Charlotte is also quite strong!
• (Group 5) Heavenly Tiara holder Katsura Hinagiku takes the lead. Shiori does well, but not enough and Kiriya Nozomi wins in her Arena. Another suprise here: Ika Musume is struggling against Sakurano Kurimu!
• (Group 6) The first Arena of this group was the most balanced with Lingyin winning only by a small margin. Taiga leads the group. On the third Arena it was a very close one between Ui and Kuroko separated by only 69 votes!
• (Group 7) Nagato Yuki is the strongest character here, as expected. As for the others, I don't really know them well so I didn't have much ideas of how they could do.
• (Group 8) Haruhi and Yurippe, it will be a tough battle! Maria also wins by a good margine in the third Arena.

K-ON and IS are dominating this first round of preliminaries. All their characters won the respective Arenas.
Index has the most characters and placed several second places (some of them close to first) with Mikoto leading them.
Also, Sora no Otoshimono fared well with both Nymph and Ikaros wins.

Oreimo favourites will enter in Round 2 together with Victorica, Tachibana, Kagami, Yui, Hellscyte, Haruna and many others!

Happy voting!

International Saimoe League 2011 - Part 2

Follow up to this post. I will cover the remaining groups just in time before the start of the preliminaries!

The official page shows also the images now: groups.

Of course I cannot comment on the series I haven't watched (yet). So the following considerations are based on the characters I know.

Group 10
I think Nagi could be in a good position here. I am just judging by the looks and by the fact she is in a popular series. Rose might be rising in popularity and both Astraea and Mikan are support roles (yet very good!).
Nagi first and Rose second.

Group 11
Sakura is in this group and she is widely known although not recent. Eucliwood is a rising star. I don't know about Clannad, but Yui, Komoe and C.C. don't seem to be a big threath.
Eucliwood Helscyihte-dono first and Sakura second.

Group 12
This one is crowded by many characters I know (and like!). Saber is still very popular while Horo might have been so during the anime airing but I think is not very strong now. Both Haruna and Seraphin from Kore wa Zombie desu ka are good but quite new and Yui from Angel Beats (ahh the sadness!!) was also very nice. Homura in my opinion will suffer from being from a dark anime with shocking moments.
I will try with Saber first and Yui second.

Group 13
Kirino is here, I think there are little doubts on who will come first :) Although she is in a apparently different position since Fate is in the same group, Fate won the saimoe three years ago and her series is old. Kanzaki might suffer from short screentime. Hecate had quite some time during Shana Second (through her "copy") but is a strange character. Madoka could be in a good position though.
Kirino first and Fate second.

Group 14
Hiiragi is in a good position, I don't see many strong contenders in this group. Sure there are popular characters like Asuka, Zero no Luise and even Suiseiseki. I also found Shiina good but she didn't have enough time in Angel Beats.
Hiiragi first and Luise second (wishlisting here...)

Group 15
Kuroneko will probably dominate this group. Senjogahara and Okami are both good (the first one i think has a wider following, based solely on anime popularity). Yuki is also good, but with a supporting role. Then there is Ayanami Rei.
Kuroneko first and Rei second.

Group 16
Another character from Oreimo is here, the childhood friend Manami, although she is not nearly as popular as the two favourites. Cecilia sadly is not getting much attention in IS and will probably not have many chances. I think the big hitters in this group are Rin and of course Kanade. I am not really sure about Nadeko's popularity but I don't think she represents a threat for them. Also Kanon from Kaminomi is one of the characters taking more episodes.
Kanade first and Mio second (total guess!)

Looking at the list I realized there are so many series I haven't watched yet. This was a good source to update the "plan to watch list"!

I am really curious to know what will come out of the preliminaries!

Infinite Stratos - 08 - Laura Bodewig gets a Waifu

Of course, Laura was bound to enter Ichika's harem sooner or later. I didn't expect it to happen so fast and in this way though!

Anyway: Ichika is my waifu!?! 嫁 (yome, wife) O_O

How on earth did she come up with that :D

The deredere moment was short, I doubt it will affect too much her ranking in Saimoe. Probably the next episode will have some time to develop this new side of her. Poor Charlotte, now that she came out as a woman she is last in the ending song :(
At least she was the most intimate with Ichika! And daring, yes Laura you are not the most daring here. What is a kiss when you compare with taking a bath together!!

International Saimoe League 2011

The time has come for the fourth edition of ISML!
http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/

Unfortunately I was not aware of the previous three editions so I didn't contribute, but this year is different. I am very motivated and I will support my favourite characters!
Last year the winner was Mio from K-ON and Misaka was second. Ooooh too bad I could not support her :-(

But those who got many votes in the previous edition enter automatically the next year so they are both in.
This year the favourites seem to be Kuroneko and Kirino from Oreimo who came first and second in the preliminary selections.

A short list of characters I want to support is:
Mikoto Misaka,
Ika Musume,
Victorica,
Haruna (Kore wa Zombie desu ka),
Last Order

But there are many others... :-)

I did like Oreimo, but it's not my favourite. Of course, in case of a character I don't know vs a character I know I will probably support the second one, unless I really dislike it (but I can't find a character I dislike in the partecipants).

I think I will give preference to characters with more episodes rather than the newest ones. The latter have still some time to go ;-)
The first rounds of preliminaries will start on February 27, give it your best!


Update!
The groups are defined, thanks to animeraku:
http://www.animeraku.com/2011/02/isml-2011-preliminary-groups-revealed.html 

I refer to the link for the actual group composition and I will also attempt my first and second guesses for each group:

Group 1
definitely favourite Myo. Elsie could take some votes and Merry too, although she is quite new.
I don't know Yamamoto Nanako (Hanamaru Youchien) so I cannot comment on her. Is Busujima Saeko really moe?!? She cuts zombies enjoying the slaughter! I guess there are many different kinds of moe...
They are all quite good, but they are mostly not support characters. So I will go for the obvious:
Myo first and Merry second.

Group 2
there are more then one I don't know here, but anyway: Misaka is here and I soooo hope she will come out first! Why did they put Last Order in the same group as Misaka?!? I think they should have separated characters from the same anime.
Misaka first and Ritsu second.

Group 3
probably shana as she is the most well estabilished. The others (that I know) are either relatively new or support roles. Saten for example is only the Railgun and Shinonono from IS just is very new. If there is an Ayase route before the votations start she could have much more support.
Shana first and Ayase second (if she gets a route).

Group 4
Azunian, there is little space for doubts. On the other hand Charlotte is coming out quite strongly as she is getting lots of attention in IS! Personally I also like a lot Shinku, but it's been a while since the last episode of Rozen Maiden aired...
Azunian first and Charlote second (if she gets more strong episodes she might even fight with Azunian !!)

Group 5
The winner of the second edition vs Ika Musume! I haven't watched Hayate and I start to think I really should :). Also Shiori is nice and is the last girl in Kaminomi, so the most recent.
Ika Musume first and Hinagiku second (just because she is bound to be popular).

Group 6
I wonder how much Taiga is popular. Yami is kuudere and I like her a lot! Lingyin didn't get much attention in IS (and everyone is currently shadowed by france-tan). Poor Kuroko is not in the same group as onee-sama :D
I will try Taiga first and Ui second (almost random here)

Group 7
I don't see much competition for Yuki here. Maybe because most of the other characters are from anime I haven't watched (yet).
Yuki first and Sora second.

Group 8
This is difficult... I will try this:
Harui first and Yuri second.

Group 9
Lots of good ones here. Yui is the favourite in my opinion but I hope for Victorica to stand out. Laura Bodewig hasn't entered Ichika's harem yet. If she will go dere-dere before the votations she might stand a chance. I don't think Uiharu has much possibilities hera but I wish her good.
Yui first and Victorica second.

In the next update the remaining groups!

Kore wa Zombie desu ka - 6

More insane action :-D

If the crazy multilife girl wasn't enough, Yuu masou shojo!!

We get a taste of the power of her words. She starts killing her enemy multiple times just by saying "shinde"!
And what is the solution to this? Don't listen?!? o_O
I thought her words can warp reality! Well, it's not really important, after all this leads to Yuu loosing all but her amour =-n

In the end the evil girl is defeated, we get to see Haruna's sensei and a new enemy (probably the final boss) is introduced.

Ah, also Yuu smile at the end!

This is clearly a fanservice oriented show, yet the story is so unpredictable and the way things happen is so over the head that I find it really enjoyable!

Madoka Magica - 7

Why Kyubei, why don't you tell them the truth from the start?
Well, even now he didn't tell them all the truth... Is it possible that the witches come from puella magi? Maybe not as they are born from familiars, but maybe they come from normal people or have some connection that when revealed will be shocking.

Is Kyubei naive? No, he is cunning.
When asked "why didn't you tell the truth about the transformation" the first answer he gave was "because you didn't ask". But when pressed on he told "because it's easier if you don't know".
Sure.
Maybe because it is unlikely that someone would accept the following conditions:

• you will give up your humanity, your sould will be extracted from your body and put in a greef seed
• you will then fight witches with your magic
• ah, by the way, when you use magic your soul gets corrupted. You have to use seeds from killed witches to cleanse it

So basically you are selling your soul and you are corrupting it to fight witches and feed Kyubey. For one wish.

One can understand Mami who really didn't have much choice, she would have died anyway. But for the others... They were fooled by Kyubei who took advantage of their innocence and enslaved them to his will.

I wonder what would happen if one of them refused to fight the witches. Would Kyubei end the contract and claim their soul?

I bet he is enjoying it...

The way he tortured Sayaka at the beginning of the episode showed his nature once more.
It really is a striking contrast with the way he looks... creepy Kyubey... But that's also something I really like about this show. We are usually wary of things looking "scary", not of things looking cute. A good way to get accepted by young girls without scaring them away: take the look of a small inoffensive cute animal.

This episode was less of a shock and more of a confirmation. We got to know how Kyouko became a puella magi and why she decided to fight only for herself. Sayaka also showed her resolve and a touch of nichilism at the end. Looks like the weight of having her wish come true but not having the possibility to take any joy from it is too much for her...

Anyway we are now in the second half of the season and Madoka is not yet a puella magi. Looks like the story of this anime is about how she becomes one and she will do so only in the last few episodes.

This is the anime I look forward for new episode every week the most!

Gosick - 6

Kujo-kun how could you!?! >:-[ rrrrrrrraaaaageeeee

Poor Victorica doesn't really tolerate pain does she? This adds even more to her moesome level!

The story is going into a new arc which should give some more infomation on her past. The outcome seems pretty clear, let's see if they have some surprise for us.

To Aru Majutsu no Index 2 - 17

After the conclusion of the "Queen of the Adriatic" arc Touma and Index are back to Academy City and all the usual cast gets some screentime.

Accelerator is also back! I am hoping he gets some more focus in the next episodes!

But this was fundamentally a light episode (which is not a bad thing at all in this series) with Touma facing the batsu gamu from Misaka.
And there is plenty of BiriBiri show :)

Oooh, that's a very nice move!

Finally someone realized!!

Uiharu you know how dangerous that is 

An evil presence approaches 

Judgemento desu no!

Here starts Misaka tsundere mode!

You cannot stop Misaka's Gekota passion!

More tsundere moments!

Awesome faces :D

You went too far Touma!

Super bonus moment: Last Order!

Time for revolution!