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!