I don't dislike Shokuhou herself personally due to the amount of screen time she did or didn't get (that's not to say I was impressed with what little I saw of her since I wasn't); I dislike the fact that she made it to the Regular Season based on requirements I didn't think she met (in addition to screen time).
I know about that. And like I said the time before when we discussed about it, I think your opinion about Shokuhou's eligibility is far from being illogical. Simply, like you yourself just said, fans are simply voting for their favorite characters among the eligible/nominated/qualified characters. They are in no way responsible about the fact that she's eligible. Hence, as you seem to realize it yourself, you're turning your anger toward the wrong target. That, and I think you're making too much of a big deal of it. Railgun is probably going to get a 3rd season sometime and she'll be one of the two main character of it if this happens, so it's like she's just qualifying before her time; plus, if she's that popular, she's better for the competition than a less popular character. Think about it. If she didn't qualify then seomone even weaker/as weak as the bottom of nova may have to fill the place. Do we really want to weaken nova even more than it is? I don't think so. I really appreciate the character that Shokuhou disqualified, so I would have liked the result during qualification to be different. However, eligibility isn't decided at the end of the Preliminary Period, but during nomination. Meaning, if shokuhou wasn't eligible, then all match up nova side would have been different during qualification. In the end, her opponent may have just lost against someone else instead.
Hajime Tanegashima wrote:Well, well... Quite the interesting results.
First of all, congratulations to Kuroyuki and everyone who voted for her. The poster is amazing and I'm very happy as a Kuroyuki fan myself. This is the first time I don't vote for her in a Necklace Match, and she got it. I should consider not voting for Kurumi in her next participation, lol
There are many things to say. For instance, avery-kun says Kurumi's performance wasn't satisfactory and Zefyris denies her strength. I disagree with both. Kurumi had to face a very powered up Kuroyuki, who had a good NM partaking record, always with poor results, that faced her "last chance" in conditions difficult to repeat. Kurumi also faced a very powered up Shana, a legendary character in ISML who returned to a NM and in her favoured colour, Ruby. Of course she would get many votes. Finally, Asuna... I understand less her results; perhaps being the defending Ruby champion boosted her. Of course Kurumi had help in Amethyst, I've never denied that. What I have always said, and I think these results prove, is that she has a great strength on her own. This time, Kurumi has been crippled, and her crippling has come from Kuroyuki. They share some traits and I'm sure it's not strange for Kurumi fans to like Kuroyuki (me, for instance). Among the other six characters, I'm rather sure Kurumi was the one who lost most of her votes to Kuroyuki; Kurumi voters wanted to give Kuroyuki her necklace this time. Yet, with all this, she still managed to pull off a victory, even if by a low margin. I think a victory against three powered up characters, with one of them draining directly votes from her is quite the feat and I'm satisfied. Apparently, Kurumi still needs to demonstrate things? Well then, she will keep doing so.
And now, in "DaL Faction Today" news, Kotori practically nails her results yet again. Again, Kotori didn't share votes with Kurumi, nor with Yoshino. Kotori, like Yoshino, would need circumstances similar to Kuroyuki to win a necklace. Otherwise, she doesn't have what it takes to win. She simply doesn't. Kotori fans, though, will keep voting her (and I am not against that) despite the circumstances, because there is no DaL faction. They have fans on their own that vote them no matter what, and secondary voters that vote them because their appeal to them is similar to that of their favourite chars. In series where there are many popular chars with different appeals, you need to investigate appeals to find the trading route of votes. There can be anime voting, yes, but its impact is minimal. DaL and OreImo are good examples of this. But no matter how hard reality hits them, some people just don't want to see.
So, to sum it up. Great results and happy outcome. Kuroyuki gets a necklace, Kurumi gets a great result with victory... Hard to imagine a better outcome. Let's see what Emerald has in for us.
That, or more simply, there wasn't a single strong contestant among the 3 with good SDO. That's why we're getting such closes results. KYH has always been pretty weak during Necklace match. This time, she got better results since she was for once a valid choice due to her leading SDO (in all NM, leaders in SDO always receive a boost. But this does include ALL the girl close enough in SDO to win... Meaning, Kurumi also received it). Still, that wouldn't have been enough if a single strong necklace contestant was close enough in SDO. But there wasn't a single one, so that little boost was enough.
Bottom line is. With splitting vote, except under specific circumstances like amethyst 2014, , Kurumi isn't strong during necklace matches. She'll receive a boost if she's the only DAL contestant or if she's the only nova character with a good SDO, but that's the case for everyone. Look at asuna, Rikka and Mashiro's necklaces last year. Exactly the same as what happened in amethyst for Kurumi. This isn't her strength.