I guess what they say about r/anime having shit taste is true ;)
TBF, Marin always looked like a favourite, and Yor consistently got less votes than Mayuri so it's not unexpected, but Megumin and Kyouko crashed in total votes.
Also not sure how I feel about seeing all the winners getting just under 5.8-5.9k votes and all the losers in the low-middle 4k. Previous contests seemed to vary more during the QF.
> and Yor consistently got less votes than Mayur
Through 6 rounds Yor had more votes in 4 of the rounds. One of the rounds Mayuri won he had like 70 more votes. She wasn't consistently getting more votes. Up through this round Yor had 20,216 votes while Mayuri had 18,585. Even if you include this round that mayuri wins by 1300 votes, Yor still has more total votes than Mayuri over the tournament so far.
If you want to say Mayuri won that's fine, but there is no need to make shit up. There was 1 round out of the first six that Mayuri had substantially more votes than Mayuri and it wasn't even round 6 or 5, it was 4.
Touché, honest mistake. Got too tired of scrolling, [took a glance](https://i.imgur.com/I5QObIr.png), and it happened coincidentally shows Mayuri in a stronger position than I thought.
FWIW, I started participating part way in R2, and I haven't put too much weight to the first three rounds when trying to guess the favourites. Between R4-6 Mayuri got 12,542 votes against Yor's 12,353. Certainly not enough to assert Mayuri doing consistently better, but I was hoping she would do better (I forgot she rolfstomped Chika - Chika didn't do as well as I was hoping too).
Yeah like that chapter with the birthday cake, you just change the page and your brain can't comprehend wtf just happened.
That was my reaction seeing these 4 advance.
This is what happens when you vote out all of the meme characters. They band together and turn the results into the [meme](https://pic-bstarstatic.akamaized.net/ugc/b5025b883ee3114b4861311ff0367bd0.jpg)
The highest seed in the semi-finals is #13;
Seed #13 #26 #30 and #56, that has to be BY FAR the lowest semi-finals seeding in the contest's history right?
For comparison, the last 3 contests' semifinalists were:
- Best girl 9: 5 6 16 17
- Best girl 8: 1 3 7 37
- Best girl 7: 1 4 6 10
Crazy upsets in this contest!
I think it is two things:
One, the seeding procedure is not equipped for the volume of anime that gets produced yearly in 2023, compared to say 2010.
And, the volume of anime makes lower seeds way stronger than they used to be in 2010, even accounting for recency bias.
I had a feeling Lena wasn't going to make it so I hoped that she'd give a fight to Marin atleast.
Though Megumin losing wasn't in my expectations at all. Same with Yor and Hori seeing how they were performing.
Honesty I don't even know what to think lol.
To Yui of all characters.
I mean, Saika is clearly best girl in oregairu /s
But seriously, and Megumin had her spinoff last season. Hopefully, next year will be better with Konosuba 3 coming
>Hopefully, next year will be better with Konosuba 3 coming
Remember that next year we'll see Lycoris Recoil, Chainsaw Man, Bocchi the rock and Oshi no ko girls
> PROJECTED FINALS
> Marin Kitagawa (13) 50.6% 49.4% Kurumi Tokisaki (30)
The fact that Kurumi is now predicted to come within 1% of Marin in the finals is the wildest thing I've seen in this entire contest.
Hell, if she wins, this would be the wildest contest EVER. Misaka and Asuna are both popular characters in popular shows, but Kurumi? 95% of the people voting probably never even heard of her ( or the show she's in ) at the beginning of this contest LOL
> Hell, if she wins, this would be the wildest contest EVER
allow me to introduce best girl 3. Holo, Saber, Rin Tohsaka and Hitagi Senjougahara in quarterfinals. What a solid candidates. Surely 2 of them will advance to the finals and decide who's the best girl. Nothing unusual can happen, right?... RIGHT?!!!!
At least Railgun is recognized as a classic series now, and Food Wars may not be as bonafide a classic, but was at its peak hotness at the time of Best Girl 3. There's at least a fair reason both Misaka and Megumi could conceivably make the finals that year.
Date a Live was getting 500 karma during its fourth season, and Kurumi is the only DAL character to make the field of 512- which, considering DAL is a *Harem Anime*, is absolutely PATHETIC. NO ONE cares about that show. That is FAR WILDER than Best Girl 3.
Food Wars' overall reputation was also tanked by the last two seasons, but animation and content. They would probably still be contenders if it didn't get ruined in the way it did.
> 95% of the people voting probably never even heard of her ( or the show she's in ) at the beginning of this contest LOL
If she DOES win, I wonder how many will watch her show, to find out what's that about!
(I know I will, even if she doesn't win; I read a bit about her because I was curious about her performance, and she seems so much like my type of girls!)
> If she DOES win, I wonder how many will watch her show, to find out what's that about!
If they do watch the show, they're only going to get saltier when they find out that Kurumi is literally the only good thing about that show.
They won't listen to our warnings [](#shakeit)
If someone just wants a harem rom-com with girls fighting that's not taking itself seriously, it's an alright show.
Funny thing, Kurumi and Marin also competed for the top spot in [Anime Corner's Best Female Character of 2022](https://animecorner.me/top-female-anime-characters-of-2022/) poll, so it's not without precedent.
Spoiler alert: Kurumi won that one.
There were a lot of surprising things in this round, but when it comes to unexpected stuff, I'd say that "Marin/Lena NOT being the most voted matchup", has to be up there!
Last year I was very vocal to help Lena out and get downvoted to hell by Kaguya fans. This year I didn't wanna say anything about my favourite but Anju incident gained us spite votes. Fuck man
Marin is just strong. Holo was crushed by her, and even on lenas debut contest last time around she only narrowly beat holo with the benefit of it being her first run and airing recently so I'd consider the two probably would perform roughly the same vs marin. Of course lena was going to also be crushed. No spite votes needed.
Spite voting can boost an opponent, but Lena lost over 1400 votes from the previous round. Even if we were to say that Marin's gain from the last round were only due to spite vote against Lena over Anju, it still amount to under 75 votes.
I'd be saltier if Lena had lost by 5.9k to 5.8k or something but Lena ended up with less votes than she had 2 rounds ago.
In a way, I find it a bit odd that the numbers between winners and losers in this round are all kind of similar. The fact that Marin's vote didn't increase greatly suggests that Lena's voters didn't switch over en masse, but it suggests that voters who previously voted for Lena stopped voting en masse. This is true for some of the other match up too.
/tin foil
Discarding the possibility of foul play, and assuming that people participating in this tournament in the previous two round would not suddenly stop participating in this round, the only explanation is that about a quarter of voters stopped supporting for Lena -without- giving that share of vote to Marin. Either they on the fence and didn't vote, or they wanted to spite Lena by stopping to go for her, but without going so far as to vote for the opponent. Either way, it looks like Lena had about 4k voters who put her as their main girl.
Ah, the "real-world politics" of "If my party's politician is a POS I just can't support, I'm not going to vote for your opponent out of spite, I'm just going to stay home on Election Day" motif. A perfectly valid other breed of spite voting.
>The fact that Marin's vote didn't increase greatly suggests that Lena's voters didn't switch over en masse
>the only explanation is that about a quarter of voters stopped supporting for Lena -without- giving that share of vote to Marin. Either they on the fence and didn't vote, or they wanted to spite Lena by stopping to go for her, but without going so far as to vote for the opponent.
Your misunderstanding whats happening. You cant add lena+marin = expected number of voters for this round because a lot of people voted for marin vs holo and also for lena vs sensei in that round. This is completely fine since they are two sepreate matchups at that point but once you end up in marin vs lena they have only one vote, while if you tried to simply add the two vote totals from before because they voted for the winning person in each it would look like they are two voters.
What happened is when they then were forced to pick between marin or lena they broke in favour of marin, meaning marin maintained their vote while lena lost it now they could only pick one of the two. Its not the case that a bunch of people simply stopped voting, they simply decided that when having to choose one of the two marin has their vote rather than lena maintaining it.
You are right about the total.
So it isn't that Lena fans stopped voting for her, but Marin fans who previously also voted for Lena previously picked Marin when it comes to down to having to choose between those two.
Would you say that spite voting is unlikely to result in this outcome or am I missing something else?
I dont think theres any real evidence of spite voting changing things here, but its not as provable as with the voters not dissappearing one.
Spite voting is where there people whose preferences normally are sensei over lena (lost) but lena over marin who would then logically vote lena normally, but are salty and vote marin instead. Thats where spite votes come in. However its also possible you have people who voted holo over marin (lost) but normally would prefer marin to lena but are salty and so spite vote in the other direction balancing it out. Thus you could have high spite voting in both directions, or low spite voting in both directions and be unable to tell since its all even.
The reason I dont think spite voting is really changing the result here, is that I think lena performed where I would expect her too. Last year was her first contest, and she narrowly beat holo with the benefit of high recency bias. Therefore this contest with that diminished my expectation is she should be performing at roughly the strength of holo, and in this case newcomer marin crushed holo so lena being crushed by roughly the same margin is expected, and what happened. At the very least I think its no less natural than marin v holo was.
Lol Megumin following her usual script. Manhandling the early rounds only to fall on her face once she goes up against an actual tough opponent. Happy for Yui though, who returns to the semis for the first time since her her run to the finals in Best Girl 4. For Mayuri it's even better as she's never made the semis before.
Kurumi continues her dream run. We've had unexpected winners before when Misaka and Asuna won in Best Girl 3/6 but if Kurumi manages to win that would trump them all. Of course the favorite is still Marin, the vote totals were pretty similar among all 4 matchups but Marin had by far the strongest opponent in last year's runner up Lena.
From what I can remember Chainsaw Man didn’t do that well in the fall seasonal salt tournament and pretty much got swept by Bocchi, are we expecting the results to change next year?
I love Gundam and Witch from mercury was solid but the west doesn't really love Gundam the same way the east does. Those 2 are gonna get bounced 2nd or 3rd round even with recency bias.
Even then, Sword Art Online had some romance elements to it. You can even say at points in the later seasons it felt like a harem, without me giving anything away.
I think it'd be rather hard for a girl to win with zero romance;
Most if not all of the girls have hints of romance, even if they're not romcom girls. Kurisu, Rem, etc..
It makes perfect sense. Yor is a comic relief character whose schtick of "haha incompetent at everything but assassination" wore thin really quickly for a lot of people. It's like Chika, but more one-note and less funny, and nobody's surprised when Chika washes out in top 8 every year either.
I chuckled early in the season when they were doing that mission at the castle and the characters couldn't think of anything for Yor to do. I stopped chuckling as the season went on and it became apparent that *the author* couldn't think of anything for Yor to do.
I'm really hoping the author gets it together in the manga chapters yet to be adapted. As is, Yor has a likeable personality, an awesome design, and absolutely nothing to do in the show itself except be bad at cooking and worry that Loid's gonna leave her for another woman.
Fujiwara have her "Shirogane's Mom/Mentor" arc which is the funniest running gag in Kaguya and stand in stark contrast with her usual chaotic comedic relief role.
Yor offers nothing close to that in terms of character depth. She might be assigned to kill Loid one day (IDK how far the manga has went, already dropped it), but that's it for her, and is likely a plot point saved for SxF's climax.
> I'll see you guys in the seasonal contest!
Hope you like Oshi No Ko, or you may not enjoy this contest much more hah.
We could see the strongest domination since Kaguya's entry!
As a Miyako enjoyer, even getting my favourite girl from the hot new show into the bracket will be hard. If it happens, that's already a little win. Getting Anna through a few rounds maybe, winning a round for Yamada's Akane or Insomniac girls or Skip to Loafer girls, that's all I can hope for.
So three of the top four votes all lose and the only reason one didn't was Lena and Marin were both top four.
So magically in the finals all of the top votes plummet immediately?
Wait what? I actually voted for Yui, but I was 99% sure she's gonna lose by a large margin. It's Megumin after all. Honestly the number of votes the winners got look kinda suspicious.
> the only character from a low rated show to make it this far
Stein's Gate (Kurisu): 9.07
OreGairu (Yukino): 8.01
Railgun (Misaka): 7.67
Unlimited Blade Works (Rin): 8.19
Re: Zero (Rem): 8.23
Sword Art Online (Asuna): 7.20
Love is War (Kaguya/Hayasaka): 8.41
Bunny Girl Senpai (Mai): 8.24
Date a Live is currently rated 7.16 on MAL, so if Kurumi won she'd be the winner from the lowest rated show ever.
Yes. It's a show with quite a lot of variety really, and although it doesn't get discussed that much, there's a bit going on under the surface in terms of the emotionality and motivations of the characters.
So, I really hate Date A Live (so much so I hate-read the LNs). The bright spot is Kurumi. I honestly could not watch the show if it wasn't for Kurumi. She is the best example of a yangire character (basically a yandere without the motivation for love, but other reasons). She has the best character design and motivation throughout the show. She is a quality antagonist and anti-hero.
I know other DAL fans will also gush over the other girls but in all honesty, they just are not anything memorable.
For a harem show, she stands out as someone who doesn't just fall into the standard harem role.
If you don't like the first two episodes, you're not going to like Date A Live and you're obviously not a completionist like me who stumbled into the amazing world of Kurumi Tokisaki. Only the times she is on screen are the times when the show is enjoyable and not just standard harem-ecchi trash (to be fair, the show is slightly above average among harem-ecchi trash). The problem is her mystique is you never know when she is going to show up.
Remember when people were talking about a Holo vs. Megumin finals at the beginning of this contest?
I laughed when I saw that. No way was that ever happening.
I really suspect there's more Asian votes on this one than in the past years because Kurumi's REALLY popular on this side of the globe (if it's the same here she would have won already years ago). Then again so is Megumi Katou and yet she's still languishing around Rounds 2-3 so...
As an Asian guy, the current time the Best Girl threads drop is perfect for me. IIRC the older threads used to come late so I forgot to participate at times lol.
This subreddit has yielded to the will of salt. So it is. I'm going full troll once again. Mayuri vs Kurumi finals gotta happen now. Don't let me down.
I’m shocked Kurumi won by as big a margin as she did and very happy Mayuri managed to beat Yor.
Once again vote Mayuri even if it seems impossible! Today will be even tougher to pull off the upset but maybe there’s hope!
Holy fuck the captcha is ridiculous lately. "Select motorcycles" there's only bicycles. "select bicycles" there's only a motorcycle. "Select stairs" Please try again, FUCK OFF ALREADY /rant over
I expected Megumin to advance to semis atleast, same as with Yor. WTF even happened.
EDIT: Its also interesting that all the votes of the losers are quite close to each other, same as with the winners.
Honestly, these results are way *too* suspicious. There's no way that each of these characters got beat by such wide margins. Each character had a strong opponent, but still beat the other by 1300-1600 votes. I just don't see how these vote counts could have happened without some bots or an entire fandom intervening. Like, *all* of these victories are upsets.
All 4 winners got within 120 votes of each other. Even more sus than that, I went 4/4 with my picks yesterday which I don't think has ever happened in the Quarterfinals of a Contest. Something is clearly off.
On the other hand, all 4 of the losers got fewer votes than they did the previous round with Lena, Megumin and Hori each getting over 1000 fewer votes. With botting you'd typically see a big uptick in votes for the winners which wasn't the case here.
Unless the botter voted in the previous matchups as well, and he was on the side of the girls that won then but lost in this round. Someone dedicated enough to bot several thousand votes would also do the bare minimum to cover their tracks as much as possible imo
My conspiracy theory is that I think it's all been bottled since r1. It's realistically unlikely though, and I don't even know what could be done about it if this was the case.
I was a bit suspicious about the Kurumi votes in an earlier round and the same thought entered my mind that someone might be botting every single round.
DAL got disqualified once before due to botting so it's plausible that the same person/people responsible for the botting back then are trying again this year but are being a bit smarter about it.
I like Kurumi and she'd definitely be my preferred winner among the ones still left, but if she wins due to botting that just kills any fun in these contests. Hope the bracket admin can look into it.
> All 4 winners got within 120 votes of each other
Every matchup had basically the same result, only Hori is a bit lower than the rest but not even that much. I don't know if that indicates cheating or not, but it's *weird* for sure.
Yeah, the most suspicious thing with quarterfinal results is that there is no way people here suddenly developed good taste. Something's definitely fishy
Edit. I'm also 4/4 in quarterfinals for the first time since I've been voting in these contests
Every winner got between 5,938 and 5,814 votes and difference of 124. Marin is the OUTLIER as Mayuri/Kurumi/Yui all received 5825/5820/5814, a difference of 9 votes.
Maayuri wins by 1211 votes.
Marin wins by 1511
Yui wins by 1298
Kurumi wins by 1585
There has literally never been a quarterfinals bracket be this consistent before. Every single win gets within 130 votes of each other. Every single matchup is decide by 1200-1600 votes. There are always close matchups or massive blowouts. There are candidates who are clearly ahead of others. This is an extreme statistical anomaly.
I mean, these characters have all been in separate brackets up to now. People may have been voting for both Megumin and Yui in their respective brackets and been forced to choose. Clearly more stuck with Yui than with Megumin
Just anecdotally, I really doubt there's such a strong crossover between Marin and Lena voters that would justify this swing. 86 fans are ravenous. No shot they just folded and went for Marin.
As a Lena fan, I hate to admit it but Marin has broader appeal. I've seen people describe her as a "genetically engineered waifu" and I think that perfectly sums it up. She was basically made to be loved by a large audience while Lena is the protagonist of a niche anime with a strong backing but not enough to overcome the sub's newest darling. If she couldn't come close to beating Hayasaka last year, Marin was all but guaranteed to walk over her, even if I could've just as easily pictured Lena narrowly winning if I'm being optimistic. But seeing the results we got, it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people who supported both until now decided to go with "the perfect waifu" instead of Lena, especially if we're talking about the more casual fans who participate and have no strong attachment to Lena.
Lena lost 1.4k votes
Megumin lost 1.3k votes
Hori lost 1.3k votes
In each case, it doesn't look like most of those votes went to the opponents. Marin gain less than 100 votes, Yui gained about 300 votes, Kurumi gained the most at 500 votes.
Yor and Mayuri is a bit of an outliner in that Mayuri gained an entire 1.4k votes while Yor lost a "mere" 400 ish votes.
What makes it all bit weird is that spread score on each match up are all kinda similar. 5.8-5.9k vs middling 4k. Past QF tend to vary a bit more..
No, but they vote in each round. So some number of bot votes can get shifted pretty easily (though also you can just have regular fluctuations in voting for individual characters depending on who they're up against).
Shouko made it super far in a previous contest.
It likely got a lot of people to watch Silent Voice too, which means she had more fans this year.
Meanwhile, Yor was seen by a lot of people (including me) as a non-contender. Yes she'll make it far, but I expected her to crumble hard at some point.
> Meanwhile, Yor was seen by a lot of people (including me) as a non-contender. Yes she'll make it far, but I expected her to crumble hard at some point.
Yes, after Best Girl of 2022 (https://animebracket.com/results/-r-anime-s-best-girl-of-2022?group=finals) it became clear that although a lot of people watch her show, there's a cap on how far Yor will make it. And in this case, when Takina is the one capping you, you stay capped.
It also depends if the change of time the thread is created and the fact that it remains at the top of the sub has been influential or not while also changing part of the main lurker vote.
We have to see what the admin says.
Probably more. Looks like they take redleg's projections and split the bot votes such that one wins by +1500 votes to be safe. Results the last few days have all been in that range.
3 out of 4 girls I voted are in the semis and I got so happy about it! Then I went to read the comments and I'm laughing so much at the conspiracy brewing LMAO
Well. Hori lost. Yor lost. Lena lost. Yui won which is a win tbf but… I’m going all in Kurumi. Fuck it. Never seen DAL and am not a fan of harems so probably wouldn’t like it, but I’d like Hori to have been beaten by the winner at least.
Rating the top 4:
1. Yui Yuigahama (8/10 she’s great)
2. Kurumi (Don’t know)
3. Marin Kitagawa (She aight)
4. Mayuri Shiina (Steins;Gate alr won, nothing against Mayuri but she’s nothing spectacular)
What in the Jesus fucking Christ is in the water you guys are drinking? Holy shit, the madlads actually did it.
Yor Forger v. **Mayuri Shiina** – TUTURU! Forgive me, as I like me a woman who can match my drinking, but my god you guys actually got it done. Mayushi is on to the Semis, and fuck it I'm all in on the Tuturu train. Knowing how these tend to go though, that might not be a good thing.
**Marin Kitagawa** v. Vladilena Milizé – Geez. I feel like I'm inspecting a crime scene here. I know I've had my disagreements with the 86 fandom across this tournament, but this just hurts. Where did all the Lena voters go? At this point part of me just wants me to give it to Marin just so I don't have to hear this over again, but the other part of me just couldn't live with myself if I did that. Let's see if Mayushi's got another upset in her...
Megumin v. **Yui Yuigahama** – Looks like Konosuba will not be taking home the title... again. That fact still seems so wrong to me, but at this point I think Megumin and the gang will be joining Chika, Emilia, and Holo in the "Always high seed, never victorious" category as I think the momentum against their ever aging existence is just too great, and with the impending Oshi no Bocchi meta, it seems their time is done. Please prove me wrong next year.
**Kurumi Tokisaki** v. Hori Kyouko – Probably one of the most interesting parts of this bracket has been how relatively balanced its been between upsets and not in the back end. I never would have guessed Kurumi would make it this far, but it looks like she's gaining steam with each win. I do like seeing that, it keeps things interesting, even if I think Kurumi herself is a bait waifu with little merit on her own (I have seen only a single episode of *Date a Live* with her in it).
And with the semis are... spicy. Y'all really woke up and chose violence yesterday, and I'm sure the comments today will be seething (RIP Lena, you were gone too soon). I'm all in on the Mayushi ticket at this point, so here's hoping she can Tuturu her way to the finals. I'm not big on Yui or Kurumi, so having to confirm one of them to the finals is eh, but I feel like a Mayushi v. Kurumi final would be wild, so you mad lads have my vote. Now we just wait and see how things turn out. Can Mayuri tuturu her way to the title match or will Marin claim her next victim on her way to (what I believe will be) the first ever rookie win since the first Best Girl contest? Will Yui once again move one step closer to joining her Yukino in the hallowed halls of Best Girls or will Kurumi's dream run to the crown deny her her chance at the title? Gonna be real spicy one way or the other.
>or will Marin claim her next victim on her way to (what I believe will be) the first ever rookie win since the first Best Girl contest?
Nah, that is 100% [Kaguya](https://animebracket.com/results/best-girl-7-salt-art-online-alkalinization?group=finals).
Best Girl 7 was essentially a delayed coronation for her.
She won every 2019 contest from the [Best Girl of Winter 2019](https://animebracket.com/results/best-girl-of-winter-2019-seasonal-salt-?group=finals) to [Best Girl of 2019](https://animebracket.com/results/-r-anime-s-best-girl-of-2019/).
She was Seed 1 of Best Girl 7 and the first ever Best Girl to win as Seed 1. Also 3 Kaguya girls in total of the quarterfinals of Best Girl 7.
As for Megumin, she still has Season 3 of KonoSuba to contend against future heavy hitters.
Kurumi is way more than a bait waifu, but seeing why requires seeing seasons 2-4 of Date a Live, a big ask. suffice to say she's a Chaotic Neutral wild card with an agenda completely at odds with every other faction good or evil.
YAHALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!
Tuturu! Yes!!!!!
But WTF Kurumi! How on Earth...is she going to win this all!? (*EDIT: Kurumi is VERY popular on my Asian side of the globe, maybe we get quite a few more votes from there this time, real people or bot?*)
Condolences to the 86th Squadron, we all knew Marin is unstoppable but I thought it would be a much closer contest. It didn't occur. Marin's going all the way now...or is it?
What a weird quarter finals, all results are basically the same, we have three surprises on the final 4 a bit of a weird contest (as soon as Hawkeye lost round 2 we should have guessed) but I enjoy the diversity this year.
What is even happening? None of the matchups were particularly close! Hori's vote count seemed undefeatable in her bracket, and she got crushed by Kurumi.
Same with Megumin and Yui. Megumin looked like a safe bet for the semis at least. Now Yui and Kurumi will face off in the semis, and both are girls I "have to" grudge vote against. I'm conflicted. Does that... does that mean I can actually vote for the one I like more?
Lena losing to Marin is just wrong. I think I've made a "who would win" joke about Marin before, so I won't recycle it. I'm just disappointed r/anime robbed Lena of her deserved title two years in a row. She's even got the second least votes in this round.
Mayushii winning was the single good outcome of this round. Marin fans are sure to bring their queen into the finals, but I didn't expect Mayushii to get past Yor either.
I probably already said too much about who I'd want to see in the finals so y'all can find a way to get me as disappointed as possible.
MC: Probably Steph getting an enormous amount of votes out of nowhere. Also all the salty moments were really memorable. I guess I'm a bit of a masochist for this contest.
**Today's Results**:
Honestly, I saw this coming when looking at the upvotes of their clips on the front page earlier.
Anyway, it's time to play [Avid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGOX7Tj0dMY).
Thank you to everyone that has voted for Lena in this contest! [My salute to you](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1z7iQ2akAE2Ild?format=jpg&name=orig).
Still pretty optimistic about her chances in the future even despite some very strong candidates on the horizon from Bocchi, OnK, Lycoris Recoil, etc.
____
Is that Yui in the semifinals again? And she dominantly won vs. Megumin?
[Are we getting a repeat of Best Girl 4?](https://animebracket.com/results/best-girl-4-a-certain-salty-railgun?group=finals) Yui made it to the finals that year.
With both Lena and Megumin out in the quarterfinals, I don't see what's stopping Marin at this point unless Kurumi memes her way to a victory which is very possible considering she had the most dominant victory this round over Hori. I'd vote Kurumi over Marin in the finals.
Everyone won by similar vote margins too.
And happy for Mayuri. She's been very strong in these later rounds. Enough to overcome Marin though, I don't know...
**Today's Voting**:
I still have my second favorite in these quarterfinals, let's go Yui!
I ranked Mayuri 4th and Marin 7th yesterday so my vote is obviously going to Mayuri and I really like this Mayuri run.
**Mini-Challenge**:
>What has been your favorite moment in the contest?
1. The Kurumi bracket run.
2. Salt over Anju's easy bracket.
3. This 3-way race between Holo/Marin/Lena for Bracket B.
ITS INDEED ULTRA SALTY HAHAHA
Veryyyy Salty
**AHAHAHAHAHAHA** **What the fuck guys**
this seriously feels like chainsaw man manga chapter lmao
holy shit this is so true. I went 0/4 today and my jaw is still on the floor. like wtf
I guess what they say about r/anime having shit taste is true ;) TBF, Marin always looked like a favourite, and Yor consistently got less votes than Mayuri so it's not unexpected, but Megumin and Kyouko crashed in total votes. Also not sure how I feel about seeing all the winners getting just under 5.8-5.9k votes and all the losers in the low-middle 4k. Previous contests seemed to vary more during the QF.
> and Yor consistently got less votes than Mayur Through 6 rounds Yor had more votes in 4 of the rounds. One of the rounds Mayuri won he had like 70 more votes. She wasn't consistently getting more votes. Up through this round Yor had 20,216 votes while Mayuri had 18,585. Even if you include this round that mayuri wins by 1300 votes, Yor still has more total votes than Mayuri over the tournament so far. If you want to say Mayuri won that's fine, but there is no need to make shit up. There was 1 round out of the first six that Mayuri had substantially more votes than Mayuri and it wasn't even round 6 or 5, it was 4.
Touché, honest mistake. Got too tired of scrolling, [took a glance](https://i.imgur.com/I5QObIr.png), and it happened coincidentally shows Mayuri in a stronger position than I thought. FWIW, I started participating part way in R2, and I haven't put too much weight to the first three rounds when trying to guess the favourites. Between R4-6 Mayuri got 12,542 votes against Yor's 12,353. Certainly not enough to assert Mayuri doing consistently better, but I was hoping she would do better (I forgot she rolfstomped Chika - Chika didn't do as well as I was hoping too).
Yeah like that chapter with the birthday cake, you just change the page and your brain can't comprehend wtf just happened. That was my reaction seeing these 4 advance.
It's 630am, just woke up and this just hit me like two straight shots of caffeine wtf.
This is what happens when you vote out all of the meme characters. They band together and turn the results into the [meme](https://pic-bstarstatic.akamaized.net/ugc/b5025b883ee3114b4861311ff0367bd0.jpg)
I had to do 14 captchas in a row to verify, what the hell?
Sounds like something a robot would say...
Maybe you're a robot
You are actually a rebot are you ?
Start of the robot uprising. These captchas are rigged to favor bots instead of humans, hence the unexpected direction the contest has been going.
The highest seed in the semi-finals is #13; Seed #13 #26 #30 and #56, that has to be BY FAR the lowest semi-finals seeding in the contest's history right? For comparison, the last 3 contests' semifinalists were: - Best girl 9: 5 6 16 17 - Best girl 8: 1 3 7 37 - Best girl 7: 1 4 6 10 Crazy upsets in this contest!
I think it is two things: One, the seeding procedure is not equipped for the volume of anime that gets produced yearly in 2023, compared to say 2010. And, the volume of anime makes lower seeds way stronger than they used to be in 2010, even accounting for recency bias.
Haha, I feel like dying right now after seeing the results...........
Sorry i jinxed it by voting for lena and megumin this round, after not voting for megumin for most of the contest.
I had a feeling Lena wasn't going to make it so I hoped that she'd give a fight to Marin atleast. Though Megumin losing wasn't in my expectations at all. Same with Yor and Hori seeing how they were performing. Honesty I don't even know what to think lol.
To Yui of all characters. I mean, Saika is clearly best girl in oregairu /s But seriously, and Megumin had her spinoff last season. Hopefully, next year will be better with Konosuba 3 coming
>Hopefully, next year will be better with Konosuba 3 coming Remember that next year we'll see Lycoris Recoil, Chainsaw Man, Bocchi the rock and Oshi no ko girls
##QUARTERFINALS Matchups | Top Girl | Bottom Girl | Total Votes :-- | :-- | --: | --: Most Voted Matchup | Yor Forger (16) | Mayuri Shiina (56) | 10419 Average | | | 10295 Least Voted Matchup | Hori Kyouko (27) | Kurumi Tokisaki (30) | 10065 **TOP VOTEGETTERS** Rank | Girl (Seed) | Votes --: | :-- | --: 1 | Marin Kitagawa (13) | 5938 2 | Kurumi Tokisaki (30) | 5825 3 | Mayuri Shiina (56) | 5820 4 | Yui Yuigahama (26) | 5814 5 | Yor Forger (16) | 4599 **RESULTS** High Seed (seed) | H% | L% | Low Seed (seed) | tUI | PoW | HSP :-- | :--: | :--: | --: | --: | --: | --: Yor Forger (16) | 44.14% | 55.86% | Mayuri Shiina (56) | 1.81 | 46.0% | -6.44% Vladilena Milizé (5) | 42.71% | 57.29% | Marin Kitagawa (13) | 1.38 | 55.9% | -6.44% Megumin (2) | 43.72% | 56.28% | Yui Yuigahama (26) | 3.70 | 15.3% | -12.14% Hori Kyouko (27) | 42.13% | 57.87% | Kurumi Tokisaki (30) | 0.15 | 29.9% | -10.88% tUI: Traditional Upset Indicator originally used by Tsubasa_sama. The formula is log_2(B/S) where B is the bigger seed number and S is the smaller seed number. A large upset typically has a UI value greater than **1.00** PoW: Probability of Win HSP: High Seed's performance compared to expected performance (see yesterday's post for expected performance) **UPSETS** - Upsets today: 4 - Total upsets (rate): 75 / 508 (14.76%) **TOP 10 SCORES** Rank | Girl (Seed) | Score --: | :-- | --: 1 | Marin Kitagawa (13) | 1,275.94 2 | Kurumi Tokisaki (30) | 1,244.51 3 | Yui Yuigahama (26) | 1,196.37 4 | Mayuri Shiina (56) | 1,038.66 5 | Vladilena Milizé (5) | 951.26 6 | Megumin (2) | 929.27 7 | Hori Kyouko (27) | 905.88 8 | Shouko Nishimiya (8) | 869.51 9 | Yor Forger (16) | 820.75 10 | Holo (4) | 803.70 **PROJECTED SEMIFINALS** Top Girl | TS% | BS% | Bottom Girl :-- | :--: | :--: | --: Marin Kitagawa (13) | 55.1% | 44.9% | Mayuri Shiina (56) Yui Yuigahama (26) | 49.0% | 51.0% | Kurumi Tokisaki (30) **PROJECTED FINALS** Top Girl | TS% | BS% | Bottom Girl :-- | :--: | :--: | --: Marin Kitagawa (13) | 50.6% | 49.4% | Kurumi Tokisaki (30) *Projected Quarter/Semi/Finals are based on current Best Girl scores **VOTER TURNOUT** Each round's voter turnout. Numbers are in the following order: Lowest / **Average** / Highest ROUND | Bracket A | Bracket B | Bracket C | Bracket D :-- | :-: | :-: | :-: | :-: 1 | 1995 / **2248** / 2816 | 2651 / **2971** / 3474 | 2189 / **2559** / 3269 | 2178 / **2526** / 3137 2 | 2872 / **3215** / 3671 | 3279 / **3538** / 4052 | 3151 / **3493** / 4044 | 3824 / **4163** / 4659 3 | 3729 / **4020** / 4379 | 4468 / **4683** / 5127 | 3984 / **4397** / 4805 | 4463 / **4897** / 5499 4 | 4734 / **5080** / 5383 | 5128 / **5471** / 5710 | 5973 / **6452** / 6892 | 6413 / **6700** / 7013 5 | 6617 / **7033** / 7247 | 7120 / **7224** / 7296 | 7968 / **8110** / 8197 | 8265 / **8344** / 8406 6 | 8614 / **8703** / 8792 | 9761 / **9903** / 10044 | 9318 / **9336** / 9353 | 8927 / **8981** / 9034 | **Quarterfinals** | **Semifinals** | **Finals** | | 10065 / **10295** / 10419 | | | [Link to Spreadsheet with results and predictions](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AtXys0FgNMSL4k5qGjJB_9lcLzhkinu8PCZj5Z18qKs/edit?usp=sharing) [Explanation of numbers](https://www.reddit.com/user/redlegsfan21/comments/10dup0w/ranime_contests_bracket_explaination/) Feedback is welcomed and appreciated.
> PROJECTED FINALS > Marin Kitagawa (13) 50.6% 49.4% Kurumi Tokisaki (30) The fact that Kurumi is now predicted to come within 1% of Marin in the finals is the wildest thing I've seen in this entire contest.
Hell, if she wins, this would be the wildest contest EVER. Misaka and Asuna are both popular characters in popular shows, but Kurumi? 95% of the people voting probably never even heard of her ( or the show she's in ) at the beginning of this contest LOL
> Hell, if she wins, this would be the wildest contest EVER allow me to introduce best girl 3. Holo, Saber, Rin Tohsaka and Hitagi Senjougahara in quarterfinals. What a solid candidates. Surely 2 of them will advance to the finals and decide who's the best girl. Nothing unusual can happen, right?... RIGHT?!!!!
At least Railgun is recognized as a classic series now, and Food Wars may not be as bonafide a classic, but was at its peak hotness at the time of Best Girl 3. There's at least a fair reason both Misaka and Megumi could conceivably make the finals that year. Date a Live was getting 500 karma during its fourth season, and Kurumi is the only DAL character to make the field of 512- which, considering DAL is a *Harem Anime*, is absolutely PATHETIC. NO ONE cares about that show. That is FAR WILDER than Best Girl 3.
Food Wars' overall reputation was also tanked by the last two seasons, but animation and content. They would probably still be contenders if it didn't get ruined in the way it did.
People were *severely* underrating Mikoto Misaka. She was no fluke, she just looked like one because she was routinely underseeded.
Perhaps her winning eventually wouldn't be considered a fluke, and she may have been underseeded, but the way BG3 went down was definitely a fluke
> 95% of the people voting probably never even heard of her ( or the show she's in ) at the beginning of this contest LOL If she DOES win, I wonder how many will watch her show, to find out what's that about! (I know I will, even if she doesn't win; I read a bit about her because I was curious about her performance, and she seems so much like my type of girls!)
> If she DOES win, I wonder how many will watch her show, to find out what's that about! If they do watch the show, they're only going to get saltier when they find out that Kurumi is literally the only good thing about that show.
They won't listen to our warnings [](#shakeit) If someone just wants a harem rom-com with girls fighting that's not taking itself seriously, it's an alright show.
That's how I came across Holo and became her simp... No way I would've came across Spice and Wolf any other way.
Funny thing, Kurumi and Marin also competed for the top spot in [Anime Corner's Best Female Character of 2022](https://animecorner.me/top-female-anime-characters-of-2022/) poll, so it's not without precedent. Spoiler alert: Kurumi won that one.
> wildest thing I've seen in this entire contest. Think you could almost say *this entire contest history!* Well, especially if she won, I suppose!
First time in Best Girl history with no top 10 seeds in the semifinals. I'm living for all this chaos.
>Upsets today: 4 100% upsets, you love to see it. Let's keep it going!
Kurumi vs Mayuri in the finals?
I'd be quite satisfied by that. So the chances of that happening are very slim.
The beginning of the contest has been fairly typical, but the past few rounds, I'm pretty sure we've had more upsets than 'expected results'!
There were a lot of surprising things in this round, but when it comes to unexpected stuff, I'd say that "Marin/Lena NOT being the most voted matchup", has to be up there!
Last year I was very vocal to help Lena out and get downvoted to hell by Kaguya fans. This year I didn't wanna say anything about my favourite but Anju incident gained us spite votes. Fuck man
Anju making it that far or not didn't really feel like much of a factor to me in Lena vs. Marin. That was always going to be tough.
Marin is just strong. Holo was crushed by her, and even on lenas debut contest last time around she only narrowly beat holo with the benefit of it being her first run and airing recently so I'd consider the two probably would perform roughly the same vs marin. Of course lena was going to also be crushed. No spite votes needed.
Spite cannot explain why Marin has consistently led Lena in total votes since the first round. Marin is just more popular.
Spite voting can boost an opponent, but Lena lost over 1400 votes from the previous round. Even if we were to say that Marin's gain from the last round were only due to spite vote against Lena over Anju, it still amount to under 75 votes. I'd be saltier if Lena had lost by 5.9k to 5.8k or something but Lena ended up with less votes than she had 2 rounds ago. In a way, I find it a bit odd that the numbers between winners and losers in this round are all kind of similar. The fact that Marin's vote didn't increase greatly suggests that Lena's voters didn't switch over en masse, but it suggests that voters who previously voted for Lena stopped voting en masse. This is true for some of the other match up too. /tin foil Discarding the possibility of foul play, and assuming that people participating in this tournament in the previous two round would not suddenly stop participating in this round, the only explanation is that about a quarter of voters stopped supporting for Lena -without- giving that share of vote to Marin. Either they on the fence and didn't vote, or they wanted to spite Lena by stopping to go for her, but without going so far as to vote for the opponent. Either way, it looks like Lena had about 4k voters who put her as their main girl.
Ah, the "real-world politics" of "If my party's politician is a POS I just can't support, I'm not going to vote for your opponent out of spite, I'm just going to stay home on Election Day" motif. A perfectly valid other breed of spite voting.
>The fact that Marin's vote didn't increase greatly suggests that Lena's voters didn't switch over en masse >the only explanation is that about a quarter of voters stopped supporting for Lena -without- giving that share of vote to Marin. Either they on the fence and didn't vote, or they wanted to spite Lena by stopping to go for her, but without going so far as to vote for the opponent. Your misunderstanding whats happening. You cant add lena+marin = expected number of voters for this round because a lot of people voted for marin vs holo and also for lena vs sensei in that round. This is completely fine since they are two sepreate matchups at that point but once you end up in marin vs lena they have only one vote, while if you tried to simply add the two vote totals from before because they voted for the winning person in each it would look like they are two voters. What happened is when they then were forced to pick between marin or lena they broke in favour of marin, meaning marin maintained their vote while lena lost it now they could only pick one of the two. Its not the case that a bunch of people simply stopped voting, they simply decided that when having to choose one of the two marin has their vote rather than lena maintaining it.
You are right about the total. So it isn't that Lena fans stopped voting for her, but Marin fans who previously also voted for Lena previously picked Marin when it comes to down to having to choose between those two. Would you say that spite voting is unlikely to result in this outcome or am I missing something else?
I dont think theres any real evidence of spite voting changing things here, but its not as provable as with the voters not dissappearing one. Spite voting is where there people whose preferences normally are sensei over lena (lost) but lena over marin who would then logically vote lena normally, but are salty and vote marin instead. Thats where spite votes come in. However its also possible you have people who voted holo over marin (lost) but normally would prefer marin to lena but are salty and so spite vote in the other direction balancing it out. Thus you could have high spite voting in both directions, or low spite voting in both directions and be unable to tell since its all even. The reason I dont think spite voting is really changing the result here, is that I think lena performed where I would expect her too. Last year was her first contest, and she narrowly beat holo with the benefit of high recency bias. Therefore this contest with that diminished my expectation is she should be performing at roughly the strength of holo, and in this case newcomer marin crushed holo so lena being crushed by roughly the same margin is expected, and what happened. At the very least I think its no less natural than marin v holo was.
Lol Megumin following her usual script. Manhandling the early rounds only to fall on her face once she goes up against an actual tough opponent. Happy for Yui though, who returns to the semis for the first time since her her run to the finals in Best Girl 4. For Mayuri it's even better as she's never made the semis before. Kurumi continues her dream run. We've had unexpected winners before when Misaka and Asuna won in Best Girl 3/6 but if Kurumi manages to win that would trump them all. Of course the favorite is still Marin, the vote totals were pretty similar among all 4 matchups but Marin had by far the strongest opponent in last year's runner up Lena.
She was only preparing for the Holo matchup, but she lost all motivation once Holo got eliminated.
Megumin won't accept the Best Girl Award unless she personally beats Holo in the process.
She used her explosion magic early on and like you said fell flat because it it.
I guess in contest her recharge time is 4 days as opposed to 1 day. The Yahello was too powerful.
Damn. Yor, Lena, and Megumin all got eliminated by over 1000 votes. What the fuck, guys? Are you okay? Who hurt you?
Asuna was the last non-romcom winner. We should have expected it. Still, as bad as this was next year is going to be a thousand times worse.
Next year will include Chainsaw Man, Lycoris Recoil, Oshi no Ko and Bocchi right? Plenty of strong non-romcom contenders.
I suspect Nazuna from *Call of the Night* will also pull out a strong showing but yeah, it's gonna be brutal.
From what I can remember Chainsaw Man didn’t do that well in the fall seasonal salt tournament and pretty much got swept by Bocchi, are we expecting the results to change next year?
I have a feeling that next year's semifinals won't be full of seeds in their 20s, 30s, 50s! It may not be *#1 #2 #3 #4*, but might not be that far!
Suletta and Miorine too
I love Gundam and Witch from mercury was solid but the west doesn't really love Gundam the same way the east does. Those 2 are gonna get bounced 2nd or 3rd round even with recency bias.
Even then, Sword Art Online had some romance elements to it. You can even say at points in the later seasons it felt like a harem, without me giving anything away.
I think it'd be rather hard for a girl to win with zero romance; Most if not all of the girls have hints of romance, even if they're not romcom girls. Kurisu, Rem, etc..
Man, r/anime is a bunch of romcom fans.
I'm so fucking confused, was expecting Yor + Megumin to 100% advance and Lena/Marin being a 50/50 (still salty as fuck Lena lost).
It may not have the recency bias of Spy x Family, but Steins;Gate is still a popular show and Mayuri a well loved character
Mayuri barely beat Shouka. Beating Yor by 1000+ doesn’t make much sense.
It makes perfect sense. Yor is a comic relief character whose schtick of "haha incompetent at everything but assassination" wore thin really quickly for a lot of people. It's like Chika, but more one-note and less funny, and nobody's surprised when Chika washes out in top 8 every year either.
I chuckled early in the season when they were doing that mission at the castle and the characters couldn't think of anything for Yor to do. I stopped chuckling as the season went on and it became apparent that *the author* couldn't think of anything for Yor to do. I'm really hoping the author gets it together in the manga chapters yet to be adapted. As is, Yor has a likeable personality, an awesome design, and absolutely nothing to do in the show itself except be bad at cooking and worry that Loid's gonna leave her for another woman.
Fujiwara have her "Shirogane's Mom/Mentor" arc which is the funniest running gag in Kaguya and stand in stark contrast with her usual chaotic comedic relief role. Yor offers nothing close to that in terms of character depth. She might be assigned to kill Loid one day (IDK how far the manga has went, already dropped it), but that's it for her, and is likely a plot point saved for SxF's climax.
I feel like majority of this competition is being decided by spite votes at this point lmao.
What the fuck
All in on Mayushii.
tuturu motherfuckers
It's like Best Girl 3 all over again lmao
It's better than Best Girl 3. Atleast BG3 had top seeds in the semis.
Fuckin glory to the ~~spearhead squadron~~ future gadgets laboratory
Fuck it, we ride
That's my reaction to Kurumi making it this far. I just don't get how Akeno isn't in Kurumi's spot right now
Finally getting the respect she deserves. [](#mayushii)
Oops all upsets!
This contest is dumb and I never cared about it anyways
Exactly my thoughts! When this is over, I'll see you guys in the seasonal contest!
> I'll see you guys in the seasonal contest! Hope you like Oshi No Ko, or you may not enjoy this contest much more hah. We could see the strongest domination since Kaguya's entry!
As a Miyako enjoyer, even getting my favourite girl from the hot new show into the bracket will be hard. If it happens, that's already a little win. Getting Anna through a few rounds maybe, winning a round for Yamada's Akane or Insomniac girls or Skip to Loafer girls, that's all I can hope for.
I think Anna has a very high chance of being the best performing character not from OnK in the seasonal contest.
Those grapes were probably sour anyway.
Lenabros....it's over.
I did not realize Date a Live was this popular.
That's the neat part, it's not! Apparently it's just a case of Kurumi being way better than her show
> Apparently it's just a case of Kurumi being way better than her show I wish this worked for Yuno Gasai!
Maybe of there was a Best Girl contest 2010.
The show is still good tbf
I think season 4 has been beneficial for Kurumi. I'm not too surprised to see her have such a good run the year after it aired.
So three of the top four votes all lose and the only reason one didn't was Lena and Marin were both top four. So magically in the finals all of the top votes plummet immediately?
The Lena supporters got thanos snapped apparently. Seriously, I don’t get how Lena lost *that* many votes while her opponent gained less than 100
Wait what? I actually voted for Yui, but I was 99% sure she's gonna lose by a large margin. It's Megumin after all. Honestly the number of votes the winners got look kinda suspicious.
Kurumi is in the semifinals. All suspicion at this point isn’t worth stressing about, just vote and have fun. Hopefully the host can figure it out.
> actually voted for Yui So this is all your fault
Sorry guys, I ruined the contest :(
Don't be, you picked the wise choice.
What the fuck? All 4 of my votes got destroyed. I hate you all.
Sorry man all 4 of my votes made it through I guess my tastes are as trash as r/anime
#FUUUUUCCCCKKKK YOU ALL We are making Kurumi Best Girl 10, aren't we
If this happens, I'm all in for it. Fuck it, let's all go for chaos now.
**Team Kurumi Let's get that bread** **Yandere best -dere and the only character from a low rated show to make it this far.** **Kurumi best girl 10**
> the only character from a low rated show to make it this far Stein's Gate (Kurisu): 9.07 OreGairu (Yukino): 8.01 Railgun (Misaka): 7.67 Unlimited Blade Works (Rin): 8.19 Re: Zero (Rem): 8.23 Sword Art Online (Asuna): 7.20 Love is War (Kaguya/Hayasaka): 8.41 Bunny Girl Senpai (Mai): 8.24 Date a Live is currently rated 7.16 on MAL, so if Kurumi won she'd be the winner from the lowest rated show ever.
tbf, season 4 is significantly better than the earlier seasons, has her backstory, and rated 7.78
If you're willing to count sequels, SAO S2 is a 6.70
So I saw the first two episodes of date alive and it was very... Strange. Does it get interesting later?
Yes. It's a show with quite a lot of variety really, and although it doesn't get discussed that much, there's a bit going on under the surface in terms of the emotionality and motivations of the characters.
So, I really hate Date A Live (so much so I hate-read the LNs). The bright spot is Kurumi. I honestly could not watch the show if it wasn't for Kurumi. She is the best example of a yangire character (basically a yandere without the motivation for love, but other reasons). She has the best character design and motivation throughout the show. She is a quality antagonist and anti-hero. I know other DAL fans will also gush over the other girls but in all honesty, they just are not anything memorable. For a harem show, she stands out as someone who doesn't just fall into the standard harem role. If you don't like the first two episodes, you're not going to like Date A Live and you're obviously not a completionist like me who stumbled into the amazing world of Kurumi Tokisaki. Only the times she is on screen are the times when the show is enjoyable and not just standard harem-ecchi trash (to be fair, the show is slightly above average among harem-ecchi trash). The problem is her mystique is you never know when she is going to show up.
Wow I’ve never seen anyone who’s like “I hated this series so much that I read the whole thing”
> We are making Kurumi Best Girl 10, aren't we Hell yes.
# TUTTURU!
This is the alternate timeline that no one asked for. Praying to Thanos bbl.
Remember when people were talking about a Holo vs. Megumin finals at the beginning of this contest? I laughed when I saw that. No way was that ever happening.
How tf is a Date a Live girl on the final 4?
I really suspect there's more Asian votes on this one than in the past years because Kurumi's REALLY popular on this side of the globe (if it's the same here she would have won already years ago). Then again so is Megumi Katou and yet she's still languishing around Rounds 2-3 so...
As an Asian guy, the current time the Best Girl threads drop is perfect for me. IIRC the older threads used to come late so I forgot to participate at times lol.
Same. It didn't help as the last couple years some of the threads didn't even make it to the top of r/anime.
Yeah, I was kind of wondering why it switched for this one. Used to be 8pm for me, now its 8am I think.
This subreddit has yielded to the will of salt. So it is. I'm going full troll once again. Mayuri vs Kurumi finals gotta happen now. Don't let me down.
I’m shocked Kurumi won by as big a margin as she did and very happy Mayuri managed to beat Yor. Once again vote Mayuri even if it seems impossible! Today will be even tougher to pull off the upset but maybe there’s hope!
"small boobies will have their day!"
Kurumi bros we have taken a path and we can no longer turn around. The only way out is victory
time to let the power of tuturu consume you
This is the choice of Steins;Gate
The bots really do be out in full force this year.
Impossible, even I have a hard time with the captcha sometimes!
Getting it right on the third try is a good day for me [](#ohfuck)
I've never seen captcha.
Holy fuck the captcha is ridiculous lately. "Select motorcycles" there's only bicycles. "select bicycles" there's only a motorcycle. "Select stairs" Please try again, FUCK OFF ALREADY /rant over
r/place ended, they got bored
I expected Megumin to advance to semis atleast, same as with Yor. WTF even happened. EDIT: Its also interesting that all the votes of the losers are quite close to each other, same as with the winners.
Honestly, these results are way *too* suspicious. There's no way that each of these characters got beat by such wide margins. Each character had a strong opponent, but still beat the other by 1300-1600 votes. I just don't see how these vote counts could have happened without some bots or an entire fandom intervening. Like, *all* of these victories are upsets.
All 4 winners got within 120 votes of each other. Even more sus than that, I went 4/4 with my picks yesterday which I don't think has ever happened in the Quarterfinals of a Contest. Something is clearly off.
Yeah, u/mpp00 should probably get in touch with the server admin and at least look into it.
On the other hand, all 4 of the losers got fewer votes than they did the previous round with Lena, Megumin and Hori each getting over 1000 fewer votes. With botting you'd typically see a big uptick in votes for the winners which wasn't the case here.
Unless the botter voted in the previous matchups as well, and he was on the side of the girls that won then but lost in this round. Someone dedicated enough to bot several thousand votes would also do the bare minimum to cover their tracks as much as possible imo
and inserted a few hundred per day until having enough influence instead of a random 1000 or 2000 spike
My conspiracy theory is that I think it's all been bottled since r1. It's realistically unlikely though, and I don't even know what could be done about it if this was the case.
Nah, [vote counts started diverging from last year's in the second half of round 3](https://i.imgur.com/YQEtZWx.png)
I was a bit suspicious about the Kurumi votes in an earlier round and the same thought entered my mind that someone might be botting every single round. DAL got disqualified once before due to botting so it's plausible that the same person/people responsible for the botting back then are trying again this year but are being a bit smarter about it. I like Kurumi and she'd definitely be my preferred winner among the ones still left, but if she wins due to botting that just kills any fun in these contests. Hope the bracket admin can look into it.
> All 4 winners got within 120 votes of each other Every matchup had basically the same result, only Hori is a bit lower than the rest but not even that much. I don't know if that indicates cheating or not, but it's *weird* for sure.
Yeah, the most suspicious thing with quarterfinal results is that there is no way people here suddenly developed good taste. Something's definitely fishy Edit. I'm also 4/4 in quarterfinals for the first time since I've been voting in these contests
Every winner got between 5,938 and 5,814 votes and difference of 124. Marin is the OUTLIER as Mayuri/Kurumi/Yui all received 5825/5820/5814, a difference of 9 votes. Maayuri wins by 1211 votes. Marin wins by 1511 Yui wins by 1298 Kurumi wins by 1585 There has literally never been a quarterfinals bracket be this consistent before. Every single win gets within 130 votes of each other. Every single matchup is decide by 1200-1600 votes. There are always close matchups or massive blowouts. There are candidates who are clearly ahead of others. This is an extreme statistical anomaly.
Megumin got 5500 votes in previous rounds. 4500 today. I seriously have no explanation, bots can't vote against after all
I mean, these characters have all been in separate brackets up to now. People may have been voting for both Megumin and Yui in their respective brackets and been forced to choose. Clearly more stuck with Yui than with Megumin
Just anecdotally, I really doubt there's such a strong crossover between Marin and Lena voters that would justify this swing. 86 fans are ravenous. No shot they just folded and went for Marin.
As a Lena fan, I hate to admit it but Marin has broader appeal. I've seen people describe her as a "genetically engineered waifu" and I think that perfectly sums it up. She was basically made to be loved by a large audience while Lena is the protagonist of a niche anime with a strong backing but not enough to overcome the sub's newest darling. If she couldn't come close to beating Hayasaka last year, Marin was all but guaranteed to walk over her, even if I could've just as easily pictured Lena narrowly winning if I'm being optimistic. But seeing the results we got, it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people who supported both until now decided to go with "the perfect waifu" instead of Lena, especially if we're talking about the more casual fans who participate and have no strong attachment to Lena.
Lena lost 1.4k votes Megumin lost 1.3k votes Hori lost 1.3k votes In each case, it doesn't look like most of those votes went to the opponents. Marin gain less than 100 votes, Yui gained about 300 votes, Kurumi gained the most at 500 votes. Yor and Mayuri is a bit of an outliner in that Mayuri gained an entire 1.4k votes while Yor lost a "mere" 400 ish votes. What makes it all bit weird is that spread score on each match up are all kinda similar. 5.8-5.9k vs middling 4k. Past QF tend to vary a bit more..
No, but they vote in each round. So some number of bot votes can get shifted pretty easily (though also you can just have regular fluctuations in voting for individual characters depending on who they're up against).
Mayuri barely beat Shouko, only 300 vote difference and 4400 total and now she beats Yor by 1000+? I want her to win but that’s suspicious AF.
Shouko made it super far in a previous contest. It likely got a lot of people to watch Silent Voice too, which means she had more fans this year. Meanwhile, Yor was seen by a lot of people (including me) as a non-contender. Yes she'll make it far, but I expected her to crumble hard at some point.
> Meanwhile, Yor was seen by a lot of people (including me) as a non-contender. Yes she'll make it far, but I expected her to crumble hard at some point. Yes, after Best Girl of 2022 (https://animebracket.com/results/-r-anime-s-best-girl-of-2022?group=finals) it became clear that although a lot of people watch her show, there's a cap on how far Yor will make it. And in this case, when Takina is the one capping you, you stay capped.
Yeah, [compared to last year](https://i.imgur.com/YQEtZWx.png), probably around 2000 came in between rounds 3C and 5D.
It also depends if the change of time the thread is created and the fact that it remains at the top of the sub has been influential or not while also changing part of the main lurker vote. We have to see what the admin says.
After the Riza Hawkeye incident, I don’t doubt something is up.
\~1.5k bots? feels weird all 4 matchups has around that much in gap.
Probably more. Looks like they take redleg's projections and split the bot votes such that one wins by +1500 votes to be safe. Results the last few days have all been in that range.
##KURUMI TO THE MOON
Well, thanks guys. Time to proceed with the scorched-earth policy and vote Kurumi! Mini Challenge: This moment perhaps? I can't help but laugh xD;
No vote Mayushii!
Good thing that today you can still vote both!
Remember the rules everyone, if your character won it's because they're getting the love they deserve, but if the lost it's because of botting.
3 out of 4 girls I voted are in the semis and I got so happy about it! Then I went to read the comments and I'm laughing so much at the conspiracy brewing LMAO
...what can i say... bots have great tastes...
Yahallo motherfuckers! Who predicted these final 4? this is a goddamn pipedream LMAO
Guys I figured it out. Kurumi is actually not kurumi Kurumi is actually Marin who cosplayed as Kurumi.
This is the cope I will use if Marin loses
Ahahaha, this is unreal. Alright, Kurumibros, there is no other way I'm with you now and let this contest be remembered for years to come.
My girl Marin, I'm going to vote for you all the way. Also i'm happy to see Kurumi doing so well this time.
Well. Hori lost. Yor lost. Lena lost. Yui won which is a win tbf but… I’m going all in Kurumi. Fuck it. Never seen DAL and am not a fan of harems so probably wouldn’t like it, but I’d like Hori to have been beaten by the winner at least. Rating the top 4: 1. Yui Yuigahama (8/10 she’s great) 2. Kurumi (Don’t know) 3. Marin Kitagawa (She aight) 4. Mayuri Shiina (Steins;Gate alr won, nothing against Mayuri but she’s nothing spectacular)
What in the Jesus fucking Christ is in the water you guys are drinking? Holy shit, the madlads actually did it. Yor Forger v. **Mayuri Shiina** – TUTURU! Forgive me, as I like me a woman who can match my drinking, but my god you guys actually got it done. Mayushi is on to the Semis, and fuck it I'm all in on the Tuturu train. Knowing how these tend to go though, that might not be a good thing. **Marin Kitagawa** v. Vladilena Milizé – Geez. I feel like I'm inspecting a crime scene here. I know I've had my disagreements with the 86 fandom across this tournament, but this just hurts. Where did all the Lena voters go? At this point part of me just wants me to give it to Marin just so I don't have to hear this over again, but the other part of me just couldn't live with myself if I did that. Let's see if Mayushi's got another upset in her... Megumin v. **Yui Yuigahama** – Looks like Konosuba will not be taking home the title... again. That fact still seems so wrong to me, but at this point I think Megumin and the gang will be joining Chika, Emilia, and Holo in the "Always high seed, never victorious" category as I think the momentum against their ever aging existence is just too great, and with the impending Oshi no Bocchi meta, it seems their time is done. Please prove me wrong next year. **Kurumi Tokisaki** v. Hori Kyouko – Probably one of the most interesting parts of this bracket has been how relatively balanced its been between upsets and not in the back end. I never would have guessed Kurumi would make it this far, but it looks like she's gaining steam with each win. I do like seeing that, it keeps things interesting, even if I think Kurumi herself is a bait waifu with little merit on her own (I have seen only a single episode of *Date a Live* with her in it). And with the semis are... spicy. Y'all really woke up and chose violence yesterday, and I'm sure the comments today will be seething (RIP Lena, you were gone too soon). I'm all in on the Mayushi ticket at this point, so here's hoping she can Tuturu her way to the finals. I'm not big on Yui or Kurumi, so having to confirm one of them to the finals is eh, but I feel like a Mayushi v. Kurumi final would be wild, so you mad lads have my vote. Now we just wait and see how things turn out. Can Mayuri tuturu her way to the title match or will Marin claim her next victim on her way to (what I believe will be) the first ever rookie win since the first Best Girl contest? Will Yui once again move one step closer to joining her Yukino in the hallowed halls of Best Girls or will Kurumi's dream run to the crown deny her her chance at the title? Gonna be real spicy one way or the other.
>or will Marin claim her next victim on her way to (what I believe will be) the first ever rookie win since the first Best Girl contest? Nah, that is 100% [Kaguya](https://animebracket.com/results/best-girl-7-salt-art-online-alkalinization?group=finals). Best Girl 7 was essentially a delayed coronation for her. She won every 2019 contest from the [Best Girl of Winter 2019](https://animebracket.com/results/best-girl-of-winter-2019-seasonal-salt-?group=finals) to [Best Girl of 2019](https://animebracket.com/results/-r-anime-s-best-girl-of-2019/). She was Seed 1 of Best Girl 7 and the first ever Best Girl to win as Seed 1. Also 3 Kaguya girls in total of the quarterfinals of Best Girl 7. As for Megumin, she still has Season 3 of KonoSuba to contend against future heavy hitters.
Kurumi is way more than a bait waifu, but seeing why requires seeing seasons 2-4 of Date a Live, a big ask. suffice to say she's a Chaotic Neutral wild card with an agenda completely at odds with every other faction good or evil.
Now I 100% believe that Kurumi is winning the whole thing.
What the actual fuck?!?
YAHALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!! Tuturu! Yes!!!!! But WTF Kurumi! How on Earth...is she going to win this all!? (*EDIT: Kurumi is VERY popular on my Asian side of the globe, maybe we get quite a few more votes from there this time, real people or bot?*) Condolences to the 86th Squadron, we all knew Marin is unstoppable but I thought it would be a much closer contest. It didn't occur. Marin's going all the way now...or is it?
The threads are posted at a different time this year, which happens to be a much more accessible time for Asia.
What a weird quarter finals, all results are basically the same, we have three surprises on the final 4 a bit of a weird contest (as soon as Hawkeye lost round 2 we should have guessed) but I enjoy the diversity this year.
I think the reason why there are a lot of upsets is because of pity votes
Spite votes and pity votes are two sides of the same coin.
It's not even salty, I'm just utterly disappointed.
Ahh, may salt take the world! **May salt take the world!**
Mini Challenge: In all of the Best Girls, the salt from Asuna winning will be my favorite. From this contest, the salt from today's results.
What is even happening? None of the matchups were particularly close! Hori's vote count seemed undefeatable in her bracket, and she got crushed by Kurumi. Same with Megumin and Yui. Megumin looked like a safe bet for the semis at least. Now Yui and Kurumi will face off in the semis, and both are girls I "have to" grudge vote against. I'm conflicted. Does that... does that mean I can actually vote for the one I like more? Lena losing to Marin is just wrong. I think I've made a "who would win" joke about Marin before, so I won't recycle it. I'm just disappointed r/anime robbed Lena of her deserved title two years in a row. She's even got the second least votes in this round. Mayushii winning was the single good outcome of this round. Marin fans are sure to bring their queen into the finals, but I didn't expect Mayushii to get past Yor either. I probably already said too much about who I'd want to see in the finals so y'all can find a way to get me as disappointed as possible. MC: Probably Steph getting an enormous amount of votes out of nowhere. Also all the salty moments were really memorable. I guess I'm a bit of a masochist for this contest.
Judging from these results there's some time manipulation going on here is it the will of Steins gate or Zafkiel?
**Today's Results**: Honestly, I saw this coming when looking at the upvotes of their clips on the front page earlier. Anyway, it's time to play [Avid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGOX7Tj0dMY). Thank you to everyone that has voted for Lena in this contest! [My salute to you](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1z7iQ2akAE2Ild?format=jpg&name=orig). Still pretty optimistic about her chances in the future even despite some very strong candidates on the horizon from Bocchi, OnK, Lycoris Recoil, etc. ____ Is that Yui in the semifinals again? And she dominantly won vs. Megumin? [Are we getting a repeat of Best Girl 4?](https://animebracket.com/results/best-girl-4-a-certain-salty-railgun?group=finals) Yui made it to the finals that year. With both Lena and Megumin out in the quarterfinals, I don't see what's stopping Marin at this point unless Kurumi memes her way to a victory which is very possible considering she had the most dominant victory this round over Hori. I'd vote Kurumi over Marin in the finals. Everyone won by similar vote margins too. And happy for Mayuri. She's been very strong in these later rounds. Enough to overcome Marin though, I don't know... **Today's Voting**: I still have my second favorite in these quarterfinals, let's go Yui! I ranked Mayuri 4th and Marin 7th yesterday so my vote is obviously going to Mayuri and I really like this Mayuri run. **Mini-Challenge**: >What has been your favorite moment in the contest? 1. The Kurumi bracket run. 2. Salt over Anju's easy bracket. 3. This 3-way race between Holo/Marin/Lena for Bracket B.
> Salt over Anju's easy bracket Think I'd go with that as well. It was setup so perfectly for Anju and made more unique salt than most runs
All I want for Christmas is a Tuturu vs. Yahallo final. May the best catchphrase win.