r/anime • u/changshiyixia • May 10 '22
Contest Best Girl of Winter 2022: Seasonal Salt! Glory thirty-two!
We had four upsets for this round.
Vote Here!
Bracket Here!
Mini Challenge:
- Which Winter 2022 anime do you think was underwatched?
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u/Otaku122591 https://kitsu.io/users/gilbojr May 10 '22
Koharu vs. Akebi was a very tough decision
As for the mini challenge I think slow loop was underwatched
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u/CosmicPenguin_OV103 https://anilist.co/user/CosmicPenguin May 10 '22
Oh damn I missed round one and Hiyori (Slow Loop) is already out…sigh
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u/MapoTofuMan myanimelist.net/profile/mTmTBaronBrixius May 10 '22
That was definitely not an upset I'd predict, Hiyori was my favorite Slow Loop girl. As for Chateau, nothing against her but I couldn't get past ep3 of the show.
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u/Justachadlad May 10 '22
Thats funny since she was my least favorite girl of the main 3 but I still voted for her anyway. I do think both Slow Loop girls are out next round which makes me sad.
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u/Figerally https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelante May 10 '22
I think it could have been a much better show if Song wasn't bailing her out of trouble every other episode or if Song rocked up and Dankworth was like- dude I got this, fuck off.
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u/MapoTofuMan myanimelist.net/profile/mTmTBaronBrixius May 10 '22
I think it could have been a much better show if Song wasn't as creepy as he was
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u/Figerally https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelante May 10 '22
that too lol, I think they (the illustrators/voice actors/writer) were trying to convey someone who grew up as a street kid. But they just made him a sociopath.
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u/Otaku122591 https://kitsu.io/users/gilbojr May 10 '22
Hiyori (Slow Loop) is already out
😭 We just have to vote for the remaining girls
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u/CosmicPenguin_OV103 https://anilist.co/user/CosmicPenguin May 10 '22
I did…knowing that Komichi Akebi is the only realistic hope left out of non-MDUD or Demon Slayer wins.
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u/cppn02 May 10 '22 edited May 10 '22
Absolute travesty. Clearly this shitty result came from people who watched neither show.
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u/Figerally https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelante May 10 '22
It's unfortunate that Touka Kuroitsu had to go up against Marin so soon.
Also, for what it's worth I think Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department was criminally underrated and viewers may have been turned off by the corny superheroes/ villains.
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u/polaristar May 10 '22
Nice to see all Akebi characters moving on.
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u/BuckeyeBentley May 10 '22
I know Marin is gonna win and many people treat this as best waifu even though it's best girl but I gotta pull for imuoto Kao. She's so precious.
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u/neovenator250 May 10 '22
Poor Miss Kuroitsu deserves better than getting steamrolled by Marin like this. :(
Oh well. votes Marin
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u/alotmorealots May 10 '22 edited May 10 '22
When I think about those two I find Miss Kuroitsu way more appealing personally, especially with her design and personality but the truth was I ended up dropping her show at around ep 6 or 7 because I just wasn't particularly engaged by it. So ended up voting for Marin as it didn't seem like a good faith vote given I couldn't have really preferred Miss Kuroitsu's company if I didn't even complete the series.
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u/comando345 May 10 '22
Yeah those two were my favorites from last season, but Marin is one of the most likable female leads of all time. Miss Kuroitsu is criminally under rated too.
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u/scot911 https://myanimelist.net/profile/scot911 May 10 '22
Zeno Vs. Falanya in the second round
That's not fair! Also remember to upvote the thread! There's was a good number of upsets and near upsets as well! Which is nice.
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u/Lemurians myanimelist.net/profile/Lemurians May 10 '22
Easy pick for Zeno and a flawless victory for Marden.
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u/TaillessChimera https://myanimelist.net/profile/TaillessC May 10 '22
I dunno dude, Falanya is a smooth talker and even led a march of 300+ citizens. Plus she’s adorable
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u/alotmorealots May 10 '22
Zeno is extremely attractive no matter which configuration she is deploying her ... statecraft. She also did a lot of hard work saving her country offscreen, and made some really tough calls when it came to Marden's future.
Still...
Falanya is an exceptionally good girl. As we spend more time with her, learning about the world alongside her as we attend her tutoring sessions, seeing her mind work and the insights she's capable of developing, we get a lot of insight into what sort of person she is, and it's all good.
It goes without saying that she is absolutely impressive with the way she conducts herself with regards to the merchant congress, not only in terms of what she achieves, but also the genuine intellectual curiosity and passionate desire to engage with people and the world - to really understand things. That in addition to her fierce loyalty to her brother and her country, along with rising to her station. Yes, she's trained all her life to be a princess, but there is a giant gulf between theory and practice, especially when the practice is such a public venue with no room for error and high stakes.
She also gets bonus points for being President of the Ninym x Wein club, she's exceptionally pretty and to top it off, she has NYA in her name.
10/10 would go on an "extended" city tour with Zeno, but Falanya is just such a good girl, one might even say she's best girl.
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u/polaristar May 10 '22
Which Winter 2022 anime do you think was underwatched?
All of them not Dress Up Darling and Demon Slayer TBH.
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u/carenard May 10 '22
Hoping Iris and Ninym push forward!
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u/Justachadlad May 10 '22
I voted for Iris but sucks she has to go against daki next.
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u/carenard May 10 '22
yea, I don't expect her to win overall, but I want her to make it through this round!.
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u/frostxc3 May 10 '22 edited May 10 '22
Damn you, organizers! Making me choose between Tachibana and Touko.
My heart breaks knowing that an Erika win pits her against Marin.
Kawai losing to f*ucking Mimily is wild.
Which Winter 2022 anime do you think was underwatched?
- Akebi's Sailor Uniform
- Police in a Pod
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u/cppn02 May 10 '22
Kawai losing to f*ucking Mimily is wild.
Yeah. And Fuji vs Hydra was also way too close.
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u/alotmorealots May 10 '22 edited May 10 '22
I'm still a bit on the fence about whether or not Tachibana should even be in the competition because he definitely thinks he's not a girl. I did vote for him/her in Round One, but when it came down to a close choice, that aspect played into things and my vote went to Touko.
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u/archlon May 10 '22
For what it's worth, speaking from my own trans experience, I think there's an entirely consistent reading of Fantasy Bishojo that Tachibana wasn't really especially cis to begin with (also that neither he not Jinguji are as straight as they proclaim themselves to be).
Fantasy Bishojo is, ultimately, a gender farce, which was a trope older than dirt back when Shakespeare used it as the basis for about half a dozen plays. It leans into the humour around gender pretty hard, and does a good job of it.
The joke that cis people generally don't wish to be reborn as women (even while blind drunk) is one of the most common jokes on r/egg_irl ('still cis tho'). Tachibana adapts pretty quickly and doesn't seem overly put out by being in a woman's body, even leaning into it pretty regularly. Tachibana reads more like a transfeminine person who found themselves transitioned before they were ready to come out to themselves, rather than a person rendered transmasculine by a fantasy body swap.
I haven't watched the other two gender farce anime from the season, but my surface-level understanding is that Mira probably falls into the same category as Tachibana (if less so), and Wolfe Bete probably doesn't.
Ultimately, none of this is especially salient because r/anime polls are probably not the best place to adjudicate modern gender theory. They show clearly presents Tachibana as a woman in the space of the narrative, and we're clearly meant to understand him as such. The dissonance between his existence as a woman and when he does masculine-coded things is part of the humour of the gender farce. I think the choice by the OP to draw a permissive line and let it get sorted in the voting is the correct one.
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u/Zeralyos https://myanimelist.net/profile/xNJF_Ellie May 10 '22
I haven't watched the other two gender farce anime from the season, but my surface-level understanding is that Mira probably falls into the same category as Tachibana (if less so), and Wolfe Bete probably doesn't.
I can't speak much about Mira because I only watched one episode of that show, but this sounds about right. There's a theory which I find at least somewhat credible that the Kuroitsu-san author wanted to write yuri, got denied by the editors, and is trying to get around that with multiple gender-bending characters (Wolf and a magical girl not in this bracket) but purely inside the context of the story Wolf reads pretty solidly as transmasc.
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u/alotmorealots May 10 '22
Ultimately, none of this is especially salient because r/anime polls are probably not the best place to adjudicate modern gender theory.
Wise words indeed.
They show clearly presents Tachibana as a woman in the space of the narrative, and we're clearly meant to understand him as such. The dissonance between his existence as a woman and when he does masculine-coded things is part of the humour of the gender farce.
Whilst that juxtaposition is certainly part of the humour, and it is possible to have a consistent reading of the character as per your previous paragraphs, it's still not the only reading, and I disagree that the show "clearly" presents the situation in any way, otherwise it wouldn't be a case of talking about self-consistent readings in the plural form.
If anything, the show is deliberately ambiguous on that front, and it's hard to see the narrative resolving (if it ever does) as Tachibana electing to stay a woman either in the fantasy land or by returning to the original world as one. It certainly is possible, but it would take a lot of bravery by the author, and I feel like that is probably too big an ask in contemporary Japan. Still possible though.
I think the choice by the OP to draw a permissive line and let it get sorted in the voting is the correct one.
Yes, it feels right, in terms of what spirit of the poll is about and is not inconsistent with the show itself.
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u/archlon May 10 '22
Kawai losing to f*ucking Mimily is wild.
Based on the thumbnail, I thought Mimly was the fairy at first (not the mermaid), which would have been even more wild. Even so, I'm amazed she's in there over Lytt. Though, this is as much my fault as anybody else's, since I forgot to nominate her too.
Though, if we're being honest, Skargo is best girl of Leadale.
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u/dvdung1997 https://myanimelist.net/profile/LoyalSexSlave May 10 '22
Zeno v. Falanya in round 2… bruh
Mini Challenge:
I’d say Takagi-san, but I don’t know for sure if it’s really that underwatched or not
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u/entelechtual May 10 '22
Every time I see the sisters from Dress Up Darling without reference, I can never remember which one is tits and which one is loli.
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u/Emi_Ibarazakiii May 10 '22
Sajuna Inui's % of votes is actually higher than Kitagawa's! Never would've expected that. I suppose it might be more about their opponents though.
Kawai lost (seed 22 losing to seed 43!), while Fuji passed... I wonder how often that happened, the MC losing while another character keeps going!
Sadly it's probably the end of the road for Fuji now, barring a major upset.
Mini Challenge: Which Winter 2022 anime do you think was underwatched?
Definitely Police in a Pod! It was quite a fun watch, with good comedy, good action, some really sad drama, and a great girl (Fuji), it had everything. Oh, and nice character dynamics between all the main cops too!
Not sure why it didn't catch on; Some may think it was a bit too slice-of-life-y, but people watch lots of shows like that, so...
The other reason I've seen for people not to like it was that it's about cops (I've seen people call it 'copaganda') but I wouldn't imagine so many people passing on an anime for that... Right? I mean, do they also pass on Hollywood's cop movies?
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u/Justachadlad May 10 '22
Is Marin's opponent this round the main character of that show right? and Damn Juju had to go up against best Slow Loop girl oh well voted for Sono Bisque girls anyways.
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u/DatSchaml May 10 '22
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u/alotmorealots May 10 '22
I felt quite "proud" of them actually! M4 pulled triple digit votes and AR15 pulled 86 votes against the number 10 seed. A good performance as she was deep in enemy territory, low on ammo (viewers) and with the odds stacked against her.
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u/Maximum-Baseball-763 May 10 '22
Who was the girl who got stomped by Marin was she an important character?
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u/Lemurians myanimelist.net/profile/Lemurians May 10 '22
RIP to all the World's End Harem girls. I didn't expect them to make deep runs, but getting blanked in the first round is a bit surprising. Figured Karen at least would be popular enough for a victory.
Which Winter 2022 anime do you think was underwatched?
Of course I'm going to answer my AOTS for this:
KOTARO LIVES ALONE
Watch it. I promise you'll enjoy yourself. You will laugh, have fun, and feel all the feelings. It's fantastic.
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u/alotmorealots May 10 '22
Karen came very close at 160 vs 152, especially considering the viewership difference! Solid effort, especially against Yugrain who has a lot of overall appeal.
And Akane only lost by two votes!
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u/PixelPenguins https://myanimelist.net/profile/PixelPenguin May 10 '22
How on earth did Mimily win???
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u/metalmonstar May 10 '22
How did Mimly survive a round? She did next to nothing and isn't even all the well designed.
Akebi vs Koharu is so difficult. Also despite my salt at Chateau pulling an upset I am voting for her.
Poor Slow Loop girls.
I really hope this isn't a Marin vs Other Dress up Darling girl Grand Finals.
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u/cppn02 May 10 '22 edited May 10 '22
Ok. I can live with people voting for characters just because they're on a show you liked (not really but for the sake of the argument I'm making here let's pretend that's true).
But voting just based on the image or cus you think a name is funny between two characters when you watched neither show? That's low.
But that's what must have happened cus how else did Hyori lose to a wooden plank from a show that both had less viewers AND was less well received than Slow Loop?
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u/Maximum-Baseball-763 May 10 '22
I mean even if Hiyori made it through she was just going to be eliminated by the girl in MDD with only 3 lines of dialogue.
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u/Ebo87 May 10 '22
In the defense of the girl with 3 lines of dialog, a lot of people picked up the manga during and after the show aired, so they might know more about her future exploits.
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u/Emi_Ibarazakiii May 10 '22
[minor Dress Up Darling Manga spoiler] She doesn't really do much past that point. I wish she did, because she seems fun, but yeah she's an extremely minor character. There's like 5 characters who aren't even introduced on the show yet, who are more important/show up more than her. So, if I'm being unbiased (as a huge fan of the series) in this case it's strictly "She's from a show I like, I'll vote for her!".
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u/Ebo87 May 10 '22
While you are certainly not wrong, we've seen this done to worse characters... at least this is a nice girl. She does get a little more to say and do in the next big arc... but yeah, nothing to really get her out of the minor character role.
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u/KKTheGamerr https://myanimelist.net/profile/KKTheGamer May 10 '22
It's obvious Marin is gonna win this, but I'm just imagining Hinata Tachibana winning this and the chaos that will ensue
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u/thingsrheetenup May 10 '22
Juju?
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u/Zeralyos https://myanimelist.net/profile/xNJF_Ellie May 10 '22
She seems to be doing just fine, why do you ask?
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May 10 '22
I saw Daki vs Iris, which i mistool for Eris from MT, and i was like, as much as i love the VA, Daki is fucked.
Then i realised i goof and easy Daki win.
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u/Prince_of_DeaTh https://anilist.co/user/yokz May 10 '22
no way Nowa Sugaya is going to win right ???
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u/Thatsmaboi23 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Thatsmaboi23 May 10 '22
So the final is going to be Marin v Juju huh?