March Madness: Elite 8 (Start!)

So yeah, Gurren Lagann, TSR, Haruhi and Mako-cakes all advance to the Elite 8. Not much in the way of surprises with all 4 creaming their competition (Goodbye Revy/Balalaika/Hansel & Gretel. With Black Lagoon out of the way, my own vested interests in this particular popularity contest has been severely reduced, but this far in I might as well continue blogging the remaining rounds). The first four series fighting for 2 of the four final spots are:


1) Fumoffu VS Azumanga
Comedy-wise Azumanga delivers the laughs more consistently over the course of its 25 episodes (oh wait, it's 26... probably should just watch that last one some time soon...) whereas Fumoffu focuses on building hard-punching humour in spurts. Since Azumanag was the one that toppled Ouran previously, my vote goes to Chiyo-chan and Osaka this time around.

2) Death Note VS Clannad
I've actually been warming up to Clannad somewhat recently (it helps that there's only one episode left) ever since the story focused itself on what it's been building up to all this while - Nagisa's story. Only now does everything from the OP to Dango Daikazoku (Basically all the other girls except Nagisa have been relegated back to what they were meant to be for the series - extras), but I'm saving all that for a whole other post. My vote is still for Death Note since unless thigh meat has gone out of fashion sometime in the last hour, I seriously doubt Nagisa and co. even need this one extra vote.

Sounds like I'm voting for the underdogs again, as much as it wasn't my intention. Azumanga which had a good show of support in the last round is being battered down by Fumoffu, and it's really no surprise again at how well Clannad is doing. It's a shame that all the strong comedies have been facing one another all this while and now they're basically whittling down to one (or two if you count Haruhi, but there's another shoo-in if there ever was one) while the Kyoto powerhouses (Haruhi and Clannad) have just been crushing whatever comes in their way (even fellow KyoAni series Lucky Star and Kanon). The next two matches should prove at least half-interesting with Gurren Lagann agaist The Second Raid , and in the unlikely event that the broken readers of Derailed rise and vote Mako-chan over Mikuru... I'll really be at a loss for words then (Though of all the series left in the tournament, methinks a Broken by Minami banner would suit DbD best, after the 'sensible' choice of Gurren Lagann since Haruhi-ism banners have been done to death elsewhere)