March Madness Round 2 begins

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Damn, I actually had another post in mind for today... But what can I say, I got derailed by Derailed, lol. March madness has moved on to its second stage and I'm pretty pleased to see the lineup of series that made it through, and there'll definitely be some very in-te-res-ting matches to come. The first four one-on-one matches are now in order and now that we've dispensed with categorizations, it's now up to the readers to just vote for whatever series they feel has pierced the heavens/rocked their soul/insert any catchphrase denoting sheer awesomeness up to the final showdown. So on to the votes:


1) Azumanga Daioh VS ef ~a tale of memories~
I had my ORZ face on for a moment... both strong series in their own right which I adore, and not exactly comparable since as Jason has pointed out, they're so remarkably different from one another... But then I realized that the winner of this match would face Ouran in the next, and suddenly it became rather inconsequential which of these two it would be since it's Ouran 4tw for me :P So with half the dilemma done with, I voted ef since I had the feeling it would need my vote more against the stronger fanbase for Azumanga. Looks like I was right.

2) Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu? VS Dennou Coil
Again, 2 incredibly opposite series which I've enjoyed very much. Again a great comedy versus one of the better 'serious' shows of 2007. I'd flip a coin if Sagara Sousuke wasn't involved, so I'm sorry to say but it's Fumoffu for me, Densuke T_T Fumoffu would probably stand a better chance against Lucky Star the next round by splitting the comedy vote - do you like them laugh out loud explosive or moe moe moe?

3) Mushishi VS Higurashi
No doubt in my mind where my vote would go for this one. Mushishi is one of the very few shows I've awarded a full 10 on MAL (but considering I didn't rank them all at the same time and I'm rather inconsistent when it comes to a 1 to 10 number ranking system, it doesn't say all too much) and as much I enjoyed the WTF-ness of Higurashi (the first season. Ni Kai managed to answer most of the WTF questions lingering from the first season, but lost all the trainwreck goodness I was looking forward to) it's still Ginko for me. With the vote still in its early stages and only a small percentage separating the two, I'm praying for Mushishi to pull a win from the behind on this one despite the heavier Sonozaki pimpage on DbD...

4) Honey & Clover VS Baccano
Honestly, a throwaway vote from me this one, having not finished either series (this should rouse some cries of blasphemy from at least a few people reading). To be completely honest I've only watched the first episode H&C and I believe just 2 eps of Baccano before discontinuing both (now THAT's going to earn me some rotten tomatoes...) I'll just be taking the word of anyone who recommends either of these series that they're that good, but based on my limited experience with them I'm going for Honey & Clover since it had at least one character I saw which I liked (the only members of the bloated cast of Baccano which I can recall are the ones that annoyed me, sorry) and from the small snippets which I occasionally get from Animax, H&C looks to be the show of these two I'm more likely to watch later on and kick myself in the behind for not doing so earlier.

With general elections coming up in the country (and me being ineligible to vote anyways) March Madness couldn't have come at a better time (I should remind myself that it's called March Madness for a reason...), especially since real world politics simply baffle my hikikomori self... After round 2, I'm pulling for Ouran all the way from here on out since it's still a standing favourite of mine till now, and the thought of an Ouran banner on Derailed is just incredibly amusing to me =P