#and a handful of symphogear

[spacebattleshippotemkin]

Hibiki Tachibana Kaixa Gear.

Originally only a little doodle, but I liked it so much that I had to outline and color it.

[sanguinesucker]

Love is real and exists in the HibiMiku

[rayar32]

Today's Symphodraws include Berserk Hibiki because I really wanted to do more unhinged posing before bouncing back to drawing more fluffy stuff

[entamewitchlulu]

i will literally never be over symphogear. watched some amvs today and rewatched the final confrontation between hibiki and shem-ha and i just. my god it makes me cry every single time.

it's the LAYERS!!!!!!! it's the fact that when hibiki overrides shem-ha's network brainwashing of the entire world, every human being on earth has the single thought of "take back our future" which can of course mean taking back their future from the god that wishes to turn them into a hive mind, but also that Miku's name is actually spelled 未来(mirai) which means "future", which means that the thought that is ACTUALLY binding all of humanity together is Hibiki's overwhelming love for Miku!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[furaill]

[rosecoloredmuses]

"Don't take your eyes off the desserts for even one second... Those little pesky demons are attracted by them and come running if you aren't careful enough, especially with apple pies and cookies!"

"Eeh?! If that's the case, I'll protect these desserts with all I have!" Hibiki hadn't heard anything about demons favoring desserts, but she'd been looking forward to eating these cookies. After all, she'd just had an intense day of training!

Surely, this was the culmination of Genjuro's teachings-- protecting what she cared about!

[givemeallyourpenny]

I love symphogear, the main character doesn’t fight with weapons because she needs her hands free to hold girls hands

[soulhalberder]

There is a lot to like about Symphogear, the characters are so much more than their designs. I love how Hibiki is basically constantly put through the ringer the entire series, yet refuses to stop being a person who cares but who cares so much for everyone. I love how Tsubasa is constantly trying to be the leader but also struggles and stumbles because she's is so entrenched in her bad coping mechanisms until others are there to pull her out of them. I love how Chris is angry. Like actually angry and has to make legitimately difficult choices that she questions after the fact but still opens up and accepts that people want to help her.

I love how the show doesn't shy away from consequences. The narrative progresses because of the events of prior seasons, and stuff isn't just forgotten and forgiven. Ok, some stuff is forgiven in the eyes of the law, but only because Maria makes a plea deal to protect the others. I love how even though society may say she's forgiven she struggles to forgive herself.

I love that there's two pairs of lesbians.

I love how Chris gets embraced that both couples are being overly affectionate with each other in public.

I love how there's just a song about beef strogenoff that is just wrong and that has a payoff a season later.

I love how the series has inspiration from Madoka without turning into "another madoka" or being obsessed with just being dark.

I love how despite the darkness in the world and the points where stuff gets legitimately very dark, there is more than enough levity and light to show that this is a world worth fighting for and the characters are not wrong to fight for it.

I love how Hibiki learned to fight by watching action films and imitating them and everyone treats it as normal.

I love how unafraid the show is of it's own concept. It knows it's silly, but characters never stop taking it very seriously.

I love how one of the power ups is explicitly very evil and is not only a metaphor for the dangers of falling to that power, but how that danger exists the moment you take hold of it.

I love how one of the side characters is just a ninja in a suit and also an idol manager.

I love how the core cast can only fight because the suits are powered by altruism and sometimes an ancient relic that kills the user the more they use it.

I love how rule of cool and passion so often overrules rules as written because being emotional and passionate is a good thing actually.

I love how silly the weapons get. Chris just has unlimitted Rockets. Kirika and Shirabe have a scythe and sawblades that are twintails that combine into a lot of things but my favorite has to be the murder bingo ball cage. I love Tsubasa's silly leg blades. I love how Hibiki just has her fists so she can hold people's hands because she wants to reach out to them. Also so she can hug her girlfriend which is a very important plot point.

I love how a lot of characters have backstories you can empathize with and want to see them redeemed. You want to see them be better and not fight with the heroines. I also love how there are villains who you can't wait to see them get what's coming to them.

I love how characters try and patch messy relationships up, but seasons later we see that it's only going alright. I love how characters are messy and fail but never stop trying to do better.

I love the music and how characters sing their songs in battle while still being effected by the battle.

I love how its ok to be in love with a show that isn't perfect, and that sometimes you just need to give something a chance.

Watch Symphogear.

[cosmosrebellion]

If any of you thought I was done rambling about Symphogear, you are wrong 'cause I need to talk about Hibiki and everything involving the build up to Metanoia.

Every time we had the build up for the big attack that's named after the show's opening, it was a moment where Hibiki either brought people together or gained power from the other Gears to beat the odds.

But here, in the biggest fight she uses all the power she has, and the power that created from humanity's united desire to fight for its future, to fulfill her most selfish wish: To get Miku back and keep her for herself.

And this is huge because so much of Hibiki's character journey is defined by altruism and sacrifice. She gives to others because that's how she pays the kindness Kanade showed her forward, while also believing it's all she's good for as a product of her survivors guilt.

But here, facing yet another god-like being who mocks her efforts, she breaks through the impossible not to save the world, but to save the person she loves most in the world.

And I just love how they bring so many of Hibiki's themes together for this moment. She turns the accursed power of the God Killer Gungnir into an open hand that connects the feeling of the world, the blessing that helps her reach Miku, hold her and never let go.

She doesn't have to just feel the sunshine anymore, because now she has the Sun in her hands.

And it's just insane how amidst all the high-concept ideas, the beautiful themes of hope, the indomitable human spirit, and what brings us together, everything that happens in this ending is about Hibiki and Miku realizing they love each other. It's something that's really special.

And I didn't even dive into the meta textual significance behind the name of the song: Metanoia. Which can be a change of heart that expands one's view of the world and themselves.

Also, I'd be remiss not to mention that I've seen Symphogear fans point out that it's an anagram for "Ai no tame" meaning "For the sake of love" in Japanese.

This is one of my favorite endings in fiction, for one of my favorite characters ever, and for one of my favorite series of all time.

I love Symphogear so much! Watch this show!

[mousegard]

you know, i've seen a few symphogear fanworks about the alchemist trio just chilling out in the symphogear wielders' heads like yami yugi after axz instead of saint-germain just showing up once in xv, but they mainly focus on saint-germain being in hibiki's head or cagliostro being in chris's head. i wanna know how tsubasa deals with prelati

saint-germain: "i am glad that i can leave my vision of a world free of oppression in your hands, tachibana hibiki. that said, i will not write your history essay for you. there are some challenges you must overcome alone. also say hello to your mother for me."

cagliostro: "hey chris, how's my bestie? listen, i need you to go up to hibiki and flirt with her. i have a new pickup line i've been brainstorming and i wanna see what hearing it does to germy. don't worry about miku it'll be fine. i'll help you cheat on your math test if you do it!"

prelati: "...you gonna eat that kid?"

[txttletale]

bundletober #13: blazing hymn

alright i've fallen behind on bundletober (the series of blog posts where i review and talk about a ttrpg i got in a bundle every day) and am hoping to make up the difference by putting out two entries today. this is the first one, and i'm looking at the mecha-piloting, synthetic-armour wearing, blaspheming-against-God-and-his-angels game blazing hymn by peach garden games.

now sadly this game is not a lyric/blackout poetry game about rewriting church hymns to be about gay sex. someone should make that btw. no it's just about wearing highly advanced battlesuits powered by the song of your heart to kill aliens with weapons of pure energy. which is about as cool.

first off, the layout of this game is unique and stylish. there are hexagons everywhere:

the game puts sparse splashes of dreamy pastel colours amid a constantly shifting set of black and white hexagons. it gives the book a visual identity that is at once both visually distinct and also changing massively from page to page. it's a really cool way to mix things up and keep you wanting to turn the page if just to keep seeing what the next one even looks like.

what's the game about? simple. angels have come to earth to destroy it badly. with the power of song, young people can power specially designed battlesuits, called Hymnals, that when not activated collapse down into crystal necklaces. it's a pretty anime concept--the game is pretty open about being inspired by Evangelion and Symphogear, neither of which i've actually seen--but it's cool as hell. the aesthetics of the layout really help bring the aesthetics of the game itself, of technology and ethereal mysticism merged into one thing, to life.

the game uses a pretty simple three-stat system where you build dice pools with a state relevant to an action and can get a full success, mixed success, or failure, depending on what you roll. your characters have two resources, Health, which is what it sounds like, and Gain, which is essentially magical power. because you can swap Health for Gain and Gain for Health at a 1-1 ratio with no restrictions, i'm not really sure why they're separate things--seems like a missed opportunity to not only simplify the mechanics but also create a strong mechanical narrative element by making Gain the only thing that keeps you going--once your song is silenced, you're out.

to create a character, you pick from one of six unit classes--here's where i'd describe the six classes, but honestly, they don't quite feel distinct enough. a lot of the powers you can pick for each hymnal class feel very similar, or are outright overlapping in a lot of cases. this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the descriptions of the hymnals, while trying to clarify their combat roles, all end up seeming to repeat themselves or say contradictory things. i think some direct ties between those descriptions and their mechanics would have helped--i'd find it a lot easier to remember that, for example, the 05 Xyston type "brutal in combat" if that flavour text was followed by a direct reference to one or more of its abilities. they do all have pretty different stats--which, in a game with a very simple and elegant combat system, means i'm confident they play very differently once you hit the table. but just looking at them, as a prospective player, i struggle to tell the difference.

i don't have that problem with the next character creation mechanic, though, which is choosing the songs you sing to power your hymnal. each song, as well as a thematically appropriate set of stat boosts, also prompts a pair of revealing character questions. they're the kind of mechanic that i want to get my hands on because they make it fun to create characters, giving real mechanical expression to the emotional fundamentals of who they are.

the combat system itself seems really, really good. it's astoundingly simple--you're encouraged to use a map, but there's no fiddly grid or distance tracking, just the ability to move between being Close, Near, or Far from an enemy. it keeps the numbers low to keep it getting silly and doesn't bother with any of the unecessary bookkeeping and fiddliness that plagues TTRPG combat as a whole. no initiative, no separate turns--there's a 'player' turn and a GM turn, and during the GM turn the GM picks from enemy's listed actions until they've done two for each player. players can use their abilities on the GM turn, and the game encourages the GM to take enemy actions that wil lforce them to--so nobody's ever standing around twiddling their thumbs waiting for the whole table to rotate back to them, and having a lot of enemies doesn't mean the players listen to the GM talk for fifteen minutes.

there's two unique mechanics that i think are very interesting-- Civilians and Condemnation. Civilians are--well, exactly what they sound like. on their turn, players can use an action to evacutate up to 5 of them. this extremely small and simple mechanic is fucking genius. so many games tell you they're about saving innocent people, but yet the only mechanical verbs you have to interact with anyone are violent ones. as elaine scarry says in the body in pain:

so in a way i think blazing hymn puts its money where its mouth is in a way very few combat rpgs with emancipatory or heroic aspirations bother. angels are said to attack populated areas--you're sent to preserve life as well as destroy the enemy. it makes the game feel fundamentally different, like despite the questionable ethics of hymnals (after all, they only work on young people, who then have to be sent into deadly combat situations) there is something heroic you can do.

the second cool mechanic is condemnation, a reality-warping toxin that angels use to destroy the places they're sent to. this rocks because it adds a ticking timer to the battlefield, a passive threat that forces the player characters to be proactive. if condemnation gets too high, not only is the fight going to get harder, but civilians are going to die en masse. it's a great piece of game design that gives the GM a great lever to pull for pacing and urgency.

i also really like that one of the steps of the GM turn is to 'change the situation', whether that means something happens in the narrative or something on the map changes (a train arriving is the example the book gives) or more angels attack. in general, one of my biggest complaitns about d&d is that unless a DM takes it upon themselves to design additional mechanics and encounters outside of anything the game actually gives them, combat inevitably turns into two lines of people hitting each other with sticks until one of them dies. i love dynamic, progressing combat, combat where the stakes change moment to moment. and blazing hymn delivers.

anything else? oh yeah, the angel designs are cool as fuck.

god damn. anyway despite a few minor issues with the hymnals themselves, the core of blazing hymnal is fucking good, a nice tight and razor-sharp combat system wrapped up in pulsing pastel crystalline aesthetics. if you like cool anime fights and like having the rules to back it up but hate complexity, crunch, and tedium, this might be the perfect game for you. it's certainly given me a lot of cool design ideas to take foreward into my own projects.

blazing hymn is available for purchase as a digital download through itch.io

[talenlee]

Game Pile: Princess Wing

Princess Wing is a Japanese indie TTRPG, by Hayato Suzumiya, in which players take on the role of Princesses at the prestigious Princess Training Academy, who defend earth from mechanical monsters called Void through their cool outfits that also double up as multi-purpose military machinery and short skirts. Drawing heavily on a particular kind of anime genre that I mostly know in the terms of ‘like Symphogear, right?’ it’s a card-based RPG where players use a predetermined micro-deck to make strategic moves and drive their narratives forward, and everything novel about it I can think of I pretty much describe in this opening paragraph.

Yeah, uh, I don’t know what I’m going to tell you about this one. Come with me on the journey to not really understanding a book that I’ve spent several days reading and the reasons why I think that is.

Just a note: I’m reading an unofficial translation of Princess Wing. I’m not fluent in Japanese, and any time I think a phrase is badly written or clunky or strange, I let it go. That’s not important to this and treating the game as if that’s vital is a great way to cut yourself out of a lot of really cool translated TTRPGs.

Straight up, the things in this game that stood out to me, from my initial notes:

I like the way it suggests players recruit other players to play NPCs in scenes. That’s a cool idea to make part of the recommended text.

I appreciate the idea of dealing players a hand they get to use over the course of a scene, meaning you can have good and bad moments that you get to pace out, without full control over the.

It includes a section on pronoun use in the game.

And then the followup notes…

Wait, the pronoun use splits everything into a hard dichotomy where players are all ‘she’ and the enemies are all ‘he’? Kinda simple binary there.

Hang on, what’s the resolution mechanic for this game? What do I do if something comes up that’s not in one of these specific tables?

Wait, character creation starts when?

At which point I realised I kinda had to give up on treating this book like I would one written in a more familiar language to me. I think it’s very it’s important to look at games outside of my genre interests and my readership space – I love Golden Sky Stories and had a lot of fun engaging with the hot mess that was Gensou Narratograph, after all. I am an anime fan, but something like Symphogear that this game is pretty explicitly referencing, has never been my interest. What’s more, this is a translation of a Japanese RPG — which means there’s a range of ways I think things should be done because they appeal to me and make clear sense to me, that are culturally signified. I won’t know what I don’t know if I don’t look.

Now, you may think, hang on, but you don’t know anything about Symphogear, so why should we care what you say about the Symphogear-inspired TTRPG? And if you need an expert’s opinion on whether or not it’s delivering on its ideas, then yeah, I suppose that’s a thing. I cannot tell you if this is a game that’s good at being Symphogear and crucially, anything I learn about this game will not be useful for interpreting Symphogear. After all, if I was to just look at this book I might assume that Symphogear is about some very specific, complex machinery that’s designed to work under specific rules and conditions, almost like a kind of murder mystery of a mechanical construction, a system of combat rules that remind me a great deal of Bleach in the way that it relies on hard-to-decipher but consistently-applied rules and mechanisms that don’t actually make the narrative they construct meaningfully engaging.

Y’know, Bleach and Symphogear, two very similar anime that I’m sure won’t annoy anyone with that comparison.

Here’s the thing: I think this game is explicitly and delicately tuned to its audience. I really do, and this is an assumption based on the idea that this game is trying to do a good job, by people who are confident in what they are doing. It has the presentation of a thoughtful, creative, well-made book, after all. How then do I grapple with this mechanically uncomfortable system, awkward problem-solving mechanism and system for narratives that need the whole thing mostly created ahead of time, across a language barrier, and not come across as being, at the very least, a little bit of a dick?

I do not know this audience. I do not know who this book was written for. It is a mystery to me and even obvious inferences – it was for people who read Japanese, probably in Japan, and probably used to other Japanese TTRPGs, of which I know exactly one – can’t be treated as representing a meaningful truth. I am peeking through a keyhole and what I am seeing makes no sense to me.

When I talk about games, I describe them as a machine that makes stories. TTRPGs, then, I tell people, are a machine that makes a machine that makes stories. It is a system that you then use to construct your game, and then you play that game to find out what happens. And twice now I’ve looked at Japanese TTRPGs that seem to instead take one step back from that freedom, away from that creativity.

I think that this game hooks you instantly if you like its pitch. Do you already have a Symphogear OC that kinda works in these five general overtones? Do you already have a character you think of as ‘An Amanda’? Well, here’s what you want, here’s the onramp, let’s go. For me? Someone who doesn’t know what it’s about and doesn’t have a reason to resonate with its looks and vibes? It has no time for me and I don’t find a reason to want to belong to a universe that is primarily about teenaged girls with multiple pages dedicated to showing you the components of their uniforms.

At the time of writing I am coming off watching another strange set of interactions about Dungeons & Dragons by people who do not like it remarking on the behaviour of those that do like it. This space is interesting because there are some valid criticisms in deep and thoughtful ways and some shockingly headassed takes that don’t make any sense to me. One criticism is that it’s really weird that the official D&D tiktok is boasting about the new Players Handbook being the largest one ever, as if to say that getting more book in your book means the game is better. To that end, I’d like to submit that Princess Wing is a game that wants to make sure before you start, you’ve already watched twenty plus episode of an anime ahead of time. By that marign, I think it’s fair to say that makes this one of the best games ever.

I don’t think this game has a bad approach, I just think the approach is one that misses me, and unlike other games I criticise for a bad approach, I think this is a good thing here. It doesn’t want me. It has no interest in me, and it does not care about informing me about its world.

You have to admire the purity.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[pennysperfectpolls]

Symphogear adoption poll round 2

Hibiki Tachibana, Chris Yukine

Shirabe Tsukuyomi, Kirika Akatsuki

Miku kohinata, Elfnein

Some propaganda and spoilers under the cut

Hibiki: the protagonist. She doesn’t fight with a weapon because she needs to hold girls hands. Her only ambition in life is to save people and go on dates with her girlfriend Miku. She was god once, it was bad. Her dad left after she almost died once. At least He’s trying to be better now but come on dude.

Chris: the Tsundere/ Lancer of the group. Fights with oh so many guns and surfs on missiles. Her backstory is so fucked up. Her parents performed charity concerts in War torn countries. They died when she was like ten and she was captured by bad guys. Eventually she ended up with a very abusive woman who made her be evil for a while. Eventually she did joy the found family and regained her love for singing. That’s all just season one. She’s grumpy and easily embarrassed but tries to be a good “big sister” for Shirabe and Kirika. Definitely has a crush on Hibiki and Miku.

Shirabe: the Yo-yo Master. Cuts monsters with giant buzz saw chain saws and exclusively fights on rollerblades. Practically inseparable from Kirika to the point she has trouble working with anyone else. They were part of the same “turn orphans into magical girl weapons” experiment along with Maria. She briefly had a heart to heart with a man I’m pretty sure was her grandfather but she never realized. She’s pretty quiet.

Kirika: Shirabe’s golden retriever girlfriend. Self proclaimed “happy go lucky girl from the depths of hell.” Meaning she’s cheerful and goth. She fights with a scythe and loves shouting the word “Death” all the time. Part of the same “Turn Orphans into magical girl weapons” experiment as Shirabe and Maria. She took longer to join the good guys because she thought she was being possessed by an immortal ghost lady.

Miku: the token normal girl for most of the story, unless she was being brainwashed by the bad guys. Has “my girlfriend is a superhero” traumas. She was also god for a little bit, it was also bad. Maybe the real god was these lesbians we found along the way. She and Hibiki call each other “my sunshine” or “my sunflower” and every time my heart melts.

Elfnein: a doll created by and with the memories of a several hundred year old witch who wants to destroy the planet after her dad was burned at the stake. Elfnein helped stop her and got adopted by the hero’s support staff. She acts as the guy in the chair for the latter seasons. She’s very sweet and polite.

[rayar32]

I am so very normal about LOST SONG

So normal that there are close-ups too

[best-underrated-anime]

Tentative List of Submissions

Until the list of submissions is finalized, I will be accepting appeals for/against any of the shows on this list. SEND YOUR APPEALS THROUGH THIS BLOG’S SUBMIT PAGE. Appeals left in the replies or sent to my asks/DM’s will now be ignored.

By the way, I don’t follow a set standard in determining whether a show is underrated or not. I may keep in mind MyAnimeList ratings, but ratings are not absolute.

Some shows may have low stats on MAL, yet have strong voting power on Tumblr. Some may be popular in their home country but are not so well-known in English fandoms. (Tumblr is a site where most users are USAmericans, so the voting power is mainly with them. I have to consider this.)

Red - at risk of being removed

Blue - formerly accepted, but changed to pending/rejected upon an appeal/further review

Violet - formerly under rejected/pending, but now accepted

Green - newly-added

Orange - Triggers not stated. If you’re the submitter, please edit your submission in the form. Alternatively, you can add them to the Triggers Sheet (non-submitters can also help). If the show has no triggers, please still edit the form/sheet and check the “None” option so that I’ll know that you didn’t just forget. Thank you!

Updated: Oct. 20, 2023 08:00pm EST

Accepted

86 (Eighty-Six)

91 Days

Acca-13 Territory Inspection Department

After the Rain

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

Akiba Maid War

Akudama Drive

A Place Further than the Universe

Are You Ok (You Yao)

Asobi Asobase

Beryl and Sapphire

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

BNA: Brand New Animal

Charlotte

Do It Yourself!!

Flip Flappers

Flowering Heart

Fukigen na Mononokean

Gakkougurashi!

Gakuen Babysitters

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

Gatchaman Crowds

Girl's Last Tour (Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou)

God Troubles Me

Gurazeni

Hakumei and Mikochi

Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow

Happy Sugar Life

Heike Monogatari

Hinamatsuri

HitoriBocchi no MaruMaru Seikatsu

Hoshiai no Sora (Stars Align)

Inuyashiki

Iroduku: The World in Colors

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

Joshiraku

Kageki Shoujo!!

Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko

Karneval

Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Kemurikusa - Propaganda may contain spoilers (To submitter: the last part about Earth seems spoilery). Propaganda will be edited by admin.

Kiznaiver

Kyoukai no Rinne

Laughing under the clouds

Legend of Luo Xiaohei (series)

Link Click

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

Mawaru Penguindrum

Megalo Box

Mignon

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

No.6

No Doubt in Us

Non Non Biyori

Orient

Ping Pong the Animation

Plastic Memories - I won’t mark this as red because there is enough propaganda for it to be included. But I’m still waiting for someone to submit something more substantial about it. Also lacks triggers.

Please tell me! Galko-chan

Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live - Submitter might’ve shared too much about the drama in the show, spoiling it for others. Propaganda will be edited by admin.

Radiant

Requiem of the Rose King

Rokuhoudou Yostuiro Boyori

Run with the Wind

Sangatsu no Lion

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Servamp

Shadows House

Shiki

Shinsekai Yori

Silver Spoon

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Sonny Boy

Space Brothers (Uchuu Kyoudai)

Talentless Nana

Tamayura: Hitotose

The Executioner and Her Way of Life

The Royal Tutor

Tonari no Seki-kun

To Your Eternity

Trese

Tsuritama

Urusei Yatsura

Usagi Drop

Vampire in the Garden

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

Wasteful Days of High School Girls

Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun

White Cat Legend 2020 (Dali si Rizhi/The Journal of Dali Court)

Wo Jia Dashixiong Naozi You Keng

Yurei Deco

Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero

Yuukoku no Moriarty

Zankyou no Terror

Zombieland Saga

Pending

If no reason is stated, then that submission simply had insufficient/unconvincing propaganda. Those with a (???) next to the title are shows I’m not sure are considered underrated. Anybody may submit an appeal on whether or not I should keep it.

Propaganda that needs revision can be edited by the submitter on the GForm. Others may also make a new submission with their own propaganda for it to be accepted.

If, for some reason, the original submitter cannot edit the GForm, then the updated propaganda may be sent to me here via ask or DM.

All shows that didn’t remove their pending status before Oct. 20, 8pm EST have been moved to Rejected.

Rejected

If no reason is stated, then that show has been rejected simply because it’s not considered underrated.

Angel Beats

Assassination Classroom

Astra: Lost in Space - insufficient/unconvincing propaganda

Buddy Daddies - one of the popular recent anime. Also has 390k tag followers on Tumblr

Cap Kakumei Bottleman DX - Propaganda contains too many spoilers. Also lacks triggers

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card - Cardcaptor Sakura is one of the most popular shoujo. And since anime with multiple seasons are counted as one, the year the first season was released is what will be checked. Season 1 of CCS was released in 1998, so it’s disqualified from this tournament.

Death Parade

Delicious Party Precure - This show is apparently part of an extremely popular franchise. The propaganda for it was also not enough.

Dr. Stone - One of the recent mainstream anime. Ranked #54 on MAL for popularity with over 1 million members.

Inazuma Eleven GO

Kyoukai no Kanata - Has over a million members on MAL, rated by over 500k people, and is ranked #122 in terms of popularity. Also has 9.7k tag followers on Tumblr, which is very high compared to the other accepted shows

Kyousou Giga - insufficient/unconvincing propaganda and lacks triggers

Mekakucity Actors - the anime itself isn’t popular, but Kagerou Project, the Vocaloid music video series which it is based on, is extremely popular. #kagerou project has 14k tag followers.

Meganebu - insufficient/unconvincing propaganda and lacks triggers

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

Noragami - Ranked #47 in Tumblr’s Top AniManga Fandoms in 2021

Odd Taxi - won several awards during the 6th Crunchyroll Anime Awards as well as won against the iconic The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in this poll with over 3k votes.

Planetarian - insufficient/unconvincing propaganda. Also lacks triggers.

Kekkai Sensen

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai - Doesn’t have that many fics on AO3, but it ranks #52 on MAL in terms of popularity and has over 1M in both MAL users and members. Also has 1.4k tag followers on Tumblr—not a big number but still indicates an active fandom.

Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight - Although it’s rated low on MAL, it’s apparently quite popular on Tumblr. It won against the very popular Sailor Moon in another poll tournament with over 9k votes.

Tai Chi Chasers - Submitter either made a mistake or outright lied about the year this show was released. They stated 2011, but the actual year is 2007. That’s before 2010, which disqualifies it from this tournament.

Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official’s Blessing - made it to Tumblr’s top AniManga fandoms. It was ranked #14 in 2021 and #16 in 2022.

Vatican Miracle Examiner - insufficient/unconvincing propaganda

Violet Evergarden

[suisaber25]

Going through Symphogear hentai is a double edged sword

I will not elaborate on the downside but on the other hand this is so peak I can’t 🥺🥺🥺🥺