Once again we in the anime fan community are faced with the ultimate contest of the gods, the Anime Saimoe Tournament. Run by a mighty engine that can be a god or a devil, Saimoe pits the anime girls against each other to see who the otaku of the internet deem to be the most moe character of that year.

In recent years, foreigners have been encouraged to vote, and as such an English translation of the rules have been posted, as well as a Chinese one. Just as a warning, the instructions are kind of cryptic (“Voting will occur in the voting location”) so it can be pretty confusing. 2channel uses a rather unusual thread system where posts are locked and archived after 1000 replies, so keep in mind that there is no SINGLE Saimoe thread.

It’s not really feasible for me to keep updating the voting threads constantly, so I’ll leave that to the popular anime forums, unless it really matters to me.

Currently, the tournament is undergoing preliminaries, where voters can choose who among the ENTIRE pool of female characters of 2008 are worthy enough to get into the tournament proper. The most important thing to keep in mind here is that Ogiue’s preliminary round is on July 22nd, 2008.

When it gets near Ogiue’s voting date(s) I’ll further clarify what needs to be done, but keep her in your mind and in your heart.