It began with 289.....

The Anime Saimoe Tournament (AST), also known as Japan Saimoe (J-Saimoe), is the longest running moe tournament that began in 2002. Since then various other moe tournaments have popped up with the mainstream being AST, Korean Best Moe (KBM), Korean Super Best Moe (KSBM), and International Saimoe League (ISML). Today this article will focus on Japan Saimoe, the most well known, dramatic, and competitive moe tournament.
Each year, any female character that shows up (cameo, supporting character, no-name characters, protagonist, furry, android etc...) in a TV series, OVA, or movie that ran/premiered between July 1st of the previous year and June 30th of the current year is automatically eligible for AST. To narrow down the candidates to a few hundred, nominations and two separate preliminaries are held: primary and secondary. Ignoring all the details since most of you won't read/care anyways, the characters that survive these preliminaries are then randomized into 8 different blocks with subgroups for the main tournament. Here, the format changes every year from 3-way block finals to 4-way round 1 matches. The character that survives each block then moves on to the quarterfinals, etc, etc..

Since the beginning in 2002, there have been 8 decisive wins, no ties.
2002: Sakura Kinomoto (Card Captor Sakura)
2003: Riku Harada (D.N. Angel)
2004: Rosemary Applefield (Ashita no Nadja)
2005: Nanoha Takamachi (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha)
2006: Suiseiseki (Rozen Maiden: Traumend)
2007: Rika Furude (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni)
2008: Kagami Hiiragi (Lucky Star)
2009: Taiga Aisaka (Toradora!)

A bit of trivia: 2008 doesn't exist to most people due to the overstuffed Kyoto Animation quarterfinals and the train wreck that occurred that year with a non-competitive same series/sisters final. Also, until 2005, foreign votes barely influenced the competition.

Saimoe 2010 took off on June 26, 2010 with nominations with preliminaries following shortly after in July, but the main tournament did not begin until August 3, 2010. By the time of the main tournament, only 289 characters representing a variety of series remained qualified. After over 2 months of intense drama, endless days and sleepless nights, the final day of Saimoe 2010 has arrived.

By the October 6, 2010, the quarter-finalists had been decided:

Block A: Nagi Sazenin (Hayate no Gotoku!!)

Block B: Shana (Shakugan no Shana S)

Block C: Nodoka Haramura (Saki)

Block D: Amae Koromo (Saki)

Block E: Aoi Yamada (Working!!)

Block F: Mafuyu Shiina (Seitokai no Ichizon)

Block G: Azusa Nakano (K-ON!!)

Block H: Ruiko Saten (To Aru Kagaku no Railgun) 




Note that this is the most diverse lineup since 2006, where 2006 contained 8 quarter finalists from 8 different series.

On October 16, 2010, in Japan, this year's finalists went head to head to claim the Saimoe 2010 crown. 

Representing Hayate no Gotoku!! (Hayate the Combat Butler!!) is the female protagonist Nagi Sanzenin. Nagi Sanzenin, voiced by well known Rie Kugimiya, has competed in Saimoe since its debut in 2007, and is considered probably the most consistent competitor in Saimoe history, rivaling that of Rozen Maiden's characters. Since her debut, Nagi has always been stopped by unanticipated competition. In 2007, she was deemed as runner-up when Rika Furude from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni won by 22 votes. In 2008, she was defeated by Lucky Star's Tsukasa Hiiragi in Round 3 of the tournament: 1080 to 889. In 2009, she was defeated yet again in Round 3 (this time Block Finals though) by Saki's Nodoka Haramura (aka the Rie-Slayer):  890-874. Looking to secure the Hayate faction's first win AST, Nagi attempts again by entering the finals.
In 2010, Nagi Sanzenin was placed into Block A of the main tournament after ranking first in her preliminary group. Having aired in Spring 2009, the Hayate faction is one of the older series in the competition and was off to a sluggish start after Round 1 by losing key candidate Hinagiku Katsura to Mafuyu Shiina (Seitokai no Ichizon). Given the weakness of Nagi's opponents in rounds 1 and 2, many suspected that the Hayate faction would fall not too soon after, particularly where she crossed path with Bakemonogatari's Nadeko Sengoku. Nadeko had just come off a startling, yet decisive victory over last year's runner-up Yui Hirasawa from K-ON!! With Nadeko anticipated to win the match, Nagi not only caused an upset, but made Nadeko look like a complete fool by crushing her 960 to 799 on September 28, 2010 to win the A Block Finals.
In the quarterfinals, Nagi was initially paired with Group F's winner Mafuyu Shiina. Having humiliated and eliminated Hinagiku in the first round, Nagi and the Hayate faction were eager for revenge, and indeed the victory was overwhelming: 721 to 531. Whether or not Mafuyu was a mere pawn in the entire tournament remains another issue. In the semifinal match, Nagi faced off with last year's quarter-finalist Amae Koromo. The Saki faction was out to seek its first semifinal win after having both its remaining candidates denied in 2009 in the exact same spot. Unfortunately, Koromo did not deliver, and like Mafuyu, suffered a decisive lost: 1228 to 923. During this match, Nagi broke the record for highest vote count in Saimoe 2010, which was originally held by the other finalist, Azusa Nakano (K-ON!!), since the block finals. With Nagi backed by the KugiRie faction as well as those eager to have the Hayate faction win one after being denied all these years, the outcome almost seemed to obvious.

Looking at the other side of the match, and representing K-ON!! is Azusa Nakano. Azusa Nakano is voiced by Ayana Taketatsu and is making her second debut in the Saimoe tournament. Last year, Azusa was denied by champion Taiga Aisaka (Toradora!) in the block finals: 825 to 711. This year Azusa was out for revenge and was off to a strong start by winning the first round of the prelims. With K-ON!! simultaneously running as Saimoe 2010 progressed, it seemed that the entire K-ON! faction would dominate the entire competition. In round 1, with the exception of Ui Hirasawa, all the main K-ON! heroines advanced with solid wins, with Azusa trumping her opponents by more than two times the sum of all their votes combined. Whether or not Ui was "bused" to prevent a round 2 disaster for Azusa remains unkown. In round 2, Azusa faced off with Poplar Taneshima (Working!!), who she barely edged out in the prelims, and Saki's Momoko Touyoko. In a match that was suppose to be close, Azusa triumphs in a startling manner. However, by the end of Round 2, the sole survivors of the K-ON!! faction were Azusa and Mio Akyama, both of who were in the same block final with top tier character Misaka Mikoto (To Aru Kagaku no Railgun). In what seemed to be the end of K-ON!!'s run as well as the same block final position for Azusa, Mio was laid down as the sacrifice and bused while Azusa took the lead to overcome Misaka by 26 votes: 1052 to 1026, thus being the first competitor to break the 1000 vote mark this year as well as the record vote count this year, and winning the Block G Finals.
In the quarterfinals, she was matched with Aoi Yamada (Working!!), who was one not to be taken lightly after overwhelming the anticipated winner for this year, Kanade Tachibana aka Tenshi from Angel Beats! in the E Block Finals: 748 to 670. Azusa wasted no time and put Aoi in her place with over a 300 vote win. In the semifinals, Azusa squared off with Saki's Nodoka Haramura, who was last year's semifinalist that lost to champion Taiga Aisaka. Nodoka has been in positions very similar to that of Azusa. In block finals, Nodoka, as Saki's "ace" (after winning the the 3-way Saki round), took down Hayate no Gotoku!!'s Maria 866 to 624 while being handicapped by last year's quarter-finalist, Yuuki Kataoka from Saki. So like Azusa, she has survived a split vote match in a similar environment. In addition, Nodoka faced off with Shakugan no Shana's own Shana, another character who has had an impressive performance since the beginning of her Saimoe days in 2006. Shana had defeated 2005 winner Nanoha (again) in the block finals and held the highest preliminary round votes in a competitive group. For Nodoka to take down yet another Rie Kugimiya voiced character, it would seem that Nodoka was going to give Azusa a hard time, and yet Azusa made it look easy with a 160 vote win.

Finally, after the long winded essay above, we finally reached the pinnacle of the Saimoe tournament. In a match format similar to last year, this was bound to be the most competitive match this year and the most competitive since the Nagi vs. Rika match in 2007. On October 17, 2010 in Japan, the Saimoe 2010 champion was announced:
AZUSA NAKANO (K-ON!!)

had triumphed over Nagi Sanzenin 1516 to 1339. Yet again Nagi has been denied a win, but it seems like this year, the "Rievenge" was stronger than the "Riepeat."

Anyways, until next year! Who will you pick?