Kanade Tachibana

Kanade Tachibana, initially known simply as Angel (or Tenshi in Japanese), is the titular character of the 2010 anime series Angel Beats! She is one of the most successful girls ever to grace the International Saimoe League with a total of nine poster awards to her name. The Angel was the most dominant contestant from 2011 to 2014; during that time she became the first girl to win 7 gem awards, including three straight division championships, and has never placed below third in final positions. Kanade is also the first female to achieve a perfect season, having won the tiara in 2012 without losing or drawing a single match.

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Contest profile
Kanade holds a moderate presence in the contests of r/anime. Her Best Girl Contest performance is a hit-or-miss; while she managed to get into the Round of 32 two times (in 2014 and 2017), in recent years she has struggled to maintain her waning power in the tournament brackets due to becoming overshadowed by characters from popular and relatively recent shows.

Elsewhere, she finished as a runner-up on her first year in the defunct Korea Best Moe tournament, and enjoyed a relatively strong presence in China's Bilibili Moe, reaching the quarterfinals of the inaugural tournament due to appearing in the Angel Beats! OVA series.

In ISML
Of course, you probably read this article because of her exemplary history in the International Saimoe League.

Legendary. Mythical. Godlike. These are some of the words used to describe Kanade's performance in ISML's Main Tournament appearances from 2011 to 2014. Possessing a large and dedicated fanbase backed by Key supporters and P.A. Works supporters, the Angel is best associated with the tournament's Stella-Nova era, from which she enjoyed great success. It took the passing of the "Champions rule" in 2015 and a Tournament of Champions gap in 2016 to end her reign.

2011-2014
Coming off of a loss in the KBM 2010 final and a mediocre appearance in 2channel's Saimoe, Kanade debuted in ISML 2011 and immediately took over the contest by posting a perfect regular season record (49 wins), thereby securing the first seed in the single-elimination playoffs. However, she lost to last year's runner-up and longtime veteran Shana in the semi-finals, but scored third place after defeating fellow super rookie Kuroneko in the consolation match.

In 2012, Tachibana was assigned to the Nova division. There, she completed a historic perfect season by winning all 35 regular season matches, and then posted one of the most dominant playoff runs in ISML history with an 8-0 record. Her vote shares never went below 60% in almost all of her postseason matches; only Kobato Hasegawa during the nova quarter-finals managed to pull the Angel below that percentage.

Kanade shifted to the Stella division in ISML 2013, where she extended her win streak to an unprecedented 71 wins (and 112 in regular season only) after winning 28 straight matches. Her quest to claim a second straight tiara was challenged only by two people: former champion Mikoto Misaka, who broke her winstreak after beating her in Topaz 1 (29th matchday), and hungry rival Kuroneko, who also defeated her in the final regular season match. Although the Angel would beat both of them during the postseason --- Ruri in the stella division final and Mikoto in the tiara semi-finals --- she ultimately failed at the last hurdle after Kuroneko got her revenge in the title-deciding final match.

Although hurt by this loss, Kanade maintained her near-unstoppable form in the wake of the ISML 2014 regular season, only dropping one match against Misaka. She then ciaimed her third straight division title afterwards, which included victories against Mashiro and Misaka, and went all the way to the Tiara semi-finals where she was eliminated by Date A Live upstart and eventual champion Kotori Itsuka. The Angel settled for another third-place finish after beating Oreimo's Ayase Aragaki.

Tournament of Champions (2015-2019)
TBD

HanaKana Bowl (Tenshi-Kuroneko)
From 2011 to 2014, Kanade's most frequent rival is Ruri Gokou, another character voiced by her voice actress Kana Hanazawa. The pair have a history of meeting in the playoff stages every year, with Tenshi winning all but one match against Kuroneko.

Celestial Derby (Tenshi-Railgun)
Tachibana also holds a rivalry against Mikoto Misaka (aka the Railgun) for the honour of being ISML's greatest competitor of all time. As of 2021, these girls each have won 9 awards in the contest, having won one tiara championship apiece. Angel leads in gems 7 to 6, while the Railgun has two Tournament of Champions victories compared to Tenshi's one.

The pair have met each other in the postseason two times -- 2013 Tiara semi-final and 2014 Diamond playoff round 4 --- with both matches ending in Kanade's victory. While the rivalry would re-ignited with Angel's return in 2021, it is likely to decided in Misaka's favour as she continues to be a top tiara contender thanks to the support from Chinese Railgun fans,  while the returning Angel is well past her prime years.

Main Tournament
Overall Record (as of ISML 2021 regular season)

ISML 2011



 * Other Necklace Match


 * 1st (49-0-0)


 * Tachibana Kanade > Sengoku Nadeko (6107-2900)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Katsura Hinagiku (6442-4130)
 * Shana > Tachibana Kanade (7624-6929)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) (9993-6995)

ISML 2012

 * Stella 1st (35-0)
 * Gems Won: Aquamarine,  Sapphire

Necklace Round:

|header = Regular Season (35-0)}}

Nova Playoffs


 * Tachibana Kanade > Haruna (6578-2036)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Hasegawa Kobato (5827-4001)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Yui (7005-2849)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) (6770-3404)

Tiara Playoffs


 * Tachibana Kanade > Suzumiya Haruhi (6223-3095)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Nakamura Yuri (7851-2362)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) (7594-3438)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Eucliwood Hellscythe (9064-4485)

ISML 2013

 * Stella 2nd (33-2)
 * Average VF: 5714
 * Average VA: 2749
 * Average VF%: 68.34%
 * Average VA%: 31.66%}}
 * Gems Won: Aquamarine.  Diamond

Stella Playoffs


 * Tachibana Kanade > Suzumiya Haruhi (6908-3019)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Kousaka Kirino (6543-3038)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Misaka Mikoto (7030-5107)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) (4268-4252)

Tiara Playoffs


 * Tachibana Kanade > Yuzuriha Inori (6013-3693)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Kuroyukihime (7656-4276)
 * Tachibana Kanade > Misaka Mikoto (8254-6060)
 * Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) > Tachibana Kanade (8343-7234)

ISML 2014

 * Stella 2nd (34-1)
 * Gems Won: Amethyst,  Diamond

Stella Swiss Rounds



Tiara Playoffs



Anime Saimoe Tournament
2010


 * Kanade Tachibana > Index > Suou Pavlichenko > Tsubomi Hanasaki (646-536-67-47)
 * Kanade Tachibana > Yuki Nagato > Lisa (652-631-79)
 * Aoi Yamada > Kanade Tachibana > Komoe Tsukuyomi (748-670-62)

2011


 * Kanade Tachibana > Tsumugi Kotobuki > Yutaka Imai (527-378-57)
 * Kanade Tachibana > Tsukasa Ayatsuji > Merry Nightmare (393-217-113)
 * Kanade Tachibana > Gertrud Barkhorn (474-361)
 * Erica Hartmann > Kanade Tachibana (377-323)

Korea Best Moe Tournament
2010


 * Kanade Tachibana > Tsubasa Hanekawa > Yusa (951-389-205)
 * Kanade Tachibana > Anri Sonohara (891-592)
 * Kanade Tachibana > Kurimu Sakurano (1043-582)
 * Kanade Tachibana > Kyou Fujibayashi (909-837)
 * Kanade Tachibana > Yui Hirasawa (1397-1168)
 * Mio Akiyama > Kanade Tachibana (2546-2398)

2011


 * Charlotte Dunois > Kanade Tachibana > Stocking Anarchy (181-180-60)

SenpuuSociety European Saimoe
2011



Honours
Total Contest Wins = 8


 * 1) Anitown Moe Tournament 2010 Spring
 * 2) Baidu AST 2010
 * 3) Baidu CIP Moe 2010
 * 4) Facebook WeLoveACG Saimoe 2011
 * 5) Facebook Jpanime88 Saimoe Contest 2012 Dead site
 * 6) Jiazuman(家族漫, lit. Anime Family) Community Moe 2012
 * 7) ISML 2012 Heavenly Tiara ★
 * 8) ISML 2015 Tournament of Champions ☆

Runner-up Lists
List of runner-up finishes = 9
 * 1) KBM 2010
 * 2) Baidu Harem Moe 2011
 * 3) FB Moe League 2012
 * 4) ISML 2013
 * 5) ZERO2014 Moe Contest Dead Link
 * 6) (Sina.Blog) Yuan Saimoe Super League Summer
 * 7) ISML 2016 Tournament of Champions
 * 8) Anime Trending 2020 2010's Waifu Grand offs
 * 9) Baidu Chinese Best Moe 2021