Kei Shirogane

For the Log Horizon protagonist who was displayed in ISML as "Shirogane Kei", see Shiroe.

Kei Shirogane is a supporting character from Aka Akasaka's manga Kaguya-sama: Love is War. She is the white-haired younger step-sister of lead male Miyuki Shirogane, and is best known for serving as "help I'm stuck", for being wanted by Kaguya to be her little slave. and for being a attracted towards his brother kinda step sister unlike like many anime sisters nowadays.

Kei gained notoriety in r/anime brackets for being a glaring example of a side character getting carried by the show's popularity alone despite having little screentime, which is enough for her to beat main characters from relatively less-watched anime. She also holds a moderate presence in the International Saimoe League due to the Kaguya-sama voting faction, and has won an award there by winning the 2020 spring seasonal.

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r/anime[]

Kei in best girl 7 — Never count one's chickens before they hatch. (Original post in the /r/anime Podcast / Tokyo Podfathers discord.)

A debutant from the Winter 2019 anime season, Kei secured the 6th seed in r/anime's corresponding seasonal and reached the quarter-finals because of relatively weaker opposition. She then massively lost to Ai Hayasaka who had 90.76% of the votes. In the yearly contest, she lost to Yotsuba Nakano in the first round.

Kei made her Best Girl debut as a #7 seed in the seventh edition, which was supported by the Kaguya-sam anime having its last episodes of season 2 airing at the start of the contest. Naturally, this was met with complaints talking about recency and show bias, and she was spite-voted out of round 3 as a result, losing by 40 votes against the evergreen Rikka Takanashi and becoming the highest seed to exit at that stage in the competition's history. Later that year, she made another highlight in Best Character 5 when she beat Hinata Kawamoto, a character who has significantly more development and screentime from the highly-rated but under-discussed 3-gatsu no Lion, by 19 votes in round 2.

In Best Girl 8, the #10 seed Kei finally made it past round 3 by defeating Tohru Honda, betraying the expectations of users who hoped that Tohru's recency bias would cause an upset win, since the final season of the Fruits Basket remake reached its definitive conclusion just days before the match. At the same time, the result further proved Kaguya-sama's iron grip in the contest and the stigma against shoujo-oriented series in the subreddit. Kei then lost to Attack on Titan's Krista Lenz afterwards, again becoming the first top 10-seeded girl to fall.

Kei's prominence continued in Best Girl 9, where she benefited again from the recent broadcast of the anime's season 3. Seeded at #12 opposite Holo in Bracket B, Kei was rewarded with a relatively easier path of opponents. She defeated Komachi Hikigaya in the round 3 imouto bowl and survived a scare against Yoko Littner to progress to round 5, where she lost to Christmas cake teacher Shizuka Hiratsuka by 40 votes — the same margin where she got upset by Rikka two editions ago.

Seasonal Salt - Winter 2019 - seed 6

(59) Fizel @ Sword Art Online -- 2044 - 161
(38) Touka Miyashita @ Boogiepop -- 1846 - 573
(11) Ichika Nakano @ 5-toubun -- 1732 - 1518
(3) Ai Hayasaka @ Kaguya-sama -- 337 - 3311

Best Girl of 2019 - seed 13

(20) Yotsuba Nakano @ 5-toubun -- 1096 - 1132

Best Girl 7 - seed 7

(506) Sayaka Sumimo @ Aho Girl -- 2405 - 567
(263) Miia @ Monster Musume -- 2734 - 1351
(135) Rikka Takanashi @ Chuunibyou -- 2252 - 2292

Best Girl 8 - seed 10

(503) Moro @ Princess Mononoke -- 3918 - 495
(266) LLENN @ Sword Art Online -- 3070 - 1315
(138) Tohru Honda @ Fruits Basket -- 1959 - 1831
(55) Krista Lenz @ Attack on Titan -- 1970 - 2021

Best Character 5 - seed 94

(419) Kagami Hiiragi @ Lucky Star -- 819 - 315
(163) Hinata Kawamoto @ 3-gatsu no Lion -- 538 - 520
(35) Saber @ Fate/stay night -- 430 - 896

ISML[]

Continuing the trend of being carried by the show's popularity, the younger Shirogane sibling won ISML's seasonal diadem in the 2020 Spring contest as the top seed, defeating fellow cast member Miko Iino in the final match. This victory secured her an appearance in ISML 2021's preliminary rounds, and eventually, its regular season stage.

Kei started the regular season by defeating ISML powerhouse Rin Tohsaka, which set the tone for her performance that year where she was able to go toe-to-toe with some of the tournament's regulars. She's also notable for beating former playoffs contender Kurisu Makise twice. Kei survived until Split 3 where she was eliminated at 15th place in her group. In the consolations, Kei defeated Utaha and lost to Rin right after, finishing at 24th place - which is better than the likes of Nishimiya (21 wins), Kuroko (20), and Schwi (18) - despite having far less regular season wins herself (12).

Seasonal[]

ISML 2020 - Spring Seasonal

Elim. round (Prelim 6, Approval, Max 16:) 1730 (1st, Advanced)
Aqua 2: (16) Haru Nonaka @ Sing "Yesterday" for Me -- 3896 - 709
Aqua Gem: (8) Maria Campbell @ Hamefura -- 3168 - 1265
Topaz 1: (4) Kokkoro @ Priconne -- 2107 - 1494
Topaz 5: (2) Miko Iino @ Kaguya-sama -- 2858 - 2387

Main Tournament[]

Overall record as of ISML 2021:

Regular season: 12-23
Postseason: 1-1
Total: 13-24

ISML 2021
Directly Invited (2020 spring diadem)
Preliminary R1 (Approval): 1576 (14th) Preliminary R2 (Limited to 3 votes): 1061 (4th) Results: 41st / 72nd (ARP: 15)
Stage	Rd	Opponent	Score	W-L?
Split 1 Group H 3rd - 3W 2L (Adv)	Aqua 1	Rin Tohsaka	1543 - 1399	W
	Aqua 2	Tsukasa Tsukuyomi	1526 - 1982	L
	Aqua 3	Rikka Takanashi	1865 - 3078	L
	Aqua 4	Yoshino (Date A Live)	2521 - 2016	W
	Aqua 5	Kurisu Makise	2250 - 1589	W

Split 2 Group C 8th - 8W 7L (WC)	Tpz 1	Yui Yuigahama	1309 - 1654	L
	Tpz 2	Ichigo (DitF)	1477 - 935	W
	Tpz 3	Mai Sakurajima	795 - 1321	L
	Tpz 4	Kaori Miyazono	1622 - 1174	W
	Tpz 5	Utaha Kasumigaoka	1385 - 1568	L
	Amet 1	Iroha Isshiki	1116 - 1292	L
	Amet 2	Shouko Makinohara	1130 - 894	W
	Amet 3	Nao Tomori	1087 - 1490	L
	Amet 4	Beatrice (Re:Zero)	2150 - 1308	W
	Amet 5	Umaru Doma	2340 - 1480	W
	Sapp 1	Rin Tohsaka ^x2	1490 - 1562	L
	Sapp 2	Ai Hayasaka	1392 - 2092	L
	Sapp 3	Zero Two	1601 - 1457	W
	Sapp 4	Nanami Aoyama	1935 - 1691	W
	Sapp 5	Shinka Nibutani	2108 - 1665	W
	Wildcards (approval, Max 8): 3467 votes -- 4th / 20th, Survived
Split 3 Group B 15th - 1W 14L (Out)
	Eme 1	Mai Sakurajima ^x2	790 - 1145	L
	Eme 2	Elaina	788 - 1711	L
	Eme 3	Megumin	900 - 1093	L
	Eme 4	Index	1100 - 1263	L
	Eme 5	Nao Tomori ^x2	1062 - 1216	L
	Ruby 1	Emilia	972 - 1436	L
	Ruby 2	Mio Akiyama	991 - 1133	L
	Ruby 3	Utaha Kasumigaoka ^x2	942 - 1401	L
	Ruby 4	Shouko Nishimiya	1169 - 1406	L
	Ruby 5	Asuna	1073 - 1640	L
	Dia 1	Mashiro Shiina	889 - 1401	L
	Dia 2	Kurisu Makise ^x2	1206 - 1120	W
	Dia 3	Shiro	1145 - 1276	L
	Dia 4	Misaki Shokuhou	1209 - 1393	L
	Dia 5	Kanade Tachibana	1400 - 1684	L
.....
CONSOLATION MATCHES
Playoffs (consolations)
	PO 1	Utaha Kasumigaoka ^x3	2477 - 2076	W
	PO 2	Rin Tohsaka ^x3	2617 - 2826	L
	Final position: 24th Lost at: PO 2; RS W: 18; RS CVP: 35.968

Poster gallery[]

External links[]

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Saimoe Wiki - Miraheze
Kaguya-sama Wiki - Fandom
MyAnimeList
Baike Baidu (Chinese)
Moegirl (Chinese)
NamuWiki (Korean)

ISML Seasonal Diadem Winners
2012	Ririchiyo • Kuroyukihime • Asuna • Rikka
2013	Black Rabbit • Kurumi • Kirigiri • Mirai
2014	Chitoge • Shiro • Chiyo • Isuzu
2015	Megumi K. • Isla • Nao • Mitsuki^{ND, SEQ}
2016	Megumin • Rem • Aoba • Chitose
2017	Kanna • Chtholly • Suzune • Nayuta
2018	Violet • Uraraka^{ND, SEQ} • Platelet • Mai-san
2019	Kaguya • Fumino • Gray • Ishtar
2020	Kotoko • Kei S.^SEQ • Chizuru • Elaina
2021	Female	Miku^{ND, SEQ} • Iino^{ND, SEQ} • Keke ^DC • Ran^{ND, SEQ}
2021	Male	Tanjiro^{SEQ, DC} • Natsume^SEQ • Kimihiko • Lugh
2022
^{ND - NOT a DEBUTANT; appeared in a seasonal contest beforehand} ^{SEQ - Appeared in a SEQUEL installment} ^{DC - Won inter-seasonal playoffs (Divine Circlet / Crown)} ^{DCX - Won inter-seasonal playoffs but not a seasonal (listed last)}