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[[File:saimoe blood.png|thumb|280px|waifus and moe. serious fucking business]]
'''Saimoe''' (最萌) is a general term for a series of '''tournament-style popularity voting events''' held on the Internet. The word literally means "'''cutest / most ''moe'''''", referring to the most common subjects of such events: fictional girls from Japanese-produced anime, manga, novels, and video games.

The word "saimoe" originated from the online Japanese otaku community. The earliest saimoe tournament occurred on the Japanese textboard website "Leaf, Key BBS", better known by its nickname '''Leaf-Key Board''' (葉鍵板), when it  organized the [[Leaf-Key Board Saimoe Tournament]] in '''[[Leaf-Key Board Saimoe 2001|2001]]''', contested by girls appearing in works produced by adult visual novel companies {{wiki2|Leaf (company)|Leaf}} and {{wiki2|Key (company)|Key}}. This tournament garnered much attention from Japanese netizens, spawning numerous derivatives. One of those events was the '''[[Anime Saimoe Tournament]]''' organized by the large Japanese textboard forum {{wiki|2channel}}<ref group="note">Not to be confused with {{wiki|Futaba Channel}} ''a.k.a.'' 2chan, an '''image'''board website existing separately from 2channel. 2channel is a '''text'''board, meaning it doesn't use images.</ref>. The 2channel tournament popularized the "saimoe" term outside Japan, and inspired the creation of similar contests from non-Japanese anime communities such as the [[Korea Best Moe Tournament]] and the [[International Saimoe League]]. 

In 2007, the community of [[4chan]]'s /a/nime and manga anonymous imageboard invented a male counterpart named '''[[SaiGAR]]''', which literally means the "most manly / badass anime character". Although the resulting tournament was short-lived, the SaiGAR name (also spelled Saigar) has been adopted in some male character contests outside the website.

Elsewhere on the Internet, numerous online popularity voting tournaments have been organized independently from Japan's saimoe tournaments and its derivatives, like the site-wide [[GameFAQs Character Battles|Character Battles]] organized by the gaming site GameFAQs on 2002.

The Saimoe Wiki is dedicated to documenting these eponymous tournaments. Initially covering just a few anime girl tournaments, in 2021 the Wiki has expanded its articles to cover popularity voting tournaments in various platforms, regardless of name, media type, or characters involved.

==Overview==
===What is Moe?===
According to Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Moe (slang)|English article]] on the subject, '''''Moe''''' (pronounced ''mo-eh'', also spelled '''''moé'''''), "is a Japanese word that refers to feelings of strong affection mainly towards characters in anime, manga, video games, and other media directed at the ''otaku'' market."  ''Moe'' is an important facet of otaku culture. It has been commercialized by companies to great effect like making objects / concepts as anime girls (''moe'' anthropomorphism), and the psychology surrounding the concept is discussed by notable commentators around the world.

Generally speaking, ''moe'' is a fictional character's "cute traits" which elicit feelings of protection, romantic desirability, and sexual excitement to the audience. However, what makes a person "cute" naturally differs for each person. There are multiple archetypes which capitalize on a certain set of traits that make a character ''moe'' in a particular way, as popularized by pioneering characters like [[Lum Invader]], [[Sailor Saturn]], [[Rei Ayanami]], and [[Shana]].

''Moe'' is predominantly attributed to females. Male characters can also have ''moe'' traits too; but since the concept is feminine, many ''moe'' males tend to be categorized as ''otokonoko'', or known in the Western anime community as ''[[trap]]s''. 

===Saimoe Principles===
Saimoe usually follows a set of principles. The following text below is a loose English translation from an outdated Chinese wiki site covering the [[Anime Saimoe Tournament]].<ref>https://w.atwiki.jp/saimoe/</ref>

'''Saimoe Rules <sub>最萌原则</sub>'''
*Every voter has own MOE preferences. <sub>萌有千差万别，各人都有自己的萌。</sub>
*Do not hanging to the result, and denying other's preference. <sub>不能因为自己的萌而去刻意否认他人的萌。</sub>
*It will make you glorious to be fair and square. Just vote for your pick. <sub>赌上荣耀，为自己的萌投上干净的一票。</sub>

'''Saimoe Tenets <sub>最萌理念</sub>'''
*Saimoe is not just a popularity poll. <sub>最萌不是单纯的人气投票。</sub>
*Enjoy the contest, without defilement from the result. <sub>不拘泥于比赛胜败，作为祭典从心底感受真正的乐趣。</sub>
*Multi-voting is not allowed: One votes per one person. <sub>不做多重投票，每人1日1票。</sub>
*Do not insult opponent contestants and their voters. <sub>不做针对对战对手和支援者的诽谤和中伤。</sub>
*It is better that the topic of the poll is supporting messages. <sub>投票主题欢迎萌文以及各类支援。</sub>
*Wipe out the dark side of competiton, by dedicated cheering. <sub>用支援和爱冲散赛场上的阴霾。</sub>
*Must not bring your temper from the result to real-life. <sub>绝不把胜败的遗恨带出赛场之外。</sub>

'''Saimoe Components <sub>最萌要素</sub>'''
*Introductions for characters and programs. <sub>作品及角色的介绍。</sub>
*Discovering new MOE traits from contestants. <sub>已知角色、动画之魅力的再发掘。</sub>
*Faction Politics, Entertainments. <sub>作为政治游戏、比赛的娱乐题材。</sub>
*Discussions about the collision from the poll.<sub>将对战和投票行为作为捏他，杂谈的题材。</sub>
*Interactions, Collaborations with other voters. <sub>交流、协作、不同作品角色相逢的舞台。</sub>
*Fandom Taste Measurement. <sub>一定程度上FAN倾向的测定。</sub>
*Mere activation of community. <sub>集结参与者，板内振兴的祭典。</sub>

===Moe: Serious Fucking Business===
Since the perception of ''moe'' varies between each person, if these characters were to be ranked by any way, it will ''always'' lead to disagreements, and these disagreements often tend to escalate into a full-scale flame war among anime fans. Because of this, most saimoe tournaments are typically characterized by '''competitiveness and controversy''' — not unlike real sports events and their passionate fans — as they focus less on the celebration of girls' ''moe'' traits and more on being a glorified popularity contest where the winner is decided by recognizability, or which fanbase is more active and can gather the most votes. The sports-like nature of these events fosters a competitive environment where enterprising voters may do anything it takes for their favorite to win, including but not limited to forming alliances, rallying to outside communities, sabotage attacks, and strategic voting. Furthermore, conflicts between the voters and tournament runners are common, such as disagreements with the tournament rules and accusing the organizers of "rigging" the tournament (usually said if their favorite character is eliminated). The highly competitive nature of saimoe has been immortalized by phrases such as "Moe: Serious Fucking Business", /a/'s unofficial slogan for 2channel's [[Anime Saimoe Tournament]],<ref name="4chan website">[https://web.archive.org/web/20220606155555/http://www.animesaimoe.org/ Unofficial Anime Saimoe Website by /a/nonymous]. Archived from [http://www.animesaimoe.org/ the original] on 2022-06-06.</ref> and the saying "Moe competitions will never bring happiness" used in Chinese ACGN communities. 

Many tournaments' results are seriously analyzed through graphs, tables, and various forms of trivial statistics and trends; however, these stats are ''not'' meant to measure, nor accurately indicate, the overall popularity of a show or character. 

One particular objective that's been proven effective is exposing relatively obscure or undiscovered series to new fans. A character winning some rounds, or even simply appearing in a given tournament, has piqued the interest of some people, leading them to watch their anime. For instance, [[r/anime|Reddit]]'s [[Best Girl Contest]] is often called an "advertisement for ''Spice & Wolf''" by users because its heroine [[Holo]] has a very vocal user base and consistently makes the final rounds of the contest, to the point of becoming a "meme" within the community.

==History==
===Precursors===
[[File:animage female 1990.png|thumb|right|300px|The top 5 female characters of Anime Grand Prix 1990.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101019175311/http://animage.jp/old/gp/gp_1990.html "第12回アニメグランプリ［1990年5月号］"]. Tokuma Shoten. Archived from [http://animage.jp/old/gp/gp_1990.html the original] on 2010-10-19.</ref><ref group="note">'''#1.''' Kiki (''Kiki's Delivery Service'') &nbsp; '''#2.''' Noa Izumi (''Patlabor'') &nbsp; '''#3.''' Renge, the Queen Nara (''Shurato'') &nbsp; '''#4.''' Ranma Saotome (''Ranma 1/2'') &nbsp; '''#5.''' Kaori Makimura (''City Hunter'')</ref> Image originally uploaded on [https://animarchive.tumblr.com/post/173097032558/animage-051990-12th-anime-grand-prix Anim'Archive's Tumblr page].]]
Prior to the Internet age, various anime magazine publications have put what is essentially "reader's choice" awards for anime shows, characters, and voice actors, as voted by the magazine's readers. The oldest and most famous example is Animage's '''Anime Grand Prix''', an annual award which has been given since 1979 and still continues to this day.

According to the Japanese Wikipedia article about saimoe, the original event originated in '''Leaf-Key Board''', a Japanese anonymous textboard dedicated to the discussion of ''eroge'' works produced by companies Leaf and Key. In 2001, the board organized the [[Leaf-Key Board Saimoe 2001|Leaf-Key Board Saimoe Tournament]], which became popular among online Japanese otaku communities; prompting multiple websites to organize their own saimoe tournaments featuring a wide variety of competitors, ranging from fictional characters to real people and even non-person entities, such as cities in Saitama prefecture<Ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20041128151007/http://st.2cht.net/ "Saitama Saimoe Tournament"]. Archived from [http://st.2cht.net/ the original] on 2004-11-28.</ref> and railway lines.

===Creation of the Original Saimoe===
One of these spin-offs was the [[Anime Saimoe Tournament]] organized by the famous Japanese textboard {{wiki|2channel}}, which was created to serve as a "fair, unbiased" polling tournament to decide which anime girl at a given year could be considered the "most moe". A typical Saimoe tournament consists of at least 280 girls appearing from July 01 on the previous year to June 30, which will play a single-elimination bracket over seven rounds to decide the champion. The first tournament was held in [[AST 2002|2002]], won by iconic magical girl [[Sakura Kinomoto]].

However, since Saimoe is ultimately a popularity poll using a sports-like elimination format, "absolute fairness" will never be achieved, although the tournament can still serve a secondary purpose as a celebration of anime and its characters. The tournament's outlook changed in [[AST 2005|2005]] when fans of ''Lyrical Nanoha'' and ''Rozen Maiden'' started rallying support in their respective 2channel threads<sup>[citation needed]</sup>, which proved successful as both of their characters reached the final, with [[Nanoha Takamachi]] winning the title over [[Souseiseki]]; ''Rozen Maiden'' got their revenge [[AST 2006|the following year]] after [[Suiseiseki]] defeated [[Fate Testarossa]] in the title match. The rivalry between the two series led to an increase in vote turnout because thread members asked for votes in multiple websites, which made anime communities outside Japan aware of the event. This international attention prompted the (Japanese) Saimoe websites to implement an English version for non-Japanese voters.

===International Attention===
The results of Saimoe 2005 and 2006 editions caught the attention of several online anime communities around the world. 

====4chan====
'''[[4chan]]''' is an English-language anonymous imageboard website launched in 2003. One of its oldest boards is '''/a/''' - anime and manga. The 2channel Saimoe tournament became a dominant topic of discussion in the board as early as 2006, and many anons saw the event as an indicator of Japanese fans' taste in anime girls. It is believed that /a/ contributed votes on some of the tournament's winners such as [[Suiseiseki]] (who was the subject of a popular meme<ref>[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/desu Desu] - KnowYourMeme. Retrieved 2022-07-26</ref> at the time) and [[Rika Furude]]. An /a/nonymous user provided an unofficial English website which catalogues nearly all Saimoe  editions, including making their own graphics and providing statistical trivia.<ref name="4chan website" /> The board attempted to create their own male version of the saimoe tournament named [[SaiGAR]] in [[SaiGAR 2007|2007]]; but it was plagued by issues such as trolls, host incompetence, conflicts from the /m/echa board, and claims of cheating by using proxies to artificially inflate votes. The SaiGAR tournament was abandoned in just its second edition on [[SaiGAR 2008|2008]] after the organizer failed to address these problems.

====Anizone====
Meanwhile, a Korean website named '''Anizone''' successfully hosted their spin-off saimoe named [[Korea Best Moe Tournament]] (KBM), which inaugurated in [[KBM 2006|2006]]. The tournament has a quirk in that all surviving characters are re-drawn into new match-ups instead of being fixed into a bracket group. In 2007, Anizone created a separate tournament contested exclusively by male anime characters as a "practice run" for the females; however, it became an unexpected success due to the large amount of female voters, resulting in the establishment of a male tournament series.  In hopes of attracting a more diverse and international voter base, Anizone provided an English-translated version of its Korea Best Moe website that same year, followed by Japanese and Chinese versions. KBM experienced a rise in popularity after an alleged group of Vietnamese voters were believed to be responsible for the success of certain girls in the tournament.<sup>[citation needed]</sup>

In order to further find out what else may happen, the Best Moe Staff decided to try a condensed format of moe tournament, which lead to formation of Super Best Moe 2006-07, where only those who demonstrated success in previous Best Moe Tournaments would be allowed to enter. This experiment was surprising success with international crowd, most of them hoping for some sort of consolation for their character's defeat in Anime Saimoe Tournament.<sup>[citation needed]</sup>

====AnimeSuki====
The Saimoe tournaments also became a heavily-discussed topic on the discussion forums of '''AnimeSuki''', then the largest website for providing BitTorrent links to fan-subbed anime during the mid-2000's. As a response to the 2channel tournament enforcing increasingly restricting participation rules, the AnimeSuki community decided to create their own versions of the tournament, with suggestions such as "USA Saimoe". In 2008, a group of AnimeSuki forum members agreed to create a tournament called the [[International Saimoe League]] (ISML), which intends to become ''the'' Saimoe tournament where voters from all around the world can participate and share their anime girl preferences to others. The tournament is also unique in that it implements a lengthy regular season followed by a playoff period  — similar to the format used in major United States sports leagues — with additional awards called [[necklaces]] being given to the strongest girls during the season. Some AnimeSuki users involved in the group, such as Wontaek (Maglor), remains active today as ISML community members.

== Chronological Summary ==
■ ~2001: '''Pre-Saimoe Era'''
*It seems only a minority of the early saimoe tournaments dealt exclusively with anime characters. Other saimoe tournaments focused on visual novels, games, manga or music.

<br>■ 2002~2005: '''Classic Era'''
*The start of [[Anime Saimoe Tournament]]. Other minor tournaments were all held in Japan, including Gainax Saimoe, Tōhyō AST, and World Masterpiece Theater Saimoe.

<br>■ 2006~2010: '''Burst Period'''
*A lot of epigonic saimoe tournaments started all over the world: [[Best Moe Tournament]] and Super Best Moe, Yamibo Yuri Saimoe, Chica Anime All Stars, PTT Saimoe, loli battle, [[ISML]], Animefans Saimoe Tournament, Baidu Harem Moe or TGBUS Chinese Saimoe. 
*Especially, A sharp increase of CN/TW saimoe contests happened in this period.
*[[Shana]]'s Early Dominance: Frequent regime change of factions + Lack of competitors.

<br>■ 2010~2011: '''Transition Period'''
*The first of the epigonic saimoe tournaments disappeared: loli battle (last edition 2008), TGBUS Chinese Saimoe (last edition 2009), Korean Super Best Moe (last edition 2010) and PTT Saimoe (last edition 2011).
*Two multi-voter incidents: AST 2011 and [[KBM 2011]]. [[AST]] began to block foreign votes.
*Dictatorship of [[Mio Akiyama|K-ON!]] [[Azusa Nakano|faction]] in 2010: [[ISML]], [[KBM]], [[AST]], Aniparty Saimoe, PTT Saimoe.
*Faction Replacement: The older factions such as Clannad, Haruhi, Rozen Maiden, Hayate, Nanoha Series, Lucky Star, Higurashi are all diminished in every saimoe contests.

<br>■ 2012~2014: '''Schism Period'''

*The schism between ISML and AST, AST and KBM lead to more competition for the top characters. Afterwards many diffrent saimoe communities disagreed on favorite characters and series.
*[[KBM 2012]] male division incident, [[AST 2014]] Saki multi-voter controversy: Leading to dramatic decline of JP/KR saimoe contests + Discontinuance of AST & KBM.
*The size of the vote gradually declined; in all consistent saimoe contests.
*[[Mikoto Misaka]]'s Supremacy: Loyal Toaru fanbase + No real opposition from other series mates.

<br>■ 2015~2018: '''Millenium Period'''

*The start of [[AnimeBracket|Best Girl Contest]], [[Bilibili Moe]], and [[ISML]] tournament of champions.
*BGC is open to characters regardless of their last anime apperance. [[ISML]] banned previous 8 champions from main tournament.
*BILM FGO incident + [[ISML 2017]] conspiracy: Landslide vote became an issue in saimoe communities.
*Tsundere-Betabore Transition: [[Mikoto Misaka]], [[Shana]], and [[Taiga Aisaka]] are all weakened this period. Instead, [[Megumi Katou]] and [[Rem]] substantially grow in power.

<br>■ 2019~2021: '''Expansion Period'''

*Enormous Facebook, Tieba, Instagram saimoe contests are appeared: Due to corona outbreak.
*The burst of latin contests + Stagnant eastern contests.
*[[Bilibili Moe]]'s abolition + Birth of Seasonal Salt: Weakened chinese voters, Strengthened western voters.
*[[Rem]]'s Reign Declaration: The sole heroine who has all major contest wins. (include ToC)

<br>■ 2022~: '''Decline Period'''

*SNS minor Contests show drastic demise. The No. of them returned before 2019's.
*The conclusion of [[International Saimoe League]].
*Incidents involved spite votes became much more rampant in major contests.

==References==
'''Note'''
<references group="note" />

'''References'''
<references />

==External links==
*{{miraheze|saimoe|Saimoe|Saimoe}}
*[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%80%E8%90%8C%E3%83%88%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8A%E3%83%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88 最萌トーナメント (Saimoe Tournament)] - Wikipedia (Japanese)
*[https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%80%E8%90%8C%E5%A4%A7%E8%B3%BD 最萌大賽 (Saimoe Contest)] - Wikipedia (Chinese)
*[https://zh.moegirl.org.cn/%E8%90%8C%E6%88%98 萌战 (Moe Battle)] - Moegirlpedia (Chinese)
*[https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%90%8C%E6%88%98/5948003 萌战 (Moe Battle)] - Baike Baidu (Chinese)
*[https://namu.wiki/w/%EB%AA%A8%EC%97%90%20%ED%86%A0%EB%84%88%EB%A8%BC%ED%8A%B8 모에 토너먼트 (Moe Tournament)] - Namuwiki (Korean)
*[https://namu.wiki/w/%EB%AA%A8%EC%97%90%20%ED%86%A0%EB%84%88%EB%A8%BC%ED%8A%B8/%EC%97%B0%ED%91%9C 모에 토너먼트/연표 (Moe Tournament/Timeline)] - Namuwiki (Korean)
*[https://www.internationalsaimoe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=8901 "Idea: Best Waifu Rating"] - ISML Forum, posted by Shmion84 (2019-02-20).
*[http://tcode.sakura.ne.jp/ "Recent Tournament Date Collection"] (up to 2011 only) (Japanese)

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