By: Natsuki Takaya
From: Fruits Basket Fan Book

Fruits Basket follows the life of high-school student Tohru Honda, who was recently orphaned when her mother, Kyoko Honda, died in a car accident. After that, Tohru lived with her grandfather, but when his house needs remodeling, Tohru resorts to living in a tent in a forest and holds down a job to support herself. Despite suffering many hardships, Tohru remains optimistic.

One day, Tohru comes upon a house in the forest that is the home of her classmate Yuki Sohma and his cousin Shigure Sohma. When the Sohmas discover that Tohru is living in a tent, they are quite surprised by her inner strength. The entire area is Sohma property, and Tohru asks to be allowed to stay in her tent, but then collapses because of a fever brought on by working too hard. A landslide buries her tent, including her mother's picture and school clothes, and she moves into Shigure's house for the night. Desperate for a break from the filth of the house and takeaway meals, she is asked to become a permanent guest in the house, if she cooks and cleans. She accepts, and is being shown her room by Yuki when Kyo Sohma bursts in (through the roof) to challenge Yuki. Tohru, not knowing Yuki's strength, tries to stop Kyo by grabbing him, and as a result he transforms into a cat. She is then hit on the head with a plank of wood, and collapses into Shigure and Yuki, turning them into a dog and rat respectively.

Tohru discovers the Sohma family's secret, and the reason why Yuki is so private and secretive at school: thirteen members of the family are possessed by the 12 animal spirits of the Chinese Zodiac (jyūnishi in Japanese) plus the spirit of the cat who was, according to legend, left out of the Zodiac. They transform into animals when hugged by the opposite sex or when put under a great deal of emotional or physical stress (such as being sick). When she promises to keep their secret, the Sohmas allow Tohru to keep her memories rather than hypnotically erasing them, a fate that had previously befallen anyone not "Inside" the Sohma family who had discovered the secret.

The story follows the lives of Tohru and the Sohma family, as they deal with each other and a society where neither quite fits in, as well as the feared Akito Sohma, head of the Sohma family. Soon, after living with the Sohma family she began to like, then love, all of the Sohmas, and sets out to break the zodiac curse.

Here are the results of Special Round of the Shoujo Manga Character Popularity contest. These results have been sent to me about five days ago and I didn't have time to post them. So, I'm sorry for the lateness. Well, here are the results. The links of the Semi-Final rounds are found below.

( Results of the Special Round )

Semi-Final Round: the five qualified characters will be grouped in one bracket where voters must vote for their top two characters. The two characters with the highest votes will move to the finals.

Here's the Link: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1403783/

Special Awards Round: voters will be prompted to decide on voting for their favorites in the following categories: Most Moe/Cutest Character, Most Interesting Character, Best Hairstyle, Most Beautiful Character

The following contestants who have qualified for this round are:

1. Haruhi Fujioka (Ouran High School Host Club)
2. Mikan Sakura (Gakuen Alice)
3. Kyoko Mogami (Skip Beat!)
4. Yuuki Cross (Vampire Knight)
5. Ushio Amamiya (Shinshi Doumei Cross)

You can vote any number of characters in each category.

Most Beautiful Character: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1386403/
Best in Hairstyle: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1386402/
Most Interesting Character: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1386400/
Most Moe/Cutest Character: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1386393/

Here are the results of Round 3 of the Shoujo Manga Character Popularity contest. I have to say that I'm pretty surprised with the results. The host of the polls sent me the graphs with the total number of votes. The next round will be the Special Round. I think it will be up next week.

( Click here for the results... )

Third Round: the 10 qualified characters have been shuffled and divided into five groups where there would be two characters each. The character with the highest votes wins their bracket. Voters are only allowed to 1 vote per group.

Results are hidden and Repetitive voters are blocked in order to avoid fake votes. In the last round, the host discovered suspicious voting patterns and managed to recount the votes correctly.

Here are the contestants for each group. Who will reach top? Vote for your favorites now.

Group A3:  Misaki Ayuzawa (Kaichou Wa Maid-sama!) vs. Yuuki Cross (Vampire Knight)
Link: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1305513/

Group B3: Risa Koizumi (Lovely Complex) vs. Haruhi Fujioka (Ouran High School Host Club)
Link: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1345746/

Group C3: MIkan Sakura (Gakuen Alice) vs. Kahoko Hino (La Corda D'oro)
Link: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1305506/

Group D3: Kiri Koshiba (Beauty Pop) vs. Ushio Amamiya (Shinshi Doumei Cross)
Link: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1345755/

Group E3: Kyoko Mogami (Skip Beat!) vs. Hikari Hanazono (Special A)
Link: http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1345762/

EDIT: Voting starts on February 8 and it will end on February 14, 2009--Valentines Day, everyone!!

Round 2 started on January 22, 2009 and ended on February 5, 2009. The 5 characters with the highest votes in each bracket in Round 1have qualified to the second round. Then the characters were divided into 5 groups, with four characters in each bracket, in which voters could pick two of their favorite characters. Three polls were issued for this round and results were computed from all polls.

( Round 2 Results under the cut... )
The top two characters who won in their respective groups will move up to round 3. The 3rd Round of the contest will start on February 08, 2009.

Shoujo Manga girls were nominated and separated into four brackets with 10 girls each. The top five characters with the highest votes in their respective brackets have qualified into the next round.

Bracket A

• First: Mikan Sakura (321 Votes, 73%)
• Second: Ushio Amamiya (90 Votes, 23%)
• Third: Yuzuyu Sakashita (50 Votes, 11%)
• Fourth: Tanpopo Yamazaki (43 Votes, 10% )
• Fifth: Hiyoko Osora (30 Votes, 7%)

A Total of 442 Voters has answered this Bracket.

Bracket B

• First: Kyoko Mogami (221 Votes, 50%)
• Second: Tohru Honda (186 Votes, 42%)
• Third: Misaki Ayuzawa (105 Votes, 24%)
• Fourth: Risa Koizumi (72 Votes, 16%)
• Fifth: Hikaru Shidou (50 Votes, 11%)

A Total of 441 Voters has answered this Bracket.

Bracket C

• First: Amu Hinamori (183 Votes, 39%)
• Second: Kiri Koshiba (153 Votes, 33%)
• Third: Mizuki Ashiya (107 Votes, 23%)
• Fourth: Haine Otomiya (77 Votes, 16%)
• Fifth: Yukino Miyazawa (71 Votes, 15%)

A Total of 470 Voters has answered this Bracket.

Bracket D

• First: Haruhi Fujioka (476 Votes, 69%)
• Second: Hikari Hanazono (326 Votes, 46%)
• Third: Yuuki Cross (221 Votes, 32%)
• Fourth: Kahoko Hino (76 Votes, 11%)
• Fifth: Najika Kazami (66 Votes, 9%)

A Total of 685 Voters has answered this Bracket.

Online popularity polls are up. This is a tournament to designate the most popular Shoujo Manga Character among a many contestants. The rules are as follows:

• Nominations: online users were asked to submit their choices. The characters are all female characters from manga of the Shoujo genre.
• First Round: the nominations were divided into four groups. Users may vote for two characters in each bracket. The 5 characters with the highest votes in their bracket will be qualified to the next round.
• Second Round: characters here are divided in 5 groups, with four characters in each bracket, in which voters could pick two of their favorite characters. The two characters with the highest votes in each bracket will go to the next round of the tournament.
• Third Round: the 10 qualified characters will be shuffled and divided into five groups where there would be two characters each. The character with the highest votes wins their bracket.
• Special Awards Round: voters will be prompted to decide on voting for their favorites in the following categories: Most Moe/Cutest Character, Most Interesting Character, Best Hairstyle, Best in Character Design
• Semi-finals: the five qualified characters will be grouped in one bracket where voters must vote for their top two characters. The two characters with the highest votes will move to the finals.
• Finals: The two characters will face off in an one-on-one battle, and voters must decide on who to pick as their winner. The character with the highest vote will be crowned as the Best Shoujo Manga Character for this Season!!!

Nominations were done by various users from different parts all over the world. All it needs now are the votes!!! Please vote for your favorite Shoujo Manga Characters.

Polls will end on January 20, 2009. Second Round will start on January 22, 2009.

Links to:
Bracket A: http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/376200
Bracket B: http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/376209
Bracket C: http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/376212
Bracket D: http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/376215

Browsing through the net, I've come across official sources about Mikan Sakura being in several contest and polls.

Animax has ran ads for their hottest babe lineup on January 1st 2006 with Mikan Sakura. I kinda remember that a few years back, and it's been discussed in Animax forums before.

In an official Japan Poll for the most popular manga 2005, Mikan was ranked in 16th place for the Best Female Character Category. This was featured in Pahu, a magazine for Japanese Comics. Pahu is an official magazine and here's the link to an example of it: Pahu Magazine

( More under here... )

In all the contests and polls, Mikan Sakura is the the only Gakuen Alice character present. Yeah, I'm proud of Mikan-chan!!!

Bye-bye 2008 and hello 2009. The year of the Ox is going to be a blast as I wait for the new anime and manga series from Japan. I'm sure there will a lot of favorites for 2009, but I won't forget the ones I adore during 2008. I've became a total addict for 2008 and I fell in love with so many characters. I especially adore the shoujo series and the moe girls to bits. But among the many shoujo heroines, I've sorted out my best three.

( Read more... )( Read more... )( Read more... )

I haven't been posting much lately since I've got a lot of school work. Not a lot of you know me yet, so I might as well start off with my favorite characters in Gakuen Alice. See my list under the cut.