THE PROTAGONISTS
Mio Akiyama
Voice actress: Yoko Hikasa
Series: K-ON!
ISML Regular Season finish: 3rd
ISML Regular Season record: 47-0-2
ISML AQUAMARINE NECKLACE CHAMPION
Mio is a shy girl who is in the light music club and plays a left-handed, 3-Color Sunburst Fender Jazz Bass with a tortoiseshell pickguard, though is shown playing a Fender Precision Bass in the first manga volume. She originally intended to join the literary club, but is forced into the light music club by her childhood friend and the club's president/drummer, Ritsu. She gets excellent grades in school and is many times mature and strict especially where Ritsu is involved; her weakness is the macabre and horrific, and she is often incapacitated with fear when stories involving ghosts, blood, injuries, haunted houses, barnacles or other disturbing topics come up. She also has a fear of being in the spotlight and gets embarrassed easily, and is often subject to teasing from Ritsu and Sawako, their club adviser and eventual third-year homeroom teacher. She cites that she chose bass since it is not the center of attention in the band, unlike the guitarist. Mio is more technical when it comes to music, and Yui often comes to her when she is in need of more guitar tutorials.
Along with Yui, Mio is one of the band's main vocalists, though given her dislike of being center stage, she tries to avoid taking the lead vocal if possible, generally singing if Yui is unable to. She writes most of the songs, although they usually feature some odd and overly girlish lyrics like "Light and Fluffy Time". As she is left-handed, she becomes entranced whenever she sees left-handed instruments, because of their rarity. After their first live performance, the attractive Mio gained a huge fan following (in no small part due to an unfortunate accident that occurred at the end of the show), led by an infatuated former student council president. Also resulting from her sudden popularity, most of her classmates voted that she portray Romeo in their class play.
Mikoto Misaka
Voice actress: Rina Sato
Series: To Aru Majutsu No Index & To Aru Kagaku No Railgun
ISML Regular Season finish: 4th
ISML Regular Season record: 46-0-3
ISML RUBY NECKLACE CHAMPION
Mikoto attends Tokiwadai Middle School, a famous girls' school for the rich and elite psychics and one of the five elite schools of Academy City. To most people, she is considered a proper lady, but in reality, she has a short-tempered, prideful, and improper attitude with some tomboyish tendencies and insecurities, a fact few other characters know. She is fond of cute, childish things, such as flowery pajamas and Gekota, the popular frog mascot franchise. Contrary to what she claims, she has a strong sense of morals and hates injustice. Mikoto has a one-sided rivalry with Tōma, who nicknamed her "Biri Biri" (ビリビリ?, relating to the sound of an electric shock), ever since their first meeting before the events of the first novel when he first dissipated her electricity until his memories got destroyed. Since that incident, she is always trying to have a proper match with Tōma and defeat him despite his many attempts to avoid conflict with her.
When Mikoto was young, she was tricked into giving the city's scientist her DNA under the pretense of finding the cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy; their actual goal to create military-grade combat clones of her. When it was discovered that the clones didn't have the same power level as Mikoto, they were instead used in an Project called " Level 6 Shift", intended to make Accelerator the first level 6 esper by having him kill 20,000 clones. The events of how Mikoto tried to stop the project are briefly mention in the third novel, and expanded and given more detail in the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga. When all of her attempts failed, she contemplates letting herself be killed by Accelerator, in order to prove the Tree Diagram's calculations faulty. However, it is not until Tōma intervenes and beats Accelerator, proving him to be really weak, that the project is cancelled and the remaining 9969 surviving Sisters are spared.
After the events of the third novel, she eventually develops strong feelings towards Tōma but is unable to express them due to her insecurities and the fact other girls were also interested in him. Even though she and Tōma tend to bicker and argue with each other, they share a somewhat friendly relationship. Both of them have gone on a date (albeit one that was a result of a bet between the two) and exchange cell phone numbers. During the events of the 14th novel, she calls Tōma, who is on a trip to Avignon, France when he is attacked by Terra of the Left. Even though his cellphone is damaged, Mikoto is still able to listen and is shocked to hear from Terra that Tōma actually lost his memories and has been hiding this fact from his friends all this time. Confused, she confronts Tōma when he returns to Academy City in the 16th novel. After that, Mikoto overcomes her initial confusion regarding her concern for him and realizes she loves Tōma. She reappears in volume 20, when upon learning Russia might launch missiles against Academy City and seeing Tōma in a live TV report at Russia, Mikoto heads to Russia after hijacking a jet from the Academy City Invasion Force ordered to find and capture Tōma. After arriving in Russia, she and Misaka 10777 heads towards a nuclear military base to stop the missiles from launching.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Mio Akiyama began the tournament claiming the first necklace of the regular season the Aquamarine. She performed relatively well, sweeping the next four phases until the Ruby phase, where she suffered her first defeat to Taiga Aisaka. She ended her regular season run on the losing end against 2009 champion/2010 5th place finisher Hinagiku Katsura.
Akiyama began the Tiara with a 4337-2573 blowout win over Yui Hirasawa. She followed that up with a 3384-2872 victory over Yuki Nagato, her closest result of the campaign in a 3353-3076 decision against Azusa Nakano before defeating Mikoto Misaka 5318-4626.
For Mikoto Misaka, her season began with a sweep in the Aquamarine stage. In the Tiara phase, she suffered her first defeat of the season against Katsura. After going through Amethyst without any problems, she suffered her second defeat of the season, this time to Shana in the Sapphire phase. She would also lose one more time, this time against Mio Akiyama before burning through the Ruby phase with the necklace and the Diamond unbeaten.
Misaka began her Tiara run lynching Nadeko Sengoku 4521-2617 and escaped Taiga Aisaka in a 3124-3095 nailbiter. She also exacted revenge on Shana in a close 3434-3279 victory before falling to Mio Akiyama 4626-5318. After being relegated to the losers' bracket, Misaka had to face Shana in the final round and beat her in a close 3522-3478 rubber match thriller.
ANALYSIS/PREDICTION
This is a contest that is Akiyama's to lose. She has never lost to Misaka, winning both matches by a combined 854 votes. In the young history of the competition, the champion of the Winners' Bracket has gone on to win the Championship Match. This will not be a walk in the park for Akiyama, as it will be another close contest that will be determined by less than 1000 votes.
Three areas that will be crucial to Akiyama claiming victory are China, Western Europe and Canada. China voted 53.1% in favor of Misaka, Western Europe voted 51.9% in favor of the Railgun, and Misaka carried Canada with 52.4% of the vote. Even a close defeat by 1-2% should be enough, since Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Japan are solid Akiyama strongholds. An impressive performance in Indonesia will do wonders for the HTT bassist extraordinaire.
Misaka can force a second championship match on Sunday if she take three areas from Akiyama: Hong Kong, the USA and Oceania. The USA is the big steak among these three tasty morsels, as it voted 53.6% in favor of Akiyama. Hong Kong voted 53.9% in favor of Akiyama and Oceania voted 52.1% in favor of the Dangerous Queen. If she get thumped in these three areas, however, she won't stand a chance.
The last two match days were a field day for bookmakers going with the under. However, I anticipate that the turnout will be strong, and it will be a blue-and-white-striped coronation, rice bowls optional. Look for at least 12,000 voters coming out for this one. If there isn't this many, it would be a shame, regardless of the outcome.
The Bedlam on Baltic Avenue Predicts:
Mio Akiyama by <=1000
Over/Under: 12000 votes
Over
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