Excellent anime selections this pool. Generally high quality to the main tournament as well, though it's hard to find any standouts - lots of nervous near-ties.
MAIN TOURNAMENT
Cyber Peacock (Megaman X4) vs. Speed Queen (Soul Nomad and the World Eaters) - I guess?
Prisoners of Fate (Chrono Cross) vs. Fight Tune "Girl named Shelke" (Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus) - Prisoners is fantastic, but it got to like Round 5 last time, and Shelke is pretty interesting. So blatantly anti-voting it since it's actually a somewhat close match.
Celestia Battle (Tales of Eternia) vs. Expressive Hill ~Harmonics EOLIA~ (Ar Tonelico) - Celestia Battle reminds me of MegaMan music, energetic but also doesn't really go anywhere. Expressive Hill is one of those AT songs I'm ambivalent about - definitely some real quality there mixed in with musical cockroach heads. Eh, going with the song which is better at its best, I guess.
Lullaby of a Desolate Hell (Subterranean Animism) vs. Scars of the Divine Wing (Ys Origin) - ..epic. Falcom lets me down, and Lullaby is shockingly good for unremixed Touhou, which normally elicits a meh from me.
Two-Colored Necklace (Soul Nomad and the World Eaters) vs. Hostiles (Front Mission 4) - Two-Colored Necklace is okay, but going for the more dramatic piece, I suppose.
Human Battle 1 (Warcraft 2) vs. Requiem (Growlanser Generations) - Both are quite good. On technical merit, Requiem collects an easy win.... in terms of durability for multiple listens without getting old, HB1 takes it from experience. A not insignificant factor for game music. Coinflip, really, might change my mind later.
This Illusion ~Piano Version~ (Fate/Stay Night) vs. Seven Heroes Battle (Romancing SaGa 2) - Close match. This Illusion treads dangerously close to "boring" as opposed to "subtle," so the more active 7 Heroes takes it.
Soul Stranger (Super Robot Wars W) vs. The End of 1000 Years (Melty Blood: Act Cadenza) - Soul Stranger is solid, End of 1K is missing something.
FAILURE BRACKET
I am the Number One! (Star Ocean 3) vs. Tifa's Theme (Final Fantasy VII) - I actually like I am the Number One's crazed banjo failure! Which means it's more cheese than failure, I suppose. That said Tifa's Theme is in no way failure, so yeah.
ANIME
Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite (The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi) vs. The Sacred Moon (Tsukihime) - Oh, good match. Yuki, Muon is a pleasant surprise, but The Sacred Moon is a tough opponent. If Yuki had been a bit more consistently good (I'm not a huge fan of those little interludes), I'd have given it the victory due to the fact that it attempted something a bit longer than Sacred Moon, but think the evocative Moon takes it after all.
Tsuki no Mayu (Turn A Gundam) vs. Give a Reason (Slayers NEXT) - Wow. I never would have expected Give a Reason to go down in round 1, as it's awesome. But
A) The full version is actively worse than the short version - the second verse is exactly the same, and the extra touches they include afterward are bad. Plus a direct, aggressively themed song like this needs to get to the point and not waste time wandering around doing nothing.
B) As super noted, it picked a fight with Yoko Kanno (though one of her works I hadn't heard before.).
...yeah. Though hell, I think Give a Reason would have lost to either of the above as well. These 4 easily have the highest average quality of any of the anime pods so far.
