I do feel a bit bad for ShikiPs, since it did appear to be a sure thing for a while. I was shocked while going through the results for the first time and seeing her at 2nd (and then the thoughts of "no way... Eve didn't..." started rushing through my mind. She sure did!). But I can't deny that this is a much more exciting outcome than what everyone expected. Eve's story is a true Cinderella story. But I do think this is simply a delay of Shiki's inevitable win. Will it be next year? Let's see if there's any other underdog the players want to rally behind, or if the Stage For Cinderella format is even sticking around. Whether they change it or not, the absence of the Mobamas audience for the first time ever seems to also have an effect on how voting is conducted and who places where.

Speaking of the format, I actually like the general idea of it. I think it gives more girls overall more time to shine, because of the existence of the event songs for each preliminary voting group. It also seems like the players are cooperating well in our quest to get more girls voiced. The biggest issue with the format is that it takes far too long. A reduction in the amount of voting time would be ideal. A year just for voting is entirely too much. I've seen suggestions to spend 6 months on voting and then the other 6 months can be for event rewards--I like this idea. Anything that reduces the time would be great, though. Even the events are taking a long time--the election is complete and Group B's event hasn't even happened or been announced yet.

As for my own personal stakes in the election, I saw many wins. I voted for Hijiri, Layla, and Izumi in the prelim group voting, and they all made it far enough to get voiced. I also voted for Eve in her group, but didn't vote for her in the finals, so I'm still glad to see her victory. Then, of course, there's my beloved Sugar Heart. She won 1st place in Group B, so she'll be getting an event for that! Then in the finals, she won 6th overall! I am a little sad that she missed 5th place, especially since the margin was so incredibly tiny--I could have gotten her the win if I was willing to spend all that money on the maximum number of votes (not gonna do that though lol)!! BUT, 6th is two places better than she did last election! 6th out of 190 girls is still really phenomenal.