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Once again, congress elections draw near but more importantly, so does Empress Day, which is celebrated on the 13th of each month. Originally, an event rife arising from a background of much political strife and unrest, it is now celebrated more as a time of silliness whereby one can gauge the popularity of various anime characters amongst the eJapanese populace. “Yet another repeat of last month’s random flurry of entries and burst of voting?”, you tiredly and cynically ask? To that, I can honestly answer, “No”. Thanks to the hard work of the Ministry of Culture and Events, directed by Co-Ministers "Ember" and “Fae”, this month’s Empress Day promises to be a greater success.



Fleet of foot and sharp of mind… Empress Kuchiki Rukia?

Before, people merely needed to nominate candidates and then later on, vote for their favourite. A somewhat dull and, I daresay, tedious grind. It was nothing more than a jumped up poll of the popularity of anime characters. This time however, the process is more selective; not at the level of entries – indeed, there are more entrants this time round! – but that the process by which these budding candidates are made to fight for their right to be Empress is a challenging and exciting series of events.



Breaking mechs and young boys' hearts… Empress Ayanami Rei?

In order to prevent errant entries, wannabe empresses must have a “manager” to help manage their affairs for the trials ahead of them. Once that has been sorted, candidates must enter into at least three of five events: Beauty, Cosplay, Intelligence, Poetry and Talent. Once all events are closed, it is then up to the public to vote for their favourite candidate in each event. Points are then awarded to the top four contestants in each category, and the top three scores of each potential empress will be used to calculate their total score. The winner of course, takes all. There are rules in place to ensure that a boring stalemate will not occur.



Self proclaimed deity… Empress Midarezaki Kyouka?

In fact, out of the 11 initial submissions, 3 have already been eliminated for a lack of event submissions. Obvious advantages go to “Ayanami Rei” (Manager: Akinobu), “Chii” (Manager: Tohru), “Daidouji Tomoyo” (Manager: Faeyas), “Kanzaki Urumi” (Manager: Nozomi) and “Saber” (Manager: Levertand) who are the only candidates to have submitted an entry into each of the five events. While this increases their chances of getting a high score, their success is by no means guaranteed.


With a heart of gold yet cold as steel… Empress Saber?

All in all, this is a rather promising evolution in our celebration of Empress Day. While some have complained that the level of these events are slightly too strenuous, I think that they are just about right. Any less and we might as well not bother being selective. Anymore and I doubt there’d be many candidates if any. I would note however, that the current rules and processes could do with a bit of fine tuning. For example, an obvious issue is the requirement to submit two pictures for the “Beauty” contest; one with the candidate wearing casual clothes and the other wearing traditional Japanese Garments (stated to be a kimono/yukata). This of course cannot be satisfied by all anime entrants seeing how some barely have a conception of what “Japan” is let alone wear her traditional garments.


Who will you choose?

In any case, I really do urge all of eJapan to go to the forums and vote for their soon-to-be empress! It wouldn’t be Empress Day without an Empress and it wouldn’t be a proud day of celebration for eJapan without your votes!


EDIT: Empress Day is actually celebrated on both the 13th and 14th of each month... why? Because it's that awesome. What a way to bring in our party elections eh?
EDIT: The Ministry of Culture and Events is actually headed by two Co-Ministers! Again, might I highlight just how unique eJapanese culture is.
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Looking forward to the results,
Laurana "Psi"
11/10/2009
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