(Third Annual) Lilim Design Contest! (Afterthoughts)

[Chowwow]

Welcome to the third day of the Awards presentation for the Lilim Design Contest Winter 2008! I have today our winners for Best Fanservice and Best Manservice! Here we go!

The Best Fanservice Award was given to the female Character voted most likely to follow through on Misato’s promises of eye candy after every preview of NGE. Attention was paid to the Character's physical descriptions, illustrations, and any relevant bits of the Character's personality as reveled in text.




By unanimous vote the Winner is...




Formless One/Avatar of Dreams for Yae Satsuki Triton


Going the route well traveled by the likes of Asuka and Rei, Yae gives off a vaguely sexual air that is likely to help swoon over a decent following of (creepy) fanboys. Her charm comes from her youthful and feminine features combined with her refreshingly friendly and optimistic attitude, making her a simple and fresh option for those who tire from being obsessed with the extremes of Rei and/or Asuka for the past decade. Though her young life was tragically cut short, her apparent resurrection brings potential for her to exercise more of her wiles on the male populace.

Though pickings were slim, I would still like to point attention to our other female entry, Shinano by BobBQ. While little mention was made about her attractive features and the lack of an illustration made it difficult to visualize her, based on Kensuke's comments made in TTOR404 pertaining to her, this Colonel was quite a bombshell herself. Alas, talk of her history and career overshadowed any of her more womanly features. Perhaps in time, the author would like to put more thought into her features and allow us materialize her in our minds.




The Best Manservice Award is the male analog to the Fanservice Award. As a way to allow for equal opportunity, this Award went to the male Character who's design allows much to the imagination. Again, attention was paid to physical descriptions, illustrations, and any relevant personal traits.




The Winner (again, by unanimous decision) is...




Action Bastard/Zimlord for Albert Wilhelm Wegener


From the first time he was presented, Albert seemed like a heavy contender for this Award (though, inadvertently, that may have been due to suggestion on my part). His illustrations seem to convey an odd sense of both masculinity and pretty boyish-ness. He has a sort of metrosexual features - yet even men have to recognize Albert's sheer manliness (his facial hair, that build, etc), rendered in two dimensions though it is. This brings up and interesting dynamic to his Character: should he appeal to the tastes of the fangirl with more mature tastes, or should he pull off a look that makes girls squeal with delight and guys shift with discomfort as he models his tight commando uniform? Time will tell, I guess.




Next time we'll have the Most Badass and Cutest Awards!

[Chowwow]

Say hello to the fourth day of the Awards presentation for the Lilim Design Contest Winter 2008! What I have here today are our winners for Most Badass Character and Cutest Character! On with the show!

The Most Badass Award, formerly called the "Gar" Award but changed to meet our western grammatical sensibilities, went to the Character who proved him/herself as the toughest by demonstrating skills, strengths, and special techniques.




The top nominees are:

Aida Kazuhiro by NemZ
Haruna Shinano by BobBQ




And the winner is:




BobBQ for Haruna Shinano


Shinano, a minor character from BobBQ's long-running fanfic the Tenant of Room 404, wins this Award "by the power of piss and vinegar", quoth her profile. From early on her life she was raised on a regular dose of military doctrine and Japanese nationalism, never taking any crap from anyone or allowing herself to be weak. By sacrificing her femininity, she becomes the type to lead men into battle - even if it is into a massacre.

Kensuke's father does an admirable job as a military man himself, having been through many trials by fire and being forced to commit atrocities all for duty. However, his cynical attitude and lack of motivation to rock the boat with his superiors doesn't seem to fit right in with the idea of being a fiery badass.




The Cutest Award was given to the Character with the cutest traits, as seen either from their illustrations or actions as described by the author.



The winner by unanimous decision is...




Formless One/Avatar of Dreams for Yae Satsuki Triton


Yae, arguably the youngest Character of our line up, picks up this Award with ease. Avatar's art comes through in helping us see Yae's youth, innocence and energy, in contrast to the bitter age of our other Contestants. One thing that I must note is that her character archetype has been done before with the likes of Maya, Hikari, and even Mana (of GOFS fame), and that the creators should look into making her more well-rounded to make Yae an endearing character. For the time being, however, she beats out a cynical and emotionally dead security chief, a German Commando who shot his girlfriend, an asexual Japanese nationalist who directed the systematic killings of civilians, and a kid working for an outrageously xenophobic cult who gave him a giant robot powered by the burning souls of the dammed to kill God's messengers. NGE eh?




Next we'll have the Quirky and Best Death Awards!

[NemZ]

I'm actually rather suprised Mr. Aida was considered for an award based on badassery. He falls into the cold logic, willing to do anything Gendo-like role I suppose, but his man-of-action days are behind him. Was his pimpitude a factor?

Personally I would have expected Action Bastard's entry to rank higher on this one, being a special forces guy and all.

[UrsusArctos]

True, but Shinano outranks him by miles, and she's the one in charge of putting people to death instead of being the instrument.

[Chowwow]

I'm actually rather suprised Mr. Aida was considered for an award based on badassery. He falls into the cold logic, willing to do anything Gendo-like role I suppose, but his man-of-action days are behind him. Was his pimpitude a factor?

Personally I would have expected Action Bastard's entry to rank higher on this one, being a special forces guy and all.

I am with you on this one too: I think it was Aida's pseudo-Gendo ways that earned him the nomination. If we had more Judges, I think Albert would have been given an honorable mention...



Here is the fifth day of the Awards presentation for the Lilim Design Contest Winter 2008! Today are the winners of Quirky and Best Death Awards!

The Quirky Award was given to the Character who was endearing and interesting without dragging too many people into his drama. Character histories and personality descriptions will play roles in choosing a winner.




The top nominees are:

Leon Vandalia by devil_eAter
Albert Wegener by Action Bastard/Zimlord




And the winner is:




Action Bastard/Zimlord for Albert Wilhelm Wegener


As serious as Action Bastard tries to make his Character, there is something about Albert that seems a bit odd. Maybe it's because of Zimlord's illustrations, who's colorful and friendly depictions mask Albert's illegitimate background and violent future. Maybe it's his competent, confident, content demeanor in his profile that are alien terms in NGE? Maybe its the fact that his premise as the long-lost half-brother of Asuka seems a bit far-fetched (well, perhaps not as far-fetched as some than others)? Whatever the case, there's some element to Albert that places him in a special place in this Contest.

As for Leon, well, the drama that he is placed in is likely to suck in anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up with him, being the messiah of an oppressively fanatical cult and all. Shinji may have nothing on this guy! Still, I think it's the absolutely crazy situation that he has found himself in and the uphill battle that he has ahead of him that makes Leon a quirky, interesting guy.




The Best Death Award was given to the Character whose fate leaded to the most interesting, gruesome or memorable demise in the Contest.



The nominees were:

Haruna Shinano by BobBQ
Albert Wegener by Action Bastard/Zimlord




And the winner is:




Action Bastard/Zimlord for Albert Wilhelm Wegener


Action Bastard and his partner get two in one day in this Contest. This time, it's Albert's dramatic death that catches the limelight. After accidentally shooting his girlfriend Heidi dead during the NERV invasion (after mistaking her for her abusive ass of a father, natch), Albert proceeds to, of course, break down. That is until he actually sees her again, though Rei's quantum magic, and is converted into LCL. While a bit no-frills by itself, it's a bit more hard-hitting than the others that we've seen.

Shinano's demise is pretty dramatic itself, though neutered for our Contest due to her being removed from her original context in BobBQ's story (read part eight of his fic for the full story). Though her act of suffering a guilt trip before turning her own weapon on herself, and her subsequent return to the physical world, wasn't quite as epic as it could have been, given BobBQ's usual track record.




Tomorrow we will have the Best Job and Worst Job Awards! Let's see who gets the dubious honor of the last one!

[Chowwow]

Welcome back to the sixth day of the Awards for the Lilim Design Contest Winter 2008! Today I have the winners for Best Job and Worst Job! Let’s go!

The Best Job Award was presented to the Character with the most interesting occupation, which could be interpreted as one that gave him/her a lot of glory, influence, or even set one of the key story elements in the anime. Back history and personal descriptions were key to the decision process.





The top nominees are:

Yae Satsuki Triton by Formless One/Avatar of Dreams
Albert Wilhelm Wegener by Action Bastard/Zimlord





And the winner is:




Formless One/Avatar of Dreams for Yae Satsuki Triton


Looking at what we know, one wouldn’t think being an Eva pilot counts as being one of the nicest jobs in the world (hell, the salary is non-existent, for all we know). But for all the burdens that comes with taking the helm of a 40-meter tall cyborg clone Angel, Yae is elevated by the power her position suddenly gives her. Eager to kick ass, Yae takes her job with the kind of wide-eyed pride that Asuka can attest to. More importantly, she is the mysterious pilot of the ill-fated Unit-04, whose demise leaves small ripples in canon. While that may not sound like much, hopefully we’ll see what she’s really made of on the day of her resurrection.

Albert’s job as a commando brings with it a sort of prestige to his character. Who doesn’t love a special forces badass? Further, he does the job very well with his educational background and his own brand of gusto. Alas, he doesn’t seem all that important to the NGE universe: in the long run he’s just a simple soldier caught up in things that he doesn’t really understand or prepared to deal with.



The Worst Job Award was given to the Character whose occupation was a significant contributor to their distress, misfortune and/or misery. Like the Best Job Award, eligibility was determined by back history and personal descriptions.




The winner by unanimous decision is...




devil_eAter for Leon Vandalia


Wow, I didn’t expect for the results to turn up like this: all of our Judges selected Leon for having the most stressful (and perhaps least glorious) occupation. Not only is the guy forced into Eva-pilot-like conditions, which is its own can of worms, he has to be the messiah for a clearly disturbed group that’s out for the blood of the entire world. Being stuck with these kinds of employers, I don’t envy him.




Next time I’ll give you the Biggest Psycho and Most Depressive Awards! Would winning these things really be a good thing?

[Chowwow]

Here now is the seventh day of the Awards for the Lilim Design Contest Winter 2008. Today are the Awards for Biggest Psycho and Most Depressive.

The Biggest Psycho Award was presented to the Character who displayed the greatest, most violently psychotic tendencies or expressed stress in the most disturbing or non-conventional ways. Attention was paid to his/her personality descriptions and past actions.





The winner by unanimous decision is:





BobBQ for Haruna Shinano


Interestingly enough, many of our Judges determined that Shinano was a violent psychotic. Judging from her background alone she seems tough, uptight even, but she doesn’t seem to branch off further from a soldier doing as she is told. Further, her depiction in TToR404 doesn’t push her anywhere beyond a professional Colonel. Then again, she was also told to slaughter the hapless NERV crew with extreme prejudice by her government with dubious intelligence. Coupled with her own prejudices and unwillingness to question orders until the end, Shinano has proven that she can also be quite ruthless when she needs to be. With her actions and the actions of her men in mind, one could wonder just how much of her humanity remains.

With that in mind, I felt that NemZ’s Aida should have been acknowledged for his ruthlessness in duty as well. With such a bleak private existence, it’s amazing to know what length Kazuhiro had to go to complete his duties. His rationalization of these acts hints at an atrophied sense of morality. But I digress; ruthlessness doesn’t necessarily indicate psychotic tendencies.



The Most Depressive Award was given to the Character who was the most emotionally scarred and expressed their grief in a way that was self-destructive/pitiful. Attention was given to Character personality descriptions and past actions.



The top nominees are:

Leon Vandalia (devil_eAter)
Yae Satsuki Triton by Formless One/Avatar of Dreams




And the winner is:




devil_eAter for Leon Vandalia


Another dubious honor for devil_eAter’s entry, Leon takes the cake for being in the worst situation possible. For the same reasons why he won the Worst Job Award, the kind of place that he is born in gives him just about (or perhaps a little more) to think about as any Eva pilot. With a constantly oppressive belief system filling his soul with doubt and fear, and a reality that can only be described as business as usual in the NGE universe, his head just might burst from this insanity. Interestingly though, Leon seems more stressed/conflicted/scared/confused about his place rather than depressed. He has it in him to come to gripes with what’s going on with him, at least as he is now.

As for the runner up, Yae had every reason to be depressed: her parents were deceased (likely due to their involvement with GHERIN and SEELE) and her personality left her vulnerable to manipulation. Then again she takes her situation in stride, many thanks to her guardian, and manages to cope albeit in a somewhat Asuka-like way.




Next up the two Awards that matter most to me, the Best Story and Best in Contest Awards! See you in 24 hours!

[Chowwow]

Now is the eighth day of the Awards for the Lilim Design Contest Winter 2008. Today I have the winners for Best Story and Best in Contest!

The Best Story Award was presented to the Character with the most engrossing, interesting, or memorable story. The progression of events from their past, career, ambitions, and ultimate fate determined a winner.




The top nominees are:

Aida Kazuhiro NemZ/Rhyno
Albert Wilhelm Wegener by Action Bastard/Zimlord





And the winner is:




NemZ/Rhyno for Kazuhiro Aida



Of the backstories of the Characters that have been introduced to us, Aida’s has been the one that was the most realistic, most complex, and most bleak of all. The story of an insignificant man, with an insignificant role in a much larger narrative, and the circumstances that led to him becoming the man that he was, is an interesting case study of what a canon NGE character may be. While a minor character related to a minor character, Kazuhiro’s tale is both dramatic and dull without being too much of either – much like real life. And it’s because of all of this, his dispassionate take on life and family, his willingness to do whatever it takes for “duty”, and his abrupt and unglamorous death, that makes the senior Aida sympathetic and human.

Albert’s story was quite detailed and interesting as well, for he went from the illegitimate half-brother of Asuka to becoming a special forces officer in charge of brutal holocaust. His fate and the circumstances of his life are quite fantastic, with twists that differentiate him from the ordinary. Because of those same fantastic elements, he does come off as being a little unreal, and by how he copes with things, you get the sense that his life is more serene and simple than it really is.

One entry I though should have been considered was Formless One’s opus, with its painstaking attention to detail and vibrant descriptions of very grand events. After describing the events of a sordid tale of a girl’s past, it goes on to how she perseveres beyond it, only to fall to circumstances out of her control. It’s divided into segments that tell the story in different perspectives with an E-mail, illustrations, and a comic panel. Yae’s entrance here makes for a great introduction to a project that might turn some heads in the future.




Best in Contest was awarded to the Character who was, overall, the best designed and well-rounded individual in the entire Contest out of all of the entries.




The top nominees are:

Aida Kazuhiro NemZ/Rhyno
Albert Wilhelm Wegener by Action Bastard/Zimlord




And the winner is:




NemZ/Rhyno for Aida Kazuhiro


It was a close one, but NemZ takes the prize through sheer force of his Character’s story. While his Concept is no-frills by comparison to some of his rivals, it was the rich and no-nonsense background story that elevated him. NemZ’s concept is low profile and it’s conceivable that he could believably fit in to any NGE story, including the canon itself. It’s the Aida’s simplicity that gives his Concept elegance and flexibility, and the dreary story that fulfills the need for drama and substance in a complex Character.

Albert is a very strong contender with a rich set of illustrations that bring color to AB’s vision and a background that brings the soul to his idea. The thing is there are some oddball quirks that don’t make him quite perfect. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s a commando and the half-sibling of a major character? Maybe it’s the feeling that there isn’t a dull moment in his life and seems to be doing well for himself? Maybe it’s because has a fairly successful relationship in a universe where people feel like they can’t really get to know each other? Whatever the case, I suppose he could benefit from being a little more “real” without changing any major events.

I feel that Yae was also a solid performer; she had an even richer set of illustrations that conveyed both symbolism and attitude, which was coupled with a vast profile that fills out her background. While there is something about her that is still a little uncanny, the amount of effort and skill that went to crafting her is apparent. I suspect that there were not enough Judges to vote for her; otherwise I think she would have been ranked higher.




We’ll tie things up with the awards for Designer of the Year and Most Awards Won! Bonus points to some of our best!

[NemZ]

Really?

I actually thought my best shot for an award was in the best/worst job categories, and was resigned to being an also-ran once again when Kazuhiro failed to snag either of them. ...Not that I'm complaining, of course!

Thank you for your support!

[Chowwow]

Today is the last day of the Awards for the Lilim Design Contest Winter 2008. At last we have the Awards for Designer of the Year and Most Awards Won.

Designer of the Year was Awarded to solid performers in this Contest and were veterans of the Angel Design Contest. Merit will be given to how a veteran Designer fared in both contests overall.




The nominees were:
NemZ/Rhyno
devil_eAter




The winner is:




NemZ/Rhyno


Out of the handful of the entries, only a couple also participated in my previous creative Contest. While I now have a feel on the creative standards of each, NemZ comes up as being the most well rounded and organized. Punctual and neat, yet detailed and succinct, NemZ entries are always solid. Further, they have been careful not to alter NGE’s canon in any way, and feel like they can be inserted into the actual story without damaging anything. While nominated for many but winner of none in the Angel Contest, he’s managed to pull off winning the Awards with the most stringent requirements in this one. Great work, and looking forward to more in the future!

devil_eAter is another brave vet from the last Contest and has won a few Awards in both. His trademark lies in making Characters with deeply troubled pasts, chaotic lives and uncertain futures. There is a lot of pain and drama in the stories that they are involved in, and thus a lot of material to work with. That is also the little snag about them, as there seems to be too much drama going on with them that it’s exhaustive, borderline unconvincing. The writing, which is gloomy and fairly intense, is not as sharp as some other high-performing writers. Regardless, his works can be quite interesting with a lot of potential, and future prospects are sure to be exciting!




The award for Most Awards Won was presented to the Designer who received the most number of awards in this contest – just to rub it in on everyone.




The Award goes to:




Action Bastard/Zimlord


There is just no doubt, Action_Bastard and his partner Zimlord won a lot of praise for their efforts in this Contest. Maybe it’s AB’s concept, which is epic and apparently has more left to tell. Maybe it’s Zimlord’s art, which is grand and colorful, catching the eye’s attention. Maybe it’s the fact that Heidi’s breasts are so predominant on every pic that she’s in. What ever the case, there is much to praise for in his work. Congratulations!


Thanks for participating, everyone! We got some pretty good entries here! On with the Afterthoughts!

[NemZ]

And to think I was going to drop out...

Thank you!

[Action_Bastard]

Thank You everyone! This was a fun and fulfilling experience. But sadly, I am retiring from the fanfic/stuff business. For all those looking to more on Albert, I regret that there won't be anymore.

Again, me and zimlord thank you for your praise, and to all the children, CONGRATULATIONS!

[BobBQ]

Finally it's over, and I'm frankly surprised Shinano scored anything. I had an epic monologue planned, but I'm too tired for that. There are a few things I'd like to address, however.

First, regarding TAO's complaint that Shinano doesn't seem special: well done on pointing out the obvious while utterly failing to grasp the point of the obvious. I chose Shinano instead of, say, Kang Li or Svetlana Kirova because Shinano is a very plain character: no tragic past, no magical powers, no superhuman abilities, no friends in high places, no Chosen One status - just a very determined woman who saw an opportunity and put it in a chokehold. If you wanted a human-Angel hybrid Shinto priestess descended from the emperor himself, have a look at fanfiction.net - I wrote a character based on real trends, not amateur fantasy.

Second, and relating to the above point, I found my appreciation of more than a couple of the other entrants - however interesting they were otherwise - severely soured by the apparent lack of consideration of what makes a character believable, particularly with regards to plausibility of context. A leading character's long-lost sibling? Sorry, but no. Yet another Eva pilot? I know the character was an existing design, but the Eva setting has enough pilots already. A weary man tasked with suppressing the truth? That's quite good, but why did he also need a family connection with a significant canon character? My frank impression is that some contestants looked at the character template's how-does-he/she-fit-into-Eva slot and threw together a convenient hook instead of seriously thinking about how their entrant could have believably been lurking behind the scenes of the series.

Third, I'm frankly offended that the judges saw fit to brand Shinano as a psycho, which completely ignores the background and personality of the character. It suggests an outbreak of tl;dr-itis at best and a profound ignorance of reality at worst. Perhaps said judges would do well to read some history books, because "we were all crazy" wasn't accepted as a defense at Nuremburg or Tokyo.

Fourth, long entries were long.

That's the end of the rant. Had I had a better idea of what would be expected going in, I would have pushed for a double entry on Shinano and Kang based on a comparison of their similar origins and careers while contrasting Kang's liberating rejection of her government's selfish principles versus Shinano's self-destructive devotion to her own. Oh well.

[NemZ]

A weary man tasked with suppressing the truth? That's quite good, but why did he also need a family connection with a significant canon character?

I was originally just trying to flesh out Kensuke in a roundabout way, as a reaction to the number of people who were complaining about his one-dimensionality elsewhere on the boards at the time the contest started. Seemed like a good challenge... and the rules specifically stated that a character mentioned but never actually on screen in the show was legal.

With regards to psychos, I suspect the judges were kinda grasping at straws to find anyone really worthy of that moniker. There just weren't any raving lunatics on a chainsaw bender here to pick from. In retrospect I can see where Kazuhiro may have earned a nod because of his detached sensibilities, but I hardly think he's psychotic.

[EDIT] got mixed up with 'badass' award there. My point still applies, however.

[Formless One]

Fourth, long entries were long.

God job shooting your credibility in the foot there, Bob. But please, continue dictating what is and is not believable based on your personal preferences and see how long I care. I have always tried to be an honest reviewer, but I would never insult the time and effort someone put into their work.

Let no one say I am verbose.

[Chowwow]

Here are the results of the Contest organized into leaderboard form. I think it's pretty self-explanatory (note that while there were 17 Awards in all, the On Time award was given to multiple participants).



In response to some of the latest responses, gentlemen, please...

BobBQ, I want you to know that your focus on realism for your Character was greatly appreciated and added real depth to her. Content-wise, I think it was a very fulfilling entry. It was a humble, no nonsense approach and I think the Character's humanity showed.

I'm sorry if you found the Award offensive, it was meant as a means to celebrate a Character trait but it seems in this case, it was out of context. I think we Judges were trying to make a fit, and in retrospect I should have allowed for the option to choose no winner for an Award due to the low number of entries we had.

All in all, I think we did the best we could do under the circumstances, and we found some real gems. I noticed that we all refined our organization and we were able to streamline the Judgment process. But the low number of participating Contestants and the low number of individuals volunteering as Judges really hamstrung this Contest in general and tempered the excitement people had for it. I was not able to introduce some elements that I wanted and, as we have seen, the validity of some Judgments are in question.

I plan on refining this formula in the future, but the best thing that I can hope for is more participation from the community. And that is gonna take some real work.

[Formless One]

Actually, I think that you did a wonderful job organizing this thing, Chowwow. Although from the sounds of it some kind of option for the judges to not give an award if no contestant deserves it would be helpful in avoiding WTF moments for the contestants, other than that I see little wrong with the formula.

My theory is that our problems can mostly be traced back to the timing of this contest. Its the middle of the school year, and a good part of the time we had to work near the end coincided with the holidays and December. I think that if it had been a less busy part of the year more people would have been able to finish and more of the judges would have been available at the appropriate time. I know that the only way I managed to do this was to suspend most of my other projects so that I could do both this and Christmass stuff/school. (though it does help that this feeds into at least one of those projects, it still didn't go very far otherwise)

I could be wrong though. I'm certainly not complaining about the results this time, even if I think they are a little off in places. Nothing is perfect, and I'm trying to be objective here.

Edit: clarity.

[CorporalChaos]

AB's and Zimlord's would have gotten more votes from me had their character been named Led Zeppelin Soryu or something.

Anyway, it was enjoyable to look at all the entries. I think Bob's would have done a lot better job if there had been more awards that didn't focus on mostly fanservice and such. I really liked Shinano, but there were a dearth of awards that could be given to Bob for her.

[NemZ]

If anything, you may actually have too many specific categories. Perhaps combining a few and opening all of them up to more loose interpretation would create more competition globally as opposed to encouraging entries to hit as many bases as possible... and a few personality awards that favor more 'mature' entries, like "Best Professionalism" or some such.

[Chowwow]

Thanks for all of your input guys. With the Awards, I wanted something fun to celebrate our works - but now I see that they really can influence the products of the Contest. It would be tricky, but a new set of Awards aimed to reward certain ideas might be beneficial. What sorts of praise can be used to help shape the products of the future?

I see that scheduling is an issue as well. The work was supposed to be complete by the New Year, but it seems people were too busy with their personal lives to spend their winter breaks on their Concepts. Perhaps pushing it back a little more?

The idea is to have the Contest during the fall-winter season, with all work completed and submitted by the end of the year or the start of the new year. This should catch the holiday seasons where people have less work and stay out of possible conflicts with the Angel Design Contest. The current plan is to start everything again on September 1st, but I wonder if that is a good start?