IYFG 3rd Quarter 2008: Results & Stats

[luxken27]

I guess this is the advantage of living halfway around the world from the rest of you, LOL...

I bring you: results & stats for this quarter's voting!


Best Action/Adventure
1) Facets of the Living Jewel by l_poetica
2) Yellow Brick Road by Emmaren
3) Seven Feudal Fairy Tales by Lady Battousai

Best AU/AR
1) Unexpected by forthrightly
2) [TIE] Beside You in Time by RosieB & Minuoe by doggieearlover
3) Pack Law by psyco_chick32

Best Canon
1) Creative Writing by TouchofPixieDust
2) Yesterday's Tomorrows by knittingknots
3) After the End by knittingknots

Best Characterization
1) [TIE] Alpha-Beta by SplendentGoddess & Imperceptible by forthrightly
2) Minuoe by doggieearlover
3) Facets of the Living Jewel by l_poetica

Best Comedy
1) [TIE] The Syndrome by sunsetmiko & The 500-Year Engagement by Majicman55
2) Driven to Distraction by forthrightly
3) [TIE] Captive Audience by darkfrog24 & Dancing with Scissors by piratequeen0405

Best Crossover
1) The Shadows of Time (TrinityBlood) by Ryukotsusei
2) In Pursuit of the Green Dragon (Fullmetal Alchemist) by Sharibet
3) Unseelie by (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Rurouni Kenshin) by ljmouse

Best Darkfic/Horror
1) Hedonism by abraxas_ren
2) On the Night of a Blood Red Moon by Ryukutsusei
3) But Slumber'd Here by the_glow_worm

Best Drama
1) Heart's Landfill by Simonkal of Inuy
2) Heated by fenikkusuken
3) Beside You in Time by RosieB

Best Lemon
1) The Knife of Romance by inugrrrl
2) Menage Au Inu by CMK2CMM (sunsetmiko)
3) The Benefits of Trust by inugrrrl

Best Oneshot
1) Memento Mori by luxken27
2) Instant Poetry by TouchofPixieDust
3) And They Cried by scottishfae

Best Original Character
1) The Coyote Child (Yukio) by Terri Botta
2) Violation of Honor (Saya) by Rinseternalsoul
3) Seven Feudal Fairy Tales (Shiro) by Lady Battousai

Best Poemfic/Songfic
1) Nameless by ShadowsWeaver1
2) [TIE] Darkness Before Dawn by catbaker & There She Goes by forthrightly
3) Forever Trusting Who We Are by salomesensei

Best Romance - Inuyasha/Kagome
1) Shrine Prostitute by flametwirler
2) Yesterday's Tomorrows by knittingknots
3) Alpha-Beta by SplendentGoddess

Best Romance - Other
1) Dancing with Scissors by piratequeen0405
2) Black Widow Miko by madmiko
3) Revelations by priestess_skye

Best Serial
1) Minuoe by doggieearlover
2) Seven Feudal Fairy Tales by Lady Battousai
3) [TIE] A Fool's Redemption by Grumblebear & After the End by knittingknots

Best Short-Short (500 words max)
1) Autumn by fenikkusuken
2) But Slumber'd Here by the_glow_worm
3) [TIE] Fate by sunsetmiko & Gone Wrong by doggieearlover

Best Vignette
1) Sorrow Shared by Aryndiel
2) New Moon by knittingknots
3) Laundry Day by knittingknots

Best Yaoi/Yuri
1) Masterbation Can Lead to Fun by izzanami
2) Falling Away by lynx212
3) New Moon by Gnome1

This quarter there was an average of 49 voters (884 votes across 18 polls). The most popular categories were Best Serial (63 votes), Best AU/AR (61 votes), and Best Characterization (57 votes), whereas the least popular categories were Best Yaoi/Yuri (24 votes), Best Crossover (32 votes), and Best Poemfic/Songfic (36 votes).

Compare this to the first two quarters' worth of voting, and you can see a general downturn in both voter turnout (down almost 200 votes) and votes per category (the 'least' amount of votes for any one poll last quarter was 49 - which was the average amount this quarter). I wonder how much of this has to do with the manga being over, and 'casual' fans losing interest in the fandom...

Here are some other interesting trends I noticed...

*16 of the polls had at least 1 vote for "no award should be given" (only Best Vignette and Best Romance Inuyasha/Kagome were spared)
*1 category (Best Yaoi/Yuri) declared a winner without the winner's vote total hitting double digits
*3 categories (Best Action/Adventure, Best AU/AR, Best Original Character) declared 'landslide' winners
*Category where the winner had the most votes (across all polls): Best AU/AR (20 votes), Best Action/Adventure (19 votes)
*Best Lemon had the highest concentration of votes/fic

Biggest Haul (per author)
knittingknots (6)
forthrightly (4)
doggieearlover (4)

Multiple Awards (per fic)
Minuoe - 3
Seven Feudal Fairy Tales - 3
Facets of the Living Jewel - 2
Beside You in Time - 2
Yesterday's Tomorrows - 2
Dancing with Scissors - 2
But Slumber'd Here - 2

Comments

[kmoaton.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your win! Memento Mori really deserved it!

[luxken27]

Thanks! I was absolutely shocked to see the results...I'm used to third place (at best), not winning! O.O I think I'm still shocked it was nominated to begin with, LOL...

[landofthekwt.livejournal.com]

Congrats

[guelphite1.livejournal.com]

Congrats on Memento Mori! A well deserved win ;)

[luxken27]

Thanks! It's still sinking in...

Hopefully I'll have the sequel ready to go soon. I think my inuyashaxkagome Advent Calendar entry is going to be tied to this, too...so many fics and so little time LOL.

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

Congrats! And thanks for doing those stats...that was quite interesting...

[luxken27]

Congrats to you too, Ms. Biggest Haul of the Quarter, LOL.

You're quite welcome for the stats. Looking for patterns is what I do most of the day so I guess I can't help but apply the same logic to even these "fun" things.

It would be nice to see if we could find a way to have more people voting, though. That's probably the biggest, most troubling trend I've noticed this year..

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

I've noticed it too...

Not sure how to drum up support, but it would be nice to see higher participation in all the awards groups. It's certainly only a tiny fraction of the readership.

[luxken27]

I was thinking that it might be more appealing if there was a way to vote for more than one place in the poll (I know there are several fics I thought deserved a chance), like 1-2-3 here at the LJ comms. But Yahoo isn't set up for that...and I suppose some people would feel like it'd be even *more* work to vote for 3 places as opposed to one.

It will take some thought, for sure.

I've had the feeling that the fandom has been on the decline since the end of the manga, but maybe that's just because it coincided with a lot of epic fanfics being finished as well *shrug* I'm not sure how many people know of the awards' groups existences if they are just casual readers/writers. I found it because it seemed a lot of my favorite writers were being honored by it (and the Feudal Association), but I am a bit more active in seeking fic than others might be, I admit.

[landofthekwt.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the stats. If you look at the results for the recently concluded Dokuga Awards you will see that there is still a fanbase for Inuyasha, it has just migrated to SessKag, new home of the fangirlz.

[luxken27]

If you look at the results for the recently concluded Dokuga Awards you will see that there is still a fanbase for Inuyasha, it has just migrated to SessKag, new home of the fangirlz.

So I see - but their system is slightly different from the IYFG so it's not totally comparable. Plus, it's young - let's see how they do after a couple of years, LOL :)

It seems that quite a few 'vocal' IYFG members absolutely loathe Sess/Kag, which is a shame because there are some good stories there. (Frankly, I was surprised Four Seasons did as well as it did in these polls - one vote away from placing for Best Drama!) But I guess I can't blame them for their biases, as we all have them. Oh, well.

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

I was explaining it to someone like this: Some are in love with the gestalt that's InuYasha (not the character, but the manga, the anime, the story, and the people in it as defined and their relationships), and don't enjoy things that take bits and pieces of it and make brand new scenarios as much as ones that seem to evolve out of the original story line.

Some people feel more freedom to use the characters like they were building blocks to do other things with.

For some it's a mix between the two.

Me, I'm just in love with the setting, and Sessh' younger brother. But I probably belong to the first group mostly. Give me a good enough story, one that doesn't blow my "ability to disbelieve" and I'll read it, no matter what the genre. But for me, the set up, why the alternate pairing works has to be believable in terms of RT's story concept, or I just can't read it.

But I do champion everybody's freedom to play with the story and characters the way they enjoy. You shouldn't be forced into drinking the tea I make if you don't like it, or you like another one better.

[luxken27]

Some are in love with the gestalt that's InuYasha (not the character, but the manga, the anime, the story, and the people in it as defined and their relationships)

This pretty much describes me. I was attracted by the story, but once I really got into it - reading the later chapters of the manga, getting to know more about the characters, etc., I just fell completely in love. It is a psychological portrait of the highest order, IMO - all of the characters have something about them that is intriguing and fun to play around with.

But for me, the set up, why the alternate pairing works has to be believable in terms of RT's story concept, or I just can't read it.

I feel this has to hold true, even for canon pairings. Let's face it, there's plenty of crap to wade through, no matter what you're seeking. (Maybe not as much as during the Epic Inu/Kag vs Inu/Kik flamewars, but still.)

I think at heart I am a canon girl. Even though I've written several AU stories, I try not to step too far out of bounds for the characters at their cores to be lost. I'm more likely to *read* something in the canon universe, especially if it's a long story (beyond, say, 10 or 12 chapters).

I'll loudly and proudly proclaim that Sesshoumaru is my favorite character, though. He just has too many issues that are too much fun to tease apart, for me.

But I do champion everybody's freedom to play with the story and characters the way they enjoy. You shouldn't be forced into drinking the tea I make if you don't like it, or you like another one better.

True - true. We all have our ships and the stuff we don't read ever. For me, it's Sess/Rin (romantic) and yaoi *shrug* I'll never say never to reading either one of those (considering my best friends write almost exclusively yaoi, LOL), but it's not something I'd actively seek out, either. But I'd never tell someone they can't 1) write it, or 2) read it and enjoy it. We all have our quirks and biases and that's what makes the world go round, I suspect :)

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

Sessh IS interesting. I love his brother, but I find him definitely someone to explore more...and looking to find the real Sessh behind the fanfic conventions and pre-assumptions is something I want to do.

[luxken27]

Well, my fellow traveler, I wish you the best of luck! :) I think it all depends on how you want to approach him: arrogant bastard, enigma wrapped in a mystery, infinitely tortured? And that, I suppose, depends on what you read into his actions from the anime/manga, especially towards Rin and Kohaku.

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

all of the above, with an overcompensating of an inferiority complex based on the early death of his father and having to deal with his mother's personality?

Plus he's not human.

[luxken27]

...ding ding ding! I think we have a winner, LOL.

See - a psychological profile ripe for the pickings. Mmmm, my favorite kind! :D

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

Yep...and I will be doing some pickings...I cannot write Inu fic story arcs without Sessh being woven into it...

[jzeiggy.livejournal.com]

Congrats :)

[luxken27]

Thanks! :)

[doggieearlover.livejournal.com]

Congrats on your win!!

[luxken27]

Thanks for nominating me! :)

[doggieearlover.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it very much!

[taiyoukai-nile.livejournal.com]

Congrats to all of the winners!