Author's Games: Samurai

Task Five (Semi Finals): Rankings and Awards

Here are the awards handed out this task:

War - Kyou Asai, when I was reading your entry, I literally LIVED and BREATHED Japanese warfare. The research you put into your entry, as well as your beautiful use of vocbabulary and descriptions all worked together to win you this award.

Portrayal of Nobunaga - No one did this one.

Magoichi's Grief - No one did this one.

Long Lost Dream - Kyou Asai, there was a part in your entry when Kyou's emotions really started to show and he could feel the Samurai dream of a united Nihon slipping from his grasp. This is what I felt just by reading that paragraph you wrote. Amazing!

Kyou, since you were the only one who won an award, you will receive ONLY four months of supplies, 2000 soldiers and my personal opinion of how you coud make it to the finals.

Kyou, you correctly guessed the title, so you also receive 500 gold and 500 soldiers.

Here are the rankings for this task alone:

1. Clan 3: Kairi Saito - 13

2. Clan 2: Kyou Asai - 12.9

3. Clan 9: Naoki Hojo - 12.6

Here are the rankings overall:

1. Clan 2: Kyou Asai [78.3]

2. Clan 3: Kairi Saito [77.9]

3. Clan 9: Naoki Hojo [76]

Everyone has won awards for their task scores.

11 - 12 is 500 gold (Naoki and Kyou)

13 is 1,000 (Kairi)

Kyou Asai, every entry I read from you is a chapter of a story set in 1560 Japan. The sheer amount of research you do never fails to grab me and pull me into Samurai warfare as well as Japan itself. I don't even have to be told that you do so much research; it shows with your amazing writing. Your descriptions, your action scenes, the very Japanese nature to it all shows it. You extensively use your vocabulary to constantly make your images as vivid and concise as they can be, which is why your descriptions are always so beautiful.

Kairi Saito, you take each one of the tasks and make it your own. You follow them, yes, but you also tweak them and have made your own entire story line out of it. Every time I read your entry I get thrown into your story and I love reading it. I can't put it down! Not only that, but your writing with samurai and Japanese culture has increased so much that I also feel thrown into the middle of Japan along with this amazing story. The way you always describe Kairi's emotions always throw me into her character and make me feel for her along this epic journey.

Naoki Hojo, you amaze me at how quickly you picked up writing a book about samurai, when you had never done anything like it before. Every entry, Naoki has another genius idea, another epic strategy. You always manage to keep me engaged, wanting to know more about what's going to happen next, what's Naoki going to do next. He's such a likeable character too that it's hard not to be interested.

With that being said, I've decided to give Immunity for Battle Task Five to...

Kairi Saito!