The Greatest Anime Episode Ever Tournament

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

For me, personally, season one of Tiger and Bunny is good but not great. That episode is a solid one, but not my personal favorite. On the other hand, season two is excellent, but makes me upset that we never got a third season to resolve the Lunatic story-line.

[Avaitor]

For me, personally, season one of Tiger and Bunny is good but not great. That episode is a solid one, but not my personal favorite. On the other hand, season two is excellent, but makes me upset that we never got a third season to resolve the Lunatic story-line.

Hmm, okay. I'll definitely keep that in mind when I get to the show, since it's in my queue.

[gunswordfist]

pass

[Spark Of Spirit]

Diablo
Cold Hands
The Wolf Knows What the Ill Beast Did
One-Eyed Fish

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Same as Avaitor.

[VLordGTZ]

One-Eyed Fish
Diablo
The Wolf Knows What the Ill Beast Did
Cold Hands

[LumRanmaYasha]

"Diablo" -

Spoiler

Legato's introduction still sends shivers down my spine. One of the all-time greatest villain introduction scenes in anime and manga. The center of the episode is really powerfull too. Monev is the first character to really infuriate Vash to the point where he almost loses himself and wants to kill someone. Even when Legato gets him to kill, he only manages to do so because he forced Vash to choose between his morals and the lives of his friends, preying on his psychological weakness from the repeated tragedies he's had to witness and giving no time to find another, better solution. Here, Monev straight up decimates an entire town, and his callous ruthlessness is enough to bring out the "diablo" in him.

In a way, the fight with Monev parallels Kenshin's with Jin-e in RK in that these opponents bring out the worst in our heroes and almost push them to the edge and forget their pacifist philosophies, but the words and memories of loved ones bring them back to their senses before it's too late. Like that moment in RK, this is a pretty definitive episode of the series. Not only does this introduce us to our main villain and the first real threat to our heroes, it's also the first time Vash's resolve is put to the test psychologically and what grounds his resolve comes to light. Vash doesn't kill just because it's the right thing to do, but also to pay tribute to Rem and never forget her teachings, lest he forget her herself. The "I won't be able to see you anymore" line foreshadows the moment where after he does finally kill in "Sin" his vision of Rem fades to white, which makes the final moments in this episode where he desperately attempts to convince himself it's not okay to kill Monev because it's not what Rem would've wanted all the more tragic in retrospect.

[close]

"Cold Hands" -

Spoiler

"Eye Opening" is my favorite arc of Higurashi because it presents such a fascinating and frightening villainous character arc in Shion's descent into madness and depravity because of her paranoia and misguided belief that there was a conspiracy orchestrated by the Sonozakis to murder Satoshi just because he was a Hojo. This episode sees her completely blinded by her paranoia, ignoring pleas of innocence from Mion, the village head, and Rika. In the latter's case in particular, she completely ignores her comments about forgiving the trespassers and leaving them be and by trying to get her to kill Keichi she's basically forcing her into a situation where either way she'd still be suspicious and guilty no matter what. She's completely lost it by this point, seeing everyone as her enemy and everything they do as suspicious. The moment where she screams out in victory after Rika offs herself, and her happily humming while covering up her corpse shows how far she's fallen, having basically becoming a serial murderer at this point. Her delusions ultimately reach their tragic climax in the next episode where she realizes she had completely forgot Satoshi's last wish in her quest to avenge him.

Oh, and I love that scene where Rika stabs herself to death with the knife. I thought it was a badass scene the first time I watched it, but I also find it kind of hilarious in retrospect. Rika already knows she's just going to come back to life again, so when things go south and she sees how fucked up this timeline's Shion is, she basically decides she shouldn't even bother to stay and salvage this "dead-end" world. So she says screw it, fuck you bitch, and gets herself out of that shit. It's pretty great. It's like Kenny killing himself to escape Chtulu's dimension in The Coon Trilogy in South Park; the fact that she so casually kills herself because she knows killing herself is an easy and viable option to get her out of a jam is both really clever and really funny to me. It also makes Shion gloating that she's won funny to me, because really, Rika kinda just flipped her off and pulled one over on her. While I'm not sure if this is my favorite episode in the arc, that scene is definitely one of my favorite moments in the entire show.

[close]

"One-Eyed Fish" -

Spoiler

We explore Ginko's origins and watch the tragic relationship between himself and his mentor develop, whose death and his own lost memories and cursed eye he's ultimately responsible for. It's a quiet episode, but like the best of Mushi-shi, full of rich atmosphere and a simultaneously haunting yet beautiful depiction of the natural world, with a bittersweet moral accompanying the iyashikei proceedings.

[close]

"The Wolf Knows What the Ill Beast Thinks" -

Spoiler

Lunatic is a great foil for the heroes, as he represents a very real public sentiment which believes that killing criminals outright is a better and more effective form of justice, criticizing the commercial heroes' efforts as ineffectual posturing. The episode contrasts their opposing philosophies by placing the heroes in a situation where they must protect criminals from being murdered by Lunatic, and Tiger's frustration when they fail to save most of them in the end is a pretty powerful moment. It's a great showing for a pretty fascinating villain and a strong character piece for Tiger and Bunny themselves overall.

[close]

[LumRanmaYasha]

Results:

Tiger & Bunny #7: "The Wolf Knows What the Ill Beast Thinks." - 7
Mushi-Shi #12: "One-Eyed Fish" - 11
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni #20: "Cold Hands (Chapter: Eye Opening, Part 5)" - 15
Trigun #12: "Diablo" - 17

"Cold Hands" and "Diablo" move on to round 2! The next match will be up shortly.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Round 1: Match 14


Shirobako #19: "Did You Catch Any?"

VS.


Blood Blockade Battlefront #4: "Blood Line Fever"

VS.


Princess Tutu #13: "Swan Lake"

VS.


Urusei Yatsura #71: "Shinobu's Cinderella Story"

[Pharass]

Swan Lake
Did You Catch Any?
Shinobu's Cinderella Story
Blood Line Fever

[gunswordfist]

pass

[Avaitor]

Do you ever not pass, GSF?

I actually think that I'll have to pass this time, though. I've been pretty busy over the past few days, and I'm training for my new job this weekend, so it'll be unlikely that I can catch up for this round.

[LumRanmaYasha]

"Shinobu's Cinderella Story" -

Spoiler

Shinobu is perhaps the most criminally underutilized of the main characters in UY, but she also has what is the most developed character arc as well. This is the only episode in the series to be exclusively about her, and I've always found how it presents her melancholy and desire to live an adventurous life on her own terms instead of being dragged into the affairs of others very thoughtful and reflective of her character. Here Shinobu is swept into an adventure in which she feels a part of and a romance that's seemingly mutual, but when she mulls over everything that's happened, she realizes she's just been used again as a part of someone else's scheme and story. That ending image of her holding up the desk with a pensive expression perfectly describes her sadness and melancholy, unsatisfied and unfulfilled with the way her life is, but at the same time, unable to break out of it. Something that she doesn't really come to terms with and escape from until "Inaba the Dreammaker."

[close]

"Did You Catch Any?" -

Spoiler

There's a lot going on in this episode. The return of Yano is much-welcome as her quick-witted and sly personality returns some levity to the show, and really invigorates the team and she becomes a major help and support to Aoi, giving her good advice on getting some much-need rest. Aoi herself wonders whether she really enjoys what she's doing, and by visiting the old animation studio and imagining old stories from how things were during the production of her favorite anime, she becomes motivated again and inspired to create a series that will not lose to the classics in quality and entertainment value. There's a lot of great small character moments for other characters, and animating the Andes Chucky opening for the ending was an inspired move as well. An episode that really resonates with people who've lost sight of why they find their work fun or fulfilling and remembering it in a cathartic way.

[close]

"Blood Line Fever" -

Spoiler

The Blood Breed, while somewhat underutilized in the anime, are pretty interesting as a threat to humanity in the world of BBB. The fight with the Blood Breed is really intense and well-animated, and shows off Libra's trust in each other as a group as well as their willingness and resolve in risking their lives in order to complete impossible jobs and protect the world. I really like the sentiment that humanity will persevere and fight against impossible odds, striving to find a way to kill and defeat beings who are ostensibly immortal. Lucky Abhrams is also just a fun character who causes a lot of crazy stuff to happen just by his presence alone, and the episode sports great foreshadowing and set-up for Black and the King of Despair. This is the episode that really gets the overarching plot of BBB rolling, and it's a damn fun time.

[close]

"Swan Lake" -

Spoiler

I actually just started watching Princess Tutu and I'm really enjoying it, but I've only gotten up to episode 6. I won't have time today to watch through to episode 13, and now that I've started the show, I don't want to skip ahead and spoil myself on it. So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to put this last for now. 

[close]

[Spark Of Spirit]

Opposite of Pharass.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just to be clear, I'm passing on this round....so, ummmm....next round please!