The Greatest Anime Episode Ever Tournament

[LumRanmaYasha]

Round 2: Match 5   


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

VS.


Yu Yu Hakusho #69: "The Power of Taboo"

VS.


The Big O #14: "Roger the Wanderer"

VS.


Trigun #24: "Sin"

[gunswordfist]

Pass. I won't be watching Big O until I get the DVD

[Spark Of Spirit]

Difficult round.

Sin
The Power of Taboo
Roger the Wanderer
Shinobu's Cinderella Story

[Avaitor]

Same as Spark.

[VLordGTZ]

Sin
Roger the Wanderer
The Power of Taboo
Shinobu's Cinderella Story

[LumRanmaYasha]

The Power of Taboo
Roger the Wanderer
Sin
Shinobu's Cinderella Story

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's been a week, so I'll wrap this match up.

Results:

Urusei Yatsura #71: "Shinobu's Cinderella Story" - 4
Yu Yu Hakusho #69: "The Power of Taboo" - 12
The Big O #14: "Roger the Wanderer" - 10
Trigun #24: "Sin" - 14

"The Power of Taboo" and "Sin" move on to round 3! The next match will be up shortly.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Round 2: Match 6


Yu Yu Hakusho #74: "Sleep, Doctor, Sleep"

VS.


Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid #5: "Beautiful Sicily"

VS.


Urusei Yatsura #157: "Darling, I Love Your Kindness"

VS.


Cowboy Bebop #26: "The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)"

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Hakusho
Bebop
Panic
Yatsura

[Avaitor]

Same as EK

[Spark Of Spirit]

Same as Avaitor

[VLordGTZ]

Same as Spark

[LumRanmaYasha]

"Darling, I Love Your Kindness"
"The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)"
"Sleep, Doctor, Sleep"
"Beautiful Sicily"

Spoiler

UY #157 - You know, I'm not surprised all of y'all ranked it last. None of you have spent the time with UY to understand how important and incredibly crafted this episode is. None of you would understand the truths this episode reveals about Ataru's character and how that changes the context of his characterization through the entire show up until this point. None of you would appreciate the subplot of Lum questioning what she sees in Ataru and then being reminded by watching his interactions with Nozomi throughout the episode. None of you would appreciate the quiet, simple melancholy of Nozomi's character within the episode and what her fascination about Ataru's liveliness says not only about her but of Ataru and taps into underlying themes of freedom and enjoying life that carries across the entire series. None of you would appreciate the incredible directing and using Nozomi's mother as a framing device for the episode to add an extra pow to the emotional payoff at the end of the episode. None of you would understand why this episode is so important in the context of the series and why it remains one of it's most defining and iconic stories. None of you would get why this episode has more character and craft put into than the other three episodes in this match put together. But that's okay. I know you guys don't know any better. I forgive you. 

CB #26 - Spike's past catches up to him, and there's no running from it any more. At least, he's too tired, to fed up to try. Having lost what was keeping him moving forward, and also what was keeping him back, he goes to confront Vicious and in doing so come to terms with and embrace his own death. One of the most powerful character arcs and most iconic finales in anime.

YYH #74 - Great concept for a fight that pushes Yusuke to his moral limits and force him to take a life to save those he cares about, even if his guilt is subsided by Genkai's intervention saving Doctor's life. Also features nice use of supporting characters to outwit Doctor and help win the day. The direction by Akiyuki Shinbo and his use of heavy shadows and stylized, twisted character designs, facial expressions, and fluid, lucid body movement enhances the surreal and claustrophobic nature of the fight adding more stress and tension and highlighting how dark the scenario truly is.  Doctor's final words describing humanity as a disease is a chilling note to end on and sets the tone for the rest of the arc as well as hints at Sensui's outlook and motivation to eliminate humanity.

FMP: TSR #5 - A really fun action-packed episode with a lot of great humor and an interesting exploration of Sosuke's struggles to balance his obligations with Kaname, his duties as a solider, and understand what he himself really wants out of life, a concept which he struggles to reconcile with for the remainder of the arc until the climax.

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know, to be fair, you kind of have to expect that some people just haven't been able to get around to one of your favorite shows yet, and no matter how good an episode I, it probably won't resonate with someone as much when seen out of context (the same applies to almost every episode in this entire competition).

The same has happened with various stuff that I like in both this and other competition threads, as well. Perhaps this is like my indirect form of revenge.

In all seriousness, though, me ranking it last us not a slight on it or UY as a whole at all. It's just that currently I have a much stronger connection with the other three episodes since I have seen each of those shows in full multiple times, whereas UY is still on my extremely long backlog of stuff to get around to eventually.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Really? I'm pretty sure I voted it last out of spite.