The Greatest Anime Episode Ever Tournament

[Pharass]

Same as LumRanmaYasha

Haruhi in Wonderland was good, definitely made me interested in checking out more of Ouran at some point.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Haruhi in Wonderland was good, definitely made me interested in checking out more of Ouran at some point.

Just keep in mind that "Haruhi in Wonderland" is not necessarily indicative of the tone of the whole series. While the rest of the series has its interesting subtext, there is a lot more straightforward comedy in the regular episodes (but IMO, it's very good comedy with very well-realized characters). This episode stands out from the rest in how tonally different it feels from the rest of the show, but at the same time it has a lot to say about Haruhi as a character and how she fits in (or rather struggles to fit in) with the people around her, aside from the members of the Ouran Host Club who she has become more close with over time.

The rest of the series is still great though, of course. In fact, as much as I enjoy this episode, it's actually not my favorite episode of the show. There are about two or three others that I find to be even more appealing to revisit from time to time, but this episode is definitely a top five for me.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Same as listed.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, here are my brief explanations for my choices:

"Haruhi in Wonderland" - As I've already elaborated on, while not my favorite episode of the show, it's such a well put-together piece that uses the template of the classic Lewis Carroll novel to metaphorically describe Haruhi's life. Much like the titular character Alice in her story, Haruhi finds herself surrounded by a rich, aristocratic society which she just doesn't fit in with. Of course, her circumstances are still very different from that of Alice, as a show of this nature takes place in a very different context, but the general themes are still similar enough for this sort of story outline to be applied here. While I'm usually not a fan of shows trying to ape stories from classic literature in order to appear smart, this is one of the few examples of a show that actually gets it right.

"Roger the Wanderer" - It's no surprise that this episode was written by Chiaki J. Konaka himself (which makes me regret not nominating a Digimon Tamers episode, but it was hard for me to pick one since I didn't have enough time to re-watch my favorite parts of the series), and that in combination with the brilliant directing and incredibly fluid animation (for a show of this budget) really helps to give it the recipe for success. This is once again a case where I'm usually not a fan of episodes of this type, that being the abstract metaphorical episode, but once again it's just done so well here that it's hard to find any fault with it. And also like with that episode of Ouran, this isn't my favorite episode of the show, but it definitely earns its place in this competition.

"Execution" - This is a really good episode to demonstrate L's line of thinking, how he's clearly not a good guy and will sink to any level to get the results that he desires, and how dead set he is on insisting that Light is Kira and that Misa is involved. At the same time, being that their memories have been temporarily erased, we do get a sense that Light does have a genuine respect for L, and under different circumstances they would have made a great team. Granted, I always felt that it was a little out of character for Light to not see through L's ruse, as he really seemed to think that his father was about to kill him (and on that note, Light's father really is such a great character). Regardless of losing his memories, Light should still be as clever and observant as he has always been, but I suppose you could say that the weeks of being locked up without any real human contact made his mind weary to the point where a high-stress situation really could fool him. At any rate, it's good stuff, but since this part of the plot wraps up within the first half, the overall episode falters a bit from the exposition-heavy second half which is mainly just set-up for how the rest of this story arc will unfold. And for that reason I have to rank it a bit lower than the other two.

"The One Who Brings the World Revolution" - Really interesting directing and aesthetic designs, here. But, yeah, as you can tell by my ranking of this episode at the bottom, I haven't actually seen this series yet, and thus watched this episode completely out of context. I have no doubt that I'll have a much grander appreciation for it when I finally do work my way around to watching this show, but aside from being able to comment on the interesting use of visuals, I can't tell you anything about the characters or story because quite frankly I have no idea what was going on. Like, there is that interesting scene where the three girls are talking and it's inter-cut with each of them hitting a birdie whenever one of them finishes a statement or response. Does any of it mean anything within the context of the conversation? Given this show and it's director's reputation, I'm absolutely positive that it does, but when seeing this episode out of context like this, I couldn't even begin to guess what that meaning is. That's just my elaborate way of saying that this is clearly an episode that you can only truly appreciate if you've actually seen all of the previous episodes leading up to this point. Someday I will, but for now I'll have to rank this based on how I currently feel about it compared to the competition.

[Avaitor]

I'm going with the same as EK.

I was going to write about each of them, but this episode of Death Note is a little slower than I remembered (what mostly sticks out is L and Light's dad's ploy, which is executed well, but the pacing is a little off in the second half), and while I do like the Utena episode, I can't especially connect to it, as it's all new to me. I know that when I finally get around to watching it in full, I'll probably enjoy it much more, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, the new match is supposed to go up today (Thursday), right?

[LumRanmaYasha]

So, the new match is supposed to go up today (Thursday), right?

That's the plan, but first...

I'll watch the Big O and Death Note episodes dubbed because they had pretty good ones. How are the Ouran and Utena dubs?

Do you still plan to vote on this match Foggle?

[Foggle]

I want to, but I won't have time to watch them all today unfortunately. Go ahead with the next round.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Very well. Then without further ado...

Results:

The Big O #14: "Roger the Wanderer" - 16
Death Note #17: "Execution" - 9
Ouran High School Host Club #13: "Haruhi in Wonderland!" - 14
Revolutionary Girl Utena #37: "The One to Revolutionize the World" - 11

"Roger the Wanderer" and "Haruhi in Wonderland!" move on to the second round! The next match will be posted shortly.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Round 1: Match 2


Lupin III Part II #145: "Wings of Death; Albatross"

VS.


Yu Yu Hakusho #52: "The Death of Genkai"

VS.


Lupin III Part IV #13: "The End of Lupin III"

VS.


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

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Two Lupins and two YuYu's. Goddamnit, you did this on purpose CX!

I'll need to re-watch that Part II episode and also check out that Part IV episode, but I already know what my favorite for this round will be.

[Avaitor]

Wow, most of these are familiar AND fresh to me!

All I need to do is find time for that Part IV episode, which I'll try to do today.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Two Lupins and two YuYu's. Goddamnit, you did this on purpose CX!

It's not my fault the random generator is so mean. 

[gunswordfist]

Pass again. Doesn't matter to me who wins this one. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

"Sleep, Doctor, Sleep" - Brilliant animation, a big moral conflict for our main character, a memorable villain, and some really strong dialogue make this one of the best episodes in all of Yu Yu Hakusho. That said, for anyone who either hasn't watched the show or doesn't remember it very well, even if it's not in this round I highly recommend that you watch the previous episode leading into this one as they really do both go together in my mind. About my only gripe is that the English dub voice actor for Doctor really hams it up a bit more than he should, IMO, but he deliver the closing line of the episode really well.

"The Death of Genkai" - So, this is kind of embarrassing being that I'm a huge Yu Yu Hakusho fan and all, but being that this was one of my extra nominations at the last minute, I didn't bother to double-check the episode list for this show and I ended up nominating the wrong one. I actually meant to nominate one of the subsequent episodes dealing with the aftermath of this one, but goofed up on that. Even so, being that it's one of those last-minute nominations of mine, I'm OK with that, and in all honesty it's definitely still a terrific episode. Genkai's death does have a lot of weight to it and truly does feel tragic, even knowing full well what happens later. It's also great to see her story arc come to a culmination here as she finally faces off against Toguro, once a friend to her, as they bring their bitter age-old rivalry to an end.

"The End of Lupin III" - I really do need to get around to watching the rest of Part IV, but one of the great things about Lupin III as a franchise is that its episodic nature allows you to jump in almost anywhere and be able to completely grasp what's going on. I really liked how this episode had the humor, wit, and charm of classic Lupin all throughout, yet also managed to be an interesting exploration of the age-old rivalry between Zenigata and Lupin. Great stuff, overall.

"Wings of Death; Albatross" - A very stylish and entertaining episode with some great animation that quite frankly still holds up today. While it doesn't quite have the depth or nuance of the other Lupin episode in this match, it makes up for it in sheer grandiosity, and who doesn't love seeing Fujiko getting to be a total bad-ass?

That was a really tough round for me. However, while I'm not keen on pitting two great series against each other like this, it is actually a really good sign for this competition that we are getting matches like this in the first round. That's kind of the point. Everything nominated should already be considered by at least someone to be a contender for being the best of the best, and if we had twice as many nominations just for the sake of it then no doubt the first few rounds would be stale and by the time we actually narrowed the list of contenders down to the truly special ones, most of us would be burned out on participating by then. So keeping the nominations fairly limited like this really was for the better, IMO. We get more genuinely interesting match-ups right from the start.