The Greatest Western Animation Episode Ever

[Spark Of Spirit]

Same as Avaitor.

[VLordGTZ]

Lake Laogai
Keeper of the Reaper
Christmas in the Car
All I Wanted Was a Slushie

[gunswordfist]

Welp, no reason for me to vote now. Pass!

[LumRanmaYasha]

All I Wanted Was a Slushie
Keeper of the Reaper
Lake Laogai
Christmas in the Car

Spoiler

"All I Wanted Was a Slushie" is a just really fun episode. REGIS is a hilarious and memorable obstacle to get in Coop's way as he tries to get a slushie. The amount of times he fails and what he has to do in order to beat REGIS and get that sweet slush is a great comedic ride.

"Keeper of the Reaper" is an iconic episode of Billy & Mandy, introducing Fred Fredburger and containing several memorable gags. Re-watching it, I'm not sure if it is actually the best or funniest episode, but the way it reflects on Billy and Mandy as characters and captures everything that makes the show fun still makes it standout.

"Lake Laogai" is an important episode of Avatar, being where Aang finally gets Appa back, where the gang finally realizes the conspiracy in Ba Sing Sei, Jet dies, and Zuko gives up on chasing the avatar (for now). I think the Zuko stuff is really strong and that its very satisfying to see Aang and Appa reunited, but Jet's death is so obscured it leaves little emotional impact for me, and the conspiracy stuff is kinda whatever.

"Christmas in the Car" is an episode I remember really liking, but upon rewatching just found myself annoyed with how obnoxious Lin was, how stubborn Bob was, and how irritating the kids were. This episode reminded me more about what I don't like about the Belchers as characters than what I do. It's a shame, because the premise of a candy cane shaped truck stalking the Belchers on Christmas Eve is great, and I think the reveal about Gary being alone and taking out his frustrations on them had some heart to it, but I just didn't laugh much.

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[Dreamer2]

I always found the Teddy parts in Christmas in the Car to be super hilarious. It was one of the earliest episodes I ever saw and I've loved it ever since.

But, my love of Bob's Burgers as a show will never end. I can pretty much always find something to like in any episode.

[Avaitor]

I really like parts of "Christmas in the Car", but Linda is pretty unbearable in it. It's definitely one of my least favorite episodes for her.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Results:

"Christmas in the Car" (Bob's Burgers) - 11
"Keeper of the Reaper" (The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) - 16
"Lake Laogai" (Avatar: The Last Airbender) - 15
"All I Wanted Was a Slushie" (Megas XLR) - 8

"Keeper of the Reaper" and "Lake Laogai" move on to round 2! The next match will be up shortly.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Round 1: Match 3


"House and Garden" (Batman: The Animated Series)

VS.


"Escape from L.A." (BoJack Horseman)

VS.


"Last but not Beast" (Dexter's Laboratory)

VS.


"See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" (The Powerpuff Girls)

[Avaitor]

"Escape From LA"
"House & Garden"
"Last But Not Beast"
"See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey"

[Spark Of Spirit]

"House & Garden"
"Last But Not Beast"
"See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey"
"Escape From LA"

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Same as Spark.

[Dreamer2]

Last But Not Beast
Escape From L.A.
House & Garden
See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey

House & Garden may very well be my favorite of the bunch, but it's been a long time since I last saw it, so I'm ok with putting those two ahead of it.

Also, is Bojack always this depressing? It was a good episode, but that ending was really sad. Usually you'd expect an episode like this to have a happy or at least a semi uplifting ending. But, not here. Not even close. I watched the first two episodes and it didn't really leave me caring enough to watch more, but I may end up giving it a full watch some time now.

[VLordGTZ]

Escape From L.A.
Last But Not Beast
House & Garden
See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey

[Avaitor]

Also, is Bojack always this depressing? It was a good episode, but that ending was really sad. Usually you'd expect an episode like this to have a happy or at least a semi uplifting ending. But, not here. Not even close. I watched the first two episodes and it didn't really leave me caring enough to watch more, but I may end up giving it a full watch some time now.

This might be one of the show's bleakest episodes, although the back end of season 3 definitely gives it a run for its money.

One of the things that I like best about BoJack Horseman is that it's one of the best examples I can think of with negative character development. For all that BoJack tries to be a better person, he's too far invested in his negative attributes to really help himself, and just embraces them to the point of screwing things up for everyone. The show can be really funny, but I think its strength is in how it works with its characters.

The first season is a little rough to get through, but I think it finds itself after the first few episodes. The humor gets a little smarter and it starts to find its purpose by the end of the season. If you can make it through that, I can't recommend it enough.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Escape From L.A.
See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey
Last But Not Beast
House & Garden

Spoiler

"Escape From L.A." is one of the most emotionally brutal half-hours of television I've watched in recent years. BoJack finally has a chance at happiness, with a family that loves him. But he can't escape who he is, or at least who he fears he is. So he makes bad, impulsive decisions that not only ruin prom night for a bunch of teenagers and traumatizes Penny, it absolutely and permanently destroys the one unsullied relationship he had in his life. He couldn't move on, and because of that he destroyed the only place he could go, and all he can do was return to his trashed, empty home. BoJack fucks up a lot, but this time really hurts because he came so close to happiness, and by his own hands rips it to shreds.

"See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" is an incredibly fun musical episode that moves at a brisk pace with a variety of memorable songs, great and creepy visuals in regards to the Gnome, and a pretty cool message about there needing to be both bad and good in the world and not giving up your autonomy to let other people solve your problems. Though that last song confuses the message a little bit - I'm pretty sure the intention was "hey, let's coexist in a healthy social environment" and not "hey, let's all be friends and nice to each other all the time," but the phrase "why don't we all get along?" normally implies the later, which I know is the source of contention for a lot of people when it comes to this episode. But even with that flub at the end, all the other songs are really catchy and describe the themes well.

"Last But Not Beast" is a great send-up of classic sentai and kaiju tropes, brings all the recurring characters together for an epic battle, revealing long-held secrets between characters, and underlined with a great message about how family togetherness trumps all. All in all awesome.

"House & Garden" is memorable for being one of the most creepy and fucked up episodes of BTAS. The very idea of Ivy kidnapping a man and using his "genetic material" (heavily implied to be semen) to breed these half-plant/half-human monsters that at behave like her kids, then become her husband, and then a monster is, in Robin's words, "nuts." The imagery of the veggie babies crying out "momma" as they emerge from their incubation bulbs and then of course the clone Ivy decaying in Batman's arms in gruesome detail is pretty nightmarish. The actual story has a lot of holes in it, implying neither Gordon or Batman did a simple background check on Carlile since they didn't know he had daughters instead of sons. The photo at the end implies Ivy had created these clones before the wedding, which begs the question of how none of Carlile's relatives or any of the other attendees of the wedding noticed this before. Maybe they had a private engagement, but surely some relative or his ex and daughters would have heard word of this and come to visit. The ending of the episode also tries to make you feel empathy for Ivy because she apparently grew attachment to her fake family, but her creatures only lived for a few days and basically had no free will. They weren't really her family, but her slaves. Maybe she bought into the idea of being a happy housewife which made her happy in some weird way, but it's really hard for me to sympathize since she was manipulating these creatures to love her to begin with and treated them as if they were disposable. Again, like Robin said, she's "nuts," but I feel the ending of the episode actually wants us to genuinely feel sad for her, which I don't feel is substantiated by what her motivations were and the disposable nature of her children. Nitpicking the narrative logic and failed attempt at an emotional payoff aside, the episode is overall still enjoyable, but I like the idea of its story more than how it actually executes it.

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