The G1DBFB’s Best of Death Battle Season 4

Merry New Year and Happy Christmas (if applicable)!

2017 is done and with it, another year of fictional characters violently murdering each other comes to a close. Death Battle’s fourth season has seen a couple of well-requested dream matches mixed in with a couple of surprising match-ups. Gods have done battle, blades have drawn pools of blood, bones have been broken, metal was trashed and a dog and bear tried to kill each other. With that said, we here at the G1DBFB have decided to rank all 16 episodes from worst to best in a review of the year that was.

So! The way we’ve got this set up is that each member of our group has made their personal rankings of the episodes this season, and points are awarded for each placement and are equal to said placement. So for instance, first place would get you one point, second would get you two, and so in. All those points for an episode then get added together, with lower scores getting you higher placements. In the event of the tie in points, we’ll see where episodes are relative to each other on everyone’s lists and decide from there. So if four of us prefer Episode A to Episode B, Episode A gets the higher ranking despite points being equal. One last word of warning: our choice of quotes, music and our own opinions on the episodes themselves will obviously spoil who wins and parts of the animation and analysis.

Also keep in mind that all of this is just opinion. Some of these placements may not be liked by you, and some of them may not even be liked by ourselves. And not everyone comments on every match, so not all individual placements will be shown off. But with all that out of the way, let’s get on with things!

#16

(“You will know the chill of death.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #16

Bottom of the pile here, and the only episode of the season I truly consider bad. Every other episode this season is either good or at least has some redeeming qualities to itself, but this one? Nah.

I mean, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’re all kind of tired of fighting game matches. Or at least, we’re all tired of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct, since they take up the majority of all the characters we’ve seen so far from the genre. And this episode is just that: something a lot of people are tired of seeing.

The analysis wasn’t too thrilling to me. It’s just going over the same lore we’ve seen covered before from a different point of view. At least for myself, Sub-Zero and Glacius don’t have enough to keep me interested in learning about them, to the point that it’s currently the only episode this season that I haven’t rewatched the whole way through.

I know some people are probably gonna be questioning me on all of this when we get around to the other fighting game match of the season, but I’ll be sure to explain myself on it.

Anyways, an uninteresting analysis to start us off, and then the fight just wasn’t that good to me. It was slow, it felt stiff at times, the sound effects weren’t that great either, and while the MK and KI sprites may work well together, it’s still combining ugly with ugly. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

And while most probably question a one or two episodes this season, I think everyone has at least one episode they just disagree with. This is mine. I’m by no means an expert on either, but from what I’ve seen of both, I feel like this was Glacius’ fight to win. Not that I’m in any position to debate that, but whatever.

I think what best sums up this episode for me is that in numerous ways, it was out of the fire and into the freezer. After a bunch of episodes that were all pretty great to me, this one just fell off of it. Things came back around eventually, but low points are still the lowest points. Something had to come in last, right?

ramonzer0

Rank: #11

The one with animation that can mercifully be described as “bad”.

With Balrog vs. TJ being a good foray into 3D for fighting game episodes, it makes me wonder how an episode like this would have looked if it wasn’t a shoddy sprite fight using assets which don’t age as well as Capcom or SNK sprites.

Look, I like Sub-Zero, and while I don’t have much to say about the result and reasoning besides seeing him win, this isn’t going to go down as an episode to rewatch or anything.

The Gaming News Guy:

“Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz” huh, i fell asleep i wonder..”looks at Sub-Zero vs Glacius”. Oh that’s why. Look i have no problem with fighting game fights - some of them can be really good - Terry vs Ken is a great example of this as honestly i really enjoyed that one but man - this fight was just extremely boring - not only in fight animation but i also felt this was one of the weakest episodes we have had in awhile. In terms of the jokes - the only one that was noticeable to me as the World of Warcraft one which while decently funny didn’t make me laugh out loud but besides that this fight really has nothing noticeable about it - it was just really boring and in terms of the animation - Kiid can make some great fights, in my opinion Cloud vs Guts is in the Top 2 of the best DBXs but man this fight was just slow, boring with a lack of flash - i was board throughout it and that’s not a good thing. While i do believe that Season 4 is a much better season than Season 3 - i still think this is the most bland and dull fight that DB have had in awhile. While we would get some great episodes after this one - this was a really dull,boring stain on a fairly decent collection of episodes. Wow i feel board just talking about this episode

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #10

*Insert Ice pun here*

Kirby Kid

Rank: #16

Gosh this one was definitely the weakest of the season. Uneventful animation, kinda weak analysis, and not really anything going for it other than “Ice characters that are both from competing fighting games that we like to pit against each other all the time!”

Ice is actually my favorite element combat wise, so it leaves a poor taste in my mouth when some of the most badass ice wielding characters dish out attacks slower than it takes ice to melt.

#15

(“POP GOES THE WEASEL....”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #9

The true beginning of the shining season. Makes me sad to see this one so far down on the list, but I can understand it. People are pretty tired of Marvel VS DC, and I don’t think a lot were thrilled by what was basically just another Spiderman VS Batman, with a lot less of the connections, stompy fight, etc etc.

That being said, I was thrilled to be able to see Venom get an episode, given he’s one of my favorite villains and definitely top five for comics alone. Especially an episode where he won. Sure, the animation may not have been the best, but I thought Kayas did a pretty good job with it with enough hype moments throughout. Particularly the ending with Venom surviving the back break and punishing for it, and the verdict was pretty well-done all in all.

That’s about it though. Nothing particularly standout-ish about this for most, I suppose.

ramonzer0

Rank: #6

The one where the Spider eats the Bat, except not really but totally.

Venom and Bane were both long overdue for shots on the show, but maybe having them fight against each other in one of the most one-sided stomps this side of Flash vs. Quicksilver might have not been the best of ideas.

Honestly though, I couldn’t complain - as two of my favorite supervillains ever, both guys were able to make this spiritual successor to Batman vs. Spider-Man work and at least look interesting to go through. Props obviously have to go for Venom surviving the Bat-Breaker for the win.

#14

(“Hey, bozo! I was brooding there.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #10

It was Revenge of the Bats after all, I suppose. But I guess if any Batperson character was going to beat any Spiderperson, I’m glad it was Terry. He seems like the coolest of them to me, even more-so than the OG Bruce Wayne, so I’m grateful for that instead of seeing poor Peter ripped to shreds.

It’s a decent episode I’d say. I enjoyed taking a look into the Batman and Spiderman of the future and seeing what they were all about, since I never really got into them. I’ve seen clips of Terry from Return of the Joker, and Miguel was in that one episode of Ultimate Spiderman for a bit, but that’s it. And it wasn’t like a super enjoyable learning experience, just an “Alright, these guys seem cool”.

The verdict is kind of “eeeehhhh” on me though. I don’t know a whole ton on these two in the first place, but things seemed pretty on and off on this one. The Batcomputer could resist Brainiac so Lyla couldn’t fuck with Bruce, okay, that’s fair to me. But then, I have to question how “his sense of sight, smell, and hearing are superfied, he can hear noises from miles away”, yet he can’t hear Bruce telling Terry what to do when he’s a few feet away. And while the argument of “Peter and Miguel are too different for us to safely say they have similar strengths” is kind of fair to me, I still question the numbers they got for the lifting feats.

The animation was decent anyways. I liked the work from both Zack and Jetz, but I kind of wish they kept it on just Zack. His style worked really good for these two, and the switch between both styles was a little odd. Probably not helped by how Jetz had his Magnum Opus right before it. Voice acting was also pretty good. Stephen Fu and Todd Haberkorn did they’re jobs good, and so did their supports. But I wish there was a just a little more dialogue between them instead of between Terry and Bruce and Miguel and Lyla.

Soooo yeah. Decent episode. Would say I like it.

ramonzer0

Rank: #14

The one where the Spider ea--- WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN MIGUEL LOST

Let me get this out of the way: I love Terry, and Batman Beyond. That was the shit as a kid. It was honestly my favorite DCAU show and can just edge out of Justice League in my opinion. I’ve gushed about Terry a lot in the verdict I wrote for this episode, and while I’m glad he won, it was in a fight he had no business winning.

Color me a bit salty considering I did a ton of research going into this, confident that Miguel had the stuff needed to beat Terry down (also because I still like Spider-Men over Batmen). When the episode landed, I couldn’t believe how awkwardly Miguel got smoked, and the ending analysis where Miguel and Lyla didn’t get some of the other major showings we pulled up for them left a sour taste in my mouth. Animation was okay for the most part, but damn - this episode could have been handled a lot better.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #10

No more Batman vs Marvel plea- *Batman VS Black Panther is announced*

The universe loves fucking with me clearly.

#13

(“I really don’t have time for this.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #15

Most “meh” episode of the season imo. Which is a real shame, given it’s our first DBZ VS Marvel fight and Zack’s return to Death Battle, but it can’t be helped.

For myself, the main issue with this episode is just that there’s nothing about it that stands out to me. I have no connection to either character, and while 18 kind of interests me enough to want to learn about her, Carol counteracts that with an equal amount of disinterest, though I hope Brie Larson can somewhat change that in 2019. For the time-being though? Nah. And the analysis didn’t have anything particularly special to it either for me. Just... here’s all this stuff.

The animation was fine and all too, but again there was nothing really “cool” to it. I liked that moment where 18 grabbed Marvel’s hair, nice little catty thing to do. Too bad that hair disappeared for a really weird Binary sprite. Makes me wonder why they didn’t get Jerky to do some editing for that one. Voice acting seemed pretty solid too, but again, not standout, probably not helped by the fact that I don’t really know what either of them really sounds like aside from those quotes at the end of their respective analysis.

Oh, and the verdict is pretty “nyehmmmmm” to me. Like I can kinda maybe sorta see it? But I lean a bit more towards not seeing it? I will give major props to RadioactiveCaffeine for calling tf out of it, but that doesn’t really save it for myself. And then heeey Ben admitted to making not one but two mistakes like everyone has always wanted and then we all jumped on him with “WTF THAT’S NOT THE MISTAKES WE WANTED FIXED”.

Exaggeration. I know that’s not what it was actually like and that it wasn’t actually everyone and blah blah blah and it doesn’t actually affect my thoughts on the episode. But it still bugged the hell out of me.

Sooo to sum it up I guess this is just the “Yeah it’s there and fine” episode of the season for me. Don’t love it, don’t hate. Just think it’s whatever. Onto the next one!

ramonzer0

Rank: #12

The one which exists and is fine.

Honestly, there really isn’t much for me to say here. The episode came by and went, and nothing really stood out beyond it being fine.

The Gaming News Guy

Rank #13

Oh boy this fight, this is one of the fights that made me feel really bad for the loser. Personally despite the sheer amount of hatred she gets in the Marvel Community - i actually really like Carol Danvers as a character and i personally felt she was done really dirty here - yes if we went with current Android 18 she would win against Captain Marvel no question - even me people a huge fan of Captain Marvel can’t deny that but man i disliked how Binary was used in this episode as well as the Elephant of the Room being Android 18’s power absorption thing. I personally feel in terms of research - this is one of the more weaker episodes of the season. However, Zack’s animation for this was great and really felt like an air flowing flight and the voice acting was pretty good in this one. While i heavily disagree with the results - and i was sad that the character i was researching lost. All in all i thought this was a fairly okay episode.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #3

The best fight this season when it came down to pure action. There was an incredibly blatant amount of care put into this fight to make it feel straight out of DBZ. Also, 18 is best girl.

#12

("The Aura is with me.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #8

Honorary most underrated episode of the season. At least to me. Yeah, a lot of that probably has to do with my bias over the fact that my favorite Pokemon won, but still. I don’t really get all the hate for this one.

The analysis was all around solid for both of them, with an accurate result and all. The animation still had a lot of high-speed action too, along with being well-animated with good music choices and sound effects. Good job on the Renamon voice acting too, Marissa.

Sure, it was short. And sure, it probably deserved to be longer and show off more things of Lucario’s, like some Metal Claw action, but in hindsight it’s kind of hard to show everything Luc has without repeating a looot of what Rena does. So I can slightly forgive it for that.

And yeah, another big name winning in the shining season. My favorite characters winning matches tends to make me like an episode more. Sue me.

Oh and btw, shoutouts to this episode for listing Lucario’s trainers as “Sir Aaron, Riley, Maylene, Korrina” and not listing off that fifth one we don’t like to talk about.

ramonzer0

Rank: #8

The one where the Pokemon wins.

So real talk: I shed a tear when Charizard and Red got nuked at the end of Pokemon vs. Digimon. Both were cool, but as someone who was solidly behind Team Pokemon as a kid (Digimon was great - don’t get me wrong - and the Tri movies are solid), I couldn’t help but feel a bit of that old childhood pain. Nice then that Lucario showed up to notch a win over Rena.

Beyond Vergil vs. Sephiroth, Lucario vs. Renamon was one of the episodes I really wanted to watch sooner than later, and I’m glad we got it here. It was interesting to see each species being analyzed as opposed to picking a specific character (like Aaron’s Lucario or Rika’s Renamon) and rolling with it from there. Lucario won with some solid reasoning, and while the short length of the animation hurts the episode’s standing a bit, this turned out to be a good one.

The Gaming News Guy:

Rank #14

WHY DOES EVERY CHARACTER I END UP RESEARCHING LOSE “CRIES IN CORNER”.In all seriousness this is an fairly okay episode despite me being kinda sad that Renamon lost - despite me having no personal attachment to the character - i did grew to like her as a researched this fight so i was sad to see Renamon lose. As for the episode - i enjoyed it well enough but i felt it was personally a little bit on the fast side for my personal taste especially in the analysis portion where i felt they could have given more time to flesh out the analysis section. That was my major problem with this episode - the animation was fine but considering it is Aquilla i expected a lot more. Overall fairly decent episode though sad my character lost. Also Cameron is an underrated Pokemon Character and gets way too much hate.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #15

Disappointing animation for how hype this match was for many people.

#11

(“You’re not worthy.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #13

GG Thor.

ramonzer0

Rank: #13

The one where Diana completes her runback.

Why Diana and Raiden jobbed to Rogue and Thor back in Season 1 was beyond a lot of people, but I guess we can attribute it to the show’s age now that Thor and Wonder Woman got the fight they deserved this time around.

Don’t really have much to say here like 18 vs. Carol, other then the fact that it was around, I guess.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #5

A really decent fight hurt heavily by a very anticlimactic end. At least Raiden was avenged tho.

#10

(“Only you could have prevented that forest fire… fool.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #11

Wooooo! This one! I probably shouldn’t enjoy it as much as I do, but we finally got a cartoon-styled DB! I can’t help but love it! Blind Ferret are some great guys, and they did a hella good job on this. It had the right amount of life that a stupid match between safety mascots should have, with the old Hanna Barbera sound effects and good use of things like Smokey’s shovel and McGruff’s forcefield. Both Chris Sabat and Chris Rager did greats jobs on both of them, particularly Sabat. No offense to Rager, but I’m a sucker for that “Not even you can prevent THIS!” line, and his bear roar was extremely realistic. Almost like an actual bear recording.

I know a lot of people don’t like it because it’s a joke episode and blah blah blah blah whatever. I don’t think there’s any shame to be taken in just wanting to have a goofy episode every once in a while. I’d say this was still a hell of a lot better than what we got as a finale in Season 3, even if it may not be the hype as balls animation that Chuck VS Segata was. And it had a victor for one, so I guess that complaint doesn’t really have as much room to stand on anymore.

But yeah. Cartoon Death Battle. Love it. Was enjoyable. So were the Chris’s. Silly fun. All I need.

ramonzer0

Rank: #16

The one where I don’t understand who that bear and that dog are or why they’re fighting.

Credit where credit is due: the fight was produced beautifully with some good VA work from Messers Sabat and Rager, and I appreciated how the whole fight felt like a hilariously short throwback to old cartoons. That said though, this ranks dead last for me mainly due to how much I didn’t really care about both guys. It wasn’t the apathetic “I don’t have a stake in this but think one of both guys here are cool” thing, it was the “who are these guys literally and why should I care”.

I wasn’t raised in the States, and only tangentially knew who both Smokey and McGruff (isn’t he named Snuff or something) were through random internet searches in the distant past of the mid-2000s. As much as I would normally endorse out-there matches and combatants every now and then for variety, the very fact that this was a fight to the death between two public safety mascots who I didn’t personally care for nor interested in kills this episode for me and places it dead last.

Kirby Kid

Rank: #2

After Toph vs Gaara, a thought would cross my mind on a type of animation style that I would want for years to come… hand drawn cartoon animation in a DB.

Not only was the animation style of this episode great, (Which was spectacular by the way) it was wacky, goofy, cutesty and brutal all in its own special way. We NEED more cartoon styled Death Battles in the future, at least for more cartoony looking combatants like let’s say SpongeBob or Mickey Mouse.

Also, the research on both of these dudes must’ve been fun to go through honestly. I can only imagine given how much obscure shit the both of them have…

#9

(“Either walk away, or die right here.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #14

Not the best start to a season we’ve had. Outclassed by Dante VS Bayonetta and He-Man VS Lion-O, while it ain’t Boba Fett VS Samus Aran, Lara VS Nate doesn’t have much of an excuse, unlike that one. They’re both cool characters, and I enjoyed what I saw of them, but this just wasn’t a match that got me particularly hyped. Just kind of “Alright, they’re finally doing this. Should be good”.

Animation was meh. I liked the voice actors and thought the models were fine, but the concept played out better in concept than in execution. Not that it couldn’t have been great, it just… wasn’t. More back and forth between the grail would’ve been good, the car chase should’ve been more car chase-y, instead of Lara just driving up beside him and jumping in, etc. I liked the killshot, and the research seemed pretty good. But overall, just a meh start to the season. Things got waaaay better though, so it’s all good.

ramonzer0

Rank: #15

The one where Nathan Drake dies and that’s horrible.

So I was feeling pretty good when this fight was announced back in January since this was Nathan Drake in a Death Battle, then when I flew back to the States, ended my vacation, had reality set in and take a bit of a longer look at this fight, that good feeling went away since this was a fight he was bound to lose.

I compared this to Snake vs. Sam during the prediction blog, and true enough, the crazier treasure hunter came out on top after one of the most ludicrous kill shots I’ve seen on the show thus far. Honestly though, barring my bias, the research and episode overall was okay, but the fight animation was one of the rougher 3D fights in the show’s history thus far - weird letter boxing, a chase scene that didn’t pan out right, few rough textures, etc.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #2

Best 3D fight of the season imo, because of how it was handled. Lara vs Nate would be an incredibly boring fight without the dynamics of being a treasure hunter, which included booby traps, vehicle chase scenes, and collapsing buildings.

Also, all the movements and expressions were purposely made by Torrian to feel like a PS2 era cutscene, and he succeeded pretty well in that, so props to him.

TheGamingNewsGuy:

Rank: #8

Hmm, i feel this DEATH BATTLE was kinda of missed potential, don’t get me wrong i liked overall what was here - but i felt they could have done more with this matchup then what was presented, while this DEATH BATTLE did have some really good points including the voice actors and the research - overall my biggest problem was with the animation, not only did Nathan’s model look really bad in some areas of the fight but also the ending while kinda funny to me considering Nate’s large amount of luck i felt could have been done in a much better way. Overall this episode was a fairly decent start to the season.

Kirby Kid

Rank: #10

While Lara’s voice was pretty good in the animation, Nathan’s felt a little..eh?? Can’t be helped though. Animation was pretty good start to the season, and a fight between these two was something I always wanted to see, despite the fairly obvious outcome.

Drakes death was no Bueno though... still sad about that…

#8

(“VOLTROOOOOOOOOOOON!”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #6

In terms of just being pure hype, this is the fight that does it the best for me. Not like the match though. I was a fan of Power Rangers as a kid, but didn’t keep with it, and I watched things like Mystic Force and Jungle Fury, not the OG Mighty Morphin. Voltron I never watched. I hear the new show is good though. But to the animation was just hella spectacular on this one. It never slowed down, something was always happening, and that’s something that we hadn’t seen in a while at this point. It used a lot of their respective abilities, it was fun and entertaining, and the death was one of the most hype sequences of the season. It felt super suspenseful with Pidge racing to get the sword, it showed off just how much stuff Voltron had over the Megazord, and it had the oh so classic “Cool guys don’t look at explosions” and a lion’s roar to top it off.

I know there were some complaints about the voice cast, what with non-Jason and Lance characters not getting much to say (with the exception of Pidge), and MatPat’s Lance wasn’t the best, but I don’t feel too bothered about it all looking back. In retrospect, that is how things typically go in both shows (even if hearing more from some others would’ve been nice), and it’s not like MatPat was bad all the time. And even then, I feel like that not-so-goodness can be counteracted by how much Kaggy and Kaiser nailed the parts of Jason and Pidge respectively.

Oh yeah and it was correct too. So that’s cool. And it’s technically the episode that brought back revealing both combatants (even if getting half of the screen makes it kind of annoying), so points for that too. Just wish I could’ve had a better reaction to it at the time.

ramonzer0

Rank: #9

The one where MatPat screams lots of things.

Did this fight live up to the billing? As someone who isn’t a fan of either but digs giant robots (also: CHICKS! DIG! GIANT ROBOTS!) and recognizes how much this shaped the childhoods of 80s kids, yes.

I didn’t watch much of the Mighty Morphin’ Rangers or the original Voltron series, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the episode, especially when we got a fight set to probably the best mash-up of old 80s stuff I’ve ever heard.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #16

Very. very disappointing. Huge lack of individual character moments within the fight after they hyped up the casting to be so amazing (they had fucking Black Nerd and Amalee for Christ’s sake). The fight animation itself managed to somehow be even more disappointing by sticking to one incredibly bland location that you would really never find either combating team in on a normal basis. If the fight at least even took itself to space it would have been way, way better.

The Gaming News Guy

Considering i am a huge fan of Voltron: Legendary Defender, i was extremely hyped for this DEATH BATTLE and it more or less delivered. I will freely admit - i do have problems with this episode, personally i don’t think MatPat was a good choice for Keith (honestly i would have gone with NateWantsToBattle) and i do think while the animation was really good, they should have had it gone into space for the climax but overall i enjoyed it. The research was fairly well done - though some people disagree with it “cough” Imp. In all seriousness - this DEATH BATTLE was an extremely good package - being both well researched and well animated.

#7

(“Phew. All’s well that ends well! Hahahahahahaha!”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #1

Yes, this is my number one choice for the Death Battles of this season. No, I’m not kidding, this does actually beat out the likes of Naruto VS Ichigo and Balrog VS TJ Combo for me. Yes, I am extremely biased here. And I don’t feel a single ounce of guilt for that fact at all.

I mean, let’s be real. Y’all probably saw this coming from me, right? I’ve said this plenty of times before, but Fairy Tail is my all-time favorite anime and manga hands down, and Natsu is my favorite fictional character ever. But there’s a lot more going into this fight than just “my favourite guy won” and “I thought it was entertaining and correct”, so I’m gonna take some time to make probably the biggest explanation for a fight’s placement that you’ll see on this blog in order to help you get the full picture of it.

It essentially all started back at the end of Hulk VS Doomsday when Zoro was announced to be in the following episode. And I was already freaked out from this alone, with the possibility of him fighting Erza Scarlet, another favorite Fairy Tail character of mine. And when a few days later, it was announced that it would be Erza he was fighting, I wasn’t too keen on it.

Under normal circumstances, maybe. I know not every single character I like can win in DB, but Erza was a bit different. As an avid FT fan and manga reader, I knew she had a fight with Eileen coming up, the biggest threat she’d faced so far, and boosts allowing her to win were plenty capable of coming up.

Fast-forward to the episode, and Erza lost in a pretty gruesome fashion. Not the greatest feeling to have. Then you go forward one week, and we get a massive revelation to Erza’s backstory. Then you fast-forward another three, and low and behold, I was right. Erza got boosts that let her surpass Zoro... maybe. I don’t really like to think that much about it. So yeah, doesn’t feel that great.

And I’m probably not meant to talk about this, but it was a few days after this new meteor feat that we got the “leaked” list for DB season 4, which had Natsu VS Ace written on it. And we also knew at this point that Fairy Tail would be ending within the year, and more feats would probably be coming for Natsu with that. Feats that he may need to beat Ace. So it’s now January, and I’m already dreading the idea of this match. Things sort of drop off there, until one day in April, while we’re almost to release of Power Rangers VS Voltron, Ben Singer puts up a certain tweet.

So you take that list, add the fire hint, subtract Natsu’s lack of boosts yet, multiply him getting close to fighting Zeref, and that equals me hitting “so” on the “not okay” scale.

And that was well-placed fear. Because as soon as that we get that “The winner is Voltron”, I’m immediately back to “please god no don’t be Natsu VS Ace please no”, and when the music first played over the Next Time, I felt relieved. I figured it wouldn’t be him. But then that came crashing down when I saw Natsu’s face slowly rise up before transitioning to Ace and then the logo.

I go off to my friends about, pissed as fuck and spending a good amount of time ranting about it to them. And a lot goes on during this wait to frustrate me. For instance, the week of the announcement, the new FT chapter shows Natsu going Dragon Force in his Zeref fight, just so much shit about the meteor feat from before that I already hated, and despite thinking Natsu should win, there was just always this looming feeling of “It just feels like he’s going to lose”. Not only that, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the finale to Fairy Tail as much as I could if I saw Natsu blow up a country, because while normally I’d be like “YEAH THAT’S MY BOY THAT WAS SO COOL” I’d now just be like “He wins now... but nothing’s gonna be done with it.” But there was plenty good to come of that wait too, honestly.

That prediction blog was the most enjoyable to make for me, working alongside Ramonzer, Jokerke12 and especially my bro Kirby Kid for it. Like the two of us spent four hours in a call once, going through a bunch of Fairy Tail for Natsu research, trying to find specifics examples of him doing certain stuff and discussing things for him to use on Ace and the context to them and if they were legit and blah blah blah. We even messed around by discussing some comparisons we had between this for me and what Kirby VS Buu was for him, and it was probably the most fun VS discussion I ever had honestly. I was really proud of the final product too, which currently sits in our top 3 most viewed blogs of the season, with Power Rangers VS Voltron just barely behind it.

Not only that, but I was also brought on for an episode of the Discussing Death Battle podcast, and I had fun talking with Wolf (rip), Moh and Mac about all that kind of DB stuff. Hope there’s no hard feelings over the ending btw, Metabro.

But you take ALL of those feelings, all of those fears, all of those worries, all of that fun, all of that work, all of that discussion, and put them into this video, and it’s something else, man. I was actually wearing a Natsu scarf I owned for a bit of good luck on it. And I remember going through Natsu’s section and thinking “alright, they’re doing him good, I have some good hopes”, then seeing what Ace has and that nervousness coming back. Then finally getting to the animation, which I personally thought was great. Loved the action, the voice actors were great, and I actually really liked the close-up shots that Jetz used in it. Especially the one for the Fire Dragon King Mode. I know a lot of people didn’t, but I thought they were badass.

But then finally, we got to that moment of “Like I said, you can’t touch me”, and I get one last thing of “Dammit...” thrown at me. But then it all turns right around, with Natsu’s theme kicking in, and a Lightning Flame Dragon’s Roar to incinerate Ace down to nothing. Natsu laughs after his victory, and the KO comes in soon after.

I am beyond ecstatic.

There’s this stupid fucking grin on my face the entire way through the explanation for why Natsu took it, and I have to say I agreed with the majority of their arguments. But after everything that happened, with the series ending, the feats, the discussions that left me super nervous, all the time I spent trying to go over everything to try justifying a Natsu win for myself, hearing that “The winner is Natsu Dragneel” right at the end just felt ridiculously good to hear. To the point that even after all this typing, I still don’t feel like I’ve properly explained it.

My only complaints are that I wished they used the Dragon Force theme instead of Natsu’s for the kill, the original Fairy Tail theme for the verdict section and not the 2014 theme and Blazing Guy, given those are the two big Fairy Tail themes and it would’ve been so good for the protagonist to win with those in there, though I guess that’s for copyright reasons. The lack of Natsu ever saying “I’m fired up!” was also kind of a shame. Though they’re still incredibly small nitpicks compared to everything else.

I honestly doubt anything DB does, even announcing my most wanted matchup and making Pit VS Sora the most off-the-walls ultra super amazingly awesome episode, will be able to top that moment for me. And with everything else with the blog and the podcast going into this, for still making it probably my favorite experience out of this stupid hobby, and just how satisfying it was, it gets a perfect 10,000,000/10 for me.

ramonzer0

Rank: #7

The one with the nightmare face death.

Coming in as a casual fan of both series - Fairy Tail moreso than One Piece - I dug this episode, and for more reasons beyond that scarring image of Ace’s face melting into nothing.

The actual fight was well-paced and full of the excellent Shonen trope of “SCREAM OUT ALL THE ATTACKS”, and seeing Natsu pull off the win with a good analysis of how his stuff plays against Ace’s was the cherry on top.

Kirby Kid

Rank: #6

(See GB’s verdict because literally same)

#6

(“This’ll be over in a nanosecond.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #3

ZEROOOOOO! MAH BOI! Hella great to see him win an episode! While I may be sad he didn’t go up against my original choice of Meta Knight, I am happy that they chose Metal Sonic if he was gonna go against anyone else, mainly because I know Metal really well too. Heck, probably even better than Meta, so it’s always nice to get an episode where I actually know a lot about both rather than one or the other, or bits on one. Even better to be passionate about both. That alone gets it a high rank for me.

But yeah. The spiritual successor to Eggman VS Wily from all those years ago, and Metal Sonic’s solo episode. I really enjoyed it though! The animation was great, even if 3D shots didn’t always looks the best for Zero (you all know what particular shot I’m referring to). It was high speed, as these two should get, it showed off their abilities well, and any sprite animation featuring Zero that uses the X VS Zero theme, OG or remix, ALWAYS gets a ton of points based off that alone. Call it nostalgia pandering of fanboyism, but I don’t care! So shut up, because it’s awesome! I do wish we got to see Neo and Metal Madness do a bit more, but eh, it is what it is. I suppose the latter is pretty hard to animation anyways, given what’s available. Jerky did a great job on it too anyways, and I’m pretty sure he made the Absolute Zero sprites too, so props for that one as well.

And again, bias here, but I felt really proud of the work we put in for that prediction blog, and proud of the verdict that I wrote up myself. Probably an arrogant thing to say, but I felt like I covered just about everything, so I’d like to pat myself on the back for that.

The research was really good too. Everything felt like it struck a nice balance. Metal Sonic was all fair stuff, and while Zero may not have got big stuff like the Lumine feat, the space station was more than enough to do what we needed. Plus they used proper scaling, which is always a nice thing to see (even if it can get a little annoying to hear about from time to time). Not the Mega Man nerf everyone was expecting. Good job Zero for getting us that!

ramonzer0

Rank: #4

The one where Zero looks really dumb in that one shot.

I got Zero this season, and although he didn’t get the fight against Meta Knight (which he might have probably lost), he still whupped Metal’s ass into oblivion and helped give Dr. Wily the post-mortem win he… umm.... okay, I can’t say deserved but I don’t know what other word there is for a situation like this.

There was the sick “X vs. Zero” remix, good analysis and one of the better ending sequences with Zero slicing Metal Overlord in half. Good times.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #7

RIP best Sonic character. At least he comes back to life instantly.

Kirby Kid

Rank: #13

Man, I REALLY would’ve preferred Zero fighting Metaknight. Since Batman (At this point at least) has been in 3 death battles so far (4 if you count Batman Beyond), we might be able to see Zero again, so I can at least hope for that.

Animation for this fight, while fast and short, definitely spiked my interest. I have quite the attachment to the red maverick hunter, so seeing him in battle against the blue hedgehog’s metal rival was semi exciting when looking at it at face value. But Lawrdy! Metal Sonic had plenty of stuff that I didn’t even realize he had, which got me more and more hyped for the match when it was the time for him to step up! Kaiju metal boss fight was also really incredible to say the least. The only reason this isn’t higher is sorely because a TON of the other fights did everything this match did but better (Not to mention I’m still kinda salty Zero went up against the wrong blue metal guy)

#5

(“Life is like a hurricane…”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #12

So despite my low ranking of this episode, I actually really like it. First and foremost, it got me into both DuckTales and Shovel Knight, which is always a factor I appreciate in an episode of Death Battle. But learning about the two of them was also pretty cool, with all the weapons they had and all the wacky shit Scrooge has done in his 150 years of living like digging to the centre of the Earth and beating a lion in roaring contest before riding it. I know a lot of people weren’t big on this match as an idea, but I’ve warmed up to it over time. It’s something unexpected and that you wouldn’t initially think of, but in a better way than say, Venom VS Bane, and it turned out to be interesting to look into (albeit fucking asinine to debate).

The research seemed pretty solid to me, and the animation was fun too. An 8-bit fight was a new take on the sprite animations we’ve seen so much, and Jerky put in a lot of work for those custom sprites, particularly the ending shot for the decapitation. Granted, Shovel Knight did kind of hold the flow a bit too much for being the one who ultimately lost.

Overall though? The main reason it’s so low on my own list is just because I like other episodes more, and that’s it.

ramonzer0

Rank: #10

The one that nobody saw coming.

Scrooge still should have fought Mr. Krabs. Yes, I’d have to probably live in the reality where a Spongebob character dies and considering how much S2-3 I loved, I’d probably not want it as much. Still, Scrooge vs. Krabs.

This entire episode deserves props for being unique by pitting these two characters against each other - let alone them (moreso Scrooge) being on the show in the first place - and with a sick 8-bit inspired animation complimenting it.

The Gaming News Guy

Rank: #2

This is my second favourite DEATH BATTLE of the season and man, did this DEATH BATTLE deliver in terms of my hype considering Scrooge is my favourite comic character of all time. Overall i really liked the Scrooge portion of the analysis - as it seemed like DEATH BATTLE really understood the character and his history. I also really liked the 8-Bit Approach they took with this fight - it made the fight stand out. I know the verdict for this one is one of the most divisive but overall i really liked this one - i was expecting DEATH BATTLE to give Shovel Knight the win so i was very surprised when they gave Scrooge the win. Overall this is a fight i always seem to go back to.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #1

Best thing about this controversial matchup is that the theme between the two could be carried over into their fight, making for a fucking amazing aesthetic and style that stayed true to itself down to the sound effects being NES 8-Bit styled. Major props to Jetz for contributing to what is now one of my favorite episodes of Death Battle. Also, Scrooge McDuck is just really fucking cool, for a character from the Mickey Mouse universe.

#4

(“BELIEVE IT!”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #2

THE BIG ONE! We’ve been waiting a hell of a long time to see this one pop up, and hoooo lordy it was well worth the wait. Naruto, Bleach and One Piece have of course always had a bit of a rivalry going on, as we all know of the Holy Shonen Trinity, and so everyone’s always wanted to see them throw down, primarily Naruto. You don’t see much of Luffy VS Ichigo down in the comments. But I’d say this was well worth it.

Heck, even without knowing much of anything about these two series, I still really wanted it myself. And when it finally got announced, I had a lot of fun binge-reading the Naruto manga. I may have only made it to 150 chapters, but I still really liked what I saw. It was enjoyable to finally get into one of the big Shonen Jump mangas, and hey, that still gives me 550 to get through whenever Sasuke or Kakashi show up. And I really liked learning what I did from the episode too, and props to it for going hella deep on the analysis. 9 minutes to each of them? I think that’s the longest we’ve ever seen for the analysis portions. Even longer than the OG Goku VS Superman. Mighty impressive stuff.

And speaking of analysis, this was probably the best explanation they’ve given for a fight in a looooooong time. Not to say it’s all been bad, but this. Purposefully overestimating Ichigo, lots and lots of math, explaining things down to the black hole in a box, etc. It was _sooo_ good. And the little sidenotes they’ve added to the format thanks to this episode are a great addition. A bit of extra info never hurt.

And the animation too! Without a doubt in mind, Jetz’s and Jerky’s best work to date. It was all fluid, it was always exciting, it was fast-paced, it was hella anime with the dialogue and shouting attack names, it just kept pushing and pushing, incorporating a lot of what both Naruto and Ichigo have done in their lifetimes. And Jerky put in a lot of work too, making new sprites for Ichigo’s new sword, Kurama sprites, sprites for Ichigo’s new forms, the close-ups Jetz loves to do, and a lot more too, with all of it looking great (minus that one Ichigo shot at the “FIGHT!”). And not only does Dawn Bennett deserve major props for her Naruto impression which was spot-on, and that’s saying a lot for how hard the voice is to do, but they got freaking Johnny Yong Bosch back to play Ichigo! It almost feels unfair to call him the best voice actor of the season, since you of course can’t beat the real deal, but damn. Kind of a shame that he had to voice him dying, but I’m sure he just liked playing him again.

There’s probably plenty more for me to say, but I think the episode speaks for itself. So if you haven’t seen it yet, GO WATCH IT! You don’t need to like Naruto or Bleach or even anime in general to have a great time with it! Guaranteed quality.

ramonzer0

Rank: #3

The one with ANIMEEEEEEEEEEE

Color me impressed with the show for actually getting Johnny Yong Bosch to reprise his role as Ichigo, who went out looking like the baddest sumbitch ever by essentially telling Naruto to piss off.

I’m not a particularly big fan of either Naruto or Bleach, and considering how much content both of them have, it’ll be hard for me to try and catch up as a fan. That said, the show treated their biggest anime battle with the respect it deserved (ignore most of the salt you see on Youtube as you read this). Dedicating a lot of time to summarize Naruto and Ichigo’s decades’ worth of lore and explaining how Boruto’s dad took the win here after a slick sprite fight was all pretty good stuff, all of this making Naruto vs. Ichigo a must-watch for even the most casual anime fan.

The Gaming News Guy

Rank: #1

Personally this is my favourite DEATH BATTLE of the season because man everything was on point for this episode. This is by far the most in depth research they have ever done for a DEATH BATTLE and honestly it really shows with this being the second longest DEATH BATTLE ever with only Goku vs Superman #1 topping it. DEATH BATTLE has always been a bit iffy when it comes to the research portion expect for stomp matchups but with this - Nick and co really brought their a game to this DEATH BATTLE. The amount of work they did was extremely admirable and despite the controversial nature of this DEATH BATTLE - i am really glad they handled it in a respectful manner. Also man the animation of this fight - i know people disliked how such a highly requested fight could have been 2D but man - i personally think Jetz did an amazing job with it especially the hand drawn stuff that made the fight truly feel like Naruto and Bleach. Overall to me - this DEATH BATTLE was the absolute complete package.

#3

(“Think you got what it takes to beat the champ?”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #5

And now we enter the Top 3! Things got pretty close between these matches, and rightfully so. They’re all awesome in their own right, and Balrog VS TJ is no exception to that.

I know I said before that people are tired of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct for fighting games and want some other fighting game series, but I feel like this is the best of the best when it comes to those fights. Even better than Ryu VS Scorpion. Simple reason being, it’s completely different.

Let’s start with the big thing: the animation. I know some people weren’t big on it, but frankly, I don’t what they’re getting at. The setup of it being an actual boxing match, while expected, was still pretty cool to see. It all looked really nice, the fight choreography was great, as one should expect from fighting game boxers, it flowed well, it was exciting, all that kind of stuff. Torrian put a lot of attention to detail in on this one too, such as doing boxing moves, then doing their actual in-game combos, and having TJ actually jab and uppercut as the song lyrics go by. The killshot was also directly inspired by Hajime no Ippo, which is the king of boxing anime, so that was great to see too. And of course, Back to Rise was a great choice in theme. I don’t care if some thought it gave away the victor, it’s an awesome song, it was super fitting, it was a great choice.

Balrog and TJ also had some good voice actors. Not particularly standout-ish, due to the lack of lines, and most of those lines being taken from the games, but the one who really took it was our resident battle announcer, Chris Guerrero. His “FIGHT!” and “KO!” have been around since Season 2 started, he’s been Gaara and Bane before, but this was a real good role for him. He absolutely nails it as a boxing announcer, from introduction to fight commentary, to in-between rounds, right to the end when he says he needs to hurl. But it all feels natural too, like an actual sports match, never annoying. My only complaint is that I wish they had him say “C-C-COMBO BREAKER!”, and c’mon. That killshot would’ve been perfect for “ULTRAAAA COMBOOOOOOOOOOO!”, but I guess they wanted the “brutal fashion” line instead, so it’s alright.

And for once, I was actually really interested in learning about fighting game combatants, or more-so the art of boxing. I really enjoy seeing the triangle theory of boxing get implemented, particularly as this is a fighting game match. Even Smash Bros has characters that are good counters to others due to movesets, speed, launching power, weight, damaging power, etc., so it was cool to finally see those factors actually come into play in a DB, even if it wasn’t exactly “fighting game” types of fighters.

Oh, and this is a total me thing, but this was the first in FOREVER where I knew nothing going in. I didn’t read any of the verdict from the blog, I skimmed the information in my spellcheck so I wouldn’t remember their actual moves, I didn’t look at any of the debates, I didn’t watch its portion of the Discussing Death Battle podcast, nothing. And it was so much funner for it! A true return to the roots of when I first learned of DB and didn’t care about who was in an episode or who won or the reasons or anything. Y’all should try it sometime.

I’d say that does it for me then. Who’s up next?

ramonzer0

Rank: #2

The one that totally isn’t Mayweather vs. McGregor.

I’m pretty sure that not much was expected out of this episode at first glance, given the pitfalls most other fighting game episodes fall into - for an example of how uninspired fights like these can be, all you need to do is scroll up. However, Balrog vs. TJ was the best example of how a fight that could probably considered weak on paper can be absolutely saved by its execution.

As much as I don’t want to continuously sing the praises of Torrian’s 3D work outshining sprite battles, fights with him at the helm are looked forward to for a reason. Portraying the whole thing as a big-time championship bout (with a crowd seemingly hyped for murder, but Ultratech and Shadaloo are sponsors so who knows really) was step one in getting hyped. Steps 2 and 3 were all about cashing in on the boxing theme for all its worth with some great choreography paying homage to actual boxing matches, other boxing media like Rocky, Raging Bull and Hajime no Ippo and how Balrog and TJ fight in their home canon, all lined up to TJ’s godlike theme from the KI reboot.

I’ve learned to appreciate boxing over the past few years, and seeing the sport portrayed with such detail - especially with the Triangle Theory giving a deciding edge - only added to my enjoyment further. This was just a good, clean fight which worked excellently in all areas, and I can’t complain about that.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #6

A pretty ok episode. I would have to say that restricting it to a standardized boxing match with a crowd that somehow was ok with murder kinda held back the fun of the fight. I would have liked it if Combo said fuck it and pulled out his machine gun on Balrog causing pandemonium and chaos in the arena while prompting Balrog to play more dirty than he was at that point.

TheGamingNewsGuy

Rank: #4

Oh boy this fight, this fight is the very definition of a fight that i wasn’t particularly hyped for fighting fighting games matchups never really peak my interest but thanks to the wonderful animation by Torrian Crawford - this DB shot up to the very top. I will freely admit - while i think think the reasoning for the verdict was a little bit iffy (i do still think that TJ Wins overall it’s just it had some flaws in the writing area) - i still really liked this episode considering how good the animation was.

#2

(“Playtime is OVER.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #4

The Turtles are back, dudes! Oh how long I have waited for them to bring TMNT back into the ring. The last time we saw them was waaayyy back in year one when Leo cut that Buff Frogger dude in half. How glorious it feels to have them return, especially with this as the episode.

Shredder is awesome, and I fucking love him as a villain. He’s just so intimidating with that armour, his imposing size, the blades he keeps on his wrists, and so much more. Seeing him get into Death Battle was pretty sick, and Jetz’s animation was beautiful. I’m amazed at how good the sprites worked with each other, given what was available for Saki and how crazy good Marvel VS Capcom sprites are (god knows the models aren’t these days), and it was just a load of action packed fun, with Harada slicing down all the trees to chase Saki and the forest burning down in the wake of Super Shredder. And the killshot. Wew. Ridiculously over-the-top, and I love it for that. Brandon Yates also made a pretty killer soundtrack for it too.

And the results seemed solid to me too, along with the analysis of the two. I enjoyed seeing what they’d dug up for a franchise as ridiculous as TMNT, which was pretty clear in that ending bit for Shredder’s “weaknesses”. And Harada was a fun guy to learn about too. So overall, this episode just hit all the right beats for me.

My only complaint is that throughout the whole fight, we see Shredder use swords, smoke bombs, martial arts, shurikens, Super Shredder, all that stuff... but never once his claws. And I know that seems nitpicky, and it kind of is, but still. That’s his big thing, it’s what he’s known to use, it’s how he got the name “the Shredder”. So seeing it not get used even once was a little disappointing.

Also still lowkey salty that they didn’t use Ch’rell (though I get why) but I’m mostly over that. I got his voice clips so that’s good enough for me.

ramonzer0

Rank: #5

The one with the other really gratuitous kill shot.

Saki vs. Harada sort of belongs to the same ground of Balrog vs. TJ in that it wasn’t a fight that I was particularly hyped for but ended up appreciating a lot. There isn’t much to say here other than a good animation, some solid combat, shedding a spotlight on another unique match-up and well-executed research.

Also, if Natsu vs. Ace didn’t happen then Silver Samurai probably would have gotten an award for worst death this season. Fuck, that hurts.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #4

I had no reason to like this episode. At all really. But then that sweet fucking animation happened. And that kill scene has easily become one of my favorites in all of Death Battle.

The Gaming News Guy

Rank: #6

Oh boy, this matchup. While i am a little bit sad that Silver SamuraI died since i was the one who was researching Silver Samurai for this prediction blog - i can’t deny how good the animation of this was from the speed to the music, to the sound effects - everything about this DEATH BATTLE just clicked personally in terms of the animation. Though i still think that the research was a little bit on the iffy side as personally i still think SS should have won this. Overall i can look past that because of the animation and oh boy the kill shot.

Kirby Kid

Rank: #3

Gosh dang was this fight good! Everything about this fight highlighted everything good about a regular death battle in terms of 2D fights. This is probably the one DB I’ll always show to people as a nice reference to how good the animation can get.

The amount of research into both sides was fantastic, as well as the math to a lot of the calcs done in the verdict portion of the episode. Animation was SOOO clean, it was unbelievable. I’d like to point out that my top 3 ranked DB’s are all DB’s that I feel are the best battle done in their animation type, respectively. Which leads into my next rank…

#1

(“Witness oblivion.”)

Grand Blazer

Rank: #7

Surprise! Our favorite episode of the season is the finale. And yeah, I think it’s deserving of the spot. As someone who wanted to see Vergil fight Sesshomaru instead, I have to say I felt the final product made it feel worth not getting what I was hoping for. It all seemed well-researched, it was a really cool animation. Devil Trigger VS Sephiroth clones was probably one of Torrian’s best sequences of the season, if not the best. All of their moves were taken from their actual games too, which was pretty cool to me. Especially that Chun-Li reference.

The voice actors were pretty good too, even if Vergil totally should’ve been voiced by Hero’s Shade. But the guy they got was pretty good. He didn’t start off great, but I was sold on him with “Okay you’re strong. But are you fast enough?”. Sephiroth was awesome all the way too.

Research was great too. Their supernova explanation that everyone was dreading actually turned out pretty solid to me, and we got Sephiroth rightfully winning, along with no “Yamato cuts everything”. Definitely not the DMC wank and FF nerfs everyone thought we’d see. Thumbs up for that, and thumbs up for this episode too.

ramonzer0

Rank: #1

The one where I can stop asking for this fight to happen BECAUSE IT HAPPENED HAIL HYDRA PRAISE THE SUN YES

For context, Vergil and Sephiroth are two of my favorite final bosses ever, and I think it has to do with the fact that in my opinion, both were built up well-enough as the ultimate threat that the players have to deal with come the endgame. Throughout Devil May Cry 3 (maybe the original if we had to be technical as well) and Final Fantasy VII, I was in literal childlike awe (literally a kid when I first beat them) of how imposing and dangerous these guys were; Sephiroth haunted Cloud’s thoughts as we saw the Nibelheim flashback and eventually the fights against Bizarro and Safer Sephiroth with Supernova, while Vergil managed to capture Dante’s coolness despite being his literal opposite. My appreciation for both of them continued with their fighting game appearances and watching Advent Children, and by the time I started following Death Battle, this was a match I had wanted them to do for the longest time.

Granted, I knew both had their share of alternate opponents, and guys on this blog like GB and our other guests preferred those like Vergil vs. Sesshomaru, and others were very wary of the show doing it now considering the controversial outcomes of the fights that featured Cloud, Tifa and Dante. As much as I knew those going in, it was still a joy to see Sephiroth and Vergil battle over the holiday season. By this point, I didn’t care who was going to win or the research going into it - I just wanted a good fight, and that is exactly what I saw.

One-Winged Devil was the best mash of orchestra and rock to compliment both characters’ own leitmotifs as the animation was a fast blitz of sharp blades clashing against each other. The simple premise of seeing which power-hungry villain was stronger led to a focused fight that ranks as one of the best of the entire show, with highlights such as a Devil Triggered-Vergil fighting off Sephiroth’s clone illusions while switching between Yamato, Summoned Swords and Beowulf, and the Supernova reveal.

Tl;dr this is my favorite episode of the season solely on the grounds of it being awesome at all times.

RadioactiveCaffeine

Rank: #8

I've always wanted to put something long and hard in Vergil.

TheGamingNewsGuy

Rank: #5

Hmm,great animation but i had no attachment to the characters due to me not being a FF/DMC Fan. I do get why it’s at Number 1 because man - it easily had the second best fight choreography of the season. Good DB but had no attachment to it.

Kirby Kid

Rank: #1

You surprised? This is without a doubt the best 3D animation Torrian has ever done (featuring a DMC brother again just like the last one, huh) animation was flashy as all hell, and given the characters fighting each other, there’s no surprise there. The voice acting was AMAZING with each respective voice actor doing a tremendous job as sounding as their respective character. The research done behind the lore of both combatants was spectacular as well, with the research behind their backstory, weapons and powers feeling… quite whole.

-----------------------------------

And that’s the final bit of work for Death Battle Season 4 from us, folks! Stay tuned, we’ll have our predictions for Batman VS Black Panther up sometime this weekend. Look forward to it!