Most Ludicrous Anime Moment: And the Winner Is…
 |
Reading through this contest was like a trip down memory lane for this old and often-bitter anime fan. There wer a lot of great memories in here, mostly of WTF moments that blew my mind and led me down the odd path of nerdery that eventually led to TR. Really, it’s hard for me to understand how someone could read these things and not end up interested in anime, but to each nerd his own.
Before I Mention the Honorables, let me specify how I judged
the contest. There are many anime series — like FLCL and Gurren Lagann,
to name but two — that tried to be insane. In that regard, I feel like their
scenes, although crazy, weren’t ludicrous in the sense of absurd and
exaggerated (Merriam-Webster will back me up on this) as opposed to series that
took themselves seriously. This also ruled out most comedies like Excel Saga and most of the hentai, since
they were also trying to be shocking and crazy. Now, given that this was one of
the most popular TR contests other
than the haikus, you anime fans will get your chance again, I promise. But that
won’t affect the Honorable Mentions… which are after the jump. There are a lot.
? NeverPlayedWOW for one of my personal favorites: “the
most ludicrous moment I’ve ever seen was [in Dead Leaves]when the yellow baby emerged from Pandy wielding two
handguns and proceeding to shoot the shit out of the red haired cyborg.”
? smashpro1 and all the others who suggested the admittedly
ludicrous final episode of Gurren Lagann:
“A big mech, which was made by jamming one small mech on top of another
one, takes control of a spaceship, and proceeds to become a giant mech. That
giant mech takes control of an even larger spaceship, which then proceeds to
become a giant mech. … This mech then proceeds to take over an entire galaxy,
WHICH TRANSFORMS INTO A GIANT FUCKING MECH!!!”
? Erm and JetFirmusPrime for what I hope to god is the same
madness from the nigh-pornographic Queen’s
Blade, which I just have to share (wait until 0:40)
? Afterglow for the amazing screenshot on the first page
? Negro X, for introducing me to the giant space vagina from
Getter Robo
? Adam E, for this Escaflowne
reveal: “then it turns out that the evil Emperor Dornkirk, the gnarly,
ancient, long-bearded, Santa Claus reject of an old geezer, is Sir Isaac
fucking Newton.”
? FuryofFirestrom, for something I don’t even feel comfortable
cutting and pasting
? tasakeru828, for They
Who Hunts Elves’ “paper drive”
? Paul, for the best summary of Serial Experiments Lain ever
? Robo Ky, for Evil Chinese Dragon Jesus versus the ninja
? Gareth for Krauser-tan:
? Elijah for warp factor gratuitous nudity
? Leppy for Mad Bull‘s
extra-mad balls
? Merle for Tokyo
Mew Mew‘s stick-god
? Kevin F for “I’m going to ignore this ‘talking is a
free action’ crap, rip Jesus’s arm out of body, turn into a raptor, and start
tearing shit up.”
? Operations for “In Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s
Counterattack they have Inflatable Battleships to confuse radar and act as
decoys, in fucking space. I’ll take my prize now.”
? Everyone who mentioned the pissing episode of Naruto in general
and the piss rainbow in specific
Now, one more jump to see the winners. It took me like three hours to judge this damn thing; the least you can do is click on a third page.
—-
So if you’re confused by my grading, here’s an excellent
example of what I mean my ludicrous from shibbee. Here, the Japanese animators
have implied this dude from Prince of
Tennis hits a tennis ball really well. They do this by having a massive
tennis crash into a dinosaur-filled earth, exploding and killing them all.
>
Now that is fucking ludicrous, and was absolutely going to
win… until Captain EO brough forth this clip:
Here, two other Prince of Tennis players play tennis — it’s
important to remembert that they’re just playing a fucking game of tennis here
— which is characterized by pillars of flame, massive tidal waves, both players
shooting off into the atmodsphere, and basically playing tennis so fucking well
all their clothes fly off. But unlike shibbee’s clip, where it’s just the world’s
most overwrought metaphor, this shit actually happened. The tennis court is
destroyed. Because that’s how these kids play tennis. On fire. Nude.?
Happily for shibbee, I’m not such a dick that I’d that I’d
wave his example up and not send him a shirt, so he wins too. Thanks all for
entering, and rest assured, there are plenty more contests to go. No need to
tell me how much bullshit my contests which I judge myself and in which I give
away free shirts are. Yet.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.