Top 10 Embarrassing Defeats in Anime
For this list, we'll be looking at the times in anime where heroes and villains ended up losing battles in the most humiliating of ways. Get ready for plenty of spoilers down the line, and fair warning, the cringe is strong with this one!
#10: Should’ve Been Child’s Play
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“Yu Yu Hakusho” (1992-94) Kuwabara may not be the brains of the group, but even still this battle should have been a walk in the park for him! Stepping up to the plate in the Dark Tournament, the Spirit Sword user finds himself going up against the child-like Rinku. Sounds simple enough, right? Well not exactly, as the devilishly devious brat manages to win the match via a ring out. Maybe he was too busy thinking about Yukina? Either way, no excuse Kuwabara!
#9: Talk Shit, Get Hit
“Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-” (2016) We…kind of see what you were going for here Subaru. You want to defend your lady from being disrespected, perfectly understandable. However, when you lay down the gauntlet, you at least have to follow through on it or you risk looking like a total douche. You can guess what happened next. Despite having one hell of a trump card, Subaru failed to act on it and as such got his ass totally handed to him. If that wasn’t bad enough, Emilia watched the whole thing unfold. Yet another reason why he should have gone the Rem route.
#8: Yamcha Does What Yamcha Does Best
“Dragon Ball” (1986-89) Ever before the days he was getting blown up by Saibamen and getting wrecked by Cell Jrs, Yamcha was still far from capable when it came to the whole fighting scene, with this little exchange standing as the perfect example. During the World Martial Arts Tournament, the so-called master of the Wolf Fang Fist ends up going up against a seemingly mild-mannered and dorky dude…who then proceeds to own Yamcha every step of the way. We don’t care if it was secretly Kami in disguise, he pretty much shattered whatever self-confidence the character had left with that finishing blow.
#7: Setting The Tone For The Rest Of His Career
“Pokemon” (1997-) The Johto League. The Hoenn League. The Sinnoh League. The Unova League. The Kalos League. What do these all have in common? They’re the tournament finales that Ash managed to flub at the last second. What started all of this bad luck? We’re going with the time he ended up losing the Indigo League, all because he couldn’t control his Charizard. Thank god Youtube didn’t exist in Kanto back in those days, otherwise this loss would have made it to the top of plenty of fail compilation videos.
#6: 15 Minutes of Shame
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“Medabots” (1999-2001) You can’t blame Ikki for not getting a major ego boost, after all, it’s not every day that you find yourself as the third highest ranked Medafighter in all of Japan. Throw in the fact he had just learned that Medabee had a rare medal as well as access to the Medaforce, and it’s fair to say he was on cloud nine. This unfortunately all goes to his head when he ends up challenging Samantha and Pepper Cat to a battle, confident that he can one-hit K.O the whole thing. Just one problem, Medabee has no idea how to use the Medaforce, leading to a swift defeat in front of a whole fleet of reporters.
#5: Nagisa’s Smile
“Assassination Classroom” (2015-16) Given how Takaoka was a massive scumbag that got tremendous pleasure for beating the hell out of Class E, we were all pretty eager to see Nagisa take out this sadist a second time, albeit in the most soul-crushing way possible. Thankfully, the wannabe assassin managed to do just that when he used a secret technique to totally incapacitate the former pro. Not only does he get to zap the shit out of Takaoka with a taster, but also breaks his psyche by gracing him with a smile that you will be seeing in your nightmares.
#4: Practise What You Preach
“The Seven Deadly Sins” (2014-15; 2018) While Escanor somewhat steals this scene by revealing himself to be the ULTIMATE BADASS capable of dropping a demon like they were nothing, we can’t forget that this was also when this member of the Ten Commandments royally screwed the pooch. After challenging the Lion’s Sin of Pride to a battle to the death, Galand invokes the Law of Truth, wherein anyone who lies will be turned to stone. As it happens, Escanor is just a tad more intimidating than everyone gave him credit for, causing Galand to flee for his life…only to find himself taken out by his own technique.
#3: Aoyama Gets Pants’d!
“My Hero Academia” (2016-) It can’t be denied that Aoyama will always be the most fabulous member of Class 1-A. However, that doesn’t take away the fact that this defeat during the Sports Festival was more painful to behold than All Might’s retirement. Going up against Ashido, Aoyama tries to end the fight quickly with a rapid succession of laser blasts…only to suffer a stomach cramp, get his belt melted by acid, pants’d in front of millions of spectators, and then finished off with a Shoryuken. We would say that was an unprecedented set of bad luck, but he was up against best girl…
#2: Nut Cracker
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“One Punch Man” (2015) You couldn’t ask for a better set up for Sonic’s character than this initial clash with anime’s strongest hero. Deciding to show off his skills, the ninja demonstrates why he is known as Speed-o-Sound, zipping all over the area at a blinding pace. Alas, he wasn’t fast enough to prevent himself from falling onto Saitama’s fist; crotch first. Given how said fist had managed to take out giants, meteors and everything else it came up against, it’s kind of a miracle that Sonic’s happy sack didn’t explode.
#1: Pop Goes The Perona
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“One Piece” (1999-) It was not a good time to be a ghost on Thriller Bark when the Straw Hat crew arrived, especially if you were a parasol parading phantom named Perona. Facing off against the likes of Ussop, it looked like she was in for an easy win. That is until the long-nosed marksman decides to pull out the big guns…and by big we mean attacking her with cockroaches before lashing out with a massive balloon hammer. In terms of tricks, this was Ussop’s finest hour.
