Lucario VS Renamon

Hm, well this is an interesting matchup. As far as I've seen it, when this episode was first announced the base was split into three groups. There was the group who were hyped because its a matchup that was heavily requested and one of the more popular episode ideas. There was the group who hated it becoming a reality because they thought it was Pokemon VS Digimon 2 and/or both combatants were being heavily limited in this fight and then there was the camp I was in which was... just didn't care. It was a DB like any other as far as I could tell so I didn't make a big fuss about it. As for the conditions of the fight, it was a good way to analyze a Pokemon VS Digimon fight by enacting the 'No outside help rule' and while both combatants actually can evolve further another stage on their own, I doubt it would've made a difference.  Onto the review!

Analysis

Now because this episode deals with no specific individual of the species, the background for Lucario is naturally a bit slim. However, ti does manage to keep the rundown interesting and even manages to make a good joke abut the reality of getting your own movie. After that Lucario's analysis progresses more akin to the ones in Lara VS Nate but was still able to keep it interesting due to Wiz and Boomstick listing off moves/techniques rather than feats of what Lucario had accomplished. It also gives an informative rundown on aura and how Lucario can use it in varying ways. Also I loved the Goku reference though it's bound to piss some fanboys off due to Goku VS Superman. The feats section is also pretty informative with detailing the speed needed for FTE capabilities (9,000 mph which is more than 11 times the speed of sound. I guess Lucario is also faster than Sonic, sorry still salty about that) as well as Magmar's body temperature, also great foreshadowing to Mcgruff the Crime Dog VS Smokey the Bear. Now notably this rundown does use the calc omission trap but its more subtle so that you won't realize it and accomplishes this via giving other statistics while omitting the one that truly matters and as such I won't deduct points for it.

Renamon's analysis progresses much like Lucario's with a slimmed down background (justifiably) before moving onto techniques and feats. It offers an interesting piece of trivia on how Renamon was based on a Kitsune and uses this as a means to justify her "ghost fire". It does give an enlightening statistic on how much PSI it would take to crack 8 inches of blue ice (and because of the different size/volume, this is not contradictory to Sub-Zero VS Glacius. It also tries to fool the audience by using the calc omission trap via the air slashing through concrete feat but we never find out how powerful this is. Also that ending joke was great. Not unexpected but still pretty great.

However, one problem I do have with the analysis is that because they are slimmed down, half of the information you get is already covered in the previews and as shown by the run time (the SA version is a mere 13 minutes long), the episode as a whole feels a bit more like filler. By the time the analysis are done there' s approximately 3 and half minutes left in the episode. I give the analysis a 6.5 out of 10.

Animation

Now I'm not too familiar with Aquila's animations. I started to lose interest in One Minute Melee and as such I only really recall her doing Mega Man VS Astro Boy (as a replacement after Mali had quit) and as of recent the Noel VS Aigis DBX which while good could've been improved upon. As such I didn't really know what to expect for this animation.

Well one nitpick I have with this animation is that despite both being acknowledged to speak English, only Renamon has dialogue. Lucario just kinda growls and while I could accept it for Hulk VS Doomsday, that was because Doomsday really did just growl as opposed to being an intelligent creature like Lucario.

The fight itself is actually surprisingly fast-paced with both combatant's moving faster than the eye could see at one point. Renamon gets off a few good combos and Lucario counters accordingly and I did not expect him to use Aura Storm in the animation considering it wasn't covered in the analysis (not that its a bad thing). 

Notably this is one of the few animations where both combatants use their most powerful attacks right from the start which I think fits into the combatants personalities. Typically the animation leaves the most powerful attacks for last to amp up the drama. For example the last fight had Zero having the upper hand but we knew the fight wasn't over because Metal Sonic had still not transformed into Metal Overlord and the fight before that also used this in regards to Binary. This does not take away from the drama though as Renamon successfully impales Lucario with Diamond Storm... only to have Lucario power through it like a boss before executing a killer combo finishing by impalng Renamon's throat with Bone Rush and frankly the whole sequence is awesome. I give this animation an 8 out 10.

Conclusion

The conclusion has a very reasonable outcome justifying the advantages each combatant had. It highlights that Renamon held the speed advantage due to being more experienced and using it more consistently. It also makes note of Lucario's advantages using Aura, allowing him to easily detect Renamon, and having a superior arsenal. Finally it makes note of Lucario's ability to increase it's stats and points out its absolutely massive strength advantage being able to hit with about 50,000 PSI more than Renamon can. Although I wasn't impressed with Boomstick reusing a pun from a past battle (H2Owned, Lucariowned). The conclusion gets a 7.5/10 bringing the total to 22 out of 30 or 73%.

Metal Sonic VS Zero

Yeah I don't have an excuse for my tardiness. Now this is an interesting episode. On the one hand I've been wanting Metal Sonic in an episode ever since Eggman VS Wily (exactly 50 episodes ago!) but on the other hand while I do enjoy this episode, its not without its flaws.

Analysis

Metal Sonic's rundown starts with the standard background analysis and does a god job covering his arsenal while also giving a nice Terminator reference. They go through his feats rather well although its here where I start to have a couple nitpicks. I really don't think using the Olympics spinoff games should count as it can apply to pretty much everyone in the Sonicverse. Also I have a problem regarding Mach 8 Sonic because he does actually have one feat that shows him moving at FTL speeds. In Sonic Generations he was able run fast enough to restore the space-time continuum and while I understand its a MASSIVE outlier, Mach 8 is just a bit too slow in my opinion. An additional nitpick to this is that it wasn't even necessary considering that Metal Sonic himself moves at Mach 35. However, I do think that it was an interesting piece of information and while I disagree with it, it was nice to see them convert SPD into meters per second (as well as debunk that horrid game theory) and it gives Boomstick an opportunity to make another jab at his ex-wife. The stalagmite feat was also a very interesting piece of information. The rest of Metal Sonic's analysis was pretty good covering Metal Sonic's alternate forms and weaknesses.

As for Zero's analysis, it gives a much more detailed rundown on his background, probably due to the fact that Zero is an actually fleshed out character. It does a decent job at going through his arsenal and alternate forms while throwing a joke or two in there to keep it entertaining. It covers his feats fairly well though I do have an issue or two which I will cover in the conclusion. However, this rundown does use the calc omission trap by giving the statistics of Metal Sonic's feats but not Zero's and as such I did know he was going to win. I give this analysis a 6.8 out of 10.

Animation

You know I once claimed that Jetz was the Torrian of 2D battles and I think this episode proves my claim. The episode shows that Jetz has just continued to improve and the 2.5D actually works well with the fight. Sure there are some shots that look a little off but that just means it'll be easier for his next animation to beat this one.

Although the animation could've made better use of Metal Sonic's Scan and Copy ability as he uses a charge shot prior to copying Zero's charge shot so it makes it a little difficult to understand that he actually copied anything. Furthermore wouldn't the Z-Saber count as Zero's signature ability? 

However, that's about it for nitpicks. From here on out, the fight just escalates with each combatant countering each other like a strategic game of chess. And then Metal Sonic turns into Metal Overlord and the fight becomes a David VS Goliath fight like we haven't seen before. We are then treated to both combatants shaking off each others attacks until the climactic finish where Zero slices through Metal Overlord in one strike. That would be a moment worthy of 'Rules of Nature' right there, of course Zero doesn't look back as Metal Overlord explodes. I give this animation an 8.8/10.

Conclusion

Now before I start, there is not a doubt in my mind that Zero would've stomped Metal Sonic. However, much like Sub-Zero VS Glacius, the reasoning is what is important here. For speed, they don't actually give Zero any feats or evidence that he would keep up with Mach 35. Instead they use speed scaling which I am not a fan of. Speed scaling relies on the assumption that said character scaled was moving at those seeds during the fight. Furthermore they make it complex by scaling Zero to Mega Man who in turn is being scaled to Quick Man. The episode's entire argument for why Zero is faster (or has better reflexes, whatever) is based on an  assumption based on an assumption. They also use the assumption that Zero is better than Mega Man based on the fact that he was built to surpass him yet has never shown this in a direct fight. Yes I do know that Zero is better than Mega Man but that was because he was introduced in the X era where the series started to get more and more absurd with his feats. Also Metal Sonic was built to surpass Sonic but has consistently shown to lose to him. Even still Metal Overlord has reacted to Super Sonic who by Death Battle's own admission has gone at FTL.

Now they do make a good point about Zero's superior and much larger arsenal which allowed him to counter anything Zero could throw at him. I also agree with them on the hax side of things where Zero's means of stopping time were generally more effective than Metal Sonic's. 

As for durability, yeah no. There are multiple things wrong with this feat such as the fact that the space shuttle tanked most of the damage. Of course Zero wouldn't have gotten out unscathed but there is too little evidence to suggest he tanked even a fraction of the supposedly 100,000,000,000 tons of TnT that they are saying he did. As shown by this episode's own footage, the shuttle is relatively unscathed and as such assuming Zero tanked this is unreliable at best.  From the sounds of things this feat was merely a character statement (which tend to be quite slippery) that said it was similar to the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs and does not explicitly state that it was 100,000,000,000 tons.

Like I said, I truly do believe that Zero wins this matchup. Hell its not even close but the reasoning used to justify his win in this episode is too circumstantial to be used reliably. I give this conclusion a 5.4 out 10 for a total score of 21/30 or 70%.

Android 18 VS Captain Marvel

Sorry I'm late but my laptop needed to be fixed. Good thing it did because I would've probably missed something that greatly affected my view on the episode, that being Ben's Twitter which I'll elaborate on at the end.

Analysis

Android 18's analysis is decently put together. It has decent jokes and even has Wiz elicit a "No. Just no" reaction to one of Boomstick's more inappropriate puns (though to be honest, it did make me laugh on the inside). It gives a fairly informative rundown on ki and how 18 can use it to enhance her physical capabilities while still being fairly entertaining. It gains bonus points for even talking about 18's fighting style and tendency to wear her opponent out. Unfortunately it also loses those points when it falsely informs the viewer that 18 can absorb energy. Of course that doesn't prevent the feats section of her analysis from being entertaining especially that little detail: "Withstood love making with Krillin". The "Gravity formula" is also used to great effect and it was very interesting to see how Wiz and Boomstick powerscaled 18's strength by calculating Vegeta's durability. However, her analysis starts to lose points again when talking about her weaknesses. Yes 18 was programmed to have a remote bomb in her chest but that bomb was removed at the end of the Cell saga so bringing it up now is pointless. Also how is being cold and apathetic a weakness?

Moving on to Captain Marvel's analysis, this is also pretty decently put together. It has a few decent jokes as well with the first one being Boomstick's unimpressed reaction to Mar-Vell's name as well as Wiz telling Boomstick he has a problem in reaction to Boomstick's blackouts. It goes over Carol's arsenal fairly well and this time doesn't lose points when mentioning Carol can absorb energy. The feats section of the analysis is also informative and entertaining with Wiz mentioning Carol's speed is approximately Mach 247. The Binary section is decently covered and the same can be said for the weaknesses section (and actually giving real weaknesses this time). I give the analysis a 7.5/10.

Animation

First of all, can I just say it's good to have Zack animate another DB episode. I thought his animations were some of the best in season 2 so I was excited to find out he was animating this episode. Now I will admit that its a bit shorter than I would've liked but as with Power Rangers VS Voltron, the animation makes those seconds count. The fight is an extremely fast paced, action packed battle that we would expect nothing less from a DBZ episode (with the exception of Hercule VS Dan). The choreography of the fight does showcase 18's superior speed yet doesn't make it so that Carol is completely outclassed (as shown in the section where both fighters are moving faster than the eye can track). The fight only seems to get more awesome as it goes on with Carol blowing up a mountain just to demonstrate her power as Binary.

The animation also gains bonus points for having Amber Lee Connors reprise her role for TFS' Android 18 and Terri Doty does a pretty good job as Captain Mavel. Although Carol does seem to be a bit narmy when she turns into Binary (HAHAHA! HAVE A TASTE OF YOU'RE OWN ENERGY!). Of course the animation does have its genuinely funny moments as well as shown when 18 pulls Carol's hair and Carol aggressively states that 18's playing dirty.

Finally the finisher of the fight is just pure badass. 18 no sells a massive energy blast that leaves a giant crater, breaks both of Carol's arms and hits her with enough force to double the size of the crater before stomping her head into the ground. I'm willing to forgive the part where 18 absorbs energy because frankly that's not Zack's fault. That is the fault of the research. However, at certain points Binary's flame hair looks unfinished and as such Binary's sprite looks like it has a hole in her head during some parts of the fight. On an unrelated note, are just going to ignore the fact that 18 left the dragonball by Binary. The fight is good but I'm still gonna give the animation a 6.5/10 for reasons I will explain soon.

Conclusion

Now the reasoning is actually pretty solid saying that 18 was able to move about 100,000 mph faster than Carol could and they outright say that 18 is a much better fighter than Carol in her base form and this is where I think they should've stopped. I think omitting Binary would've been the best choice here as it is an extremely circumstantial form (needing star level energy to power up in the first place) and as such I don't believe that Carol would be able to utilize it in a one-on-one fight unless said fight took place in space. I do agree with the fact that 18 would stop feeding Captain Marvel energy once she realized what was happening. 

Now I'd like to address a couple things before I wrap this up. Firstly I think it was irresponsible to put 18's 'energy absorption' ability into the fight without having actually checked if she has it outside of Xenoverse. This would've negatively impacted my rating but upon closer inspection, they don't even mention it in the conclusion so its a minor offense. The second thing I'd like to address is I'm actually impressed with Ben and SA with dealing with the minor fallout of this episode. They addressed several complaints and upon inspecting the issues himself, Ben actually apologized for the research failure of this episode. It does not impact the result as not much weight was put onto both the speed downplay and the energy absorption but its still nice to see that Ben cares about his fans enough to acknowledge his mistakes even if some people give him flak for it. With that I give this conclusion a 6/10 bringing the grand total to 20/30 or 67%. As for the next matchup: I'll be rooting for Metal Sonic but I'm betting Zero considering he has every category apart from speed.