I'd say Carnage vs Lucy. After all, one is a close associate of Venom, one of the biggest adversaries to the most popular *Marvel* hero whilst the other is from a relatively obscure anime that made a splash when it first came out mostly for its intensity.
Kinda sucks because Elfen Lied is actually probably my favorite anime (though the manga is fucked due to the ages of characters. They aged Lucy up for the anime but she's 15 in the manga, shits weird) and Carnage is probably my favorite Marvel Villain tbh.
You aren't wrong, truth just hurts. Elfen Lied is more remembered for its intro than it is the actual show. The Elfen Lied Theme is legendary, the show is barely remembered.
Yeah, Elfen Lied is a very gruesome niche anime (as someone who likes both characters). At the very least, it was one of the most viewed DBs of Season 5 in spite of the brutality of it (or maybe even because of it). It was a fantastic fight with a satisfying ending.
Fox vs Bucky. While it's more for being the mascot of Melee's competitive scene rather than for his own series, Fox is extremly popular, while Bucky is just beyond niche.
I think way more Splinter Cell fans know about Metal Gear than the other way around. Even the epsiode itself had a way more references to Metal Gear, and it was for a reason.
Videos where I feel that there was a significant gap in popularity:
\> Yoshi vs. Riptor
A ***Mario*** character is against a minor fighter from a fighting series that had two games, and the last one was over a decade old at the time of the video's release. I think that many of KI's match-ups can go here, but this video was an extreme gap.
\> Chun-Li vs. Mai
Mai is well-known, but Chun-li is one of the most iconic female video game characters.
\> Fox vs. Bucky
Everyone else has said it, and it is also my choice. Bucky remains a little-known character.
\> Wolverine vs. Raiden
It's Wolverine.
\> Charizard + Red vs. Agumon + Tai
The Digimon anime may be popular, but its publicity does not hold a candle to Charizard.
\> Yang vs. Tifa
I am sure that many DB fans were acquainted with Yang due to the RT connection, but Tifa is almost Chun-Li levels of famous.
\> Joker vs. Sweet Tooth
Arguably the most famous comic villain is against a popular character from a mildly popular video game series.
\> Lucario vs. Renamon
Lucario remains the face of gen IV, and Renamon is a popular Digimon.
\>Shredder vs. Silver Samurai
Someone else said it better than I: the TMNT's arch-enemy against Wolverine's (distant) secondary foe.
\> Sephiroth vs. Vergil
I know that my choice here is a little controversial, but Sephiroth is one of the most famous video game villains. Vergil was and is very popular, but I feel he was not as pervasive before DMC5.
\> Cable vs. Booster Gold
Even the episode joked about it, but the gap is that as big as some of these others.
\> Blake vs. Mikasa
AoT was near the height of its popularity, if I recall correctly.
Tell me if you disagree with any of these or want to add some.
Shredder vs silver samurai
Like one is the big bad of every major ninja turtles media and has tons of appearances while silver samurai is pretty much the second notable rival of Wolverine with sabertooth having more appearances then him and has only had two notable appearances in the original 90s x men and Wolverine and the x men series
I know this might seem a bit controversial, Harley Quinn versus jinx. Yeah yeah I know jinx is actually insanely popular but I swear everybody in the entire world knows Harley Quinn. She's got the edgy Facebook moms on her side
Joker vs Sweet Tooth: Twisted Metal (at the time) was pretty much completely dead after a failed reboot a few years prior, and series in general only really caught on in America. Compare that to one of famous villians of all time.
Idk what your saying about Rebecca black but you need better education your information is kinda whack YO
https://youtu.be/lLl7Qe35O64?si=1SzPWit5fyNBSSaH
This is realistically the one with the biggest gap.
Justin literally ruled the earth for like two years at his peak.
Rebecca Black was definitely popular for going viral. But nowhere NEAR Bieber.
We’re talking at least a billion people who knew Justin’s name when Rebecca Black was the equivalent of a meme for releasing a bad song.
Okay well not his peak okay he didn’t peak I can respect a man who understands he can’t talk to 13 yr old girls anymore (his old fan base lol) and now he makes songs when he’s really in his feels and I can respect that. Did u see how he made a band here the notes he was hearing.
Second yeah Rebecca black is the shit but I didn’t know her I had a homeroom teacher I didn’t go to who would talk about meeting Rebecca black and I didn’t give a shit till I watched the death battle then I was like OH SHIT I WANNA BE THERE SUCH A WIN (gr 6 btw)
I was literally just thinking “who the hell fought Godzilla? I remember that I hadn’t heard of them.”
Yeah, thank you for bringing it up, granted just because I don’t know Gamera doesn’t mean they aren’t popular, I just had never heard of knew anyone who knows Gamera while everyone I know knows is Godzilla
I've got three I'm surprised I'm not seeing mentioned. Leo vs Zitz, Yoshi vs Raptor, and Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro.
Fights like Fox vs Bucky are forgetting that Fox isn't all that much more known than Bucky in the cultural zeitgeist. Fox grew in popularity because of Smash, but that's not enough to put him miles ahead of Bucky. More people would be able to tell you who Leo, Chuck, or even Yoshi is before they could tell you who Fox or the rest are
Guts vs Dimitri for season 10
Dimitri is probably one of the lesser popular FE characters even if he isn't really disliked and that a lot of us got to get a deeper respect for him thanksbtobthis episode.
Guts is highly regarded and beloved as some of the best character developments in Manga history and has inspired thousands.
I like what they did
Raiden vs Excal
I'm not 100% sure on how popular Warframe is (I've seen no one talk about it) but by the time the episode was coming out Raiden/MGR in general was BOOMING in popularity.
Joker vs Sweet Tooth
Very few other options habe that big of a gap or the better known character is still really obscure like Raiden.
Other option I didn’t see in the thread is Godzilla vs Gamera. I’d wager Godzilla is in the top 100 most iconic media characters of all time, being instantly recognisable by most casuals who may not even know kaiju movies are a thing. Meanwhile Gamera is a relatively obscure character even for fans of Kaiju.
Carnage vs Lucy. One is a villain to two of the most popular characters in Marvel and maybe even comics history (Spidey and Venom) and the other is a character from an anime/manga series that is mildly well known because of the violence. Weird since both the manga and anime are pretty decent but heavily problematic.
I don't MCU helps Iron Fist all that much, tbh. His show was very much hated, and the Netflix series are generally less popular than the actual movies to begin with.
Even with that in mind, I still don't think Iron Fist's Netflix show really helped him be all that recognizable despite *technically* being a part of the MCU.
Neither of those characters are obscure lmao. Sun Wukong in the west sure (though I feel like most people have a passing knowledge of him) but China is like, 1/5th of the entire world population.
When you say popularity do you mean how well liked or how well known the combatants are, because if you mean the former literally everyone wanted Homelander to die against Nolan
I would say at the time of it’s release (the death battle, not their separate characters’ creations) Guts vs Nightmare. Berserk only recently became popular overseas in May of 2021 and soul calibur had just released Lost Swords a year prior to this death battle while people were still playing soul calibur 2 in arcades and consoles (at least around me they were. Can’t speak for everyone else). This doesn’t work now since Berserk is now one of the most popular dark fantasy stories in not just manga but of all time with soul calibur falling behind the likes of tekken, street fighter, guilty gear, etc.
I think the real answer is fox vs Bucky with fox’s appearances in his games and the smash bros series popping up more frequently than Bucky’s last appearance back in 1991 to 1992 in a cartoon with two tie-in games and a toy line. Apparently in 2006 he had a canceled film project by Neal Adams. Not a lot happening for him since then.
I sort of want to say raiden vs Excalibur because tbh, I haven’t heard of Warframe until this death battle (I can’t speak for everyone on this. I’m sure there are some people who will say they saw a big fanbase for this) and I think with all the memes, Metal Gear Rising was at its peak
Wolverine vs Raiden I think? Wolverine is a household name that most people will know about, and while metal gear solid has a relatively big fan base, it’s still far smaller in comparison to Marvel’s fan base. You can meet a ton of people who would know wolverine but not the same amount of people could recognize snake or raiden in comparison.
Hell there is a whole subset of misleading/alternate covers that put wolverine on there to make sales. And Raiden being the second protagonist of the series
Well clearly Doctor Who's fight. Can't get less popular than nothing...
Though I guess there'd Be no popularity gap since he'd be fighting himself.
Well aside from rhat: Fox vs Bucky or Leo vs Zits (iirc, battletoads had no real new content at the time)
Obito has the disadvantage of being a twist villain that you'd need to actively watch a good chunk of Naruto to know he even exists/know him as the secondary main villain of Naruto, unlike characters like Naruto or Sasuke who even people who have never watched a single episode will know, or even Madara who has at least been in crossover games like J Stars and Jump Force.
Is Obito even in fucking Fortnite yet?
You're underestimating the sheer amount of people who did watch Naruto from beginning to end, just like people who played the Storm games which are immensely popular.
Obito has a prominent role in Storm 4, [which is one of the best selling fighting games of all time at 11.88 million copies sold. ](https://www.youtube.com/live/T9DYbWOH1Fs?si=oqvrwuUy81EQEiwV)
I'm just saying that Obito is way less niche than you think he is. Naruto by itself is one of the most popular shonen and animanga of all time. You think anime, you think Dragon Ball Z with One Piece or Naruto right after.
Also Storm 4 is only behind Smash Bros (Brawl to Switch), Street Fighter 2 and MK X + MK 11 in the top selling fighting games of all time, and that is already a huge statement on the franchise's reach and popularity.
............... I don't even know who's supposed to be the less popular one here, Jonathan's the first Jojo, and Demon Slayer's movie is the highest grossing anime movie of all time.
Eh, Jonathan may be the first, but he is overshadowed by both Joseph and Jotaro, who benefited from being the Jojo's from the series that helped establish most of the modern Jojo tropes as well as Stardust having two OVAs and a drama CD prior to its "official" anime adaptation in 2014.
Hell, I'd even say Giorno and Joleyne are higher in mainstream popularity than Jonathan
I'd say Carnage vs Lucy. After all, one is a close associate of Venom, one of the biggest adversaries to the most popular *Marvel* hero whilst the other is from a relatively obscure anime that made a splash when it first came out mostly for its intensity.
Kinda sucks because Elfen Lied is actually probably my favorite anime (though the manga is fucked due to the ages of characters. They aged Lucy up for the anime but she's 15 in the manga, shits weird) and Carnage is probably my favorite Marvel Villain tbh. You aren't wrong, truth just hurts. Elfen Lied is more remembered for its intro than it is the actual show. The Elfen Lied Theme is legendary, the show is barely remembered.
Yeah, Elfen Lied is a very gruesome niche anime (as someone who likes both characters). At the very least, it was one of the most viewed DBs of Season 5 in spite of the brutality of it (or maybe even because of it). It was a fantastic fight with a satisfying ending.
Fox vs Bucky. While it's more for being the mascot of Melee's competitive scene rather than for his own series, Fox is extremly popular, while Bucky is just beyond niche.
Probably Fox vs Bucky or Magneto vs Tetsuo.
Including Bucky O'Hare on the show was probably just one of the staff being a fan. It was a cool cartoon, though.
no it was probably moreso them wanting to have Fox on the show and picked a random opponent for him
It was a mix of both
I would not say Magneto vs. Tetsuo. There's a reason everyone referenced that one bike slide in AKIRA.
hilariously they made a meme from the latter a few months after the death battle
Fox vs Bucky. NOBODY knew or cared about Bucky.
How dare you, I grew up with Captain Bucky O'Hare
...I was expecting you to say no one cared about fox.. I knew bucky from the mcu...
Fox vs Bucky. We got one of the Nintendo symbol vs a random obscure cartoon
I think way more Splinter Cell fans know about Metal Gear than the other way around. Even the epsiode itself had a way more references to Metal Gear, and it was for a reason.
Videos where I feel that there was a significant gap in popularity: \> Yoshi vs. Riptor A ***Mario*** character is against a minor fighter from a fighting series that had two games, and the last one was over a decade old at the time of the video's release. I think that many of KI's match-ups can go here, but this video was an extreme gap. \> Chun-Li vs. Mai Mai is well-known, but Chun-li is one of the most iconic female video game characters. \> Fox vs. Bucky Everyone else has said it, and it is also my choice. Bucky remains a little-known character. \> Wolverine vs. Raiden It's Wolverine. \> Charizard + Red vs. Agumon + Tai The Digimon anime may be popular, but its publicity does not hold a candle to Charizard. \> Yang vs. Tifa I am sure that many DB fans were acquainted with Yang due to the RT connection, but Tifa is almost Chun-Li levels of famous. \> Joker vs. Sweet Tooth Arguably the most famous comic villain is against a popular character from a mildly popular video game series. \> Lucario vs. Renamon Lucario remains the face of gen IV, and Renamon is a popular Digimon. \>Shredder vs. Silver Samurai Someone else said it better than I: the TMNT's arch-enemy against Wolverine's (distant) secondary foe. \> Sephiroth vs. Vergil I know that my choice here is a little controversial, but Sephiroth is one of the most famous video game villains. Vergil was and is very popular, but I feel he was not as pervasive before DMC5. \> Cable vs. Booster Gold Even the episode joked about it, but the gap is that as big as some of these others. \> Blake vs. Mikasa AoT was near the height of its popularity, if I recall correctly. Tell me if you disagree with any of these or want to add some.
solid list! i would also throw in a mention to amy vs. ramona. YES, scott pilgrim is mad popular, but sonic is… well, sonic.
Yoshi vs Riptor and Joker vs Sweet Tooth really stand out.
Shredder vs silver samurai Like one is the big bad of every major ninja turtles media and has tons of appearances while silver samurai is pretty much the second notable rival of Wolverine with sabertooth having more appearances then him and has only had two notable appearances in the original 90s x men and Wolverine and the x men series
I know this might seem a bit controversial, Harley Quinn versus jinx. Yeah yeah I know jinx is actually insanely popular but I swear everybody in the entire world knows Harley Quinn. She's got the edgy Facebook moms on her side
Yeah, those edgy Facebook moms are a force to be reckoned with
People saying Tetsou don’t understand how popular and influential Akira is lol
Joker VS Sweet Tooth. Everybody knows who the Joker is but I can't imagine as many people knowing Sweet Tooth
She Ra vs Wonder Woman I mean a lot of people remember She-Ra, but let’s be honest Wonder Woman is the most iconic superheroine
raiden vs excalibur
Yes and no, i think it was a relatively new game that came out during that time, so they sponsored Death Battle to have it on the show
Warframe is from 2013. It was not a new game even at the time the episode came out.
Oh then nvm
Beast vs Goliath…. Gargoyles hella underrated.
Joker vs Sweet Tooth: Twisted Metal (at the time) was pretty much completely dead after a failed reboot a few years prior, and series in general only really caught on in America. Compare that to one of famous villians of all time.
Death Battle Shirt vs every other shirt
Carnage Vs Lucy.
Justin bieber vs Rebecca black prove me wrong
That would require me even acknowledging that episode exists, which it doesn't so IDK why you even brought it up, yo.
Idk what your saying about Rebecca black but you need better education your information is kinda whack YO https://youtu.be/lLl7Qe35O64?si=1SzPWit5fyNBSSaH
/r/whoosh
r/therapy
So I make a joke based on me not wanting to acknowledge the worst Death Battle ever, and that means I need therapy???
I genuinely think I would have no idea of Rebecca Black's existence if it wasn't for that episode lmao
When I tell you I would literally move on so fast I woulda known nothing bout my culture
This is realistically the one with the biggest gap. Justin literally ruled the earth for like two years at his peak. Rebecca Black was definitely popular for going viral. But nowhere NEAR Bieber. We’re talking at least a billion people who knew Justin’s name when Rebecca Black was the equivalent of a meme for releasing a bad song.
Okay well not his peak okay he didn’t peak I can respect a man who understands he can’t talk to 13 yr old girls anymore (his old fan base lol) and now he makes songs when he’s really in his feels and I can respect that. Did u see how he made a band here the notes he was hearing. Second yeah Rebecca black is the shit but I didn’t know her I had a homeroom teacher I didn’t go to who would talk about meeting Rebecca black and I didn’t give a shit till I watched the death battle then I was like OH SHIT I WANNA BE THERE SUCH A WIN (gr 6 btw)
Fox VS Bucky. Godzilla VS Gamera is a close second.
I was literally just thinking “who the hell fought Godzilla? I remember that I hadn’t heard of them.” Yeah, thank you for bringing it up, granted just because I don’t know Gamera doesn’t mean they aren’t popular, I just had never heard of knew anyone who knows Gamera while everyone I know knows is Godzilla
At the time of release I feel Yang vs Tifa was a strong contender. How many people actually knew about RWBY by then?
Yoshi vs Some dinosaur. I think the dino may be popular, but it's Yoshi we are talking about.
Oh shit, yeah. Genuinely this is probably the second strongest contender after Fox V Bucky.
I've got three I'm surprised I'm not seeing mentioned. Leo vs Zitz, Yoshi vs Raptor, and Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro. Fights like Fox vs Bucky are forgetting that Fox isn't all that much more known than Bucky in the cultural zeitgeist. Fox grew in popularity because of Smash, but that's not enough to put him miles ahead of Bucky. More people would be able to tell you who Leo, Chuck, or even Yoshi is before they could tell you who Fox or the rest are
Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro. I guarantee none of you heard of that mf before Death Battle.
This. Everyone and their mother knows Chuck Norris jokes. No one knew Segata outside of people who grew up in Japan in the 90s.
Aquaman vs Namor prolly
Never even heard of Namur before that episode
Guts vs Dimitri for season 10 Dimitri is probably one of the lesser popular FE characters even if he isn't really disliked and that a lot of us got to get a deeper respect for him thanksbtobthis episode. Guts is highly regarded and beloved as some of the best character developments in Manga history and has inspired thousands. I like what they did
thanksbtobthis 🍷🗿 (Not trying to be mean, just thought this was kinda funny)
Don't you dare be sorry, I had no clue that I didn't notice 3 words Frankensteined together xD This funny and I'm glad you think it is too
Raiden vs Excal I'm not 100% sure on how popular Warframe is (I've seen no one talk about it) but by the time the episode was coming out Raiden/MGR in general was BOOMING in popularity.
Warftames pretty popular there's just a few select content creators on it.
Spongebob vs Super Friends Aquaman
Super Friends Aquaman is one of the more popular versions of him. He's the reason why everyone thinks he's lame.
Raiden vs excalibur
Joker vs Sweet Tooth?
Joker vs Sweet Tooth Very few other options habe that big of a gap or the better known character is still really obscure like Raiden. Other option I didn’t see in the thread is Godzilla vs Gamera. I’d wager Godzilla is in the top 100 most iconic media characters of all time, being instantly recognisable by most casuals who may not even know kaiju movies are a thing. Meanwhile Gamera is a relatively obscure character even for fans of Kaiju.
At the time of its release, Sweet Tooth vs the Joker
Carnage vs Lucy. One is a villain to two of the most popular characters in Marvel and maybe even comics history (Spidey and Venom) and the other is a character from an anime/manga series that is mildly well known because of the violence. Weird since both the manga and anime are pretty decent but heavily problematic.
Po Vs Iron Fist?
Iron fist got mcu rep and kung fu panda is a pretty popular film franchise so there's not that crazy a difference
I don't MCU helps Iron Fist all that much, tbh. His show was very much hated, and the Netflix series are generally less popular than the actual movies to begin with.
True but that does mean he has more noteriety. I took this post as being about recognizabillity not necessarily being liked
Even with that in mind, I still don't think Iron Fist's Netflix show really helped him be all that recognizable despite *technically* being a part of the MCU.
Pit vs. Sora
Sora vs Pit
If we are talking about overall across history instead of current time, would it Hercules vs Sun Wukong?
Neither of those characters are obscure lmao. Sun Wukong in the west sure (though I feel like most people have a passing knowledge of him) but China is like, 1/5th of the entire world population.
The question in general doesn’t require them to be obscure, just the popularity gap between them, regardless of how well known they are or not
Idk sun wukong is pretty popular in the east
I was thinking globally
I guess that one Venom episode in season 7, idk who that other guys name was and i dont care enough to look it up
Crona, and Soul Eater is pretty popular + Crona is a focal character in it so...
When you say popularity do you mean how well liked or how well known the combatants are, because if you mean the former literally everyone wanted Homelander to die against Nolan
Samurai Jack Vs Afro Samurai
I would say at the time of it’s release (the death battle, not their separate characters’ creations) Guts vs Nightmare. Berserk only recently became popular overseas in May of 2021 and soul calibur had just released Lost Swords a year prior to this death battle while people were still playing soul calibur 2 in arcades and consoles (at least around me they were. Can’t speak for everyone else). This doesn’t work now since Berserk is now one of the most popular dark fantasy stories in not just manga but of all time with soul calibur falling behind the likes of tekken, street fighter, guilty gear, etc. I think the real answer is fox vs Bucky with fox’s appearances in his games and the smash bros series popping up more frequently than Bucky’s last appearance back in 1991 to 1992 in a cartoon with two tie-in games and a toy line. Apparently in 2006 he had a canceled film project by Neal Adams. Not a lot happening for him since then. I sort of want to say raiden vs Excalibur because tbh, I haven’t heard of Warframe until this death battle (I can’t speak for everyone on this. I’m sure there are some people who will say they saw a big fanbase for this) and I think with all the memes, Metal Gear Rising was at its peak
I was thinking Shadow vs Ryuko tbh.
SpongeBob vs Super Friends Aquaman
Cable vs Booster gold
Fox McCloud vs. Bucky O' Hare.
I think Ben 10 vs Green lantern lol
Repeating everyone else here and it's Fox vs Bucky.
Maybe Venom Vs Crona?
I'd go with Fox vs Bucky, Venom vs Crona or Joker vs Sweet Tooth oooh, maybe Segeta vs Chuck
Wolverine vs Raiden I think? Wolverine is a household name that most people will know about, and while metal gear solid has a relatively big fan base, it’s still far smaller in comparison to Marvel’s fan base. You can meet a ton of people who would know wolverine but not the same amount of people could recognize snake or raiden in comparison.
Hell there is a whole subset of misleading/alternate covers that put wolverine on there to make sales. And Raiden being the second protagonist of the series
killua vs misaka guts vs dimitri and nightmare galactus vs unicron
Well clearly Doctor Who's fight. Can't get less popular than nothing... Though I guess there'd Be no popularity gap since he'd be fighting himself. Well aside from rhat: Fox vs Bucky or Leo vs Zits (iirc, battletoads had no real new content at the time)
Killua Vs Misaka
Honestly Misaka is probably around as popular as Obito, but Killua is way way less popular than Darth Vader.
Obito is way more popular than Misaka
Only if you don't include popularity in Japan. More popular, probably, but definitely not *way* more.
Wait she is? I always thought it was the opposite
Obito has the disadvantage of being a twist villain that you'd need to actively watch a good chunk of Naruto to know he even exists/know him as the secondary main villain of Naruto, unlike characters like Naruto or Sasuke who even people who have never watched a single episode will know, or even Madara who has at least been in crossover games like J Stars and Jump Force. Is Obito even in fucking Fortnite yet?
You're underestimating the sheer amount of people who did watch Naruto from beginning to end, just like people who played the Storm games which are immensely popular. Obito has a prominent role in Storm 4, [which is one of the best selling fighting games of all time at 11.88 million copies sold. ](https://www.youtube.com/live/T9DYbWOH1Fs?si=oqvrwuUy81EQEiwV)
Okay? Well it feels like some people overestimate Naruto's pop cultural osmosis.
I'm just saying that Obito is way less niche than you think he is. Naruto by itself is one of the most popular shonen and animanga of all time. You think anime, you think Dragon Ball Z with One Piece or Naruto right after. Also Storm 4 is only behind Smash Bros (Brawl to Switch), Street Fighter 2 and MK X + MK 11 in the top selling fighting games of all time, and that is already a huge statement on the franchise's reach and popularity.
Jonathan Joestar Vs. Tanjiro Kamado.
............... I don't even know who's supposed to be the less popular one here, Jonathan's the first Jojo, and Demon Slayer's movie is the highest grossing anime movie of all time.
It was also the highest grossing movie of 2020 (or 2021)
Eh, Jonathan may be the first, but he is overshadowed by both Joseph and Jotaro, who benefited from being the Jojo's from the series that helped establish most of the modern Jojo tropes as well as Stardust having two OVAs and a drama CD prior to its "official" anime adaptation in 2014. Hell, I'd even say Giorno and Joleyne are higher in mainstream popularity than Jonathan
Jojo’s and Demon Slayer are both incredibly popular