Top 10 Humiliating Anime Fights (ft. Todd Haberkorn)

“Monster Rancher” (1999-2001)
This was the day the food chain got flipped. A swindler by nature, Hare was a fluffy charmer who managed to cheat Genki and the rest before his moral compass got adjusted and he became a permanent party member. Of course, the biggest trick this rabbit managed to pull was during a coliseum battle against the feral beast Tiger, wherein he pretended to be weak and pathetic…only to dish out a sucker punch as soon as the edgey dog’s back was turned. You can see how their rivalry blossomed from there.

“Pokemon” (1997-)
If you’re gonna cheat, at least do it right. During the Alola league tournament, the mischevious Faba used his Hypno’s psychic trickery to make Ash fight with the adorable Meltan instead of his prized Pikachu… but it didn’t get him very far. Turns out that a metal pendulum wielding pokemon’s greatest weakness is a metal eating pokemon – as was proved when Ash wrapped this one up in just a couple of minutes. A loss is a loss, but Faba totally set himself up for this one, yikes.

"Naruto" (2002-07)
Probably not one of the legendary battles that the future Seventh Hokage will want passed down for generations to come. After all, he didn't outright best the dog lover with skill alone. He managed to overload his sense of smell by letting one rip. Sure, the proceeding beatdown was decent, but he still only got the chance to dish out the pain because he straight up farted in front of his peers. It's hard to recover from full on fox flatulence to the face!

“Hinomaru Sumo” (2018)
This might be the greatest example of showing up a bully while simultaneously establishing yourself as the de facto badass on the block. In order to get back the Sumo Club’s digs, Hinomaru challenges the cocky Yuma to a rather unconventional battle – he can punch the crap out of the short-stack for ten minutes without fear of retaliation, but if the National Treasure doesn’t budge, he loses. As it happens, the fiery sumo fanatic brushes off each punch like its nothing for the full time limit, all before demonstrating his true strength by knocking Yuma flat with a single charge. Dude pounded him so badly his alignment took a full 180!

"My Hero Academia" (2016-)
The turbo-charged class president may have won the battle, but's very clear that his dignity took a hell of a beating when he took on the likes of this adorable inventor. Thanks to her innumerable amount of gadgets, Hatsume essentially turned Iida into an involuntary prop, all to show off the capabilities of her precious babies just in case any investors may be watching. He doesn't even knock her out of the ring, she just gives up after exhausting her supply of gadgets. Pretty sure he still hasn't lived this down.

“JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders” (2014-15)
Granted, you can’t really blame this old bat for wanting to kill everyone’s favourite Frenchman since he did slice up her son. Sure, he was a sadistic woman killer who had killed Polnareff’s sister, but that’s neither here nor there. After getting Polnareff isolated and ensnared by her Stand, Enya not only managed to punch his body full of holes, but also went to great lengths to make his stay at her hotel an utter nightmare by dragging his tongue across a toilet. Nothing beats a good spit shine!

"Persona 4: The Animation (2011-12)
Coming face-to-face with your shadow is always a rough experience for the team, but for Kanji? It was a nightmare scenario, purely for the fact that in his mind it would shatter the illusion of his hard-man guise. Unluckily for him, his shadow self is pretty much the epitome of flamboyance and campiness, albeit with a depressing edge to it given its desperation to be accepted. While everyone else is getting beaten down by burly, muscular, half naked monsters, Kanji is forced to drop his oh so fragile pride and accept that, yeah, he's multi-layered. It's an amazing example of character growth, but also probably the most cringe-inducing moment in Kanji's young life...

“One Punch Man” (2015-)
Put the world’s strongest hero against the cockiest martial artist this side of Kung Pow and what do you get? The shattering of Suriyu’s pride. And most of his body courtesy of an indestructible hip swing. Finding himself wrapped up in a tournament, Saitama inadvertently lands himself a spot in the finals against the talented but oh so arrogant Void Fist user. As expected, despite some rather slick moves, all Suriyu’s attacks end up moot, leaving him vulnerable to the wrath of Saitama’s fabled booty shake.

“Dragon Ball Z” (1989-96)
Yeah, Hercule and embarrassment kinda go hand in hand, but it’s a wonder how this one didn’t end his whole damn career. In the world martial arts tournament, the champ has to face off against the Junior league’s winner in an exhibition match… Only, he’s already seen how powerful Trunks is and believes his only way out of the situation is to make it look like he let the little kid win. It didn’t do him much good, because the ‘free punch’ he let him have conjured up flashbacks of his battle with Cell.

“Dr. Stone” (2019-)
You just don’t mess with the power of science, folks. In the tournament to claim both the position of village chief and Ruri’s hand in marriage, the self-proclaimed sorcerer Chrome faced off against the tough as nails jerk, Magma, who practically crushed him into paste. Of course, when brains meets brawn, you’ve got to use a little tactics, and Chrome’s answer to this was to set the meathead’s clothes on fire using the power of the sun! well, that and then hitting the lowest of blows. Science, people!