#rewind rumble

This month’s episodes:

Nexus Battle

Bane vs Rhino (Batman: Vengeance of Bane vs The Amazing Spider-Man)

Release Date: 1st of April

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Wt0RYXEYKj4

Mini-review: I can’t tell if the chainscaling is an April Fool’s gag or not, but if it is it’s a well done gag, getting both of them to universal despite mainly being the villains of street level superheroes. The voice filters need more tweaking, and the fight animation could have probably been sped up in areas, but on the whole this was a pretty good episode by this show’s standards.

Debate Club

Rin Itoshi vs Super Creek (Blue Lock vs Umamusume)

Release Date: 1st of April

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gGTo9nxZRNI 

Mini-review: Absolutely an April Fool’s episode, and it shows. A random matchup whose only connection is sports media aces, and the animation that absolutely lives up to the, ahem, theme of the episode, this was absolutely hilarious.

Death Battle

Bakugo vs Reze (My Hero Academia vs Chainsaw Man)

Release Date: 5th of April

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RcaAXvAAWbo 

Mini-review: Uh yeah it was pretty neat. The MU only has one basic connection, and as a result it didn’t feel like the analyses could really tie into each other well, but they were otherwise pretty good. The fight itself was pretty good and flashy, and was well paced. I do gotta question one scene where Reze kills two random citizens, though - it seemed nonsensical since she seemingly already healed off of biting Bakugo. The conclusion was as expected, doing its best to make the matchup seem fairer than it really is.

Can you believe we got a matchup over a Twitter slander war?

Rewind Rumble

Red Hulk vs Knuckles (Marvel Cinematic Universe vs Sonic the Hedgehog (film))

Release Date: 8th of April

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nUb2-vX0oys 

Mini-review: Uh yeah it’s fine. The analyses did a fine job running over these characters with simplistic abilities (especially relative to their primary counterparts, a comics character and a videogame character). The fight wasn’t anything special, but I did like how they did something with the fight mainly taking place in two static locations by making terrain damage slowly stack up over the course of the fight. The conclusion seemed extremely clearcut, though I don’t like how they didn’t actually give any numbers for strength of speed, just broad categories. Like, without spoiling the winner, both were put at continental ap as a high end, but of the commonly accepted range for continental, the range can be as large as 5.8 times, and who has which end of that could be huge (oh, and it’d be good for checking the math they used to reach that conclusion as well).

Nebula Theatre

Subaru vs Kauma (Re:Zero vs Konosuba)

Release Date: 10th of April

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kH_XA_aKjs4 

Mini-review: The analyses were fine, quite long but they kind of looked like they needed to be with how much both characters had, since despite the name it’s more of a 2v2 fight, and both had a long list of magic and spells. The fight was chaotic and frenzied, with a lot of fun mixing of abilities thrown in. That being said, I feel like there really wasn’t much debate behind this, well, debate, and the winner was ultimately something that I saw coming a mile away just from this episode.

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Some vs show fundraisers

Triple F (episode 3 pre-fight intro cinematic): https://ko-fi.com/triplef - currently at 89% of its $6,000 goal

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Most recent episodes of ongoing vs shows:

Triple F: https://youtu.be/lQT3jazYrMA - Starfire vs Blaze (26 Apr 2025)

Sprite Fight: https://youtu.be/Xtb0dC-qIaI - Gru vs Megamind (29 Jun 2025)

NOT-Death Battle: https://youtu.be/14uhKcEn53U - Doctor Manhattan vs Richard Nixon (Monument Mythos) (23 Aug 2025)

Nebula Theatre: https://youtu.be/rEy_O3FBBUU - Chara vs Lord X (31 Oct 2025)

Fictional Characters Collide: https://youtu.be/qzTkOd1W0Ls - Monkey D. Luffy vs Natsu Dragneel (25 Dec 2025)

Character Clash: https://youtu.be/TbmNc2zkWUw - Mewtwo vs Black Wargreymon (10 Jan 2026)

Fan Battle: https://youtu.be/ek095f6eHco - Superman vs the Scarlet King (11 Jan 2026)

Cartoon Fight Club: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PdauOQCRK3A - Marigi vs Shadic (20 Feb 2026)

Rewind Rumble: https://youtube.com/watch?v=a8Q-bk8DWzI - Dio Over Heaven vs Arceus (20 Feb 2026)

Realm of Gods: https://youtu.be/vVH8np-jEik - Springtrap vs Junko (27 Feb 2026)

Fan War!!!: https://youtu.be/qGX-UUOYuWI - Thanos vs Doomsday (1 Mar 2026)

Nexus Battle: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Wt0RYXEYKj4 - Bane vs Rhino (1 Apr 2026)

Debate Club: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gGTo9nxZRNI - Rin Itoshi vs Super Creek (1 Apr 2026)

Death Battle!: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RcaAXvAAWbo - Bakugo vs Reze (5 Apr 2026)

Rewind Rumble: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nUb2-vX0oys - Red Hulk vs Knuckles (8 Apr 2026)

This month’s episodes:

Death Battle

Ichigo vs Yusuke (Bleach vs Yu Yu Hakusho

Release Date: February 8th

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=oZ3ET4NYxsw 

Mini-review: A pretty standard episode of Death Battle. Good, but not outstanding. Feels lackluster only because last year’s line-up was outstanding. The analysis portions for each character was a fine blend between story and vs information, but outside of slick editing wasn’t outstanding. The fight animation was a pretty nice sprite fight with a good flow that tours through their worlds - but once again, isn’t outstanding. The conclusion was a pretty concise and very clear-cut dive into who won and why. So yeah, pretty good.

Cartoon Fight Club

Marigi vs Shadow (Battle of Sprites vs Sonic: Nazo Unleashed)

Release Date: February 20th

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PdauOQCRK3A 

Mini-review: While we got some stats shared for Shadic, the actual analysis part of the analysis was pretty barebones (no stats for Marigi, and no abilities beyond generally mentioning Hyper Shadic for Shadic), which makes that aspect of it feel very lacking. That being said, the actual animation was pretty nice, coming across as the action packed sprite fights that you’ve probably seen randomly scattered across the web (I’m saying that in a good way, not a sarcastic way). So overall I’d say pretty decent.

Rewind Rumble

Dio Over Heaven vs Arceus (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure vs Pokemon)

Release Date: February 20th

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=a8Q-bk8DWzI 

Mini-review: The analyses and conclusions sport a lot of editing flubs, primarily outtakes that aren’t removed and arguments and points being repeated multiple times in a row, the guest host even says the wrong show name in the intro. And that conclusion really struggles to explain why the fight is so one sided, taking quite a while to actually get to that point. The fight itself is decent, but I’m really not a fan of the Arceus VA for this, especially when Dio often isn’t voiced at all (and I have a mild suspicion that what is voiced is just re-used voice clips, though I can’t confirm without speaking Japanese).

Realm of Gods

Springtrap vs Junko Enoshima (Five Nights at Freddy’s vs Danganronpa)

Release Date: 27th of February

Link: https://youtu.be/vVH8np-jEik 

Mini-review: This really didn’t seem like a close fight, it just seems like the winning character not only took every single meaningful advantage, but hard countered everything the loser could bring to the table. That being said, the analysis portion did a good job at highlighting the connections these characters had, and the animation sequence did a fine job showcasing their varied abilities, even if the kill seemed to contradict their conclusion (I’d get into why if it didn’t spoil the winner, for obvious reasons).

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Some VS Shows I missed last month:

Character Clash

Mewtwo vs Black Wargreymon (Pokemon vs Digimon)

Release Date: 10th of January, 2026

Link: https://youtu.be/TbmNc2zkWUw 

Mini-review: Thanks, YouTube. So glad I can rely on your subscription system to put the videos I subscribed into my subscription box. I’ve taken some measures to better catch future episodes going up, so hopefully this shouldn’t happen again.

As for the actual review, it was alright - the analyses were fine, and did get into what connections these two characters had. Though it did make it pretty obvious who was going to win. The animation felt a bit sluggish, unfortunately, and they really didn’t do much at all with the various powers these two characters had. I did like the bit about the fight transitioning to Cerulean City, though, that was pretty funny.

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Some vs show fundraisers

Triple F (episode 3 pre-fight intro cinematic): https://ko-fi.com/triplef - currently at 85% of its $6,000 goal

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Most recent episodes of ongoing vs shows:

(Any vs show before 2025 is excluded unless there is evidence from 2026 that they’re still being continued)

Triple F: https://youtu.be/lQT3jazYrMA - Starfire vs Blaze (26 Apr 2025)

NOT-Death Battle: https://youtu.be/14uhKcEn53U - Doctor Manhattan vs Richard Nixon (Monument Mythos) (23 Aug 2025)

Fan War!!!: https://youtu.be/d2H5QFiXHPk - Son Goku vs Sailor Moon (4 Oct 2025)

Nebula Theatre: https://youtu.be/rEy_O3FBBUU - Chara vs Lord X (31 Oct 2025)

Nexus Battles: https://youtu.be/C_1Ic3vWUBw - Catrat vs Garfield (9 Nov 2025)

Fictional Characters Collide: https://youtu.be/qzTkOd1W0Ls - Monkey D. Luffy vs Natsu Dragneel (25 Dec 2025)

Debate Club: https://youtu.be/CcIUzCkGnaM - Plants vs Monkeys (3 Jan 2026)

Character Clash: https://youtu.be/TbmNc2zkWUw - Mewtwo vs Black Wargreymon (10 Jan 2026)

Fan Battle: https://youtu.be/ek095f6eHco - Superman vs the Scarlet King (11 Jan 2026)

Death Battle: https://youtube.com/watch?v=oZ3ET4NYxsw - Ichigo vs Yusuke (8 Feb 2026)

Cartoon Fight Club: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PdauOQCRK3A - Marigi vs Shadic (20 Feb 2026)

Rewind Rumble: https://youtube.com/watch?v=a8Q-bk8DWzI - Dio Over Heaven vs Arceus (20 Feb 2026)

Fan Battle

Ness vs. Frisk (Earthbound vs. Undertale)

Release date: 11th of May

Link: https://youtu.be/373NNpmG5QI

Mini-review: The rebrand is great, keeps the origin obvious while also being just a tad more distinct. Not sure about the result overall, but it’s mostly fine (only real area of contention is the way they composited Ness’s endgame power between the game and the manga, but that wouldn’t change the result). Please get a narrator though, the on-text narration would be a lot better with a narrator complementing it.

Death Battle

Simon the Digger vs. Kyle Rayner (Gurren Lagann vs. White Lantern)

Release date: 25th of May

Link: https://youtu.be/5-M9tCRCKpw

Mini-review: The fight animation is absolutely incredible, though once I realised most of Simon’s dialogue was just quotes from his show it showed that the fight narrative was a bit lacking. The animation still definitely made up for it, though. I feel the conclusion is the weakest part, trying to abstract the categories to decide the winner, and ultimately relied on an unsubstantiated claim to justify their decision on who wins when there was another, far simpler argument to make for the same conclusion.

Vs Shows with no episode this month but that I wanted to mention since it’s the first recap:

Character Clash

Perfect Cell vs. Metal Sonic (Dragon Ball vs. Sonic the Hedgehog)

Release date: 15th of February, 2025

Link: https://youtu.be/cpbwaYYRlL4

Mini-review: The show’s first episode is very charming, and they’ve already figured out a good dynamic between the three character hosts off the bat. The fight animation itself is rather so-so, but suffers from major characterisation issues for Metal Sonic, often making him throw out quotes that probably sounded cool on paper, but lack in execution. And, while many of the categories made sense, some of the arguments made are, frankly, absurd. I’d go into detail if it didn’t spoil who won. Their first episode, while rough, is a solid start to the show, and I hope they manage to get to their 2nd episode soon.

Rewind Rumble

Yang vs. Sakura (RWBY vs. Naruto)

Release date: 5th of March, 2025

Link: https://youtu.be/MHhCt7uZ59Y

Mini-review: Horrendous audio mixing, every voice was either too loud or too quiet, and I had to constantly adjust my volume for that. To the point where I don’t really know what any of the arguments or stats were due to this issue. The animation itself was also struggling, frequently including either strange pacing or moments that just felt visually cheap (most evocative when they presented Sakura rushing in by just using a still image and making said still larger). Needs better audio mixing, and a more succinct balance of animation budget (a shorter fight under the same budget could probably help with many of the issues I had with it).

NOT-Death Battle

Fulgore vs. Sektor 2 (Killer Instinct vs. Mortal Kombat)

Release date: 17th of March, 2025

Link: https://youtu.be/5bPbS1CsSic

Mini-review: as the only parody vs show mentioned, this one is the funniest, with a great running gag that I’d talk about if it didn’t spoil the victor. And it’s not just the running gag, there’s individual jokes like correcting references to other franchises with what the actual move’s name is. And the fight animation perfectly fits the humour, the fight narrative reinforcing the running gag (and the jank of the episode perfectly fitting the humour).

Cartoon Fight Club

Charlie and Pim vs. Mordecai and Rigby (Smiling Friends vs. Regular Show)

Release date: 22nd of March, 2025

Link: https://youtu.be/pMD5Bs-KwZ0

Mini-review: The animation was fine, but they used voice clips from the show. Normally, this would be fine, but they kept re-using the exact same voice clips repeatedly, and it got distracting rather quickly. In addition, despite being a 2v2 fight, almost all of the animation was of two separate 1v1 fights happening independently of each other (followed by another two 1v1s with swapped opponents, seemingly to try and address this). It also really didn’t make much use of specific abilities from the characters, like Charlie’s armour or Mordecai & Rigby’s Death Kwon Do. The conclusion felt a little disjointed, taking a while to dig into characters’ stats before ending with a discussion about consistency.

Triple F (Fiery Fan Fights)

Starfire vs. Blaze (DC vs. Sonic the Hedgehog)

Release date: 26th of April, 2025

Link: https://youtu.be/lQT3jazYrMA