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7 of the Worst Sore Losers

by Lynzee Loveridge,

Losing gracefully and admitting defeat is a skill and some characters, especially villains, aren't particularly good at it. It's never the losers fault that they didn't succeed. Blame is either passed around to the nearest person, or worse, the loser seeks revenge against whomever bested them. Planets are destroyed, children are threatened, and passive-aggressive swimmers blow up friendships all in the name of a friendly competition.

7. Asuka Langley Sohryu (Evangelion) You can blame much of Asuka's attitude as conditioning from being a child prodigy and a upbringing that would given Sigmund Freud a headache. The teen is highly competitive with Shinji, whom she sees as a "golden boy" and Rei, whose personality freaks her out. For her, being rescued by either Shinji or Rei is a "loss" or a debt to be repaid. After a series of losses against the angels and a rescue by Rei, Asuka becomes more and more frustrated before giving into catatonia.






6. Don Krieg (One Piece) The gold-suited Pirate leader rules over his subordinates with an iron fist with no discernible redeeming attributes. He's full of himself, humorless, and lacks any sympathy for anyone. His obsession with winning and bad attitude leaves him incapable of accepting defeat. When Luffy roundly defeated him and Krieg suffered major injuries he lost all of his cool and demanded a rematch despite being under no condition to fight.






5. Beerus (Dragon Ball Z) Beerus is the God of Destruction, a title you don't get without a world-class temper. His temper isn't limited to reasonable circumstances, though. Beerus gets mad about pudding and children's games. The latter really showed his poor-sport behavior when he decided to play Hide-and-Seek with King Kai on his planet. He summarily lost the game and took out his frustration on King Kai's whole planet by blowing the whole thing up.






4. Love Machine (Summer Wars) Its namesake gives away the artificial intelligence's identity as a machine, but the "love" part is a huge misnomer. Originally developed as a test for the U.S. military, the A.I. turns the virtual world of OZ into his own avatar feeding ground. When Natsuki confronts him in a wagering game and manages to win, Love Machine doesn't take his defeat gracefully. Instead of disappearing into the vast web, it instead lashes out by redirecting a satellite to crash into Natsuki and her family's home.






3. Flare Corona (Fairy Tail) The hair-obsessed mage manages to both lose and win in the most ungraceful way possible. While facing off against Lucy, Flare becomes extremely agitated when she realizes that losing is an actual option and decides to take a hostage instead. She uses her hair as a weapon to threaten six-year-old Asuka Connel until Lucy surrenders. When she complies, Flare threatens to strip her in front of the audience.






2. Rin Matsuoka (Free!) Rin's inability to productively accept Haruka's past win a swim match completely altered their relationship and goals as teens. The former best friends had a race when Rin returned from Australia where he had been practicing fervently to reach his Olympic goals. Haruka, however, bests him. While a more mature athlete would have accepted this defeat as a learning opportunity, Rin nuked his relationship with his childhood friend. Haruka was equally hurt and despite his massive talent, he swore off competitive swimming after Rin's reaction to losing. This in turn causes Rin to further hold a grudge at Haruka for quitting.






1. Toru Nanamine (Bakuman.) Nanamine has the art chops but lacks originality. Even worse for any writer or aspriing mangaka is Nanamine's inability to self-edit or take advice from his more experienced peers. Overly confident in his own abilities and those of the 50 some odd online editors he enlists to create his manga, his work crashes. He refuses to admit defeat, and instead lies to those involved about how well the series is doing. Despite his continued manipulations, his manga (and his next one) are cancelled and Nanamine finds himself banned from Shonen Jump.






The new poll: Spring season is over! Which show was the best this season?

The old poll: Last week we asked which male anime character's home-cooking do you want to eat the most. Here's the top 20 results!

  1. Sanji (One Piece) 15.9%
  2. Sōma Yukihira (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) 15.1%
  3. Sebastian Michaelis (Black Butler) 8.9%
  4. Kimihiro Watanuki (xxxHOLiC) 7.0%
  5. Ryūji Takasu (Toradora!) 6.4%
  6. Rin Okumura (Blue Exorcist) 6.0%
  7. Polar Bear (Polar Bear's Café) 5.2%
  8. Brock (Pokémon) 4.4%
  9. Azuma Kazuma (Yakitate!! Japan) 4.2%
  10. Shirō Emiya (Fate/stay night) 3.6%
  11. Raku Ichijō (Nisekoi) 2.5%
  12. Komatsu (Toriko) 2.5%
  13. Akio Furukawa (Clannad) 2.2%
  14. Kagami Taiga (Kuroko's Basketball) 1.8%
  15. Jun Satō (Working!!) 1.6%
  16. Siegfried Kircheis (Legend of the Galactic Heroes) 1.6%
  17. Yūya (Nukoduke!) 1.2%
  18. Furio (Ristorante Paradiso) 1.1%
  19. Takumi Aldini (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) 1.2%
  20. Yūsuke Ono (Antique Bakery) 1.2%
  21. Lelouch vi Britannia (Code Geass) 0.9%


When she isn't compiling lists of tropes, topics, and characters, Lynzee works as the Interest Editor for Anime News Network and posts pictures of her son on Twitter @ANN_Lynzee.

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