Series Comparison: The Best of the Worst and the Worst of the Worst

 So this is just a fun little blog I felt like making. I wanted to make a comparison between basically the worst tier series I know to find the worst of the worst and the best of the worst.

I say "basically" because technically the very worst series I know, the series I rated it as "1/10" are things I don't really wanna talk about a lot, they're a trio of disgusting MG Rape series that I saw when I was trying to watch all Magical Girl Series, and I stopped purely to not have to watch more series like them. So these series are the 2/10 series that are "basically" the worst series I've seen, they're the worst that people were actually expected to take on some level, seriously.

I wanted to do this in part because I noticed that I had 8 series I had given a 2/10, which happens to make for a very convenient bracket. While some of the things I like are controversial, none of my dislikes I imagine are very controversial. First I'm gonna give the actual list of the series, explaining basically what they are and why they're bad, then actually comparing them

The Bottom 8:

1: 50 Shades of Grey (Film): Easily the most popular of the series on this list which I saw years ago to see what the fuss was about. 50 Shades is a film about a submissive woman forming a sadomasochistic relationship with a wealthy businessman, coming to find out he is more troubled then he seems. It has a worrying depiction of dominance and submission and is rather uncomfortable to watch in that regard.

2: Chick Tracts: Chick Tracts are a series of comics written by a Christian Fundamentalist in the US until his death, promoting a very extreme worldview centered around the Christian Faith. It is poorly produced and evenmore poorly researched about anything but the author's very particular view of Christianity, often insensitive to real world issues. I know a lot of people, myself included, get some enjoyment from Chick Tracts due to the "so bad, it's good" factor, but this is specifically a ranking of sincere enjoyment, not ironic enjoyment.

3: FATAL: FATAL is an RPG system which purports to create a historical/mythologically accurate view of Middle Ages Europe. It is infamous for it's fixation on rape, it's inclusion of sexist game mechanics, and in generally being very poorly made with lots of ridiculous tedious design. 

4: JLA: Created Equal: Created Equal is my most disliked DC Series. It is an Elseworld story where all men (or nigh-all) men suddenly die from cosmic plague in the DC Universe, and how the Heroines and Villainesses of the DC Universe adapt to this problem. It has a rather sexist view of men and women, bad political philosophy, and a rather unpleasent atmosphere.

5: Marville: Marville is my most disliked Marvel Series. It's a series about a kid from the future returning to the past to find how to stop World War Three. It starts as a pretty unfunny parody of the Comics Industry then goes on to being an inane philisophical diatribe all the way maintaining a mean-spirited air towards anyone the writer didn't personally like.

6: Moetan: Moetan is a lolicon fanservice series that purports to teach the viewer English. It also is a Magical Girl "Parody." The Lolicon Fanservice stuff I find pretty gross, and whenever it's not doing that it is just the most mediocre comedy you can imagine, with half-hearted "parody" jabs at the magical girl genre that sound like the person has never actually seen one.

7: Naria Girls: Naria Girls is a CGI Magical Girl Anime with an extremely repetitive plot structure that is my sort of go-to example for 2/10 due to having a little bit wrong in every area. Awful "animation", bad characters, the fact that there literally isn't a script for large parts of the episodes so it's just the voice actresses doing bad improv every single episode.

8: Zettai Junpaku Mahou Shojo: Zettai Junpaku is a 5 minute ecchi anime OVA connected to a much longer doujin series. It's an ecchi fanservice series, but despite that it has some of the most ugly art I've ever seen. It's plot is the most cliche ecchi/hentai plot you can possibly imagine (Girls transform into skimpy Angelic MG and fight tentacle monsters) and it's characterization is downright nonexistent. 

So these are the 8. You're probably noticing some repeated themes of things I don't like. Comparing them is going to be figuring out whose sins or more egregious and who has even the slightest bit I can enjoy. 

So the randomized bracket:

I have not planned what's going to happen. I'm going to go through each matchup one by one, give my thoughts on comparing the series before deciding.

Comparison:

FATAL vs. 50 Shades: FATAL is easily worse. 50 Shades' characterization is pretty bad, and it's messages regarding dominance/submission are troublesome but there's no way it was going to match FATAL in sheer tediousness, being a 900 paged guidebook that's far more demeaning by comparison and with far worse messaging. 

Moetan vs. Zettai Junpaku: So this is the battle between the two fanservice Magical Girl Series. It's sort of the difference between active and passive annoyance. Moetan's fanservice is lolicon which automatically makes it more unpleasent to me but particularly if you're comparing to Zettai Junpaku's doujin, it's fanservice is less often (Moetan is 40-50% fanservice scenes I'd estimate compared to Zettai's 70-80%) But what I hate about Zettai isn't even really the fanservice, it's how boring and ugly it is. Moetan can tell a halfway decent joke on occasion, even if often could be much better but also tells jokes that are actively annoying like when it thinks it has anything of note to joke about with the MG "har har, isn't it weird how Magical Girls look the same after transformation?") Would you rather hangout with a dull sadsack or someone constantly trying to get you to laugh at their lame jokes, including ones that are inapporpriate for situation. I'd put Moetan as worse, because I think Moetan also has that element of boring-ness in it and its fanservice is just way more painful.

Chick Tracts vs. JLA: Created Equal: So once again, this is one that's hard to compare just due to sheer length. Chick Tracts can vary signifigantly in quality, with some actually having an alright message like "The Outcast" which is about how God loves and would forgive everyone, even prostitutes. On the other hand it also has things like a nurse telling people with AIDS that it's their fault for being gay and being treated as right or saying people with mental problems don't need a therapist or a psyciatrist, they just need to pray to Jesus. Created Equal doesn't reach the same depths of insanity in it's two extended issues, only ever sinking to the level of bad gender politics like seeming to think male=capitalism female=socialism. But it never rises to anything either. And it really disappoints me because I usually really like the plots where it's just the female characters for a bit; a DC story where all men suddenly disappear and the Heroines have to maintain order on Earth while figuring out what happened is something I'd love to read. I think Created Equal is closer to some semblance of reality, and also has better artwork by a wide margin, but at the same time it's a lot more personally disappointing to me. This is actually kind of a hard one as it's hard to fully remove all degrees of so bad it's good enjoyment for Chick Tracts. For instance, the Grim Reaper is one of the few mildly good characters in Chick Tracts for his goofy introduction "Hi There!" but is my mild enjoyment of him sincere? Chick Tracts could easily be top of the 2/10 or bottom of the 2/10, which I imagine anyone who's read them probably understands. It has easily in this list the biggest casual detachment from reality, but also sometimes actual moments of sweetness. On the other hand Created Equal is...a lot of people give it a really middling review, I get the feeling some would be shocked I'd put it below something like Countdown. It just is a combination of personal annoyanced mixed with a sexism I think it's strange people don't bring up. Most people seem to view it as pretty unassuming. If I had to read one right now it'd be Created Equal because it's so much shorter but if I had to pick one of the two as the only thing I could read from then on, it'd be Chick Tracts for what little good I can extract from it. If I had to pick though I'd probably put Created Equal as better just because...I know that there are a lot of obvious problems with Chick Tracts but there's also subtler artistic problems people don't talk about. Even in the "good" strips like "Unloved", it's really slow, it just repeats over and over that the main character is unloved by his family and just pound this point home. Chick Tracts obviously lack subtlety with their message, but it just generally lacks subtlety. Created Equal for all its faults isn't THAT on the nose with everything and it definitely isn't slow, it's only 2 issues and covers a fair deal. 

Naria Girls vs. Marville: These are both pretty solidly down there. They're both really inept on a technical level. Marville has one issue where they just flat out forgot the speech bubbles and the art is consistently bad. Naria Girls on the other hand has absolutely awful 3D animation, and relatively long unscripted bits that are just tedious. On Marville's side I can say it does try to express a positive message, although its execution is often flawed, it can't construct a good argument for the message of peace it wants to convey, and it's VERY sanctimonous about it. On the other hand Naria Girls is insubstantial to the Nth degree. Marville will infuriate the reasoning human for its absolute nonsense, but Naria Girls will mostly bore, and occassionally annoy. On the other hand while Marville undoubtably has a more positive "message", Naria Girls is undoubtably more positive in its execution. In spite of its own nonsensical decisions, Naria Girls has the artificial air of a product made by company and comittee including ironically the improv sections, while Marville is a spoiled creator's personal diatribe. But while the latter is more personal, it is also mean-spirited, attacking everyone the creator doesn't like including many who very much don't deserve it. Naria Girls in contrast, if only to avoid risk of offending, has a slightly pleasent atmosphere. It also rips off the ending of the first season of Sailor Moon's anime from the 90s. Between the two I would easily say Marville is worse, Naria Girls is mostly painfully unfunny comedy and terrible animation. Marville's ambitions far beyond the creator's aim makes it more painful, especially with the final issue of the narrative, which is the author bitterly lamenting self-righteously that no one bought his comics despite his "important message." In contrast Naria Girls' ending is the best part as it again it basically just ripped off a far superior series.

Best of the Worst Semi-Finals:

50 Shades vs. Zettai Junpaku: This is an interesting comparison because it's essentially a comparison between a core concept I disdain vs an execution I disdain. 50 Shades has a reprehensible message, but the presentation at least of the film I saw was perfectly fine, things like acting and cinematography were perfectly fine. The characters have clear personalities, the pacing moves at a reasonable rate. What I disliked was primarily the romanticized depiction of abuse masquerading as dominance/submission. In contrast Zettai Junpaku doesn't have any central concept, it doesn't have any ideas or messages it wants to give. It's purely fanservice, and ugly fanservice with characters ranging from boring to mostly boring, mildly annoying. 50 Shades is by far the superior in terms of technical quality, it's not even a question. However does the message taken from it overwhelm that? That said the film version of 50 Shades to my knowledge is much better than the novel, and I can see it. I'd probably say it's actually better if only because take out the bad part of both, 50 Shades' unintentional messaging and Zetta Junpaku's terrible execution and Zetta Junpaku's absolute nothing of a memorable plot, characters, or themes while the film 50 Shades at least has some alright cinematography, the characters feel at least somewhat memorable, there are actual lines of dialogue I can recall. 

JLA: Created Equal vs. Naria Girls: This one is relatively easy. Both are series that parasitically take their best parts from two of my favorie series; DC Comics and Sailor Moon, but Created Equal is immersed in that world while Naria Girls for the most part only barely takes from SM and is worse for it. It's also a million times less technically competent and just generally lacks any sense of scope or importance like Created Equal does, even if semi-incompetently. I can pretty easily tell Naria Girls is somewhere around the mid level for my 2/10s while Created Equal is relatively high for one. Created Equal is definitely better. It's funny because on some ways Created Equal parallels Marville in the comparison with Naria Girls, but Created Equal is more technically competent, less mean-spirited, and a BIT less sanctimonous which is why I would put it above Naria Girls while I wouldn't for Marville. 

Worst of the Worst Semi-Finals:

FATAL vs. Moetan: This is...a painful one. Both of these are truly vile works to me. FATAL seems worse on a lot of levels, its detachment of reality only mirrored in this list by Chick Tracts, its fixation on sexual assault, sheer technical incompetence that may be the highest in this entire list of works etc. Its humor is juvenile to the extreme, when not outright insulting and racist. Compared to what? Moetans humor which is generally tepid to a fault (It's funny she's tripped) and maybe mildly insulting at worst? Not even a comparison. It's an adult that wants to kill armed with a gun fighting a child who wants to kill armed with a toy knife. It's not a fair fight. And I use that comparison for a reason. Moetan has one argument for worse, and to be fair, it's a powerful argument: it's lolicon fanservice. FATAL in all its debauchery discourages sexualization of children, although it does rather grossly still give them an attractiveness score, just with a massive "penalty" for prepubescence. Moetan is about the exaggeration of the childlike qualifies for the benefit of the presumed lolicon audience. Is that worse than anything about FATAL? That's hard to say, but I probably would think FATAL is worse, as it does include at least something of an element in that direction as well as all it's other huge problems over Moetan, including just the fact that it's far longer and more tedious, comparing a 13 episode anime with a 900 page book.

Chick Tracts vs. Marville: This is an amusing contrast as both works are sometimes hateful tracts of individual mens' broken worldviews that invoke religion, the two would hate each other. Marville's desire that we should all give up all conflict so we have sex and make world peace would be Jack Chick's personal nightmare where all have given into the demonic conspiracy to promote lust and keep people from resisting the new world order of the Antichrist along with making a false god their odl. On the other hand Chick Tract's paranoia would be seen by Marville's as an extension of humanity's lower self, not realizing we are all part of the same human "family." Both series are hopelessly deluded though for it's relative insanity like talking Jewish dinosaurs, Marville is actually signifigantly closer to reality than Chick Tracts. But I kind of hate it more for that reason. Chick Tracts clearly came from the mind of a deluded and propogandized mind, while Marville seems to come from the mind of someone ignorant and lazy, who just didn't bother to look up the information. Chick Tracts for its insanity is nothing but consistent in its presentation, it's goal, it's atmosphere. God wants you, this world is a dark conspiracy of demons that manifest in things Jack Chick thought were "evil" like Halloween and Dungeons and Dragons. Marville is internally inconsistent, starting as unfunny parody, and then trying to philosophize, going back and forth on character motives, what it's trying to teach, it's atmosphere. For all the professional production values Marville has, not only is it less technically competent, it's clear its writer put way less thought into what he was writing than the writer of Chick Tracts put into his. Plus Marville feels so mean throughout, while for all the unintentional bleakness of Chick Tracts and the dark atmosphere, it actually is trying to give a message of hope, and it feels it with every issue ending with talking about Salvation. Regardless of how misguided it is, I prefer Chick Tracts. 

Best of the Worst Finals:

50 Shades vs. JLA: Created Equal: Both works that I don't like the message they try to convey, both generally fine in execution. I kinda feel like I should give it to 50 Shades at first, just because its execution is signifigantly better being shot by competent directors, but on the other hand I feel like Created Equal is a lot more ambitious and actually hits some of its ambitions. Maybe just because I like the genre more, but I definitely feel I would prefer to reread Created Equal to rewatching 50 Shades. Created Equal is more overt with its poor messaging than 50 Shades, with at one point the villian telling a bunch of boys born to the new female world that womens' upbrining have removed their competitive drive which is the basis of the greatness of capitalism but that makes it more laughable. 50 Shades isn't that realistic, but its depiction of emotional abuse, toned down as it is from the book, still makes me uncomfortable in a way that the depiction in Created Equal, even insulting as that was, didn't. I would probably say JLA: Created Equal is my favorite of the worst series.

Worst of the Worst Finals:

FATAL vs. Marville: I will say if you don't count author statements, there's nothing in FATAL that is as morally self-righteous as Marville's final issue. Marville's final issue has an element of pissiniess that FATAL never reaches as much as FATAL irreverently wants its perverted audience to like it, and join in its horrendous misogynist world. FATAL is also definitely nowhere near as naval-gazing as Marville, it never tries its hand at philosophy, much as it's convinced of its own "scientific and history accuracy" said with the biggest air quotes you can imagine. However Marville for all its faults, is optimistic about people, even to a comical fault, acting like everyone can easily just get along if they wanted. FATAL suggested that 50% of young males in a setting supposed to be accurate to the Middle Ages had participated in at least one gang rape. It is a setting that seems to detest humanity, women especially. Its far longer and more tedious than Marville, its humor is just as infantile and nonsensical but contains racist and sexist elements unknown to Marville. I would say FATAL is the worst of the worst here. And to be honest, now typing it I am surprised it wasn't clearer earlier. There seems to be three things that  really provoke a negative emotion from me:

1: Poorly Implemented Sexual Themes, particulally Sexual Assault

2: Sexism

3: Moral messages I view as immoral or detached from reality

and FATAL is the only work here that has all three, and moreover has all 3 in spades. It's the most nuanced in terms of badness, being bad in myriad ways, encompassing most of the serious faults of all the other works here outside the moral pretentiousness of the three comic series and the lolicon element of Moetan. 

So after thinking about all these works and comparing them so much I'd probably rank them in the following order:

JLA: Created Equal

50 Shades of Gray

Zetta Junpaku

Naria Girls (Dead Center of the 2/10s)

Chick Tracts (Position varies, could be as high as the top, and possibly as low as the bottom, though I think FATAL may be worse than Chick Tracts even at its worst)

Marville

Moetan

FATAL

With the one position that I'm still not certain being Marville vs Moetan. I hesistate to put anything below the grossness of Lolicon Fanservice, but Marville certainly is bad in myriad more ways.

I can't make these for most ratings. 1/10 I have only listed 3 pieces of media overall and 10/10 I have only listed 4 pieces of media plus the ranking is already pretty clear to me for both. For anything between 3/10 and 8/10, there's probably too many pieces of media I have ranked to do something like this, though maybe 3/10 and 8/10 would be possible. I could definitely see doing this for 9/10s, where there's enough to do this but not to many (about a dozen). If you liked this blog feel free to tell me and I can do 9/10.