Series Comparison: Comparing the Legendary Series

Followup to a prior blog I made recently, where I ranked the pieces of media I ranked 2/10. I mentioned doing 1/10 and 10/10 would be difficult because there's so few items in them and doing 3/10 through 8/10 would be difficult because there's so many items, but I could do 9/10 because there's a reasonable 12 items in it. So that's what this blog is.

In general from the center I have observed, each rating seems to be 1/5th as rare, meaning that there is 1 7/10 for 5 6/10, 1 8/10 for each 7/10 and consequently by statistics you'd think there'd be 1 9/10 series in 312 which honestly seems generous. What I intend to say with his, is this is a tier that is extremely rare, and the things in it are all absolutely precious to me. 9/10 is the level of quality most good series get to at their absolute peak and for these series that is simply the norm. Each has impacted me dramatically, showing me a desire and a way to enjoy life and fiction I had not previously known. Each one has a spirit I love. So when I talk about the faults of any of them, know that it is only relative. 

Because this is a list of good series, this includes two of the most famously great works in world history. I don't mean to say either is worse made than the other works on the list, this is just the level of my personal enjoyment. Also I have a personal affinity to a few franchises who have a few series here, apologies. Of the 12 series here, three franchises (DC Comics, Saint Seiya, and Cardcaptor Sakura) collectively make up 8 of the entries. I'm going to introduce each first, explain why I love them, explain what I don't like about them, and then go into comparison.

The Legendary Dozen:

1: All-Star Superman: All-Star Superman is a 2005 DC elseworld series written by Grant Morrison. It features a plot where Superman finds out he is dying due to overexposure to the Sun, and spends the last year of his life doing everything he wanted to do, the twelve labors of Superman. It was written in the attempt to create a "timeless" Superman story that wasn't his origin. 

2: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a 2016 film directed by Zack Snyder and written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer. The film features Superman and Batman who in this timeline have only recently come to know each other, being manipulated into distrust of each other by the media, circumstance, and Lex Luthor, before the two are reconciled to fight Doomsday.

3: Cardcaptor Sakura (Anime): Cardcaptor Sakura is a 1998 anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by studio Clamp. The series features young Sakura Kinomoto accidentally releasing the "Clow Cards", magical element spirits and going on episodic adventures to collect them as the magical girl Cardcaptor Sakura. 

4: Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga): Cardcaptor Sakura is a 1996 magical girl manga from which the above anime is adapated from. The two have unsurprisingly very similar plots though the manga is less episodic and more focused on the central narrative of Sakura, heir of the great magician Clow Reed, coming into her own as the new greatest magician. 

5: Commedia: The Divine Comedy, originally just titled Commedia, is an epic poem finished in 1320 by Dante Alighieri. The plot features the protagonist Dante going through the three sections of the afterlife Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven to come to understand the nature of sin, virtue, and redemption. The poem is a multi-layed allegory for the redemption of the human soul. 

6: Final Crisis: Final Crisis is a major event comic in the DC Universe written in 2008 written by Grant Morrison. The central plot involves Darkseid, the god of evil, actually winning the war in Heaven against New Genesis by wounded and dying from the fight falling into the multiverse, hoping to destroy it with the heroes of Earth having to fight "the day evil won". The event is a metafictional critique on the darkening nature of DC Comics, and a reconstruction of the idea of the Superhero.

7: Heartcatch PreCure: Heartcatch PreCure is the seventh installment of the long-running Pretty Cure series, released in 2010 directed by Tatsuya Nagamine and written by Takashi Yamada. This season focuses on the heart-flowers, representations of peoples emotions connected to the great tree of hearts. The villains seek to exploit the dark times of people to wilt their heart flowers but they are protected by Pretty Cure. The newest Pretty Cure to protect the heartflowers is Tsubomi who for her lack of technical competence is proclaimed "the weakest pretty cure ever", but nontheless tries to protect people with her wit, will, and the help of her friends. 

8: Julius Caesar: Julius Caesar is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1599. The play is a dramatization of the historical assassination of Julius Caesar. After the roman general returns home from war triumphant, having avoided the Senate's attempts to stop him and with the massess adoring him, some of the Roman politicians plot to assassinate him, including those who were close to Caesar, in the fear he may become a tyrant. 

9: Magicka: Magicka is a video game written in 2011 by Paradox Interactive. The series features a comedic parody world primarily parodying High Fantasy and Norse Mythology. The land of Midgard is "protected" by wizards, chaotic masters of elemental energy often massively destructive in their own right, and features their conflicts mostly among themselves.

10: Saint Seiya (Anime): Saint Seiya is a 1986 anime adaptation of the manga of the same name written by Masami Kurumada.  The series features the Saints of Athena, armored warriors devoted to the Greek Goddess Athena, as they battle to protect her and her ways against threats to the world, usually other mythological figures. 

11: Saint Seiya (The Lost Canvas): The Lost Canvas is a manga running from 2006 to 2011 written by Shiori Teshirogi. The series is a prequel telling of the prior Holy War between Athena and Hades. It features two close orphan boys: Tenma, the next pegasus saint and champion of Athena, and Alone the latest reincarnation of Hades as the two are brought to conflict.

12: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow is a 1986 storyline written by Alan Moore and acts as a send-off to the Silver Age Superman. Pre-Crisis Superman finds that his usually goofier villains have started to become more murderous and dangerous, and begin coordinated assaults on him. He takes refuge in the Fortress of Solitude which the villains lay siege too. The work is taken as an allegory for the contemporary comics period attacking the character of Superman's hope and optimism. 

Why do I love them (AKA listen to me rant about my favorite series I guess)

All-Star Superman: All-Star Superman is truly Superman in a nutshell. It's a presentation of everything great about one of the greatest most iconic characters ever made. Superheroes are the modern mythology, but All-Star Superman truly feels it. It seemlessly mixes mythological concepts and high sci-fi to create a modern demigod. It's a series of vignettes, each iconic and mythic in their own way but also forming a cohesive elegant whole showing Superman fixing and saving the world from events as big as creating universes to events as personal as talking to one person in crisis. 

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Dawn of Justice is a film that somehow to me seems both timely and timeless in this era we live of dehumanization. It's a film exhalting recognition of our shared humanity, something that moves me greatly. It has one of my favorite expressions of what Superman is ever "Maybe he's not a Devil or Jesus figure...maybe he's just a man trying to do the right thing." I love all the allusions and imagery used in the film starting as soon as the very beginning with "diamond absolutes" and I love the themes that this film has such as not letting media or leaders let us forget our shared humanity, isolation and dehumanization, and the importance of parental figures.

Cardcaptor Sakura (Anime): Cardcaptor Sakura the anime has many of positive traits of the manga, it also adds a very wholistic worldview as opposed to the manga which focuses more on Sakura, the anime adds larger sections about Syaoran, Tomoyo, Sakura's friends, and the Card Guardians, many of whom I consider fantastic characters in their own right. 

Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga): The Cardcaptor Sakura manga is one of my most nostalgic works, and may in fact be the first manga I ever read. It's a work that can be understood and enjoyed as a child but which one never grows out of, whose inner depth and maturity continues to be revealed more each time as I read it. It's a wholesome charming world full of innocence and a positive girly spirit, it has deeply evocative magic ranging from the cosmically fantastical to the sweet subtle magic of the mundane. In this way it's one of the most definitive Magical Girl works. It's characters are some of the best and most memorable in the genre being at once fun and subtle, at once human and otherworldy. 

Commedia: The Commedia is in my opinion the least bad work, the most perfect work ever made by humanity. That isn't quite the same as the most good, or the one I enjoyed the most, but it's highly correlated. It's a intricitly multilayered poem about the nature of the divine love and the ability for even the common everyman to redeem himself in the face of the absolute. It has the most powerful imagery and most realized themes we as a species have ever concieved. I adore how Dante merges faith and humanism in the divine redeeming love. 

Final Crisis: Final Crisis to me is what I point to when I think of why I love Superhero series. I love when works connect a whole bunch of differnet things so you can look at it from a million perspectives and Final Crisis endeavors to connect theology, metaphysics, classical philosophy, psychology, and the metafictional state of the comics industry. In what other genre are you gonna get mystery stories about the God of Evil shooting a bullet backwards in time leading to the bullet being found embeded years before it was fired? Grant Morrison connects all the periods of DC's history together in this massive genre-spanning meta treatise and it's just awesome. 

Heartcatch PreCure: It's probably not surprising this is my favorite Pretty Cure, this was the most popular when it came out and might still be though it has more competition these days. Heartcatch is famous for a lot of things; its stylish fashionable aesthetics, how funny it can be (mostly due to Marine), how cool it can be (mostly due to Moonlight), but I especially love how realistic and relatable the problems the people have that the villains try to manipulate to attack their heart flowers, I relate to Tsubomi and her struggles to protect people, I love the cast...really I just love how Heartcatch depicts people in all their failings and triumphs despite that. 

Julius Caesar: Caesar is my favorite of the Bard's plays which while not one of the most well known, is far from his most obscure. Shakespeare's strongest assest in my opinion, his understanding of human psychology, is on best display here backdropped by a classic ethical dilemma. Caesar at its heart to me seems to be about something that I have really seen; the struggle of peers and even friends when placed in a world of dividing politics and social divides. It also has some of, if not the outright best, speeches in Shakespeare's canon. 

Magicka: I am not that much of a gamer tbh, not least of which being I'm pretty bad at most games. I usually like games more for the story as I do with most mediums. However I really do love how Magicka 1 plays, it connects me in a way no other game I've found has through gameplay. Beyond that however I love the silly world of Midgard and even their inhabitants. I loved the story of Magicka 1 even if it wasn't that deep, just for how much fun it was. Even though I didn't like the gameplay changes to Magicka 2, I loved it's story as well and the novel for Magicka, the 9th Element, is WAY better than it has any right to be. I don't think my general escapism drive is very strong relatively speaking but Magicka is what makes me feel most escapist, it's funny world working on parody logic and rule of cool and funny. 

Saint Seiya (Anime): The Saint Seiya anime is really nostalgic for me. I think it took the potential the manga had and really expanded on it, giving all the emotional moments more of an impact by elongating it. I love the gravitas and dignity that everything has in Saint Seiya in general recreating the grandeur of myth. If you compare to other contempory works it's not as comedic and playful as something like DBZ or Bastard!! but more hopeful than things like Fist of the North Star striking for me a nice middle ground of dramatic but idealistic. 

Saint Seiya (The Lost Canvas): For some reason Lost Canvas didn't get that warm a reception in Japan but it's awesome. It contains a lot of similarities to the above in terms of the mythical grandeus and dramatic dignitas of the whole thing. It also has the depiction of Hades/Alone that made him one of my favorite villains, and is full of awesome character moments including the best Cancer Saint Manigoldo and has more varied plots. 

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow: I'm not the biggest fan of the Silver Age of Comics, but I have a real love for the general idea of reconstructing ideas, taking things that seemed silly or strange or irrational in past eras and trying your best to depict them in as best a light you can. I want to like all things, and so I try to cast as favorable light on things as possible. WHTTMOT I think is the absolute best depiction of the Silver Age I know by pitting it against its ultimate enemy, in the same way I like episode 45 of the original Sailor Moon anime, or the genocide route of Undertale. It's beautifully evocative as it is tragic depicting the passing of those silly old times to modern "realism" and gives up just the right glimmer of hope that those ideals remain in disguise.

My faults with them:

Bear in mind I love all these works to pieces so anything I say here is talking in relative terms. This is mostly pieces of the works that are average or just good instead of amazing.

All-Star Superman: This is going to come up for a few things here but All-Star Superman is a bit disconnected for my tastes, it's a series of episodes some being better than others, when I prefer things to feel very cohesive. Also and maybe this is just me but the civilian cast for Superman doesn't do much for me and I don't think All-Star Superman doesn't really improve on that front. Lois gets Superman's powers briefly and doesn't really do much with it (in part cause it's referencing Silver Age stories where that happened a lot) and the Jimmy Olsen issue is probably my least favorite one. 

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: It's weird since I've spent years defending this film from what I believe to be wholly unjustifed arguments against it. Zack Snyder, and I mean this in the best possible way, is sometimes a little boy smashing his action figures together. His work can be a bit much and overdramatic with the dialogue and composition, and he delights in "cool-looking" fight scenes which I mean yeah were cool in theatres but don't really strenghthen the central narrative. I also wished Lex had more contingencies than just the first two plans but that's just me.

Cardcaptor Sakura (Anime): So the CCS anime has some of the faults of the manga below, it also has a few additional. It turns the story into more of a monster of the week plot which is kinda disconnected for me, with some of the cards just being "strong card of the week" to create easy drama. The anime can be notably more repetitive than the manga, particularly in the third season and Meiling is kind of an  abrasive addition.

Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga): While CCS pulls off the light-hearted tone and focus on civilian characters better than any series I know, it is kinda working uphill with me since I tend to like things with a more dramatic focus, and I greatly prefer fantasy series to focus on the fantastical elements. The series is very optimistic about characters which can make the child characters come across as a bit....TOO mature and reasonable for their age. It also has a general problem I have with CLAMP works where you have all these really powerful characters that mostly stand around ominously talking in vague terms about how something or other is a big deal or an important detail, but don't actually do that much. It's good for atmosphere, but it feels a bit wasteful.

Commedia: The Commedia is the most removed from me. As such it contains a long list of historical and cultural references that I can't connect to at all. Dante didn't seem to worry about needing to be timeless, including long sections about very specific people or issues of his time which certainly grounds the poem but can also make it feel distant and hard to connect too for a modern audience. Also due to the nature of the poem a lot of the interesting characters you don't get much time with because they're only present for the single canto they're in.

Final Crisis: A lot of people think Final Crisis is impossibly confusing and tbh I don't really agree. Yes if you want to get it 100% you probably have to be Grant Morrison due to all the abstract and ideas and obscure DC history references, but I'm pretty sure you can get 80% just by carefully reading the thing. That said, the Mandrakk plot is still kind of confusing without reading supplementary material. I don't like how easily Wonder Woman was controlled by the Anti-Life, I don't think she really had an arc like Superman or Batman's and it can be kinda on the nose with its messages. 

Heartcatch PreCure: Heartcatch is still a monster of the week show so it's kinda disconnected and some eps aren't really the greatest. The villains aren't the best; they're fun enough and threatening at times but they're not generally very human. As a show for children it's messages can be rather unsubtle. I also do kinda wish the plot moved more but I recognize that you'd have to remove a lot of the characters really like for that so I guess I wish there was more plot to fill up the eps? It's more like you have this amazing butter and amazing bread but there's just a little bit less butter than you'd want so it's a bit spread thin.

Julius Caesar: Julius Caesar, while it's my favorite, is definitely not the least bad of Shakespeare's plays. It starts out really good, gets amazing and then...sort of drops down to just being good after the conspirators are run out of town. The whole war section doesn't live up to the first three acts. It's also one of the shortest works here which means it doesn't have as long for great moments.

Magicka: The gameplay for Magicka 2 was rebalanced in a way I really didn't like. Made it much harder to be overpowered in single player and way too easy in multiplayer. Also as fun as the world is, there's really barely any themes or characterization. The story is admitted to be an excuse to tell more jokes. The novel has the most characterization and actual story and it's great for it but I wish that went kept up throughout. Also the lava section in Chapter 11 is not that fun.

Saint Seiya (Anime): Some of the arcs of Saint Seiya aren't as good...I love the Sanctuary Arc and the Hades arc. The Black Saints Arc and the Poseidon Arc are both pretty good and the Silver Saints arc is moreso fine. While the anime added more to make the emotional moments feel more impactful, it also added a lot of anime filler that sorta messed with the characters personalities in particular making Shun come across as weaker and needing Ikki to save him all the time, especially if you include the films. I also feel like the series is kind of repetitive doing the same "save Saori" plot over and over.

 Saint Seiya (The Lost Canvas): Leo Regulus is pretty well agreed on to be a Gary Stu for doing all sorts of rule-breaking nonsense. The final fight in original SS was already kinda short and in Lost Canvas it's downright an anti-climax. Some people don't like that TLC arguably contradicts the personalities and motivations of a few characters from original SS, mostly Hades. While it's usually preferred, I do hear some people prefer the canon prequel Episode G over TLC mostly because TLC mostly plays it safely while Episode G is kinda of crazy and all sorts of wacky ideas, which is fair TLC could stand to innovate more. I mean compare the main villain: TLC's "Let's do Hades again but this time as a lonely emo boy" vs. Kronos and Pontus from Episode G. TLC while pretty widely agreed to be well-written is kind of a nice safe SS prequel.

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow: Firstly, it's only 2 issues making it the shortest work on this list so there's a lot less time for things to happen in general. The characters, namely the heroes, do still operate under silver age logic which can be frustrating at times. I also wish the Silver Age characters just did more and got more successes in general. The best points in for me are when Superman and friends manage to strike back against the villains which doesn't happen very often. The work can have a bit of an oppressive feel in terms of how many bad things happen. Also Lex doesn't get to do anything despite being his arch-nemesis even in the Silver Age.

Comparisons:

These comparisons aren't set in stone. How I would compare these series somewhat depends on how I'm feeling at that moment, but there is general trends with some things being vaguely lower in the rating and some being vaguely higher in the rating. This is gonna kill me having to rank anything here lower but I'll do 4 comparisons of 3 to get top and bottom 4, than do 2 more rounds each to find best and worst.

Random Bracket:

Preliminaries:

All-Star Superman vs. Commedia vs. Saint Seiya (Anime): All three works have I think a strong element of classical beauty, one because it is one of the Classics, and two because they actively evoke it. Both also have a strong human element of humanist emotionality that gives me the feels. I think of the three I like All-Star Superman because it's sort of the midpoint balance between the two. While Commedia is a little distant to me due to sheer temporal/cultural distance, and some of Saint Seiya's arcs, especially the anime-exclusive ones don't really reach the classical beauty it aspires towards, I think All-Star Superman really captures both throughout, even tying the two together. Some of it's characters aren't the strongest admittingly but such is as true for the prior two. Commedia has a lot of characters somewhat briefly explored due to Canto structure and Saint Seiya has characters that show up to just be beaten all the time.

Comparing Commedia and Saint Seiya is interesting. The two are 2 of the three longest works on here with Commedia being 100 Cantos long and Saint Seiya being 145 episodes long. Commedia is obviosuly the less flawed work, I consider it the least flawed work humans have ever made. That said Saint Seiya is obviously a lot more personal for me. I think Commedia is more consistent, each third is magnificient. On the other hand Saint Seiya I think has characters I like more. In Commedia the characters I like are Dante and Vergil, and even than not hugely. Compared to Dragon Shiryu and Gemini Saga, characters I love or to Hades...Maybe it's just nostalgia but I probably enjoy Saint Seiya more. If I had too right now I'd probably prefer to rewatch it than re-read Commedia, though that's definitely one I am liable to change with mood. 

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow vs. Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga) vs. Heartcatch Precure: I think WHTTMOT is probably below the other two. I love WHTTMOT but it just doesn't have enough content to have as many amazing moments as CCS or Heartcatch, plus it's something I need to be in a more specific mood for due to it being more generally grim.

CCS (Manga) vs Heartcatch is interesting. It'd be a lot easier to compare the CCS anime to Heartcatch because they are my two favorite magical girl anime, bot being monster of the week type shows for similar audiences. The CCS manga is a bit more plot and main character focused. That's something I prefer about it compared to Heartcatch as it feels more focused. I also think CCS is probably more subtle and generally mature than Heartcatch. On the other hand, Heartcatch is a lot more...for lack of a better word "animated." The characters are all fun and bombastic while CCS's are more mellow and it's funnier. Both are optimistic series but while CCS is a very light airy sort of optimistic Heartcatch is big loud fun, more fiery in temperment. I definitely think my preference would change based on mood. funny enough CCS's villains are complex but unthreatening while Heartcatch's are threatening but uncomplex. Overall I think I would give a slight edge to CCS just for it's nostalgia, and for being a bit more emotionally versatile to me. Heartcatch is kind of like an amazing candy to me, delicious but on some level I don't think I could have only it for anywhere as long as CCS's more complex emotional palette.

Julius Caesar vs. The Lost Canvas vs. Cardcaptor Sakura (Anime): Pretty similar to the last one, I think JC is probably lower than the others just due to being the shortest by far, plus I think the last 40% is not really as good as the rest.

Between the other 2, I really like the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, comparably to the manga, but TLC is REALLY good. The thing about TLC vs CCS is that TLC has some of the same weaknesses as CCS but more pronounced. Meiling might be kind of obnoxious at times but Regulus is moreso. On the other hand while CCS is kind of threat-less, TLC has one of my favorite villains ever, and has an edge to it. While CCS is wholesome funtimes, TLC focuses on the theatrical and dramatic tone of the classics. Both works are expansions from a prior work, the CCS manga, and the SS manga. But while I think the CCS anime is really only comparable to the CCS manga, I think the Lost Canvas improves on its original source material. I'm a lot more nostalgic for the CCS anime, but I think atm I'd probably say The Lost Canvas is probably better closely. I'd probably put CCS higher for Movie 2 if I was including that but I was focusing only on main content for each work. For similar reasons I'm not including TLC's Gaiden or anything. 

Batman v Superman vs. Final Crisis vs. Magicka: These three are all pretty comparable in my brain. I love all three. Magicka is definitely the odd one out due to a completely tone and from a different franchise so I'm gonna start by focusing on Batman v Superman vs Final Crisis. Batman v Superman feels a lot more personal to me, while Final Crisis feels a lot more overall epic befitting their focus matters. Both focus on an arc for Superman and Batman. Comparing those Superman is kinda static in both, and while I love both their depictions of Superman they really are opposite ends of Superman. BVS depicts Superman at his emotional low as he wonders if he will ever be accepted by humanity and he is viewed as the symbol of humanity trying to do their best. Final Crisis really does depict Superman as the ideal archetypal hero who defeats the concept of evil and metafictional source of evil (Darkseid and Mandrakk) and who even on the day evil wins recreates a wish-granting machine that will summon a happy ending. Batman similarly is at an emotional low and human-seeming as he doubts his own humanity from years in the isolating darkness vs the archetypal Batman of Final Crisis who has reached the peak of his Post-Crisis development solving the ultimate detective case, the mystery of evil, standing up to Darkseid with the full of human will and overcoming his own mental inhibitions. Lex appears notably in both, and falling the trend in BVS he's at his emotionally most insecure, trying to mentally dominate others for the feeling of security he misses in his heart. In Final Crisis Lex is at his highest in contrast, betraying Libra and aiding in the protection of Earth in his own villainous way. The dialogue in BVS is wrough and emotional while in Final Crisis it's just mildly stilted like classical plays. BVS is a pathos filled melodrama about the pained hearts of heroes and villains and all humanity when suffering in isolation. In contrast Final Crisis is this complex metafictional treatise in narrative form pulling references to anything it can, making a multilayered metaphor for the nature of good and evil physically, conceptually, and metafictionally. Final Crisis is like reading a good work of philisophy, BVS is like watching an impassioned speech. BVS appeals to my heart, Final Crisis to my head. Between the two, I adore both but while BVS handles Wonder Woman better I think I'd give the edge to FC because there's so many other things entertwined as well: The Flash, Darkseid, the Monitors, so many elements.

Comparing Magicka to them in abstract, I love Magicka and at times I might put it above. It's more "fun" than either, and more naturalistic despite being a parody world of literal cardboard cutout sheep. That said atm I kinda think I would value value FC and BVS higher. I love the Magicka novel as much as the next person, but the best moment in it I can't possibly compare to the highest moments in FC and BVS and while Magicka is more overall consistent than either of the other two, it does have its own soft spots like Chapter 11 of Magicka 1 or the general gameplay of Magicka 2. So I think I would put it below FC and BVS atm.

Lesser Legendary Semi-Finals: 

Commedia vs. Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow: This one's pretty easy. Commedia. Whatever Happened is great, and could match any individual canto of the Inferno and Purgatorio, maybe Paradiso for me, the Commedia is 50 times longer, a full more nuanced, world with so many more great moments, and a far more uplifting tone (Commedia's central theme is the redeeming love pervading the cosmos, compared to the fall of the Silver Age Heroic Ideals of WHTTMOT)

Julius Caesar vs. Magicka: Once again this is a fairly easy one. Both have an amazing start, and then not quite as good follow-up. But while Julius Caesar's start is a deeply moving story and fascinating political thriller and Magicka 1 is some of the most fun I've ever had enjoying the world of Midgard, it's the latter halves that really seals this for me. Julius Caesar's last two acts are pretty good, Cassius and Brutus saying their goodbyes is fairly moving, but Magicka 2 I think is still great. While it's gameplay I don't really like, it's story still gives me the same sense of fun that hte original had. I'd give it to Magicka.

Greater Legendary Semi-Finals:

All-Star Superman vs. Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga): This matchup may be the most unsure I've ever seen just looking at one and may be the hardest one of this entire bracket. I really love both of these series. My favorite series is Sailor Moon, the superhero magical girl combination, All-Star Superman is like the superhero half and Cardcaptor Sakura is like the magical girl half. All-Star Superman is the definitive superhero story and Cardcaptor Sakura is the definitive magical girl story, both genres mean a lot to me.  Going over some general comparisons. Both series are bright and optimistic series but I think All-Star Superman does that while still conveying seriousness and gravitas. I think CCS handles civilian characters signifigantly better. I think CCS is a lot more focused work. I also think it's a less versatile work. I think Cardcaptor Sakura has my preferred set of characters; Sakura, Syaoran, Tomoyo, Kero and Yue, Ruby and Spinel, list goes on.  Superman is a fantastic character but just talking about specifically the All-Star version I would prefer Sakura, who may not have the ability to be as much a strong heroic ideal, but is just as much a symbol of pure hope, and more human-feeling and relatable. I think All-Star Superman really plays to its supernatural premise better. Clamp really likes to focus on the magic of the mundane, how magic is behind mundane feelings. On the other hand it's part of Morrison's general writing style to take all the silly silver age concepts and play them beautifully deliciously straight, which really hits the spot for me. Both of these works could easily be my favorite 9/10.

It's weird because on some level I feel like I should say All-Star Superman is better; it has less prominent faults, I like it's tone more, and CCS feels fairly relative to it's anime, which I consider itself more mid in the 9/10 rating but maybe it's just nostalgia, but I want to pick CCS. I think because CCS is signifigantly longer, I can get more out of it even if the average moment from CCS is perhaps not quite as strong as All-Star. It's 50 chapters compared to All-Star Superman's 12 issues. I guess I think All-Star Superman is a more well-made series, but CCS is more personally impressive and effecting on me for reasons I can't fully explain. I'll pick CCS for now, though I really don't feel strongly on it.

The Lost Canvas vs. Final Crisis: TLC vs Final Crisis is interesting because despite FC being much shorter, it's strengths and weaknesses are far more pronounced than TLC. FC is the Episode G of DC Comics, its most out there insane interpretation, while TLC is more like one of the "safer" crisis if it even would be compared to a crisis event. I feel like FC is just as personal as TLC but in a differnt way. TLC is broadly about the relationship between Alone (Hades), Sasha (Athena), and Tenma the protagonist. Final Crisis is so archetypal it's not even really about characters anymore so much as it is about Grant Morrison's personal relationships with life, the comics industry and the rivalry Morrison has with Alan Moore. On some level I kinda like that, it's a trend I want series to do more, to be more connected to all these different subjects and topics but on another hand it is kinda alien. Despite the fact that two of the three main characters of Lost Canvas are the incarnations of abstract concepts in a similar vein to Final Crisis' new gods, they come across very human. Despite my love for Final Crisis I don't think I understand it enough yet. While I intuitively felt TLC, I think I need to understand more about DC before understanding FC. When I do that, I probably will like it more but as of right now I probably prefer TLC.

Lesser Legendary Finals:

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow vs. Julius Caesar: These are the two shortest works and it does make sense. For worse series, being shorter is a benefit as you have to get through less, but for great series, being shorter is a disadvantage as there is less time for greatness. Caesar's best parts are Brutus soliloquy , Marcus Anthony's speech above Caesar's body, and his speech to the crowd. Conversely the best parts of WHTTMOT are probably the entire ending bit, Krypto stopping the Kryptonite Man, and Lana and Jimmy resolving to help Superman in his hour of need. Comparing them...it's really hard to say, maybe WHTTMOT has the advantage? I also feel the good in WHTTMOT is more evenly spread out while in JC it's more concentrated towards especially the middle. On the other hand, JC is vastly more natural feeling. The people in WHTTMOT act like Silver Age characters which sometimes means they act from a morality I don't understand, I would daresay that's the point of the ending. JC despite being far more distant from me in time of writing, and even further in time depicted, is actually much more relatable if only because Shakespeare's greatest talent in my view, his ability to understand people. So it's really a question of human tragedy with realistic consequences that may not be that colorful near the end, vs a more fantastical tragedy on a metafictional scale. At the moment I'd probably prefer WHTTMOT.

So the lightest 9/10 for me is Julius Caesar, at the moment. Julius Caesar is still amazing, but it's amazing in a naturalistic way which is not generally my taste, it's one of the smallest works here and the last 40% isn't as great as before. That said it has some of the best language and speeches in fiction, it's got a deeply effecting philosophical-personal struggle as Brutus is torn between his dear friendship and his civic duty.

Best Legendary Finals:

Cardcaptor Sakura vs. The Lost Canvas: Comparing these two, I am immediatly struck by the difference in tone. Cardcaptor Sakura is a series broadly about hope, love, and human relationships and while those are themes in The Lost Canvas, the Lost Canvas doesn't have that as the air, the very mood, it has those as ideals that are impossible to reach while the main themes that are felt are about the bonds between outcasts, the struggle between life and death... I obviously really love both these series. I think the Lost Canvas is probably currently my favorite.... "adventure' story, the type of general storytelling that involves a character going on a quest for something. While Cardcaptor Sakura does have a central narrative, it really is more about the characters and their relationships. I think for the moment I'm going to go with Cardcaptor Sakura, it's just so nostalgic to me and it's such an overall pleasent experience and it's got such a great cast of characters...I feel like while TLC definitely uses it's cast more efficiently, it just has more evident flaws and CCS cast...I mean it's second only really to SM for me, unless you count really massive franchises many of many series like DC and Pretty Cure.

So the highest 9/10 for me right now is Cardcaptor Sakura. Cardcaptor Sakura is one of the crowning achivements of the Magical Girl genre, it's possibly the first manga I ever read, it's a series with just this absolutely wonderful cast of characters and is full of nuance and depth. You can read it at age 5 and you can read it age 50, and you'll both see more each time, but you'll also get the same warm friendly feeling.

Conclusions:

I love all these series and half of them I've considered my favorite of the 9/10, bordering on the pinnacle 10/10.  That said there's something of trends where some tend to be higher and some tend to be lower, and from that they could hypothetically be ranked by average placement however I don't have enough self-awareness to say definitive placement.