Top 10 Favorite Cartoon Episodes of 2017 (Part 2)

Jan 30, 201826 min read

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Published: Jan 30, 2018

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Number Five

And as if my last entry wasn't controversial enough, now I'm forced to tell you guys that I'm putting an episode of Mighty Magiswords higher on the list.

I know I already used this video, but it just seemed to fit. All right then, I guess it's finally time for me to give the "show I like that everyone else hates" opinion that I've been putting off for so long. I'm actually a really big fan of Mighty Magiswords. I know what a bunch of people say about this show. The characters are obnoxious, the animation's all over the place, and the pacing makes each episode feel like they're on fast forward.

Well, for those of you have been paying attention, you should already know that this show is right up my alley. Mighty Magiswords follows Prohyas and Vambre, two siblings that deem themselves Warriors for Hire. They are essentially mercenaries who will go on various missions for clients in exchange for gems that they normally use to buy more Magiswords, magical weapons that each have their own uses in battle. This show can get pretty creative with the endless amount of weapon designs used in battles.

I guess one thing that helps is that I'm a lot more tolerant of loud and noisy cartoons than most people. And as much as I love to make fun of shows like TTG and SVTFOE, their "obnoxiousness" is really the least of my gripes. So yeah, I actually really like this show's voice acting. We've got the classic "creator-provides-countless-voices-in-his-own-cartoon" trope made popular by South Park and Family Guy in the form of this show's creator Kyle A. Carrozza as well as Grey Delisle, Eric Bauza, Mr. Lawrence, and even Egoraptor!

I also love it when shows get super experimental with their animation. It can lead to moments that'd be a lot less funny in cartoons that limit themselves too much. After all, facial expressions are one of my favorite parts of animation.

Hell, I can even understand the pacing issues people have with this show, but it's actually slowed down significantly, especially this year. People also underestimate this show's clever writing, much in the same vain as Sonic Boom. And I shall prove this to you all with my choice for this show's best episode of 2017.

Don't Read the Comments

After watching this episode, I was admittedly kind of taken aback by just how topical and downright genius it was. When Prohyas and Vambre go to the local market, a new board called the Board of Opinions is set up for everybody to anonymously post their thoughts. Oh yeah, you all know where this is going. After they pin up their own thoughts, one user in particular has started relentlessly criticizing Prohyas and his abilities on the battlefield.

As the episode goes on, Prohyas slowly becomes more and more obsessed to the point where he can't even focus on missions anymore, much to Vambre's ire. As hostile as places like the internet are, we NEED episodes like this informing children on how to react to trolls.

What makes the internet so wonderful happens to be its greatest weakness at the same time. With the power of the internet and anonymity, everyone has the chance to get their voices heard. Unfortunately, with the power of the internet and anonymity, everyone has the chance to get their voices heard. This includes all the douches, fanboys, and trolls who have nothing better to do and feed off of negativity. Every time you react to a troll in anyway, you're only making them stronger.

And that is the big conflict Prohyas is going through here. No matter how much positive feedback someone gets, all it really takes is one negative comment to render it all null and void. In fact, Prohyas's just turns him into exactly the person this troll is claiming him to be. He becomes unfocused and careless all because of these harsh words. Vambre also plays a wonderful straight man in this episode trying to get her brother's mind off of the harasser. One line in particular perfectly summarizes the futility in trying to impress a troll.

Vambre: So why obsess over the opinion of a person who will always be negative regardless of what you do?

Couldn't have been put it any better. But what really makes this episode stand out amongst other shows that do episodes like this is that we never learn the identity of the troll. Like, at all! That is a surprisingly mature and realistic writing choice for a show like this. So many pieces of media that cover this topic make it so obvious who the troll is, but that's not how trolls work. A troll's biggest weapon is its anonymity. Prohyas even says he wouldn't be so bothered by this troll if he'd just insult him to his face. I love this episode so much for how it handled the subject matter. And even if you don't like this show, I think we can all agree that it at least handles this moral much better than Cyberbully, and that's a live action film made specifically for that moral!

But I'll be damned if it's not one of the funniest things I've ever seen

Honorable Mentions: Continue?, Sibling Sorcery, and Elect to Decline.

Number Four

All right, hopefully that's the end of controversial entries..... unless Big Mouth is still considered controversial of course. It is? Well shoot then. Bro, would you mind tossing me that flame shield?

RB'sB: Good luck.

Ho boy, Big Mouth. It feels like Netflix revealed this show as a way to get people's minds off of the crappy Magic School Bus reboot. Never before has a trailer for adult animation garnered so much backlash since Sausage Party. But just like Sausage Party, I ended up really enjoying this show despite the bad first impression.

I know it sounds a bit off that I'd like this show considering it seems to have all the elements that I hate about adult animation. Super stiff animation, most of the characters are jerks, an endless barrage of jokes about sex, and incredibly unappealing art direction. But... for goodness sakes you guys, this show's just really funny!

I mean it, as much as this show gets wrong, it's still one of the funniest cartoons of the year, possibly the decade if season two gets any better.

But I'd be lying if I said this show was super easy to get into. One of the first red flags for me when I saw the trailer was that art style. There's a reason so many people have compared the characters to fish people. But it also didn't take too long for me to get used to it either. It's certainly a lot easier to look at than other shows like Mr. Pickles and King Star King.

Another thing that took a while to get used to was all of the sexual themes. It's bad enough that this show follows little kids going through puberty, but we also have to watch one of these kids talk to their genitals too? It's borderline child porn, but I do think they managed to get away with it for two reasons.

1) It's animated. Duh.

2) All of the "children" are voiced by adults.

There's been a new trend recently for animated children to sound like adults. You've got Gravity Falls, Duck Tales, Captain Underpants, and now Big Mouth. I've honestly never once been bothered by this. People complain that the voices don't match the characters, but as long as whoever's doing the voice sounds good and can act, I don't mind it too much. Besides, can you imagine how much worse this show would be if all the actors were kids or even sounded like them? I think giving all the characters grown up voices keeps this show off of most watch lists.

But even if all of that stuff I mentioned above still bothered me, I'd love this show anyway mainly for one huge element, and because

knows me so well they predicted it right when I mentioned I was getting into the show. The Hormone Monster and Monstress!!! I love these characters to pieces you guys. Big Mouth is a pretty grounded show half the time, but the other half can range from weird to downright deranged. And you can always count on these two characters to be at the center of that chaos. This isn't even mentioning how great of a concept it is to have characters that personify one's sexual desires.

Plus, this show's got meta humor, and that's basically the easiest way to win me over.

So, which episode should I go with? Well, I decided to go by the same mind set I went with for Samurai Jack by deciding which one was the most memorable.

Am I Gay?

And that's how it's done everybody! Even people like me who like the show can agree that Big Mouth did not have the best of starts. One's first impressions shouldn't involve giant penises playing basketball. But thankfully, the show kept getting more tame, and we got our first great episode as soon as the third one.

After watching a trailer for a film starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Andrew begins to wonder if he's actually gay. Meanwhile, Jessi and Nick are having trouble making their relationship work.

There's a lot for me to like in this episode. Everything I like about the show, particularly its humor, managed to finally find its place in this episode. The hardest time for any show is always its first few episodes because it takes a while to find your proper voice and really hit a stride of excellence.

Plot-wise, there were plenty of things I could appreciate like how Jessi and Nick learn that they work much better together as friends, and that's awesome! One would be hard pressed to find any kind of movie, show, or book starring a boy and a girl that don't end up together. It's like we've all forgotten that platonic relationships are possible. Looking at you shippers.

But I also find Andrew's conflict interesting too. Sexuality is a weird animal, or monster in this case, and the journey towards finding your identity can be a really bumpy road with plenty of confusing twists and turns. Andrew thought he was gay, but he was just confused. The important thing he learned is that no matter what your orientation is, it's important to embrace it. I may think of myself as asexual now, but that could only be my Aspbergers and late hormones talking. I could be more straight than Roman in a few years!

But the real highlight of this episode has to be that awesome song Totally Gay. It's one of those parts of the show where the animators are given much more freedom, and Brendan McKain does a ridiculously awesome Freddie Mercury impression. Seriously, it sounds just like him!

Oh, one more thing. Was anybody else as fooled as me by the episode's ending? If you've seen it, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Honorable Mentions: Girls are Horny Too, The Head Push, The Pornscape

Number Three

Okay, seriously, how have I never talked about the Amazing World of Gumball on this site? It doesn't even seem reasonable, yet here we are. I'm finally talking about the funniest cartoon ever. No joke. No exaggeration.

Gumball may not be at the very top of my list of favorite shows, but I will stand by it being the absolute funniest. Yes, funnier than Spongebob, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and all of the other greats. It's kind of hard to describe why Gumball is the funniest because comedy is such a tricky thing to analyze. Dissecting a joke is like dissecting a frog. You can pick it apart all you want to figure out what makes it work, but the frog is ruined by the time you're done.

What's important to know is that the writers understand all of the ins and outs of how to perfectly construct all of their jokes. Besides, most episodes of the show have up to six or eight writers, which probably explains why they're able to pack so many laughs into eleven minutes.

Gumball can also get ridiculously meta at times. The biggest highlights have always been when the show deconstructs popular storytelling cliches like the status quo, the dumb dad, the married couple that doesn't belong together, the retcon, etc. And the reason these moments are so funny is because the writers aren't just doing it for the sake of being different. They actually have a real story to tell that benefits from twisting the usual conventions.

But this show's comedy would be nothing without its animation. Gumball's not only the funniest cartoon in my opinion, it's also the most aesthetically unique. The animators use everything from traditional to puppets to live action to CG to stop motion to flash and so many other mediums. The camera work in this show is so good that they manage to blend all of these different looking characters seamlessly with live action backgrounds. I honestly have no idea how they managed to do that without looking incredibly cheap. In fact, this show gets away with a lot of cheap looking effects, but the reason it works is because there's always a feeling of professionalism and hard work felt in each scene to make everything look as good as possible. Name one other cartoon that could get away with a scene like this.

However, comedies are only as good as their characters, and the writers didn't forget that. Everyone is pretty simple by design, which makes it easy to grow attached to them. They also work off each other beautifully. This goes double time for the Wattersons because they're about as realistic as an animated family can get. I've noticed that most of my favorite episodes are the ones that star the entire family unit, which probably explains why I chose this entry so easily.

The Worst

Everybody thinks they have it the worst when it comes to unfair prejudice right? We've all had those moments when it feels like the world has it out for us and there's nothing we can do about it. One day, all of the Wattersons come home with this exact feeling and decide to put an end to the question once and for all of who has it the worst.

This is a pretty familiar plot used by many shows, and it's usually supposed to promote the moral that everyone has their own struggles and we should all be more aware of this before assuming we have it the worst. It's all about empathy. Of course, this episode does a great job of putting its own spin on the story in a way that only Gumball could.

The visual gags are brilliant with the glass ceiling and adult imagination scenes being definite highlights. I won't spoil all of them because Gumball has always thrived on taking one sentence plots and getting as much comedic mileage out of them as possible. Why would I want to ruin that for you guys?

What really won me over with this episode was how they decided to tell the story. A good portion of the episode is spent with each family member detailing why they think their lives are so hard, and some of them are surprisingly relatable. Boys are forced to hide their emotions due to peer pressure, women don't have as many equal opportunities, kids aren't taken seriously, and adults become shells of their former selves. The main thing is that nobody is free from struggle. Plenty of groups will try to convince you that they have it the hardest, but all it takes is a little bit of empathy to realize that we're not all that different when it comes to overcoming life's obstacles.

You now what really annoys me about these groups? It's that they don't really want equal rights, they just want the good stuff. Imagine if a feminist was choosing rights from a buffet. "Let's see, equal pay looks good. Ew, paying for the dinner, no thank you." You don't get to choose! Everyone in this episode thought switching lives would make things easier, but it didn't change a damn thing because life doesn't choose favorites. If anything, their lives got worse.

So next time you think you're having the worst day ever, just remember that there's millions of people out their fighting their own fights on a daily basis that might not be as lucky as you. Try to focus on the positives. Trust me, it's a lot more fun.

Honorable Mentions: The Copycats, The Console, and The News.

Number Two

I guess it was only a matter of time before this list got infested with those pesky and playful ponies. In my opinion, this has been an incredibly ambitious year for the pony brand. Not only did season 7 kick a ton of a**, but Equestria Girls was expanded, plans for G5 have been set into motion, and all of our favorite characters made their way to the big screen! Except for Discord (those bastards).

Also, I may have only been a Brony for about a year, but it feels like fan made stuff has been a lot more prominent than before. It's no secret that the whole Brony phenomenon has waned in pop culture relevance over the last few years, but I'm getting a feeling there's a bit of a resurgence going on. I'm sure most of it has to do with the movie, but does anyone else get the feeling that fan made videos have felt much more ambitious recently? That's the vibe I'm getting at least, because this has been a pretty great year for fan made content, my personal favorite being this.

With all that being said, which episode made my list? This was a very difficult decision because, as mentioned before, this season rocked. It even broke a lot of ground. Here, I'll show you.

Celestia finally got an episode.
The idea of cutie marks forever deciding your destiny was put into question.
Applejack's parents were given a backstory.
The show poked fun at itself for its out of nowhere song sequences.
Even Starswirl the Bearded, one of the most referenced characters in the show that didn't appear on screen, returned in full glory!

None of this is even counting the movie which, if its canon, gives us sea ponies, more talking animals, broken unicorn horns, and land outside of Equestria. I knew that deciding which episode was the best this year would be no easy task. But then I also realized, "Hey, this is your list. Just pick the episode with crazy Pinkie and be done with it." So I did

Secrets and Pies

Yes, good, GOOD! Let the salt flow through you! It is how I sustain myself. Pinkie makes another congratulatory pie for Rainbow Dash for her 73rd training session. But as Pinkie leaves, she notices that the same pie she gave to Dash has been thrown away. Now it's a mystery for Pinkie to find out if Dash has even been eating her pies in the first place.

If an outsider heard that plot, they'd probably think nothing of it. But if you're well versed in the lore and characters of this show, you'll know it's time to take cover. This episode feels like a ramped up version of Party of One with a little bit of Rarity Investigates sprinkled in. The reason this episode feels ramped up comes down to the plain and simple fact that the animation has improved so much over the years. Just look at these glorious facial expressions.

Breath taking. It's like the crew from Ren and Stimpy got a hold of this episode.

Pinkie Pie is at her best in this episode, a positive I'm sure surprises none of you. Her performance encapsulates why she's my favorite female character of all time. Most people wouldn't think to celebrate something as insignificant as a 73rd training session, but Pinkie just sees it as another chance to spread joy to her friends. And even though she's an inherently silly character, she can get really f***ing intense when the right buttons are pushed.

Pinkie is the kind of character that allows animators to have as much fun as possible since there's no end to her expressions library. Even when she takes things seriously, she's still laugh out loud funny because of the extremes she'll take in carrying out her agenda. Remember in The Cutie Map when Pinkie was suspicious of all the ponies' smiles? Well, even when she acts seriously about something, her facial expressions and line deliveries still make me want to roll on the floor. She really is everything you could ask for out of a comic relief character! Eat your hearts out Minions.

Now, I may have adored this episode, but I was kind of surprised to see such a mixed reaction to it from the community. So, let me take a minute to address some of the criticisms, such as the plot being stupid. I remember

mentioning that any story can be as stupid as possible and still be saved by the comedy. While I agree with him wholeheartedly, I also don't find this plot stupid. People ask, "Why doesn't Pinkie just call out Dash?" First off, that'd be boring, and secondly, you guys are completely missing the point. If Pinkie just "called Dash out", RD would've denied it. Pinkie needed to gather hard evidence before accusing one of her best friends. Still don't believe me? Eventually Pinkie does call her out, and the only reason RD owns up to it is because she got caught in the act.

Others also find Dash to be unlikable here for constantly throwing away Pinkie's pies, but I'm in the complete opposite opinion. She's not going to these lengths just because she hates pies. She's specifically going to all of this trouble for Pinkie. If I was Dashie, I'd hate to disappoint someone as upbeat and positive as Pinkie Pie too. And by the end of the episode, she willingly tries to eat a gross pie made out of trash to atone for her actions. I don't know about you guys, but that's pretty damn selfless to me.

Let's see, what else is there? "Dash gets Tank sick by feeding him pies." Okay, I don't really have a defense for that one. Tank doesn't deserve that. But other than that, I can't really find any reason to hate this episode. I'd be fine with putting it in my top ten episodes from the show for the facial expressions alone because of how they rival Lesson Zero in zaniness. So yeah, this is my favorite season 7 episode.

RB'sB: Are there any more unpopular pony opinions you wanna get off your chest?

....... Honest Apple was better then The Perfect Pear. *computer catches fire* Is it getting hot in here

Honorable Mentions: Flurry of Emotions, Discordant Harmony, and It Isn't the Mane Thing About You.

Before, I reveal the number one spot, I'd like to give a quick shout out honorable mention to the new TMNT cartoon. I've started watching the first season and have been loving it so far, but

recommended that I watch an episode from this year. I wasn't sure if that'd make sense due to spoilers, but it turned out to actually be a really cool origin story about how Splinter found their home and took of care of the turtles as babies.

So thanks for recommending this to me Emerald. Even though it was too late for me to put it on the list, I still really enjoyed it. Much like the show, it has great choreography, lighting, sound design, but there's one thing it has that the rest of the show does not. ADORABLE BABY TURTLES!!! Aww, wook at their wittle faces. But I'm not gonna lie, hearing Seth Green's voice come out of Leo was pretty damn jarring. I'm not entirely sure why Jason Biggs got the boot, but I'm sure I'll get used to the new voice eventually once I get to that point of the show. At least Seth has plenty of experience with the character.

Number One

Well, it seems like I've talked about every single one of my favorite cartoons that are still producing new episodes this year. All except one. So, by the process of elimination I'm sure you can make determinations on what show that just might be. Anybody in the mood for Szechuan sauce?

The Rickshank Redemption

I know I'm not giving this entry a whole lot of pomp considering the circumstances-

RB'sB: Did you just make a Bee Movie reference?

You better bee-lieve it! But like I was saying, there's no need to pretend like you guys didn't already know or at the very least make an educated guess that this would be at the top. I've already gone on record to say that Rick and Morty is my favorite cartoon ever, it hasn't appeared on the list yet, and I've even talked about this episode before in my Toffee review.

I could've easily picked another episode from the season, but I would've felt unclean otherwise. The reason this episode is my number one pick goes beyond quality. Do you know what's harder than making a good product? Making a good product with expectations.

Many of the most critically panned shows and movies have had some kind of expectations attached to them. Just look at all of the reboots on CN that people hate. Ever wondered if the LEGO Ninjago Movie really deserved a lower rating than Despicable Me 3? I can guarantee you that if the LEGO Movie didn't exist it would've received a much warmer reception. The same goes for The Last Jedi. No matter what the creators would've done, fans would still see it as blasphemy to the franchise. All of these people who go into films with unreasonably high expectations are only setting themselves up for failure.

This is a trap that Rick and Morty could've easily fallen into simply because we had to wait nearly two years for the next season. Not helping was the fact that we were left on one of the most frustrating cliffhangers in television history. Getting out of a rut like that takes careful time, effort, and thought. I was so scared what would happen when the show would eventually come back, and my God did they do such a great job.

The entire episode feels like the term "return to form" realized in animation. This also applies to the characters. Rick's performance is like Jesus' second coming. After being locked up for such a long time, all we needed was to see him get his chance to be a bad a** grandpa once more. He takes us on so many twists and turns in this episode, and I didn't see a single one of them coming. That is why I love Rick so much. Not only is he cool, he's also unpredictable. There's no telling what his next move might be. Every action he takes, no matter how small, plays some sort of role in his big schemes. And because I can never guess what'll happen next, I'm constantly engaged and waiting for his next move.

Morty and Summer are great in this episode too. One thing I feel like we overlook when praising the show is their relationship. These two feel like real siblings who are constantly under each other's throats but still love each other no matter what. I guess that's another reason Rick is so great because, when you think about it, Morty and Summer's relationship wouldn't be nearly as strong without him. I may be wrong, but that's just my interpretation.

Oh, and I think I know what some of you might be saying against this episode. It's pretty much the point where the show's fandom started going haywire after the big Szechuan sauce rant at the end. Well, you guys already no how I feel about fandoms and the effects they have on their respective products, but I'll summarize by saying it wasn't the creators' intentions, it doesn't change a thing about the actual content, fandoms shouldn't be judged by the loud minority, and this scene is still funny as Hell regardless.

Honorable Mentions: The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy, Rest and Ricklaxation, and The Rickchurian Mortydate.

And those were my favorite episodes of the year. Pretty neat right? While I'm working on that favorite movies list (ho man that'll be a doozy), make sure to let me know your favorite episodes of the year down in the comments. Just remember to be mature about it of course. We all have our own favorite cartoons. Even the Mane Six.