ANIME RAP BATTLE: Light Yagami (Kira) vs. Lelouch vi Britannia (Zero)

Thanks for the long vote.

"This makes me think Con used chatGPT to 'turn what Pro said against them' because this seems like a way ChatGPT would 'reverse' Pro's opening bars"

I didnt use ChatGPT.

But ChatGPT is my friend because we have lots in common.

How dare you call me a genius.

That was completely uncalled for.

No, I really do appreciate the effort. The comment about Best.Korea was lighthearted, but it wasn't meant as an insult.

I loved reading your RFD! I have often wondered if Best.Korea is a genius ahead of his time.

I pasted something twice also...

On second glance, 'vi' doesn't rhyme with 'I', I have read it wrong and only see things subbed usually (and am not remotely a fan of that anime). That doesn't really take away from the I part though.

RFD (1/7)
Pro did not have as much edge as others are perceiving in this battle. I will explain why, his style was high-sacrifice, high metaphor count. Con was just not as developed as a rapper to win despite aspects above Pro or on par with Pro.

The first flaw of Pro starts at the ending of his second bar (bar is a pair of rhymes):
" I made L take the L, now I’ll crush L2
He prays to gods like me; now he’d do well to!
Simping for his sister, until she was dispensed
The haters wanna hate me, but look who I’m against: "

Not only is this not really like Light's accent in the dub (he doesn't talk like some far-south/southest American) but the accent itself is not held together that much.

Firstly, this is Light Yagami's dub-accent (HUGE SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN SERIES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlBZHmA-Neo

This guy if rapping this would say 'tuh' instead of 'too' for the 'to' at the end of the second line. However I also wonder if he'd pace and slant 'gainst' quite the same as 'pensed', he wouldn't say 'gaynst' I agree to that but I feel he'd say 'pensed' more long like 'dizpehnsd' whereas as he'd say 'agenst' very fast. I definitely do not believe Light would say 'wanna' ever. His accent is much more of a mid/pan American one. He's say 'want to' and I just don't feel the phrase fits him either. When I say he's not say 'wanna' I mean he'd say 'wanT Teh' he enunciates extremely precisely, it almost is like combining posh British anunciation with American vowels, except he does slightly do the hard R on words where Brits wouldn't but whoever is dubbing it struggled to dub the hard R, which inherently makes it slant more like brits do things in the consonants. They do mimic very pan-American vowels though.

Throughout Pro's Round 1 I am left often thinking, Light Yagami would have said this very differently. Yagami is not actually always trying to word things cleverly, he's more of the 'make that shit sting motherfucker' type guy. He'd want substance over too many metaphors.

Also, every single brother on Earth simps for their sister a bit. The 'bit' is inherent to being a brother, especially an older brother. That's not a diss in rap culture, if you don't slightly simp for your sister, you're not a real man. Period. Simping means to platonically cave into her bitchiness, demands, drama etc in hopes to appease her knowing full well she's not ever being into you as her man. Every guy does this for his sister at least until they eventually cut ties if they do. I firmly believe that Round 1 opener from Pro was terrible.

"Commanded mass genocide twice with poor wording
A higher body count than me, and he’s a virgin
My girl’s a 10, like the age of your wife
The only cycle that you ruined is the circle of life"

Okay, I give it plus for puns. The Round 1 of Pro can essentially be summed up as pun-hungry sacrificial rapping. For instance this bar: "Cause my supporters’ loyalty’s emphatically unstoppable
And winning against me is mathematically impossible"

Has a barb against Near, a character in Death Note, meaning it doesn't apply to his opponent here. Near defeated Light, meaning it was mathematically possible to. This seems to be a bar to imitate Light Yagami maybe but just seems as if he wanted to slap a pun in with decent rhyming that actually doesn't land that hard.

RFD (2/7)
"I’m kinda known for taking out child-killing criminals
And Best.Korea knows killing kids is unforgivable!"

This is honestly negative rated by me. He is completely breaking character here for... no reason. Also 'kinda' is like 'wanna', the real Light Yagami in English dub would not even say 'kind of' he speaks with a direct, blunt tone. He would say 'known for' or 'rumoured to be' etc.

"You can’t fight this chess match, so I’ll tell you the endgame
Like your formalized surrender, I end wars with pengame"

This was very good. I liked this, pun-hungry as it was, it landed well and had good flow.

Light Yagami is Japanese. Near is not said as 'near' it is the name Neil in Japanese (that r vs l the Chinese are often mocked for, is actually even more so a Japanese quirk). The problem is that N is only called N during the anime. We don't hear Light say 'Near' as far as I know. If you are curious Mello's name is actually Merro, I don't know why they do that but they do. There is no 'l' in Japanese by the way, so Idk why Mello's name, L or Light are written that way, it's almost a mockery. Light's name is Raito for example. L's name (not the real first name, the way to say L) is Eru, 'Death' is also impossible in Japanese it's Desu Noto (the first o of Noto is accented). They really dumbed it down for English audience more than for most Animes. I think they assumed they needed to do that to make English speakers say it how the Japanese would. The problem with this is that 'Near' is therefore the erroneous way the Japanese say Neil, spelled to make the English viewer say it how the Japanese would... Except that 'L' isn't spelled Eru, maybe because they knew they can't make a one-letter visual make sense with the phrase Eru, it's literally an extra syllable, not a slight difference.

The reason that this is important is Light Yagami the guy, would never think to do the 'near' pun ever. It just doesn't add up.

RFD (3/7)

Now, when it comes to Con's Round 1 there's more coherence to the rap but it's all so... soft.

"I guess when I am challenged, I will respond,
Respond to every strike, break every pike
My tactics are divine, they are simply effective
My opponent here might be defective"

This even matches that way Lelouch presents himself speech-wise imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_poEorwFt6s
^ Here is an example.

He wouldn't come in all 'gangsta sounding' he really would sound soft despite how badass he is supposed to be. Best Korea embodies this a lot better than Savant does Light Yagami. The problem is that ultimately it's a rap battle, you have to consider that.

While these bars are some overly poetic fancy-worded pair of bars, it just doesn't quite... hurt?

'might be' 'simply' 'I guess'

This phrasing is there constanty in the Round.

"My name is Lelouch vi Britannia
Your name is Light? Wait, really?
You ask for a fight, okay you are silly
A fight? Did you read my bio sweetie?
It says there I am more cool and pretty"

This is funny and incredible rhyming and flow. I loved that the 'I' and 'vi' are even subtle rhymes. This is incredibly skilled but the actual bars are not landing nearly hard enough. These bars are meant to make us laugh though, so I will let that slide. This is a solid stanza superior to Pro's Round 1 stanzas if we talk rap skill.

"I am not afraid of a fight, I fight wars
You hide in your house writing book notes"

Erm... I think Con forgot to rhyme here so I will dock him on the rap skill suddenly.

"People think you are evil, you do it for fame
Consequentialist? Is that a PC game?
You think life is some game that you will fix
I guess your mental age is still five or six
Boy watched movies, now thinks he is batman
I suggest you try to instead become a real man"

The thing is some of this stuff is such a good buildup and lead-up to the bar but the bars are just weak and phrasing like 'I guess' 'I suggest you try' it's all landing so soft.

"Even you think you are evil, so your evil is fact
You are all about saving lives, but thats an act
If sister's life is asked, consequentialist no longer
I like consequences, my moral is a bit stronger"

This makes me think Con used chatGPT to 'turn what Pro said against them' because this seems like a way ChatGPT would 'reverse' Pro's opening bars (within the first 2 stanzas) but to humans it reads cringe and not that harsh.

"I dont really see you as a God, just an upset teen
You didnt really become God, not that I have seen
Continue your arbitrary rampage"

This was actually going places but got cut short for a non-rhyming closer I can't even understand.

"I go to war to win battles, no care and no fear
Maybe I am the God trolling you
Write that in your notebook, will you dear?"

At least the 'dear' matches the earlier 'sweetie' I kind of get what's happening, he's both sonning and feminising Pro as in saying he's the daddy/god and Pro is some sissy son but it doesn't really add up. There's no fire, there's also a lot of 'why is this line here exactly' such as 'Maybe I am God trolling you' doesn't even seem to fit anything other than 'queer' (but Light doesn't present queer at all and is presented as homosexual or asexual throughout, depending how you interpret the way he masks his psychopathy with women, especially Misa). This just seems... unfinished. Con's Round 1 reads like a rapper's first draft of this rap battle, before edits etc.

RFD (4/7)

Now, when it comes to Con's Round 1 there's more coherence to the rap but it's all so... soft.

"I guess when I am challenged, I will respond,
Respond to every strike, break every pike
My tactics are divine, they are simply effective
My opponent here might be defective"

This even matches that way Lelouch presents himself speech-wise imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_poEorwFt6s
^ Here is an example.

He wouldn't come in all 'gangsta sounding' he really would sound soft despite how badass he is supposed to be. Best Korea embodies this a lot better than Savant does Light Yagami. The problem is that ultimately it's a rap battle, you have to consider that.

While these bars are some overly poetic fancy-worded pair of bars, it just doesn't quite... hurt?

'might be' 'simply' 'I guess'

This phrasing is there constanty in the Round.

"My name is Lelouch vi Britannia
Your name is Light? Wait, really?
You ask for a fight, okay you are silly
A fight? Did you read my bio sweetie?
It says there I am more cool and pretty"

This is funny and incredible rhyming and flow. I loved that the 'I' and 'vi' are even subtle rhymes. This is incredibly skilled but the actual bars are not landing nearly hard enough. These bars are meant to make us laugh though, so I will let that slide. This is a solid stanza superior to Pro's Round 1 stanzas if we talk rap skill.

"I am not afraid of a fight, I fight wars
You hide in your house writing book notes"

Erm... I think Con forgot to rhyme here so I will dock him on the rap skill suddenly.

"People think you are evil, you do it for fame
Consequentialist? Is that a PC game?
You think life is some game that you will fix
I guess your mental age is still five or six
Boy watched movies, now thinks he is batman
I suggest you try to instead become a real man"

The thing is some of this stuff is such a good buildup and lead-up to the bar but the bars are just weak and phrasing like 'I guess' 'I suggest you try' it's all landing so soft.

"Even you think you are evil, so your evil is fact
You are all about saving lives, but thats an act
If sister's life is asked, consequentialist no longer
I like consequences, my moral is a bit stronger"

This makes me think Con used chatGPT to 'turn what Pro said against them' because this seems like a way ChatGPT would 'reverse' Pro's opening bars (within the first 2 stanzas) but to humans it reads cringe and not that harsh.

"I dont really see you as a God, just an upset teen
You didnt really become God, not that I have seen
Continue your arbitrary rampage"

This was actually going places but got cut short for a non-rhyming closer I can't even understand.

"I go to war to win battles, no care and no fear
Maybe I am the God trolling you
Write that in your notebook, will you dear?"

At least the 'dear' matches the earlier 'sweetie' I kind of get what's happening, he's both sonning and feminising Pro as in saying he's the daddy/god and Pro is some sissy son but it doesn't really add up. There's no fire, there's also a lot of 'why is this line here exactly' such as 'Maybe I am God trolling you' doesn't even seem to fit anything other than 'queer' (but Light doesn't present queer at all and is presented as homosexual or asexual throughout, depending how you interpret the way he masks his psychopathy with women, especially Misa). This just seems... unfinished. Con's Round 1 reads like a rapper's first draft of this rap battle, before edits etc.

RFD (5/7)

Round 2

Pro

"Your words are empty, like every threat you make
I’ll beat you taking notes while you brag about your name
There’d be no need for war in the world I’d give you
And if I’d died at 19, I’d still outlive you"

This is a bit of really fucking lazy rhyming. Unacceptable from what Pro is capable of. The bars don't even hit hard. Also, maybe it's just me but something about saying Con died young doesn't land right, it's the kind of bar to make the crowd go first 'wtf' then go yikes too far if somehow this battle with Lelouch happened.

"You were but a child, abandoned so soon
It’s clear that you’ve received less love than Table-kun"

This is sheer ignorance or something, Kun is said as in... ironically... 'pun'. It is not said as in 'koon'.

I have to say at this point Con wins if we talk rhyme scheme and flow. ending-wise both are sloppy at different times but internally, Pro doesn't try nearly as much. Con's closer in Round 1 has 'in' win' and even the 'am' in between kind of has the same rhythm to it.

Look at the stanza here from Con's Round 1:

"I am not limited by any moral system
So I dont even need support to list them
Your name is Light, your goal is to be a God
God of Sparkles? You sure have the look,
God who is afraid of losing the notebook"

'limited - moral'

'even need' 'port to l'

'your goal'

'you sure have'
'losing the'

I know 'ing' and 'ure' don't rhyme but you get the idea. There's consistency in ways Pro generally is caught lacking again and again.

It's quite funny that I read someone else's RFD and they say Con ran out after Round 1. I totally disagree, Pro did, Con didn't.

Pro's Round 2 feels like 'say whatever just have some metaphors and references' put in. It's weak. Things aren't landing properly but what does that matter when Con is also barely landing too.

RFD (6/7)

Con's Round 2
"You make lots of assumptions, but all I see is this
You have need to prove yourself, I am taking a piss
You say you would outlive me, not by much
You die as a teen in anime, not exactly God or such"

Aside from the falsehood as Light dies at 23, this is actually a good first stanza. The reason it's so good is because it not only matches the tone of Round 1's opener but justifies how lazy Con is being and that's totally a vibe you can see Lelouch taking here like it's all beneath him and Light's just some irrelevant pest.

'taking a piss' is probably a reference to the British phrase 'taking the piss' which means a combination of not taking something seriously and also mocking it.

"You say that you are fear, but the fear lasted very short
Your loli jokes are not really a funny sort
They are overused treason, God created loli for a reason
You seem pissed about something, not sure what
Maybe trying to be God didnt turn out right"

I kind of get what this is meant to be, it's a deflection of the loli thing with accusation that if Light is God, light made Loli but it is structured so weirdly that to an untrained eye (or ear if this was audible) people aren't catching that reference/pun and that is a pretty consistent issue with Con. Con has some genuinely fire buildups in both Rounds but consistently lands them so soft and 'what do you even mean' vibed.

"You hate what I make
But am I the one trying to be fake?
You pretend to be morally superior
But your loli jokes are inferior"

I mean... Lol... I think Con is consistent here though. Con is dedicating to the vibe that he isn't really trying he just took up a challenge and is basically treating it as going to the urinal, a 'whatever' thing. The thing is though he doesn't stick to the clowning act. That's why it's landing weird. It's not like he's acting funny and 'I don't care' the whole time, he's building up serious bars and landing them soft at times, such as this:

"You say that in your world there are no wars
You say that in your world no one fights or bites
You assume that is what I want
But I am your God, you assume I am not"

RFD (7/7)

It's all reading like he is going somewhere in a snowball manner where three lines later we will get this double entendre that smacks hard but where is it? 'you assume I am not'.

"Lets face it, I didnt need to fake morality to gain rating
You seem to have more issues with my dating
Than I do. I am a virgin, so you hate
Good luck dying from STD mate"

Light Yagami never gets laid. It's arguable he's actually asexual and a psychopath not sociopath. What I mean is I think Light Yagami cannot emotionally or sexually (both) bond with other human beings unless it's like a murder power trip or some severe sadism way beyond standard BDSM.

Light Yagami acts straight, can tell which women are high-status and knows how to be an attractive, fit guy with good social skills but never shows any sign of fucking or actually initiating intimacy wih women beyond holding hands or hanging out.

It's not that he's autistic and socially awkward, it's that he's a psychopath, these are fundamentally different things because there are no lack of social skills or looks etc holding him back.

Ultimately I give the win to Pro but I want it known that this was closer than people think, they just don't get Con's style and that's also Con's fault and greatest weakness because he has no idea how to coherently land most of his punchlines from the build-up to where he was going with it.

Thanks!

Analysing it rn, uploading vote soonish

Thanks for the vote!

Thanks for voting!

Bump

"terrible relevance to the anime logic or truths in it?"

Well, I didnt watch either anime.

In fact, the only thing I used were those pages in description, but only a bit from both.

This was supposed to be a funny battle I think, so thats what I went for.

Do you want Light Vs L?

Avoiding as many specifics as I can relating to this particular battle...

My inclination would be to go for whichever side has more "impact" in battling their opponent. Some rhyme schemes might make bars come across stronger than other rhyme schemes. Some references might hit harder than others. Some insults might just carry more weight automatically. (This may be somewhat subjective to each voter.) If I had to write the description over again, I'd have made a clearer scoring metric, but as things stand, voters can use whichever metric or system they think is best. I don't know if there's a typical metric by which rap battles are judged—when in doubt, just vote the same way you would score other battles/diss wars that don't give specific criteria for scoring (ERB and Eminem vs. MGK come to mind).

In the example you gave, I think Churchill does significantly better since the former is just random insults, but that's just my opinion.

I'll aim to get to this this week.

But let's say:

Hitler Vs Churchill

Hitler:

I'd kill you happily,
Jew scum, marry me,
Gruesome savagery as I bruise every Adam's apple on the family tree.

Churchill:

You are the son of a father who cheated with the incestuous maid,
Daddy beat you 'til you couldn't break for you embraced being enslaved,
Heartless failed artist, Jack of just spade,
Dig thy own grave, the way Britain paved,
The bullet from a German gun, slew the Jew-hating knave.

Latter has puns and much more relevance to reality, former has more rhyming and flow and harsh bars too.

If I write the latter with even worse rhyming then what?

I don't want to say anything that would unduly influence voters at this point, so I would say that it is up to each voter to decide which side did "better" given the context of the debate. However they would reasonably interpret the description.

There's a huge issue what if one has better bars but bad rhyme scheme and what if one has both but terrible relevance to the anime logic or truths in it?

All votes are appreciated!

I know it's not a traditional format, but plz vote if you get the chance!

Thanks for the battle!

Well played.