Humanity's last chance isn't won in the ring, it's won in the story the show tells you right before the fight starts. Every champion gets a full-length tragedy that makes you understand why they're the ones who have to swing. The OST swells, the backstory hits, the actual fight happens in what looks like a slideshow, but you're too invested in whether this broken person can beat a god to notice.
Humanity stands on the brink of extinction. The gods have decided mankind deserves annihilation for its repeated failures, and nothing can change their minds. Nothing, that is, except a single bold wager from Brunhild, a Valkyrie who refuses to accept humanity's fate without a fight. She proposes Ragnarok: thirteen one-on-one battles between history's greatest human champions and the gods themselves. First to seven victories wins everything. Humanity gets a second chance at survival. The gods get entertainment before passing their final judgment. The catch is brutal. The gods are all-powerful and openly scornful of the humans, and only Brunhild's taunts goad them into accepting at all. The humans fighting them are legends, sure, but they're still just mortal, and the odds feel impossible. Now Brunhild and her sisters must pick humanity's thirteen champions and send them into battles that will decide whether humanity deserves to exist.
Streaming Record of Ragnarok legally, as of the last catalog refresh. Availability changes by region.
Netflix