This page contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!
Just because the fate of humanity is literally banking on a tournament against the gods doesn't mean there aren't any laughs to be found in Record of Ragnarok.
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Main Story
- Brunhilde's and Göll's many ridiculous faces over the course the of the story is worth a few laughs. The latter in particular is more often than not going Oh, Crap! once or twice every chapter. And more often than not with very good reason.
- Pretty much every single moment Ares is on-panel. Here we have the Greek god of war, who towers over pretty much every other god and is built like a brick shithouse... but he's also a hapless loser who spends most of his presence getting no respect, tossed around, and completely missing the mark on what’s going on in the arena and having to get corrected by Hermes. He’s not even safe from Göll of all people.
- At some point during the first round, the kickback of wind from Thor and Lü Bu’s fight causes Aphrodite to get slapped in the face by her own knockers.
- Zeus jumps the queue and fights in the second round, instead of the finale as planned, because all the excitement has gotten him more revved up than he's been in ages, which leads him to repeatedly insist to an increasingly-annoyed Shiva, with an unchanging expression, that "it's my turn now."
- The page picture has Brunhilde stress-eating after the loss of Adam: any poise and grace the Valkyrie has is utterly gone as she stuffs her face with salmiak pies, much to Göll's disgust.
- Heracles passionately declares to Jack the Ripper that we will grant his wish of a fight to the death, and after a moment of sinister silence, Jack...turns and runs. Heracles is left blankly staring after him, mumbling in confusion, with the anime showing Jack's dash away to be rather...unanimated, complete with a sharp, illogical turn down a street corner.
- Zeus tries to get Buddha to share his candy with him. Cue a rather impressive scene of Buddha keeping the bowl of snacks out of Zeus's reach... and then cramming it all in his mouth like he's a chipmunk as Zeus impotently curses.
- So how precisely does Buddha announce one of the most flooring Wham Lines in the entirety of the manga?Buddha: "I’m fighting for humanity, so uh… thanks."
- The various reactions are absolute pictures; Göll and Ares are drop-jawed, Zeus has a ducked lipped expression which basically states "Aw shoot, he is a traitor", Kojiro appears to be clapping his hands and having a good laugh about it, Loki has never looked more angry and Hermes has gone bug-eyed. Not to mention the various spectating gods who'd previously been rubbing it in the humans' faces that Buddha's fighting against them are now pretty much eating crow.
- In chapter 58, Zeus shows up by placing his hands on Hermes's shoulder and Ares's head. There is something hilarious about the reminder that this shriveled old man is in fact the father of the hulking Ares.Ares: "D-Dad! Where have you been this whole...?"
Bonus Chapters
- Chapter 61.5 features Nostradamus' misadventures in trying to find a place to watch the seventh round.
- He starts off in Brunhilde and Göll's room but is swiftly booted out by the eldest Valkyrie who is evidently fed up with both his general behavior and his clothes-stealing antics.
- So, he decides to try his luck with the other Einherjar and their Valkyries. First, he visits Jack and Hlökk but decides that Hlökk's short fuse and Jack's playful trickery are a bit too stressful for him to deal with. He moves on to Souji's room but similarly can't bring himself to go join them after noticing Kondo, Kojiro and Hrist standing resolutely behind the sitting Souji.
- After these failed attempts, there's a short montage of Nostradamus visiting Thor (who is still sitting alone in his unlit room), Shiva (whose wives have come to visit him while he's recovering despite the nurses' insistence on "No Visitors Allowed") and Buddha's (whose doorway is filled to the brim with candy sent by Brunhilde) rooms. Having failed to find an appropriate partner to watch Round Seven with, Nostradamus settles on reclining in the rafters of the arena on his lonesome and delivering a fairly hypocritical take on his fellow combatants.
Nostradamus: *while gazing out at the stars* Mhm! There's nothing but freaks here! - Chapter 70.5 features some of the important characters of Round Eight.
- Just barely cheating death has apparently not robbed Adamas of his sassiness, as he reclines casually on Beelzebub's operating table (while still split in half) and makes a snide remark about Beelzebub's desire for death. This gets him a very swift and painful surgery by the Lord of the Flies who seemingly rushes through the operation that ultimately turned him into Adamantine. He doesn't seem to mind that much as his face in the next panel becomes more akin to a Shojo anime, with the God of Conquest even gaining Bishie Sparkles.
- Adamas' attempts to bond with or elicit any sort of reaction from Poseidon throughout their younger years. This only ends with him in his own Corner of Woe, with Hades doing his best to cheer him up.
- We also learn a bit more about Gondul's personality in this chapter. Namely, she does not allow herself to be touched by those she considers unattractive, even while in armor form. Tesla (obviously), Newton and Curie all pass, while Edison and Galileo are both electrified for falling below her standards. They don't seem all that bothered, though Gondul continues to shock the unconscious Edison despite Goll's attempts to stop her.
- Chapter 75.5 revolves around tales of food.
- In Soji's room, Kojiro and Hrist are eagerly waiting for Kondo to finish cooking. Soji seems less enthused and sits in Troubled Fetal Position in the corner. It soon turns out that the reason is because Kondo is a spectacularly Lethal Chef whose final product is a veritable witch's cauldron of burnt fish and barely cooked vegetables. Hrist notes that the meal smells even worse than Brunhilde's salmiak pies, while Kojiro is so disturbed that he reenacts the scene where he decides to sit down after foreseeing all of the ways Poseidon could kill him, even repeating his quote verbatim. That's right. Kondo's cooking is so horrible that a master swordsman treats it as a threat comparable to a sociopathic god among gods. The two of them hastily make some flimsy excuses and try to leave, but are pressed into staying by Soji, who has clearly forced himself to get used to his father figure's meals. The two end up passed out on the floor by the end of their lunch, with Kojiro even sporting a Balloon Belly.
- Sometime prior to Round 6, Buddha is walking through a hallway and dramatically looms up to a Buddhist-themed door. He rings the bell to unlock it and it opens up to reveal his hidden stash of snacks. As in, a storage room with rows upon rows of all kinds of candy. Buddha grabs an armful while trying to figure out which to eat and ends up deciding to have them all.
- In the Tesla household, Nikola's family is having a hard time eating a stew made by his elder sister, Milka, much to her sorrow. In response, the young Nikola rises to his feet and declares that he will use science to create a perfect stew. Cue a short montage of experimentation later and the new stew is made. Nikola takes the first bite... and immediately realizes that it's just as bad as before with Nikola wondering how his science could have failed him.
- Chapter 87.5 focuses on the events shortly after Adamas' attempted coup.
- While a mostly serious chapter with Hermes suggesting that Poseidon finish off Adamas/Adamantine, the fact that the backdrop of the conversation is Poseidon gently interacting with and guiding the fish in his palace aquarium shows a surprisingly light-hearted side of the otherwise merciless god of the seas and implies that Poseidon is friendlier to his fish than he is to just about anyone else.
- Meanwhile in Helheim, the newly reborn Adamantine is playing chess against his elder brother, griping about his strange new body. Hades tells him to give Beelzebub his due credit, but apparently fails to remember the new name he gave him, much to Adamantine's consternation. Or perhaps the big brother just occasionally enjoys trolling his siblings.
Hades: Adama... Ada... Ada... Adamanbo! - Chapter 88.5 is about the reunion of the Shinsengumi just prior to the start of Soji's round. Well, all but one.
- To the rest of the Shinsengumi's frustration, their Vice-Commander Toshizo and one of Soji's closest friends refuses to come watch his match solely because he's salty that he wasn't chosen to represent humanity.
