If there’s one thing that’s caused anime to become more popular over the years, it’s how well the medium can do action. Anime has mastered the art of fight scenes, be it with hard-hitting, detailed choreography or explosive battles that leave everything from city blocks to entire planets turned into dust.
Of course, there’s more to anime than just having great fight scenes. Everyone wants to watch anime with satisfying character development and interesting world building. Fortunately, there have been no shortage of series over the years that are both well-written and that feature plenty of top-notch action.
Gundam Build Fighters Proves Gunpla Battles Can Still Be Incredible
Whether it’s a discussion about the quality of the show or its fight scenes, Gundam Build Fighters is beloved either way. The series is a love letter to Gundam, with many fans joking the series’ many guest appearances signify it’s actually Gundam heaven.
Nonetheless, the series offers a light-hearted adventure focused on a pair of young teenagers looking to reach the top in the world of Gunpla battles. It can be easy to believe that a show focused on Gunpla fights has zero stakes.
However, the story works because the characters are invested, making the viewers invested as well. Meanwhile, Sunrise isn’t afraid to go all out with some of the battles, showing mecha from different universes getting torn apart in battle.
The Naruto Franchise Have Made An Art Out Of Ninja Battles
Much like One Piece, Naruto is one of the major shonen franchises responsible for the genre’s dominance. Even though it hasn’t been on the air for years, it still maintains a powerful grip on the anime community.
Across Naruto and Naruto Shipuuden is a powerful story about the cycle of hatred, and one boy that’s willing to do anything it takes to achieve his dreams. Naturally, a series about warring ninja clans was always going to have some great fight scenes.
Characters mix their abilities up between hand-to-hand, illusionary techniques known as genjutsu, and powerful ninjutsu techniques to keep every fight varied. Even when the story’s plot isn’t strong, the combat is always excellent, just like the show’s sequel series, Boruto.
Solo Leveling Has A Lot Of Awesome Fight Scenes For A Show Featuring An Invincible Protagonist
Solo Leveling went from a popular webtoon to one of the biggest anime series in the world in no time. The story of Sung Jin-woo climbing his way from irrelevancy to being one of the most powerful hunters in the world became immensely popular among anime fans everywhere.
It can often feel like a wish fulfillment series, but when a series looks as good as Solo Leveling, it can get away with a lot. Sung Jin-woo’s journey to the top might seem easy in hindsight, but he’s achieved everything he has through quite a bit of hard work.
The series provided plenty of epic match-ups with monsters and humanoid monsters to make him earn his biggest power-ups. Matches like Sung Jin-woo versus the Cerberus, or his fight against Igris, are the exact reason fans can’t put the series down.
My Hero Academia Does Superheroes Versus Supervillains Even Better Than Most Movies
For a decade, My Hero Academia was the face of modern shonen anime. Studio BONES elevated Kohei Horikoshi’s already excellent manga into something that could become a global fan-favorite, changing the anime world forever. It launched at the perfect time, taking advantage of superheroes entering the pop culture landscape to offer commentary on what it means to be a hero, and how their presence affects society.
My Hero Academia has been offering incredible battles since the first season. While Deku wasn’t the most durable protagonist at first, the other characters filled in the gaps, providing some brilliantly creative fights that made the most of their different quirks. And the training Deku did to master his powers made his victories mean even more later on in the series.
The Fate Series Has Always Placed An Importance On Stunning Fight Scenes
The Fate series is simultaneously one of the most popular and most confusing franchises in anime. There are so many different series, and yet most of them represent different timelines, some of which don’t even have anything to do with one another.
The recent Fate/Strange Fake represents another off-shoot timeline of the main series, but with some incredible writing that made it one of the best anime to come out in 2026. However, confusing or not, there’s no franchise that compares to the quality of Fate‘s fight scenes.
Regardless of how people like their fights, Fate has something for everyone. Whether it’s close-up hand-to-hand combat between icons from history, or long-range projectile battles between mages and archers, Fate manages to make everything look as thrilling as possible.
The Dragon Ball Franchise Has Been Inspiring Shonen Anime For Decades
For decades now, Dragon Ball has remained a beloved franchise. The series boasts memorable characters and unforgettable storylines, and it defined battle shonen storytelling.
Every era of Dragon Ball has always come with some of the best fights in anime history. Whether it’s the original Dragon Ball, DBZ, or anything else, the franchise has always known how to keep viewers invested through its heart-pounding battles.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Is Full Of Imaginative Battle Scenes
Since 2012, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been one of the best ongoing anime. It’s gotten one of the most loving translations from manga to anime, perfectly translating Hirohiro Araki’s unique artstyle, which makes it stand out from every other series. Beyond that, the willingness to change the setting and characters frequently makes sure fans never get tired of the series, even after a decade of episodes.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure also stands out for having some of the most creative fight scenes in anime. The usage of the Stands could’ve easily been dull, but instead they stand out as one of the best-developed power systems ever. The result is a series that can always find new ways to surprise viewers with how battles play out.
Yu Yu Hakusho Offers Some Of The Best Fights Of ’90s Anime
Yu Yu Hakusho is one of a handful of ’90s anime series that’s not getting by on nostalgia; it’s actually as amazing as everyone says. The series’ small cast size means every character gets ample development, each member of the main cast growing into a more mature person as the story develops.
At the same time, it manages to shift genres effortlessly while maintaining quality, providing an experience unlike anything else in the shonen space. Amidst all that, the fight scenes in Yu Yu Hakusho are still top-notch. Because the series doesn’t last long, each battle is well-paced, keeping the filler moments to a minimum.
One Piece’s Fights Have Only Become More Impressive Over Time
One of the longest-running anime of all time, One Piece has turned into an institution in the anime world. At this point, people have been watching it long enough to raise children who also become One Piece fans. That’s not just proof of how long it’s been running, but the show’s level of consistent quality.
True, One Piece‘s pacing hasn’t always been the best, but that has nothing to do with its fight scenes, which have always been amazing. That’s even more true recently, as Toei Animation has been putting even more time into recent episodes, causing fight scenes like Luffy vs. Kaido to stand out beautifully.
When people discuss Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, it’s usually with respect to its storyline and characters. Across its 64 episodes, Brotherhood introduces one of the best casts in anime, and gradually unfolds a perfectly plotted narrative. Yet, as flawless as the story is, Brotherhood never forgets about the action side of things.
Brotherhood features some of the best-choreographed fight scenes of the 2010s. Every fight scene with Scar is unforgettable, as the character moves more like a force of nature than anything. In fact, Brotherhood might be one of the only anime where the supporting cast have more impressive fight scenes than the protagonists, even though the Elric Brothers are quite entertaining to see in action as well.
