10 Strongest Fighting Styles In Anime, Ranked (2023)

Anime consistently has pretty awesome fights. With quality animation and a good story, an anime can do whatever it wants to make a brawl enjoyable. Some anime series like to stick with the basics, while other anime like their fights to be earth-shattering events.

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While an anime's animation pulls a lot of weight when it comes to making fights look good, there are certain fighting styles that make a fight ten times more exciting. Not every anime character is an expert in fighting, but even the novices look cool when they use the right fighting style.

10 Spike Excels At The Art Of Jeet Kune Do

Spike from Cowboy Bebop may seem lazy, but he's actually an incredible mixed martial artist. Spike is a practitioner of Jeet Kune Do, which is a hybrid martial arts philosophy inspired by the martial arts of Bruce Lee. This fighting style allows the user to fluidly predict their opponent's actions and react to them.

With water-like motions, Spike is impossible to hit, which can be rather frustrating and painful for anyone who chooses to fight him. Considering how amazing a fighter Bruce Lee was, it makes sense that his own technique would be completely unstoppable.

9 Hamon Gives Fighters The Power Of The Sun

One of the best fighting styles in anime is Hamon from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Users of this technique are able to fill their bodies with sunlight energy by controlling their breathing.

Johnathan Joestar was even able to perform a zoom punch, which extended the joints in his arm so he could punch an opponent that was far away from him. This would be an incredibly painful technique for other martial arts users, but thanks to Harom, Jostar was able to heal his body while performing the attack.

8 Drunk Fighting Is The Funniest Fighting Style

Most anime have implemented Drunken Fighting, which makes sense considering how wacky the fights can be. Chu from Yu Yu Hakusho masters the art of Drunken Fighting, but he certainly isn't the only one.

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Naruto, Dragon Ball, and even My Hero Academia have all had characters who become stronger when drinking. It's a staple of anime that can make a fight hilarious and intense at the same time. While getting a character drunk has made for some awesome fights, like Chu vs Yusuke, there is one obvious downside and that's a hangover.

7 Delinquents Are The Masters Of Street Fighting

The best anime fights don't always need flashy techniques or magic to be entertaining. Many series heavily rely on good old-fashioned street brawls, which is especially true for anime featuring delinquents. Tokyo Revengers is a more modern example of an anime with tons of street fighting, but it certainly isn't the first series to feature delinquents that like to get involved in fights.

Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho may have spirit energy on his side but at the beginning of the series, he was just a street punk like any other delinquent his age. Magic and superpowers can be fun in anime, but it's also nice to see fighters that are just normal humans.

6 Every Anime Needs A Guy With A Gun

When it comes to anime fighting styles most think of characters training their physical strength, but the art of gun fighting is also heavily featured in anime. Gunfighters may not rely on hand-to-hand combat, but their speed and accuracy are second to none.

Despite his goofy personality, Vash the Stampede from Trigun is the best at staying cool under pressure. Not many people can hit their opponents with perfect accuracy while dodging gunfire like he can. He may be one of the best gunfighters in anime, but he certainly isn't the only one. Every shonen anime has at least one character who uses a gun as a weapon, which shows how prevalent the fighting style really is.

5 Concentration Breathing Is The Most Beautiful Style

The great thing about Demon Slayer is the fighting styles the characters use are more than just sword fighting. The breathing techniques are often passed down within families and are the only way the Demon Slayer Corps can fight back against demons.

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Each breathing technique is incredibly unique. Tanjiro's water breathing style is fluid and calming while Zenitsu's thunder breathing is loud and quick. What really sets the breathing techniques apart from all other sword styles is the animation. It's one thing to know that Tanjiro is using water breathing, but it's even cooler that fans get to see what water breathing looks like.

4 Taijutsu Is All Rock Lee Needs To Win

Naruto characters may heavily rely on their chakra to fight their opponents, but some characters like to stick to the basics in the best way. Rock Lee and his master Guy can't use chakra, which means they have to rely on Taijutsu when fighting.

That may seem boring for anime fans who have never watched this series, but Lee has some of the best fights. His fight with Gaara during the Chunin Exams is amazing, especially when he removes the weights from his arms and legs. Lee may only be able to use Taijutsu, but with how talented he is, Taijutsu is all he needs.

3 Toph's Southern Praying Mantis Style Sets Her Apart

Avatar the Last Airbender has many unique fighting styles, and Earthbending is one of them. Toph Beifong is a blind bender who is constantly underestimated, but she consistently validates her status as one of the best benders in the series She uses Earthbending to see, which heightens her senses and her reaction time.

On top of that, her character uses a completely different fighting style than any other Earthbender. Toph's Earthbending is inspired by the Southern Praying Mantis Style instead of Hung Gar, which is used for all other Earthbenders. Her technique relies on counterattacks, which makes sense for a blind bender, but also makes her fights far more dynamic.

2 Kenshin Is The Fastest Samurai With The Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu

Many shonen anime use swords for their fighting styles because of how versatile the art is. One of the most recognizable sword styles is Kenshin's Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu from Rurouni Kenshin. This sword fighting style is ancient, which allows the user to defeat multiple opponents.

As an expert in the technique, Kenshin is able to take out a whole room of samurai in an instant. The style also gives him speed and flexibility to anticipate his opponent's movements, which was incredibly useful during his fight with the super-fast Sojiro.

1 Martial Arts Is Dynamic and Versatile

When anime fans think of martial arts, Dragon ball is one of the first series to come to mind. However, there are many forms of martial arts, including Renewal Taekwondo, which is used by the main character Jin Mori in God of High School.

This fighting style is a Korean technique created by Jin Tae-Jin during the Korean War. Not only is Jin incredibly fast and strong when using this technique but he can even perform attacks that knock out his opponents with air pressure. Compared to other forms of martial arts, Renewal Taekwondo is definitely one of the strongest.

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