When I first started out with anime it seemed all anime were fighting anime (of course, all the ones that seemed to ever be accessible were). Now I realise how many anime have nothing to do with fighting so it makes finding a fighting anime that really grabs my attention feel even more special. That said, 2019 was a little bit hit and miss with some anime really bringing the action and others being just a little bit more lack lustre than expected.
Please note, the nominees and winning choice are entirely my own opinion and are not based on any rigid criteria. Feel free to nominate your own winners for the categories in the comments. Help other readers find some awesome anime from 2019 to watch.
Best Fighting Anime of 2019
I’m just going to say before I get to the nominees, there was always a clear winner in my mind. While the other anime I’ve nominated here had the potential to be quite good, they never quite got there (for me at least).
And the winner is…
Demon Slayer
This one ended up being a pretty easy decision. Going into the year, I would have thought DanMachi Season 2 was going to claim this because season 1 gave me several of my favourite anime fights of all time. I love watching Bell in action. While season 2 gave us action it just wasn’t anywhere near the same scale or as interesting as season 1. One Punch Man season 2 likewise lacked impact and Alicization gave us some great fights but a story that drove me nuts and so much down time. As for Bungo Stray Dogs season 3, it was very nearly a surprise winner for this category as it actually did have some very cool moments, but it really couldn’t stand up to Demon Slayer if we are talking about cool action sequences.
Even though I didn’t universally love Demon Slayer, one thing for sure was that once the confrontation with whatever new demon began, the anime really brought its A game to the table. The choreography, colour and fluid animation in these sequences is fantastic to watch and each fight is exciting and feels quite novel. Whether it is the early fights where Tanjiro is still kind of finding his way and is assisted at times by Nezuko or the later fights where we are joined by the usually annoying side characters who for whatever reason manage to look actually pretty cool while fighting, Demon Slayer definitely deserves to win this category.
What fighting anime would you have nominated from 2019? What do you think should have won?
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
I will check out Demon Slayer. Thanks for sharing this list.
Its a toss up between Demon Slayer and Vinland Saga. I love both for their fighting and action sequences. Hopefully you get the chance to access Vinland Saga soon.
I’d go for Vinland Saga easily. The fights were short, chaotic, and brutal. Only fights that involved Thorkell looked like your avarage shonene fight. And from the beginning it’s been very clear that not to have to fight is better (and an obsession with revenge is unhealthy).
I still don’t have access but I would love to see this.
I’d include Fire Force in this list. It spent most of the season not quite sure what it wanted to be, but then the last six episodes it gave in and realized it was a battle shounen. There were so many excellent fights and the visuals were outstanding.
I still haven’t gone back and finished it.
Episodes 19 and 20 are the best ones, but everything after that is pretty exciting too.
Man, 2019 was just a visual treat for hype shounen fight scenes. I’m still saying that Mob Psycho S2 had the best action setpieces last year as a whole. That teleporter fight was just so nuts!