Top 10 Anime Shootouts

“Canaan” (2009)

What better place for two assassins to go head to head than on a train? As talented mercenaries and eternal rivalries, Canaan and Alphard find themselves once again trying to take each other out. With her friends in danger, Canaan goes all out against her foe, with the two of them evenly matched when it comes to dishing out both gunshots and taunts. With a fast-pace, interesting setting and copious amounts of bad blood between the two, this miniature brawl is certainly a fun one to behold.

“The End of Evangelion” (1997)

In fairness, was there any doubt that an alliance between Genko Ikari and a shadowy cult was ever going to work out? As the backstabbing escalates and Gendo’s own dark desires come to light, the NERV facility finds itself caught in the middle when SEELE sends in the Japanese strategic special defence force to wipe them out. While its clear they are hopelessly outgunned, it doesn’t stop the likes of Hyuga, Aoba and Ibuki from putting up a fight. Then of course you have Misato, who gets more than her fair share of shots in.

“FLCL” (2000-01)

Okay, technically Haruko uses her guitar here, but since she uses it like a bazooka and causes that much destruction, we couldn’t let the opportunity pass us by. Confronted by Commander Amarao and a whole legion of heavily armed suits, Haruko does what she does best and blows them all to hell. The fight may be a brief one, but seeing her move in bullet time and blast away Amarao’s men with a guitar rifle is by far one of our favourite bass player’s most badass moments.

“Jormungund” (2012)

The plot for this series revolves around a group of illegal weapons dealers under the command of a young woman with more than a few screws loose. Of course bullets are going to fly! Whether it’s the skirmish on the freighter, Jonah shooting down military vehicles with a rifle, a sniper fight against a duo of assassins or that one time a group of commandos got blown to bits, Koko and company never fail to leave a trail of bodies while on business. How’s that for customer service?

“Gunslinger Girl” (2003-08)

Aww, what a sweet little girl. How could someone so precious ever be associated with anything to do with violence? Well, as it happens looks are deceiving since Henrietta just so happens to be a deadly, cyborg assassin…because of course she is. This is fully put on display when her beloved Jose is threatened by a group of thugs, promoting her to bust out the old FN P90 and gun them all down until she’s basically tore up the entire floor of the building.

“Lupin III: Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone”

One of the deadliest snipers in the world against Lupin’s right-hand man? It’s a match made in heaven. Known for making the graves of his victims beforehand, this one-eyed sniper relentlessly pursues Jigen and Lupin. This eventually leads to him and our favourite fedora wearing thief engaging in a battle of snipers followed by a high noon style standoff. Unfortunately for Yael, there’s not a man alive who knows guns better than Daisuke Jigen, concluding with him walking away the winner. Suave doesn’t even begin to describe it.

“Trigun: Badlands Rumble” (2010)

Despite his quirky nature, no one bests Vash the Stampede in a duel, even if his opponent is a towering thief armed with a machine gun for an arm. Of course, bigger doesn’t always mean better, something that Gasback learns the hard way when all his weapons are taken out by a few well-placed shots from Vash’s signature gun. Even if the fight is ridiculously one-sided, it’s still pretty epic to see the sixty billion double dollar man show off his marksmanship skins while basked in such crisp animation.

“Puella Magi MadokaMagica the Movie Part III: Rebellion” (2013)

No matter your thoughts on that WTF ending, you cannot deny that this flick has one of the most balls to the wall gun fights ever put to animation. After discovering that her world is nothing more than an illusion, Homura founds herself coming into conflict with her friend Mami. Given that these two are magical girls, not only so we see them pull guns literally out of thin air, but thanks to Homura’s power ‘over time’, we see each shot cascade around them in slow motion. You will never see a more beautiful storm of bullets.

“Black Lagoon” (2006)

The Bloodhound of Florenica does not play nice. In her pursuit to save her young master from the criminals of Roanapur, this maid declares a one-woman war on…well, practically everyone. Not even Revy is safe from her. Her crowning moment came when she took on the likes of the Lagoon company as well as the Columbian cartel, armed with nothing more than a suitcase and an umbrella. It’s just a shame for them that said umbrella and suitcase happen to fire bullets. Seriously, this maid is so hardcore she keeps grenades hidden in her dress.

“Cowboy Bebop” (1998-99)

By this point, we were pretty much convinced that Spike Spiegel was so cool that there was no bounty that could outgun or outplay him. And then along came Vicious. In an effort to save Faye, Spike meets with his old foe inside of a church. As you’d expect, things take a rather violent turn as the Space Cowboy finds himself facing off against some heavily-armed members of Red Dragon Syndicate. Boxed in, all Spike can do is shoot and grenade his way through them until he gets a shot at Vicious…only to be promptly thrown out of a window soon after.