Top 10 Most Controversial Anime Fight Finishes

“Fairy Tail” (2009-19)
You have to feel sorry for Lucy here, she’s already bearing the burden of being arguably one of the most useless characters in the whole series, with this battle not really helping to change the status quo. While on an average day this busty, blonde beauty would be able to employ her magic to take this Raven Tail member to task, thanks to some intervention from Obra, Flare was easily able to burn and discard Lucy right out of the Grand Magic Games and straight into the loser’s circle.

“The Saga of Tanya the Evil” (2017)
She might consider herself to be the most unfortunate soul in human history, but it seems this reincarnated soldier has plot armour for miles! At least when it comes to the magical firefights that she constantly finds herself wrapped up in. With the vengeful Anson Sioux hot on her heels, it appeared that all of Tanya’s suffering was about to be for naught when he had her dead to rights…until her squad showed up to save her, or she somehow survived by the skin of teeth. Honestly by this point she could take on the war effort by herself.

“Dragon Ball” (1986-89)
He already lost to Jackie Chun, couldn’t you have at least given him this?! While in retrospect this little victory is basically Tien crowning achievement, it was still disheartening to see a young Goku once again lose the championship by just a hair. With the two plummeting from their aerial battle, the winner is set to be decided depending on who falls closer to the stadium. Goku was in with a hell of a good chance, if not for the fact he crashed headfirst into a vehicle on the way down, costing him the title, again!

“The Rising of the Shield Hero” (2019)
As if the Spear Prick and the Bitch Princess hadn’t given us enough reason to hate them, they pull off something like this?! Challenging Naofumi after once again being manipulated by Myne, the two Cardinal heroes clash in a one on one duel with Raphtalia’s freedom hanging in the balance. Despite being on the defensive, the embittered isekaier looked like he was in with a real chance of kicking Motoyasu to the curb, until along came Myne to wreck everything with an out of bounds attack. It’s infuriating to watch, yet thankfully paved the way for our favourite racoon girl to bring her beloved back to the light.

“Attack on Titan” (2013-)
Now this is just foul play! You can’t tag team in just when it was getting to the good part! While his blows pack nowhere near as much as intensity as the Armored Titan, Eren proved to be far more nimble, as well as have a talent for grappling. Taking the lessons he learned during his training regime, Eren’s Attack Titan proved to be strong enough to the point that it looked like he was getting close to breaking Reiner a new one…until Bertie decided to spoil the fun by tossing his Colossal ass over the side of the wall and dropping on both of them.

“Megalo Box” (2018)
These two had pushed themselves to the max and sacrificed nearly everything just to arrive at this championship fight, especially Yuri, who had gone through the agonising procedure of getting his gear removed just so it would be a fair bout. You’d think this would be one for the history books, when the truth of the matter was the fight not only turned out to be lacklustre, but the Russian star got knocked down so hard he didn’t even get to see the fight end, and potentially ended his boxing career as a result!

“Soul Eater” (2008)
Up until the climax, the final battle against Death’s fearful and rebellious disciple was on point, with Maka using every scythe ability in her arsenal to try and slice him up, but failing to cut through Asura’s near invulnerable hide. What ace in the hole could she possibly pull out to vanquish such a godly threat? Apparently believing in yourself, being brave and landing a single punch was enough to nuke the former Meister right out of existence. Uh, Maka, you’re awesome, but you ain’t Saitama.

“Yu Yu Hakusho” (1992-94)
The ongoing clash between these two Spirit Detectives was definitely a high point for the series, if only for Sensui’s tragically sinister nature as an MVP villain, who held such power in his hand that none of Yusuke’s crew were able to measure up. At least until the ultimate punk made a return from the dead, now possessed by the raging spirit of his demonic ancestor, and proceeded to beat Sensui down so badly that every one of his split personalities felt it. As awesome as it might seem, the experience was dampened when we realised it wasn’t Yusuke in the driver’s seat, robbing him of an actual victory.

“My Hero Academia” (2016-)
Was it an awesome spectacle to behold? Absolutely, especially when it came to Kacchan going balls to the wall with all his uber explosions. Of course, the real point of this finale was to serve as foil for Todoroki’s recent revelation following his victory against Midoriya, which left him internally conflicted about whether or not to use his flames, and much to the chagrin of everyone, he didn’t. Only at half power, Bakugo was able to snatch the win, albeit a hollow one that left everyone venting for a rematch that would see both bad boys unleashing their Quirks at full power.

“Bleach” (2004-12)
By this point, Aizen was a butterfly of death capable of single-handedly bringing down the entire Gotei 13. Normal conventions were never going to work, which meant that, sadly, Ichigo had no choice but to unleash that classic Shinigami ability – the Deus Ex Machina. After empowering himself with the Final Getsuga Tensho, the strawberry wasn’t only able to hold his own against Aizen, he trounced him with the minimum of effort, even after he had ascended to his final mullet form. All concluding with a one-hit KO that sent the genius villain packing. It was certainly flashy, but not quite what we had all been hoping for.