My top 5 tournament battles in anime

So, few months ago, I made a list of my top 5 anime tournaments. And here, I'm doing something kinda similar but, instead of the tournments themselves, I'm gonna count down the best fights in the tournaments. Some of these might be a bit different with where they're placed and some will be new that were never in the first one. And given how tournaments are all about fights and are one of the best aspects about anime, I really wanted to focus solely on the fights themselves. And so, let's begin and I hope you all like this.

5. Naruto vs. Neji (Naruto):

Starting us off is the knuckle headed ninja going up against the Hyuga prodigy. During the finals of the Chunin Exam, Naruto goes up against Hinata's cousin in a small bit of revenge for almost killing her in their fight. But that proves more difficult than he thought with Neji being far to tough for him to handle. Even after unleashing tons of his clones on him and using everything he had learned up until this point, Neji's combat mastery proved too much. That is until Naruto unleashed Kurama's chakra and use absolute power to demolish Neji. But the ending of the fight sees Naruto using his head in battle by digging a hole in the ground and delivering a final punch that put Neji down for good in the fight.

4. Gon vs. Hisoka (Hunter x Hunter):

Next up is the best fight from Heaven's Arena, Gon vs. Hisoka. This was essentially being set up since the Hunter Exam. After Hisoka delivered a strong punch to Gon, he's been doing everything he could to get stronger and return it, which he did. After learning the basics of Nen from Wing, Gon challenges the magician to which both of them showing what they're made of. With Hisoka being superior to Gon is every way, this felt so one-sided for him. But the battle is still as rough and raw as you can imagine with the team behind the scenes demonstrating exactly what they had with making every action scene in this series as awesome as possible. Even a relatively small scale fight like this is still insanely brutal with Gon and Hisoka just punching each other like crazy. Gon may have gotten stronger and was able to hold his own for a little bit, he was still no match for Hisoka's skill and Nen abilities. It all ends with Hisoka winning and declaring their next fight will be a fight to the death.

3. Goku, Frieza and 17 vs. Jiren (Dragon Ball Super):

The Tournament Of Power will definitely go down in history as one of the best tournaments in all of anime. And by far the absolute pinnacle of this masterpiece is the final climatic fight with Goku and Frieza teaming up against Universe 11's strongest fighter. Before that though, we had the monumental clash with Mastered Ultra Instinct Goku against fully powered up Jiren, which is one of the most insane battles in all of Dragon Ball. But, for me, the best part out of all of it when the Saiyan, Galactic Space Tyrant and Android go up against Jiren with all the power they have left. And it ends with one of the biggest and most awesome finishes in all of anime. And this is given the fact that Goku and Frieza were just barely able to defeat Jiren at all.

2. Deku vs. Todoroki (My Hero Academia):

Coming in close to number 1 is the battle between these two future heroes, Deku vs. Todoroki. These two have had tougher battles later in their careers, but in the U.A sports festival, they practically tore each other apart with their quirks. With Todoroki being a master of his ice quirk and Deku barely handling One For All, this fight was pure desperation on his part. Like I've said before, in this whole fight, Todoroki is determined to not use his dad's fire quirk until Deku finally manages to convince him otherwise. Which combinates in a huge clash of them smashing their powers at each other in some of the most gorgeous animation you'll ever see. Deku may have lost the fight, but he definitely did what he set out to do and help Todoroki and get him to change his ways. Which also helped solidify them as friends from that point on.

And my number 1 favourite anime tournament battle is... Yusuke vs. Toguro (Yu Yu Hakusho):

And finally at number 1 is the final battle of the greatest tournament arc in all of anime, Yusuke vs. Toguro at the Dark Tournament. Some might see this fight as slightly dated, especially compared to most other anime released nowadays, but this fight holds up big time with everything both characters do. It does mostly focus on Toguro being able to beat Yusuke to a pulp, but Yusuke does get a lot of really amazing moves like when he releases the Spirit Cuffs around his arms, or when he starts smacking Toguro around after he releases them or near the end when he gets a power boost from thinking Kuwabara is dead and blasts Toguro with one last Spirit Gun. However, that whole part is right after Toguro unleashes his full demon power. Becoming an absolute monster, Toguro not only gains massive strength with his massive muscles, but he's also changed his appearance with grey skin and an overall deformed body. But Yusuke is still using all he can to secure victory, especially since this fight is more about him getting revenge on Toguro for killing Genkai. And, eventually, the climax all builds to one last ditch effort from both characters with Yusuke using all the power he has to blast one last Spirit Gun and Toguro unleashing 100% of his power. With both exhausted at this point, it all end with Yusuke finally wins when his power is finally able to put Toguro down for good. And even beyond the climax, the fight throughout is just amazing with both either smacking each other or going back and forth with their different ideologies on everything that's happened. And when Yusuke finally unlocks his true power, it's made all the more satisfying when he finally begins to take Toguro apart. And all that is why Yusuke vs. Toguro is my favourite tournament battle in anime. And so everyone, those are my picks for my top 5 tournament battles in anime. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.