If there’s one thing anime is good at portraying, especially those ofthe shōnen genre, it’s the great fights and battles that come with being an ambitious young warrior ready to impose your will on the world and fulfill your wildest dreams.
Anime is one of the best mediums when it comes to showing the life of a born fighter (or a group of battlers) making their way through worlds where you have to be strong to survive. Whether this be with powerful weapons, superhuman abilities, or both combined. Here are 5 of the best anime where the focus characters are this archetype of the great warrior.
The top viking anime, Vinland Saga, is famous not just for its great storyline and thrilling battle scenes between viking warriors, but one of the most commonly quoted philosophical lines in all of anime - “I have no enemies”. Young men across social media platforms have repeated and taken in that mantra, one which could be called the moral of Vinland Saga’s story, as it’s in anime that makes you question how righteous getting revenge truly is.
In this anime, a young boy named Thorfinn sees his father murdered unjustly in front of his own two eyes. Later, the boy joins the crew of the man who killed his father, fighting alongside these awful vikings as he proves to have a natural talent for bloodsport. Thorfinn only fights underneath the man who killed his father in an effort to build up his strength. He wishes to become powerful enough to challenge the man in a duel, kill him, and finally have his vengeance for what was the worst day of his life.
But this is easier said than done. That might be Thorfinn’s goal, but his journey is not as straight -forward. Vinland Saga explores the inner and outer world ofthis young protagonistas he lives and learns through the years.
An unorthodox pick considering the world of One Piece is much morelighthearted and fun-lovingthan all the other entries on this list. But being a warrior is an important part of living in the One Piece world, with there being as much blood and battle in this universe as there is fun and adventure to be had.
To be a great pirate is to be free, to operate based on your own will. But to do this, means to fight against those who want to control your behavior such as the navy, as well as those who want to use their will to oppress others, such as the more morally unscrupulous pirates. Our main characters in this world, the Straw Hat Crew, are filled with a series of individuals who would be considered excellent pre-modern warriors in any other series you put them in.
Monkey D. Luffy proves to be one of the strongest fighters in the world, almost losing his life in the fiercest of battles against the strongest of opponents multiple times.Roronoa Zoro is one of the best swordsmen in anime. Vinsmoke Sanji’s body is a weapon. In the world of One Piece, those with the best fighting skills, strongest wills, and grandest dreams are those who make it the furthest with a violent force.
Potentially the most horrific of anime worlds to live in as a warrior or as a civilian. But ifGut’s life is anything to go off of, being even a great warrior in Berserk is a difficult and arduous path many would not envy. In Berserk, we follow the life of an unfortunate warrior in the darkest of medieval societies. Born from a mother already dead, Guts came into the world bloody and alone.
During his childhood, he joins a band of criminals and fighters and fights miscellaneous battles with them. This does not end well, with one of these men assaulting him, and following that, the death of what could only be described as an awful father figure. Later on in life, he meets a new band of mercenaries to fight alongside, led by anenigmatic and charismatic man of great splendor. But that too does not end well, with what can only be described as the horrors of the most strange and problematic anime contributing to this enigmatic man sacrificing all of his comrades to achieve ultimate power.
Throughout this anime and his life, Guts is a warrior who is cursed, marked for life, and forced to fight monsters in the literal and metaphorical sense to survive every day.
An anime which takes the intrigue of Ancient Chinese warfare to its natural conclusion with the constant wars and battles between nations and factions. Kingdom is a manga famous for being the most readily recommended for those with an interest in ancient warfare and brutal medieval settings.
In Kingdom, we follow Shin, who proves to be violent and high-energy, even by the standards of a shōnen protagonist. Like all great shōnen protagonists, Shin has a goal to become the greatest. He wants his name to go down in history as the most powerful battle commander ever. He starts the anime as a young boy with great fighting skills, training against his equally skilled friend who shares his lofty ambitions. Unfortunately, this friend is soon killed in a body-double plot to protect a king. But fortunately, this is where Shin’s journey to realizing his ambitions truly starts as he joins forces with a young king who plans on unifying many nations and ending the constant wars that go on between their lands.
If you’re interested in the intricate strategies and battle tactics that have to be considered whilst fighting in a war, this is the anime for you.
1Attack on Titan
A Battle Against Monsters In More Ways Than One
In other pre-modern worlds, being a warrior is considered one of the highest honors one could have, with young men lining up to show their worth through bloody battles. In the world of Attack on Titan, however, those who consider themselves warriors also consider themselves to be very unlucky. For the first few seasons of Attack on Titan, it is not armies of other men who our main characters must battle against with blades.
It is armies of mindless giant monsters that have an insatiable need to maim and devour. The titans are the reason why most of humanity, as far as the main characters know initially, is trapped within the walls like cattle. As the series goes on, the truth behind the titans is slowly revealed. The more that is revealed, the more the characters of Attack on Titan realize their true enemies are their fellow humans as they engage in even bloodier wars right up until the cataclysmic apocalyptic event in the final arc, whichcombines both the titan menace and a powerful human menacecontrolling it.
