10 Best Anime Fights Of All Time
1. Goku Vs Vegeta - Dragonball Z
There are great anime fights, there are legendary anime fights, and then there is the battle between Goku and Vegeta. At the end of the day, no other fight even comes close to comparing with this duel. In terms of spectacle, variety, impact on the story, and thematic subtext, it has all the rest beat.
Goku, after learning of his true heritage as the member of an extinct race of barbaric space warriors known as the Saiyans, finally comes face to face with the last surviving member of the Saiyan royal family, Prince Vegeta. In one corner, a Saiyan elite, trained by the best and the strongest member of his race even before they were wiped out, and in our corner, the cast out, forgotten son of a random Saiyan soldier.
And the resulting fight is nothing short of glorious.
The two go back and forth with each other perfectly, pulling out one crazy, incredibly risky technique after the other. In Goku's case, he ends up doing as much if not more damage to himself than Vegeta in overclocking his power-up technique - the Kaioken - to get an advantage. And in the end - in a twist ending that would define their rivalry for the rest of the series - the fight technically ends in a draw, with Gohan and Krillin having to come in and finish Vegeta off.
It's hard to think of anything new to say about it. We all know this fight, its most famous moments, and how important it is to the franchise as well as to anime as a whole. If you don't believe me, how about this: if it wasn't for Vegeta - and by extension, this battle - Sasuke wouldn't exist. Hell, most shonen rivals wouldn't exist. Rival characters exist as a foil to the main character, and Masashi Kishimoto gave that job to the villains, so a rival seemed pointless. But his editor, and Shonen Jump itself, told him to add one in if he wanted his story to get picked up by them.
That is the impact that this fight has had on not just the franchise, but on the medium itself. Like the rest of Dragonball Z, this is more than just a fantastic fight. It is nothing short of important.