10 Most Powerful Anime Characters Of All Time
5. Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail)
Before My Hero Academia came along, if you wanted a shonen anime with tons of badass female characters, you went to Fairy Tail. And while the show wasn't even within the same four or five timezones as perfect, it did give the world Erza Scarlet, so we can't put it down too much.
Fairy Tail's other main distinction from other shonen was that, while he was no slouch, main character Natsu Dragneel was - right up until the end - never the strongest guy in the cast. If he fought the main villain, it's because he either stumbled upon a plan to beat him and intercepted him, everyone else has been beaten or is otherwise occupied and he's the last man standing, or he just flat out stumbled across him by accident.
Erza meanwhile is what the other characters throw at a problem when they just want the problem to go away. Her gimmick is Re-Quip magic, creating a magic pocket dimension wherein she stores tons of enchanted weapons and armor (as well as all the clothes she owns because honestly, why not?). Any one of these armor or weapons would be enough to solve a problem, but when all of them are wielded at once and she can switch between them at will? Erza is damn near unstoppable.