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Speaking about Escaflowne, in the series the beatdown [spoiler]where Van destroys all of Dilandau's crew, giving the latter such a shock he went insane (well, moreso). Great stuff.[/spoiler]

I've always liked the opening sequence of Escaflowne:The Movie where Van goes ape shit on the airship. It was a truly beautiful few minutes as he dives down from the sky and chops a few heads off. A few of the other scenes were well done as well and accompanied by a great soundtrack.

The hot spring scene in the Tenchi Muyo OVA where Ryoko summons a demon was very entertaining. Can't say much about the other "showdowns" in the series though.

I agree with Skylark and the opinions of the awesomely crafted fight scenes displayed in the first, last, and a few in-between in Samurai Champloo.

I'm a lover not a fighter.

Somehow fights in shows in which it is the norm often don't catch my attention for more than a few days so I'll go with a different thene.

Taiga Aisaka vs. Sumire Kanō in Toradora. It's a fierce fight between regular schoolgirls. Emotions are laid bare, frustrations are released, wicked punches and wooden swordplay is invoolved, and as a story element solves a number of problems for the cast. So I'll highlight that one.

the "alternate leveling up" formula is pretty proven as long as:
1. it's not over-used (too much in a single fight especially and makes it draggy)
2. the fights and new powers are interesting, and provides interesting twists.

Naruto may not be at its best now and the plot is somewhat predictable imo, but I do find that the new powers and the fights are still pretty interesting.

As for my favourite fights, it has to be the turn-based fights in Bleach [/sarcasm]

Best fight has to be the last episode in School Days. [spoiler]Things are going crazy, the suspenseful music building, one of the two characters is mentally off, and someone has a knife.[/spoiler] For two school girls who should have no experience fighting; [spoiler]Kotonoha delivers and epic block to Sekai's thrust and in one cool motion, silts her throat. Chilling.[/spoiler]

Looks like Samurai Champloo, ROD, and Eva are already taken :/. Only ones I can think of off the top of my head are from

Hellsing Ultimate OVA, along with gruesome violent slaughter, Alucard gets into some epic gunfights and duels, especially with his rival Alexander. Of course Alucard just goes Uber-vamp and just scares the other dude half to death and literally eats them.

Ninja Scroll is all about that boss battle event, each fight being unique and epic. Jubei can get into a tough spot at times fighting unusual enemies, but pulls out some improvised ghetto-samurai tricks, quite entertaining.

There's a lot more that I can't think of now, but these are the most unique fights and certainly not from the shonen pile.

Seirei no Moribito, episode three. Balsa takes on four incredibly strong assailants and holds her own in one of the finely animated and expertly choreographed fights in Anime, ever. That show didn't have many fight scenes, but when it did, boy were they good.

I like a lot of the fight scenes from Dragonball Z franchise, although I'll admit a lot is to do with nostalgia. There were a lot of epic beatdowns, but Android 17 versus Kami and Piccolo fusion is notable for being such an evenly matched slugfest, instead of using the usual Shounen powerup tropes.

The Championship match of the Orange Islands in Pokemon. Best fight in that series I've ever witnessed, though I've only watched the show up to about halfway through the Hoenn region (and then only patchily).

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion episode eleven, the first fight between the Guren and Lancelot. Kallen and Suzaku's final battle in R2 was also very well done.

Neon Genesis Evangelion, episode nineteen. If you've watched the show, you will know exactly what I mean. Awesome and terrifying at the same time.

Bakemonogatari, Koyomi versus [spoiler]Suruga. She was swinging him around by his entrails; holy crap. And then Hitagi just comes along and effortlessly berates Koyomi and breaks up the fight.[/spoiler]

A few good Mecha fights can be found in Gundam SEED, especially with regards to the druggies. They were crazy, but in a fun way; the way they were more interested in fighting one another than the heroes was hilarious.

A few Cowboy Bebop fights were pretty good. Episode five had a particularly good one, the [spoiler]first time we saw Vicious.[/spoiler]

FLAG and Gasaraki were both filled with Mecha porn. It is too hard to choose which fights in either one of them was the best.

As much as I thought it was pretty disappointing, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood had some awesome fights. [spoiler]Roy versus Lust and Al versus both Kimblee and Pride[/spoiler] were two of my favourites.

This isn't a normal fight per se, but the fourth battle in Initial D First Stage was pretty awesome, mostly because of the way the [spoiler]girls slowly realised just how outclassed they really were.[/spoiler]

Macross Frontier had lots of fairly good battles, but the over-the-top finale simply outclasses them all. Too bad that it went on so long there wasn't a proper conclusion to the characters . . . but the battle was good.

Master Keaton, the episode where Keaton takes on a dog. Doesn't sound impressive? Your loss for not watching it. Half the episode was an extended battle, more of wits than of strength. And that dog was no ordinary canine . . . but saying anything more would give away too much. Just watch the series, will you?

Samurai 7, the final battle between the palace and the village. Full of emotion, full of great action sequences.

Trigun, final battle. Some battles are aided with epic, soaring, rousing music to get your blood pumping, while other battles have little music and are better for it. This battle was of the latter. The lack of music really heightens the tension as there are no musical clues to tell you what's going to happen next. Just watch the battle, though not on YouTube (everyone mistakenly adds music, and it ruins it).

Zipang, [spoiler]the USS Wasp and its complement of aircraft versus the Mirai.[/spoiler] An extended battle with not that much actual fighting, it is a great one nonetheless, mostly because it is a very character-driven battle.

I hope that's enough.

OK, ok I'll play. Didn't know I was trampling on sacred cows here.

I can't say what was "greatest" but there are a few that I would put in a top ten list.

When Jigaro takes on each and all of the King's Spears to defend Balsa. Damn righteous.

Black Lagoon has several -- that torpedo boat vs. helicopter thing had to be a joke, but Revy vs. anyone is worth watching. I particularly liked the fight in the bowling alley in japan. Talk about comeuppance.

Mezzo had its moments -- again in a bowling alley -- when the two versions of the orange girl go at it. However VW bugs can't do that. Honorable mention for Asami kicking that guy in the nuts, and then finally standing down the bullies that picked on her.

Formula or not, I liked the final fight in Kenichi Disciple, particularly the part where he emulates each master in turn. The master's reactions are hilarious.

In ROD the TV, they did a pretty good job with Maggie vs. the evil paper-master guy.

And of course I would also pick one of the duels out of RGU -- I just don't know which one.

How's that?

Originally Posted by HaruhiToy

Generally, an anime fight goes like this:

1. Provocation/Challenge. Blows/lightning bolts/whatever get traded.

2. Hero get beat down. Usually after puffing up. ("I am not going to lose to you!") Villain: "pathetic worm you aren't worth my time."

3. Villain yak yaks over technique or superiority or metaphysics or whatever long enough that Hero recovers enough to get up again. ("It isn't over!")

4. Villain surprise stage. Usually emotes new anger or perhaps amusement, usually as a sign of receding contempt. Hero isn't dead yet dude why don't you read the script they gave you?

5. Hero pulls out new, stronger weapon/technique/power-level ("aaarrrghhhh!") that they should have used from the get go but that would have made everything done with back at step 1.

6. Sometime repeat steps 2-5 because the bad guy also ratchets up another level. In Bleach this is done about 37 times.

7. Villain finally beat down. The big variance happens here but the options are A) die, B) slink off B1) forever, or B2) vowing revenge, and then the all time favorite C) become friends with hero.

Now of course this isn't the end of things. After this you "level up" to the next bad guy and if you thought the LAST guy was badass it turns out he was just a flunky for the super-badass that is coming next. Here you usually get the obscured-eyes-evil-grin trope and go back to Step 1, already in progress.

So which fight is "best?" None of them.

You apparently need to watch more anime fights, my friend. Or less shounen.

One of the favorites fights I've seen has to be Revy vs. Roberta in Black Lagoon. They have an epic gun battle across the docks of Roanapur until Balalaika comes to break it up, then they proceed to literally beat each other senseless with their fists as the sun rises. I don't know if I've ever seen a fight so brutal between two women.