Anime is undeniably one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world. With its varied range of characters, engaging storylines, and eye-catching visuals, it appeals to a wide range of audiences. Furthermore, the character design and the overall mood that anime characters emit are the most appealing aspects of the anime medium.
Anime has given us some of the most incredible characters we’ve ever encountered. Some of the most badass and sadistic characters in any medium of entertainment can be found in anime.
Today, though, we’ll focus on the Top 17 Strongest Swords Users All Time In Anime. These characters range in age from teen years to young adults. There are good and bad people in their world. They’re all distinct in their own way. They do, however, have one thing in common. They’ll blow your mind with how well they use and wield swords. So prepare for a path filled with these mind-boggling sword users.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into the Top 17 Strongest Swords Users All Time In Anime.
17. Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto
Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto is one of the major supporting characters in the Bleach anime and manga series. He was the captain of the 1st Division in the Gotei 13 and also the Captain-Commander. As the founder of the Shinō Academy and a warrior with over two millennia of combat experience, Yamamoto is the most powerful combatant in Soul Society. Few would hope to come out alive from a fight with him.
He can fight two captain-level Shinigami simultaneously with a single hand. His skill in swordsmanship is great enough to take down his opponent with a single precise strike.
16. Dracule Mihawk
Dracule Mihawk is a supporting character in the One Piece anime and manga series. He is better known as Hawk Eyes, and is sometimes a hero, sometimes a villain. He was once a Shichibukai. He is currently the greatest swordsman in the world.
With his sword, Mihawk has tremendous strength when he unleashes waves from his sword as he chops out the head of an iceberg. He fought against Shanks countless times before ending his rivalry after Shanks lost his left arm. Mihawk’s black sword’s name is Yoru. His highest grade is Meito. Except for Meito and busoshoku imbued swords, his sword can break ordinary swords.
15. Kisuke Urahara
Kisuke Urahara is a supporting character in the anime and manga series Bleach. He is the former captain of the 12th Division, as well as the founder and first president of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute.Urahara is an extremely skilled swordsman, possessing powerful strikes with equally impressive speed behind them.
He can perform attacks with perfect precision and stop them in an instant. His abilities are considered highly dangerous by Ulquiorra Cifer, the 4th Espada, who opted to avoid fighting Urahara. While Urahara’s preferred fighting style seems to be swordsmanship, he is highly proficient in combining it with his other skills and instantly switching between any of them.
14. Shanks
Shanks, also known as “Red-Haired Shanks“, is a major protagonist in One Piece. He is a legendary and powerful pirate in the Grand Line, being the captain of the Red Haired Pirates and one of the Four Emperors in the second half of the Grand Line.
As the former rival of Mihawk, who is known as the world’s greatest swordsman, Shanks himself is an immensely skilled and powerful swordsman. Shanks could match a blow from Whitebeard with only one arm, which is a testament to his prowess in swordsmanship.
Shanks is also powerful enough to easily defend against Akainu’s magma fist using only his sword and Busoshoku Haki.
13. Levi Ackerman
Levi Ackerman is the tritagonist of the Attack on Titan anime and manga series. He is a captain in the Survey Corps, and is known to be the strongest soldier alive.
Levi has an unusual fighting stance that involves holding his right sword backhanded with the blade facing out and being behind him instead of in front of him. By doing this, the blades cut in a “circle” around him and give him the ability to utilize spinning and other rotating attacks, allowing him to maintain incredible speed and agility while fighting.
At the same time, this helps him keep his energy up without wasting stamina and strength needlessly, enabling him to fight for longer periods of time and take multiple targets out simultaneously.
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12. Killer Bee
Killer B is a major supporting character in the anime and manga series Naruto Shippuden. He is the host of Gyūki, the Eight-tailed Demon Ox. He was a shinobi who trained Naruto and was partnered with him while fighting Obito Uchiha.
When in battle, B holds his swords in a peculiar and unique manner. Rather than employing his hands, B would wield his blades in and between various parts of his body. The first two are held in the hinge joint of his right and left arm; another between his shoulder blade and neck; one in his mouth, under his left armpit; another between the hip joint of his right raised leg and the back leg of the same raised leg.
As strange as it seems, Killer B is extremely skilled with these blades and this fighting style, which he began adopting at a young age.
11. Gintoki Sakata
Gintoki Sakata is the main protagonist of the action-comedy anime and manga series, Gintama. While usually coming across as lazy, selfish, greedy, and an overall jerk, he is a true hero who defends those who cannot fight for themselves and always keeps his promises to protect others, especially those close to him.
Gintoki’s swordsmanship is rough but far from unrefined. He tends to wield even full-length katanas one-handed with fair-wide but quick chops. His level of skill has been complemented by several esteemed swordmasters, such as Yagyuu Binbokusai, who noted that his style is something not taught but developed by Gintoki himself.
10. Yami Sukehiro
Yami Sukehiro is one of the deuteragonists (alongside Yuno) in the Black Clover franchise. He is the first captain of the Clover Kingdom’s Black Bull squad of the Magic Knights and a former member of the Gray Deer squad.
Yami, arguably the greatest swordsman in the Clover Kingdom, has described himself as a magic swordsman. He is extremely skilled at swordsmanship; he easily fights on par with Patolli, the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, with nothing but swordplay in conjunction with his Dark Magic, destroying the surrounding environment.
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9. Tengen uzui
Tengen Uzui is a major protagonist in the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime and manga series. He serves as the deuteragonist of the Entertainment District Arc and the season 2 anime adaptation. Tengen is the Sound Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps.
As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen is one of the most powerful and skilled swordsmen in the entire organization. Unlike most Demon Slayers, Tengen chooses to utilize a dual-wielding swordsmanship style with his Nichirin Cleavers, making use of a nunchucks-esque sword wielding style
Tengen displays his unique and extraordinary swordsmanship skills during his battle against Gyutaro, managing to adapt to the Upper Rank’s “mantis-like” fighting style and go toe-to-toe with him for an extended period of time despite the Upper Rank having over a century of combat experience.
8. Akame
Akame, also known as Akame of the Demon Sword Murasame, is the fictional character and the titular deuteragonist of the manga series Akame ga Kill!, as well as the true main protagonist of the last episode of the anime and the main protagonist of the prequel manga Akame Ga Kill! Zero.
Akame is an extremely skilled master swordswoman, able to wield her Teigu Murasame with the utmost dexterity and precision, and able to slay numerous enemies, even highly skilled and powerful enemies, with incredible ease. She easily slayed Izou, a fellow master swordsman, in combat and would have killed Tatsumi, if not for the statue his chief villager gave him before embarking on his journey.
7. Kirito
Kazuto Kirigaya, also known by his avatar name Kirito, is one of the main protagonists of the light novel/anime/manga franchise Sword Art Online. His avatar name, Kirito, was taken from his real name, Kazuto Kirigaya.
He was a master of all types of sword skills, but his most popular skill is Dual Blades, which is a unique skill that belongs to Kirito in Sword Art Online. The skill allows the use of unique sword skills that are executed with two blades simultaneously.
6. Hyakkimaru
Hyakkimaru is the main protagonist of the Dororo series. He is a ronin searching for parts of his body that were stolen from him by demons and slaying said demons. The demons originally took his body parts as part of a pact with his father and archenemy.
Hyakkimaru had learned swordsmanship when he was a child. He can wield his swords with ease and cut down enemies swiftly, as well as break weapons such as swords, spears, and arrows into pieces and cut through armor.
5. Guts
Guts is the main protagonist of the Berserk anime and manga series. He is renowned as the “Black Swordsman”. He is a former mercenary and branded wanderer who travels the world in a constant internal struggle between pursuing his own ends and upholding his attachments to those dear to him.
Ever since he was six years of age, Guts has wielded oversized swords, culminating in his incredible strength and master swordsmanship. Despite his Herculean stature, Guts is notably dexterous and agile in the heat of battle, capable of dodging and countering even the most rapid strikes.
He is a combat pragmatist and versatile improviser, capitalizing on any opportunity available to surmount opposition; on several occasions, he has used children to bait and distract enemies when overwhelmed.
4. Saber
Saber is one of the main characters in Fate/Zero and one of the three main heroines in Fate/Stay Night, along with Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou. She’s the Saber Class Servant of Kiritsugu Emiya in the Fourth Holy Grail War of Fate/Zero.
She is an excellent sword user, as she proved in many battles. Furthermore, her qualifying conditions require the Heroic Spirits to have legends as knights of the sword, and it is the class that requires the highest levels of attributes in all but the Magic attribute.
3. Himura Kenshin
Himura Kenshin is also known as the legendary hitokiri of the Meiji Revolution, Hitokiri Battōsai. He is the main protagonist and titular character of the Rurouni Kenshin series. Kenshin has spent ten years traveling Japan as a rurouni in search of redemption, carrying a sakabatō with the vow to never kill again.
He is a living legend known throughout Japan for his surreal mastery of swordsmanship, able to effortlessly cut through steel and one of the few Meiji master swordsmen able to perform the act of modoshi giri, in which an accomplished wielder of the sword wielding the best of blades is able to cut so neatly, the target can be reattached as if it was never cut.
2. Ichigo Kurosaki
Ichigo Kurosaki is the main protagonist of the Bleach anime and manga series. He is a human who is also a substitute Shinigami. Ichigo is the son of Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki, and the older brother of Karin and Yuzu.
In terms of fighting style, while in his Shinigami form, Ichigo relies mainly on swordplay. Aside from his initial training with Urahara, he is essentially on a “learn as you go” training regimen; thus, his skill has developed by fighting rather than formal instruction, becoming even more capable with every fight.
His overall skill allows him to fight evenly against sword masters of Byakuya Kuchiki and Kenpachi Zaraki’s caliber. While usually fighting right-handed, Ichigo appears to be ambidextrous, as he is proficient at wielding Zangetsu in his left hand.
1. Roronoa Zoro
Roronoa Zoro is the second main character of the One Piece anime and manga series. He is the swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates and their first mate. Also known as “Pirate Hunter Zoro”, he is a pirate and former bounty hunter from the anime and manga series One Piece.
Zoro is an extremely powerful master swordsman, able to use one, two, or three swords in varying attack styles, going from melee-type all the way to artillery. He is even able to use some sword techniques that utilize the very air itself to strike the enemy from a distance.
Although he is most comfortable with his Santoryu, his skills with a single sword are still quite exceptional, being able to hold off the Nyaban brothers, having bested several of the lower-ranked members of Arlong’s crew, and defeating Mr. 1 and the zombie, Ryuma.
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