(AfroGamers.com) In my nearly two decades of watching anime, I have seen some of the best arcs that featured the best fights and character development coming from it and I’ve seen some arcs that have been down right horrible with bad character development and lackluster fights.
Here are my favorite anime arcs;
Universal Survival Arc (Dragon Ball Super) – This arc from Dragon Ball Super was much better in the anime than it was in the manga because there were numerous characters getting more character development like Caulifla, Kale, and Kefla. The theme of this arc was that the last universe that survived would be granted to make a wish with The Super Dragon Balls. This arc also had some of the most memorable moments such as Universe 7 using their super attacks to defeat Universe 3’s Aniraza, Dyspo taking The Universe 6’s Legendary Assassin known as Hit down to the wire, Goku taking on Jiren, Vegeta taking on Jiren, and my favorite of course is when Vegeta transformed to the anime exclusive transformation known as Super Saiyan Blue Evolution. There were characters that were also interesting such as Jiren, Dyspo, Aniraza, and Universe 11’s God Of Destruction Vermoud. My favorite fights from this arc were Super Saiyan Blue Evolution Vegeta vs God Of Destruction Toppo, Mastered Ultra Instinct Goku vs Full Power Jiren. Dyspo vs Hit, and Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta vs Jiren.
Fusion Arc (Dragon Ball Z) – In all of the arcs that I’ve seen during my teenage years of watching Dragon Ball Z when Toonami was at its peak back in the day, The Fusion Arc is my favorite arc from The DBZ Era because you had new interesting but more powerful characters such as Gotenks who transforms to Super Saiyan, then to Super Saiyan 3 through an asspull, then there was Ultimate Gohan who was actually stronger than Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks and was once again briefly stronger than his deadbeat fight prone loving father Goku who went Super Saiyan 3 against Fat Buu, and then there was the most powerful fusion from the entire arc known as Vegito, the Potara fusion between Goku and Vegeta who absolutely thrashed Buuhan aka Super Buu (Ultimate Gohan Absorbed) until it was revealed that he deliberately toyed around with Majin Buu to allow Buu to absorb them so that they can save their family and friends that had been absorbed by the notorious villain. My favorite fights from this arc were Gotenks vs Super Buu and Super Vegito vs Super Buu (Ultimate Gohan Absorbed).
Aizen Conspiracy Arc (Bleach) – This arc is considered by many to be their favorite arc in the Bleach anime because there were so many new characters introduced as well as numerous great fights. The theme of this arc was that Sosuke Aizen concocted a devious scheme to extract the Orb Of Distortion from Rukia’s body by having her put to “death” under the false pretense for the crime of giving her powers to a human by first faking his death to make everyone believe that Gin Ichimaru had killed Aizen, but it wasn’t revealed until later on that Aizen had used his illusionary zanpakuto to fake his death and former 4th Division Captain Retsu Unohana knew that something was amiss when she did a thorough autopsy on Aizen’s fake corpse. Disgusted with Aizen’s treachery, she instructed Isane Koetsu that Aizen along with his two co-conspirators who were later revealed to be Kaname Tousen and Gin Ichimaru had betrayed The Soul Society. My favorite fight from this arc was Ichigo Kurosaki vs Byakuya Kuchiki Round III.
U.A. High School Sports Festival Arc (My Hero Academia) – I’ve watched all of the episodes of popular anime known as “My Hero Academia” and out of all the main story arcs that I’ve seen so far, my favorite one so far is The U.A. High School Sports Festival Arc because other than the Class 1A characters, we also got to see some new characters from other classrooms that weren’t introduced in the anime. The theme of this arc was the student who won The U.A. High School Sports Festival would be considered the strongest student in the entire school. This arc had plenty of comedic moments such as Deku being extremely terrified when he found out that he’s a marked man for the other students since he placed 1st in the obstacle race as well as certain characters like Todoroki having more of a backstory by revealing his very dark and turbulent past with his father physically and verbally abusing him that robbed him of a happy childhood. My favorite fights from this arc were Deku vs Todoroki and Bakugo vs Todoroki.
Sasuke Recovery Arc (Naruto) – This arc began after Orochimaru’s failed attempt to crush his former home in Kohona for denying him the position of The Fourth Hokage. Sasuke begins to resent the fact that Naruto did something that he couldn’t do in the previous arc which is that Naruto unlike Sasuke had defeated Gaara, so Sasuke challenges him to a fight on top of the hospital rooftop and after the Rasengan and The Chidori clashed, it was quite obvious to Sasuke that Naruto’s Rasengan was more powerful than his Chidori which shocked Sasuke. Angered by the fact that he’s weaker than Naruto, he decides to leave Kohona so that he can acquire the strength he needs to exact his revenge against his older brother Itachi. The fight between Naruto and Sasuke at The Valley Of The End at the end of this arc was definitely my favorite because it was more personal than it was emotional because Naruto had always saw Sasuke as a rival that he not only wanted to be like, but to also surpass one day.
The Conclusion – The reason why I love anime so much is because it brings good main story arcs, interesting characters, good character development, and amazing fighting scenes.
Staff Writer; Kwame Shakir (aka Joe D.)