Top 10 Anime Comebacks Against Impossible Odds

The comeback is shonen’s favorite trick and the hardest to earn. A good one needs a hero who is genuinely losing, a reason to stand up that was planted earlier, and a payoff that changes the fight instead of just ending it. These ten did all three.

The rankings

1. Gohan vs Cell, Dragon Ball Z. One arm, a father’s voice and the Kamehameha that ended an era.
2. Luffy vs Katakuri, One Piece. Losing for hours, then learning Future Sight in the middle of the fight.
3. Karasuno vs Shiratorizawa, Haikyuu. Five sets against the best school in the prefecture, and Tsukishima’s block turns it.
4. Deku vs Overhaul, My Hero Academia. One hundred percent with Eri on his back is the most triumphant image in the series.
5. Naruto vs Pain. A village destroyed, Hinata down, and Sage Mode arriving on a toad.
6. Ichigo vs Byakuya, Bleach. Bankai after three days of training, and the Hollow mask that scares both of them.
7. Yuji and Nobara vs the Death Painting brothers, Jujutsu Kaisen. Black Flash in a coffin.
8. Tanjiro vs Rui, Demon Slayer. Hinokami Kagura and the moment episode 19 became legend.
9. Mob at 100 percent vs Koyama, Mob Psycho 100. The most reluctant comeback in anime, and the most honest.
10. Simon vs the Anti Spiral, Gurren Lagann. A galaxy sized drill, because of course.

The formula

Notice how many of these turn on someone else: a father, a teammate, a child on your back. The great comebacks are never about the hero alone.

My take: Gohan against Cell is the comeback every other one is chasing. Toriyama wrote a father’s ghost into a beam struggle and nobody has topped it.