And while she’s definitely very dangerous if you give her some prep time (as we saw in her fight against Obito), she isn’t exactly unbeatable. So if you’re curious about what kinda fights might be interesting to watch, we’re sharing some matchups here across different anime characters that I think Konan would lose to. No obvious choices like Goku or Saitama though.
10. Asta
Anime: Black Clover OK, this fight one heavily depends on the perception that Konan controls her paper through chakra strings. That might be an oversimplification – but certainly her paper pieces have to have some chakra in them to be controlled. This is good news for Asta, as he can cut them off with his anti-magic and render Konan defenseless. In fact, if he managed to land a clear hit on her main body, I’m pretty sure it would be a one hit kill. Since she would rely on her jutsu and not properly block. If we go with the idea that Asta can’t just cut her chakra threads, things get a bit more dicey. But I do think Asta could still pull out a victory due to his superior speed and tenacity – although it wouldn’t be as easy of a fight.
9. Nui Harime
Anime: Kill la Kill Did I include Nui exclusively so I can make a “scissors beat paper” joke? Perhaps. But is there actual justification as well? Of course. In terms of raw stats, Nui is pretty stacked.
She can get kicked through a mountain without taking any damage She can evade four extremely fast enemies at once And she has the strength to stop attacks from people ten times her size
Plus, she has some hax. Her clones would serve as a good counter to Konan’s paper attacks. And her role as the Life Fiber tailor could lead to a situation where Nui actually ties all of Konan’s papers together and uses them against her. Similarly, just like she can spot the life thread of any uniform, she could likely detect Konan’s weak spot and one shot her before Konan has time to set up any traps.
8. Shigeo Kageyama
Anime: Mob Psycho 100 I had to include at least one esper character on this list. They seem like the most obvious counter pick to Konan. I mean, they can literally yeet your papers back into your face and render your entire kit useless. And that’s not even mentioning barriers that can just block all of your damage. Or the fact that Mob is capable of throwing entire buildings at you, which is a bit more effective than just some paper bombs. But most importantly, he can simply stop her from maneuvering around the battlefield by strangling all of the pieces that make up her current main body. Just like she did to Obito, as long as Mob just presses her main body for a few minutes, she’ll be forced to return to her normal form and die.
7. Shouta Aizawa
Anime: My Hero Academia This fight would be determined within the first 20 seconds. If Konan strikes first or plays things extremely cautiously, she wins. But if she gets within 5 feet of Aizawa, she’s probably not coming out of this alive. Of course this does require us to imagine Aizawa as being completely blood lusted and ready to kill, as Konan counters any kind of PG arrest tactic. In other words: Aizawa has to negate Konan’s powers and then immediately go for the throat. Since Konan isn’t exactly the best at hand-to-hand combat, and would likely be taken off guard by Aizawa’s power, I think she likely wouldn’t be able to defend herself in those crucial few seconds – leaving an opening for Aizawa to finish her quickly.
6. Giorno Giovanna
Anime: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind This is arguably my favorite matchup, as it’s by far the most hilarious one to consider. Seeing how Konan doesn’t take damage when her papers blow up, it’s safe to say that they’re completely inanimate and separate from her main body. Therefore, Giorno could arguably turn each individual piece of paper into some animal and render her attacks useless. Or more hilariously, turn them all into bees or something and watch the chaos that ensues. Given Giorno’s lightning fast speed, there’s no way in hell that Konan is catching him by surprise. So unless she’s given a heads up and pulls some sea parting bomb fest, I don’t think she can really cause Giorno any serious harm. Especially after he goes all time wizard on everyone.
5. Natsu Dragneel
Anime: Fairy Tail When fighting Konan, the most obvious counter is to use a fire-type Pokémon and burn her to a crisp. But not just any fire attack will do. Since we’ve seen Konan deal with Jiraya’s fire jutsu without many issues. That being said, Natsu can melt the pavement just by getting amped up – so I think it’s safe to say that he’s a bit above “regular fireball” level. Plus, you just know that he would find a way to eat the explosions and somehow make that his new power source. But if none of that works out, he could always rely on his stat supremacy. My dude is built like a truck, can punch you through a mountain, and is way quicker than people give him credit for. Overall, I would say he wins with little-to-medium difficulty.
4. Julius Novachrono
Anime: Black Clover The easiest way to defeat Konan is to simply catch her off guard. Because she needs active effort to keep her nearly invincible paper form. And very few things in this world will surprise you as much as time magic. On the simplest level, Julius can just speed blitz Konan like there was no tomorrow. And then he could one-shot her while she’s still trying to figure out which way she should be looking. And even if she does somehow dodge, she’s far from safe. When going all out, Julius can cover an entire country. So the odds of Konan escaping are slim to none. It would also be kind of poetic, as the last thing Konan would see before all of her papers gets frozen in time (and she gets killed) is Julius’ Grimoire pages falling down from the sky.
3. Killua Zoldyck
Anime: Hunter x Hunter (2011) Speed is probably the only area where I think Konan is severely lacking. Getting blitzed is basically a death sentence for her. And I don’t think she could keep up with Killua’s God Speed. The thing is that we’ve never seen Konan do anything all that impressive in terms of speed feats, while Killua on the other hand can at the very least move fast enough to leave after-images of himself – even when just in his base form. So, entering God Speed and then quickly using his electricity in order to zap Konan to death would be the way to go. And since he can have the lightning cover a decent area as well, I don’t think Konan’s usual “turn into papers” schtick would save her from receiving damage. If she could even react in time.
2. Chuuya Nakahara
Anime: Bungo Stray Dogs In case you haven’t caught onto the pattern yet, disarming Konan is the easiest way to beat her. I mean, taking out her papers also means taking out her mobility and defenses. Chuuya would have a pretty easy time at that, as he can simply turn off gravity in any papers that come near him, and have them be glued to the ground – never to be used again. Since he has the reaction speed to do this to bullets, I don’t think a paper shuriken would prove much of a challenge. He just has to chip away at her supply until he can finally just kick her in the face. Or alternatively, he could go berserk and start throwing miniature black holes at her. But god knows a lot more people would die with that strategy.
1. King
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins I wanted to top this list with King – as he’s legit just a better version of Konan. His Chastiefol has way more utility than Konan’s paper bombs, and outperforms them in basically every way. The only area where Konan wins is that her main body is a bit more difficult to damage. Nevertheless, Chastiefol’s range is a lot bigger, plus the individual daggers are a lot more sturdy and capable of doing more damage. And the many ways King can combine them leaves us with quite a few options. Does he just leave it in the form of a thousand daggers? Or does he make his giant sunflower and blast everything away? Of course, some of the weapon would be used to make him an impenetrable shield – but he’s truly free to use his imagination for the rest. The power gap is so large here that I don’t think Konan could win even if she was given prep time – and that’s saying something.
