After all, she takes it back to the basics and just punches people. But when are punches not enough? That’s what we’ll be looking at here as I count down ten fights that Tsunade would probably lose. No obvious choices like Goku or Saitama though, as that’s no fun.
10. Meruem
Anime: Hunter x Hunter (2011) I’m going to start things off with Meruem as he’s by far the most debatable pick on this list. That’s mostly due to the fact that we haven’t ever seen him throw a serious punch. So, it’s difficult to assess just how much damage he’s capable of doing. Sure, he can rip human limbs off – but that isn’t exactly all that impressive unless you know how durable the enemy is. Nevertheless, I think a case could be made for Meruem’s victory based on his speed and his durability. We saw that Meruem can take quite the pounding (both in terms of physical attacks and a mountain-sized blast) and leave with just a few scratches. We also know that (just like Tsunade) Meruem is capable of losing a limb without even flinching at the pain. So why does he win? My headcanon is that his superior intellect and rate of progression would land him a victory at some point. These two are strong, fast, and durable enough to fight for quite some time. However, Tsunade doesn’t have a super-computer in her head and won’t be able to calculate all one million outcomes of every clash. Not to mention the very slim chance that Meruem figures out how to use Nen during their battle by watching Tsunade – who’s an obvious enchanter in this shared world. Even the most rudimentary form of enchanting would boost his numbers through the roof and allow him to overpower Tsunade.
9. Mereoleona Vermillion
Anime: Black Clover Now, this fight would just be absolute insanity – I think Mereoleona would get way too into it. In terms of durability, these two are a bit different. While Mereoleona’s biggest feat is using her mana in order to make an active volcano a pleasant vacation spot, Tsunade can literally get cut in half and keep on kicking. And in terms of strength, I’d probably have to give it to Tsunade as damaging Madara is nothing short of a miracle in the Naruto universe. However, I think Mereoleona would win in the end due to two main reasons: Number one: she has actual magic and can cause some serious burn damage while Tsunade can only use healing jutsu. Number two: Mereoleona’s attack speed is just off the charts. Not only is she physically fast as all hell, but her mastery over the mana zone means that she can see an attack coming regardless of where you throw it from. Would it take a while to get through Tsunade’s almost god-like durability? Yes. But Mereoleona is the type of warrior that considers training for 100 hours a vacation – so I don’t think she would particularly mind.
8. Tatsuhiko Shibusawa
Anime: Bungo Stray Dogs This fight is chock-full of headcanon. But I think it makes thematic sense – so here we are. So, Tatsuhiko’s ability is to separate a person and their powers. Considering how chakra works in the show, Tsunade’s powers would include both her healing abilities and even her actual superhuman strength. Your powers will then try to kill you and it’s your job to have that classic anime monologue and accept yourself or whatever. However, a pre-war Tsunade would lose this battle if you ask me. Her powers had let her down a few times up until that point and she lost people very close to her. So I actually don’t think she would be able to accept her own power and defeat Tatsuhiko’s power. And if she doesn’t get her powers back, Tatsuhiko would make short work of her. We’ve seen him take on three extremely powerful foes at once – so, a powerless Tsunade wouldn’t be much of a challenge. In the case she does regain her powers, things do get a lot shakier. On the one hand, we do see Tatsuhiro brawl with Nakajima, (who is comparable to Tsunade in terms of their skillset) but on the other hand, Tsunade has way more upfront destructive force.
7. Armin Arlert
Anime: Attack on Titan I’m including this matchup strictly because I find it extremely hilarious. All Armin would really have to do is transform while in the general vicinity of Tsunade and blow her away. Of course, this alone probably wouldn’t kill her. But since she can’t move around much while healing major injuries, he could just step on her and call it a victory. Even if she could move around – I just don’t see how she’d actually beat a Colossal Titan. She doesn’t really have a way to climb up to the Titan’s neck and if she goes for his feet, Armin can just release enough steam to severely damage her. And if she does manage to break off both of his legs (which I doubt), he just has to fall down and leave the rest to gravity – as the shockwave would probably send Tsunade flying. Even in this worst-case scenario, Armin would just leave the Titan body and stab a near-dead Tsunade.
6. Hinata Sakaguchi
Anime: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Hinata basically has two major ways to counter Tsunade – and I don’t even know which one is more devastating. First off, she can create a barrier that cancels out all magic and turn Tsunade into an average lady. As you could imagine, that would make the fight quite trivial. But even if we were to claim that basic chakra doesn’t work like magic or that Hinata wouldn’t have the time necessary to put the barrier up – Tsunade would still lose rather decisively. This is because Hinata attacks your soul and not your body. It’s the closest thing to cannon emotional damage we’re going to get. And it circumvents any durability and regeneration an enemy might have. Even Rimuru was pressed by this tactic. And it’s Rimuru! And that’s about it. From Hinata’s clash with Rimuru, we know that she has some pretty immense speed and even a decent amount of strength to back it up. So she can literally just run around and poke Tsunade to death.
5. Meliodas
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins Tsunade is a heavy hitter who usually relies on those huge, wind-up punches to tear through an enemy and basically one-shot them. Imagine how frustrating it’d be then to face mister Uno Reverse Card Meliodas and just have all of your damage bounced right back into your face! Not only that, but Meliodas can also create some clones and really spread the love as he attacks Tsunade from all sides. He can then just wait for her to retaliate and then unleashes hell once again. He can even weaponize the anime trope of the MC being almost dead and then pulling ten times their original power out of nowhere. All he has to do is allow Tsunade to punch him within an inch of his life and then activate his Revenge Counter! Make no mistake, Meliodas wins both in terms of speed and durability – as this dude has lived to see a thousand years of hell and came out unscathed. But I honestly think that even if their stats were neutralized, Full Counter and Revenge Counter would just be too much to handle.
4. Tooru
Anime: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid I was originally going to put Ilulu on here so that the top-heavy plot carriers can battle it out. But since she’s lacking in terms of feats, I decided to go for Tooru instead. Overall, Tooru is simply ridiculous and easily scales to the Nine Tails if not ever higher. She took the equivalent of thirty fireball jutsu attacks and just got irritated. She also blasted the sky with a beam so powerful that she altered the weather and at one point nearly wiped out a city in order to win a battle. She can make herself invisible if she wants to mess with Tsunade. She can open up rifts in space and teleport herself or her enemy wherever she wants. And her physical strength/speed is ridiculous enough to completely destroy her surroundings while she simply spars with someone. Overall, Tooru would probably spar with Tsunade initially, (where they would be more or less comparable) but then get bored and just unleash a blast that would fry Tsunade to bits.
3. Satoru Gojou
Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen When it comes to a good defense, nothing beats being untouchable. And that’s exactly what Gojou is rocking. Being protected by a controlled infinity all around his body, nobody can really lay a finger on this man unless he allows it. So a physical fighter like Tsunade is basically screwed from the very beginning. And this is not even mentioning the fact that Gojou out-scales her in terms of movement and attack speed quite heavily. His speed is so great it literally just looks like he is teleporting around. But when it came to destructive force, I was a bit stumped. Sure, Gojou packs a very decent punch, and his Haze Purple is around small-town level, but would that really be enough to kill Tsunade? The person who raged into battle with two Susanoo blades literally piercing her entire body all the way through? I don’t think so. But then I remembered that Gojou has one more trick up his sleeve – his domain expansion. This won’t physically harm Tsunade but it will basically melt her brain and leave her to forever ponder her own insignificance – which I think counts as a victory. You could argue that the domain expansion would count as genjutsu and that Tsunade could just get out. However, if it’s genjutsu, it’s at least Itachi level. And I don’t think Tsunade could ever just brush it off.
2. Shion
Anime: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Now this one would be a very close call. In terms of strength and speed, these two seem to be pretty neck and neck. They’re both capable of delivering flurries of attacks and ripping holes into the ground with a single strike. However, they actually have even more in common than I originally thought. Turns out, Shion also has some absolutely crazy healing abilities. This is easy to forget given that we saw her die and all that – but we have to keep in mind that her magic was canceled at the time. But, when at full power, she can regrow entire limbs without the slightest difficulty. Therefore, these two are comparable in speed, strength, and durability… So why does Shion win? Well, because she has more tricks up her sleeve. In fact (although it’s very easy to forget), she’s basically a reality-bender, since she can turn her gross slop into delicious food. That claim might sound stupid but trust me – it boils down to Shion literally defining what is correct in this world and it’s insanely busted. Also, she has a sword and Tsunade does not. I rest my case.
1. Erza Scarlet
Anime: Fairy Tail This matchup of Erza vs. Tsunade was the first one that came to my mind. And I actually found quite a bit of discussion about it online too. At first, I thought that Tsunade would just one-shot Erza – given the overall scaling differences between the two shows. But boy was I wrong. I’m just going to tell you about a single feat that Erza did. She literally destroyed an entire meteor in a single hit. That’s already bananas powerful and goes way above anything Tsunade has done. In fact, if Tsunade had this type of power, we would’ve seen it during the Ninja War as meteors were a problem at one point. However, it’s not just that she destroyed the meteor but also how she did it. You see, at that point, all of her bones were broken, and she used her one unbroken hand to fling herself at the meteor. And that was somehow enough to destroy it. All scaling logic aside, that feat alone puts her way above Tsunade in both durability and strength – so I just have to give it to her. And all of this is not even taking into account how versatile Erza’s kit is with her one million wardrobe changes and whatnot.
