People seem to either lowball him into the ground, or praise him like the second coming of nakama Jesus. I thought I might as well throw my hat into the ring as well here, as we count down some notable anime characters that could likely beat Natsu. Do note that I’m only talking about the anime in this ranking, because manga Natsu is straight hacks level.
12. Acnologia
Anime: Fairy Tail I want to start off with Acnologia because I want to vent. This dude was hyped up for so long, and then had the most random, anticlimactic defeat ever. He was slapping Natsu and all of the Dragonslayers around like they were little children, literally stating how magic can’t hurt him. But when Natsu gets everyone’s energy, he one shots him. The mere fact that he needed everyone’s energy already proves that he’s weaker. But what I’m annoyed with is how their plan worked. They just took the same amount of energy Acnologia was tanking seconds ago, and suddenly he can’t take it? Okay, rant over. Now we can move on to non-Fairy Tail characters.
11. Sasuke Uchiha
Anime: Naruto: Shippuden This fight would be kind of hilarious, to be honest. Natsu can just kind of eat Sasuke’s main attacks, the lightning from his Chidori and his fireball jutsu, but Sasuke can just absorb Natsu’s flames with his rinnegan. Therefore, we end up at a good-old fist fight. Although Natsu is a literal sponge that can tank for days, I do think he would be outclassed by Sasuke – as he could read his every move and probably outpace him in combat. Plus, Sasuke is just kind of a genius when it comes to hand-to-hand fights, as we saw in his fight against Naruto where he was always one step ahead when it came to technique.
10. Yami Sukehiro
Anime: Black Clover In terms of power scaling, I have seen a few people putting Natsu below Asta – which I can’t quite agree with. Yami on the other hand is an entirely different story. After the time skip Yami just became god-tier – and funnily enough, a decent counter to Natsu. Since he trained with Mereoleona, Yami can tank and react to fire type attacks while half-asleep, which puts Natsu at quite the disadvantage. Plus with his new Mana Zone ability, he can arguably outpace Natsu when it comes to close combat. They both have very keen senses, I’m not going to deny that. But Mana Zone just puts Yami slightly higher on the tier list. In terms of strength and durability, I would say they’re on the same level. However, Yami’s dark magic gives him the leg up when it comes to destructive powers – especially because it’s basically instant, meaning that Natsu couldn’t gobble any of it up.
9. Ban
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins This would basically be a war of attrition. Ban doesn’t have any magical ability that Natsu could eat up. And in terms of power and speed, I would say they’re on similar footing. But after Ban’s experience in Hell, he’s more than accustomed to shaking off some fire damage. Plus he can still use his own power to slowly drain Natsu’s energy. Since Natsu doesn’t really have any way of replenishing his power, I would wager that Ban would wear him out over time and eventually kill him. It would be a really long fight though, as both of these dudes are built like tanks.
8. Sinbad
Anime: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic Now this would be a very tricky one. You see, Sinbad relies on elemental magic almost entirely, meaning that Natsu has quite the opportunity to get a good snack and restore any lost energy. However, Sinbad could potentially play around this. Sinbad’s win condition would be to heavily nerf Natsu before the fight properly started, using Valefor’s stagnation ability to slow down Natsu’s senses, and then using Zepar to command Natsu not to eat or not to open his mouth. Even if the spell didn’t completely work, it would slow Natsu down enough to give Sinbad an opening to hit him with everything he has. Considering that Sinbad casually blows up mountains, I would wager that he could one shot (or at least severely damage) Natsu in a single rotation of these skills.
7. Isaac Netero
Anime: Hunter x Hunter (2011) This fight would be a straightforward speed-diff. Netero’s Bodhissatva is just insanely quick, being able to dish out dozens of hits in a single second. Although I doubt Natsu would simply fall over after a few hits, I do think Netero could stagger-lock him into oblivion. But yes it would be a slow process – even nakama powers can’t get you to survive a few hundred punches. And once he’s completely drained, Netero could simply use Zero Hand in order to finish him off. Zero Hand is straight energy, so I doubt Natsu could get any energy from that. And since the Bodhissatva mainly deals physical damage, I don’t think Natsu could replenish himself at all during the entire thing.
6. Tatsumaki
Anime: One Punch Man Choices like Saitama or Goku for this ranking were a bit too obvious for me. But god knows Tatsumaki is kind of overkill herself. Telepathy just counters Natsu in every way. Tatsumaki could constantly keep him at a distance, throwing entire mountains at him to wear him out, protecting herself with shields if he tries to launch a long-range fire attack – and yeeting him into space if he proves to be too stubborn. Considering she has literally pulled small meteors from orbit to crush an enemy, I doubt Tatsumaki would run out of juice at any point. And since Natsu can’t really prevent being tossed around while in-air, I don’t see a way he could leave the ordeal alive.
5. Satoru Gojou
Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen This is another fight that would be somewhat one-sided – but would last a really long time because of Natsu’s tenacity. To be blunt, there’s no way in hell Natsu is ever landing a hit on Gojou. Through his limitless ability, any attack going towards Gojou will basically be stopped in its tracks near millimeters from his face. And since we’ve seen him face off against a fire-user, we know that it applies to fire as well. However, Gojou’s attacks aren’t the strongest on this list either. So far we’ve seen him using his fists to launch people quite a bit, and his Purple sphere in order to level a forest. Although these attacks would wear Natsu down over time, it would be a very long fight – trust me.
4. Meruem
Anime: Hunter x Hunter (2011) Since Meruem literally defeated a character on this very list, I guess this choice is somewhat obvious. There’s no denying that Natsu is way smarter than he looks, especially in regards to battle tactics. However, Meruem is just a super computer that’s on a completely different level in that regard. So I have no doubt that he would figure out Natsu’s weaknesses within a minute or two. Plus, the dude has some of the craziest tenacity we have ever seen, along with super speed and immense strength. Once again, there’s nothing for Natsu to eat, meaning what he has in the tank is all he’s going to get. And that just will not be enough against the King.
3. Meliodas
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins More often than not, Natsu finishes a battle with one giant burst of flame or punch. Now imagine what would happen if it just came back right into his face? That is kind of Meliodas’ trump card. And if he doesn’t reveal it too early, Natsu is somewhat screwed. But even without it, he fairs pretty well in this fight. Meliodas scales with, if not above Ban, if terms of speed and strength. And he also has the ability to make clones of himself, meaning that he could just rush Natsu from all sides. He isn’t as smart as Meruem in a battle – but he is smart enough not to let Natsu replenish his energy. And considering his fight with Escanor, I think it’s safe to say that Natsu’s fire spells won’t have much of an effect.
2. Naruto Uzumaki
Anime: Naruto: Shippuden Naruto’s kit is just too powerful for someone like Natsu to handle. You thought Meliodas’ clones would give him trouble? Imagine having to fight thousands of them when each has the same destructive power as the original! Plus, even Natsu can’t eat a rasengan without losing that big mouth forever. Without Sage mode, one could claim that they’re comparable in speed and strength – but the second you clock that in, not to mention the Kurama cloak, Natsu just gets vastly outclassed. Even in terms of tenacity, Naruto is just insane. The dude had the energy for a full-on 1v1 after spending days on the front-lines of a war! I wasn’t even going to include this one, but since I saw the question floating around a few times online, I decided to state the obvious in this list: Most of the time, you need either hacks or DBZ powers to defeat Naruto. Case closed.
1. Rimuru Tempest
Anime: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime I wanted to finish the list off with Rimuru, as it’s thematically the most coherent, being that Rimuru drew most of his power from a dragon. This scenario has quite a few things going bad for Natsu. First off, Rimuru just has so many abilities in her arsenal it’s insane, while Natsu is rather bare in that regard. Secondly, Rimuru has a super-computer helper that can calculate the best course of action to defeat the enemy. Lastly, Rimuru’s raw destructive power is off the charts – capable of wiping out entire armies even before he got the Demon Lord powerup. In the battle of the Dragonslayer and the Dragon-befriender, Rimuru takes the W.
