The fact that he wasn’t really trying and that he was going against Miss Useless rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. But for this list we’re looking into other characters from other series whose victory over the puppet master would have been a lot more logical.
15. Natsu Dragneel
Anime: Fairy Tail We’re going to start off with Natsu, as this fight would be a bit on the debatable side. When fighting Sasori, there are two major things you have to watch out for: getting overwhelmed by his 100 puppets, and his poison. When it comes to the puppets, I think that Natsu’s fire breath will easily dwindle down the numbers, since we’ve seen that they’re not very durable. And when it comes to the poison, it gets a bit tricky. Although Natsu does not have complete poison resistance, he can soak it up extremely well. In his fight with Kobra, Natsu took a bunch of poison damage and still managed to move around with minimum difficulty. And that’s important, as it was described to be a paralyzing and fast-acting poison, just like Sasori’s. Once he gets over those two hurdles, Natsu can just body the main Sasori with his superior strength and speed.
14. Giorno Giovanna
Anime: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind Although Golden Experience Requiem easily bodies Sasori, I actually want to make a case for base Giorno as well. All of the puppets are inanimate, so theoretically, Giorno can just turn each and every one into a frog and render Sasori’s abilities useless. Even when it comes to the main body, Giorno could probably take out the majority of his weapons and gadgets if he manages to land a hit – as only his core seems to be truly alive. And when it comes to getting the hits in, I don’t think Giorno would have a lot of difficulties, as his speed feats seem to outperform Sasori’s quite a bit. The poison could be an issue though since Giorno doesn’t have any direct counters. But I honestly doubt that he would ever actually get hit due to the speed gap.
13. Isaac Netero
Anime: Hunter x Hunter (2011) If we set the stage with Netero having his 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva on the battlefield and Sasori having all of his puppets out, I think Sasori would be dead within a minute. In his fight against Meruem, we saw that Netero is capable of launching hundreds of attacks in a single minute, with each one of them being precise and devastating. And I just think that there’s no way in hell Sasori will be able to keep up with that. A single punch from the Bodhisattva is far more powerful than a Sakura punch. So all of the puppets are getting one-shot. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that Netero could take out multiple puppets in a single swing. And since he’s swinging his arms around, poison smoke would never reach him either. You could make a case for the needles hitting him – but I highly doubt it. If Sakura can casually dodge them, I think God speed Netero will have no issues.
12. Fushi
Anime: Fumetsu no Anata e At the very least, Fushi isn’t losing this one, as he’s immortal. Now to make the case of why he would win: After being drugged a few times, Fushi’s body has learned how to create antidotes on the fly, rendering most drugs useless. Although Sasori uses a poison, I think Fushi would still be able to quickly counteract it after what he has went through. In terms of speed, Fushi is nowhere near Sasori. But since he doesn’t really have to dodge anything, it hardly matters. All that’s left is destructive power. While in Gugu form, Fushi can dish out some nice AoE fire attacks that would likely take out most of the weaker puppets, and he could then turn into Oniguma in order to deal with the rest. It wouldn’t be the quickest or flashiest victory ever – but I do think he has it in the bag.
11. Asta
Anime: Black Clover Asta has a few things going for him. First off, we know that Sasori controls his puppets through chakra strings. And since that’s the equivalent to magic in the Black Clover universe, Asta can just sever those bonds and make the puppets useless. He can even do it from a safe range with his Demon-Dweller sword. Secondly, his Demon-Destroyer sword can suck up any poison affecting him, if we infer that Sasori puts some of his chakra into it. Thirdly, Asta just outscales Sasori in terms of strength, durability, and speed. A fully blood-lusted Asta in his demon form could easily overpower even Sasori’s main body – and his practice with ki detection would likely allow him to dodge any needles that come his way.
10. Akame
Anime: Akame ga Kill! Just like Sasori, Akame has a one scratch=one kill policy, with her sword carrying a curse strong enough to off anyone within a second after contact. However, unlike Sasori, she’s just a single person and has no real long-range attacks. So, how does she win? Well, I’m banking everything on an extreme speed blitz. We would have to imagine that both characters are 100% serious and blood-lusted for this to work though, as Akame rarely travels at her full potential. But once she does, it’s GG. She managed to blitz Esdeath while time was literally frozen. It’s debatable whether a scratch on the main puppet would be able to transfer to the core through the chakra threads, but even if she has to pierce the heart, I think she stands a good chance.
9. Diane
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins I just don’t think Sasori can handle someone with extremely high defenses. So with her metal skin, Diane could just shrug off all the poison darts coming her way – and even some of the puppets as well. The only real danger would be Sasori’s main body while using his water pump ability. But Diane could easily just overwhelm him by attacking with her hammer and using her ability to manipulate the Earth and form spikes everywhere. Sasori couldn’t simply ignore these attacks, and would likely spend the entire fight being on the defensive. And sooner or later he would get squished like a giant puppet bug, as Diane’s attack potency is way above anything he has seen up until that point.
8. Pain
Anime: Naruto: Shippuden I just wanted to throw Pain in here since we all have to acknowledge that Nagato was the real puppet master! The Six Paths of Pain are simply ridiculously strong and pretty much counter Sasori in every conceivable way. Oh, you want to throw poison at me or overwhelm me with puppets? Deva Path would like a word with you. Or you actually managed to kill the Deva path? The Naraka Path begs to differ. Going all out with fire and water blasts? The Preta Path says itadakimasu. And that’s not even getting into the animal summons or mister fighting cyborg over here! There’s a reason Nagato was on top.
7. Chuuya Nakahara
Anime: Bungo Stray Dogs The only way Sasori stands a chance in this fight is through poison mist – and I sincerely doubt a dude who’s in the high echelon of the mafia would ever fall for such a trick. Chuuya’s reflexes are simply way too good, easily catching bullets at any time. So any puppet or needle thrown his way is immediately getting hammered to the ground. And if Chuuya decides to go berserk, it’s just GG for Sasori as he’ll AoE the absolute hell out of him. The fire and water cannons might prove to be somewhat difficult – but I’m still rather confident that Chuuya could simply dodge them like Sakura.
6. Satoru Gojou
Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen Gojou is honestly just overpowered all around, so he doesn’t even have to directly counter Sasori in order to beat him. Landing a hit on this man is basically impossible, as his Limitless ability makes a “no no place” all around his body which grinds every attack to a halt. Aside from that, his speed is just ridiculous, blinking from one place to another within seconds and dodging fire blasts at point blank range. His punching power isn’t the best around. But if he puts some cursed energy behind it, he’ll easily one-shot Sasori’s puppets – or simply clear them out with his Hollow Purple. And if he really gets desperate, a simple Domain Expansion would secure the deal 10/10 times.
5. All For One
Anime: My Hero Academia This one requires a bit of head cannon, but I do think it’s pretty logical. All For One always wears a mask. And considering he isn’t exactly stupid, it probably filters out poisons from the air. Also, given the amount of offensive and defensive Quirks that he’s acquired, I would take a wild guess and say that some form of poison resistance is among them. But even if we just take what we say in the anime, his chances are pretty good. He could use his tendrils to control Sasori’s puppets, as they do seem to be more powerful and versatile, or simply use his air cannon to blast them all away, as we do see him wiping out multiple buildings with each hit.
4. Aladdin
Anime: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic Aladdin just has a lot of good spells in his arsenal and can easily deal with most opponents if blood-lusted. His Bolg can deflect attacks thrown at him, his fire magic can wipe out Sasori’s puppets from a far, his Hadika Hadeka makes his melee damage a serious threat, his wind magic can divert any poison clouds, etc etc. But his real trump card is his ability to summon his sand soldiers. We’ve seen that they are absolutely massive and that they can all use fire breath to cover a ridiculously wide area, scorching anything that they come in contact with. True, it’s out of character for Aladdin to actually do so. But in terms of sheer power, Aladdin is winning this one.
3. Tatsumaki
Anime: One Punch Man Tatsumaki is just a monster when it comes to long-range destructive power. She could drop a meteor onto the battlefield and wipe everything out that way. Or she could arguably just use her power to forcibly control Sasori’s puppets and make them attack the main body. If Sasori pushes back against her, the puppets break, and he’s left in a 1v1 – or he if doesn’t push back against her, then he’s now facing his own army. She could probably just yank his core before the battle even starts… but that’s a bit too cheesy for this list. That said, regardless of how she does it, her immense shield will keep her from all harm – and her oppressive power will guarantee her victory.
2. Rimuru Tempest
Anime: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Rimuru just counters everyone all of the time. He already has a resistance to pretty much every damage type known to man – and even if he does struggle against Sasori’s poison, it’ll only be temporary, as Raphael will come up with an antidote within seconds. Furthermore, he can arguably just consume a single puppet and learn how to do the jutsu so that he can take over Sasori’s army and give him a taste of his own medicine. And even if he didn’t or couldn’t do that, his physical strength combined with some pretty nasty AoE spells would make quick work out of Sasori’s entire arsenal.
1. King
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins I wanted to end things off with King – as I think this would be the most interesting fight thematically. With his Chastiefol, King would also sit at a distance and battle Sasori like a true puppet user. That being said, I think Chastiefol just outranks puppets any day of the week, third Kazekage included. He can split it up into hundreds of individual blades and just take out every puppet individually. Or he could just use the fourth form, the Sunflower, and blast them all to hell in a single attack. Even if he somehow got tagged with the poison, his Pollen Garden offers plenty of healing and protection. So I doubt it would be fatal. Plus, if we take into account his powers as a Fairy King, Disaster, he can probably just control the poison and get rid of it.
