15 Anime Characters That Could Beat Minato Namikaze
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There’s no denying the fact that Minato was an absolute beast in the Naruto universe.
The dude took on entire armies and single-handedly saved the Leaf Village from both Obito and Kurama.
That begs the question: who could beat this man?
We don’t have the perfect answer. But we’re gonna try our best right here as we look at some other anime shows to see how their top fighters would stack up against the Yellow Flash.
I want to start off with this pick, since I think it would be the most hilarious death anime has ever seen.
In case you forgot this minor antagonist, let me get you up to speed.
Her Stand allows her to turn someone into a magnet, with the magnetic force growing over time.
She can do this without revealing her identity – and then she just has to stay somewhat close until the magnetism kills her victim.
This would be hilarious in the Naruto universe since everyone carries around shuriken and kunai, meaning Minato would never be safe. He couldn’t even use his own flying raijin, as his marks would just stick to his body.
Sure, it’s only a one-in-a-million chance that Mariah could trick Minato into being affected by her ability.
But the mere fact that it exists makes me chuckle.
Plus, I don’t want all the fights here to be power level measurements.
14. Yami Sukehiro
Anime: Black Clover
This fight would just be really fun.
If you haven’t watched Black Clover in a while, you might be thinking that Yami is nowhere near Minato’s speed. But I actually think he has a fighting chance.
The combination of his Mana zone and Ki perception makes him an absolute devil in close combat.
He can also do air jumps for added mobility, and send out attacks that have huge AoE.
At his maximum, each slash can basically evaporate an entire building. And if we do a lot of head cannon, his dimension slash could maybe even affect Minato’s jutsu.
But either way, god knows it would be an awesome fight to watch.
13. Silva Zoldyck
Anime: Hunter x Hunter (2011)
The thing that makes Minato such a threat is his incredible speed, as he can just blink around the battlefield. So I thought “who has beaten a speedy boy with no issues?”.
Silva whacked Cheetu like a misbehaving child in the 90s – and didn’t even break a sweat doing it.
In fact, he one-shotted him.
And this is relevant, considering Cheetu is fast enough to run laps around a bullet fired an inch from his face.
Plus Silva is no push-over when it comes to destructive power. He has battle experience that could rival Minato’s.
I would still give Silva the edge just because he’s slightly more accustomed to heartless murder.
12. King
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins
Although Minato can blink around, I think he would still have some difficulties crossing a big terrain gap.
And King can easily attack from miles away.
But it isn’t only the distance that would be the problem for Minato.
After finally growing his wings, King’s arsenal has become disgusting.
His destructive power is way beyond what rasengan can dish out. And by splitting his Chastiefol into a few hundred separate weapons and hurling them around, even Minato would get hit eventually.
If Minato was the one to initiate the fight, I could see it swinging the other way.
But if King gets his way, I think Minato could be in a pickle.
11. Shalltear Bloodfallen
Anime: Overlord
Shalltear just out-Minatos Minato.
She can teleport, and spam it pretty frequently as well. But she also has a shield that can deflect all magic.
So the rasengan is just gone.
She’s also an absolute sponge when it comes to damage, and could arguably soak up any sneak-attacks Minato does manage to land.
And, of course, she can also use magic herself, as well as fighting in melee range.
It’s never fun when someone flexes superior stats – but it’s the way of the world.
10. Saitama
Anime: One Punch Man
I was originally going to avoid choices like Saitama or Goku because they’re way too easy, but I have a point to prove here.
When you think about Saitama, you think about his incredible strength.
However, my dude can probably outrun most other anime characters.
He can basically go from the Moon back to Earth in mere seconds, and characters like Speed-o-Sound Sonic do not seem to impress him one bit.
And even a rasengan has its limits when it comes down to dealing damage.
So, unless Minato finds a way to turn himself into a fly, he’s pretty much screwed.
9. Lay Glanzudlii
Anime: The Misfit of Demon King Academy
This one takes a few comparisons to explain.
We’ve already covered the fact that Saitama could beat Minato. Well, the protagonist of Demon King Academy is arguably on the same power-level as Saitama when it comes to both strength and speed.
But that was too much of an overkill, so I went with Lay instead, who’s less powerful but just as fast.
Lay can move so fast that there are a dozen after-images of him on the battlefield – and has enough force to cause some serious damage just with the wind pressure of his attacks.
Plus, he does have a pretty sneaky trap card: he cannot die unless you destroy all of his cores.
Slip up and leave a single core intact, and you’re getting stabbed while celebrating your victory.
8. Esdeath
Anime: Akame ga Kill!
This one would largely depend on a single moment.
When Esdeath is not going all-out, she could probably keep Minato at a distance with her ice.
But I doubt she would manage to land any critical hits.
However, if Minato gets just a little too close and doesn’t instantly kill Esdeath, he could be done in by her ultimate trap card, which allows her to stop time.
I shouldn’t have to explain why winning against an ability like that is kind of impossible (without some major hacks).
Especially since Minato’s tenacity is not all that high.
7. Isaac Netero
Anime: Hunter x Hunter (2011)
No human in the Hunter x Hunter universe can compete with Netero when it comes to speed.
You might think that Godspeed Killua is impressive, but he honestly has nothing on this old dude.
The time it takes him to attack is roughly around the same time that it would take Minato to activate his flying raijin – but the ability itself is a lot more powerful.
It’s a giant Bodhissatva statue, after all.
And since we saw how much the Gedo Mazo Statue destroyed the ninja army, I don’t think Minato can handle it by himself.
He could teleport away Netero’s Zero Hand, but his basic attacks would connect sooner or later.
Remember how I said that time-stopping is the death of Minato?
Yeah, we’re already back to that argument.
You could say that it’s different this time around, as Joutarou’s range is a lot smaller. But we can’t forget just how powerful Star Platinum is as well.
That thing can move at incredible speeds, catching point blank bullets and such, and also wields enough power to destroy giant diamonds.
So Minato just snipping a prepared Joutaou seems very unlikely.
On the other hand, once time has stopped, a fully-powered Ora Ora to the head would render Minato unconscious or dead.
5. Sinbad
Anime: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
This battle would largely fall under the “you can’t dodge forever” category.
Sinbad hasn’t shown and notable speed feats, so I think it’s safe to assume that he’s slower than Minato.
However, the versatility of his kit is on a whole different level.
He could just fly high into the air and absolutely spam giant AoE abilities that are all mountain level.
He could even switch up the abilities so Minato could never get used to what was coming.
And the flying raijin still depends on those marks – so if they’re fighting in the middle of a fire tornado, Minato can’t exactly just throw those around and expect them to land precisely where he wants.
4. Merlin
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins
Merlin is absolutely busted if given enough prep time.
Which wouldn’t be that bad, were it not for the fact that she’s also extremely good at buying time.
She can also teleport around, which is great by itself.
But she can throw up shields, or even snare her enemy to a certain spot, which is even more helpful.
And once she has properly set up her abilities, she could make an entire field of tiny magical traps that respond to your every movement and attack you.
We saw this move used against the original demons.
And saying that it’s effective is an understatement.
Especially since those two were far from push-overs when it came to strength, speed, or durability.
3. Julius Novachrono
Anime: Black Clover
Have you caught on to the fact that mage-type characters kind of counter Minato?
With Julius it’s very simple:
You guessed it, he can stop time.
But unlike the previous picks on this list, my dude can cover an entire country if he pushes himself to the limits.
And even Minato can cover thousands of miles in a split second.
Plus, Julius can just spam the hell out of his time magic, making it so there’s a large margin for error.
All in all, the fight would end before it had even started.
2. Giorno Giovanna
Anime: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
I’m talking about full powered Golden Experience Requiem for this specific choice.
With this Stand, Giorno has the ability to literally hack life itself.
Everything you did, you didn’t.
And everything you thought you would become, is cut short.
The hacks are on such a high level that I doubt Minato could even seal Giorno, as he would just reverse that as well – and then throw him into an infinite loop of Whack the Mask and Kurama Finger Wars.
1. Satoru Gojou
Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen
The best way to defeat a speedy character is to bend the meaning of speed and space itself.
It doesn’t matter how quickly Minato could get close to Gojou, since everything attempting to touch Gojou would basically be slowed down to a stop under his Infinity.
And while you’re already there, why not taste his Domain Expansion as well?
Might as well get wiped out of this physical realm.
Oh, you got out somehow? Well good luck dodging giant orbs of cursed energy while Gojou keeps revising his colors out loud.
It would be a very flashy fight, though. So I would definitely pay to see it.
