Anime’s Best Shonen Battle of Winter 2024 is Here

Warning: Spoilers for Chained Soldier episode 10, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic episode 10, Ragna Crimson episode 22, Undead Unluck episode 22,

Although the Winter 2024 anime season has featured many great battles, the best one by far is happening right now in HIDIVE’s Chained Soldier. Though there are many factors that go into what makes a great anime battle, the emotional weight behind a fight and how effectively the series built up to it are the most important elements for determining which brawl deserves top spot.

Though Chained Soldier has a great deal of competition for the best anime fight of Winter 2024, it’s only fair to compare it to newer series that have 25 or fewer episodes. Fights from longer epics like One Piece that have been going on for quite some time have the added weight of months, sometimes years, behind them and therefore can’t be compared fairly.

Chained Soldier’s Battle Combines The Potential Loss of Family and Purpose

Which Gives it the Winter 2024 Anime Season’s Best Battle

In Chained Soldier‘s case, the current fight to the death as of episode 10 threatens the series’ protagonist Yuuki with two prospects of loss. One involves Aoba, Yuuki’s once-estranged family member who he’d been led to believe was dead but who is alive and on the opposing side. Should she lose, Yuuki’s sister would be taken away from him after just getting her back. The other involves removing the people who give Yuuki purpose. That’s because Aoba is trying to kill two characters who made Yuuki’s life matter. It’s a lose-lose situation for Yuuki.

Best of all, Chained Soldier has been building up to this moment more effectively than any other series this season. From the beginning, viewers knew Yuuki had lost his sister, which the series kept relevant and on viewers’ minds by putting her death into question. While this could have potentially ruined a larger build-up, it instead heightened the anticipation to a fuller degree as a result. Then, episode 8 later confirmed viewers’ suspicions that Aoba was alive before setting the stage for the battle that is now transpiring.

On top of this, another battle with emotional weight is unfolding simultaneously, and it also happens to be exploring how violence hurts siblings from a different perspective. This one involves the sisters Himari and Yachiho who are fighting on the same side. Himari and Yachiho’s situation is exacerbated because their once-bitter rivalry changed, with Yachiho, who was initially misconstrued as a sociopath, revealed to be someone who cares almost too deeply for her sister. This is a problem because Himari’s life is in jeopardy. Yachiho is now at risk of losing her just after reconciling, much like Yuuki and his sister.

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Ragna Crimson’s Best Battles Happened Last Season

and its Latest Battles Just Don’t Live Up to the Previous Season’s Heights

The season’s other massive battle comes from another HIDIVE series called Ragna Crimson. But it pales in comparison, even though it lasted more than three times longer over the course of multiple episodes. Truth be told, Ragna Crimson‘s eponymous hero saw more brutal confrontations in late 2023 during the first half of its 25-episode season.

Last season was more impactful because, after being plagued by how he could lose his dearest friend, Ragna was only able to protect her because his future self could not. A later battle in 2023 saw Ragna fighting against the dragon monarch Ultimatia, the most powerful member of the species that was responsible for his future self’s suffering. The fact that he almost won this fight and yet had to flee against a pivotal figure makes it almost unparalleled in the arena of emotional weight, what with the amount of frustrated anguish that naturally stems from such a loss.

Every moment since then during Ragna Crimson‘s 2024 winter run has lacked the same power. In fact, winter 2024’s weeks-long battle only happened because Ragna and the titular dragon traitor Crimson fled from Ultimatia. Due to extenuating circumstances, Crimson accidentally transports them to a corps of warriors on the run from the dragons. Since Ragna and Crimson are now with the corps, they are also at risk of being attacked. The ensuing battle may have claimed many innocent lives, but none of them compare to Ragna’s earlier fight against Ultimatia.

Incredibly, episode 20 just introduced a new battle, and it’s already better than the last one from this season. It’s essentially a rematch between the same opponents, so there’s more emotion behind it. But Ranga Crimson’s latest fight is still just a stepping stone to the fight viewers really want – the rematch between Ragna and Ultimatia.

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Hulu’s Action/Adventure Series Is Putting Less Focus on Fighting This Season

Undead Unluck Put its Big Battle on Hold

A new Hulu series that began in fall 2023, Undead Unluck‘s big battle this season was rightly overshadowed by its unique form of time travel that has put more of an emphasis on separate tragedies as opposed to epic fights to the death. Although its big battle is currently on hold and is destined to resume to close out the season, the opponent is just one of Undead Unluck‘s many Unidentified Mysterious Animals, whose main appeal is their connection to a certain aspect of life instead of as an actual character.

This UMA, especially, has even less of a personality than most of them, making it more of an emotionless monster than an actual character. Moreover, the battle everyone is waiting for (against god) won’t be happening any time soon.

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Crunchyroll’s Best Battle Is Building Up To Something Greater That Won’t Happen This Season

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic’s Best Fight is Still Far Off

Ironically, a new Isekai’s first of many related battles to come from one of the season’s most-hyped wars just began on Crunchyroll during its 10th episode, but it’s clearly starting off small to build to much larger fights, and they won’t happen until next season.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic has been prepping viewers for this war ever since episode 1 just because its format calls for it. That’s because it’s an Isekai where the heroes are summoned to a fantasy world. In this case, it’s to stop an impending demon invasion after a previous one almost destroyed humanity.

However, this particular series has been resorting to other means to get viewers excited. The most shocking one occurred when the protagonist Ken Usato unexpectedly received a brutal vision of just how bloody and devastating this battle could be. Later, the series devoted its eighth and ninth episodes to a flashback of demonkind’s first invasion, allowing viewers to view the next one more personally than just something that will happen soon.

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Solo Leveling’s Lack of Setup Hurts It

The Anime’s Biggest Fights Just Don’t Hit the Same Heights as its Contemporaries

Crunchyroll’s obvious flagship of the winter season, Solo Leveling, might come to many anime fan’s mind when the keywords when thinking of the season’s most epic new battles. Unfortunately, Solo Leveling didn’t create enough build-up to prepare viewers for what was to come.

Interestingly, Solo Leveling‘s second episode mirrors the second half of Ragna Crimson‘s double-length debut from last season. Although two separate installments, the story and culminating battle in Solo Leveling episodes 1 and 2 are similar in delivery. However, Solo Leveling‘s effort falls short of Ragna Crimson for the same reason it does with Chained Soldier. The weight of Ragna Crimson‘s battle was based on Ragna’s fear of losing his dear friend, while Solo Leveling‘s fear of death. While that’s powerful, it lacks the same emotional punch of fights like the one featured in Chained Soldier.

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Besides Solo Leveling and some action/adventure series, there are many other new series with incredible battles, but many of them fall short of being the best because they lack proper build-up. The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil is one of the more unexpected ones, with episode 10 creating the perfect setup for an incredible fight that no one was anticipating.

The Witch and the Beast is undoubtedly the poster child in this regard, however, just because of its episodic delivery. While most of the stories are told in two or sometimes three acts, they are clearly separate from each other and therefore don’t reach the same level of anticipation of more overarching plot lines, like Chained Soldier.

Chained Soldier is simulcasting exclusively on HIDIVE

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