The martial arts anime is as old as Japanese film itself and the jidaigeki of the 40s and 50s. Usually the story of a young man or woman who is weaker than others and must become stronger to prove something to themselves and their friends and family. There are two types of heroes here, the outwardly altruistic – that saint among men who would openly lay down his life for anyone – and the inwardly heroic – who would do the same but say a bunch of mean things in the process. The range of shows here is incredible but they all have one thing in common, an obsession with fighting and the act of becoming stronger.

Dragonball Z – Dragonball Z is essentially only martial arts. As a tournament arc show it more or less involves an imminent threat arriving and defeating the hero. The hero then spends a certain amount of time training to fight the imminent threat. The hero’s friends fight the threat while everyone waits for said hero to return…they all lose. He finally arrives and a 12 episode long battle ensues in which the hero reaches a new plateau of power and barely defeats the threat. The Hero in this case is Goku, the threat changes every season and his cast of friends is endless. Suffice it to say, he gets really strong.

Naruto – The hidden village of Konoha trains ninja and Naruto’s goal is to become the leader of them all, the Hokage. He’s and orphan and the vessel for a cat demon locked away when he was a baby. The show follows the same basic formula as Dragonball Z, but throws in a substantially higher rate of humor and character relationships.

Rurouni Kenshin – Kenshin is the greatest samurai to come out of the Meiji revolution and he was a kid at the time. He’s set aside his killing ways though and ends up in Edo with Kaoru and friends helping to run a beaten down dojo. Of course things never stay so simple and Kenshin eventually has to go and fight. The blade is on the wrong side of his sword though and weakened as this makes him he’s faced with the dilemma time and time again of whether it’s alright to take a life to save the ones you love.

Fist of the North Star – Fist of the North Star is the story of a post-apocalyptic earth in which only the strong survive and they are very strong. The possessor of certain powers can even destroy from within the human body through pressure points. The series was incredibly violent as you might guess and follows the Mad Max style wanderings of Kenshiro across the barren wasteland in his fight for justice.