Best School Battle Anime, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• School battle anime often focus on students training to fight either each other or a common enemy through combat.
• Protagonists in these series often discover the power of friendship or unique abilities in their fight-focused academies.
• The school setting is a great opportunity for character growth, elaborate battle systems, cool characters, and great story payoffs.

The best school battle anime centers around students training to beat each other or a common enemy through combat. Protagonists typically discover the power of friendship or incredible abilities in their fight-focused academies. Their schooling eventually takes them off-campus, either due to school traditions, family circumstances, or a greater purpose.

For these anime, the school system is central to its structure until significant plot points unfold. Being in school allows characters and stories to progress in ways that are impossible or less compelling outside of it. In some, the school itself may be the key to advancing the story.

Updated October 30, 2024, by Rie Takumi: Battle schools were a little more popular in the 00s, though the emergence of new favorites such as My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen in the 10s proved that the concept still has juice in it. There are even more anime where fighting happens around a school setting, though the rule of combat as part of the school curriculum narrows the search. School battle anime often draw viewers in with bombastic animation. What makes them stay are elaborate but fun battle systems and power scaling, cool characters, and plot with great battle payoffs. The more popular school battle anime are popular with younger folk thanks to their simple plotlines, and with adults who can create their own fantasy version of the work.

25 Mikagura School Suite

MAL Score: 6.67 – School Clubs Fight Each Other For Reasons

Eruna Ichinomiya was just a regular third-year middle school student until she saw a photograph taken by Seisa Mikagura on a school pamphlet. Entranced, Eruna enrolls in Mikagura Private Academy. It’s only when she gets there that she discovers Mikagura’s special circumstances.

Mikagura School Suite tells Eruna’s journey through school, bumped by Mikagura’s system of pitting its cultural clubs and superpowered students against each other. Although the anime downplays the importance of most characters, the fight-centric nature of the school is fun enough to stick around for.

24 Armed Girl’s Machiavellism

MAL Score: 6.68 – Delinquent Fights Against Matriarchy

Fudo Nomura had no idea that he’d be under the thumb of a violent matriarchy at Private Aichi Symbiosis Academy. But as a free-willed delinquent, Fudo takes on the challenge of the feared Supreme Five Swords to jig the severe imbalance at the academy.

Fudo’s fights with the Supreme Five Swords are key moments in the series and their individual battles can get bloody. Although it definitely has a comedic ecchi tone, fight choreography plays a significant role in its memorability. Power scaling is a little jank, but fights are fun enough to last for episodes.

23 The Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water

MAL Score: 6.81 – Search For Sister Winds Up In Battle Academy

Ayato Amagiri’s sister, Haruka, is missing and the only lead is Seidoukan Academy in the city of Asterisk. As a Genestella, or a superhuman born after an extinction event, his powers are key for winning a Festa or tournament between all academies in Asterisk. A series of hijinks gets him into Seidoukan, and on the path to finding out what happened to his sister.

The Asterisk War has a ton of background detail that aren’t completely fleshed out, befitting an anime adapted from a light novel. Still, details about Seidoukan Academy and the other five academies in Asterisk, and why they shape their students as otherworldly warriors, are clearly explained.

22 Trinity Seven

MAL Score: 7.05 – Survivor Enters Magic School To Save Childhood Friend

Arata Kasuga’s life was normal until the mage Lilith Asami shattered his world. It turns out Arata was under a spell, and his hometown had been destroyed completely by a mysterious phenomenon called the Black Sun. To get to the bottom of the mystery and find his cousin Hijiri, Arata follows Lilith to Royal Biblia Academy.

It’s at the secret mage school of Royal Biblia Academy that he finds Arin, a dead ringer for his cousin HIjiri. As Arata tries to learn more about Arin and Hijiri, he learns to wield magic, fight demons, and why his unlocked mage powers are special.

21 Knight’s & Magic

MAL Score: 7.07 – Isekai’d Into Mecha School Vs. Demons & Politicians

Tsubasa Kurata was a genius software engineer who longed to pilot a mecha from his anime and manga. He gets a shot at his dreams after he’s hit by a speeding car on the way home from buying mecha model kits. His new abilities land him at the Royal Laihiala Academy, a school that trains Knight Runners or pilots of mechas called Silhouette Knights.

Knight’s & Magic has a solid isekai world and magic system that makes every fight feel well-executed. Starting in a battle academy gives Tsubasa, now known as Eru, and the reader a solid entry into the world, and gives structure to the action.

20 A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special

MAL Score: 7.10 – Second Chance At Saving The World Through School Life

Desir is no ordinary overpowered student in a magic school. He’s Desir Herrman, the mage of a pack of heroes who failed to save the world in the future. A twist of fate sends Desir 10 years back in time instead of dying with the rest of the world.

Being in magic school is pretty important to Desir, as changing the classism rooted in his magical world starts at the influential Hebrion Academy. A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special retreads manwha tropes for fantasy academies thoroughly. This is a plus for fans of the format who want something easy to get into.

19 Chrome Shelled Regios

MAL Score: 7.27 – Battle School In A Dying World

Although an older title from the late 2000s, Chrome Shelled Regios uniquely fits the battle school anime trope. Zuellni is a military battle school that’s literally a city. Military Arts students learning to use Dite against Filth Monsters are also critical for the continued existence of humanity.

Interschool battles are important to building the overall plot and surprisingly add normalcy to the post-apocalyptic setting. Although the story never really strays from the main character Layfon, there’s a sense of characters doing their damndest to overcome his OP skills.

18 High School Fleet

MAL Score: 7.30 – Cute Girls Learn To Drive Military Battleships

Maritime travel and trade is now the norm in Japan after a mining disaster sank most of the country. The elite Blue Mermaids defend Japan’s new sea routes, and Akane and Moeka are but two girls who hope to join the all-women peacekeeping force. But unlike Moeka, Akeno’s first command at Yokosuka Girls’ Marine High School goes deathly wrong, and she and her crew on the Harekaze are forced to sail for their lives.

High School Fleet’s school setting is the third main point of the anime, aside from cute girls doing cute things and showing off lavishly illustrated battleships. Nevertheless, classes of about 30 girls take lessons on their ships, have hands-on experience on their vessels, and use their lessons to defend against fellow students and other threats.

17 Boarding School Juliet

MAL Score: 7.4 – Romeo & Juliet In Swordfighting School

Romio Inuzuka of the Black Dogs dormitory has held the torch for Juliet Persia of the White Cats dorm since childhood despite being in rival clans. However, Juliet sees Romio as an enemy, and her animosity only grew when Romio protected her from conflict. To her surprise, Romio confesses to loving her, and so their hijinks-heavy romance start.

Boarding School Juliet is another Romeo and Juliet-type title, but it also has pretty fun fight sequences. Warring states demand combat prowess from men and women alike, and duels are central to a few plot points. If reading isn’t enough, Boarding School Juliet also has an anime adaptation up online.

16 The Irregular At Magic High School

MAL Score: 7.44 – Magic Wielded As Powerful Technology by High Schoolers

As the main setting, First High School played a critical role in the Shiba siblings’ growth and the viewer’s introduction to their world. First High’s magical segregation is also a microcosm of the world’s commodification of magicians.

It’s also in First High that Tatsuya Shiba and viewers explore the sci-fi-esque magic system partly responsible for the series’ popularity. The school’s power system also effectively prepares Tatsuya, his sister Miyuki, and the viewers for the world’s genetics and magic arms race.

15 Chivalry Of A Failed Knight

MAL Score: 7.44 – Zero To Hero Sticks To One Girl And Awesome Fights

Chivalry of A Failed Knight seems to follow the trappings of high school battle harem anime. But, remarkably, Ikki doesn’t accumulate a bevy of women. He goes for Stella almost straightaway, and their relationship positively affects their combat efficiency.

Ikki and Stella grow stronger by developing better insight mid-battle. Their first bout together sets the tone of the series’ fights, which only grew more elaborate with each episode. Every character’s special ability is a puzzle and half the fun of the anime is figuring out how to solve or defeat them.

14 Girls Und Panzer

MAL Score: 7.52 – Tank Battles As High School Girl Martial Arts

Martial arts oriented towards women aren’t new. Naginatajutsu was traditionally practiced by women as protection, a status symbol, and, eventually, a school-taught feminine art. In Girls und Panzer’s Japan, tank warfare or sensha-do is the sport of choice for girls instead.

It’s also the sport that haunts Miho Nishizumi, whose past led her to run away from the sport. But thanks to new friends, she finds joy in tank battles again. Part sports anime, part cute-girls-doing-cute-things (CGDCT), Girls und Panzer does surprisingly well in making tank battles a fun competitive sport.

13 Yamada And The Seven Witches

MAL Score: 7.54 – Delinquent Kisses Witches For New Powers

Ryu Yamada tried to enjoy high school after a middle school life spent as a delinquent. But after a boring first year, he returned to knocking heads instead of attending school and became a frequent visitor to the principal. After one such visit, Ryu falls lips-first on Urara Shiraishi and magically swaps bodies with her.

Yamada and the Seven Witches explores what happens after the kiss and how Ryu and Urara deal with their new kiss-activated powers. The premise makes this out to be a harem, but Ryu and Urara are firmly in the endgame. Fights showcase Ryu’s delinquency and the witch’s magic amid the kisses.

12 Mashle: Magic And Muscles

MAL Score: 7.60 (First Season) – Ab-Crunching Comedy And Cream Puffs

To keep his peaceful life with his old man, Mashle Burnedead enters a Hogwarts-expy where elitism, eugenics, and classism aren’t hidden behind metaphors. Like Mashle, the anime faces these themes head-on in a hilarious deconstruction of magic academies and shonen tropes.

Deconstruction aside, Mashle’s appeal partly lies in the bonds he creates at Easton Magic Academy. Befitting the anime and manga’s comedic nature, Mashle largely doesn’t change himself. But his presence helps his friends and allies move forward with their lives and ambitions.

11 Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar

MAL Score: 7.74 – Tenchi’s Younger Brother Isekai’d IntoMecha School

Tenchi Muyo! is a legendary harem sitcom anime, but not many people know about its spin-off, Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar. The latter, also known as Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari, follows Tenchi’s brother Kenshi Masaki as he’s isekai’d to the mecha-populated world of Geminar.

It’s on Geminar that he enrolls to the Holy Land, where he defends Empress Lashara and trains to become a Sacred Mechanoid pilot. But even as he learns to fight and becomes a harem protagonist, he begins to uncover a sinister plot within the academy.

10 Wind Breaker

MAL Score: 7.76 – Aimless HS Finds Place In Fight School

Haruka Sakura never fit in, not with his mismatched hair and eyes, but he was sure good at punching people. That’s why, when he emerges from a brawl before his first day at Furin High School, he gains allies instead of scorn, he’s suspicious. Sakura must learn to adjust to his new reality as part of the lawful delinquents, Bofurin, as they take on other chaotic high schoolers in the town of Makochi.

Wind Breaker’s Furin HS doesn’t exactly teach fighting as part of its curriculum, but the fights that Bofurin and other HS delinquent groups are the focal point of the series. The anime and manga, so far, have yet to show Furin HS and Makochi’s larger high school system as anything where delinquents learn to fight to protect or terrorize the town.

9 Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

MAL Score: 7.75 (First Season) – Wacky Almost-Slice Of Life Comedy In Battle School

Iruma’s life was in danger the moment the demon Sullivan adopted him as his grandson. However, enrolling him in Babyls School for Demons, where he could be found out as an edible human, certainly didn’t help with his safety.

Fortunately for Iruma, he finds friends in school who grow with him through hilarious and heartwarming adventures. The school also helps him get used to the demon world, its battle-oriented society, and a life where people genuinely care about his well-being.

8 Soul Eater

MAL Score: 7.84 – Sentient Weapon and Master School Fights

Soul Eater is a shonen favorite for a reason. It embraces absurdity with characters like OCD icon Death the Kid; Black☆ Star, the world’s loudest assassin; and workaholic Maka Albarn. Atsushi Ohkubo’s classic battle school anime also benefits from Studio BONES’ hyperactive action choreography and vibrant palette.

The trio and their weapons growing up together in a wild school adventure help them avoid the pitfalls that come with their ambitions. Maka and her friends also ultimately find the courage to keep going against literal gods and embodiments of primal concepts.

7 My Hero Academia

MAL Score: 7.87(First Season) – Superpower High School With A Lot Of Heart

My Hero Academia took manga and Western comic fans by storm in 2014. It combined age-old shonen tropes with Western superhero aesthetics and infused the story with plenty of heart. MHA introduced the concept of Quirks, a fun power system, and the main driver for its stories and character arcs.

By setting the story in an academy, mangaka Kohei Horikoshi effectively captured its young audience through relatability and simplicity. It also made it easier to escalate the stakes and action down the line.

6 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury

MAL Score: 7.88 (First Season) – Giant Robot School Fights To Inter-Space Warfare

A school focused on mobile suits, the Asticassia School of Technology is literally a battle school with mechs. Asticassia is also the playground for the heirs of mega-corporations and the gilded cage of Miorine Rembran. Suletta Mercury’s arrival not only disrupts this system, but the status quo of the mobile suit industry.

Suletta and Miorine’s growth rightfully dominates this timeline, but Asticassia’s systems are also fascinating. Duels decide everything on campus, and deals made within can have huge implications off-site. Moreover, some students actually have more freedom within the oppressive campus, finding comfort in their friends and achievements.