Which are the greatest battles in the anime?

[Keshav]

Which battles are your favorite in the anime?( Not necessarily Ash's battles)
Mine are:-
Ash vs Drake
Ash vs Tobias
Ash vs clemont(gym battle)
Ash vs Tyson
Ash vs Tobias
Ash vs Sawyer

Most favorite battle:-
Ash vs Trip(First battle):- It was a really nice battle, got me back into the anime and it made clear that the battles in BW will be just like this one.
I'm just joking

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Ash vs. Blaine
Ash vs. Gary[Johto League]
Ash vs. Harrison
Cynthia vs. Paul
Ash vs. Crasher Wake
Dawn vs. Zoey[Grand Festival]
Ash vs. Paul[Sinnoh League]
Ash vs. Clemont[Gym Battle]
Ash vs. Olympia
Ash vs. Sawyer[Kalos League]

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Ash vs Alain at league
Ash vs Tobias
Ash vs Brandon
Ash vs Noland
Ash vs Paul at league
Ash vs Gary at Johto league
Ash vs Sawyer at league

 

[DracoMan]

I'm actually working on a Top 10 list on just this subject. Plenty to chose from:

Ash vs. Drake (Orange League)
Ash vs. Gary (Johto League)
Ash vs. Noland (Battle Frontier)
Ash vs. Paul (Sinnoh League)

Korrina vs. Gurkinn was also fun, just for the sight of two Mega Lucario using Bone Rush on each other like two Jedi saber-dueling.

 

[Lyrebird]

Ash v. Samurai with the Metapod
Ash v. Casey
Ash v. Gary when Pikachu v. Eevee
Ash v. Brock - First Gym Battle

Misty's sisters v. Ash - Best battle ever

 

[FANG-TAN]

Satoshi vs. Yuji
Satoshi vs. Shigeru (League match)
Satoshi vs. Hazuki
Satoshi vs. Shinji (League match)
Satoshi vs. Takuto (as much as I rather Takuto not exist at all, Jukain defeating Darkrai and Pikachu taking Latios with it was undeniably kickass)
Satoshi and Lizardon vs. Illusion Entei
Starter evolution trio vs. Mewtwo's clone starter evolution trio

Spoiler

 

[Gengarzilla]

It's... probably not standing up there with most examples but I've got to bring up Ash vs Stephan by virtue of it being the only good battle in the embarrassing Unova League. It does have that going in its favour if nothing else...

I wouldn't seriously call it my favourite though.

 

[Deleted member 85628]

Ash vs Wattson purely due to the hilarity that Pikachu using Iron Tail on a robot Raikou gave him a super charge and curbstomped Wattson's Pokemon.

 

[Gligarman]

At the moment:

Ash Vs. Paul (Sinnoh)
- My personal favorite. Probably the most violent battle to date. Hell the follow up episode was almost hard to watch since all of Satoshi's Pokemon were in bandages and clearly in a lot of pain.

Simisage Vs. Scraggy (Unova)
- Because Simisage is my favorite Pokemon at the moment (I still love you Gligar and Gliscor!) and this battle represents the most screen time he's ever had in a single episode! Unless it shows up in XY&Z at some point. Still marathoning!

Ash Vs. Random Guy (Movie 1)
- Despite my use of the English name in this post I'm really don't much care for the English dub. But even I can't deny that when I saw the this movie in theaters the moment that first beat dropped during the opening credit sequence you could feel the energy in that house crank up to 12! You gotta admit it. The movie's version of the English theme song is pretty dope. Also we got to see movie quality battle animation for the first time and even got a sneak peak at a Johto Pokemon which made all of us fans in the theater absolutely lose it. Though would someone like to explain to me how Pikachu knocked out a Golem in one hit with an electric attack?

Pikachu Vs. Raichu (Kanto)
- We finally see the consequences of forcing Pokemon into battles that they're not ready for.

Ash Vs. Gary (Johto)
- At the time, the entire series had been leading up to this point. (And MAN was I glad to Gary's stupid cape disappear.)

Charizard Vs. Entei (Movie 3)
- Definitely one of the more emotionally intense battles of the series considering Entei was defending the illusion of a little girl's lost family.

Ash Vs. Olympia (Kalos)
- This is the most recent episode I've seen and the animation is INSANE! They've done some very impressive work with this show.

Charizard Vs. Magmar (Kanto)
- A landmark battle since it was the first time Charizard was obedient.

 

[SonansuMan]

Pikachu vs Tsutarja.

 

[KrspaceT]

It would be probably be, thematically at least, Ash vs Paul. It was built up brilliantly. That is what the Ash vs Gary fight should have been like.

Ash vs Sawyer/Alain surpass it on a technical level, and they lack the 'one starter beats 3 mons' issue that A vs P and A vs G had, but while I do like Sawyer and Alain as rivals they were not built up well enough.

Honestly the only rivals who could have matched Paul's battle in intensity are ones who were around from the start: but Trip's execution was botched up and Shudo can't do a good build up for the life of him.

 

[345ash-greninja]

1)Ash vs Paul
2)Ash vs Sawyer
3)Ash vs Gary
4)Ash vs Morrison
5)Ash vs Brandon/Ash vs Drake(Orange League)
I can't include battles which Ash lost, giving me a heartbreak and crushed my hopes of him winning a League, otherwise I would have also included Ash vs Tyson and Ash vs Alain.

 

[Jukain]

I want very badly for something good to come out of Kalos, but I just can't do it due to technicalities. That isn't to say that the battles in Kalos aren't good, they are, it's just that older ones have features that are more interesting or just had better writing behind it. (that being Paul and Tobias)

 

[Mr. Bell]

Ash vs Lt. Surge
Ash vs Drake
Mewtwo vs Mew
Red vs Giovanni
Ash vs Paul [Any battle, but most obviously the one at the league]
Alain vs Siebold
Alain vs Malva

Other battles I liked:
Ash vs Sabrina (1st one)
Ash vs Grant
Ash vs Clair
Ash vs Bugsy
Ash vs Morty
Ash vs Fantina
Cameron vs Marlon

 

[Ryan Massey]

all the ones that ash loses the match (except the snivy vs pikachu. like wtf happen there)

 

[Olive]

Ash v. Tobias - My top pick with no second thoughts. To see Ash go so far in a battle even he must have known he couldn't win is nothing short of awesome.

Notable Mentions
Ash v. Paul (Lake Acuity) - Among other things, I remember seeing Chimchar evolve into Monferno and thinking that the battle was going to be Ash's, but Paul still wins. The anime has a tendency to use in-battle evolutions as a way of assuring a surprise victory when it looks like someone is going to lose. Here though they reversed that trend, completely surprised me, and made this one of my top battles by far.

Nando v. Zoey (Grand Festival) - I always thought that this battle perfectly captured the spirit of Contest Battles. Every attack was so refined and the two opponents, while still competing, managed to build off each other's dynamics perfectly. You don't often get to see that in a Pokémon battle where both sides are simply looking for a victory.

 

[alondon17]

all the ones that ash loses the match (except the snivy vs pikachu. like wtf happen there)

If I remember correctly, pikachu was weakened by zekrom

 

[Ryan Massey]

If I remember correctly, pikachu was weakened by zekrom

still a stupid reason to lose to a level 5 snivy when pikachu's level is over 9000 thousand or something

 

[Mr. Bell]

2 great battles I've just remembered:
Forrest vs Nurse Joy
Clair vs Iris

 

[danh19]

the ash and Paul league battle it was by far the best battle with very few bits that bugged except the torrterra lost