General

@fakestories: out of those, the ones i enjoyed the most/thought were the best were

naruto vs sasuke
rock lee vs gaara (the animation on that downward kick was amazing, the way his legs and body relaxed and straightened after the kick)
pain vs naruto

[quote=Xreniya]I found this answer to "Is Naruto the greatest anime ever made?" on Quora just now, by chance
I don't remember all these episodes because I watched them long ago but I'll be sure to check them out
Tailed Naruto vs Pain and Naruto vs Sasuke are indeed two of my favorite fights in all of anime, so I'm sure the other ones are well done also
Gotta get a good key animator

"The episodes animated by Norio Matsumoto are some of the greatest fights to ever be drawn by human hands

A collection of 'em, check it out

Naruto the manga by Kishimoto Masashi will be remembered as one of the great stories of our generation, but the anime adaption is constrained by budget and 'fillers'. There are particular episodes though where they really go all out and get their most skilled key animators on the job. The ones that Norio Matsumoto worked on are...

Naruto:
30: "The Sharingan Revived: Dragon-Flame Jutsu!" (Sasuke vs disguised Orochimaru)
48 "Gaara vs. Rock Lee: The Power of Youth Explodes!"
71 "An Unrivaled Match: Hokage Battle Royale!"
133 "A Plea From a Friend" (Sasuke vs Naruto)

Naruto Shippuden:
85 "The terrifying secret" (Kakashi vs Akatsuki's Kakuzu)
123 "Clash!" (Sasuke vs Akatsuki's Deidara)
167 "Planetary destruction" (Kyuubi Naruto vs Pain)
290 "Power" (interestingly enough this was a filler arc, but Norio Matsumoto made the first episode look darn good)

Chances are you already considered these some of the best episodes of Naruto without knowing one man did the key animation for all of them.

The way I approached the Naruto series was primarily reading the manga, then watching the episode when I knew that the A team of animators was working on it."

update: i watched the episodes. light years better than any of the other normal eps.[/quote]

bless this post

I found this answer to "Is Naruto the greatest anime ever made?" on Quora just now, by chance
I don't remember all these episodes because I watched them long ago but I'll be sure to check them out
Tailed Naruto vs Pain and Naruto vs Sasuke are indeed two of my favorite fights in all of anime, so I'm sure the other ones are well done also
Gotta get a good key animator

"The episodes animated by Norio Matsumoto are some of the greatest fights to ever be drawn by human hands

A collection of 'em, check it out

Naruto the manga by Kishimoto Masashi will be remembered as one of the great stories of our generation, but the anime adaption is constrained by budget and 'fillers'. There are particular episodes though where they really go all out and get their most skilled key animators on the job. The ones that Norio Matsumoto worked on are...

Naruto:
30: "The Sharingan Revived: Dragon-Flame Jutsu!" (Sasuke vs disguised Orochimaru)
48 "Gaara vs. Rock Lee: The Power of Youth Explodes!"
71 "An Unrivaled Match: Hokage Battle Royale!"
133 "A Plea From a Friend" (Sasuke vs Naruto)

Naruto Shippuden:
85 "The terrifying secret" (Kakashi vs Akatsuki's Kakuzu)
123 "Clash!" (Sasuke vs Akatsuki's Deidara)
167 "Planetary destruction" (Kyuubi Naruto vs Pain)
290 "Power" (interestingly enough this was a filler arc, but Norio Matsumoto made the first episode look darn good)

Chances are you already considered these some of the best episodes of Naruto without knowing one man did the key animation for all of them.

The way I approached the Naruto series was primarily reading the manga, then watching the episode when I knew that the A team of animators was working on it."

update: i watched the episodes. light years better than any of the other normal eps.

Not a fight scene, but still heart-wrenching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bli-pONFnp4

rock lee vs gaara

Kimomaru(?) Vs Rock Lee and Gaara

Animation wise?
I'd have to say Naruto vs Sasuke, episode 144/145 and that, after Naruto goes ninetails and says he'll break every bone in Sasuke's body or whatever

Unlike countless other fights, the animation was fluid, the poses and movements werent stiff and plastic and stilted, it wasn't drawn out with unmoving characters delivering dialogue to save budget or because the animators were lazy

There were no repetitive scenes, no 10 second long DBZ scenes of meticulous and uninteresting hand combat. The colors are subdued and dark and reserved, not annoying vivid/lurid like they usually are

One particular scene eschewed music -- no rousing flute melodies telling you when your blood should be boiling or anything, just silence and Naruto pummeling Sasuke into a sorry Uchiha pulp

When Naruto launches a barrage of punches into Sasuke's stomach and Sasuke is pushed into the air and his eyes blur and bulge -- THAT is a punch

And in the context of the entire series I think this was my favorite as well. Two friends going at each other, one trying to save the other from hatred, and he LOSES LOL

At the end, when that last bit of sunlight closes in to a last thin line of light on Naruto's forehead and melts away and Sasuke is kneeling there staring at Naruto in the rain
i got the feels

@fakestories: Watch the Anime, IMO drawings in a chapter cant justify the amazing fight scenes

all u guys are for the best, for real! i probably should have specified in the original post, but i've read the manga so i love watching how they translate panels into animation. some of my favorite fights from the manga are definitely mentioned a few times (sakura/sasori, naruto/pain, itachi/sasuke). i'm surprised only one person mentioned shika/hidan though... i thought that was brilliant

@mantis561 uahah you listed p much every fight i enjoyed reading in the manga ! i wasn't too sure if i should watch kakuzu vs naruto because of the advantage, but i guess now since everyone's been recommending it i'll have to hehe

@trumanb am so happy you said that since i also think understanding the backstory makes a fight 10000x better - part of the reason why i already watched all of the fight's you rec'd in p2 haha. watching sakura finally kick some ass was really relieving.. but ahh haku's fight is always going to be one of my favorites! he's my favorite character n n

@lampshadow dang for real? i recently reread deidara vs sasuke and wasn't too enthused.. i ended up skimming over most of it because i felt like it was pretty short. maybe i'm crazy lolol. shikamaru/hidan's fight was executed really nicely - lots of strategy i loved reading

@0kevqn HAHA right! after reading naruto gaiden, i went on this whole naruto binge and reread everything and now i wanna finally watch some of the anime

One of the best Anime ever, so many good fight scenes I couldn't even name a top 10 for you

edit: wow you got me excited for Naruto now.. thanks. Thinking back, it's 100% in my top 3 Anime, it's the Anime that got me into Anime. I've been watching it for almost 10 years now lol

Deidara vs Sasuke is probably my favorite fight in the manga. I feel it was the last big battle in the series that heavily utilized ninjutsu and strategy. Everything after that was pretty much Naruto overpowering people with sage/kyuubi mode and Sasuke abusing his mangekyou sharingan powers (it turned kinda DBZ, especially in the war arc)

Sasuke vs Itachi ... them feels still gets me every time. "Forgive me Sasuke... It ends with this."

Part 1:
Naruto vs Gaara (favourite among favourites)
Naruto vs Neji
Tsunade & Jiraiya vs Orochimaru
Rock Lee vs Gaara
Team 7 vs Zabuza and Haku

Part 2:
Lady Chiyo and Sakura vs Sasori
Gaara vs Deidara
Jiraiya vs Pain
Naruto vs Pain

I might have missed a few among those lists o_o. I also would like to make a note that one fight had a lot of potential, but wasn't executed as well. Konan vs Tobi.
Konan went HAM... but it didn't last long, I feel they should have fought longer, used more jutsu's, and tobi show have fought back more. It was a potential 10/10 fight that only loaded 20%. I wanted to see more...

However, for you I recommend you watch Team 7 vs Zabuza and Haku or Rock Lee vs. Gaara, because most of my favourites is based on the back story combined with the fight. While a few of the rest is based on seeing how much one has grown, so you may not see it as how epic I would .

From Part 1:
Team 7 vs Kakashi
Naruto vs Neji
Rock Lee vs Gaara
Naruto (and Sasuke?) vs Gaara
Sakura vs Sound Ninja
Naruto vs Sasuke (OMG!)

From Shippuden:
Team 7 vs Kakashi (rematch)
Lady Chiyo & Sakura vs Sasori
Team 10 vs Hidan & Kakuzu
Naruto vs Kakuzu (It was kinda one-sided, but you better see it 'cause Naruto had destroyed Kakuzu after him and Hidan defeated everybody else)
Naruto vs Pain (pretty long)
Sasuke vs Itachi (really good)
Team Taka vs Killer Bee

From Part I:
Neji vs. Kidomaru (personal fave)
Naruto vs. Gaara
Naruto vs. Neji

From Shippuden:
Sakura vs. Sasori
Shikamaru vs. Hidan
Naruto vs. Pain (personal fave)

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_flntwH2oM]darui vs kinkaku&ginkaku[/url]
i loved this fight

Gaara vs Naruto was the best. Ultimate Ninja Handbook was my favorite episode.

Most memorable was Gaara vs Rock Lee ofc

Sakura & Chiyo Vs Sasori.

I only watched the first 100 episodes, but out of that, Rock Lee vs. Garra.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1zNtsTqHyI]x[/url] Sakura vs the Sound Ninja's

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfM7zOxptd0]Team Taka vs Killer Bee[/url] The one sided slaughter was epic

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq2ZQqVTuzo]Minato vs Obito[/url]

Kakashi and Ino-Shika-Chou v.s. Hidan and Kakuzu.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6aj62r_ICo]Kakashi vs obito[/url] or maybe [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZgC9_W5v7Y]team Taka vs Killer B.[/url]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwRtiVIk1cA

It will always be my fav, I crai e'erytime!