Anime is home to some pretty fierce combative characters, a lot of the most memorable of which came from the shonen genre. While not every shonen series revolves around fighting, "Battle Shonen" has some of the most popular stories and characters to ever grace the battlefield.
That all being said, not every character from Battle Shonen is a fighter, and even those that are aren't always as good at it as others. Whether it's due to their personality, their strengths lying elsewhere, or that their abilities are weaker than that of their allies, these combatants' fighting skills just don't measure up.
10 King's Not So Tough Without His Magic (Seven Deadly Sins)
In The Seven Deadly Sins King, aka the Fairy King Harlequin, is one of the powerful knights in Leonis. With his magical Spirit Spear and powers as the Fairy King, King is a force to be reckoned with. However, physically and without his magical powers, King's a bit of a pushover in a fight.
With his magical powers, King is one of the most powerful knights in the world, but without them, he's not even able to take on an old man in a fight. Where his Sins allies rely on both physical and magical skills, King relies heavily on just his vast amount of magic.
9 Mumen Rider's Just A Guy With A Bike (One-Punch Man)
While Saitama may be the most powerful hero of One-Punch Man, whether the world knows it or not, there are plenty of heroes aside from him who can hold their own and take out powerful villains and monsters. Sadly not everyone in the Hero Association can do that, such as poor Mumen Rider.
While this C-Rank hero has plenty of spirit and courage, willing to take on bad guys that could easily mop the floor with him in seconds to save people, Mumen Rider doesn't have any powers or fighting skills to back it up. Simply put, Mumen Rider's just a guy with a bike who's way out of his league.
8 Miwa's A Good Swordswoman, But Not The Best Fighter (Jujutsu Kaisen)
Kasumi Miwa is a student of Kyoto's Jujutsu High School in Jujutsu Kaisen. Despite referring to herself as "useless", she's a kind soul and a grade 3 sorcerer who's skilled with a sword. Sadly, when it comes to combat, Miwa's skills are a bit lacking due to her lack of technique.
Miwa is willing to fight for the sake of her fellow classmates, but her low self-esteem and weakness in a fight make it hard for her to do that, like when she lost to Maki who has no cursed energy at all.
7 Toby Isn't The Brightest Mage Out There (Fairy Tail)
There are many powerful Mages in Fairy Tail with many unique types of magic, but just because someone has magic doesn't automatically make them a strong fighter, and Toby from the Lamia Scale Guild is one of those examples. Despite his beastly appearance and paralyzing claws, Toby's fighting skills are sadder than they are fearsome.
Toby's also incredibly dimwitted, which has caused him to paralyze himself with his own claws in the past. Sadly, Toby actually loses every fight he's in throughout the series, and pretty easily.
6 Orihime Is A Healer Rather Than A Fighter (Bleach)
Bleach's Orihime is one of Ichigo's closest allies whos has pulled him and her other friends out of some tight spots, thanks to her spiritual powers, most notably her healing abilities. While she's also able to use these powers to fight enemies like Hollows, Arrancars, or even Soul Reapers, Orihime is better in the support role than in offense.
While she has taken out an enemy or two, Orihime's attacks aren't exactly as potent as her healing powers, and any feelings of doubt end up making them weaker.
5 Niijima, An Opportunistic Combatant (Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple)
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is about a wimpy kid who learns multiple forms of martial arts to fight against his bullies and gang members. One of those bullies who ends up becoming Kenichi's ally is the pointy-eared Haruo Niijima. Whereas most of Kenichi's friends and allies are fighters too, Niijima avoids trying to get his hands dirty at all costs, even if he's actually in a fight.
When conflict comes his way, Niijima either runs away or uses cheap tricks to escape. When that fails he uses psychological warfare or tools he has on hand to get an underhanded shot at his opponents. Essentially, because Niijima refuses to learn how to physically fight, he has to rely on cheap tactics to win.
4 Iruka's Strength Is Moral Support (Naruto)
Iruka Umino was a teacher at Konoha's academy who taught many of the village's children the basics of being a ninja and serves as the first person to ever believe in Naruto's dream of becoming the Hokage. Iruka's strength lies in being moral support for his students, but maybe not in combat.
Iruka very rarely gets into fights himself, but when push comes to shove he's not afraid to. Sadly, while he's skilled in the basic abilities every ninja has, he doesn't have any special talents or techniques of his own which makes him fall a bit short in comparison to other characters in the Naruto franchise.
3 Tamaki Keeps Wasting Her Potential (Fire Force)
In Fire Force Tamaki Kotatsu was first introduced as a member of Company 1, with her Ignition Ability giving her a cat-like appearance and agility. While some would assume that her being in such a high-ranked squad means that she's really strong, she sadly never measured up to that status.
While her pyrokinetic abilities give her so much potential, Tamaki is mostly treated as a joke due to her clumsy and "revealing" habits and poor judgment, which often leaves her in need of rescue. On top of that, she has very few wins under her belt, with the most notable being the time her bad luck gave her the win against Assault.
2 Mineta, Class 1-A's Least Heroic Student (My Hero Academia)
While My Hero Academia's Class 1-A is filled with students who all have the potential to become the next generation of heroes, there are a few who fall a bit short, and one of them is the infamous Minoru Mineta. Cowardly and obsessed with girls, Mineta only really enrolled at U.A. to become popular.
Mineta's Quirk of popping off sticky balls from his head isn't built for combat, but it does have defensive and rescue purposes. Sadly, because of Mineta's cowardice and raging hormones, he's only really interested in perfecting his Quirk for less than noble purposes, which usually leads to his undoing.
1 Yamcha's Loss Rate Turned Him Into A Joke (Dragon Ball)
Out of all of Dragon Ball's various characters, none may have had a more tragic fall from grace than Yamcha. While originally one of Goku's closer allies, Yamcha's ability to win fights regardless of his training got fewer and farther between with time, especially once Dragon Ball Z came around.
Completely out of his depth, Yamcha suffered loss after loss, being easily flicked away like a bug more often than not. Eventually, Yamcha's inability to hold his own got so bad that the Z Fighters just stopped inviting him to fight with them. These days, Yamcha is little more than a joke.