Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-1872728-20170911101125/@comment-734582-20170913080022

Lorenzo.r.2nd wrote: huh? since when? are u talking bout that hiruzen statement, when he was fighting orochi? dude, people said the same thing bout hiruzen himself, in the show. statements are so useless in this manga, its sad. Mashashi kishimoto 2008 interview: (SJ= Shonen Jump, MK=Kishimoto) SJ: While we’re at it… could you please tell us if Minato was the strongest shinobi that ever lived?

MK: Hmmm, it’s a tricky question. As far as dead shinobis goes, then yes, he’s the strongest. I’d say that Sandaime shares the number one spot with him. As far as living shinobis goes… well, without going into many details I’d have to say no. There’s a couple of shinobis whose stronger than him.

(Considering that E.g. Rinnegan Madara was Rinne Tensei'd, Obito became Juubi Jinchuriki and kaguya technically was never dead, it seems that statement still stands.)

Hashirama is strong in many ways, but Minato (and e.g. Tobirama) can use FTG to strike him regardless. They can bypass all that firepower. Plus, fights in the manga rarely occur with two people standing in a field and letting the other power-up endlessly DBZ style. Minato can win the fight before Hashirama has a chance to form Several thousand Hands, and even then it's not a very good jutsu against someone ultra-fast like Minato (who could easily escape the damage).

Hashirama's main strength is similar to Naruto's: Immense damage projection over a large area. Minato's (and Tobirama's) style is far more along the lines of assassination: high damage in a small, but precisely determinable region. We've seen Kakashi do similar things, e.g. against Kakuzu.