where is kirito?

i've seen all of them in action but im gonna have to pick kenshin...i never did get to finish ninja scroll though

Wher is Gintoki? (though he's a rounin)

he's also my favorite... too bad he's not in this poll.....

all good swords men but kenshin all the way

I voted for Jubei only because Gourry Gabriev was not an option.

beasts

Kenshin

I'd go for Kirito from Sword Art Online.

KENSHIN MOST DEF! hehe

This is incredibly difficult, they're all amazing swordsmen. So amazing, in fact, that it might really come down to whoever can best take advantage of the terrain, weather conditions, available distractions, and so forth. Assuming everyone's basically fighting in a flat, open plain with minimal wind and precipitation, plenty of light, and no distractions, the pairings would more or less go this way in my mind:

Jubei
Jubei v. Kenshin -> Kenshin
Jubei v. Inuyasha -> Jubei
Jubei v. Clare -> Draw

Jubei Totals: 1 W, 1 D, 1 L

Kenshin
Kenshin v. Inuyasha -> Draw
Kenshin v. Clare -> Kenshin

Kenshin Totals: 2 W, 1 D, 0 L

Inuyasha
Inuyasha v. Clare -> Clare

Inuyasha Totals: 0 W, 1 D, 2 L

Clare
Clare Totals: 1 W, 1 D, 1 L

*Guts not included because I've never even seen Berserk.

Now, here's my rationale for each character. I'll provide it from the worst performing character (Inuyasha) to the best performing character (Kenshin).

Inuyasha
Inuyasha is by far the least skilled swordsman out of the bunch. He's fairly clumsy with his Tetsuaiga, and primarily relies upon ranged attacks such as the Wind Scar and his brute strength. With that in mind he's not completely helpless, and has the ability to construct thick diamond shields at will. He can also throw diamond shards at his opponents in a ray or cone.

But it is my opinion that any of the other swordsmen are sufficiently skilled to be able to overcome Inuyasha's attacks, even in an open field (where rays and cones would be the most useful). In short, once someone got up close to Inuyasha, they'd mince him into hamburger.

Jubei
I do not recall Jubei having any particular supernatural powers, only incredible skill with his blade and an aptitude for jumping and rolling. This puts him at a distinct disadvantage against skilled swordsmen with supernatural abilities, such as Clare. It also offers no particular advantage against equally skilled swordsmen with the slightest hint of seemingly supernatural talent, such as Kenshin. It does, however, offer a fairly solid advantage against clumsy swordsmen with supernatural powers, like Inuyasha. Keeping in mind that Jubei has faced supernatural foes and emerged victorious, I left out the potential disadvantage his mortality might pose and declared his fight with Clare too close to call (marked as a draw). He could probably overcome Inuyasha through sheer skill.

Clare
Clare is a skilled swordswoman with astonishing strength and a host of other combat bonuses for being a Claymore. In a straight out punching match she'd obliterate basically everyone but Inuyasha. But here's the thing: she's wielding an awkwardly large blade. She can swing it pretty fast, but it's not the blade that swordsmen are watching. It's your shoulders, forearms, and legs. Your shoulders and forearms are going to be positively screaming what directions a blade that long can conceivably go next, so your reach advantage only goes so far. Skilled swordsmen such as Jubei and Kenshin might be able to take advantage of Clare's awkward choice of equipment to save themselves and secure a victory. Maybe Jubei could pull it off, maybe he couldn't. So he got a draw. I'm absolutely certain Kenshin could could pull it off, so he got a win.

Kenshin
Himura Kenshin has a number of very serious advantages. First of all he's a total speed demon, and he doesn't have to sacrifice precision or accuracy in order to attain those speeds. He can further maintain those speeds for extensive periods of time, indicating that he carries a great deal of endurance.

His second major advantage is that his style is entirely forgotten, and he's smart enough to keep it that way. This means that more or less the only people who could conceivably know what to expect out of him in terms of technique are veterans of the Meiji Restoration period who personally encountered him on the battlefield, and I hear tell that most of those fellows are 6 feet under courtesy of Kenshin. None of the survivors are on this topic's list, so we can assume that everyone's in the dark about his style. And that's a major problem for them.

His third advantage is that he has been fighting strong characters with big blades and heightened speed (like Clare and Inuyasha) and ultra-skilled sword specialists (like Jubei) for his entire adult life. So he has a well of experience so deep that no one can really say just how much it could yield on the field with any one of these contenders.

Kenshin's big weaknesses are that he has no real supernatural powers to speak of, that he wields a backwards blade and goes for nonlethal damage whenever possible, and that he is not as heavy as most opponents listed here. He's also pretty old even at the beginning of his series, so unless we're talking about Kenshin in his prime we're going to have to factor in age effects. Even still, I'm confident I've called all the battles he's involved in more or less fairly.

Mihawk's my vote too. I thought Zoro at first but then he isn't there yet.

WHERE DA HELL ARE ZORO AND GINTOKI?

Agreed he is the best in my opinion but we will have to wait and see if zoro surpasses him!

Agreed.