Marvel’s Daredevil had some impressive fight scenes that landed with a sense of weight, pain, and brutality not really seen on the airier stage of the company’s silver screen efforts. Captain America: The Winter Soldier probably came closest in this regard, but Cap never seemed quite as broken and vulnerable as the street-level Daredevil. Part of this is because Daredevil’s home on Netflix meant it could adopt a more PG-13 vibe than Marvel’s movie fare, but a lot of credit is due to the fight choreography and visual effects teams that made every punch and slice into Matt Murdock’s costumed body feel significant.
Given this commitment to grit and realism, it’s surprising how much CGI is in this critical scene of Daredevil fighting yakuza ninja Nobu–including the villain’s entire weapon. If the mark of a great visual effect is its seamlessness, then this scene has great effects in spades. The whole reel from Shade VFX can be seen on Vimeo, with the actual breakdowns beginning around the three-minute mark, but io9 has some nice GIFs of select moments, if you want to study them more intently.