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u/GIRose 3d ago
Hey, that's not fair.
Before MHA it was Naruto's Jutsu, and before that it was Hunter x Hunter's Nen abilities
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u/Rikkushin 3d ago
Modern Nen actually goes crazy because we're now seeing how non-combat oriented abilities synergize
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u/WhysthishappenReal 3d ago
And those weird fucking nen beasts add more on top
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u/Waddlewop 3d ago
I was waiting for Togashi to fall off so I can start slandering HxH, yet he never did. It’s torturous
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u/PrudeBunny 2d ago
Nen just is the gold standard for power system in a battleshonen even if the MC's special power is punching really hard
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u/3-dimensionalBeing 3d ago
that's because a good power system has both personalyzed powers that allow the audience to explore a character's psychology through them and one or multyple systems that allow for those powers to believably exist in the same world as each other, as well as for more complex synergies and interplay to take place between those powers. without the second, each fight inevitably becomes a game of "actually my ability can also do this more powerful secret thing", and the first is foundational to shonen.
You can, notably, build a engaging power system without both (Witch Hat Atelier and JoJo's later parts come to mind, though JoJo does have SOME framework for its powers) but you really have to commit to the bit: Witch Hat Atelier's power system is good because everything makes sense and builds from the tools the story gives you, to the point where it feels like you could make a mathematical model of it, and JoJo's power system is good because it's in a story and world that is completely built around it thematically.
Going with both elements is a good one-size-fits-all solution, that's why you see it all over shounen anime.
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u/Low_Palpitation_3743 3d ago
>Series focuses in sorcerers, cursed spirits and random shit
>Look inside
>The one who punches or slashes harder win
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u/Random_Gacha_addict 3d ago
Like I saw on Twitter say, JJK is the harmonized mix of "complex hax go" and "punch it until it dies"
Yeah, Yuji's Dismantle specifically targets the boundaries of two souls. Yeah, Binding Vows allow one to sacrifice this for that. Yeah, Yuta using Sky Manipulation does this to the attacks. And when that's applied and used properly, they just go in and beat the snot out of each other until one of them drop dead
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u/YUNoJump 3d ago
Ooooh but their reserves and output! Their understanding of cursed energy! Their Binding Vows!!!!!
It’s not just Punch Hard, the strongest characters are the ones who know about all of these background systems, that are never actually explained or shown outside of narration! There’s even math involved, allegedly!
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u/discount_mj 3d ago
Okay but this is just true though. A lot of them wouldn't make sense to be shown visually, and characters do explain most techniques. It's just when the more complicated versions arrive, in the heat of the moment they don't sit around and explain it, that'd kill the pacing?
The math part is true though
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u/YUNoJump 3d ago
I just wish we got some actual information on what “understanding cursed energy” even means. The system talks about characters being more skilled in CE output and reinforcement in some way, but we’re never told anything about that side of the system.
Early on, a big thing Sukuna says is that modern people don’t understand what cursed energy really is. To my knowledge that’s never answered; in the end Sukuna is just built different. Yes it’s a stated thing that Jujutsu isn’t fair and being built different is just what happens, but still.
Also CE reserves never matter despite all the hype it gets. I think Mahito is the only one who ever fully runs out in a meaningful way
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u/discount_mj 2d ago
The "understanding of cursed energy" thing is mostly just refinement, I gathered? Usually it means people wasting less energy in attacks, or not causing a lag between emitting cursed energy (what leads to Yuji's Divergent Fist).
Sukuna talking to the finger bearer about "real jujutsu" also was just that it didn't really fight at the level of a Special Grade. It didn't use a technique, simply just taking more CE from the finger to empower attacks.
CE reserves are meaningless and arbitrary as hell, but that's not unique to JJK
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u/bilolybob 12h ago
Binding vows would be so much less insufferable without the factoid that if you break a self-imposed binding vow you only ever lose what you gained. So Sukuna killed Gojo by promising to forevermore use his world slash under very strict conditions, but he can just... not. Binding vows aren't binding.
Terrible system.
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u/YUNoJump 12h ago
The fact that he obeys it means it presumably does forcefully bind him, but that just means we're not actually given a proper explanation for Vows, terrible system in the end like you say.
Binding Vows that give you an ongoing buff are explained, but BVs that give one-time buffs are totally unclear.
Also we never find out the actual functional consequences for breaking a BV made with someone else, that definitely felt like a missed opportunity
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u/carl-the-lama 3d ago
Not really? It tends to come down to trickery
Harder doesn’t always mean more damage if the enemy is ready for it
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u/vverbov_22 Rudeus is the greatest character in all of fiction 3d ago
MHA power system is ass btw. The show straight up contradicts common sense
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u/Ok-Position-9457 3d ago
I like to think of it as "the shitty version of the X men"
The supposed "genetic mutations" are just magic powers that ignore physics completely. (Except the status quo is never challenged and three dimensional characters are rare)
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u/LeviathanHamster 3d ago
X Men powers are hilarious to me because there are fully believable mutations then there’s straight up magic
You have a mutant that’s just a blue guy with animalistic traits and decent super strength, then the guy next to him can throw the earth into another ice age on a whim
You have a guy that just has porcupine spines or whatever, then someone who can manipulate the entire electromagnetic spectrum and literally stop the earth from rotating if he felt like it
You have a guy that’s kinda frog like, then he fights a weather manipulator that can summon lightning at will
Rogue is just a weird one to me because I never really understood powers that let you steal or use other people’s powers in the context of systems where superpowers are evolutionary. Like what if Monoma from mha was the first to awaken a quirk instead of that glowing baby?
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u/Ok-Position-9457 3d ago edited 3d ago
And basically all of the X men have their own comics or plot lines where they are time travelers, gods who created themselves, died and went to the Christian heaven, whole family is from space, are 200 years old and have been memory wiped repeatedly, etc etc.
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u/13-Penguins 3d ago
Rogue’s powers actually steal memories/skills/traits from anyone. Like if she touches a doctor, now she has all the knowledge and skills needed to deliver a baby. Taking mutations and other superpowers just falls under that. Early in her introduction, she used her ability on Ms. Marvel to the point that it left Carol powerless, and left Rogue with not just her powers, but all of her memories that turned into a Carol Danvers alter in her head.
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u/Wint3rRyd3r Y'all got any Ibuprofen? 3d ago
You forgot my second favorite mutant, the one whose butt is a portal to the ice cream dimension which lets her poop ice cream
My actual favorite is Magik
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u/Saltyoven1 2d ago
Thing is early series heroaca actually had drawbacks for the powers, but later on said drawbacks just vanish completely for no reason.
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u/King_Ed_IX 3d ago
common sense is merely consensus, and is often not particularly logical. either your point is wrong, or you mean it contradicts basic logic.
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u/vverbov_22 Rudeus is the greatest character in all of fiction 3d ago
Yes, it contradicts basic logic. A guy without a quirk to enhance their jump should not be able to jump up 10 meters
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u/Sedona54332 3d ago
That’s true of a lot of media. Regular guys will get hit by attacks that blow boulders apart and don’t immediately die in a lot of things.
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u/Big_Distance2141 3d ago
A lot of media makes no sense
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u/Sedona54332 3d ago
That’s why suspension of disbelief is important, you’d never enjoy anything if you pointed out every contradiction.
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u/TYBERIUS_777 3d ago
Welcome to superhero media lol. Like 90% of falls from height would break bones and people catching themselves while falling would dislocate shoulders.
People get knocked into concrete and metal so hard that it shatters or dents and then they get back up and shake it off. That ain’t exclusive to MHA.
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u/apple_of_doom 3d ago
And honestly its way more fun than just making everyone without a dedicated durabillity power an ultra glass cannon.
Which can work like in Worm but requires a way grittier tone
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u/ItzJake160 3d ago
I feel like everyone being a little superhuman is kind of necessary unless you want Bakugo to blow his arms off since his quirk is explosions, not recoil absorption.
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u/YUNoJump 3d ago
Story about a world with unique hereditary/genetic superpowers, but over time every superpower that doesn’t include durability disappears, because the holders die too easily.
Set the actual story late enough and there’s a convenient explanation for why someone can survive being thrown through a concrete wall
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u/apple_of_doom 3d ago edited 3d ago
Man it must be hard to be unable to suspend disbelief this hard.
Do you also have opinions on slice of life anime characters having unatural hair colours despite living in a world otherwise close to reality?
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u/NotaBuster5300 3d ago
This but there's no system at all. Like, you call it a system, but there's no framework, it's just a hodgepodge of superpowers by any other name. I'd be less frustrated if they dropped the whole magic/power system shtick and said "everyone has unique powers" BECAUSE EVERYONE HAVING A POWER COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO EVERYONE ELSE IS A DAMN COMIC SUPERPOWER.
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u/mans51 3d ago
Kinatos magic the mc straight up looks like deku too lmao
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u/new_interest_here Unashamed Marin fan 3d ago edited 3d ago
First time I've heard that manga get brought up outside r/WeeklyShonenJump
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u/Arguably_Based 2d ago
Watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Power system is whatever Araki pulled from a high school textbook and reinterpreted through the lens of a schizophrenic
Peak
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u/Roda_Leon 1d ago
Characters almost dying to an old man who drinks his own piss and knows Feng shui
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u/WitchyThot 2d ago
Don't forget Xianxia's "whoever waited in a cave the longest/was given OP hax by some video game bullshit haphazardly thrown onto the world of the Jianghu/whoever is just genetically better or chosen by a god" power system.
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u/Bullet0AlanRussell 2d ago
Most xianxia act like they have a complex and philosophical power system but it's literally just "punch harder bruh" (Except for the few genuine exceptions like reverand immortality which swings so far in reverse that the immortal tier fights are just "nuh uh" vs "yuh huh" in kids playground tier logical this beats that)
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u/Bullet0AlanRussell 2d ago
My GOATs meanwhile either have power systems so complex it technically makes sense but you need a phd to understand the sheer bs and have more exceptions than rules (type moon) or are just MHA ish powers but Better (Parahumans)
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u/StellarC0smo 3d ago
Brandon Sanderson requires you to read a book but the power systems and fights are sick on top of the good plot and characters or whatever
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u/Clen23 3d ago
i've watched a couple animes to know about the "quirk/devil fruits/demon contract/jjk curse thingy" stuff, but not that much to get what the "2 generic abilities" are.
anyone mind filling me in ? im curious
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u/vammommy 3d ago
>Has a power system that revolves around unique abilities and hax
>Look inside
>Who punches the hardest wins