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I will say, the more elaborately constructed and diverse a story's power system is, the funnier it is when a character with a gun is introduced

Please embrace your obvious urge to make this into a multi part series! We'll have almost as much fun with it as you will!

The fact that it's a plot point in JJK that explaining how your powers work makes them stronger will always be hilarious.

I just love the bounty system in one piece. It just creates such great writing contexts. classics like jobbers picking a fight with someone that is under ranked. I just also love how it presents a disfunctional system with limited information trying to cope with what is happening in the story. It is another element that makes the world feel larger than what is immediately around the protagonists.

I gotta respect the hustle of JJK making "explaining your powers in the middle of a fight" into a valid tactical move and even an additional contest of wits.

The choice of the scene with Makima and the prisoners to accompany the argument that not knowing the mechanics of Chainsaw Man's powers is part of what makes them effective was apt, because there is a perfect logic of cause and effect to that scene, but that logic is very… *old.* Makima changes her clothes beforehand not simply because she's covered in blood, but because she needs to cleanse herself because she is performing a ritual sacrifice. What we witness in that scene is not the systems-based hard magic of a modern fantasy series, but sympathetic magic, like putting an enemy's hair inside a straw doll and setting it on fire while praying that he should die. She is calling upon something great and terrible to do one thing for her, *and it does.* Absolutely terrifying scene, and an excellent encapsulation of what Chainsaw Man is all about.

I’ve always adored how Bleach shows off power through spiritual pressure and reishi. Being brought to your knees is one thing. Being flattened into the ground because your enemy literally *increases the pressure so you can’t stand* was always such a fun display of power. Seriously the world building is amazing! It’s not in your face but once it clicks, it *clicks*

Chainsaw Man's power system is perfect as a storytelling device. It gives so much characterization to the devils and the users. Yes, it's nonsense how one Future Devil user lost all his organs while Aki doesn't need to make any sacrifice to use the same Devil, but it tells us something about the characters: their preferences and values. At the end of the day power systems should help with the storytelling

I think the best part is when something completely out of left field happens, like not everything is tied to quirks and there is an actual talking gorilla

Nen does have one minor downside from a writing POV which is that when you introduce a character with a quirky unique power the reader is going to ask why they would choose that very specific power. Conversely with something like Stands or other power systems where characters just play with the hand they're dealt there's no need to justify why a character might have a very weird, niche ability. They just do.

What I appreciate the most about Chainsawman's power system is how it encourages readers to read critically into a given Devil' name and what they represent. By tying their powerlevel directly to how much fear the name produces, you're invited to think WHY that name invokes fear and what that says about society and the human condition. Which naturally leads into character interpretation for the Devils and whoever is associated with them

Tiny note about the introduction of Haki into One Piece: It's actually mentioned by name way earlier than you might think, in chapter 234 - the end of Jaya. Blackbeard makes an offhand mention of it there. Not a surprise that you wouldn't be aware though, because _no translator ever catches it_ so you'd have to look at the original Japanese. Similarly, some translators miss Crocodile's mention of Devil Fruit awakenings in Impel Down.

Nen is the peak for me. Cursed Energy comes close, but Nen is just so well designed that its easy to insert yourself into it. It offers incredible freedom and personal touches. You can tell Togashi loves RPG's and was already incorporating some aspects of it in YuYuHakusho in Chapter Black. Curse Energy is cool, but you can get stuck with a shitty technique.

I think the key with Nen is the restrictions. Always having a way to make your ability stronger by making it HARDER TO USE is such an obvious but mind blowing solution to power creep. The stronger your ability the more of a glass cannon you become, or maybe you just never even get a chance to activate it! So the series becomes about finding a way to either elevate your simple ability to godhood through practice (Hisoka) or creating an unstoppable ability and spending all your time trying to nail every condition to activate it.

God bless Togashi and Araki sensei for making modern shonen as good as it is. Weekly JJK chapters are peak right now

The courage to dream an impossible dream and having the will to pursue that dream is the core message of One Piece. That's what I love most about One Piece's dual power system. Just how perfectly it encapsulates the story's core themes: The outlandish power of dreams and desire (Devil fruits), and the physical manifestation of human will (Haki).

Dude, he really thought about that Nen ability 😂 it was actually pretty detailed and believable though lol

"That arc can really be its own video." I'd absolutely love to see you do a video on the Chimera Ant arc! It's an arc that I can't get enough of hearing about!

I actually don't know if it's classified as a shonen battle anime, but I really like the approach the To Aru franchise takes. By presenting two power systems each based on a different way of comprehending reality and each having similar but significantly different ways to function, they manage to make a very clear separation between the two factions, the science, and the magic sides. Esper powers are based on scientific principles and work by harnessing an individual's personal psychic energy to allow them to alter their personal reality (as in their own personal perception) and thus have an effect on the common reality (as in the way everyone perceives you). Because they are science-based, they are limited to a singular scientific principle but are explored in huge detail. They all require enhanced intellect to even function because they all need to be calculated in real-time to actually work, meaning that the stronger a Esper is, the smarter they are. They are effectively lab-made powers which makes each Esper fairly specialized, even those who have very versatile abilities are really just using a single very specific power. Magic powers are faith-based. While Esper powers are all about harnessing an individual's own energy, Magic is all about harnessing the energy of the world, the Mana. While Espers use Scientific concepts and principles to alter reality, Magic users implement Idol theory, in which they use religious rituals, esoterism, and faith to make their beliefs a reality. Through Idol theory, Magicians are able to use replicas of legendary objects to harness the powers of legendary figures, this is the explanation as to how a Christian crux can be believed to hold holy power, the fact that it's a replica of Jesus' crux its enough to draw power from the real thing. Unlike Esper powers, Magic is not explained in excruciating detail because it is entirely based on esoteric secrets, religious practices, and mysticism, so when a Esper throws a lighting bolt, they have to calculate the voltage and amperage they are going to put into it, but Magicians just need to perform a ritual tied to a lighting based figure or deity. Because this is a studied power, Magicians have way more versatility as they aren't limited on which powers they can draw from, they just need to study ancient lore and develop rituals that give them a specific power, as a result, a fire magician can still use a completely unrelated healing spell. Then there is the way they interact with each other. As a symbolic way of showing that both the Magical and Scientific sides are always at odds and in permanent conflict, their power systems are also literally incompatible. It turns out that an individual's own psychic energy is incompatible with magical Mana, so when a Esper tries to channel Mana, the two energy sources clash and destroy their blood vessels, either injuring them heavily or straight up killing them. There is only one exception to this rule, a perfect hybrid...and he isn't really powerful at all. It's a guy who is a magician but took Esper experimentation and has a healing factor Esper ability, allowing him to use Magic, suffer the damage, and then heal himself with his Esper power. The problem is that he lacks any control of the Esper powers and gaining such control requires a certain type of person (and even if someone is smart enough, there is no guarantee the experiment was 100% successful), meaning that the healing factor might not even work. This character chooses to sit in the middle of the two factions and still is completely shrouded in the uncertainty of when this middle state will bite him in the ass. That's it. That's all I have to say about that. It's too long of an explanation, but it's by far one of my favorite power systems in fiction. You can literally spend days reading the wiki just on the power system, it’s that detailed.

Out of nearly every series I’ve seen, Stands consistently remain one of my favorite power systems for their top-tier design work and impossibly wide range of abilities, but I think there’s also an important aspect that often gets missed. No matter what kind of crazy, reality-bending ability your stand might have, you yourself are still just a normal vulnerable human, and that means you’re vulnerable to everything ordinary people are, which unsurprisingly, is a lot. It’s so perfect for keeping power scaling in check, like almost every aspect of stands, and it helps to keep the characters still feel grounded.

You’re so right about hxh’s power system like it's ridiculous how well the nen classifications can work for a completely separate anime...especially using the personality test and how it correlates with their nen type. For example jujutsu kaisen: Yuuji: enhancer Nobara: manipulator Megumi: conjurer Gojo: specialist So cool!!!

World Trigger is often underrepresented when it comes to discussion about power systems in the west, but I’ve always found it to be one of the most intricate and expressive in all of Shonen. The best way I can describe it is like a video game or e-sport where there’s different weapon classes ranging from melee weapons to firearms with very distinct functions and weaknesses. On the surface it seems extremely simple and limited, but the limitations allow for tons of creativity and out of the box thinking. It’s always hype seeing an ability you’ve always thought was supposed to work one way, be used for a completely unexpected purpose but also still makes perfect sense. There’s a huge emphasis on tactics and team play that is hard to find in other Shonen these days. Everything is taken into account from the terrain, weapon load out, to resource management. At times, there are even fights between multiple teams of characters at once, each with their different strategies and team compositions which allow for every fight to feel dynamic and limitless. I’d highly recommend taking a look at the series if you haven’t already.

Please give us a part two! The transition between time periods and the influences each author has from his predecessors is so interesting when correlated with these magic systems! Please PART TWO!

43:40 Jeff please don’t stop lol. Your passion in this video is even more infectious than usual. I really hope you make more with this idea since you seem to almost have a series worth of ideas here. And I’d watch that series

I really like how jjk works with cursed techniques. I like the harsh reality of jujutsu sorcerer talent being innate, and how that explains why the messed up society, that our favorite characters are trying to go against, is the way it is. Very fatalistic, which makes it feel more real because in reality life is unfair. Gojo was always gonna be the strongest from the moment he was born, and it just makes sense to prioritize the talented and toss aside the talentless. And man you didn't even go into heavenly pacts, but to be fair jjk hasn't done a lot with it yet either.

Nen and cursed energy are some of the best power systems i've seen in manga, mostly because of the complexity they have that allows for unique abilities i've never seen in other anime, so instead of "wow this guy has fire powers, and he can shoot fire" it's more like, "this guys power lets him roll a pachinko machine, and if he wins the jackpot he becomes literally invincible" but these power systems still allow for simple abilities to exist, like gon's straightforward rock paper scissors ability, or killuas lightning based powers, or from jjk, yuji just uses cursed energy with no real technique and relies moreso on his physical capabilities and affinity for black flash. But what nen does is just nuts man, i had to reread how chrollo's ability worked like several different times in his fight against hisoka. a runner-up would be the zanpakuto from bleach, but i think the main issue with that shows power system doesn't have to do with the system itself, but rather that it doesn't always get utilized in the best ways.

The thing that always bothers me about "power-scaling" discussions is inevitably, the actual story and characters are always forgotten. Like, who cares about emotional through lines when that guy punching the other guy doesn't make sense! But at the same time, having these in depth discussions about these writing styles while never truly forgetting WHAT those cool powers are supposed to amplify is super great :3

Would love to see more videos in this vein, power systems are what keeps me coming back to battle anime

I personally dig how ONE immediately subverts his own power system in that by the time we hear about S-class, we already know that saitama completely negates it. And he farther goes on to purposely resist the urge to power up all his other favorite characters all to the top level, so that even guys like mumen rider are still relevant to the story with out a power up

One Piece’s power systems are incredible story-telling devices. It’s no coincidence that every devil fruit user has a power that reflects their personality, and haki is a literal manifestation of strength of will. It’s really elegant.

Gash / Zatch Bell, a very underrated shonen manga (it's anime diverged from it's plot entirely), also has a great power system, IMO. The gist of the series is that there are 100 demon kids who get paired up with human partners, who allow the demons to use spells by reading out of their books, but if the book is burnt, that demon goes back to their world, and the last one left is crowned king. There's 2 key things here: The fact that demons are paired up with human partners, which has implications not just for the power system but also the main theme and narrative, and the fact that there are specific spells, not just powersets. In reverse order: Spells do specific things: Zakeru is ALWAYS going to be a lightning blast, Jikerudo is ALWAYS going to magnetize the enemies body, etc. So while different demons do have different sets of spells which imply an elemental or strategic (illusions, transformation, evasion, etc) toolkit, their actual attacks always do specific functions, without much room to contrive out of situations. While that's arguably a limitation, it's also a strength, because it means they have to creatively use their spells in tactical ways like Pokemon moves, not just "Well I have electrical powers so I can do anything with electricity". Different spells also have a different mana cost (Heart Power), so even late into the series, weaker spells still get used as a way to pace yourself through a battle. As a bridge between this point and the fact there are partners, the series always HEAVILY utilizes team battles: Starting around volume 8, almost every fight actually has multiple human-demon pairs working together/against each other at once, so you have creative ccombinations of different spellsets. The humans are also active particpants, many jumping in the fight alongside the demons. The series regularly has fights whicch match the tactical nature of Jojo stand battles in Part 4 onwards, IMO,. Next, the fact that demons are paired up with humans and that humans have to read the spells both implictly means that the relationship between human and demon is key in fights, and more broadly, that relationship is one of the series's key emotional and thematic aspects: Perhaps THE overarching message of the series is how interpersonal bonds and connections lead to mutual growth and this ties into the power system in that new spells are unlocked when the demon has character development or deepens their relationship with their human partner. Even WHAT spell is unlocked is tied into what that development is: Jikerudo is a non-offensive immobilizing spell, and Gash unlocks it after he resolves to become a kind king to end the demon tournament. He gets Rauzrauku, a spell which buffs his physical abilities, after he realizes that spells come from his own personal grwoth rather then the spellbook and he realizes he has the power to grow stronger and protect others, and so on. To swerve away from the powersystem a bit, those relationships are, as I said, a key part of the series: Gash/Zatch is a naive, optimistic hyperactive 6 year old, who plays in sandcastles as much as he gives rousing speeches of determination. Wheras Goku, Naruto, and Luffy are childLIKE, Gash IS a child, As much Yotusba then any of those. His partner, Kiyomaro, meanwhile, is a jaded teen genius who has sort of given up on the world and interpersonal relationships, so Gash opens Kiyo up and makes him see the value of optimism and doing what is right and making friends, while Kiyo grounds Gash and forces him to confront both logical and phislophical questions about how to win in fights and what being king really means. Some of these demon-human pairs have a sort of sibling dynamic like that, others are more parent and child, others are lovers. Some other examples of dynamics is that THE WORLD FAMOUS ITALIAN SUPERSTAR PARCO FOLGORE and Kanchome are both cowardly losers, but they want the best for one another and step up to grow and become strong so the other can succeed. Your obligatory rival pair, Brago and Sherry, HATE each other intially: Brago is a demon obesssed with strength and sees humans as something that just gets in the way, while Sherry sees demons as evil beings destroying the world and people's lives around them, but Sherry's drive to push herself to and past human limits of endurance to burn as many books as possible wins Brago's respect, and Brago seeing the worth and determination she and others have and eventually fighting to enable others achieve their goals makes him win hers: They even get to take out a major arc villain alone WITHOUT the protagnist because that villain ties into their backstory more then it does Gash's. Another thing the series does really well, beyond power systems, is the contrast between it's lighter and darker moments: The series does not shy away from corny "power of friendship" moments, and has some of the most absurd but most hilarous comedy and gags i've seen in a shone, as well as slice of life chapters, but on the flip side also hits you DEEP in the gut with dark emotional moments (the premise ensuring that EVERY character eventually "dies" is not one it sidesteps or cowards out of: Even the winner will, eventually, have to go back to the demon world). The fact that you can have a song about breasts in one moment and then a kid trying to commit suicide due to an abusive home life the next COULD come off as mood whiplash, but the series effortlessly manages to make both extremes synergize with the other: Otherwise cheesy or generic moments feel genuine and earned because of the hardship the characters facer, and otherwise edgy or tryhard moments hit home and harder because of all the lighthearted moments the characters went through. I've only read a bit of One Piece, but it's the only other manga I've read that manages a similar synergistic contrast. Even the art in Gash switches between absurd caricatures and reaction faces and almost horror manga crosshatch shading and negative space expansive pitch black shadows The last point of praise I'll give it (not that I can't go on for ages) is that it also avoids almost every issue most shonen have where they get worse the further in you get: Many suffer plot/pacing bloating, the abanonment of side characters, and the endless power-escalation changing what the series even used to feel like, but In Gash Bell none of those are p[roblems and the pacing only gets tighter the further in you get, characters get used effectively and consistently till the moment their book is burnt, and the power escalation only goes crazy during the final climax for the sake of making it fun. The manga's one big downside is that, in exchange, it does not start off as strong as many other shonen, and takes a while to switch from villain of the week content to full arcs, but it's still solid early on and it never stops improving. If this sounds cool, or people have only seen the anime (which is a terrible adaptation, and, again, totally diverges from the manga's plot, a la FMA, except at least SOME people prefer the OG Full metal anime over brotherhood: Nobody does for Gash/Zatch) please check it out.

Fun fact: Devilman is actually the most popular manga of all time in terms of copies per volume.

Power Systems are really the thing that seperates and elevates manga over comic books for me. It's just way more interesting when there's an underlying throughline between all the characters that's then built on top of with each person like with Nen & Cursed Energy than each persons abilities being wholly isolated from each other like in comics. Probably why I always gravitated to the more "team oriented" ones like the Green Lantern Corps. or the X-Men.

Some of my favorite power systems are the ones that base themselves around a core concept: Undead Unluck’s powers of negation, Bungo Stray Dogs’ abilities based on the titles and themes of classic literature, Fire Force’s exercise in how far you can stretch a power system of only pyrokinesis; by setting these kinds of boundaries on your world, you can really flex your creativity in designing unique and interesting powers within those bounds (and making it fun your audience to think about what they would design in those bounds). One of my favorite (non-anime) examples of this is the web series Epithet Erased, where 1/5th of the world is inscribed with an Epithet: a single, random word that grants them powers based on that word’s definition. It’s not the only kind of power in that world, and there’s a TTRPG-esque mechanic system mixed in, but Epithets are the big thing and I love their concept so much. Having a powerset based on the user’s own understanding of and creativity with their powers is great for building interesting powers and interesting characters in tandem, especially when the “random word” concept means characters often have to work under very unorthodox powersets (like “Soup” or “Bellybutton”). It’s a lot of fun to watch, and much like HxH’s Nen it’s a lot of fun to try and build your own power out of. I definitely recommend it for power system lovers.

I love watching power systems over the years. They went from real simple: "I can punch harder than a normal person" to: "I can warp all space and time at a whim and will alter reality so that you never existed" to now be "I'm so good at punching that you can't do that though"

"Undead Unluck", a series that will soon get its Anime debut, in my opinion is something that you won't want to miss. The power system which revolves around people with the ability to Negate an speficic Phenomenon, manifesting that ability and applying it in different ways, is a nice and creative addition to manga series, with an elegant touch of novelty. Entertaining story, following fun characters and the relationship between them, as everything develops in this contemporary world similar to our own, but with a little twist.

Geoff releasing a near hour-long super interesting video that praises my favorite power system in anime, in the middle of the night as I’m about to go to sleep feels both really awesome and cruel…

I've fallen so hard into the Vinland Saga pit lately, and I keep wishing there was a video from this channel about it, because there's just... so... much... meat... on the bones of this thing. there's so much to analyze, it's insane. the narrative is dense, it's like an endless wellspring to me, I _can't_ stop whenever I want actually, it's here in my brain forever now. I will be making connections between all the little details in this thing for a very long time. I am overjoyed to have it.

I would LOVE an in depth analysis video on Magi's world/power system. That series desperately needs more eyes on it!

Ironically, within a past few weeks, some of my friends and I made up our own Nen abilities. Myself- an enhancer with two techniques 1st- Life is Pain A mixed transmute/enhance ability that converts the sensation of pain into a physical booster to my aura. The downsides are that the boost is slow to build and it doesn’t remove the pain, it builds within the aura and must be felt eventually. That’s where the 2nd ability Let Me Sell You Something comes in. A pure Emitter ability lets me detach parts of my aura and stick it to someone else. Say for example the part that contains the pain that’s about to be felt. It’s limited by that it has to be done by touch and doesn’t really do anything on its own. My best friend is a Conjurer with his tools Your Own Worst Enemy First is a Rapier that functions much like a normal sword aside from its polished silver color and the ability to steal small bits of aura from those hit by it. Once enough aura is stolen, he can form his second tool, a buckler shield that is equally silver and steals aura from those it is used to block. His last tool forms automatically as each additional bit of aura forms an image on the shield. Once the image is complete, it pops out as a fully formed copy of the opponent that will fight the original. It’s a slow building ability that works best against single opponents of relatively equal aura, not so much for crowds. My roommate is a Manipulator with the ability I’m Gonna Get’cha I won’t tell you what it does, but the moment he tagged you with it, you won’t be able to escape him until he’s done with you. He chose it to specifically make his target as paranoid as possible.

Aww I was looking forward to hearing you go into FMA. I’ve always loved that take on “alchemy”. I would definitely watch a part two of this that went into some of the things you mentioned, like FMA, Yu-Gi-Oh/Shaman King, and Avatar. This was a great video.

Glad someone expresses just how cool but also effortlessly complex the bleach power system is whilst also staying 100% consistent throughout the entire series, easily my favourite power system.

One of my favorite videos made in the last few months and I would love you to expand it further lol. That tangent is something I feel we all need. Also a timeline explaining which power systems were influenced by which is something I can not stop thinking about now, so thank you for sending me down that rabbit hole.

Bleach and One Piece both are really fun power systems! I love getting to dig into both (like the Bleach version more since I really like "show don't tell" story telling and world building) AND it's really fun seeing all 3 of the big 3 having big influences on the new generation anime, even if you can draw more direct parallels, most either drew inspiration for their own stories, or drew inspiration to even start as a artist

I think you explained so well why I love Chainsaw Man so much: That Devils' abilities are tied to how terrifying the concept is seems trivial initially, and later on keeps showing us the truly terrifying ones - and there is no need to explain any power levels except for following the rules he sets - and later on when a truly terrifying Devil appears, there isn't even a need to tell us we should be afraid, we simply see it happen on the screen or on the page itself. Fujimoto loves filmmaking and for Chainsaw Man to commit to the motto of 'show, don't tell' turned up to 11 is why I love the series so much, can't wait for Season 2 to drop and let the anime-only fans truly witness what terrors lie ahead

Haki and Devil Fruits are one of my favorite power systems. Devil fruits act as the creative and wacky powers while haki acts as the balancer for those powers, which also expands the creative limits of devil fruits. Haki also lets other fighting styles exist in the world. They also work perfectly on a thematic level

This just straight up needs a part two. I could think about this stuff forever.

The coolest type of powersystem is when characters have their own unique abilities that nobody else could replicate. It gives the fights a fresh feel as it’s not just blast of energy vs blast of energy, but actual strategy and execution.

As Sanderson was the person who popularized the idea of Hard Magic Systems, I wonder what his thoughts are on the Power Systems on at least the more well-known anime/manga

One of my favorite power systems is Yu-Gi-Oh due to how Yami Yugi keep making things up as he go.

36:20 it's not exactly giving it away but at least on the Soul Society side, Uryu's glove turning the buildings around him into a giant arrow made it significantly clearer

Please keep going with this series i could've listened for hours. You really opened my eyes with bleach and i love that

i like how despite haki and devil fruit powers seemingly being 2 different power systems that can work completely independant of eachother their strength and growth still stem from the same core of self actualization/imagination

It was name-dropped, but I have to give a shoutout to World Trigger. The emphasis on team combat and synergizing different people's skillsets is amazing when paired to the e-sport level balance that the border triggers have. That's not taking into account all of the neighbor triggers and black triggers that I'm sure will expound on the power system even further when the away mission finally begins.

Please do tall about ALL of those power systems towards the end someday. This is hot stuff!

So, one of the things that sets Chainsawman’s system apart is that it leans on Western philosophy instead of Eastern (like JJK and others). Fujimoto took the idea of the Platonic Forms and flipped it on its head. Instead of a Heaven-like plane where all the most perfect things exist and to which all earthly things aspire, Fujimoto created a Hell-like plane where all the worst things get there power from the fears of those on Earth. The greater the fear, the more perfect the power. But perhaps the craziest part is that this creative world system appears to be merely a vehicle for the themes of love, relationship, loss, humanity, grief, masculinity, and growing up which Fujimoto actually wants to talk about. It’s kinda like Oda creating Devil Fruits so he could talk about racism, slavery, the abuses of word governments, narcissistic family structures, etc.

"logical understanding is the antithesis of fear" - what an absolute banger of a take. What do we need courage for if we have knowledge, what is fear and the evil it brings if the evil is known? EAP would be proud.

Man, World Trigger's power system doesn't ever get talked about enough it has one of the best with Trion and Triggers among other things also Undead Unluck has one of the best new power systems in shonen in recent years but awesome stuff and lengthy baby

This was such a fascinating video! It really adds a lot of depth and nuance to the entire Shonen genre when you look at the timeline and geneology of innovations like this. Please make this into a series!!

You inspired me to finally actually write up some ideas of what the magic system actually is for a story concept of mine, where I've previously just been focused how having it works (basically if normal people see you use magic, you have to teach the person who noticed you used magic first before you can use it again). In particular, it plays with the idea of power levels by making it so only the magic users know their actual power level and then learning accurately what the level of others is by working with them and seeing how their magic typically works.

Not only does World Trigger deserve to be on this list with the classics, it's Power System is written in such a clever way it deserves a whole video on its own.

the importance of Bleach’s complexity in its power system is in the fact that in history, it was all one. a major theme in the series is that there is a sense of likeness and humanity in all of the races even if they all see themselves differently, and the way their powers manifest also shows how they see themselves and others. their powers are also why the races organize themselves the way they do. Soul Reapers believe in a strict hierarchy and having names for things, hence why they have a long list of kido and specific techniques that are based on names. Birthright is critical and your position as a soul reaper is usually determined by how rich you are from the start, and bankai is the biggest signifier because all those who attain it usually have something more special. But shinigami powers are also about self understanding, and important idea for swordplay and something we see heavily with Kenpachi. Hollows live in a survival of a fittest manner and their powers reflect that. you can rise up in the hierarchy by consuming enough. The fullbringers are sort of anarchical in structure, even though they had a leader in Ginjo there was actual respect among all of them in contrast with the arrancars who live in fear of Aizen, the driving force of natural selection, and the shinigami who simply obey the bureaucracy. The fullbringers have powers that can bend reality in insane ways and are really similar honestly to curse techniques in JJK, but the main idea with fullbringers tapping into souls causes them to connect together with one another and stick together so they can keep each other safe from a world around them that can’t understand them. lastly, there’s the quincy, who obviously hate hollows because they’re poison, but look down on all the other races in general which fits well with the fact that their abilities are about the domination of spiritual energy around them.

The hisoka joke earned you a new subscriber lol excellent video

One of the reasons Chainsaw Man stands out more than generic battle Shonen nowadays, as it doesn't rely on exposition of dialogues to tell its stories, where other Shonens are just... well... Shonensplaining all over the chapters

An aspect of these systems you touched on is the general level of understanding the characters have of their own power systems. In Naruto, every Ninja has a fundamental understanding of how Chakra works. While the extremes of its use might not be known, the fundamentals are understood to the degree of being taught to literal children younger than 10. Comparing it to Bleach where outside of a couple individuals, no one really understands reishi outside of their own direct interaction with it. And that creates such a wild shift in tone.

My nen power, Hundred Loti, has two abilities: - Making a maximum of 100 bamboos grows out of the ground and control them with telekinesis, the harder the bamboos, the shorter the range I can control them. - Creating energy lotus that can either shield you, heal you or shoot an energy blast at your enemies.

Love this video. The fact you talk about all the power systems from all my favorite manga and anime is amazing, but mentioning Reborn and World Trigger were the juicy, fresh out of the oven bownie points. Wish you did talk about World Trigger where it's power system relies on the tools/weapons instead of the few humans who have very niche, but useful powers (minus the future sight of course).

Absolutely here for listening to more shonen power system breakdowns! This was highly enjoyable!

Discovered this channel 2 nights ago and have been blazing through all the videos. I've never watched an anime youtuber that has resonated with my own sensibilities and opinions so well, while still having so much more contemporary knowledge on the subject that I can learn from. And can still provide compelling arguments for stuff that I still fundamentally disagree with. I love this channel.

I'm also a big fan of how Naruto's power system relies heavily on the history and world building of ninja world

One of your best videos in a while. It has great structure and flow with funny quips sprinkled in.

"Stack the deck" was kind of a power in HxH. There is one character who had a power called "yugioh" in the latest arc. It appears to be an ability that lets him capture things in cards and summon them later.

There’s also a real merit in making a system that works even in lesser hands. Something like the Stand system is very strong in the hands of someone like Araki where it lets a fantastic character designer make everyone two characters at once, and for an imaginative writer imposes almost no limits on creative problems and solutions. But for anyone less good it quickly gets underwhelming, and as the sea of bad fan works will attest, is easy to just not use well. Compare to Dragonball Z’s whole thing, which while it is very simple and limited, is pretty hard to get wrong. Few people manage to create a system with a high ceiling without leaving a very low quality floor.

While not the most complicated power system, Zatch Bell was really creative with it's fights to allow comedic and serious fights

Bro not gonna lie u save me so much time with this video with all the Power system i was searching for and those videos were like 17min, 32 min etc. I am grateful for this video.

PART 2 WHEN BUDDY?! My literal fave channel to listen to about anime. Another banger video my dude.

You didn't mention my favorite part of Hunter x Hunter's Nen system, Nen Contracts! The concept that placing limits on yourself makes you stronger is a super cool way to reduce power creep and make characters that are specialized instead of being good at everything. It invokes Brandon Sanderson's second law of magic: "Weaknesses, limits and costs are more interesting than powers". Damn, I love Nen Contracts.

My favorite types are the ones where strategy and matchup matter more than who has the bigger numbers. It’s part of the reason one piece is cool.

The screens of the gameboys on your shirt match the greenscreen you use and I didnt notice until you were talking about CSM and JJK, but honestly I kinda love it and I feel like it fits your brand pretty well.

Your nerd dump of your Nen powers was awesome! Love seeing a fan just dive into what they love!

I feel like that Kinnikuman should’ve been mentioned because it was the origin of power levels, even if it wasn’t really a power system. Love that Saint Seiya was mentioned, as it was the blueprint that would be improved with Bleach.

It can be hard for me to love Shonen power systems having experienced the power scaling community. Taking something so cool and turning it into a toxic slur ridden battlefield is almost impressive.

i hope you do vids on these shonen shows going forward the passion you showed in just these short chapters, i believe they'll be amazing break downs of either arcs characters or the worlds

Something that wasn’t mentioned very much throughout all of the discussion in the video was the ways that people get stronger in each power system. In Ki, Nen, and Haki, for example, one can just train (often in how to fight harder), for example. Devil Fruits will sometimes give power-ups by creative application of the powers they give but that’s more in the user’s growing creative capacity with their power rather than the power itself increasing. And for something like Juryoku and Black Clover’s Magic, while training can increase your power over time, most power-ups will directly be tied to a character’s growth as a person or desperation in a crisis. Stands, similarly to Devil Fruits, also only gain power by their user’s increasing creativity, though it’s a lot more defined and specific what each one can do from the start (except Act Stands and Yoshikage Kira). And probably the most interesting thing of all for this, at least to me, is that nobody ever gets stronger in Chainsaw Man. Characters may have *already* made contracts with devils, but nobody ever finds creative new applications of their contract power, or even gains any particularly impressive new power outside of Aki, who MANGA SPOILERS MANGA SPOILERS MANGA SPOILERS. Denji never goes beyond swinging chainsaws around to cut things up. Power never gets further than making weapons out of extremely hardened blood to swing around and hit things with. Aki might improve his fighting by getting to see into the future a little, but he’s still just swinging a sword around, or his fists if he doesn’t have a sword, and it still MANGA SPOILERS MANGA SPOILERS MANGA SPOILERS. Even after MANGA SPOILERS, Denji never MANGA SPOILERS again to get an edge on an enemy in a fight or something. And the way people get more powerful, or don’t, is also part of a power system’s use and importance in telling a story. If the solution to every problem is “pull a deus ex machine out of your ass at the darkest hour” in a series which means to make a point of steady, consistent practice as worthwhile and important, it’ll undermine the point. And on the other side, if your series fails to highlight the new power that a character has gained in a crisis or growth as truly *new*, it won’t be very clear that this isn’t just the results of their training. If your power system is highlighting creativity, you’ll need to put the creativity up front so it doesn’t seem like people were just hitting the problem harder this time. And for Chainsaw Man’s own part, the *inability* of people to ever get stronger follows from its horror side. The lack of a path to the strength one would need to fight some of the strongest devils only heightens the emphasis of the characters’ weakness in the face of those devils.

I think one big kind of system not mentioned here is the mythology / history based power system. Like servants in Fate, magicians in A Certain Magic Index, ability users from Bungo Stray Dogs and... well a lot of other series that are even less known. And one could also bring up the video game based power systems that most Isekai seem to at least partially make use of.

Hunter x Hunter's Nen will forever be my most favorite power system in anime. One piece Devil fruits and Jujutsu Kaisen Curse energy being a close second and third.

A REALLY interesting video on a very deep subject that not so many content creators dive into!

I want each of those other videos. Love your work and hope to see more fun vids.

For my favorite power system i gotta go with Oversouls from Shaman King. I love how the form and function is subjective with the caveat of the form of the oversoul needing to relate to the ghost partner. On top of needing a physical object by which the oversoul is channeled through.

42:34 not to mention that Devilman is basically evil Kamen Rider, which also brings in other Tokusatsu like Ultraman, which is pretty much the origin of Titan shifters, and now we got a whole other medium to go into with the origins of Toku with Godzilla, and it’s a mess.

I appreciate your acknowledgement that you glossed over Saint Seiya's cosmos system. It is so much more than a flavour of ki. Each fighter has a set of themed techniques, and while some are just energy emission, others are elemental or even weird magic, like the Perseus Saint turning his enemies into stone, Pisces's bloodsucking roses, or Phoenix Ikki literally being able to come back to life or fly back from parallel dimensions. There is plenty of variety and the techniques themselves are visually appealing and often involve some detailed artwork. I'd love a fully dedicated video on this power system

I would absolutely love another video like this going into other power systems and talking about what makes them unique

Now I can’t stop thinking about a Mother’s Basement video on why the Chimera Ant arc is amazing. I have a friend who doesn’t “get” why people love it so much and I think Geoff would be able to sell it

Second comment, your ability "Stack the Deck" sounds quite similar to something I made a long LONG time ago for a one piece RP. The user, initially, touches an object not exceeding 100 pounds and transmutes the object into a physical playing card to then be re-summoned later with its own release ability. As time went on it weight limit increases and can even capture human beings for a 24 hour period. The cards can be destroyed and when they are the objects are released immediately and not damaged. Useful when you needed to steal something, transport objects or even smuggle people in and out of prison lol

Such a great video and breakdown of some of my favorite power systems ever!! You explained everything that made them so special to me and why I fell so deep into the rabbit hole when watching the respective show. One power system that I loved when reading the manga and watching the anime is the Ignition Ability from Fire Force! I thought everything about it was so cool and interesting but yet so simple as a whole. Would love to hear your thoughts on it. Great video again!

I’m so glad you brought up World Trigger and Tatekyo Hitman Reborn even if brief, such a cool power system individually

World Trigger has one of the most fleshed out modern power systems I've ever seen; highly recommend giving it a watch.

I’m just gonna put this out there: Not only does World Trigger have the best developed power system of any shonen, it also fleshes it out better than any other work in the genre to create the most entertaining and tactically complex scenarios.

the consistent honorable mention of ATLA is always heart warming