A listing published by CBR on November 12, signed by Demi Phillips, brings together four anime series whose skills challenge any arbitration attempt. The underlying thesis is simple: an excessive power does not ruin a series, and the most ingenious fights appear just when someone has to face something that seems impossible to neutralize.
The border between a resultant superpower and an openly broken one is huge, and there is the grace. The review stops at the specific skills that support that argument, with special attention to two of the included series.
Bleach: From the Zanpakuto to a future that can be rewritten
On bleach, a zanpakuto is already a dangerous weapon in its sealed form. The problem comes with the Shikai and the Bankai: those transformations can grant control over the elements or generate attacks that a common fighter has almost no way of surviving, and each revelation makes the combat least predictable.
The Thousand-Year Blood War saga raises the bet with the Sternritters. His Schrifts allow feats that are not only overcome with physical strength, which pushes the rivals to seek answers outside the direct clash.
Sosuke Aizen’s Kyoka Suigetsu is still one of the most uncomfortable abilities in the repertoire: controls the opponent’s senses and, once he has witnessed his release, he can get caught in a false version of reality.
Added to that is Gerard Valkyrie’s The Miracle, who turns apparently no way out situations to become stronger.
And then there is Yhwach’s The Almighty, with the ability to see and alter possible futures. Against someone who can change a denouement before it happens, conventional answers run out quickly.
Bleach establishes weaknesses and countermeasures for several of these skills, something that the review itself recognizes. Even so, its stronger techniques leave the usual rules of combat practically without effect.
A Certain Magical Index: Two ways that do not mix
Academy City concentrates some of the anime’s most powerful espers, but they are not the only threat from A Certain Magical Index. The series poses a world where scientific experiments and supernatural magic coexist, and each way works with its own logic.
Espers develop their skills through training and experiments; Wizards, on the other hand, cast spells supported by religious beliefs and magical traditions. That double system is what makes the usual combat rules of little use: the type of ability weighs more than the raw power.
the other two series in the list
The full review covers four titles. In addition to Bleach and A Certain Magical Index, that time I got reincarnated as a slime and Jojos Bizarre Adventure, two franchises that add to the selection for the same reason: their skills complicate any attempt to apply a fixed rule.
The underlying question is not which technique is more destructive, but how much real margin each series offers to explain why a character cannot win with power alone. When there are countermeasures, is the power still broken? The listing leaves the discussion open and remembers something useful: in these stories, brute force rarely reaches.
Read also
- Ten anime with the most memorable magic battles
- Six science fiction anime where the world is the protagonist
- The CBR ranking with the seven best fights in Gundam
Source: CBR Anime
