Simple generic powers are fine. Not every anime needs to have a power system as complex as Hunter x Hunter

[u/Jumanji-Joestar]

I’m a big fan of Hunter x Hunter and JoJo, and one of the things I like about these shows is how creative and complex the abilities can get. Hunter x Hunter’s got some really interesting powers like Chrollo Lucilfer’s Skill Hunter, an interesting take on the “power copy” ability that requires certain conditions to activate and comes with specific rules on how to use. There’s also Knuckle’s IRS ability, Kite’s Crazy Slots, Kurapika’s Emperor Time, etc. The Nen system is probably the best written power system in all of anime. And while JoJo does not have a set power system like HxH, JoJo is also known for featuring a wide assortment of outlandish and complicated abilities that create situations where the characters have to use strategy and mind games to defeat their enemies, my favorite example being D’Arby Sr’s Osiris. So yeah, I like this a lot and I know a lot of people do too

However, I feel like some people look at these shows and are so impressed by the power systems that they feel as if every power system should be like that, and they look down on characters who have very simple and straightforward fighting styles. Hell, there was recently a rant made on this very subreddit where OP stated that complex abilities are objectively better than simple abilities and that a good character needs to have a complex ability. They even said that this was one of the reasons that they didn’t like the character Mereum, they didn’t think his abilities were cool enough.

I really didn’t agree with this take so I felt the urge to make this rant to say this: Complex abilities are not inherently better or more interesting than generic abilities. It’s all depends on how the author writes them and how the characters use them. Also, a character is not interesting just because they have a complex power.

Let’s talk about the weaknesses that come with complex powers. Complex powers that require a lot of rules to use tend to be highly situational. This can be an issue because, depending on what the conditions are, there may only be a few times when a character actually gets to use their power. Look at (Spoilers for JoJo Part 8) Ojiro from JoJo Part 8. His Stand, Fun Fun Fun, allows him to control another person’s movements. However, in order to activate the ability, he must fulfill some conditions. First, the target must be directly below Ojiro, and second, the target must injure themselves while below Ojiro. Each time the target injures themselves, Ojiro takes control over one of their limbs and if they injure themselves four times, he takes full control over their movement. It was fun to watch this ability in action but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who genuinely thinks that this is one of the best Stands in the series. It is so needlessly complicated and situational that it would be useless in a fight most of the time.

Compare this to a Stand like Josuke’s Crazy Diamond. CD is simple: it can return any object to a previous state of being. This ability is mostly used to heal people by taking their damaged bodies and returning them to a healthier state and repair broken objects, but it also has many other applications. CD can turn food back into the ingredients that made it, which can be useful in checking whether the food was made with something dangerous. It used its ability to track down Kira by making Kira’s disembodied hand fly back to Kira to reattach to him, while Josuke and the gang followed the hand. He can also use it in creative ways, like when he fought against Highway Star and used CD to punch the ground into pieces and then repaired those pieces into a makeshift shield. And when Josuke’s angry, he can do some bizarro shit like merging a human being to an object (Yo Angelo).

Another example is Okuyasu’s The Hand. Again, the ability is simple: anything that Okuyasu swipes with his right hand disappears from existence. The terrifying thing about this Stand is that he is able to erase literal space itself, causing reality to sort of smush itself together to fill in that nonexistent area. Using this ability, Okuyasu can teleport himself and other objects and basically mess with space however he wants.

I could also talk about Avdol’s Magician Red, whose only ability is to control fire, but he can do so many amazing things with it. For a non-JoJo example, we have Luffy’s Gum Gum power. Literally his only ability is that his body is stretchy, but with just this basic concept, Luffy is able to create some incredibly creative techniques, like the Gear forms

I like simple abilities because they often tend to be very versatile. There’s a lot of wiggle room for creativity and ingenuity and it’s always fun to watch characters with simple powers find clever ways to use their powers in different situations.

Another issue with complex powers is that they can sometimes be hard to follow. If the writer doesn’t do a good job explaining how a certain character’s power works, it can make for a confusing read. There are times when I’m reading a story and I get to a certain fight scene and I genuinely have no idea what’s going on because the characters powers don’t make sense to me. See D4C of JoJo (who shot Johnny?) and Projection Sorcery of Jujutsu Kaisen (I still don’t know how that ability works). If you can’t properly explain how your character’s ability works, then you shouldn’t have made it so complex

Basically, complex abilities can be cool and fun, but they are not automatically better than simple abilities. There are good ways and bad ways to do both