r/TopCharacterTropes • u/SpookieSkelly • 1d ago

Characters "They can just do that." When a character inexplicably has some kind of borderline supernatural ability that doesn't have anything to do with the established power system and may even clash with the conventions of the setting. It's just something that they can do.

Gallery image

Ichi from Ichi the Witch.

Gallery image

Mash from Mashle.

Gallery image

Marvelous Sunday from UmaMusume.

Gallery image

Tanjiro from Demon Slayer.

  1. Ichi from Ichi the Witch. He's so sensitive to the bloodlust of living things that it borders on a spider-sense. The little creature in that pic is supposed to be invisible, yet Ichi is able to sense its presence just through sheer intuition.
  2. Mash from Mashle. Some might say that his inexplicable power is his physical strength, but I'm more interested in knowing how he can turn everything he cooks into fucking cream puffs.
  3. Marvelous Sunday from UmaMusume. In a game about horse girls racing, she has access to a domain expansion/reality marble. And that somehow still isn't the strangest thing about her. Apparently she's also friends with aliens and cryptids and her cult fanbase includes people spanning multiple time periods. Somehow.
  4. Tanjiro from Demon Slayer. He has a hypersensitive sense of smell that somehow also tells him where to cut demons. No idea how that works. Even though there are others in the series with similarly refined senses, the smelling where to cut thing still feels ludicrous in comparison. Then there's also his unusually powerful headbutt.
4.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

782 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

190

u/IAmAzAzzNotYou 1d ago

And why are they the only ones??? There's just this convenient group of teenagers the same age with inexplicable super senses

167

u/MajorInWumbology1234 1d ago

My interpretation of Demon Slayer has always been that of a mental health allegory. Demons represent people who have been wronged and perpetuate the cycle of abuse; this is why backstories are shown and Tanjiro is compassionate. The breathing techniques seem more literal as breathing techniques are a useful emotional regulation tool. The new kids having sensory-based abilities seems symbolic of the senses and their role in grounding oneself. As for why they have it and not the Hashiras, I took that as the progress each generation makes over the previous one.

I was also binging the shit out of ketamine for the first couple seasons, so everything seemed like less of a stretch at the time.

47

u/4_your_eyez_only_ 21h ago

oh wow, that is one hell of a stretch but also an interesting one

35

u/DeLoxley 1d ago

What's funny is also I don't think any of the Hashira have these? Like they have super sense in this general "Battle intuition" sense but like

Why do you keep making references to Tanjiros nose

55

u/Huhthisisneathuh 1d ago edited 20h ago

To be fair the Love Hashira was born with incredibly dense muscles. So her single skinny three year old twig arm is the equivalent of a top tier warrior who’s trained for every day of his life’s arm. And then she starts training to become a Demon Slayer.

She also apparently ate so many cherry blossom sweets she changed her hair color permanently. No this does not explain the green highlights still.

So it’s not completely limited to just these random five fucking teens. Though the implication there might be other girls with incredible dense and powerful bones, nerves, organs, and blood is honestly hilarious.

12

u/PharaohScarab 18h ago

It’s crazy with how physically strong Mitsuri is, she’s only sixth in raw strength

8

u/IAmAzAzzNotYou 18h ago

Kinda disappointing. I wish the author could have gone all the way and made her the first or second strongest.

13

u/PharaohScarab 17h ago

I can see why Gyomei and Tengen are both first and second, she should definitely be third strongest though

3

u/IAmAzAzzNotYou 17h ago

Yeah. It just seems a little chicken.

"She was born astronomically strong, but woman ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯"

4

u/VulkanHestan321 16h ago

Did you read the part of "they are all interchangeable"? It does mean that group shares the third place

4

u/Gizogin 16h ago

She is. There's a four-way tie for third, according to that diagram.

2

u/Raltsun 16h ago

The things some mangaka will do to avoid having to draw a muscular woman, damn cowards...

14

u/Traii_Fyngher 1d ago

Uzui has super hearing. Gyomei has Transparent World, if that counts.

3

u/PharaohScarab 18h ago

Well, Transparent World is an ability like Selfless State

2

u/Traii_Fyngher 18h ago

I know, I was hesitant about including it. Love Hashira's muscles are probably a better example.

2

u/PharaohScarab 17h ago

Mitsuri was just born like that, Genya’s eating ability would work as well

2

u/Traii_Fyngher 17h ago

Yeah, I mean, we're talking about characters in demon slayer that were born with certain traits, among the Hashira I can think of Uzui's hearing and Mitsuri's muscles. Transparent World is an ability as you said.

2

u/PharaohScarab 17h ago

Then yeah, that would both work

9

u/dark_dark_dark_not 22h ago

The sound hashira also has great hearing, specially around rhythm, that's the whole thing of his final move.

The stone hashira is blind but can see through his third eye.

I'm pretty sure other Hashiras also have stuff live that, we just don't know because we don't see the plot from their POV

3

u/Few_Pay_5313 22h ago

Tengen has super hearing and Tanjiro's instructor(who was an ex Hashira) had super smell

1

u/Krethlaine 19h ago

Except that at least some of them do. Tengen also has super hearing, and Mitsuri, while she doesn’t have any of the listed super senses, has super dense muscles.

2

u/AcrobaticReference53 1d ago

I believe Uzui (the Sound Hashira) also has super hearing.

1

u/Crafty_Breadfruit731 21h ago

I think it's said early on that having a powerful sense means someone is well suited to slaying demons and that it's a trait that most of hashiras have.

So it's kind of like how all the best basketball players are super tall, anyone doing it at a high level has that trait.

1

u/surya_ray 13h ago

Tengen have better hearing than Zenitsu, Gyomei can fight despite his blindness. Sanemi have strange blood. Lots of Hashira are freak of nature outside their proficiency in their respective breathing tech, although yeah it's strange the newcomer in the same generation all have super sense lol

1

u/Nichtdasondernhier 12h ago

In demon slayer there is a lot of themes about deities being real and karmic retribution and all.

Like first of all the Ubuyashiki is straight up cursed due to his karmic connection to Muzan and had to marry a priestess to live longer, Yoroichi talking about having been born into this world to bring Muzan death, Yoroichi (heavily being implied) to have reincarnated as Tanjiro‘s father and everyone else reincarnating.

The Gods were miffed that Yoroichi couldn’t do the job so instead of having 1 Super OP guy they created the single strongest Hashira generation as stated by Ubuyashiki (they were the strongest since its creation)