HOW TO WRITE: Interesting Powers (In Anime & Manga)

Anime and manga are full of crazy and fun powers. But how do these writers go about coming up with them and what kind of thought goes into it? Today, I delve into just that. I hope you enjoy the video!

Music Used:
Lost in Paradise Instrumental

[ZenithAniManga]

This video was made before G5 was introduced but I don't care because G5 is awesome

[Amor_]

And i actually like how "ONE" kind of break the norms, he doesn't follow this rule. For example, in mob psycho, mob's mentor wasn't stronger than he is, in fact he doesn't even have an ability. But we still got to see his mentor fight an arc main villain by transmitting mob's power to his mentor. Another example is one punchman where he gave the mc the strongest ability.

[requiemlite]

5:20 rule 2 for writting magic : what the magic cant do is more interesting than what it can do

[thomasthecoolkid]

Honestly, I think that main villains with these "middle ground" powers actually work decently well. Why? Think about it. They got this power that is really limited, albeit versatile, and then practiced it to absolute perfection to _become_ as unstoppable as they are in present day. Knowing that the antagonist _earned_ their status through hard work is honestly kinda terrifying, as they're basically an anti-protag.

Edit: Never expected a comment of mine to get so much attention, wth

[josesosa]

Remember, having rules for a power system is important but always give yourself a way out for new and creative abilities.

[Javetts]

I wish you talked about non-combat powers. Hunter X Hunter have dozens of non-combat abilities that are just as useful and interesting as the combat ones.

[luigimariolxix]

I think Doflamingo and Katakuri from One Piece used their powers as creative as Luffy but after their arcs they didn't get much screentime.

[yamato]

I love abilities that seem boring, Show to be very powerful but with a twist.

If you'd say to me you have the ability to create, manipulate and transform into rice-dough I'd internally thing "that's weak af".

But then oda came around with Katakuri and the Mochi Mochi fruit.

In a World where there are people that can manipulate souls and Shadows, transform into mythical creatures like asian dragons and Phoenixes and even create earthquakes and Tsunamis, oda made a food-Power not seem weak.
That's Genius.

[thermophile]

Did you know that Bungee Gum has the properties of rubber and gum?

[mirzapramudya]

Something I love is when a characters ability feel genuinely terrifying because if how creative their powers are. An example would be Tooru from Jojolion, his stand, Wonder of U has the ability to make objects start trying to crash into anyone who tries to "pursue" him in any form. And if they get hit by the objects, they take MASSIVE damage

[cynxmanga]

I need some sort of guide about HOW to literally plan out all these abilities and how to not forget about all these limitations etc., I feel like my brain is too smol for this 😅

EDIT: Hi, thank you all for your suggestions! Now I work on a not too long story with a power system. And I have the main concept and the rules described already. I use documents on my phone to store all the ideas I want to use. I figured the powers won't be a main focus of everything and they won't be explained in too many details. I guess it will be rather a soft type of system. If you're interested, here's my very short summary of how it will work:

***
In not too far future people discovered creatures that are able to take any kind of ability (in short: a "talent") from someone and give it to another person. There's very few of them and they are captured and controlled by governments or by criminals. By collecting one kind of "talent" a few times, in example the ability to see, a person can develop abnormal level of it, ie. they can start to see more colors, things being much more far away, in extreme example they can see spirits etc. Yes, this world discovers some new supernatural facts thanks to these "crafted", still very rare, special abilities. Scientists confirmed the existence of "Heaven" and souls, in example, and it created a lot of tension and more conflicts in the whole world, mostly on religious level ofc.

The limit is the fact that only the creatures can craft them, and people still know too little about the possible consequences and outcomes (body modification, mental issues etc). There can be also examples of people who were born with abnormal abilities, tho it's extremely rare. But the "crafting" is used for both good and bad goals. It can make victims disabled, or create supernatural, rebelious enemies. There are new special institutions fighting against these crimes.

There are also rumors, supported by both scientific research and religious sources that if one person will collect all required certain types of abilities and combine them, they can become an entity on God's level (or even replace Him), being able to enter Heaven, come back and stay alive / immortal. This is the main character's goal, motivated by personal reasons and the desire to "fix" humankind.

[rubyseverinwhitworth]

My favourite power is still Nobera from JJK, having to get a part of a curse to effect it is good way to balance it's power as well as her needing to get an opportunity to perform the ritual. Also it creates fun moments like her getting a single straw from a magic broom to bring the character crashing to the ground

[Spiral-Mark]

I'm already making crazy powers that starts off basic then becomes more complex.
It is inspired by Kuwabara's evolving spirit energy from Yu Yu Hakusho of the simple concept.

[SunnyyDayzz]

I have this one idea for a super villain who’s just plain crazy. The ability of a cartoon.

Think Bugs Bunny, from the wackiness to the look and the fighting style is a fast paced switch on martial arts and flips to just pulling out a button that drop a mallet this character’s limbs can stretch out to an extent. But covering this character in water makes them more human unable to do abilities in cartoon logic, but they can still take immense physical trauma and still has their martial arts. I haven’t thought about what else to do with it though.

[gustavomezzovilla]

one such example wich i think it could be explored is the Avatar magic system. A fully simple balanced magic forces your battles to be more engaging and creative, and the more powerfull ones aren't necessarily the ones with more variety (e.g., Ozai). I think that, a well stabilished magic system serves the story even when imposes limitations.

[vincentquintero]

What makes a power interesting in my opinion is the overall concept of a particular power where it is considered as simple but the potential and the things that you can do to them is very broken or complicated as long as it's wielder is very creative. But, there must be also plausible disadvantage with that power.

[mythicalsoulz]

After some thoughts, I came up with my own power system called ''Concepts'' where a person's fascination with something, personality, desires would all affect his powers in the form of a single concept, these concepts can take on any form ( might categorize them later ) and each concept has a unique skill tree and is affected by the development of a person's character.
apart from these concepts the world I'm building would have ''Sixth Sense'' which is a very rare ability and can co-exist with a concept. Finally ''Jobs'' like job classes of RPGs.
The worldbuilding for this world would be an almost normal world where abnormal things happen, there would be Dungeon Gates and Alien Attacks. Dungeon Gates are when Gates to another world of the same universe is opened and Alien attacks are when aliens from different universes attack the world hoping to get control over it. In Dungeon Gates, humanoid species will be a rarity but in Alien Attacks this will be common.
Note: Pls don't steal the idea since im planning to actually put some work into it and pls do provide suggestions to improve it.

[denzelmcmanus]

The ten shadows technique is the coolest power I've seen in anime love shadow base abilities.

[Chronically_Bored]

I think kim dokja manages to both hit the god end of the scale and yet stay interesting. It's not an anime, its a comic/novel, but his main power is his knowledge. It manages to make him both under and overpowered in the world. His knowledge allows him to know that making things harder for himself would make it easier for him in the long run, and this means every limitation he puts on himself or on his allies don't feel contrived. It allows him to be both functionally omniscient but also keep the tension because his knowledge is not true omniscience and since he's made a decision that changes the timeline, suddenly there are (albeit comparatively small) variables he no longer knows and you ask yourself " will his decision to make life harder for himself pay off or will one of the variables he doesn't know bite him back?" I think the way his knowledge is handled is excellent. He has other powers ofc that all relate to his theme of being a reader, but his knowledge is a standout to me. The tension is kept every time dokja overestimates his own ability and something goes wrong, because he always gets arrogant in realistic ways, never contrived.

Unrelated but I also find it hilarious how in practice theres three people with knowledge of the future and two of them (dokja and junghyeok) keep squabbling even though theyre on the same side because both have different POVs of the same future and hence have different plans that more often than not get in each other's ways, even though they're allies. It gets hilariously petty (junghyeok not picking dokja to join him to go to peace land knowing full well with or without his help he's going, but still not picking him just to spite him, even leaving extra space in his party) and is a genuinely good way to pit two people with knowledge based powers against each other.

[pheonixwilson]

The Coolest and Most Balanced ability Ive made for my Book is a type of Technomancy where technomancers use holographic blueprints the way mages use magic circles (summoning, creating physical projectiles, object creation, etc.) Essentially they can create technologies using free floating EM energy nearby, but are limited to the caster's actual knowledge. A technimancer's creations are only as complex and interesting as their individual knowledge and creativity allow. Thus a Mancer cant make a Gun if they don't know how.

The second power that pairs with this is "Techno-Synch". The ability to integrate and absorb tech into one's biology, creating a bionic fusion of the two. Thus if a uses integrates a Gun they can perhaps have the ability to spawn gun barrels on their body, their innards mutating to basically create hard dense objects in an organ similar to an Owl's Gizzard. Then regurgitate the object through bionic tubes and out the barrels as if a living weapon. This is of course only one example of the application.