Hunter X Hunter: Nen as a Power System

we all knew that this was gonna happen eventually when starting a YouTube channel about anime there is a certain series that one has to eventually talk about this goes ee for me since i so foolishly decided to make a series on power system specifically which inevitably means that i will eventually have to talk about Yoshihiro Togashi she's hunter hunter and its iconic power system nen the only issue is where do I even start with this you all already know that nan is fantastic I don't need to tell you that but I guess this is my life now so I shall try to go over the system and its many qualities and occasional shortcomings in an attempt to understand and unravel why exactly it is as good and functional and effective as it is so as usual let's quickly summarize nan as a system and by quickly I mean quickly nan is incredibly dense and deep as a system and going over every single aspect one by one in detail would bloat this video so I hope you can forgive me but I'll only cover the aspects crucial to the qualities I want to highlight with the footnote being that there is more to it and yet you are all welcome to read up on it yourselves in the world of Hunter hunter nen is a technique that is used to harness aura which is the life energy that flows through every living being every organism subconsciously emits and in some cases even perceives aura however in order to use it fully nan has to be studied one can see none as a type of martial art like doctrine with defined teachings and rigid routes of study the first step is to awaken the aura nodes within one's body which are the center points from which aura is emitted this can be done either by long and continuous meditation or by having the nodes be exposed to a large influx of aura opening them forcefully once that is done and the nodes are open the real training begins there are four basic principles of nanofication that have to be mastered first and foremost 10 which makes the aura circulate in and around the body and control without flowing away from it zette zoo which closes all the nodes and stops the aura flow from the body ren which pushes out the aura explosively and Hatsune which is the users personal expression of nem while there are many more advanced techniques and teachings further down the line they all derive from the application enhancement or combination of these four basic principles they are the basic foundation for everything you do within the power system of men and it's within the fourth principle Hatsune where the power system really starts taking shape since hot sue is a personal expression of aura it is here where we often find the signature abilities of many of Takashi's characters colloquially refer to as men abilities they can consist of any of the other three principles or some advanced techniques but generally hot sue is where they are most commonly found as to what exactly disability manifests though is influenced by a number of factors firstly by the aura type the user is born with there are six of those types enhancement which uses order to strengthen the user or an object transmutation which changes the properties of the aura to imitate those of something else conjuration which creates objects from aura emitter which attaches the aura from the body manipulation where the aura controls animate and inanimate objects and specialists which essentially entails all functionalities don't fit into the previous types specialists also have unique advantage of being very proficient at all types of Nan and aura the type you're born with can be determined via water divination and is the type you are naturally most proficient at however it is still possible to learn the other types as well but you will most likely not be as good at them unless your specialist still many users choose to learn at least one additional type to round out the repertoire a second factor that determines Danann ability is well the user most abilities are developed trained and chosen by its user however their abilities are at their strongest if they are designed around an ID or concept the best suits their personality like haugen's janken is based on his playful and straightforward nature nen is intrinsically bound to your character and who you are so choosing abilities that directly connect to your personality your goals and your tendencies as a person will naturally make it stronger additionally the power of the ability can be further increased by giving it limitations trade-offs conditions etc since then is directly linked to use emotion resolve and willpower all of which are heightened and increased when he is deliberately put into difficult and perilous situations due to his self prescribed limitations so did you get all that let's talk about why this is so brilliant oh the first thing that should be apparent is just how insanely detailed nen is as a system what I just explained were only the surface level basics and there still remain entire systems and ideas untouched what is really cool however is that no matter how complex the system gets all its complexity is simply a result of more advanced derivations and applications of the simple basics every layer of nen builds on a previous one it's a bit like math in that sense the basic functions are rather simple to get your head around but also somewhat limited in terms of functionality on their own however once you begin combining them adding on to them and modifying them for very specific purposes you can have way more functionality for said purposes but also way more complexity nen works the same way the basics are actually quite simple to grasp but can be used to create much more complex and functional techniques and this makes the system feel like was actually designed studied and refined over a long time by many experts and devotees which in turn makes it a more believable part of Hunter Hunter's world which only adds to the fundamental brilliance of the system when I see people in Hunter hunter talking about nen and about all the little details that I could never understand just on my own I believe it I believe that these are experts I believe that this is a field that can be studied and understood and devoted to for years but nowhere is this brilliant seem better than the actual men abilities themselves as mentioned before these abilities can be willingly designed by a user however writing it like this would usually create the question of well why doesn't everyone just create incredibly general and super powerful abilities then what stops me from just going saguaro role on everyone luckily for us we are dealing with Yoshihiro Togashi a genius of the craft so this is no issue as you mentioned before the proficiency and strength of any given ability increases based on the limitations and conditions the user puts on it since it proves the resolve and their willpower additionally this system also dabbles in the idea of equivalent exchange if you want power you have to give something up for it be it an advantage or something of the like this means that nen as a system directly encourages more limited hi for specific abilities and as we mentioned in our stand video more specific abilities tend to make encounters more interesting because it necessitates unorthodox and creative strategies and thinking so in a brilliant structural choice then as a power system directly incentivizes the characters to develop abilities that are so specific that the ensuing fights become automatically more interesting this way does it in universe reason for the abilities to be like that when nobility in hunter hunter is very specific and incredibly designed to make fights interesting it isn't just there to well make the fights interesting it's there because the user in the universe gets a palpable and real advantage because of those limitations and that specificity it is for lack of a better word just incredibly smart but an almost even more genius twist comes in another aspect of men as we mentioned it is heavily dependent on the emotion attitude resolved will and ambition of the user it's these personal components that can influence by limitations and conditions at the Grandin abilities their power and that is nothing short of brilliant because this way the characters powers aren't just homogeneous to their core personality like stands or potential obscure causes for the characteristics like quirks rather they are inherently and completely interwoven with the character writing of the series a power and a character exists in a sort of symbiosis where the power becomes a direct extension of the character's personality ambition and purpose let's look at the most obvious example Cora pica of the quartic lab since the slaughter of his clan he seeks to enact vengeance upon the fandom troupe who are responsible for that massacre and this desire is perfectly reflected in his power his name chains and various applications of them are immensely powerful being able to steal abilities heal wounds and even instantly kill a target on paper these abilities are broken however because of a single-minded obsession with his revenge he could only acquire this power by putting some severe limitations on them for example his arguably most powerful ability judgement chain which kills a target instantly if it violates a command Cora pica gives it can only be used against a phantom troupe and no one else additionally Emperor time which is kropog a super mode where he temporarily becomes a specialist with proficient in all aspects of nen has the rather severe drawback that every second he uses it shortens his lifespan by an hour so the immense power he has is remedied and limited by only being usable against certain people and a great cost to his own well-being and this is a perfect reflection of his self-destructive single-minded desire for revenge Takashi has somehow managed to create a system that enables this sort of writing without compromising any integrity or believability since the characters are not randomly given these limitations just to make the fights interesting but rather they imposed them upon themselves in order to fully utilize the risk/reward system that is inherent to nen Cora pica could have been insanely overpowered but the power he has is only possible because everything aside besides his revenge one last advantage I want to mention among the many that men provides is just how modular it is while most of the more complex aspects do build upon the earlier basics many encounters can happen while only completely using a small subsection of techniques this aids in making the system feel a lot deeper and vaster than most others a single encounter or a single fight will not show off the entire system and that is good because it feels like a huge subject also thanks to this modular nature - gosh she can introduce new techniques and principles without too much difficulty since he can just reveal a new application or combination of the basics without having to contradict anything this allows Takashi to essentially go a man remember that nen system I made like I don't know how many years ago yeah it's cool but it'd be a lot cooler with some monsters here have some monsters and still be able to fit in that new addition in this case nine beasts into the system without really having to worry about any contradictions or the like it is in short a system that is built to handle possible future expansions and as elaborations without much strain on the integrity of it which is insanely rare think of how many shown in anime and manga buckle under the weight of escalation and having to extend the power system to make the stakes higher and higher think of something like chakra for Naruto which essentially started being expanded every arc because he just needed more stuff for it to be possible men can do that with no issue it is built to handle the future now while all these advantages and qualities are exceptionally good it wouldn't be fair to only mention the positives without the negatives luckily as you might have noticed I think nan is pretty fantastic so there are only two negatives I would like to mention because I do feel they hold the system back quite a bit the first one is a direct consequence of how nen is designed short answer it is incredibly complex but oceans you said earlier that its complexity was a good thing yes because aspects of a power system can have good and bad sides while the complexity adds to the depth and creativity of the system one has to pose the question whether or not nan has begun to bloat out into a power system that is maybe a bit too much for a weekly shonen jump series with the target audience being young teenagers and not just that the immense amount of detail within the system makes it very likely that you won't have every single important rule present in your memory at any given point which can make fights that should be satisfying rather confusing and disorienting not to mention that Takashi as brilliant as years has a way of presenting these already complex systems to the reader that can be overwhelming at times another issue with the system is one I already touched upon in the quark video while it's strictly defined rules and categorizations work is a very effective structure for a system they also make nan feel rather unnaturally rigid there are basically no exceptions and everything works consistently narrative ly good but it doesn't quite convince me that it's a natural energy it feels like it was designed by an author and while that is not a horribly terrible thing by any means it is somewhat disappointing something as natural and abstract as life energy would most likely be way too vast and unpredictable to be completely categorized and understood by a single model like nen so the way it is written it feels much more like nan is an artificially created system rather than the harnessing of naturally present powers although credit words do Takashi did try to represent this aspect with a specialist type I just think that it's still a bit too streamlined to fully evoke a naturalistic feel but this is an attempt and a definite acknowledgement of this aspect and as we said due to the modular nature of man he might just introduce something that completely throws all of what I said just out of the window Takashi's insanely creative and insanely capable so whenever he does get to actually writing the chapters for hunter hunter I can basically expect to be blown away so again all these complaints are kind of lip picky but I do feel they need to be mentioned because no power system is perfect but then is very close in conclusion none is extraordinarily fantastic but you already knew that before clicking on this video it's blend of complexity modularity and creative adaptability as well as it's heavy focus on characters and their ambitions makes it one of the most effective and versatile systems I have ever experienced it directly and in universe encourages the users of it use abilities that benefit the story and fight structure making every advantage it gives Takashi doubly is effective as it pulls it off completely within the logic of the fictional world it can sometimes run the risk of overdoing it with its complexities rigidity but those issues are minimal and neglectful compared to the achievements and qualities that it brings to the table it is without a doubt one of the strongest and best design power systems ever created and Yoshihiro Togashi deserves nothing but respect and praise for it it is an absolute achievement thank you all for watching this video I have a very quick request and an announcement we hit 5k subs it is insane I mean a month ago actually exactly a month ago I was sitting probably at like a hundred so this is absolutely mind-blowing but I'll talk more about that in the 5k special that is obviously coming and for this milestone I would like to do another Q&A possibly boring but I think you're not quite tired of me yet so I think we should do it at least one more time after that we can we can think about other stuff so ask loads of questions in the comments whatever you're curious about everything is fair game just you know be within reason don't ask me stuff that I obviously will not answer in a video but other than that you know anime personal life maybe not politics cuz that's kind of a yeah if you think to talk about on any Twitter but just anything you feel that you are curious about in regards to this channel too my opinions anything I will be happy to answer and we'll just have a gay old time thank you all and take care be safe bye

Channel: Oceaniz

Views: 61,811

Rating: 4.9200263 out of 5

Keywords: Oceaniz, Oceaniz96, HunterXHunter, HxH, Gon, Killua, Hisoka, Meruem, Nen, Netero, Togashi, Anime, Manga, Power System, Aura, Analysis

Id: 021W6EvTeoI

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 07 2019