My Hero Academia: Quirks as a Power System

out of the many components that make up shown an anime I think it's fair to say that one of the most popular aspects of them are the action scenes and fights so naturally a writer will often focus and develop ideas that facilitate writing with all around that concept when constructing the framework for a battle center shown an anime or any action focused fiction for that matter one of the considerations the author has to make is the implementation and introduction of a power system in essence a power system is a basic rule set which defines explains and limits the offensive defensive and supportive actions and interactions any given character can perform in combative and sometimes non-combative situations this definition might seem a bit technical and confusing at first but I am sure you all know of some power systems yourself The Last Airbender Harry Potter even Star Wars technically but if you want a really close example then follow me on a little mental experiment let's say you go out late at night and you being the upstanding member of society that you are want to beat the out of someone so what is there to consider before engaging well firstly who is more draw whether conscious or subconscious a comparison of your visible muscle mass versus his will give you an understanding of how your chances are also do you know karate or kung-fu how likely is it that he knows a counter to those secondly is it a fistfight or is he packing a knife or some heat and thirdly is he alone are you can either of you expect backup or interruptions once these thoughts have crossed you're obviously not at all sociopathic mind you proceed according to your estimates and voila this might seem a bit artificially constructed but this by all means and purposes could be considered the power system of real-life physical strength as a base level of power the hierarchy of which can be upturned and challenged by technique mark arts tools knives or guns or interference or support other people so in short we all know and understand what a power system is so why the overly long explanation well for one I want this definition down somewhere on my channel so that I can refer to it in future occurrences additionally I thought this would be a good way to start off a little series I've been planning in which I go through different power systems in fiction analyzing and discussing them and their up and down sides I do not have a name for it yet until then it's just the X as a power system series or some like that and in order to properly start this off what series could I talk about other than the object of my eternal fanboy ISM my hero academia before we get into the nitty-gritty of it I think it's valuable to quickly summarize the origin and the mechanics of an edge a spout system I'll try to be brief basically one day a glowing child is born due to what is believed but not confirmed to be a widespread genetic mutation following a viral epidemic caused by mice over the next few generations more and more newborns begin exhibiting strange powers telekinesis cryo mansi super-strength over time the general population becomes saturated with people possessing incredible unique powers these powers later become known as quirks quirks can be pretty much anything from typical can shoot fire to water dogs food movements all these attributes and powers usually manifest in a person in the time between them being born and them turning for however not everyone is born with these powers roughly twenty percent of people are born Quercus this can be predicted by examining the pinky toe of set person since the general area of the quark gene seems to inhabit a space on the chromosomes which is close to another common mutation in the pinky toe only develops one joint instead of two so since these traits are often inherited together the toe can be used to predict whether or not a quirk will manifest or not should a quirk manifest it can as stated be pretty much anything despite this there are three general categories that are commonly used to approximately describe and separate the different types of quirks the most common type is the emitter type quirk which is basically just your run-of-the-mill superpower which can activate at will and will produce shoot or emit something think of pyromancy and the like but this definition is quite loose so you're better off remembering it by their appearance emitter types look normal all the time this will make more sense once we cover the other types secondly we have the transformation type quirk these powers mainly work by modifying the physical attributes of the user and in one case the target to activate the power this would be where Kirishima and muscular would fit in so in essence transformation types look weird but only when using their power and lastly we have the mutation type these quirks are permanent alteration to the human form which in turn usually enable the user to perform superhuman feats but not always likewise there is no real turning this quirk off since their bodies are their quirk to go back to our shorthand mutation types look weird all the time so now we have all of this neatly together there should be one thing about this power system that becomes clear immediately it is very vague this is what one would call a soft power system since the rules and limitations are quite open-ended thus creating very soft criteria with all of this laid out I want to dive into the system and see what makes it work what issues it faces and what possibilities it could offer in the future I then want to end on my conclusion and overall thoughts on it naturally I want to split this video up into three segments the good the bad and the future starting with the good right off the bat I want to address the big positive aspect of the vagueness in this system it makes it feel like a way more natural component of this world a system as vague as this does run into issues we will cover a bit later but for world building purposes it works beautifully allow me to explain in real life we thanks to science know a fair bit about the powers and mechanics that govern our reality gravity energy time etc similarly we know and understand many aspects of our bodies and biology but even so there are still plenty exceptions and anomalies that our models can't explain that's due to the man-made nature of scientific models nature didn't create physics with any axioms in mind we humans just built imaginary boxes and plants to fit and categorize what we observed this inherently means that there will always be inconsistencies and vague areas of any given natural system since our current models simply can't cover those in a convincing manner yet and this is where many power systems in fiction stumble a bit way too often do they feel like restrictive 100% clearly defined rule sets rather than a natural energy or occurrence and if that power system happens to be a man-made one like techno-magic then sure great but with what are supposed to be natural energies this creates a dissonance a weird conflict these are supposed to be natural spiritual energies or something like that which are harnessed by humans yet most of the time they seem almost man-made every aspect of them is clearly and conservatively defined and nothing breaks the rules even hunter hunters nen one of the best Power Systems in fiction falls victim to this while it's extreme detailed limits and rules work wonders for fight construction and action writing from a world building standpoint they make it a lot harder to accept men as just a natural phenomenon the rules are so strict and not only clear defined but also clearly understood by basically everyone using it so that makes a very constructed and not very natural impression enter maj it almost seems to take the complete opposite approach to building its power system instead of constructing a restricted clearly defined but obviously artificial rule sets it opts for one more reminiscent of bending from Avatar lightweight vague and easy to understand this has multiple aspects that all tie into making the system feel more natural the origin story of quirks is kept rather murky and is simply they appeared one day and we don't know why while in other situations this could be considered a cop-out in this instance it kind of makes sense a huge phenomenon like quirks appearing would realistically need a long time to even remotely be understood let alone its origin this unknown added with the fact that different characters and factions within the show seemed to have different opinions and theories on how it happened gives the system a realistic edge that is quite appreciated another aspect of this is what some would call the inconsistencies of the system it is stated in the show that quirks manifests at around age four yet present Mike made his parents ears bleed the first time he cried hoary what are you doing except I would not call these inconsistencies as much as realistic inaccuracies sure quirks usually manifest at four just like facial hair on males usually starts growing at age 17 yet I am sure all of you had also that one in early middle school who already had some six stubble the point is with biology there are of course average times of emergence but those have to be seen as what they are averages there is still a good chance the time frame will be on or overshot in this context people developing their quirks at different times makes a lot of sense and adds to the realism of the system there are a few other factors in this like how the tow prediction mirrors real-life bio-genetically testing or how people with superpowers were initially called metahumans before society slowly but surely settled with quirks or how human progress basically stopped for quite a while because the appearance of superpowers naturally caused protests racism and conflict but there is another positive aspect of the system that I would like to highlight here its implications for characterization I believe that the big difference between quirks and other fictional superpowers is that quirks are completely and uniquely an integral part of the characters which possess them that might initially sound a bit unimpressive but really think about what it means for a second when a person has a quirk they are from the youngest age used to having them they are a constant part of their days in their lives and they are only there's no one else has the exact same power before we delve into the deeper aspect of this I want to quickly highlight how rare this combination is in most shows the powers will be controlled and governed by homogeneous energy or force think key from Dragon Ball or chakra from Naruto very often these powers are within everyone but need to be trained and acquired so in most cases the power is the result of training and not they're inherently additionally very often you will see that the kind of power the characters have is not all that dependent on their birth but more on their preferences in Naruto yes you can be born with or without certain element affinities but you through effort will be able to learn almost all jutsu within your element by comparison once you're born with a quirk that's it you can strengthen it you can refine it and alter the way you use it but that's all you're stuck with it whether that be explosive sweat or Dickie had balls and while that can be an issue it can also be applied wonderfully to characterization which horikoshi did and thus by essentially treating quirks as a metaphorical extension of the character many of the cast's in ma che have personality traits dreams issues and stories that in some way or another tie back into their power baka goes arrogance is a result of him being born with an objectively opie power which earned him a lot of shallow praise Sheen shows disillusionment with the world of Heroes stems from his struggle to become one despite being born with a villainous power and sometimes this also ties into more serious issues like mental health take Paula Rakhi for example with his family abuse his quirk is quite literally a manifestation of the torn legacy he has to deal with it it's also his and his alone or manga spoiler how about la brasa her quirk boosts the power of the person she loves but for it to work she needs to be close to that person know them well and understand them this led to her developing stalker-like behavior which in turn caused the people around her to dislike bully and avoid her this then led to her social isolation and almost to her suicide these examples should show that quirks are designed in such a way that their existence is always a direct influence on the quality and situation of life of the user it's similar to how an early Naruto he had to deal with the nine tails only this time everybody goes through the struggle a struggle that is simultaneously Universal yet unique to each one this beautifully ties into the themes of social and biological inequality that hero occur very often evokes after all this is the first sentence we hear in the show here's the sad truth all men are not created equal and you know it really be like that sometimes sometimes you're born with the right power for who you are and sometimes you are not and I think horikoshi deserves credit for creating a power system that is so emblematic of this core idea and theme but now it's time to look at the parts of the system that don't work quite as well now that we talked at length about the good sides of such a vague system it's only fair to also mention the negative aspects of this approach naturally keeping a power system vague has one major downside namely that it creates a way to undefined and murky ground upon which to write the action and fights since there are very few general rules as to how quirks work it's difficult and often unsatisfying trying to predict or imagine matchups since the system is inherently unpredictable therefore one of the most central aspects of Shonen anime the fights gets hindered and kind of crippled by this decision in writing sure most of the fights are still fantastic but that comes mostly from the emotional character writing that is usually placed around those clashes there are very few fights in Urraca that actually have great choreography and creativity behind them so in essence the system doesn't facilitate writing action scenes it doesn't completely make them impossible but compared to other power systems quirks are not a definitive solution as how to enable engaging action additionally not every quirk is equally useful as we mentioned in the positive section everyone has a unique power that they are stuck with this severely limits the potential of some characters once their quirks have been decided the maneras of the world can't really compete with Bako go now this uniqueness to their powers would not have to be a negative hero eco Araki has shown multiple times with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure that it's very possible to create unique abilities that still make for interesting encounters as long as the powers themselves are multifaceted and creative there is one big difference here though in jojo's only a handful of people actually have these powers so Araki has more time he can spend on really fleshing them out in hiro akka however almost everyone has powers and therefore a much higher density and number of powers is required additionally in order for this world to be believable there have to be at least some useless powers since otherwise neither inequality of birth nor uniqueness of the powers would really come across as convincing this concession might work well for world building and characterization but it also limits the action writing quite severely add this with the fact that a quirk can only be trained and improved so much and you end up with characters that are stuck at the bottom of the metaphorical tier list another fundamental flaw of the system can be the lack of an underlying general energy or force even with some narrative advantage over those systems like key or chakra quirks have to deal with an entirely separate problem there is no real way for these powers to interact in n battles or in fights between ninjas no matter what abilities the fighters have they are still all using the same energy therefore there are specific ways in which their powers can interact combined with or react to each other with quirks this simply doesn't work they're basically all individually working on different mechanics and rules which eliminates this additional angle of the fights now that we have summarized both the good and the bad I think it's valuable that we look into the future and see what horikoshi could do to improve or evolve the system and honestly there isn't much at this point he would have to fundamentally change the way it works and as we all know changing essential aspects of a show 200 chapters in is a risky endeavor plus the more I think about the flaws of the system the more it seems to me that these are not as much oversights on horikoshi part and more necessary concessions the type of story he wants to tell every aspect of quirks seems to be geared towards maximizing its potential for world building while sacrificing action and fights this makes me believe that these issues are intentional shortcomings that are simply a trade off for the advantages in the more narrative aspects of the story so when looking at quirks that way what could Horry do to improve well first of all I think you should not tinker too much with any essential aspects of the system at this point at least don't for the love of God introduce a general quirk energy or some dumb like that instead I would very much like him to fuel his creativity into more varied applications and evolutions of the quirks especially those of the main cast he has shown that he's willing to improve and I think it's fair to assume that later down the line after the inevitable time skip at the latest we will be getting more creative uses of quirks and so on it's not like the fights and action scenes are bad as they are now but they definitely are mostly carried by the character writing as opposed to the action writing however both the gentle fight and the high-end fight are good indicators that horikoshi is improving this aspect of it I think we're at the point now where we have to accept the idea that MHA is a very different type of Shonen I know we all like to joke about Green Naruto who but it's becoming increasingly clear that this story has vastly different priorities compared to its predecessors and even its contemporaries horikoshi seems more concerned with writing a fast-paced teenage character drama with superpowers instead of the usual sequence of action story action story that we are used to from so many other Shonen whether or not this approach is better or worse than the other is up to you to decide for yourself but I think it's fair to say that it has worked out well for MHA so far I personally love this newer approach because it gives the fights inherent meaning and weight when they happen so I am not too bothered by the fact that this power system is very much built as a narrative tool rather than for construction of action overall I'd say it's solid and achieves what it sets out to even if that goal is somewhat unorthodox within the battle shown in genre but what do you think agree disagree curse the unholy soil upon which I was birthed let me know and as always liking sharing and subscribing are greatly appreciated I'll see you next time take care

Channel: Oceaniz

Views: 132,909

Rating: 4.8751664 out of 5

Keywords: MHA, My Hero Academia, Boku no Hero Academia, BNHA, Quirks, Powers, Power System, Analysis, Review, Video Essay, Anime, Manga, 2018, Oceaniz96, Japan, Shonen, Writing, Narrative, Worldbuilding

Id: t_7niro1yIQ

Length: 22min 45sec (1365 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 23 2018