Summary
It’s a typical trope in shōnen anime: everyone else gets fancy, unique powers that do wonderfully strange things, while the hero has the most basic, white bread abilities one can get. There have been discussions explaining why they usually get the blander powers in the series, like them being an easy visual entry point to draw in new fans.
They can also show how their protagonists plan to work smarter instead of harder. Instead of obtaining more fancy powers, like Doflamingo’s strings,the Uchiha Clan’s Sharingan, or Satoru Gojo’s Unlimited Void, the likes of Luffy, Naruto, Yuji, and others use their abilities in unique ways to overcome their opponents instead.
Kojiis pushing it, as usingMazinger Zisn’t so much a power as driving an elaborate vehicle. Nonetheless, it’s a good example, as Koji tends to use the mech’s dullest abilities the most. For every Rocket Punch, Rust Hurricane, and Finger Missile fired, there are multiple uses of his Photon Beam — a simple, basic laser attack from the eyes. Aside from it likely being easier to animate and reuse, it was also the mech’s most practical ability.
It takes up the least power compared to Z’s flashy finishers, doesn’t risk overheating the mech’s systems, and already hits with the power of 10 tons’ worth of explosives. It also comes in handy for telling a story. Mazinger Z was already one ofthe strongest mechs in the genre, so if a big villain came along and withstood its Photon Beam, it shows business is about to get serious pretty quickly.
Luffy’s low on the list because he isn’t exactly boring. His stretching abilities still stand out compared to the other Strawhats. Even so, he wouldn’t have made it so far in his story if he was just a teenage Mr. Fantastic. He’s all about using his skills creatively to get ahead, like bouncing away projectiles with his rubber body, or inflating to turn himself into a human balloon to float — but his creativity goes beyond that.
To get around Enel’s predictive Mantra, he shut off his mind and ricocheted his stretchy punches off walls. Then, when Mr. 3 bound his limbs with wax, Luffy used them as bludgeons to smash his wax creations. When fighting Magellan, he made Mr. 3 create wax armor for him to get around his poison. He’s got a sharper mind than his opponents give him credit for, to the point where this creativity might be his true power. Hisnew Gear 5 formcertainly shows this off, as he uses it to manipulate reality itself by being the looniest toon on the open seas.
Bleachis full of different power-ups that can turn action scenes around on a dime. It admittedly gets convoluted as it goes on, given its hero,Ichigo Kurosaki, can use Shikai and Bankai powers, is part-Hollow and part-Quincy, and has enough spiritual affinity to qualify as a Substitute Shinigami. All that, and his main abilities can be summed up as ‘throwing sword beams’ and ‘powering up his sword beams.’
But that’s doing him a disservice, as he’s got a few more tricks up his sleeve, like detecting people through their spiritual essence, absorbing latent spiritual energy to charge up his different power-ups, and compressing his Bankai to last longer in his different forms. By being neither fully Hollow, fully Quincy, nor even fully human, he can tap into their strengths to overcome their weaknesses, and make his simplest attacks strong enough to overcome the biggest obstacles.
Ironically, for a guy who wears orange and has bleach-blonde hair,Narutois one of the more understated ninjas in his title series. Sure, he houses a powerful fox spirit and has plenty of different forms that each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but fans have often complained that, out of all the fancy skills the show offers, Naruto usually beats villains by using a plain ball of chakra energy called Rasengan. Both it and his iconic Shadow Clones were often overused, but that’s because they were the simplest, most versatile skills he could pull off.
Aside from bum-rushing his opponent, Naruto used his Shadow Clones to form human bridges and ladders to get around obstacles. Likewise, his Rasengan could be pulled off without fancy hand seals. He’s used it in different ways too, be it producing clusters of different sized Rasengans, or having his Clones produce one each to barrage his foes with a heavy rain of chakra. By using his skills like that, he didn’t really need anything more flashy or intricate.
Despite being the main protagonist ofJujutsu Kaisen,Yuji Itadoriis rather plain compared to his compatriots. He doesn’t have the sorcerer family drama of Maki Zenin, the stern cynicism of Megumi Fushiguro, or Satoru Gojo’s almighty power and confidence (“Nah. I’d win”). Instead, he has the strongest fundamentals out of any character in the series. He’s a quick learner, is super strong with the stamina to match, and, thanks to housing Sukuna, is resistant to most poisons and curses.
He just uses his new sorcery skills to enhance these abilities further, like recovering from lethal spells via the Reverse Curse Technique, or being able to pull offthe intensely tricky Black Flash abilitymore times than anyone else. He can’t blow people’s minds with the power of infinity like Gojo can, but in a blow-for-blow fight, he can outlast even the most powerful curse users.
Gokuis a go-to example of how simple yet easy to grasp powers can become iconic. Everyone in the series seems to know one martial arts strike or another. Goku himself knows a few, yet the series rarely names what kind of kick or punch he’s throwing. But when he starts charging up energy in his hands, or changes his hair color or style, people know things are going to heat up. Even so, he’s craftier than his goofy personality suggests.
Like when he used Instant Transmission to catch Cell unawares with a Kamehameha, or when he combined the Spirit Bomb and a Super Saiyan-infused Kamehameha to destroy Kid Buu. Likewise, he sparingly used Super Saiyan 3 because it took too much power to maintain. Thanks to some new tutelage inDragon Ball Super, he learned to refine Super Saiyan’s base form to attain the stronger, more efficient Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue forms. In short, he attained new heights by working smarter instead of harder.
Jotaro Kujo, the hero ofJojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, is perhaps the best example of this trope, as the series' Stands have gotten way more complex than back in his day. For comparison,Part 9’s Jodio Joestarcan use his Stand, November Rain, to form localized rain showers wherever he likes, and make the rain hit people as hard as bullets. Jotaro’s Star Platinum can just move really fast and punch very hard.
Platinum also has pinpoint precision, as it was able to remove Dio’s mind-controlling flesh bud from Kakyoin without it killing him, and it could draw images from memory with photographic accuracy. It can also see further than most people, spotting the villainous N’Doul from afar, before throwing Iggy the dog at him to save his friends from N’Doul’s stand. Even without the time-stop skill it would learn later, Star Platinum is one of the more versatile stands in the series.
Given the series is calledOne Punch Man, people shouldn’t have expected too much out ofSaitama. He can literally take out his colorful rivals and villains with a single strike. Still, he has mixed up his moves to show how his singular swinging fist can take people out in different ways — like using that 1-Hit KO strength to flip skyscraper-sized chunks of earth on foes.
Then, if he squeezed water between his hands, that latent strength would turn it into a lethal jet of water strong enough to take out Monster King Orochi’s planet-destroying Gaia Cannon blast. He’s even taken people out non-lethally, like destroying Boros’ armor, leaving him too naked and embarrassed to continue, or catching Speed-o’-Sound Sonic below the belt, leaving him to postpone their death battle for another day.
