How To Write a Perfect Power System

how would you rank jiujitsu kaizen's power system jjk fans claim it has some of the best fights in manga so naturally it must have a pretty good power system to fuel those fights but how good is it really where would it ranked compared to say JoJo's or hunter hunter in this video I'd like to share the five things that contribute to any power system explain how they separate good Power Systems from Bad Power Systems and discuss whether jiujitsu Kaizen really has a perfect power system now obviously nothing is going to be AB absolutely perfect as

something one person loves can be viewed as stupid or overbearing by another but there's a few things everyone can agree on to some extent that gives us some idea of what the ideal power system looks like the first thing any power system needs is rules this one should be a no-brainer but it's a part that often gets underappreciated because as we'll see later it's the quality of these rules in a story that determines how much people like the power system if there's no rules then it's just some Lord of the Rings nonsense where a character

can do all this cool stuff because H It's Magic if there's no structure or limitations then the abilities are only as cool as you can make them flashy because at that point the writer is just making up whatever for the sake of the plot in the case of jiujitsu Kaizen we do in fact have clear rules in this world almost every character has cursed energy which is the product of accumulated negative emotions through training Sorcerers can learn to observe and detect cursed energy and even apply it into cursed techniques there's obviously a lot more to

it but those are the basic rules so when we watch fights in jjk we know it's not just magic that akutami is making up on the spot but we'll get into why the rules are so important later in the video as important as rules are there's something else that's just as important the second thing any good power system needs are cool abilities on the one hand it's no fun when characters can do whatever they want with no real limitations but on the other hand yeah it's nice to have this neat little power system but if

the abilities are all kind of lame then it defeats the point of coming up with the power system in the first place because the whole point is to make the fights engaging so at the very least they got to have some cool abilities personally I can't think of any power systems that are like this across the board however one example that comes to mind is fairy tale and before I get all kinds of hate from my fellow mashima fans no I am not saying fairy tale has a bad power system but I think it is

perfectly fair to say that it has its clear winners and then it has its lemons and when you get those kinds of fights it's hard to care when the character has some weird ass magic that's honestly pretty lame thankfully this isn't a problem in jiujitsu Kaizen obviously jjk has its own Spectrum too not all abilities are made equal but considering it's the series that's Infamous for being carried by hype I don't think we need to go into too much more detail on this one on that note let's talk about the third thing every Power System

needs actually before I do that make sure to like the video if you're enjoying it so far it's the easiest way to support the channel and it helps spread the video to other viewers like you now the third thing every good power system needs is to base its cool abilities in its rules this might sound redundant since we already talked about the importance of rules but there's the rules and then there's the application of the rules so for example let's take something like Dragon Ball Dragon Ball has a clear power system every character has key

and they manipulate key in order to use certain techniques now those are the rules and some of the applications have a logical connection to those rules so if you use a beam attack that's just channeling your energy and releasing it if you fly that's manipulating your key in order to move around but then you get into the weirder abilities like Transformations and teleportation and suddenly the characters are kind of just doing whatever not that you can't rationalize what they're doing but there's less of a logical connection between those weirder abilities and the rules of the

world that is the key difference because you can have all the rules in the world but it's just as important that there be a logical relationship between the rules and the applications of those rules and for the most part jiujitsu kaisa Nails this one for example one thing I really like is the introduction of reverse cursed energy we're told that cursed energy is negative by nature and we know that a negative multiplied by a negative makes a positive so when it's revealed that the characters can use healing techniques it's explained by the fact that Sorcerers

can multiply their cursed energy in order to make it positive by nature of course when you get into the nitty-gritty it's hard to imagine what multiplying negative energy would look like which is even Illustrated when Gojo asks how to do it himself but it makes enough sense that we can keep our suspension of disbelief now it is worth noting that not everything in jiujitsu kaisen is airtight it's similar to Dragon Ball and that you have abilities like Gojo that pretty much make perfect sense and then you have other kind kinds of abilities where you kind

of just have to take it for granted but for the most part jjk is pretty airtight now obviously I've only touched the very basic abilities of jiujitsu Kaizen so far and that actually brings me to my next point and this is where we start to get into that threshold that separates good Power Systems from great Power Systems the fourth thing every Power System needs and the first thing I think separates good Power Systems from great ones is how accessible the power system is and this is one that I'm going to explain very carefully because some

people might consider it a hot take to be clear I think it is important that the general rules and applications of a power system be easy to understand what I don't think is important is that every single ability in the story is something that you can immediately understand and this is where we get into the all too familiar debate of whether Pages like this are good writing or not Hunter Hunter is always getting me AED on for having abilities that you need to take a semester long course on just to figure out how they work

and to that I want to make two points well three actually the third one I'll kind of tease so first of all abilities like this really aren't that complicated I kind of thought so when I was reading this chapter for the first time but when I read it again I was like oh that actually makes perfect sense so I think when people say things are complicated we need to keep in mind that there's a clear difference between the actual ability being complicated and the presentation being too wordy it's something I'm going to go more in

depth on in a sequel to this video so make sure to check that out later the second point I'd like to make here is even if an ability is complicated that doesn't make it a bad thing if you don't like abilities like this that's fine if you do even better this is why it's all the more important that the general rules be easy to understand because then you can sort of vary between applications that are also basic and ones that take a bit of time to understand and this is exactly what we have in jiujitsu

Kaizen we have abilities like black flash which are pretty easy to understand and then we have abilities like hakari which admittedly is somewhat sophisticated but that's the beauty of it you can have levels of understanding of his ability it's broken down in a way where you can get the gist of it and it's explained thoroughly enough such that the true nerds can dig deep into the finer details and get a better appreciation for his ability so in this regard did kaisen also passes but what about my third point I said there were three things about

complicated abilities well the third one kind of ties into my fifth thing on this list so the last thing I'll say about complicated abilities is that they aren't inherently good or bad I think a lot of people who tend to ignore them should take the time to sort of wrestle with them and I think people who hype up any kind of ability like this need to realize that sometimes they're just complicated for the sake of being complicated so now let's talk about the fifth thing every great power system needs and like I said it also

ties into this idea of complicated abilities I think that the biggest deciding factor between a good power system and a great power system is how well that power system allows for creativity when you look at the Power Systems in your favorite shows you can almost create a sort of spectrum on one end is the crazy nonsense where there's no rules and it's basically up to the plot on the opposite end would be a power system where there's absolute rules and the characters can never break away what every great power system aims to achieve is a

sort of balance between a sophisticated system of rules and a level of flexibility that allows the characters to do all kinds of crazy things within the confines of those rules one series that I have to give praise to for this is Undead unluck for example one of the main characters Andy is Undead and can regenerate but instead of Simply regenerating he goes one step further and will use his fingers as bullets and rips off his Limbs and uses the the resulting blood as a blade to cut his enemies here you have a very simple rule

but you also have the character applying it in a myriad of ways and this is something you can see in jiujitsu Kaizen as well to use Gojo as an example again he has his blue attack powered by negative cursed energy that has an attractive energy he has his red attack powered by positive energy that has a repulsive effect and he can also combine the two into Hollow purple which mathematically speaking creates an imaginary Mass it is a crazy combo of abilities that also perfectly fits within the rules of the power system there are other examples

like this but I think you get the idea so now that we've gone through our whole list it's finally time that we rank a Jutsu kaizen's power system again it has rules it's got cool abilities the abilities are based in those rules the power system is accessible and as we just saw there's room for creativity so if it checks off every box then obviously this power system is perfect and everyone can agree on that right well yes and no well most people would agree that jjk has a solid power system I think its real value

shows when you start to compare it to something like nen or STS and here's why I think it falls short from those two the biggest flaw I have with curse techniques is the capacity for creativity for example when you look at something like nen from Hunter Hunter there are tons of ways to manipulate one's Aura not even considering their actual nen ability jjk like Hunter Hunter also consists of abilities that are largely determined at Birth and yet the creativity isn't nearly as good so you have someone like Gojo who can do a bunch of stuff

but then look at someone like Toto he can clap and that's about it now look at someone like Joo he can make fire and that's about it this isn't to say there aren't characters who can use a bunch of different different applications but something like Hunter Hunter is much more diverse and I think part of this is because jjk doesn't really do types or Natures like you see in nen so as another example let's look at JoJo's in JoJo the characters can do all kinds of stuff with their abilities on top of that you also

have this rock paper scissors thing going on because you have different categories of STS as a result there's an additional layer to the fights where characters are thinking about how to overcome the obstacles cre created by these interactions jjk doesn't really do that it has its own types of curse techniques but among innate techniques there aren't like power types or magic types or special types as a result there really isn't as much to think about when you compare it to something like nen fights or stand fights so that's why I wouldn't say cursed techniques aren't

quite on the same level as those two in general I would say jjk is like a high a tier or even a low s tier if we were to make a tier list it checks off everything on the list which not every series can do and it does each of these things well enough to create amazing fights but it isn't really as immersive as some of the all-time best Power Systems on that note now I'd like to hear what you think what makes a great power system where would you rank jjk share your thoughts and

see what everyone else has to say down in the comments I'll pick my favorite and share as comment of the week on my community Tab and if you like another discussion like this one then check out my video on JJ K's art in that video I explain the artistic evolution of JJ K's art style you can find it in the playlist linked right here until then thank you for watching and I hope to hear from you SAR