For some shounen action anime main characters, the powers you see are what you get. They lay out their abilities, you understand what they do, and their battle is how to meld them effectively to the situation or undergo training arcs to improve them. However, sometimes what you see is not, in fact, what you get in certain series.
It is a popular trope in shounen anime to have a character asspull new power in the eleventh hour just when they need it. However, the best explanation for these asspulls is that there is more to a main character’s power than meets the eye. More than even what they understand.
If you enjoy shounen action anime where the main character and their power has a surprise for you, give these anime recommendations a try.
Best Anime Where The Main Character’s Power is Misunderstood
Orient
For every main character that struggles to use the normal type of powers present in the world, you can rest assured that there is some eventually explored reason as to why. After all, no shounen anime tells the story of someone who just sucks. Every main character needs to be special.
In Orient, the powers come from the swords that Bushi wield, and like a wand might choose a wizard, swords will choose a wielder.
However, when it is time to get a proper Bushi weapon for the main character Musashi, you watch very single sword available for purchase reject him, violently. Luckily, you don’t have to wait very long to start getting a pretty good idea as to why. However, like a good shounen power-based mystery, it certainly isn’t telling you everything about his overall powers either.
Blue Exorcist
In the world of Blue Exorcist, the forces of good who stand against Satan an his demonic incursions into the human world are exorcists. However, as the main character is the son of Satan and also on the side of good, he is privileged to more power than most.
Blue Exorcist, the anime, actually does a good job of explaining the powers that Rin has access to as both an exorcist-in-training and a demon by blood. He can use exorcist techniques, but can also use them with demonic power.
However, in the world of the anime, his powers are unheard of and difficult to understand to the characters while we the audience understand them quite well.
As he has such a vast well of demonic power sealed by his sword, of course this also gives just cause for him being able to pull out more powerful techniques suddenly as needed.
Radiant
Lesser known shounen series that Radiant is, it doesn’t tell a terribly original story, but it tells the standard shounen story well. In Radiant, it follows sorcerers who are the only ones capable of fighting the wanton destructive nature of Nemesis creatures. As is tradition, Seth, the main character of Radiant, wants to be the strongest sorcerer, but isn’t especially adept at magic. However, he augments what magical ability he does have with solid physical abilities.
As you might expect, Seth has a the ability to tap into unknown magic. His berserk state is a wildly powerful, almost an uncontrollable demonic transformation that gives him access to darker, stronger magic. However, as Radiant is lesser known, and not as long running as other shounen series, the reason behind these powers is heretofore still unknown.
My Hero Academia
As the Deku inherited his power from another, much of the My Hero Academia is dedicated to you watching him use it and develop it to his own body. However, once it stops being about that, you discover that even All Might, the man he inherited the power from, did not understand it fully either.
The rules of the world of My Hero Academia is that a person has one quirk. They bend this a little with characters like Todaroki who have the ability to control both fire and ice, but that is still somewhat inline with the logic. Deku’s powers ultimately break that rule of the world.
His power is essentially generational accumulation of strength passed from holder to holder, or that is how it is explained. As the enemies get even stronger, you find that there is a hidden wealth of power below that even.
Bleach
Bleach has the unfortunate bad habit of backing itself into a corner with power scaling. Each enemy needs to be more powerful and threatening, and then this forces some sort of asspull for the character fighting them.
For Ichigo, at the start it was unlocking his bankai. Then fixing his powers, then mastering his powers, then discovering that – because of his lineage – he had access to a whole new series of powers. So once he had those, then he had to meld the new with the old.
Bleach loves giving characters new powers in a fight, but only Ichigo remains the unexpected wildcard even by the end due to what they did with his character.
This isn’t a bad thing as it keeps his fights interesting, but it still makes Bleach occasionally ridiculous with its new developments.
That is all incredibly vague wording, but it is a rather large spoiler that I am trying to avoid.
Yu Yu Hakusho
For a large bulk of the series, Yusuke’s powers were actually very simple and easily understood. He made a finger gun go pew with spiritual energy. He got training to make it go pew more than one time in a day.
However, near the end of the series, I guess they felt the need to make his character more complex. Suddenly, he becomes more than just a normal human who died and became a Spirit Detective, and he develops powers more befitting his complicated lineage. It makes for a nice end to the series, but also not the most slick way to power up a main character.
BNA: Brand New Animal
While BNA might not necessarily classify as a “shounen” anime, it certainly asspulls like the best of them when it comes to powers. In fact, one of the main character’s powers is the same as many shounen heroes – evolution.
When she needs a power, she evolves it. Wings when she is falling. Gorilla arms to smash things. Even cheetah legs for baseball.
In a world of discrimination between humans and beastmen – who can’t evolve at will – her powers are certainly a mystery just waiting to be explored. Until explored, they are fun parody at how many a shounen hero evolves new power exactly when they need them.
Magi
In the beginning of Magi, you see Aladdin’s giant magical Djinn Ugo, but it becomes very apparent that even he doesn’t understand why he has it or even how to properly use Ugo. It is not uncommon for a shounen protagonist to not understand their power fully, but to have no idea about it at all is rather rare.
Almost unfortunately for Aladdin, he has a “fake it until you make it” approach to his power that almost gets him killed at times. However, watching him discover his power and things about himself is a part of Magi’s charm.
Do you have more shounen anime where the main character powers aren’t fully understood? Let fans know in the comments section below.
