*Limit spoilers for Ajin and My Hero Academia* My favorite superpower setting of all time is Ajin, maybe it is not as flashy and fabulous like One punch man or MHA. Still, it is the one that I found very interesting. However, why was it so interest? What makes it stand out from the others? It is quite simple; it's the ways that it was used.
Usually, in a show, the main character faces problems that they need to solve. If the problem is personal and is a problem precisely because of the main character's power or limits, then it is a compelling problem. For example, the issue that the main character Deku faced at the start of the first season was that he wanted to be a superhero, but he does not have a superpower. When encountering other superpowered beings, he is powerless. That was indeed an exciting story, up until he got the power. Where everything after that, the solution is to punch people with his newfound power. If that does not solve the problem, he just hits a little harder. Even though the story has more to that, such as the emotional barriers and personal goals, but that is the limit of his superpower setting. The furthest they can get with this is on the level of Saitama, One punch man. That does not make their story a lousy story; as we can see, they made four seasons for it, so people loved their story. The problem isn't with super strength as a superpower; the problem was the limited ways that it was used. If they used this super-strength in different ways, then it would make it a whole heck of a lot better, which is what they are trying out with the shooting style at the end of the third season. It did work, it did make it very interesting, but it is three seasons into the show, which is a bit late in my opinion.
Now, to Ajin. They only have one superpower, and everything that happens was revolving around that superpower, which is the power of not dying. Here is a summary of this power. The people with this power are called demi-humans; they could only die through old age. When they got a fatal injury, their body resets to its state second before their death, but their physical location does not change. If they lose a limb, then it would either grow it back or reach that limb back to the body, depending on the distance. If the body was destroyed, then it will regrow from the largest remaining piece. It will also destroy any matter that is in the way of its regrowth. If the injury was not fatal, then the body will stay as-is. Meaning if the demi-human lost an arm, but it didn't kill him, then his limb remains lost. Other than that, the human body acts normally. So if they haven't died once, they would never know that they were a demi-human. They also have a puppet called Invisible Black Matter, it is also very complicated, so I will not touch on it.
This power is it of itself was an exciting concept, but what excites me the most is the limitations placed upon these superpowered individuals. The main force aginst them is normal humans, the military, to be exact since they were deemed to be valuable resorces. And because of the limited nature of their superpower, they could easily be overpowered by normal humans, unlike Deku, who could easily punch his way through the obstacles. Also, they are facing this threat from the military precisely because they are who they are, so it is a personal probelm. And like I said at the beginning, it makes a compelling story. These were great factors of the story, but we are here to talk about superpowers, so let's talk about superpowers. What makes Ajin so much more interesting than My Hero Academia was the way the superpowers were used. There was this exciting scene during the first climax of the story where an Ajin is trying to kill someone behind a wall, and this is all I am going to say because more will be too many spoilers. If a person with superhuman strength were in this situation, they would punch through the wall; if a person with pyrokinesis were in that situation, they would burn through the wall; if a person with teleportation were in that situation, they would teleport into the room; if an average person were in that situation, they would dig a hole through the wall. What will an Ajin do? Take a look at the power summary above and take a guess. The lad cut off his hand and placed the wound on the wall then shot himself in the head, the regrowth of his hand made a hole in the wall. This usage was within reason, but out of expectation. There were so many examples like this in the manga, which is why I loved it so much. The creative usage of one's power is what makes something interesting, unlike the blow by blow technic promptly featured in MHA. This is why I thought Ajin's power setting and execution throughout was amazing.
In conclusion, by playing one singular power to its limit is what I think is interesting. Instead of the ex Machina like power bundle packs that have the exact superpower that you need for one particular situation, you should have characters using their powers in different ways to achieve the same effect. This also isn't limited to superpowers. It could also be used in fight scenes and deductions and many other situations. The main take away from this was that do not use the same technique over and over again, like punching things hard, change it and use it in creative ways to let the audience engage in the setting and the powers. Shock them with the potential of the power and the diversity of the usage of the force.
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