High school is a time when kids try to one-up each other. It’s a popularity contest full of raging hormones, and confused feelings (which is probably also why so many anime feature a high school setting).
Everyone deals with their lack of prowess in a different way. Jocks try to excel at sports, beat up weaker nerds, and be very loud. Nerds, especially anime nerds, will fantasize about having super powers to defeat said jocks. It doesn’t really get them anywhere, but they can cope.
When you were in high school (or perhaps you still are), were there any cool anime super powers that you wish you had? Here are a few that I thought would have been cool.
Energy Projectile/Beam
Probably the most common super power, in my opinion. I mean, it’d be pretty cool if you could electrically charge a penny and turn it into a railgun, right? Or being able to shoot off a giant beam of energy through your palms. That’d scare the jocks into submission. That would demand some serious respect right there.
You could do a “drive-by shooting” with it too. “Watch your back, buddy. I know where you live!” You could level an entire block doing that, I’d bet. Kamehameha yo ass biatch!
Masakatsu Katsura’s DNA2 has an interesting, more “localized” form of this projectile, but it looks more like a pie in the face.
Of course, we never really think of the actual physical property damage this may cause, or even the pain it would inflict. But DAMN it’s be COOL! HADOKEN to THE FACE! Then you get the girls! Screw the repercussions and possible criminal prosecutions! I’d Sonic Boom that shit into next Wednesday!
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXP1JGtVmaw[/pro-player]
You can never have too many fireballs. Probably the craziest shit you’ll ever see.
Flying, or Jumping Really Freakin’ High
I’d often thought about this one too. The benefits of flight are obvious. But being able to jump really high is cool too. You’d excel in sports like basketball, volleyball, and even football. Anytime someone passed the ball to you, you’d just jump over those tackles with grace. The added benefit of this is that it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
And think of how popular you’d be! Girls would be flocking all over you!
Of course, there are also other implications here. Scientists would probably want to study you. All the guys in your school would also be jealous. They’d definitely want to beat you up. But you know you’re untouchable! You’d just jump up to the school rooftop and escape! Like a ninja!
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT90nW166aU[/pro-player]
Of course, you can also use your incredible agility to commit epic acts of senseless violence too. UFC?
It’s over 9000!
A lot of people, especially weaklings like us anime otaku, may like to think that we have some hidden potential inside of us, waiting to be unleashed at the opportune time (usually some form of extreme nerd-rage) I mean, it’d be pretty cool if you were beaten to a pulp to protect your crush, and then you come back on fire, and kick some ass Scott Pilgrim style.
With the exception of Dragon Ball Z, this sort of “internal cosmos” or “theta” also comes from series such as Saint Seiya. There’s also the psychotic version like Evangelion, though not nearly as flashy, is definitely rage at its finest. HYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQw05e26I-k[/pro-player]
One of the first, and best AMVs ever created. Epic Asuka Rage!
Portable Party
You know how in some anime, a character would break into song, a background would come up, and supporting dancers and singers would pop up? I’m sure you don’t. But wouldn’t that be cool? You’d literally be the life of the party. Imagine sitting in the field with your classmates after school or during a lunch break, and you say “I’m bored…”
“LET’S PARTY!” and it’s showtime! Spot lights appear out of nowhere, music comes on from god knows where, and everybody’s dancin’. That would be rad.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIvz6GBJFPw[/pro-player]
IT’S SHOWTIME!!!
I’d settle for a soundtrack to my life too. If it was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and conducted by Arni Roth. (but that’s because my life isn’t all that exciting).
Shape-Shifting
I haven’t seen a whole lot of shape-shifting in anime. And when it happens, it’s typically a bad-guy that gets this ability. The only use I can see out of it is messing with people, and basically causing mischief.
Of course, if you’re talking high school, with the exception of the obvious pranks you can play, you could also morph into a celebrity like Justin Beiber, or one of those damn vampires from Twilight. That’d be a hoot.
Of course, you might even try morphing into someone of the opposite sex, just to mess with people. I know I would. I’d morph into the sexiest school girl ever, and I’d be a gamer/anime nerd to boot! I’d then either tease the guys to no end, or I’d get on with some hot yuri action with someone of equal hotness. Ah… the fantasies…
I’m not sure how quickly you’d get over the initial shock of suddenly growing breasts.
Glittering
Twilight be damned, glittering would be fucking cool! If you glittered on demand, you would be teh hotness for real. All those shoujo manga with porcelain-skin blonde pretty boys who get all the girls all kirakira. Bonus if flowers bloom around you.
I will charm your PANTS off!!
Of course, people might think that you’re a flamboyant unicorn too…
Mind Control, Reading Minds and other Psycho-Abilities
Geass encompasses all this of course. But I don’t actually know if these are good abilities to have, especially the mind-reading one. The whole thing with high school revolves around insecurities, uncontrollable emotions, and just general confusion. I mean, it’s bad enough that you’re messed up by your own thoughts. I don’t think you’d need the addition of other confused teenagers on your mind, or hearing some of the unspoken thoughts of how people really feel about you.
I think the mind control thing would be kinda cool though. Jedi mind tricks would be as great of an extent as I’d want it. Full zombie-induced mind control may be a bit much, and creepy. I’m sure more than once, some of you have wished that annoying classmate would just bugger off, or you wished that secret crush would at least give you the time of day.
Teleportation
By far, the ability of choice I’d go with. Hands down. It seems that mostly bad guys in anime are able to teleport. Specifically, the underlings, not the main boss-man. He’d teleport in, gives his status report, the boss-man gives his orders, and he responds with “wakatta” before vanishing off to do underling type stuff.
Even better, if you’re also able to teleport stuff in addition to yourself. You’d never have to carry your wallet or luggage again! You go camping and you can just materialize your equipment when you need it.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58pvlPBjQ_c[/pro-player]
Yeah, there’s that downside too.
The terrible movie “Jumper” illustrates the fantasy lifestyle with being able to teleport. I’d love that. It’s the most practical super power that I can think of. Even more so than stopping time, in my opinion.
On one hand, you pretty much get to where you want, whenever you want. But from a philosophical standpoint:
Part of the experience is the journey getting there.
Anyway… if you’ve read carefully, even though there is a light overtone to this post, there is a somewhat deeper implied undertone of high school insecurities that I chose not to get into. Feel free to share your stories, of course. Are there any anime super powers you wish you had?
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If you had the jumping ability, there’d be the slight problem of people seeing under your skirt. If you wore a skirt, that is.
I want to be able to manipulate time. More specifically, I need more time in a day. Always have, always will.
And yes, mind reading is not a good thing. You end up driving yourself crazy.
hmmm that’s true… but I suppose people seeing up your skirt is a small price to pay for being able to jump around like that. I’m sure looking up your skirt would be the last things on their mind too.
I thought about manipulating time, but I didn’t see it often enough in anime to warrant it as an anime super power. Plus, when the world has stopped except you, I’d think that would be pretty boring.
Wow, really fun post!
It’s definitely teleportation for me. Just imagine all the gas, air fare, or any other transportation costs you save! You also get to sleep in too and can get to work in a second.
If I couldn’t have teleportation, then flying would be my next choice. It’s a great excuse to wear cool goggles all the time.
I would’ve chosen the glitter power, but I already am super charming so that’s a moot point. 😉
Teleportation would work great traveling long distances, and it would work great for the lazy person who doesn’t want to get up out of his seat to get some water in the kitchen.
The problem then becomes trying to hide your ability, and also being careful not to teleport yourself into a wall. I’d also be scared to do daredevil teleport tricks like teleporting off a building (or heck even onto the top of a high building), or into the air. I mean, what if you suddenly lose your ability for whatever reason? That would really suck. Teleportation is still relatively safer to do though.
With flying, if I suddenly lost my magic, I’d pretty much be dead. Flying does seem cool, but temperatures in the sky are generally lower, with also less air pressure, making breathing difficult. Not to mention the bugs you’ll eat during take off and landing. Once all the “realistic” implications are thought of, these super powers ain’t so cool after all!
I’d settle for glittering on demand. That shit’s hot.
LMAO! ‘Glittering’ cracked me up. I’d definitely go with teleportation as well. It’s one of the reasons why I love being magicians in RPGs. 😛
I’d love to be able to teleport other things as well. And other practical applications:
1. Start a moving service.
2. Start a travel agency.
3. Become a professional thief/spy/peeping tom/magician
W0oooo7 nice post…
When I’m young i always dream of being the hero character from RPG.. journey to RPG world doing all those stuff that is in RPG (except going to NPC house opening treasure chest talking to npc oblivion to your presence) ^^;
Regarding which power to choose. Ill prefer Teleportation.. get me out of situation or when i’m late. =D
Raiding people’s houses for potions sounds like a really cool ability. 🙂
Your comment gives me a blog post idea. ^_^
Cool~ cant wait to see ^^
I went to a pretty high-class high school with lots of preps so there were no bullies to worry about, but if I had to choose 8 powers, here’s what they’d be:
Attraction – the main male lead in harem anime all seem to have this. Girls just automatically flock to them.
Super Deduction – I’m referring to L from Death Note and his problem solving skills. If I were that smart, there wouldn’t be many mysteries in my life.
Plotting – kinda like Lelouch (Code Geass) and Light (Death Note). I want to be able to change the world with just a few words to certain people.
X-ray vision – I think that’s self explanatory.
Summons – more of a video game power, but some anime characters have it too.
Godly powers at something – examples include Hikaru (Hikaru no Go), Azuma (Yakitate Japan), and Ryoma (Prince of Tennis).
Auto-bandage – a lot of anime characters have bandages appear almost instantly after they get injured. This would really help me heal faster.
Magic device – not really a power, but it’d be cool to have.
That’s interesting! I’d have thought that the highest number of delinquents would be from private schools, since they have rich parents who are too busy with their businesses to pay attention to their children, the kids would get bored and do nasty things to get attention, like bullying, doing drugs, and being mean to instructors. Either your school is the exception, or you just weren’t aware of these behind the scenes things.
Attraction to harems is definitely a super power indeed. That’s probably better than glittering because it’s innate!
I don’t know if X-ray vision would be good. Imagine you’re looking at a girl fully clothed, with bra and panties too. Now imagine what that would look like if the clothes were there but completely transparent.
lol auto-bandage.
Oh yeah, childhood friend who protects you and kicks others’ asses is also a good super power. 😛
I actually went to a public school, but it’s more exclusive than any private school since it had special status and only took in the top 100 applicants. It was full of rich kids, but they were all top of their classes in jr. high because their parents had extremely high expectations. Maclean’s listed the school as the top academic school in Canada the year I graduated.
A childhood friend would be nice, she’d always be there for me 🙂
So… I guess then you’re saying that your family is rich too? 😀
And you’re also smart, since it’s the top academic school in Canada! 😀 That’s pretty awesome! ^_^
I have a childhood friend. She married someone else. But that’s okay, she is a little older than me anyway. 🙂
I wouldn’t say rich, but definitely upper-middle class.
I managed to get in to the school because my Jr. High wanted to get as many graduates in there as possible to boost their reputation. Since I actually had a chance, they gave me a perfect recommendation.
That’s still pretty good, Nopy. 🙂 Now, can I mooch some cash off of you? j/k
So I guess sometimes it really isn’t who you know, but what you know, and the people who want to use you. But still, graduating from a prestigious school helps you just as much. ^_^
I swear I met a girl who’s so pretty it feels like I saw glitter around her! XD
OMG… my eyes (blinded by glitters) XD
UNICORN GLITTER POWER!!
Was she a unicorn? Can you introduce her to me? 😀
She’s not in town anymore unfortunately ^^; but omg everytime I see her I swear I see glitter, it’s a natural thing, no horn LOL I feel almost afraid to look at her cos she’s so pretty XD
Wow… that truly sounds legendary… pix or it’s as good as the legendary Bigfoot!
But that’s an interesting flip-side to that kind of power. People would actually freak if you glittered. 😛
I want to be indestructible, and I want to be able to morph into a tentacle monster. Having a GPS receiver wired to my brain would be nice too, so I can find all the high schools and sorority houses in the local area without having to stop and ask for directions.
in high school i always imagined what life would be like if i had the power of flight, super strength, and energy projectiles thanks to watching dragon ball but never would i have imagined glittering and portable party! XD LOL
shape-shifting and psycho abilities sound cool also! high school sucked for me so i would day dream a lot about this stuff. one power i actually did have was invisibility… yeah i didnt get noticed much ^^;;;
high school life sucked for me too. I did the same kind of imagination as you too.
I think having shape-shifting would serve well throughout life too. You’d never have to worry about growing old. I’m assuming shape-shifting has to do with modifying your cells, in which case if you had full control over your cells, you can be immortal.
The power of invisibility reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDSCHjDjEaY
interesting, that would make it a 2 for 1 special special! lol i would wonder about maintaining shape shifting form, like it being a temporary thing then you would be forced to revert back to your old self after a stress period. possibly your cells still age but you can still modify them to change shape till you drop dead XD need to ask mystic of x men.
haha fun clip, ive had days like that 😛 zetsubou sensei rocks! love Kiri Komori!
That’s an interesting possibility/limitation that sounds plausible. I would not like that kind of limitation. 😛
you need to check out the fireball clip too. It’s amazing. Especially since you’re into doing street fighter with your nendoroids. 🙂
If you ask me, what I wished for wouldn’t be super powers, but rather some crazy technology? What is it? It would surely have to be Doraemon’s 4th dimensional pocket (laughs). You can get all sorts of crazy tool Doraemon has, and there’s more than enough I can use to have my ‘super powers’ – instant teleportation (the Anywhere Door), time travel (Time Machine), cloning objects, stopping time, manipulating weather etc – whatever you can think of it. Doraemon can pretty much dominate the world if he chooses to with all these tools, except that the time patrol people will intervene because he will start disrupting/changing the history.
Doraemon is the best! :DDD
The 4th dimensional pocket would be similar to teleporation, no? You could essentially store everything in some warehouse, and “grab” your stuff from there at anytime. If I recall correctly, the stuff that comes out of Doraemon’s pocket are all gadgets he knows how to use, which means they do exist somewhere in space-time.
It would be cool to have a bag full of gadgets rather than a given super power, but as we all see from Doraemon’s experiences, those gadgets can fall into the wrong hands and mess everything up, where as a super power is always within your own control.
If you would just consider the pocket itself then that will be indeed a cross-dimension teleportation of some sort, as you can even put yourself in it and get out from another exit there (Doraemon has a spare pocket which he keeps inside his closet, i.e. where he sleeps).
His gadgets are all the ones he owns, although in unusual occasions he has to buy them from the time he belongs to and get them sent over across time. Lots of them are demostrated and used to help Nobita when he is in distress or bullied by his classmates, or simply jealous that he does not have this or that, but then are easily abused by Nobita when he starts to have fun with power in his hands, or as you said fallen into the wrong hands and causes even more trouble, and retribution strikes on them eventually. While there are moral lessons on various things, I often think that not to abuse a power, be it gadgets or superpower, is a moral lesson to be taught among many others in Doraemon.
I dunno. I guess when people were bullied or were just having a bad time back then, they would want to have somebody help them, or have possessed powers / gadgets to solve the problem. Doraemon is one good example, because he almost always has something that’s right for you. For me, supernatural power is probably what I don’t really need so I’d prefer gadgets instead. One way or the other I just want to be an ordinary human.
That’s interesting to hear that you just want to be an ordinary human. I guess you like where you are in life, and don’t feel the need to drastically change it with a super power of some sort. And yes, it’s true that there are disadvantages to having super powers too anyway. 🙂
Super powers are definitely a form of escape fantasy, for sure. Some way to deal with a situation in an absurdly unrealistic manner to cope with reality.
Awesome post!
My two all time favourites have to be those Psycho-Abilities just for cracks really and Teleportation for the convenience – The thought of being able to be somewhere instantly whenever you please would be amazing XD
Yes! I’d teleport EVERYWHERE! It would be SO awesome! I wonder though, if you did teleport off a building, would your falling speed carry over to wherever you teleport to? If you’re falling off a building at breakneck speeds, then you’re pretty much screwed no matter where you teleport to. Except maybe if you teleport into water…
I’d like the teleport ability too but not to be used as an underling. Why? Cause you get no camera time, all your work is all done behind the scenes D:>
all implemented in the characters i make however, i would really like to control electricity more then anything, same stuff as Ginji from Get Backers, my ds and psp would never die, i could run my own electric car, put a magnetic field around me so that my friends can’t sneak up on me , become a human magnet (and maybe a chick magnet ;D), etc. Also would work wonders if i ever got put in jail (not that i plan to go there of course ^_^)
I like the ability to control electricity. It sounds really convenient. Your use of it seems non-destructive in nature too. Good on you! 🙂
That, or the nerd will fantasize about a smoking hot gal who’d save them from all their misfortunes and take them to Gensokyo. Depending on the nerd’s power level he may not be fantasizing, but actually seeing the person right before him. Ahem.
Well, it’s not thaaat bad. One fantasy is enough to get me by. The jocks don’t gain anything from bullying me, and I make sure I’m around friends that are more obvious targets. Remember, the sheep needn’t run faster than the wolf; it only has to run faster than the slowest of the flock.
If I had to though, I definitely want some Limiter Removal, that thing I concocted in a Railgun post long ago. Removing the limiters your brain places on your muscles to prevent your body from violating natural muscle efficiency and destroying itself. Self-destructive abilities are definitely the most romantic. I’d have different degrees of lifting limiters, where the first levels only make me really tired and the last ones would downright kill me but make me really awesome for a very brief period of time. I’d also be motivated into training in martial arts; then it would be a case of making the better of a self-destructive ability, honing it into a weapon, showing the triumph of the human spirit. In the end I give my life in a blaze of glory so that the heroes can go on and achieve the happy ending. Totally like Kittan, man.
Of course, Academy City would have to become a reality, or else there’d be no Kuroko for me to give my life for.
And that’s about all I want. I say this because I think I might be beginning to understand why the journey is important as well. Of course, if you were a genie that was actually capable of bestowing these powers, then what I’d wish for would be a bit different.
That, or the nerd will fantasize about a smoking hot gal who’d save them from all their misfortunes and take them to Gensokyo. Depending on the nerd’s power level he may not be fantasizing, but actually seeing the person right before him. Ahem.
Eh? That went right over my head. 😐
You make a good point with the sheep analogy. Of course, it doesn’t really work to your advantage if you happen to be the slowest sheep in the flock.
Would you really want a limiter removal? I mean don’t you remember what happened in Ghost in the Shell? Definitely over-romanticized, in my opinion. I mean, I can see the appeal of it all definitely, but damn, that’s one heavy price to pay, and I value my life quite a bit (even though it’s really not worth much).
Hmmm… after realizing that, I guess it would be pretty cool to end my life in a blaze of glory and be remembered as that rather than fizzle out and fade away. Yeah… I like your thinking.
Interesting that you raised this last bit in your comment. I brought this same question up on figure.fm and to my surprise (or lack of) there were a lot of people who basically just wanted to be Super Saiyan, destroy things, fly, kill people, etc. I questioned the whole flying thing and about the journey as being important too. The following week, I raised the question of morals by giving the hypothetical scenario of you being all powerful (IE, unstoppable, zero punishment/consequences by social laws), what people would do with those powers, and whether what’s stopping them from being evil because of getting caught, or if they truly are saints.
HAHAHA I loved seeing you throw Glass Mask in there. I like that series, but I can’t help but chuckle at how sparkly and flowery everyone is. The power to jump really high or fly sounds like the power for me. A lot of the Devil’s Fruit powers in One Piece are really great, but being able to be incapacitated by sea water really is one helluva weakness. Especially since everyone in that world knows that weakness. From One Piece I think I like Robin’s power best. The ability to grow my body parts on any surface within a certain range.
lol I had no idea! I just randomly grabbed an image from google. The retro-art made it doubly perfect.
Almost all super powers require some sort of weakness in order to keep the characters interesting. Though I wouldn’t want a weakness if I had a super power. A character is different from a human being, after all. ^^;
your forgetting the most important power of all! the ability to clone yourself. i haven’t seen in in many animes, but its popular in naruto. just imagine, wake up on a school day, make a clone, hide under your bed and make it go to school on a day you didn’t feel like going, once the day’s over, cancel the ability and you learn whatever the clone learned in an instant, imagine having that power while getting picked on, or being in a fight? hell you could even multitask and have multiple jobs, and they do all the work for you.
as for other powers, i love the teleport one, and stopping time one as well,or even mind control.i also think i would be a useful power to have like something from death note. although it is a malicious item, i could prove to be useful. like talking out certain evil people in the world, like those terrorist, or.. you could take out people who are in your way(i could name a few -_-).
and there’s also, immortality, this has been in many animes, and it would be cool at first, but i get the idea of wanting to die. that’s about it.
I often think I would love to be able to read minds, but then I think how I probably DON’T want to know what is going on in most people’s minds.
Now, teleportation is the most awesome power. think of the vacations you could take.
I think being able to read minds at will would be useful. Then you know the sincerity of a person, and not waste time with them if they are insincere. It would probably hurt at first from what you learn, but if you’re able to get over that, then it would be an awesome power.
You seen Jumper? Teleportation ROCKS! 🙂
I think flying would be better than teleportation. With flying, you could see the world!
Yeah, and you’d eat a lot of dust and bugs too while flying lol! But you’re right, you lose out on the experience of everything in between if you can just teleport. 🙂
i would have the power of it’s over 9000 ability because no one would never know about it. it would be sick. just think in the middil of being killed you would have the trumandus power come a live and u would survied and kick the dude ass in a split seconde and pertect the ones you care for. i would want it to be like in rosairo vampire when moka takes off her rosary and becomes a mager badass with enoumus power.
that would be awesome.^_^!!
Great topic, think bigger for teleport though, if I had teleport(like in “Jumper”), I’d be starting up my own moon colony in a pressurised moon bubble(perhaps on one of Jupiter’s moons, with the cool view), politics are destroying this planet.
How about adaptable DNA?
If I were to choose/create one, I’d go for adaptable DNA which can evolve itself over time, perhaps a specific part of my brain or “unique organ” could be specialised in this writing/creating new DNA(giving me eternal youth), then I could keep up with the human race(or beyond) from the dawn of time(or stow away with some aliens taking on any positive traits from them as I come into contact) one could accomplish much! Controllable metabolism would also lead to being able to last the distance to colonise the moon/planets/galaxy…etc. (a useful bonus of this would be immunity to STI’s…etc.) Anyway, someone else explore the idea, I’ve rambled long enough!
Hmmm… yeah politics and everything are destroying this planet… but instead of just leaving it, I’d use my super power to try and fix it.
Adaptable DNA is an interesting one! Technically, you could restructure yourself to live forever!
Lol you really wanna live on the moon! 😛
if i had a power it would have to be the ability to access the internet with my mind. any information youll ever need is there AND if your in the middle of a test at school , you would have all your answers. hell you could even stream music off youtube straight to your brain incase someone wont stop talking.