If you thought Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Digimon were the only anime series that featured powerful transformations, you've got another think coming. Jump Force has gone to great lengths to show just how vital power-boosting evolutions have been to the Shonen genre. Its incorporation of Awakenings, allow players to unleash a devastating finisher move known as an Ultimate Attack that usually gets the job done when normal button-mashing won't.
Many characters don't have a significant Awakening, with some merely getting a plain power boost and a minuscule aura change. In this case, we're only looking at characters that either undergo a more dramatic aura change, or an actual shift in physical appearance.
10 WORST: GAARA (NARUTO SHIPPUDEN)
As the former jinjuriki of the One-Tailed Beast known as Shukaku, Gaara boasts immense chakra reserves, along with an affinity for sand and sand-based Jutsu. His Awakening definitely displays this, generating tiny particles of sand that levitate around his body. While this is a clever way to avoid giving him a more drastic physical change, it's also the bare minimum of what an Awakening for this character could have looked like. The sand flowing around his body could be a lot more prominent and should mimic the effect that it has on the show, forming a barrier against weaker combo strings.
9 BEST: VEGETA (DRAGON BALL SUPER)
Goku and Vegeta are some of the most popular characters in Jump Force, mostly due to being some of anime's more iconic characters. When fans saw that they could go Super Saiyan Blue in this game, they couldn't wait to dominate other players with this godly Saiyan transformation, complete with an opaque covering of aquamarine light surrounding his body before giving way to reveal the Saiyan prince in all his divine glory.
8 WORST: KENSHIRO (FIST OF THE NORTH STAR)
Kenshiro, the protagonist of Fist of the North Star, is pretty up there on the list of legendary anime characters. His attacks are extremely precise, and his opponents are pretty much dead the minute he starts screaming and punching. His Awakening in JumpForce, however, is a pretty huge letdown. He powers up, and in a flash of energy, his shirt vanishes.
Yes, we're aware that this happens in the show, but at least show us the clothes ripping off of his muscles. One minute they're there, and the next, they're gone. It seems like the developers spent too much time creating those flashy fighting moves of his and severely neglected his Awakening.
7 BEST: PEGASUS SEIYA (SAINT SEIYA: KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC)
Despite being the protagonist (and titular character), of Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac, Pegasus Seiya is apparently the least popular of the main characters in Japan. That still doesn't stop us from listing his Awakening as one of the best in Jump Force. When pushed to his limit in battle, he can don his God Cloth in a burst of light, complete with the glistening helmet and wings that no other character besides Shiryu is even worthy to touch.
6 WORST:Â KURAPIKA (HUNTER X HUNTER)
As the last survivor of the Kurta Clan, Kurapika went to great lengths to ensure that his Nen abilities were strong enough to take down the Phantom Troupe, the group of assassins responsible for murdering his entire clan and gouging out their scarlet eyes. His most valuable ability in the series is a skill called Emperor Time, which is also his Awakening in Jump Force. When his eyes turn scarlet, he has complete mastery of his Nen in every category. It's truly an amazing skill with an insane drawback (every second he's in this state reduces his lifespan by an hour), and yet it's severely underplayed here. His eyes just turn red... That's all. He doesn't get alternate combos or anything else that would make the incredible expansion of his abilities evident to people who aren't fans of the series.
5 BEST: YUSUKE URAMESHI (YU YU HAKUSHO)
After dying a second time with the strength of an A-Class Demon, Yusuke's ancestral demon blood revived him, giving him enough power to dominate an S Class fighter like Sensui. Raizen, his demon ancestor, took over his body to finish the fight on his behalf, leading to a dramatic physical change. With his Awakening, Yusuke's skin gets darker, black tattoos appear all over his body, and his sudden hair growth could make even the likes of Kurama jealous.
After seeing it for such a short period of time in the anime, fans relished in the chance to battle other players in this legendary form. J-Stars Victory Versus took this Awakening one step further, allowing players to transform only when they were knocked down (to mimic Yusuke's second death). We only wish the Jump Force developers included this extra little detail to give this Awakening just a bit more of a dramatic flair.
4 WORST:Â VINSMOKE SANJI (ONE PIECE)
Sanji is a peculiar character in the One Piece franchise. Despite not wielding some advanced Haki or using a Devil Fruit ability, his affinity for fire allows him to incorporate intense flames into his Black Leg Style of fighting. Though this might sound awesome, his Awakening is anything but that. After powering up, a light aura of flame surges around his body, but given that these flames are often spurred by his emotion, shouldn't they be a bit more exaggerated? For those One Piece fans out there, you know just how passionate of a character Sanji is in everything he does, from cooking to morning kisses. His Awakening should at least reflect that.
3 BEST: NARUTO UZUMAKI (NARUTO SHIPPUDEN)
For players familiar with the Ultimate Ninja Storm franchise, Naruto's Six Paths Sage Mode is a form that they should be used to seeing in videogames by now, but Jump Force takes everything we knew about the aesthetics of this Awakening for a brand new take. Despite Jump Force being released on the same systems as Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, the form honestly looks so much better in Jump Force, and it's much easier to feel the power and agility that comes with this transformation. The texture on Naruto's skin and clothes is perfect, and the heavenly orange glow would make players who know nothing about the series think that Naruto was the son of a god.
2 WORST: SASUKE UCHIHA (NARUTO SHIPPUDEN)
On the flip side, Sasuke's Awakening is anything but stunning. If you're going to give Naruto such a significant Awakening, why not give the strongest member of the Uchiha clan one that's equally as amazing, instead of the lackluster purple aura that he currently has upon activating his Awakening transformation. Other games have given Sasuke some form of a Susanoo, whether it be a full, bipedal one, or just a partial one. Why couldn't this have been applied in this game? He already comes equipped with his Rinnegan without Awakening, which would've made a perfect Awakening had Jump Force if the developers didn't want to go all-out with a Susanoo. When we saw how awesome Naruto's transformation looked, we were disappointed to find out that Sasuke's didn't stack up at all, but that's just the benefit of having your name be the name of your series.
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1 BEST: ASTA (BLACK CLOVER)
Say what you will about Black Clover, but Asta's Awakening is one of the coolest in the entire game, if not the best currently. After harnessing the power of his Demon-Slayer Sword, along with his unique Anti-Magic abilities, half of Asta's body takes a more sinister appearance. Not only do his hair, teeth, and eyes change, but he also sprouts a single wing of darkness. Fans won't believe that such a badass transformation belongs to a protagonist in any anime series, and when they're racking up wins online with this character on their team, they should remember that Asta is a reminder to us all to turn what may seem like a weakness into your biggest strength.