The world of anime showcases a wide range of different abilities, from the physical to the magical and everything in between. It can be pretty exciting to see characters use distinct abilities in interesting ways, especially when those skills are tied to their personality or other character traits.
Regardless of the story, every series featuring combat has a hierarchy of abilities or power levels, as detailed or vague as it may be. Some powers are practically always guaranteed to make an appearance in one form or another, and some of them can be pretty overwhelming. One such class of abilities is the absorption type, so let’s explore this devastating ability type and why it’s so dangerous.
What Are They?
While they may not appear in every combat-centered anime series, the class of absorption abilities does appear pretty often. Absorption abilities can look very different depending on their series or world. However, most of them tend to fall into one of three categories: energy absorption, ability absorption, and essence absorption. Of these three, the first two are seen most often, whereas essence absorption is more abstract and less common than the others.
In some cases, viewers will see one of these three shown in a rather straightforward manner. In other cases, characters will use abilities that don’t align as clearly with one of these three categories but still fit, to a certain degree.
Energy Absorption
Energy can present itself as life force, physical energy, magic energy, elemental energy, and more. Considering these different forms of energy, it’s easy to see how being able to absorb them can make a user extremely powerful. This can be used proactively by stealing energy from an opponent or defensively by nullifying attacks and absorbing the resulting energy. In some cases, the character can even expel the energy after absorbing it. If a character can nullify physical attacks, then it makes them resistant to one of the most common forms of damage. Furthermore, it’s immensely difficult, if not impossible, for characters to defend against or counter having their life force stolen.
At several points in Tokyo Ghoul, Ken Kaneki snacks on other ghouls or their weapons, also called kagune. As a result, he absorbs some of their strength and becomes far stronger than before. He even becomes a kakuja, which is an especially strong ghoul whose kagune has transformed to essentially plate their body with armor. The Rinnegan in Naruto is another frightening example of energy absorption, as it can allow users to absorb Chakra, a combination of spiritual energy and physical energy. Chakra is used for many of the jutsu types in the world of Naruto and being able to steal it from others allows the user to drain their opponent of energy or nullify attacks.
Ability Absorption
Ability absorption isn’t as overpowered as energy absorption, at least not at first glance. In many anime fights, the victor is the fighter with the stronger abilities or the one who’s able to use their abilities more skillfully than their opponent. When a character’s abilities are absorbed by another, it rids them of their particular advantage. If the ability thief already has skills of their own, or they’re just able to use the ability more skillfully than the original user, then they’ve become tremendously stronger. Even worse, if the original user loses the ability when it’s absorbed, then they’re really out of luck.
One of the deadliest examples is All for One from My Hero Academia. With his skill to steal abilities from others, he’s capable of rendering someone useless not just within a particular fight, but for all their fights to come. Essentially, he can permanently sideline someone with a touch. Since he can store all the abilities he steals, he was able to stack the abilities with each other and become even more powerful.
Essence Absorption
Essence absorption is possibly the most potent of the absorption ability types. It usually includes energy or ability absorption and tosses some other features in for good measure. With essence absorption, a character typically absorbs another character’s life force and sense of self or being. Typically, the character will absorb someone else whole, leaving nothing behind but unfulfilled dreams. When a series uses the word “devour” or something similar in the ability name, that’s a big sign the ability is essence absorption.
Rimuru Tempest of That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime is one of the most overpowered Isekai protagonists for many reasons, but his “devour” skill is by far one of the major ones. It’s easy to guess what this ability does just from the name alone. The skill allows Rimuru to absorb anything into his body, including other skills, attacks, energy forces, or entities, and then transform into it or reproduce it. He can also gain memories of individuals he absorbs or speak to them after they’ve been stored within him. The skill eventually evolves into two subsequent stronger versions, making it even more lethal to his enemies.
Why Are They So Overpowered?
When you think about it, it makes sense that absorption abilities are as powerful as they are. Even more than many other abilities, absorption abilities improve characters and typically make them more capable in a battle. In an instant, they can restore a user’s vitality, give them a wider arsenal of skills to use, or increase certain elements of their fighting potential. Using absorption abilities is one of the easiest and quickest ways to change, which makes it very powerful.
Additionally, absorption abilities are hard to beat and challenging to defend against in a fight. Physical attacks can usually be countered by evading them or physically guarding against them. Even magic abilities can be foiled by certain resistances or other forms of magic. Absorption abilities don’t have many established forms of counteraction. So, when you mix an already strong form of combat with less defendability, you get an overpowered result.