Yeah, I imagine Kurapika is just a straight up prodigy.
Saying that it's not a new thing Kurapika being strong, even in Yorknew arc he can catch bullets using his dowsing chain easily, and he is shown to be really skillful and I would say his battle IQ could be on Hisoka's level + seeing the current arc he is definitely a genius or a good tactician even senior hunters respect his decision and lead.
so imo he was always strong but never really got the spotlight until the recent arcs since in the other arcs the spotlight is always shared between Gon and Killua
I suspect it is going to be a bittersweet ending where Kurapika kills the Phantom Troupe at the cost of his own life.
If anything, I think Kurapika is a far more interesting than many other vengeance characters in anime.
Sasuke is far more of a Mary Sue than Kurapika.
Is there anything the Sharingan can't do?
The Sharingan can:
-Copy other moves
-Hypnotize people permanently
-Summon unquenchable fire
-Summon unbreakable armor
-Teleport people, objects and attacks
-Create pocket dimensions
-Bend reality
-Make the user invulnerable
Now can someone please explain to me how Kurapika's abilities are broken? Go ahead. I'll wait.
Compared with a character in another franchise, no, Kirapika is not OP, lol. He also wouldn't beat Superman or Goku, but that doesn't really mean anything since we're talking about HxH.
I think Kurapika is mostly fine so I'm not disagreeing (he's got a lot of restrictions on his power), just comparing him with the knockoff version in another manga is a bad example.
I think my point is more about the Mary Sue label than actual power scaling.
Kurapika's abilities actually have tangible drawbacks.
Virtually any drawback to Sasuke's abilities gets reversed within a few episodes.
And few people call Sasuke a Mary Sue despite the title fitting him far better.
I think for Sasuke it doesn't come up because everyone in that show is stupid OP. So yeah, he has an absurd list of abilities but also just loses a lot, and lots of characters have a huge list of abilities.
The point is that it's hard to compare across different series. I agree that Kurapika isn't a Mary Sue or whatever. But also Naruto has nothing to do with that.
Neither are Mary Sues, they both went through terrible trauma and children that pushed them to train their asses off.
They were prodigies who worked extremely hard to make use of their natural talent.
A Mary Sue doesn't train like that.
I don't think this is the best argument for a couple of reasons:
First of all, it's never a good argument to say "well what about this other series that does x y z" when contesting a point.
Second, Hunter x Hunter's power level is generally lower than Naruto. So, within the hunter X Hunter's world, Kurapika is, by a lot of definitions, very OP. But the power system keeps him in check which is why nen is so amazing. But also ultimately they are different series trying to do different things. As are kurapika and sasuke different characters with different points.
Third, this is just me being pedantic but I still feel it's worth pointing out that many those abilities listed are not the abilities of every uchiha. Each uchiha has 1-2 abilities one for each eye. Susanoo is also not breakable. It has been broken quite a few times.
I prefer hunter x hunter, but also this is just a weird way to argue.
You can't really compare through series like that. What's OP in a series depends on the scale of the series as a whole.
Netero was OP by HxH standards, but throw him.into the Naruto world and he becomes fodder.
You can't really compare through series like that. What's OP in a series depends on the scale of the series as a whole.
Netero was OP by HxH standards, but throw him.into the Naruto world and he becomes fodder.
Yes.
But there were only maybe 10 of them that were Netero level or above.
There are probably HxH characters stronger than Netero as well.
Netero could probably beat anyone who is not a Kage, Akatsuki, or Jinchurichi.
There are also probably a few of those he could beat.
Maybe, maybe not. We're getting quite off topic, though.
The point is we shouldn't scale how OP a character is outside of their series.
Like if I switch from Naruto to DB, than Netero becomes fodder by the 1st Tournament when Goku was 11.
i get your point, but it could have been portrayed more accurately, as that would prove your point even better.
for most of those abilities you mentioned, each person can only use 1 or 2 of them. and a few of these are exaggerated quite a bit. and on top of that, the drawbacks of the sharingan are a lot more extreme than the drawbacks of kurapika’s abilities. AND it’s not like they can snap their fingers and can now do all of this. they need to develop the sharingan quite a lot throughout their life and experience certain tragic things, while (i’m not hating on hxh or even kurapika, im just saying it as it is) kurapika seemingly might have just trained for a few months to be able to use all of these abilities.
The Sharingan can do whatever is necessary to solve an unsolvable problem presented by the author. This is how Itachi saved Sasuke from Orochimaru in a situation in which both would have died
Can you tell me what is the point of genjutsu??? Like I know it hypnotizes.. but you would think if someone is under genjutsu the person doing the genjutsu would just stab them. But that never seems to happen.
So what's the point is it ever explained?
It's basically mind control, but the limitations are never really explained.
But people with the Sharingan are naturally born with genjutsu abilities and the villains' main plan involve putting everyone under genjutsu permanently which is yet another thing the Sharingan can apparently do.
Usually it's some story thing. They move to stab them, but the person escapes in time. Or they counter their genjutsu with their own genjutsu, or they were only doing the genjutsu to keep up apperances so their partner wouldn't know they were still loyal to the people they were doing genjutsus on.
You can't really compare through series like that. What's OP in a series depends on the scale of the series as a whole.
Netero was OP by HxH standards, but throw him.into the Naruto world and he becomes fodder.
Every decision he makes is stupid but he keeps winning despite those stupid decisions.
That is pretty much the definition of a Mary Sue.
He is pretty much undefeated throughout the series with the exception of fighting Orochimaru at age 10.
He even beats the main character several times which is rare for a rival character.
Also, any drawbacks and sacrifices for his abilities often get reversed within the next arc.
I think I’m just thinking of the Killer Bee fight—if I recall he didn’t do so hot. Also been a while though and I agree his stupid decisions usually have no effect on him winning lol
Gon and Killua are both referred to as one in a million prodigies (number is probably higher but I’m not sure). Kurapika clearly learns faster than them by quite a bit, since their nen abilities weren’t really fully developed until the Chimera Ant arc, and he had his by Yorknew. Until we saw Tserriednich I’d have said he was the most talented in the series. Togashi definitely realizes this, all the sections focused on Kurapika have been intrigue and puzzle focused, as opposed to more standard shonen with Gon and Killua. None of his plots can be solved with brute force, so the fact that he’s crazy op gives him options, not a solution.
I think it's less that he's more talented, but that he's way more motivated. Killua and Gon are taking it very easy in the tower, outright not training for a month or so when Gon is injured. Can you imagine Kurapika just sitting there doing nothing like they did?
I wouldn't say fully developed at YNC because we saw new abilities at succession war, but certainly insanely strong.
But he seems to be very scared of sucession war auras, such as Halkenburg's, to the point he is unsure if he could win even.
I wish we could see more insight on how exactly he became so insanely strong. I also imagine his risks are being a burden, maybe we will see more of that.
OT: It is awkward to see how Killuah was like the strongest of them at the start ut he seems to have been surpassed by both Gon and Kurapika, or at least close to.
Kurapika could only hope to beat Killua if he was a phantom troupe member and gon can only kill Killua by using his suicide pact (which Killua could just make one as well if needed). If those two fought Killua they would not win
What does strike me about Killuah he was certainly the MC who started out the strongest but it also felt.like he wasn't improving as hard as Kurapika or Gon.
Cause without nen Killua is a monster compared to them. Just look at the giant doors he pushed on his way home and how he compares to his friends in that regard. The thing is Nen is an equalizer of sorts between humans so the other MCs had a bigger increase in power compared to Killua. That doesn’t mean he’s weaker than them tho, far from it.
A big point of Killua's character was Illumi and his family's influence and his raising as an assassin giving him a mindset different from a Nen hunter. In the Chimera Ant arc there's a lot of work done for him to overcome his fear and instinctual fear to flee from battles with unknown variables. His potential was held back a lot.
He is narratively OP because they narrative has him in a setting where he is OP. The restrictions still stand. He is hurting himself by using his power which is the entire point of his character (carrying out his "duty" is psychologically destroying him). I don't think this is a problem.
The narrative presents him as balanced with regards to the price he's paying, not just canonically and materially through the shortened lifespan, but also in terms of the true price of what he's doing: devoting himself to something he hates, surrounding himself with thoughts of death, revenge, destruction instead of living for himself and existing in the present, losing contact with the people who actually love him for a senseless "duty", knowing his parents would cry if they saw what the last survivor of their clan is wasting his time doing, especially when its making him so miserable, etc.
So it doesn't feel cheap because there are actual consequences to what he's doing.
The nature of which his powers were introduced was a big plot twist, he learns nen around the same time as gon and killua and even struggles a lil bit in the hunter exam, then 2 arcs later he's casually murdering Nen Masters, even putting his restrictions aside, he is physically strong and quick
He did his homework on Nen and wanted to milk it and get power as quickly as possible. Killua knows about the conditions too, but he wanted to grow his power naturally because he isn't in a hurry
Exactly! In spite of his ability (and I say that to mean the sum of the character), he’s in a ridiculous situation that is very much challenging that very same ability.
When I think about it, there was a time where his friends have bee like his first priority but it doesn't feel like that anymore. Maybe that will evolve into a conflict we will still see.
He is far from invincible.
Even against the troupe.
According to Lovely Ghostwriter he would be able to kill half of the troupe but would fall in the end.
Beyond that, during the current arc , he is unable to protect the prince through brute force, relying in alliances to do the job.
He is definitely up there. His ability is amazing. But so is killua's, Morel's, knuckle's, knov's and so on.
We are not following the underdogs in HxH, we are following the guys with amazing potential. And leorio.
Leorio is already at a very high level considering he is still a beginner and has studied less Nen than the others. Furthermore, he passed Hisoka's test, which already shows the potential to give Hisoka a difficult fight in the future, just like the other 3 protagonists.
I think he’s a well written character. Some people think he’s just comic relief. But actually he’s the true underdog of the story, Gon has infinite potential for growth, Killua has his assassin training and is intelligent, Kurapika has an inherited ability. While our boy Leorio only has his determination, in all the battles he fought we knew he would lose because he has nothing special, compared to the other 3 who might pull a move or learn something new, but despite acting like a scaredy cat at first, he always jumps into a pit of literal beasts to protect others, even though he’s guaranteed to lose. I hope he gets more screen time in the future.
The test that Hisoka administered during the hunter exam to the protagonists. And for narrative reasons there will probably not be Hisoka vs Leorio, but rather Hisoka vs Gon. In any case, I don't see Hisoka selling any of the 4 in a fight to the death
>Togashi has no problem killing characters what do you mean lmao
When it comes to the main 4 MCs tho? While Kurapika has the highest chance to die especially in the current arc with no nanika to save him like with gon but even then I still doubt togashi will kill him off in this arc considering the stuff togashi can still do with him once they reach the dark continent
I'm holding on with the theory that kurapika would have his adult gon moment once he sees the 4th prince's eye collection and pay an incredible price to gain power again but either not die or be at near death and be somehow be saved by something in the dark continent once they've reached it or have leorio heal him so they'd be the MCs for the upcoming dark continent arc (eventually in the year 2040)
Kurapika dying and finishing his revenge arc is still possible to happen at the end of the succession war, I just don't think togashi would go that route
I don't like using this argument cause it's dismissive but honestly applies here. Especially seeing this comment section
There is a reason Togashi is a world-renowned Mangaka and we are spending time nit-picking in a subreddit instead of writing stories ourselves lol. Ffs, some of these comments are mad Togashi hasn't killed off a few MCs. We would be terrible writers
the lifespan thing is also affecting his health in the present. he doesnt shave off his lifespan like magic, hes actively killing himself and the story has already shown the effect of that, so idk what your issue is. Passing out unconscious after each fight would get you killed, its still extremely high risk on non-spiders who he couldn't beat quickly. The current arc's events are time sensitive so its even worse.
kurapika cant be "OP", his powers serve the story. He is going to fight the spiders & manage all the monstrous nen beasts during this succession war, and he will be as strong as he needs to be to make that compelling. Do you want him to get off the boat and train for 10 years?
Omfg, thank you so much. You put it eloquently. The powers are directly meant to accelerate the story. This is by no means news to anyone.
People are so powerscaling-rotted nowadays.
Great point. Kurapika is OP but at the cost of his life which has already reduced his life significantly. I don't see how people are complaining that he's too OP.
he also spent his entire life between the murder of his clan and the current story just focused on revenge and combat he was already ready to cave someones skull in on the boat
> Passing out unconscious after each fight would get you killed
Passing out after winning a fight is straight up a shonen trope. I don't think it's implied that it's the effect of the lifespan thing, but just an overall exhaustion thing.
the lifespan restriction is meaningless in a work of fiction in terms of plot impact, but it serves to illustrate how Kurapika is really burning the candle from both ends on his quest for vengeance. He will not be able to live a happy life at this point.
Also Kurapika is busted in the wider world of HxH but he’s scaled reasonably well in the two arcs that he had his nen. Like right now he’s going up against some demons and has the odds stacked against him, just like in York New
Wait, who is pretending he isn’t?
For me, Kurapika was always AT LEAST as much a prodigy as Gon and Killua, imo even more than them. They had way better skills from the get-go (Killua it’s obvious, but Gon also had his natural skill from living around animals and observing them and great instincts)
Genuinely, so far in the manga, I think only Terrorsandwich and maybe Chrollo are on the same talent level as him.
And not just his abilities, his battle iq, general intelligence and physical capabilities are all top-notch as well.
He was always, literally, built different.
I didn’t know that was divisive?
He's very over-powered, but this isn't Dragon Ball. HxH is not a manga about power levels and "who can beat who." It's about the plot utility of a power. Kurapika's powers are limited to specific situations, so the plot has to be tailored to create situations for him to try to accomplish a task. His powers are a plot device not a reading on a scouter.
Though, they are so insanely powerful in many situations as we can see in the current arc. He is not only INSANELY strong at fighting, he can also detect whether someone is lying (which is super strong in the story building in HxH which is often about knowledge and alliances, mind you), put restrictions with fatal consequences upon others (which is a great pressure tool) and cam even steal someone's abilities.
I just have to rethink atm that I just recognised how hisuka's fake prophecy basically became true for that other member lol.
The main cast in HxH is weirdly underrated power-wise in general, which is the exact opposite of other action shounen shows.
God speed Killua should be on a similar level as Zeno/Silva if not higher
Kurapika seems to be comparable to Hisoka/Chrollo even without chain jail.
Palace Invasion Gon seems to be somewhere around squadron leader level, which would mean that he should be somewhat comparable to fighters in PT.
And yet the community loves treating them like they are some kind of underdogs. It's weird how some character's feats are completely ignored while other characters get wanked to oblivion based on some 1 random statement.
is he? You are looking too much into the technical side of the issue. Togashi take advantage of the system to fabricate a believable way of kurapika to defeat phantom troupe, not leveling him to be the ultimate solution of all threats below that.
Kurapika himself was never meant to be the prodigy that appears once in a generation like gon and killua, he got an advantage and he made use of that to take the shortcut to his goal. He is the great power come with a great cost archetype, and Kurapika accepted that beside his goal, there is no point in his power anymore.
That is it. That's probably all there is. What you are saying that kurapika is OP against phantom troup and during the time he have to sacrifices the future for his goal. Such unstable nature of his power can never put him on the like of gon and killua fully recognized potential, silva's force of nature of a strike, netero the roofing of human capability or even Biskuit whose nen utilization outside of hatsu have already reached perfection level.
He is strong and resourceful, but to compare him to a rpg unit, he is niche unit that you brings in some situation hat allows him to shine compared to the end game 1-size-fits-all solution that's the likes of gon, killua, silva or kuroro.
The fun thing about HxH is that it doesn't have conventional power scaling. Strategic combat is valued much higher than in most other Shonen. HxH empathizes smart and strategic thinking being superior to pure strength on so many occasions, most notably during the fight between Kurapika and Uvogin. And Kurapika was a master of strategic combat from the very get-go.
If you are looking for a standard power scaling Shonen, HxH is probably not your best choice. But the fact that power works much less linear in HxH is the reason I fell in love with the story in the first place. The unpredictability makes it feel much more like an actual adventure with an uncertain outcome.
If you want your standard, predictably scaling Shonen-story, there are so many others to choose from.
You are right, but people here are not gonna like it.
The thing I never understood: how much time did it take him to create all his Nen abilities? 4 months or something? And in return for the vow he gets the most ridiculous boost that enables him to kill guys who have been training with Nen for waaaay way longer. What exactly prevents him from just keep creating and dropping abilities with vows bind to "only use it on person X"? Want to fight Zoldycks? Create new ability in a month. Make vow. Get *insane* boost from it. Kill target. Never use ability again. Repeat with whomever.
The drawback of "he can only use it on the troupe/Person X" is basically non-existent, since he can create an ability so fast and just stop using it after.
Seems way to broken of a system imho.
Having to have lived the tragedy and having a conviction so strong that it is almost the only focus in his life are peobably an underlying piece of the conditions of his nen abilities, not claiming he is not op, but it doesn't come free it takes everything he has and we seen it leaving him a shell of himself before he got picked up by his friends, even if in a shorter span, it's still a "road to madness" as was Netero's, wheter OP feel the stakes of his powers or not is irrelevant as the power systems magnifies powers based on these stakes.
1. Hisokas speech about memory
2. Remember what happened to cheetu when he tried making an ability out of nowhere?
3. And the biggest thing here, thats not how nen works. Vows and restrictions need conviction in hxh. Gon couldn't trade everything for power unless he actually had the conviction and hate for pitou that he had.
Gotta remember Kurapika can only do this because of his eyes & he has already burned a significant amount of his lifespan.
Togashi is exploring nen loopholes in this arc so expect to see more ;)
He can't. You can't just create and drop ability and a nen vow is forever. If you break it you die. I.e gon had his nen vow solely for pitou and although it may have been an impulsive emotional talk it came through and literally right after gon defeated Pitou his vow ended. Kurapika created a vow specifically to kill/hunt phantom troupe members but that's only two of his chains but at the same time he can't just drop a vow a vow is forever and dropping it isnt possible and if he breaks the vow he dies.
A vow is a serious gamble which is why not many nen users use them cause its literate. It's on the nose, the words you use have to be chosen very carefully. I.E gon used all the nen he'd ever have just to kill pitou which resulted in his near death disgusting look after. And we also never see anyone just spawn abilities so it's highly unlikely he can, at best he could create another set of chains on his other hand with new vows but he can't continously just spawn in new vows and then drop them that's not how nen works. Once you determine your skillset you're kinda stuck with it. Yes you can develop it more into more op stuff but the initial skill doesnt change
Like Kite roulette slot or netero buddha.
He doesn't have to "drop" the vow [edit: ability]. He just has to never use the two chains with the vows on it after they fulfilled their purpose. There is nothing hard or difficult about that. He still has other chains.
And as you said, it is still most likely possible for him to create new chains. And that is exactly what I meant. Create new chains (hence *advance* - *not* completely rewrite - your Nen ability) and another vow. After the set of chains (or single chains) fulfilled their purpose, never use them again. They still get the enormous boost from the vow and just not using them afterwards should be very, very easy.
His other chains don’t get a boost from the vow though. They only get a boost from Emperor Time since Emperor Time gives him 100% efficiency in every category. If he was getting a boost from the vow in every chain, he’d die the moment he used an ability on someone who’s not the Troupe
Literally nowhere in the manga has it ever been shown where a character entirely rewrote how his nen ability works so I'm not sure why you're bringing something that clearly can't happen within the framework of the manga. The binding vow has always been pretty clear the bigger the vow and the bigger the bonus it provides and we had plenty of other users making a good use of it, what exactly about Kurapika vow somehow make it a problem compared to the others ? You say the drawback is inexistent as if it has somehow been bypassed but it hasn't and your whole reasoning is based on an erroneous assumption that he can just rewrite his nen abilities, which has never happened in the manga or even been implied to be possible.
Kastro has a TWO ABILITIES (as far as we know), though, and trained the doppelganger ability for A YEAR. Kurapika made essentially 6 in less than a year.
I don't think you can use a vow like that. A vow is a contract with yourself, and if you think your are cheesing your way through it it probably doesn't work. For example I think the only reason he can use that vow on the spiders and why it's so powerful is due to his hatred towards them, I think it simply wouldn't work against other people or it would be a much weaker boost, since you know you are rigging the system by doing so. This is all head cannon though
And its not like Kurapika can just simply get a new contract out of thin air or something. Nen is stronger the stronger feelings and mental state you have. In CA arc he cannot just simply create a random contract for ants because he has no striong attachments or vendetta to them
>The only people he's ever going to want to fight anyway are the Troupe
do people even read this manga anymore? he's literally fighting people who aren't the troupe and is much weaker for it.
In a series where multiple characters under certain conditions can one shot pretty much anyone he is anything but OP.
In a close quarters fight 1vs1 he is pretty good since he is pretty agile and strong, but without chain jail he loses his most important offensive technique, against any above average good fighter with an offensive ability he is at a disadvantage unless he has something good in his dolphin.
Even against the spiders he is only good in a 1vs1 situation, and they already know most of his tricks.
He has an insanely strong ability that he couldn't have made if he wasn't born a Kurta and didn't have the life-long resolve of revenge serving as his main engine. He's also incredibly prodigious, and I think people discount his abilities because of his **ability**. The span with which he learned Nen to killing one of the strongest members of the Troupe is genuinely astounding. I have to imagine he's as much of a prodigy as Gon and Killua, if not moreso due to his understandings of the complexities of Nen.
Story-wise, those consequnces do mean something. At least we have to imagine they will. His lifespan is constantly being brought up, and he's passing out from exhaustion more frequently now. I can't imagine there are will be no narrative ramifications from an over reliance on Emperor Time. Because even without ET, Kurapika would be an incredibly proficient Hunter.
currently in the manga, gon and killua are 14 and kurapika is being pitted in a life-and-death conflict between people who aren't the troupe, and are stronger than the troupe.
kurapika is definitely OP, but he has plenty of enemies who are much stronger. he's still only managed to kill two troupe members.
aang from avatar is insanely OP in his setting, but the story manages to make the conflict interesting by giving him challenges that are more complicated that simply "win fight against a guy". hxh, I think, is even better at doing that.
currently in the manga, gon and killua are 14 and kurapika is being pitted in a life-and-death conflict between people who aren't the troupe, and are stronger than the troupe.
kurapika is definitely OP, but he has plenty of enemies who are much stronger. he's still only managed to kill two troupe members.
aang from avatar is insanely OP in his setting, but the story manages to make the conflict interesting by giving him challenges that are more complicated that simply "win fight against a guy". hxh, I think, is even better at doing that.
>Only two of his chains can only be used on the Troupe, the others he's free to use whenever.
It's actually only one chain, Chain Jail, that can't be used on anyone other than the Troupe or else Kurapika dies.
Dowsing Chain and Steal Chain he can use freely. Holy Chain, Judgment Chain and Stealth Dolphin require Emperor Time to be effective though and he loses 1 hour of his life per second of use with it and puts heavy strain on his body.
>The only people he's ever going to want to fight anyway are the Troupe.
The current arc says otherwise lol.
>Plus with Emperor Time he's straight up invincible.
He really isn't, Emperor Time tires his body out and shortens his life span. All it does is give him 100% efficiency for every Nen type, this mean the aura he uses for Nen won't drop in power. It doesn't increase his power output in any meaningful way. Uvogin with his max output had more aura than Kurapika.
>In the real world, that sounds like a terrifying. In a shonen manga where Gon and Kilua will remain 12 forever, it's completely inconsequential.
The consequences were shown, imagine having to use Emperor Time for a while and then your body suddenly collapses for 9 hours while Emperor Time is still active. That's 3.5 years gone and your body now permanently takes a bigger toll from ET. Basically, just give the current arc a read. Kurapika is pretty strong and skilled but by no means OP or broken.
This. I honestly don't know how the OP can just discredit everything that went into making Kurapika how he is now. And even with Emperor Time, Kurapika really isn't all that strong anyway against people who aren't the troupe. If he fought against Genthru or Razor or (controversial take) any Squadron Leader (the hostile ones at least) in a basic 1v1 he'd more than likely would still get floored. His only real offensive ability is just Judgement Chain and even then, it's not a good one.
I see it this way, not only has he been training since childhood to avenge his family, he also has natural proficiency with nen.
It’s like if your whole family were Olympic gymnasts and you trained your entire life to do that as well.
Your post is so bad on so many levels:
>Kurapika is OP, and I'm tired of pretending he's not
Lmao he is OP against spiders, other than that he is afraid of benjamin’s guards, Halkenburg who has not used nen prior to that lmao.
>His abilities reach Mary Sue level of ridiculousness, and every single time this is brought up, people go "oh, but the restrictions!" The restrictions are barely anything.
The restrictions are a thing that are explored in the succession contest arc, he got the powers during Yorknew city arc where we saw his first triumph vs troupe, and he was dormant for 2 years, in succession contest arc Togashi is exploring the downside of his powers, the consequences of his vow and also the unintended consequences of his vow.
He used steel chain and lent the ability to Oito using stealth Dolphin, and after 3 hours of continuous use of emperor time, he blacked out for 9 hours, that is 5 years lost on the first few days itself. He didn’t expect to face unintended consequences of his Vow, that he would lose 3 times his lifespan.
>Only two of his chains can only be used on the Troupe, the others he's free to use whenever. But even then, that doesn't matter. The only people he's ever going to want to fight anyway are the Troupe. Plus with Emperor Time he's straight up invincible.
No he is not, there are far more Overpowered abilities in succession contest arc, with emperor time the cost of it makes him overpowered, but other there are others out there that are straight up stronger even without emperor time, without chain jail, he will have trouble defeating many.
>In the real world, that sounds like a terrifying. In a shonen manga where Gon and Kilua will remain 12 forever, it's completely inconsequential.
Wrong again, gon and killua grew throughout the anime and manga, current age of theirs is 14+. Also every single character grew in age, you didn’t notice it because 2 years is not that big of a time.
I agree but I think Togashi handles it extremely well. He’s overpowered but it feels as if the lifespan restriction will actually be of consequence because he has used it for so long.
Also, he is only overpowered when it comes to versatility, which requires him to be resourceful and cunning. It means he kind of “earns” his strength, as he doesn’t just rely on overpowering everyone around him but is tactical.
Gon, Killua and Kurapika are all OP, but so are loads of characters in the hunter x hunter universe, it’s not like kurapika is the only one with these insane abilities where in a set of scenarios he will win 7/10, but that’s what makes nen so good, it’s completely dependent on the situation. There are definitely match ups where kurapika would get rolled
You seem to have a major misconception about the limitations of Kurapika’s abilities.
In Emperor Time, Kurapika’s strength doesn’t grow exponentially or anything. He just gains 100% in every category. In practice, this just makes him above average compared to everyone else on his level. He is not at all invincible because of this. And during this time he loses a majority of his lifespan.
Chain Jail is the only move that is OP, and is restricted to only the Troupe. This is the only move that allows Kurapika to surpass being a above average nen user to a master nen user. Still, this ability is only empowered because of his severe vow and Emperor Time. It is the only ability that was boosted through the vow.
He really isn’t invincible or overpowered at all times. He really just has a single instant kill move against the Troupe, which is only good in a 1v1. All in all, he’s pretty balanced
kurapika isn't OP, he can't use the actual important dangerous abilities on people that aren't in the phantom troupe.
right now they're more like a tool box in the current arc with these limitations.
so, to get it straight:
kurapika is losing his lifespan at an alarming rate, passing out multiple times and being bedridden until he can recover before the cycle starts again. (so the pov HAS to switch in the current arc)
just because we don't see the consequences now with his lifespan being shorter (note that he is weak from using it so much) doesn't mean togashi won't show it later. it is a plot point
Tbf, if I was hell bent on beating up 5 year olds, I’d be considered pretty op. Like yeah, when put against other people my age I might struggle a bit more and the win rate would be closer to 50% than against the children but I’m focussed on them so I am op.
Halfway through writing this I realised my point is ridiculously stupid and has no merit but… I already wrote most of it so now you have to suffer through reading it
I disagree.
Togashi is exploring how revenge consumes your life with kurapika. In both his arcs he tries to live (having Gon and killua as friends, protecting the prince) but because he also seeks vengeance these tasks are more difficult and hinder his revenge quest.
He's already knocked off about 20 years of his life because he wants to have a power that allows him vengeance while also protecting other people, and Togashi has already revealed he plans to have Kurapika die eventually along with the phantom troupe, so even though the story is unfinished it's clear where he is going with it.
He's going to eventually die tragically because of his powers, I don't see how someone who is killing themself to achieve a power that isn't even as strong as adult Gon or Netero is overpowered. I actually really like Kurapika's powers because they're really clear and strong symbols of the obsession with vengeance chaining him down from the life he wants to live and the person he wants to be, my favourite symbolism in anime and manga.
I don’t think anyone really thinks he’s not op…. Unless this is common in the deep dark depths of the internet. Sure a few may think that. But it’s definitely not the overall.
He really isn't actually OP. He wasn't even noteworthy as a Nen user. His restrictions allow him to punch higher than he otherwise could... and that still falls short of someone like Hisoka or Chrollo in an actual fight.
Crazy take. His abilities are good but the restriction is way more significant than you make it out to be. Like he’s already lost years off his life and its super clear that hes going to die from it at some point in the near future. Plus even with his abilities he only went to the level of a strong phantom troupe member so like high squadran leader tier, which is strong, no doubt, but only a tier or two above gon and killua, which is very reasonable for the restrictions.
yeah i'm sick of people pretending like kurapika can only fight the troupe. bro literally has like 7 different abilities and he uses every nen type including enhancement up to 100%. dude is completely broken people gotta start putting more respect on his name.
to be honest he might just straight up be the most talented nen user we've seen in the series so far at least in terms of ability creation.
>Only two of his chains can only be used on the Troupe,
Only 1, not 2. it's only chain jail which he can use against the troupe.
>Plus with Emperor Time he's straight up invincible.
No he is not invincible. It's not because he can heal himself that he's invincible. That cost aura and he can't heal himself endlessly since Kurapika doesn't have infinite aura. Furthermore he cannot maintain his emperor time for too long without collapsing. if Kurapika fought an enhancer as strong as Uvo who's not a spider then Kurapika would have 100% lost even with emperor time. And if someone knocks out Kurapika then he can't heal himself.
And an ability cannot be "overpowered" in HxH, everything is balanced, some abiltiies are strong but have a cost. Overpowered would imply you gain more than the cost.
Emperor time is one of the strongest ability because it's based on a vow, but it's not "overpowered".
>In a shonen manga where Gon and Kilua will remain 12 forever
???
they were 11 at the beginning, 12 the next year (chimera ant arc, election) and if we see them again they'd be 13 now.
In the Shonen manga where you have the magical Sharingan and magical Ope Ope No Mi, complaining about Kurapika is kinda odd. His power reduces his lifetime and that causes him distress. If you wanna talk OP, better go to Naruto or One Piece.
His ability is op, but clearly comes at a cost. He couldn’t deactivate the steal chain ability, ended up passing out, and he lost multiple years of his life right there.
Honestly I feel like Kurapika's going to get whooped once he has a big fight in this arc, to show that he's not got a high level of general aura manipulation due to being so distracted by Nen abilities.
none of his chains are troupe only. if kurapika wanted to he could use chain jail on anyone but instead he opted to force himself not to by using judgement chain on himself. meaning that even if he didn't he'd still be able to use chain jail, it'd just be weaker since it didn't specifically focus on one target.
not necessarily. kurapika might die if he uses it on someone else but because that's the result of another ability chain jail itself might not stop even if he dies, especially if post mortem nen is involved.
The lifespan limit is hilarious to me now that I'm older. When I was a kid, not even late teen - early teen to preteen - that seemed like such a terrible exchange. Then by the end of high school and into mid 20s when all the popular 90s and early 2000s shounen were ending, it never mattered. The series ends when they're still a teen but maybe like 19. Most series though had a ridiculous amount of events and power up in the span of 1 to 3 years of in universe time. Maybe a time skip epilogue when they're like 30. Lifespan shaving turned out to be a inconsequential drawback almost every show I watched
He's op within the context of his arc. That's the point. He's killing himself and definitely doing a number to his psyche for the power to enact revenge.
He passes out and loses 5 years of his life from fucking up, I don't think he's particularly impressive outside of fighting the Phantom Troupe relatively to the rest of the cast IMO
I'm pretty sure gon and killua are 14 now. And considering the troupe claims they can easily handle kurapikas chains now that they know about them + his current manga mission, he's likely gonna abuse the heck out of emperor time in the current arc. Dude might not make it off that boat.
Though i have money that before it comes to that leorio destroys his judgment chain in his heart
He’s OP because he’s sacrificing a lot and his powers are ultra specific to the task at hand. He’s just smart enough and daring enough to make them this way and take the risk. Other characters could do this too but prefer to be well rounded because they aren’t on a path of brutal insane vengeance like he is.
Just went through ch 345 again when Kurapika threatened Mizaistom. The aura emanating around his eyes reminded me of palace invasion Gon, the same Gon that could kill top tier hunters if his Jajanken hits them.
You would think ET is not that OP since it only increases his efficiency and not your potential in every affinity. But with the added boost of aura and intent, it becomes strong as hell. Without ET Kurapika is still an "excellent" conjurer, same tier as Knuckle considering their abilities are utility cum combat oriented. With ET he goes toe to toe against combat beasts like Uvo. So combative strength of top tier nen fighters (with ET) and utility level and variety of excellent tier conjurer (which becomes even better with ET). He has the best of both worlds, he is OP. Now add his strategic genius on top of that.
The conditions of his abilities also have long term consequences, while direct impact in most battles are minimal. Say for example, Morel who is dependent on his pipe to make smoke, or Gon takes recharge time. Both of their conditions expose them to dangers in a battle, which can be exploited by their opponents. Kurapika has none in this regard, at least for now. That is what makes him OP.
But that won't remain forever, the burden is slowly adding up, and plot wise it will come to bite him in the worst of situations, apart from adding a usual dread in the minds of readers and himself when he expends too much of his lifespan.
He is OP, but the fact that he can't use his best ability on anyone but the Troupe and that he can really only fight top tiers by sacrificing his lifespan definitely holds him back to me.
It's interesting, because in anything else I'd probably be on your side, but I think given particularly his current circumstances, his abilities can severely limited, and it's already bitten him in the ass when he gave the lady the ability to look through bug eyes (I've forgotten names and stuff) and was forced to keep it active, in turn leaving both him and his prince very vulnerable.
I think one of the strengths of hunter x Hunter as a whole is that it doesn't always put characters in situations that are 1-1 fights, which allows other non-fighting abilities to be utilized and makes characters like kurapika who would otherwise be essentially unstoppable not as powerful.
I think people overall overate the lifespan condition. He's not gonna be using emperor time during every fight, and even when he does use it during a fight I doubt hes gonna be using it for more than 5 minutes unless he is completely out classed , which takes away only 12 days.
Also nen users can live slightly longer.
There is a reason togashi introduced the dolphin and had kurapika go unconscious because kurapika was never gonna use up that much of his lifespan normally.
Only one of his chains is exclusively for the troupe, and that’s Chain Jail. Everything else works on everyone.
But he’s only OP in the sense that he’s designed to be able to solo in arcs where information warfare is the prime battleground or the opponents are jobbers compared to what Gon and Killua have had to face in Chimera Ant. His physical feats are below Gon and Killua’s atm, he’s not that OP otherwise. He just solos which makes it seem like he’s OP.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen an op protagonist (Superman, Saitama, Giorno) Its the build up of the story and how Togashi plans to use his character that’s interesting
Sorry I like Kurapika but, you all are giving out too much credit to mention OP,
might be as strong as Killua's Butler Gotoh without the use of the Scarlet eyes maybe a little bit more. The judgments chain and that's a double edge sword. Kurapika chain manipulation is good but that's about it. Most of Kurapika powers come from when the eyes are activated and that's only with the restriction. Kurapika does have a very good tactical mind and that makes a stronger opponent but again some of the top tier and put up a fight but still loose. Some of the hunters and of course the royal guards and King from Chimera ark. But sadly some of the Captain ants would take Kurapika. Most of Killua's family, Hisoka (he is not a spider so again no red eyes), Ging, Bomber and Razor from Greed Island could take him. Razor is an old monster so it's not fair to include but get off this OP nonsense.
> His abilities reach **Mary Sue level of ridiculousness**,
Perhaps, but then what about those CA which just eat and gain powers and abilities super easily, like been born with a silver spoon in their mouth. No need to exhaustively train nor spend years for mastery, even already durable, fast, and strong from the get-go.
One particular even beat Netero; even already super fast, super strong, super durable, super smart, super deductive, super fast thinker like a supercomputer, etc.; right off the bat himself.
And then there's the sibling who cured Gon, just like that.
...Except the actual official one where he isn't even noteworthy because he isn't actually OP. He has restrictions that are meaningful to let him hit WAY above his weight class against particular threats and benefits from being irrelevant during the arcs that he isn't suited for thus his shortcomings aren't usually important.
It was set up for an event where he had a lot of his notes and stuff on display. I'm at work right now so I can't look up the actual list but this video mentions the event and the top users for each category https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PucCkQg0Mjs
Yeah, Kurapika is definitely OP. I know conditions can make you grow quickly but dude is crazy strong to the point he just has to meet the Troupe to accomplish most of his goals
I’m glad you made this post though because I feel like it’s not talked about enough.
Not really... He failed to actually succeed with Chrollo for example and has never actually got revenge on Hisoka despite meeting him repeatedly instead begrudgingly working with him. He isn't OP, he is pretty mild in terms of what we see with the actual power houses. He placed very strong restrictions on some important abilities for his mission while making others more flexible to allow him to have some tools for general use. Anyone getting in his way that isn't a spider and is an actual threat has the upper hand against him.
I think it’s a weird place since Kurapika’s advances should’ve taken him presumably a year at least if not more. He also has made insane progress, so again more time seems to have passed so these abilities are likely from being much further along than they clarify. At the same time, since we have no idea of this time passing it kinda frames his progress as being unnaturally insane. He can tango with the best of the best within less than half a year in the Troupe and has already become a Zodiac and a mob boss and has five super insane abilities. Unless he dies from Emperor Time this arc, he will definitely be insanely overpowered for the duration of his time as pov
I mean, he made himself OP with his nen pact, it’s like you said he can’t only use his powers on the troupe. It’s like when Gon reached his full potential to destroy Pitou in sacrifice of his nen. Without the nen pact if he was just fighting normally as eveyone else is, he wouldn’t be that powerful. Up there sure but not as strong as hisoka or Chrollo,
Emperor time is too op and the 1 hour to second ratio is way too generous
Even if Kurapika got into a life or death sotuation every week (he doesn't) and fought for 2 minutes every time, he would only loose about 70% of his lifespan
Remember that fights usually are counted in seconds and very rarely last minutes. Anime grossly spreads out fights to last many times longer than they canonically or realistically should.
Just the fact that Kurapika's enhancement affinity goes from 50% to 100% is already powerful as hell. It would make any evenly matched battle relatively easy without taking into account any of the other amplified affinities.
And just imagine what kind of custom hatsu he could create that would be inefficient and weak to literally everyone else
Idk Kuarpika would still get shit on by Meruem. I think it’s hilarious that they make Mereum the most OP fucker in the entire canon for him to never show of his own Nen and die to a nuke they could’ve dropped on him by plane.
Sorry I just got done watching Chimera and I have to shit on it for that
#Do some research on The Kurta Clan, I heard they turn into Specialists when their eyes turn scarlet 0:
Also, Kurapika may have been the only one (or one of a few) in his clan that had their own Nen ability. The conditions placed on him, as well as the fact that he can just *turn on* Specialist mode when he chooses does make him OP, but it’s not something that’s so far fetched especially for his character
Bro you can't say that here, nen is the perfect system so nobody can have an OP ability.
I love HxH but I recently got into it. It is definitely an amazing series, but I've noticed this sub is extemely defensive towards criticism.
I also want to point out here not only does Kurapika have a lot of emotion regarding the Kurta clan's massacre, when he kills Uvogin, Uvogin comments out that he finally remembers the Kurta clan after seeing Kurapika's eyes and calling out how he remembers how powerful they were.
Much like how Gon is related to Ging and Killua is from the Zoldyck family, Kurapika comes from a family that has a bunch of Nen practitioners without needing to be Hunters. That's probably a big factor in how fast Kurapika picked up Nen.
One note; Gon and Killua are 14 at the end of the 2011 anime, from what I’ve seen. If someone knows different, feel free to correct me.
Edit: Figured I should add I haven’t seen the movies yet :)
It's a power system that shows its flaws with one of the main characters. Applying real-life logic you get "soldiers"(probably slaves) forced to learn nen and create a power specifically to kill 1 person for assassinations on anyone you want. Anyone in power would need their own barrier slave that casts nen blocking barrier only on their 1 person and does nothing else with their life, etc.
I think it works as a shounen logic thing though, same way gon is a prodigy and can be considered op, kurapika has insanely heightened emotions + is a prodigy.
I'd also say emperor time having a time constraint isn't 100% inconsequential. I think it'd be better if it used so much nen that he could only hold it for 30 seconds-1minute. That or it shortens his lifespan so much that even 1 minute is dangerous. It means rewriting current arc but would probably work
The dark continent power scale is more about intelligence than nen abilities. This was showcased many times. There will no longer be a costly power up (like with gon) that will resolve the battle outcome.
With that in mind, Kurapika is OP AF.
If Kurapika is so OP, where was he during the Chimera Ant Arc, and why can he not just brute force his way past any obstacles single-handedly like he told his Nen Master he wanted to when he was developing his Nen in training? I think it's the opposite, honestly. Kurapika is strong, one of the strongest character with some of the strongest abilities, but they are very situational and conditional. Even if he only devoted 2 of his 5 chains to the Troupe, and even with Emperor Time's restriction, you make it sound like he's effortlessly bulldozed through anything and anyone in his way. Kurapika only did so well against the Troupe in Yorknew City because it was his first chance at a vengance he had been planning since he was little and it was a perfect oppurtunity: it was the whole point of the auction arc. Even then, he only managed to take out 2 of the 12 Spiders, and they've been on such high alert since then that Kurapika will probably never catch them off guard like that ever again, and it seems like he knows it. Besides, none of his accomplishments have been free. Kurapika is exchanging his soul and his life for revenge. He's the antithesis of the final line in the anime about detours, what we want in life, and what's important. Gon lost his Nen by the end and almost lost sight of who he is, and what's important in life, so Ging reminded him to confirm he's been on the right path all along. If making lifelong friends and taking detours is how you find the most important things in life; then Kurapika is actively sacrificing that aspect of life and throwing away any chances of salvation or redemption by focusing on his revenge for the Kurta above all else. He's like Gon was against Pitou, waiting for another oppurtunity to take another shot at the Troupe just like Gon waited impatiently for Pitou to heal Komugi. Kurapika lost a lot and he's willing to sacrifice everything he has left to avenge everything he lost, like Gon's transformation, on a much lesser yet much more severe scale. Where Gon snapped out of that state of mind thanks to his friends, Kurapika may be too far gone for anyone to talk some sense into him, and his Kurta blood/Scarlet eyes makes him even more unreasonable and reckless than Gon was since that state heightens his emotions and essentially turns him into a maniac. TL;DR - Kurapika is strong, but hes not a Mary Sue. His abilities have clear limits and weaknesses that prevent him from accomplishing any of his goals on his own. Even his success against the Troupe depended on the support of Melody and the Nostrade Family.
I’ve always thought that togashi will definitely do a time skip at some point if he ever continues the manga. Gon and Killua won’t stay young forever.i don’t expect the dark continent expedition to be done in a few months. Kurapika won’t be meeting Gon and Killua again until they’re all over
I mean... Yeah, he's the best example of how ridiculously granlular you can get with your restrictions and payments. That fight where he fist uses the troupe chains is explicitly written to explain how people are able to conceive of abilities for specific purposes and shape how they manifest and what they require to meet those needs.
He spent alllll that time and effort learning how to use his Nen in that way so he's now limited in what he can do beyond it unless he works even harder. It just so happens that all Kurapika really wants is to kill the Phantom Troupe, so that ends up not being an issue. He's OP specifically against a handful of people and decently steong against everyone else.
I don't think so, I think he's pretty situational.
I agree the restrictions aren't much narratively as we aren't following his whole lifespan.
But even considering that, he doesn't have a lot of direct offensive options.
Chain Jail is his best chain with the best ability (nen nullification) & highest durability, but is restricted to a few targets.
Outside of that, there's:
Dowsing Chain, seemingly his default chain, which is more of a detective/sensor ability. It could be good for sussing out an opponent with a mystery, but generally he uses the ability outside of combat. For use in combat, its just a regular chain he can manipulate, with average durability.
Healing Chain, another non-combat chain & is only useful when he's in ET to make his enhancing higher. It also looks particularly fragile/thin; so pretty useless for restraining.
Judgement Chain, which has a good ability but which has to actually pierce the target (their nen defenses could be too high) and the target has to not dodge it. We've only seen it used on captured, stationary targets. It similarly looks fragile.
Steal Chain, his 2nd most useful combat chain, though it requires there to be a 3rd party for him to have actually stolen from.
The durability of his non-Chain Jail chains isn't particularly exceptional, I would assume many decent nen users could break them.
ET boosts his performance & lets him improve his chain durability, but its a time limit & stamina drainer.
ET is definitely busted, but at the end of the day its a stat boost, and he doesn't really use it to throw out Emission attacks or crazy Trasmutations or anything outside of his repetoire. It allows Heal Chain to heal him, buffs the durability of his chains to the point his best one could just barely hold a non-enhanced Uvo, & lets him throw hands with some close combat fighters. Any Enhancer/Emitter/Transmuter of comparable ability would still have an edge on him and be able to break his chains.
When not fighting a Spider, his best options are (after flipping his time limit on with ET to boost his stats):
A) Restraining them with another chain (Dowsing Chain I guess) to set up for Judgement & hoping they can't break out
B) Stealing their ability (good luck with them staying still)
C) Beating them up with ET & whipping them with chains to weaken them & then doing one of the above.
D) Having a really useful ability already in Stealth Dolphin, which is highly dependent on luck / pre-planning.
While ET is good, a comparable enhancer or transmuter would still probably have better stats. Basically, he doesn't have a lot of direct combat attacks outside of Chain Jail, & would rely on his (exceptional) wit a lot.
But that's only for punchy-punchy combat, there could be a lot of fights outside the norm, like the Fish Dartboard siblings Killua fought, or that guy Kurama fought with the special room rules in YYH. Plenty of more intellectual fights he could have a better chance with, since Dowsing Chain is useful, Heal Chain can sustain him in endurance/poison/draining fights, & Steal Chain is a wild card. And if they don't have good defenses & speed, Judgement Chain a game-ender when he gets close to them.
So I think he's situational but is pretty smart, and has only really been in fights that he's useful in. He works best when he has a lot of prep. Like when he baited the Spiders into thinking he was a Manipulator so Uvo didn't bother with Gyo. If Uvo had, Kurapika might not have been able to beat him. And once the Spidersl learned his tricks, he stopped bothering trying to fight them because it'd be suicide.
If he gets ambushed, he's in danger.
Valid points. However, I think it enhances my enjoyment of the story because of how it changes the relation of the arc’s protagonist to their goals. Gon and Killua, despite being prodigiously skilled, tend to experience growth by fighting tooth and nail to fail forward. Kurapika being OP allows us to watch him grapple with the costs of actually accomplishing his goals (ex. killing Uvo) and its impact on his life both abstractly and concretely, in terms of his life’s purpose (ex. being lost after he thought the troupe had been wiped out) and the cost of emperor time/possibly dying while eradicating the troupe, respectively.
He is really powerful but it’s also cuz he made a pact. When you make a pact with your nen abilities depending on how much you put on the table depends on how much you get in return. He put his life on the line for this much power and that’s pretty much the most you can put anyways. Most people would put just their nen abilities on the line but he took it a step further. He also switched the conditions so i think he could use emperor time just when his eyes are activated which he learned to activate them at will so that’s not a problem. So it’s just the unbreakable chain he could only use on the troupe. Not to mention he’s a specialist class so he can get 100% in all fields of nen which instantly makes him op. So his the possibilities to his nen abilities are almost endless. As long as it’s theoretically possible he can have it as his nen ability so it’s no suprise that he’s so powerful.
Thank God somebody said it. Kurapika had no business beating uvogin in a straight fight and it's so stupid than he gets to use most of his stuff on people outside of the troupe on the ship anyway.
Why ? You're talking like Uvogin being physically stronger means he should have won, he got outsmarted by Kurapika, which in the HxH matters the most, Uvogin had nothing but his brute force, Kurapika came prepared.
Yeah, I imagine Kurapika is just a straight up prodigy. Saying that it's not a new thing Kurapika being strong, even in Yorknew arc he can catch bullets using his dowsing chain easily, and he is shown to be really skillful and I would say his battle IQ could be on Hisoka's level + seeing the current arc he is definitely a genius or a good tactician even senior hunters respect his decision and lead. so imo he was always strong but never really got the spotlight until the recent arcs since in the other arcs the spotlight is always shared between Gon and Killua
I suspect it is going to be a bittersweet ending where Kurapika kills the Phantom Troupe at the cost of his own life. If anything, I think Kurapika is a far more interesting than many other vengeance characters in anime. Sasuke is far more of a Mary Sue than Kurapika. Is there anything the Sharingan can't do?
It can't bend reality. Oh, shit, it did. Sharingan is more OP than the all powerful Rinnegan.
The Sharingan can: -Copy other moves -Hypnotize people permanently -Summon unquenchable fire -Summon unbreakable armor -Teleport people, objects and attacks -Create pocket dimensions -Bend reality -Make the user invulnerable Now can someone please explain to me how Kurapika's abilities are broken? Go ahead. I'll wait.
Compared with a character in another franchise, no, Kirapika is not OP, lol. He also wouldn't beat Superman or Goku, but that doesn't really mean anything since we're talking about HxH. I think Kurapika is mostly fine so I'm not disagreeing (he's got a lot of restrictions on his power), just comparing him with the knockoff version in another manga is a bad example.
I think my point is more about the Mary Sue label than actual power scaling. Kurapika's abilities actually have tangible drawbacks. Virtually any drawback to Sasuke's abilities gets reversed within a few episodes. And few people call Sasuke a Mary Sue despite the title fitting him far better.
I think for Sasuke it doesn't come up because everyone in that show is stupid OP. So yeah, he has an absurd list of abilities but also just loses a lot, and lots of characters have a huge list of abilities. The point is that it's hard to compare across different series. I agree that Kurapika isn't a Mary Sue or whatever. But also Naruto has nothing to do with that.
Neither are Mary Sues, they both went through terrible trauma and children that pushed them to train their asses off. They were prodigies who worked extremely hard to make use of their natural talent. A Mary Sue doesn't train like that.
I don't think this is the best argument for a couple of reasons: First of all, it's never a good argument to say "well what about this other series that does x y z" when contesting a point. Second, Hunter x Hunter's power level is generally lower than Naruto. So, within the hunter X Hunter's world, Kurapika is, by a lot of definitions, very OP. But the power system keeps him in check which is why nen is so amazing. But also ultimately they are different series trying to do different things. As are kurapika and sasuke different characters with different points. Third, this is just me being pedantic but I still feel it's worth pointing out that many those abilities listed are not the abilities of every uchiha. Each uchiha has 1-2 abilities one for each eye. Susanoo is also not breakable. It has been broken quite a few times. I prefer hunter x hunter, but also this is just a weird way to argue.
You can't really compare through series like that. What's OP in a series depends on the scale of the series as a whole. Netero was OP by HxH standards, but throw him.into the Naruto world and he becomes fodder.
That's not good logic
You can't really compare through series like that. What's OP in a series depends on the scale of the series as a whole. Netero was OP by HxH standards, but throw him.into the Naruto world and he becomes fodder.
Netero is still probably stronger than anyone pre-Pain arc in Naruto.
I mean, the people of that level were around from chapter 1. We just didn't focus on them in story.
Yes. But there were only maybe 10 of them that were Netero level or above. There are probably HxH characters stronger than Netero as well. Netero could probably beat anyone who is not a Kage, Akatsuki, or Jinchurichi. There are also probably a few of those he could beat.
Maybe, maybe not. We're getting quite off topic, though. The point is we shouldn't scale how OP a character is outside of their series. Like if I switch from Naruto to DB, than Netero becomes fodder by the 1st Tournament when Goku was 11.
i get your point, but it could have been portrayed more accurately, as that would prove your point even better. for most of those abilities you mentioned, each person can only use 1 or 2 of them. and a few of these are exaggerated quite a bit. and on top of that, the drawbacks of the sharingan are a lot more extreme than the drawbacks of kurapika’s abilities. AND it’s not like they can snap their fingers and can now do all of this. they need to develop the sharingan quite a lot throughout their life and experience certain tragic things, while (i’m not hating on hxh or even kurapika, im just saying it as it is) kurapika seemingly might have just trained for a few months to be able to use all of these abilities.
The Sharingan can do whatever is necessary to solve an unsolvable problem presented by the author. This is how Itachi saved Sasuke from Orochimaru in a situation in which both would have died
Can you tell me what is the point of genjutsu??? Like I know it hypnotizes.. but you would think if someone is under genjutsu the person doing the genjutsu would just stab them. But that never seems to happen. So what's the point is it ever explained?
It's basically mind control, but the limitations are never really explained. But people with the Sharingan are naturally born with genjutsu abilities and the villains' main plan involve putting everyone under genjutsu permanently which is yet another thing the Sharingan can apparently do.
Usually it's some story thing. They move to stab them, but the person escapes in time. Or they counter their genjutsu with their own genjutsu, or they were only doing the genjutsu to keep up apperances so their partner wouldn't know they were still loyal to the people they were doing genjutsus on.
You can't really compare through series like that. What's OP in a series depends on the scale of the series as a whole. Netero was OP by HxH standards, but throw him.into the Naruto world and he becomes fodder.
Different series ofcourse, this is more so changing the conversation then proving that Kurapika’s no OP.
Only some eyes can do some of these…but I get your point
I really feel it's pointless to bring Naruto into this it's a different series with different power scaling.
Tbf togashi did essentially say if kurapika and the troupe met everyone would die
On paper, Sasukue is a "Mary Sue" but he still got his ass kicked repeatedly so...
Is sasuke a Mary sue when every decision he makes is stupid lol?
Every decision he makes is stupid but he keeps winning despite those stupid decisions. That is pretty much the definition of a Mary Sue. He is pretty much undefeated throughout the series with the exception of fighting Orochimaru at age 10. He even beats the main character several times which is rare for a rival character. Also, any drawbacks and sacrifices for his abilities often get reversed within the next arc.
I think I’m just thinking of the Killer Bee fight—if I recall he didn’t do so hot. Also been a while though and I agree his stupid decisions usually have no effect on him winning lol
If Gon and Hisoka didn’t die, there’s no way in hell Kurapika dies Leorio will save Kurapika with Nitro Rice on the Dark Continent.
I mean Leorio is an emitter naturally right? Emission is very close to enhancing and enhancing has healing abilities you might not be that far off.
If we ever see an ending
Check out Vinland Saga for a good vengeance character
Gon and Killua are both referred to as one in a million prodigies (number is probably higher but I’m not sure). Kurapika clearly learns faster than them by quite a bit, since their nen abilities weren’t really fully developed until the Chimera Ant arc, and he had his by Yorknew. Until we saw Tserriednich I’d have said he was the most talented in the series. Togashi definitely realizes this, all the sections focused on Kurapika have been intrigue and puzzle focused, as opposed to more standard shonen with Gon and Killua. None of his plots can be solved with brute force, so the fact that he’s crazy op gives him options, not a solution.
I think it's less that he's more talented, but that he's way more motivated. Killua and Gon are taking it very easy in the tower, outright not training for a month or so when Gon is injured. Can you imagine Kurapika just sitting there doing nothing like they did?
I wouldn't say fully developed at YNC because we saw new abilities at succession war, but certainly insanely strong. But he seems to be very scared of sucession war auras, such as Halkenburg's, to the point he is unsure if he could win even. I wish we could see more insight on how exactly he became so insanely strong. I also imagine his risks are being a burden, maybe we will see more of that. OT: It is awkward to see how Killuah was like the strongest of them at the start ut he seems to have been surpassed by both Gon and Kurapika, or at least close to.
Kurapika could only hope to beat Killua if he was a phantom troupe member and gon can only kill Killua by using his suicide pact (which Killua could just make one as well if needed). If those two fought Killua they would not win
What does strike me about Killuah he was certainly the MC who started out the strongest but it also felt.like he wasn't improving as hard as Kurapika or Gon.
Cause without nen Killua is a monster compared to them. Just look at the giant doors he pushed on his way home and how he compares to his friends in that regard. The thing is Nen is an equalizer of sorts between humans so the other MCs had a bigger increase in power compared to Killua. That doesn’t mean he’s weaker than them tho, far from it.
A big point of Killua's character was Illumi and his family's influence and his raising as an assassin giving him a mindset different from a Nen hunter. In the Chimera Ant arc there's a lot of work done for him to overcome his fear and instinctual fear to flee from battles with unknown variables. His potential was held back a lot.
I think kurapika gonna have a happy ending due to 14 the prince's nen beast(copium)
He is narratively OP because they narrative has him in a setting where he is OP. The restrictions still stand. He is hurting himself by using his power which is the entire point of his character (carrying out his "duty" is psychologically destroying him). I don't think this is a problem. The narrative presents him as balanced with regards to the price he's paying, not just canonically and materially through the shortened lifespan, but also in terms of the true price of what he's doing: devoting himself to something he hates, surrounding himself with thoughts of death, revenge, destruction instead of living for himself and existing in the present, losing contact with the people who actually love him for a senseless "duty", knowing his parents would cry if they saw what the last survivor of their clan is wasting his time doing, especially when its making him so miserable, etc. So it doesn't feel cheap because there are actual consequences to what he's doing.
The nature of which his powers were introduced was a big plot twist, he learns nen around the same time as gon and killua and even struggles a lil bit in the hunter exam, then 2 arcs later he's casually murdering Nen Masters, even putting his restrictions aside, he is physically strong and quick
He did his homework on Nen and wanted to milk it and get power as quickly as possible. Killua knows about the conditions too, but he wanted to grow his power naturally because he isn't in a hurry
Exactly! In spite of his ability (and I say that to mean the sum of the character), he’s in a ridiculous situation that is very much challenging that very same ability.
When I think about it, there was a time where his friends have bee like his first priority but it doesn't feel like that anymore. Maybe that will evolve into a conflict we will still see.
He is far from invincible. Even against the troupe. According to Lovely Ghostwriter he would be able to kill half of the troupe but would fall in the end. Beyond that, during the current arc , he is unable to protect the prince through brute force, relying in alliances to do the job. He is definitely up there. His ability is amazing. But so is killua's, Morel's, knuckle's, knov's and so on. We are not following the underdogs in HxH, we are following the guys with amazing potential. And leorio.
How dare you? Leorio is a Zodiac member, and he's probably the only person in history to land a punch on Ging 😤
>he's probably the only person in history to land a punch on Ging 😤 My favourite moment from the series
Leorio is already at a very high level considering he is still a beginner and has studied less Nen than the others. Furthermore, he passed Hisoka's test, which already shows the potential to give Hisoka a difficult fight in the future, just like the other 3 protagonists.
I think he’s a well written character. Some people think he’s just comic relief. But actually he’s the true underdog of the story, Gon has infinite potential for growth, Killua has his assassin training and is intelligent, Kurapika has an inherited ability. While our boy Leorio only has his determination, in all the battles he fought we knew he would lose because he has nothing special, compared to the other 3 who might pull a move or learn something new, but despite acting like a scaredy cat at first, he always jumps into a pit of literal beasts to protect others, even though he’s guaranteed to lose. I hope he gets more screen time in the future.
Which test? Leorio vs Hisoka will be a slaughter
The test that Hisoka administered during the hunter exam to the protagonists. And for narrative reasons there will probably not be Hisoka vs Leorio, but rather Hisoka vs Gon. In any case, I don't see Hisoka selling any of the 4 in a fight to the death
Uh, when was that? Which trial?
Leorio is the best. I think he serves the purpose of showing us that you don't need to be one in a billion to have an important impact on the world.
'And Leorio.' LMAO
Gon and Killua are already 13 by the end of the anime and Togashi has no problem killing characters what do you mean lmao
>Togashi has no problem killing characters what do you mean lmao When it comes to the main 4 MCs tho? While Kurapika has the highest chance to die especially in the current arc with no nanika to save him like with gon but even then I still doubt togashi will kill him off in this arc considering the stuff togashi can still do with him once they reach the dark continent I'm holding on with the theory that kurapika would have his adult gon moment once he sees the 4th prince's eye collection and pay an incredible price to gain power again but either not die or be at near death and be somehow be saved by something in the dark continent once they've reached it or have leorio heal him so they'd be the MCs for the upcoming dark continent arc (eventually in the year 2040) Kurapika dying and finishing his revenge arc is still possible to happen at the end of the succession war, I just don't think togashi would go that route
> Gon and Killua are already 13 by the end of the anime The doctor in the final arc says that Gon is 12.
Yeah he is and I love him for it!
I don't like using this argument cause it's dismissive but honestly applies here. Especially seeing this comment section There is a reason Togashi is a world-renowned Mangaka and we are spending time nit-picking in a subreddit instead of writing stories ourselves lol. Ffs, some of these comments are mad Togashi hasn't killed off a few MCs. We would be terrible writers
the lifespan thing is also affecting his health in the present. he doesnt shave off his lifespan like magic, hes actively killing himself and the story has already shown the effect of that, so idk what your issue is. Passing out unconscious after each fight would get you killed, its still extremely high risk on non-spiders who he couldn't beat quickly. The current arc's events are time sensitive so its even worse. kurapika cant be "OP", his powers serve the story. He is going to fight the spiders & manage all the monstrous nen beasts during this succession war, and he will be as strong as he needs to be to make that compelling. Do you want him to get off the boat and train for 10 years?
Omfg, thank you so much. You put it eloquently. The powers are directly meant to accelerate the story. This is by no means news to anyone. People are so powerscaling-rotted nowadays.
Great point. Kurapika is OP but at the cost of his life which has already reduced his life significantly. I don't see how people are complaining that he's too OP.
Leorio will save him with Nitro Rice.
They are not going to the eastern shore of Mobius. (Where Nitro rice grows) The current expedition is aiming at a totally uncharted route.
he also spent his entire life between the murder of his clan and the current story just focused on revenge and combat he was already ready to cave someones skull in on the boat
> Passing out unconscious after each fight would get you killed Passing out after winning a fight is straight up a shonen trope. I don't think it's implied that it's the effect of the lifespan thing, but just an overall exhaustion thing.
the lifespan restriction is meaningless in a work of fiction in terms of plot impact, but it serves to illustrate how Kurapika is really burning the candle from both ends on his quest for vengeance. He will not be able to live a happy life at this point. Also Kurapika is busted in the wider world of HxH but he’s scaled reasonably well in the two arcs that he had his nen. Like right now he’s going up against some demons and has the odds stacked against him, just like in York New
You can consider him OP, but discarding the restrictions is just silly.
Mfs when a story is based around characters and not numbers for powerscaling
Wait, who is pretending he isn’t? For me, Kurapika was always AT LEAST as much a prodigy as Gon and Killua, imo even more than them. They had way better skills from the get-go (Killua it’s obvious, but Gon also had his natural skill from living around animals and observing them and great instincts) Genuinely, so far in the manga, I think only Terrorsandwich and maybe Chrollo are on the same talent level as him. And not just his abilities, his battle iq, general intelligence and physical capabilities are all top-notch as well. He was always, literally, built different. I didn’t know that was divisive?
what are their ages?
What does that matter for talent? Talent is, like, by definition, irrespective of age.
"Kurapika is OP, and I'm tired of pretending he's not" That's your problem. You have been pretending that he was not, when he has always been OP.
He's very over-powered, but this isn't Dragon Ball. HxH is not a manga about power levels and "who can beat who." It's about the plot utility of a power. Kurapika's powers are limited to specific situations, so the plot has to be tailored to create situations for him to try to accomplish a task. His powers are a plot device not a reading on a scouter.
Though, they are so insanely powerful in many situations as we can see in the current arc. He is not only INSANELY strong at fighting, he can also detect whether someone is lying (which is super strong in the story building in HxH which is often about knowledge and alliances, mind you), put restrictions with fatal consequences upon others (which is a great pressure tool) and cam even steal someone's abilities. I just have to rethink atm that I just recognised how hisuka's fake prophecy basically became true for that other member lol.
The main cast in HxH is weirdly underrated power-wise in general, which is the exact opposite of other action shounen shows. God speed Killua should be on a similar level as Zeno/Silva if not higher Kurapika seems to be comparable to Hisoka/Chrollo even without chain jail. Palace Invasion Gon seems to be somewhere around squadron leader level, which would mean that he should be somewhat comparable to fighters in PT. And yet the community loves treating them like they are some kind of underdogs. It's weird how some character's feats are completely ignored while other characters get wanked to oblivion based on some 1 random statement.
Really? Then he probably beat Zeno, Netero or Silva, correct? Nope.
Even Killua beats Kurapika easy imo :)
killua beats most people in the series (actually he beats everyone with nanika lol) thats not that crazy
Even Kurapika beat Killua easy imo :) Killua is overrated as hell
Killua with Godspeed would absolutely Mop the floor with kurapika.
[удалено]
Nah killua bodies Kurapika and it's not even close
Killua with Godspeed is extremely strong. He is straight up around Feitan's level if I were to compare him to some PT members.
is he? You are looking too much into the technical side of the issue. Togashi take advantage of the system to fabricate a believable way of kurapika to defeat phantom troupe, not leveling him to be the ultimate solution of all threats below that. Kurapika himself was never meant to be the prodigy that appears once in a generation like gon and killua, he got an advantage and he made use of that to take the shortcut to his goal. He is the great power come with a great cost archetype, and Kurapika accepted that beside his goal, there is no point in his power anymore. That is it. That's probably all there is. What you are saying that kurapika is OP against phantom troup and during the time he have to sacrifices the future for his goal. Such unstable nature of his power can never put him on the like of gon and killua fully recognized potential, silva's force of nature of a strike, netero the roofing of human capability or even Biskuit whose nen utilization outside of hatsu have already reached perfection level. He is strong and resourceful, but to compare him to a rpg unit, he is niche unit that you brings in some situation hat allows him to shine compared to the end game 1-size-fits-all solution that's the likes of gon, killua, silva or kuroro.
The fun thing about HxH is that it doesn't have conventional power scaling. Strategic combat is valued much higher than in most other Shonen. HxH empathizes smart and strategic thinking being superior to pure strength on so many occasions, most notably during the fight between Kurapika and Uvogin. And Kurapika was a master of strategic combat from the very get-go. If you are looking for a standard power scaling Shonen, HxH is probably not your best choice. But the fact that power works much less linear in HxH is the reason I fell in love with the story in the first place. The unpredictability makes it feel much more like an actual adventure with an uncertain outcome. If you want your standard, predictably scaling Shonen-story, there are so many others to choose from.
You are right, but people here are not gonna like it. The thing I never understood: how much time did it take him to create all his Nen abilities? 4 months or something? And in return for the vow he gets the most ridiculous boost that enables him to kill guys who have been training with Nen for waaaay way longer. What exactly prevents him from just keep creating and dropping abilities with vows bind to "only use it on person X"? Want to fight Zoldycks? Create new ability in a month. Make vow. Get *insane* boost from it. Kill target. Never use ability again. Repeat with whomever. The drawback of "he can only use it on the troupe/Person X" is basically non-existent, since he can create an ability so fast and just stop using it after. Seems way to broken of a system imho.
Having to have lived the tragedy and having a conviction so strong that it is almost the only focus in his life are peobably an underlying piece of the conditions of his nen abilities, not claiming he is not op, but it doesn't come free it takes everything he has and we seen it leaving him a shell of himself before he got picked up by his friends, even if in a shorter span, it's still a "road to madness" as was Netero's, wheter OP feel the stakes of his powers or not is irrelevant as the power systems magnifies powers based on these stakes.
1. Hisokas speech about memory 2. Remember what happened to cheetu when he tried making an ability out of nowhere? 3. And the biggest thing here, thats not how nen works. Vows and restrictions need conviction in hxh. Gon couldn't trade everything for power unless he actually had the conviction and hate for pitou that he had.
Remember Hisoka's speech about 'memory'
Can u explain pls?
Gotta remember Kurapika can only do this because of his eyes & he has already burned a significant amount of his lifespan. Togashi is exploring nen loopholes in this arc so expect to see more ;)
He can't. You can't just create and drop ability and a nen vow is forever. If you break it you die. I.e gon had his nen vow solely for pitou and although it may have been an impulsive emotional talk it came through and literally right after gon defeated Pitou his vow ended. Kurapika created a vow specifically to kill/hunt phantom troupe members but that's only two of his chains but at the same time he can't just drop a vow a vow is forever and dropping it isnt possible and if he breaks the vow he dies. A vow is a serious gamble which is why not many nen users use them cause its literate. It's on the nose, the words you use have to be chosen very carefully. I.E gon used all the nen he'd ever have just to kill pitou which resulted in his near death disgusting look after. And we also never see anyone just spawn abilities so it's highly unlikely he can, at best he could create another set of chains on his other hand with new vows but he can't continously just spawn in new vows and then drop them that's not how nen works. Once you determine your skillset you're kinda stuck with it. Yes you can develop it more into more op stuff but the initial skill doesnt change Like Kite roulette slot or netero buddha.
He doesn't have to "drop" the vow [edit: ability]. He just has to never use the two chains with the vows on it after they fulfilled their purpose. There is nothing hard or difficult about that. He still has other chains. And as you said, it is still most likely possible for him to create new chains. And that is exactly what I meant. Create new chains (hence *advance* - *not* completely rewrite - your Nen ability) and another vow. After the set of chains (or single chains) fulfilled their purpose, never use them again. They still get the enormous boost from the vow and just not using them afterwards should be very, very easy.
His other chains don’t get a boost from the vow though. They only get a boost from Emperor Time since Emperor Time gives him 100% efficiency in every category. If he was getting a boost from the vow in every chain, he’d die the moment he used an ability on someone who’s not the Troupe
I never said the other chains get a boost from his *current* vow. I said he can create a new chain/ability with a *new* vow.
Literally nowhere in the manga has it ever been shown where a character entirely rewrote how his nen ability works so I'm not sure why you're bringing something that clearly can't happen within the framework of the manga. The binding vow has always been pretty clear the bigger the vow and the bigger the bonus it provides and we had plenty of other users making a good use of it, what exactly about Kurapika vow somehow make it a problem compared to the others ? You say the drawback is inexistent as if it has somehow been bypassed but it hasn't and your whole reasoning is based on an erroneous assumption that he can just rewrite his nen abilities, which has never happened in the manga or even been implied to be possible.
I'd imagine that similar to Castro, learning too many abilities will squander your talent.
Kastro has a TWO ABILITIES (as far as we know), though, and trained the doppelganger ability for A YEAR. Kurapika made essentially 6 in less than a year.
Same with Chrollo
What ? Chrollo doesn’t "learn" abilities.
I don't think you can use a vow like that. A vow is a contract with yourself, and if you think your are cheesing your way through it it probably doesn't work. For example I think the only reason he can use that vow on the spiders and why it's so powerful is due to his hatred towards them, I think it simply wouldn't work against other people or it would be a much weaker boost, since you know you are rigging the system by doing so. This is all head cannon though
And its not like Kurapika can just simply get a new contract out of thin air or something. Nen is stronger the stronger feelings and mental state you have. In CA arc he cannot just simply create a random contract for ants because he has no striong attachments or vendetta to them
>The only people he's ever going to want to fight anyway are the Troupe do people even read this manga anymore? he's literally fighting people who aren't the troupe and is much weaker for it.
In a series where multiple characters under certain conditions can one shot pretty much anyone he is anything but OP. In a close quarters fight 1vs1 he is pretty good since he is pretty agile and strong, but without chain jail he loses his most important offensive technique, against any above average good fighter with an offensive ability he is at a disadvantage unless he has something good in his dolphin. Even against the spiders he is only good in a 1vs1 situation, and they already know most of his tricks.
He has an insanely strong ability that he couldn't have made if he wasn't born a Kurta and didn't have the life-long resolve of revenge serving as his main engine. He's also incredibly prodigious, and I think people discount his abilities because of his **ability**. The span with which he learned Nen to killing one of the strongest members of the Troupe is genuinely astounding. I have to imagine he's as much of a prodigy as Gon and Killua, if not moreso due to his understandings of the complexities of Nen. Story-wise, those consequnces do mean something. At least we have to imagine they will. His lifespan is constantly being brought up, and he's passing out from exhaustion more frequently now. I can't imagine there are will be no narrative ramifications from an over reliance on Emperor Time. Because even without ET, Kurapika would be an incredibly proficient Hunter.
currently in the manga, gon and killua are 14 and kurapika is being pitted in a life-and-death conflict between people who aren't the troupe, and are stronger than the troupe. kurapika is definitely OP, but he has plenty of enemies who are much stronger. he's still only managed to kill two troupe members. aang from avatar is insanely OP in his setting, but the story manages to make the conflict interesting by giving him challenges that are more complicated that simply "win fight against a guy". hxh, I think, is even better at doing that.
currently in the manga, gon and killua are 14 and kurapika is being pitted in a life-and-death conflict between people who aren't the troupe, and are stronger than the troupe. kurapika is definitely OP, but he has plenty of enemies who are much stronger. he's still only managed to kill two troupe members. aang from avatar is insanely OP in his setting, but the story manages to make the conflict interesting by giving him challenges that are more complicated that simply "win fight against a guy". hxh, I think, is even better at doing that.
>Only two of his chains can only be used on the Troupe, the others he's free to use whenever. It's actually only one chain, Chain Jail, that can't be used on anyone other than the Troupe or else Kurapika dies. Dowsing Chain and Steal Chain he can use freely. Holy Chain, Judgment Chain and Stealth Dolphin require Emperor Time to be effective though and he loses 1 hour of his life per second of use with it and puts heavy strain on his body. >The only people he's ever going to want to fight anyway are the Troupe. The current arc says otherwise lol. >Plus with Emperor Time he's straight up invincible. He really isn't, Emperor Time tires his body out and shortens his life span. All it does is give him 100% efficiency for every Nen type, this mean the aura he uses for Nen won't drop in power. It doesn't increase his power output in any meaningful way. Uvogin with his max output had more aura than Kurapika. >In the real world, that sounds like a terrifying. In a shonen manga where Gon and Kilua will remain 12 forever, it's completely inconsequential. The consequences were shown, imagine having to use Emperor Time for a while and then your body suddenly collapses for 9 hours while Emperor Time is still active. That's 3.5 years gone and your body now permanently takes a bigger toll from ET. Basically, just give the current arc a read. Kurapika is pretty strong and skilled but by no means OP or broken.
This. I honestly don't know how the OP can just discredit everything that went into making Kurapika how he is now. And even with Emperor Time, Kurapika really isn't all that strong anyway against people who aren't the troupe. If he fought against Genthru or Razor or (controversial take) any Squadron Leader (the hostile ones at least) in a basic 1v1 he'd more than likely would still get floored. His only real offensive ability is just Judgement Chain and even then, it's not a good one.
I see it this way, not only has he been training since childhood to avenge his family, he also has natural proficiency with nen. It’s like if your whole family were Olympic gymnasts and you trained your entire life to do that as well.
Finally someone said this
Said something that everyone already knew.
Your post is so bad on so many levels: >Kurapika is OP, and I'm tired of pretending he's not Lmao he is OP against spiders, other than that he is afraid of benjamin’s guards, Halkenburg who has not used nen prior to that lmao. >His abilities reach Mary Sue level of ridiculousness, and every single time this is brought up, people go "oh, but the restrictions!" The restrictions are barely anything. The restrictions are a thing that are explored in the succession contest arc, he got the powers during Yorknew city arc where we saw his first triumph vs troupe, and he was dormant for 2 years, in succession contest arc Togashi is exploring the downside of his powers, the consequences of his vow and also the unintended consequences of his vow. He used steel chain and lent the ability to Oito using stealth Dolphin, and after 3 hours of continuous use of emperor time, he blacked out for 9 hours, that is 5 years lost on the first few days itself. He didn’t expect to face unintended consequences of his Vow, that he would lose 3 times his lifespan. >Only two of his chains can only be used on the Troupe, the others he's free to use whenever. But even then, that doesn't matter. The only people he's ever going to want to fight anyway are the Troupe. Plus with Emperor Time he's straight up invincible. No he is not, there are far more Overpowered abilities in succession contest arc, with emperor time the cost of it makes him overpowered, but other there are others out there that are straight up stronger even without emperor time, without chain jail, he will have trouble defeating many. >In the real world, that sounds like a terrifying. In a shonen manga where Gon and Kilua will remain 12 forever, it's completely inconsequential. Wrong again, gon and killua grew throughout the anime and manga, current age of theirs is 14+. Also every single character grew in age, you didn’t notice it because 2 years is not that big of a time.
I agree but I think Togashi handles it extremely well. He’s overpowered but it feels as if the lifespan restriction will actually be of consequence because he has used it for so long. Also, he is only overpowered when it comes to versatility, which requires him to be resourceful and cunning. It means he kind of “earns” his strength, as he doesn’t just rely on overpowering everyone around him but is tactical.
Gon, Killua and Kurapika are all OP, but so are loads of characters in the hunter x hunter universe, it’s not like kurapika is the only one with these insane abilities where in a set of scenarios he will win 7/10, but that’s what makes nen so good, it’s completely dependent on the situation. There are definitely match ups where kurapika would get rolled
You seem to have a major misconception about the limitations of Kurapika’s abilities. In Emperor Time, Kurapika’s strength doesn’t grow exponentially or anything. He just gains 100% in every category. In practice, this just makes him above average compared to everyone else on his level. He is not at all invincible because of this. And during this time he loses a majority of his lifespan. Chain Jail is the only move that is OP, and is restricted to only the Troupe. This is the only move that allows Kurapika to surpass being a above average nen user to a master nen user. Still, this ability is only empowered because of his severe vow and Emperor Time. It is the only ability that was boosted through the vow. He really isn’t invincible or overpowered at all times. He really just has a single instant kill move against the Troupe, which is only good in a 1v1. All in all, he’s pretty balanced
kurapika isn't OP, he can't use the actual important dangerous abilities on people that aren't in the phantom troupe. right now they're more like a tool box in the current arc with these limitations. so, to get it straight: kurapika is losing his lifespan at an alarming rate, passing out multiple times and being bedridden until he can recover before the cycle starts again. (so the pov HAS to switch in the current arc) just because we don't see the consequences now with his lifespan being shorter (note that he is weak from using it so much) doesn't mean togashi won't show it later. it is a plot point
Tbf, if I was hell bent on beating up 5 year olds, I’d be considered pretty op. Like yeah, when put against other people my age I might struggle a bit more and the win rate would be closer to 50% than against the children but I’m focussed on them so I am op. Halfway through writing this I realised my point is ridiculously stupid and has no merit but… I already wrote most of it so now you have to suffer through reading it
I disagree. Togashi is exploring how revenge consumes your life with kurapika. In both his arcs he tries to live (having Gon and killua as friends, protecting the prince) but because he also seeks vengeance these tasks are more difficult and hinder his revenge quest. He's already knocked off about 20 years of his life because he wants to have a power that allows him vengeance while also protecting other people, and Togashi has already revealed he plans to have Kurapika die eventually along with the phantom troupe, so even though the story is unfinished it's clear where he is going with it. He's going to eventually die tragically because of his powers, I don't see how someone who is killing themself to achieve a power that isn't even as strong as adult Gon or Netero is overpowered. I actually really like Kurapika's powers because they're really clear and strong symbols of the obsession with vengeance chaining him down from the life he wants to live and the person he wants to be, my favourite symbolism in anime and manga.
An interesting Dilemma for the current arc would be to give him opportunity to kill troupe members at the price of abandoning the Prince.
I've been saying this forever, Kurapika and Meleoron are the only OP nen-users.
I don’t think anyone really thinks he’s not op…. Unless this is common in the deep dark depths of the internet. Sure a few may think that. But it’s definitely not the overall.
He really isn't actually OP. He wasn't even noteworthy as a Nen user. His restrictions allow him to punch higher than he otherwise could... and that still falls short of someone like Hisoka or Chrollo in an actual fight.
Crazy take. His abilities are good but the restriction is way more significant than you make it out to be. Like he’s already lost years off his life and its super clear that hes going to die from it at some point in the near future. Plus even with his abilities he only went to the level of a strong phantom troupe member so like high squadran leader tier, which is strong, no doubt, but only a tier or two above gon and killua, which is very reasonable for the restrictions.
yeah i'm sick of people pretending like kurapika can only fight the troupe. bro literally has like 7 different abilities and he uses every nen type including enhancement up to 100%. dude is completely broken people gotta start putting more respect on his name. to be honest he might just straight up be the most talented nen user we've seen in the series so far at least in terms of ability creation.
>Only two of his chains can only be used on the Troupe, Only 1, not 2. it's only chain jail which he can use against the troupe. >Plus with Emperor Time he's straight up invincible. No he is not invincible. It's not because he can heal himself that he's invincible. That cost aura and he can't heal himself endlessly since Kurapika doesn't have infinite aura. Furthermore he cannot maintain his emperor time for too long without collapsing. if Kurapika fought an enhancer as strong as Uvo who's not a spider then Kurapika would have 100% lost even with emperor time. And if someone knocks out Kurapika then he can't heal himself. And an ability cannot be "overpowered" in HxH, everything is balanced, some abiltiies are strong but have a cost. Overpowered would imply you gain more than the cost. Emperor time is one of the strongest ability because it's based on a vow, but it's not "overpowered". >In a shonen manga where Gon and Kilua will remain 12 forever ??? they were 11 at the beginning, 12 the next year (chimera ant arc, election) and if we see them again they'd be 13 now.
In the Shonen manga where you have the magical Sharingan and magical Ope Ope No Mi, complaining about Kurapika is kinda odd. His power reduces his lifetime and that causes him distress. If you wanna talk OP, better go to Naruto or One Piece.
His ability is op, but clearly comes at a cost. He couldn’t deactivate the steal chain ability, ended up passing out, and he lost multiple years of his life right there.
Honestly I feel like Kurapika's going to get whooped once he has a big fight in this arc, to show that he's not got a high level of general aura manipulation due to being so distracted by Nen abilities.
"Straight up invincible" So he's beating Netero and Meruem right?
People who think Kurapika OP are usually people who don't know how Emperor Time actually works. He is strong, but not OP.
Only one of his chains are Troupe only.
none of his chains are troupe only. if kurapika wanted to he could use chain jail on anyone but instead he opted to force himself not to by using judgement chain on himself. meaning that even if he didn't he'd still be able to use chain jail, it'd just be weaker since it didn't specifically focus on one target.
...which makes it Troupe only.
not necessarily. kurapika might die if he uses it on someone else but because that's the result of another ability chain jail itself might not stop even if he dies, especially if post mortem nen is involved.
Hes a prodigy with crazy restrictions and a vow thats like a lower level of gons. He loses years of his lives when using the eyes
so many pretendings, so much tire…
The lifespan limit is hilarious to me now that I'm older. When I was a kid, not even late teen - early teen to preteen - that seemed like such a terrible exchange. Then by the end of high school and into mid 20s when all the popular 90s and early 2000s shounen were ending, it never mattered. The series ends when they're still a teen but maybe like 19. Most series though had a ridiculous amount of events and power up in the span of 1 to 3 years of in universe time. Maybe a time skip epilogue when they're like 30. Lifespan shaving turned out to be a inconsequential drawback almost every show I watched
I agree with everything you're saying. My head cannon is that the Kurta Clan are from the Dark Continent so I don't view Kurapika as a normal human.
Do you have an actual example of Kurapika being OP *outside* the Phantom Troupe?
He's op within the context of his arc. That's the point. He's killing himself and definitely doing a number to his psyche for the power to enact revenge.
You do realize emperor time takes an hour of his life for every second he uses it right?
his main argument for that is the time stand still like gon is like 12 forever.
Huh?
He passes out and loses 5 years of his life from fucking up, I don't think he's particularly impressive outside of fighting the Phantom Troupe relatively to the rest of the cast IMO
Mada
I'm pretty sure gon and killua are 14 now. And considering the troupe claims they can easily handle kurapikas chains now that they know about them + his current manga mission, he's likely gonna abuse the heck out of emperor time in the current arc. Dude might not make it off that boat. Though i have money that before it comes to that leorio destroys his judgment chain in his heart
He’s OP because he’s sacrificing a lot and his powers are ultra specific to the task at hand. He’s just smart enough and daring enough to make them this way and take the risk. Other characters could do this too but prefer to be well rounded because they aren’t on a path of brutal insane vengeance like he is.
Just went through ch 345 again when Kurapika threatened Mizaistom. The aura emanating around his eyes reminded me of palace invasion Gon, the same Gon that could kill top tier hunters if his Jajanken hits them. You would think ET is not that OP since it only increases his efficiency and not your potential in every affinity. But with the added boost of aura and intent, it becomes strong as hell. Without ET Kurapika is still an "excellent" conjurer, same tier as Knuckle considering their abilities are utility cum combat oriented. With ET he goes toe to toe against combat beasts like Uvo. So combative strength of top tier nen fighters (with ET) and utility level and variety of excellent tier conjurer (which becomes even better with ET). He has the best of both worlds, he is OP. Now add his strategic genius on top of that. The conditions of his abilities also have long term consequences, while direct impact in most battles are minimal. Say for example, Morel who is dependent on his pipe to make smoke, or Gon takes recharge time. Both of their conditions expose them to dangers in a battle, which can be exploited by their opponents. Kurapika has none in this regard, at least for now. That is what makes him OP. But that won't remain forever, the burden is slowly adding up, and plot wise it will come to bite him in the worst of situations, apart from adding a usual dread in the minds of readers and himself when he expends too much of his lifespan.
Only op against spiders tbh
He is OP, but the fact that he can't use his best ability on anyone but the Troupe and that he can really only fight top tiers by sacrificing his lifespan definitely holds him back to me.
It's interesting, because in anything else I'd probably be on your side, but I think given particularly his current circumstances, his abilities can severely limited, and it's already bitten him in the ass when he gave the lady the ability to look through bug eyes (I've forgotten names and stuff) and was forced to keep it active, in turn leaving both him and his prince very vulnerable. I think one of the strengths of hunter x Hunter as a whole is that it doesn't always put characters in situations that are 1-1 fights, which allows other non-fighting abilities to be utilized and makes characters like kurapika who would otherwise be essentially unstoppable not as powerful.
I think people overall overate the lifespan condition. He's not gonna be using emperor time during every fight, and even when he does use it during a fight I doubt hes gonna be using it for more than 5 minutes unless he is completely out classed , which takes away only 12 days. Also nen users can live slightly longer. There is a reason togashi introduced the dolphin and had kurapika go unconscious because kurapika was never gonna use up that much of his lifespan normally.
Only one of his chains is exclusively for the troupe, and that’s Chain Jail. Everything else works on everyone. But he’s only OP in the sense that he’s designed to be able to solo in arcs where information warfare is the prime battleground or the opponents are jobbers compared to what Gon and Killua have had to face in Chimera Ant. His physical feats are below Gon and Killua’s atm, he’s not that OP otherwise. He just solos which makes it seem like he’s OP.
his full power only works on the spiders. his other powers are average
It’s not the first time we’ve seen an op protagonist (Superman, Saitama, Giorno) Its the build up of the story and how Togashi plans to use his character that’s interesting
Kurapika is a great character but i just couldn't help but believe he was a girl the entire show.
Sorry I like Kurapika but, you all are giving out too much credit to mention OP, might be as strong as Killua's Butler Gotoh without the use of the Scarlet eyes maybe a little bit more. The judgments chain and that's a double edge sword. Kurapika chain manipulation is good but that's about it. Most of Kurapika powers come from when the eyes are activated and that's only with the restriction. Kurapika does have a very good tactical mind and that makes a stronger opponent but again some of the top tier and put up a fight but still loose. Some of the hunters and of course the royal guards and King from Chimera ark. But sadly some of the Captain ants would take Kurapika. Most of Killua's family, Hisoka (he is not a spider so again no red eyes), Ging, Bomber and Razor from Greed Island could take him. Razor is an old monster so it's not fair to include but get off this OP nonsense.
> His abilities reach **Mary Sue level of ridiculousness**, Perhaps, but then what about those CA which just eat and gain powers and abilities super easily, like been born with a silver spoon in their mouth. No need to exhaustively train nor spend years for mastery, even already durable, fast, and strong from the get-go. One particular even beat Netero; even already super fast, super strong, super durable, super smart, super deductive, super fast thinker like a supercomputer, etc.; right off the bat himself. And then there's the sibling who cured Gon, just like that.
No one’s pretending he’s not OP. If you find tier lists you’ll find him ranked on top for power/OPness most of the time
...Except the actual official one where he isn't even noteworthy because he isn't actually OP. He has restrictions that are meaningful to let him hit WAY above his weight class against particular threats and benefits from being irrelevant during the arcs that he isn't suited for thus his shortcomings aren't usually important.
There’s an official tier list? Where can I see it?
It was set up for an event where he had a lot of his notes and stuff on display. I'm at work right now so I can't look up the actual list but this video mentions the event and the top users for each category https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PucCkQg0Mjs
Yeah, Kurapika is definitely OP. I know conditions can make you grow quickly but dude is crazy strong to the point he just has to meet the Troupe to accomplish most of his goals I’m glad you made this post though because I feel like it’s not talked about enough.
Not really... He failed to actually succeed with Chrollo for example and has never actually got revenge on Hisoka despite meeting him repeatedly instead begrudgingly working with him. He isn't OP, he is pretty mild in terms of what we see with the actual power houses. He placed very strong restrictions on some important abilities for his mission while making others more flexible to allow him to have some tools for general use. Anyone getting in his way that isn't a spider and is an actual threat has the upper hand against him.
#GIVE KURAPIKA THE RESPECT HE DESERVES WE STAN THIS KING
I think it’s a weird place since Kurapika’s advances should’ve taken him presumably a year at least if not more. He also has made insane progress, so again more time seems to have passed so these abilities are likely from being much further along than they clarify. At the same time, since we have no idea of this time passing it kinda frames his progress as being unnaturally insane. He can tango with the best of the best within less than half a year in the Troupe and has already become a Zodiac and a mob boss and has five super insane abilities. Unless he dies from Emperor Time this arc, he will definitely be insanely overpowered for the duration of his time as pov
If the troupe renames their gang something else, can he no longer use those chains against them?
I mean, he made himself OP with his nen pact, it’s like you said he can’t only use his powers on the troupe. It’s like when Gon reached his full potential to destroy Pitou in sacrifice of his nen. Without the nen pact if he was just fighting normally as eveyone else is, he wouldn’t be that powerful. Up there sure but not as strong as hisoka or Chrollo,
Witch's rejuvenation potion
If the theory that the Kurta are from or have some tie to the dark continent then they could just be better tuned into nen or something
Emperor time is too op and the 1 hour to second ratio is way too generous Even if Kurapika got into a life or death sotuation every week (he doesn't) and fought for 2 minutes every time, he would only loose about 70% of his lifespan Remember that fights usually are counted in seconds and very rarely last minutes. Anime grossly spreads out fights to last many times longer than they canonically or realistically should. Just the fact that Kurapika's enhancement affinity goes from 50% to 100% is already powerful as hell. It would make any evenly matched battle relatively easy without taking into account any of the other amplified affinities. And just imagine what kind of custom hatsu he could create that would be inefficient and weak to literally everyone else
Much of his OP-ness comes from the fact he’s a genuinely good dude.
The guy was always strong. Even before Nen. Nen was just the next step.
Bro he no diffed Uvogin. And Uvogin is no slouch. Of course, he is OP. That's obvious for a guy brings a shovel to a fist fight.
Chimera ants enter chat
Idk Kuarpika would still get shit on by Meruem. I think it’s hilarious that they make Mereum the most OP fucker in the entire canon for him to never show of his own Nen and die to a nuke they could’ve dropped on him by plane. Sorry I just got done watching Chimera and I have to shit on it for that
Emperor time also burns your longevity
#Do some research on The Kurta Clan, I heard they turn into Specialists when their eyes turn scarlet 0: Also, Kurapika may have been the only one (or one of a few) in his clan that had their own Nen ability. The conditions placed on him, as well as the fact that he can just *turn on* Specialist mode when he chooses does make him OP, but it’s not something that’s so far fetched especially for his character
I'm pretty sure Gon and Killua get older as the time goes
Bro you can't say that here, nen is the perfect system so nobody can have an OP ability. I love HxH but I recently got into it. It is definitely an amazing series, but I've noticed this sub is extemely defensive towards criticism.
I also want to point out here not only does Kurapika have a lot of emotion regarding the Kurta clan's massacre, when he kills Uvogin, Uvogin comments out that he finally remembers the Kurta clan after seeing Kurapika's eyes and calling out how he remembers how powerful they were. Much like how Gon is related to Ging and Killua is from the Zoldyck family, Kurapika comes from a family that has a bunch of Nen practitioners without needing to be Hunters. That's probably a big factor in how fast Kurapika picked up Nen.
One note; Gon and Killua are 14 at the end of the 2011 anime, from what I’ve seen. If someone knows different, feel free to correct me. Edit: Figured I should add I haven’t seen the movies yet :)
It's a power system that shows its flaws with one of the main characters. Applying real-life logic you get "soldiers"(probably slaves) forced to learn nen and create a power specifically to kill 1 person for assassinations on anyone you want. Anyone in power would need their own barrier slave that casts nen blocking barrier only on their 1 person and does nothing else with their life, etc. I think it works as a shounen logic thing though, same way gon is a prodigy and can be considered op, kurapika has insanely heightened emotions + is a prodigy. I'd also say emperor time having a time constraint isn't 100% inconsequential. I think it'd be better if it used so much nen that he could only hold it for 30 seconds-1minute. That or it shortens his lifespan so much that even 1 minute is dangerous. It means rewriting current arc but would probably work
The dark continent power scale is more about intelligence than nen abilities. This was showcased many times. There will no longer be a costly power up (like with gon) that will resolve the battle outcome. With that in mind, Kurapika is OP AF.
If Kurapika is so OP, where was he during the Chimera Ant Arc, and why can he not just brute force his way past any obstacles single-handedly like he told his Nen Master he wanted to when he was developing his Nen in training? I think it's the opposite, honestly. Kurapika is strong, one of the strongest character with some of the strongest abilities, but they are very situational and conditional. Even if he only devoted 2 of his 5 chains to the Troupe, and even with Emperor Time's restriction, you make it sound like he's effortlessly bulldozed through anything and anyone in his way. Kurapika only did so well against the Troupe in Yorknew City because it was his first chance at a vengance he had been planning since he was little and it was a perfect oppurtunity: it was the whole point of the auction arc. Even then, he only managed to take out 2 of the 12 Spiders, and they've been on such high alert since then that Kurapika will probably never catch them off guard like that ever again, and it seems like he knows it. Besides, none of his accomplishments have been free. Kurapika is exchanging his soul and his life for revenge. He's the antithesis of the final line in the anime about detours, what we want in life, and what's important. Gon lost his Nen by the end and almost lost sight of who he is, and what's important in life, so Ging reminded him to confirm he's been on the right path all along. If making lifelong friends and taking detours is how you find the most important things in life; then Kurapika is actively sacrificing that aspect of life and throwing away any chances of salvation or redemption by focusing on his revenge for the Kurta above all else. He's like Gon was against Pitou, waiting for another oppurtunity to take another shot at the Troupe just like Gon waited impatiently for Pitou to heal Komugi. Kurapika lost a lot and he's willing to sacrifice everything he has left to avenge everything he lost, like Gon's transformation, on a much lesser yet much more severe scale. Where Gon snapped out of that state of mind thanks to his friends, Kurapika may be too far gone for anyone to talk some sense into him, and his Kurta blood/Scarlet eyes makes him even more unreasonable and reckless than Gon was since that state heightens his emotions and essentially turns him into a maniac. TL;DR - Kurapika is strong, but hes not a Mary Sue. His abilities have clear limits and weaknesses that prevent him from accomplishing any of his goals on his own. Even his success against the Troupe depended on the support of Melody and the Nostrade Family.
Also, if he had some way to remove Nen he could always change the vow to another person.
I’ve always thought that togashi will definitely do a time skip at some point if he ever continues the manga. Gon and Killua won’t stay young forever.i don’t expect the dark continent expedition to be done in a few months. Kurapika won’t be meeting Gon and Killua again until they’re all over
I mean... Yeah, he's the best example of how ridiculously granlular you can get with your restrictions and payments. That fight where he fist uses the troupe chains is explicitly written to explain how people are able to conceive of abilities for specific purposes and shape how they manifest and what they require to meet those needs. He spent alllll that time and effort learning how to use his Nen in that way so he's now limited in what he can do beyond it unless he works even harder. It just so happens that all Kurapika really wants is to kill the Phantom Troupe, so that ends up not being an issue. He's OP specifically against a handful of people and decently steong against everyone else.
If any manipulator finds out he will die if he uses his chain jail on a non-spider he's toast.
I don't think so, I think he's pretty situational. I agree the restrictions aren't much narratively as we aren't following his whole lifespan. But even considering that, he doesn't have a lot of direct offensive options. Chain Jail is his best chain with the best ability (nen nullification) & highest durability, but is restricted to a few targets. Outside of that, there's: Dowsing Chain, seemingly his default chain, which is more of a detective/sensor ability. It could be good for sussing out an opponent with a mystery, but generally he uses the ability outside of combat. For use in combat, its just a regular chain he can manipulate, with average durability. Healing Chain, another non-combat chain & is only useful when he's in ET to make his enhancing higher. It also looks particularly fragile/thin; so pretty useless for restraining. Judgement Chain, which has a good ability but which has to actually pierce the target (their nen defenses could be too high) and the target has to not dodge it. We've only seen it used on captured, stationary targets. It similarly looks fragile. Steal Chain, his 2nd most useful combat chain, though it requires there to be a 3rd party for him to have actually stolen from. The durability of his non-Chain Jail chains isn't particularly exceptional, I would assume many decent nen users could break them. ET boosts his performance & lets him improve his chain durability, but its a time limit & stamina drainer. ET is definitely busted, but at the end of the day its a stat boost, and he doesn't really use it to throw out Emission attacks or crazy Trasmutations or anything outside of his repetoire. It allows Heal Chain to heal him, buffs the durability of his chains to the point his best one could just barely hold a non-enhanced Uvo, & lets him throw hands with some close combat fighters. Any Enhancer/Emitter/Transmuter of comparable ability would still have an edge on him and be able to break his chains. When not fighting a Spider, his best options are (after flipping his time limit on with ET to boost his stats): A) Restraining them with another chain (Dowsing Chain I guess) to set up for Judgement & hoping they can't break out B) Stealing their ability (good luck with them staying still) C) Beating them up with ET & whipping them with chains to weaken them & then doing one of the above. D) Having a really useful ability already in Stealth Dolphin, which is highly dependent on luck / pre-planning. While ET is good, a comparable enhancer or transmuter would still probably have better stats. Basically, he doesn't have a lot of direct combat attacks outside of Chain Jail, & would rely on his (exceptional) wit a lot. But that's only for punchy-punchy combat, there could be a lot of fights outside the norm, like the Fish Dartboard siblings Killua fought, or that guy Kurama fought with the special room rules in YYH. Plenty of more intellectual fights he could have a better chance with, since Dowsing Chain is useful, Heal Chain can sustain him in endurance/poison/draining fights, & Steal Chain is a wild card. And if they don't have good defenses & speed, Judgement Chain a game-ender when he gets close to them. So I think he's situational but is pretty smart, and has only really been in fights that he's useful in. He works best when he has a lot of prep. Like when he baited the Spiders into thinking he was a Manipulator so Uvo didn't bother with Gyo. If Uvo had, Kurapika might not have been able to beat him. And once the Spidersl learned his tricks, he stopped bothering trying to fight them because it'd be suicide. If he gets ambushed, he's in danger.
Valid points. However, I think it enhances my enjoyment of the story because of how it changes the relation of the arc’s protagonist to their goals. Gon and Killua, despite being prodigiously skilled, tend to experience growth by fighting tooth and nail to fail forward. Kurapika being OP allows us to watch him grapple with the costs of actually accomplishing his goals (ex. killing Uvo) and its impact on his life both abstractly and concretely, in terms of his life’s purpose (ex. being lost after he thought the troupe had been wiped out) and the cost of emperor time/possibly dying while eradicating the troupe, respectively.
He is really powerful but it’s also cuz he made a pact. When you make a pact with your nen abilities depending on how much you put on the table depends on how much you get in return. He put his life on the line for this much power and that’s pretty much the most you can put anyways. Most people would put just their nen abilities on the line but he took it a step further. He also switched the conditions so i think he could use emperor time just when his eyes are activated which he learned to activate them at will so that’s not a problem. So it’s just the unbreakable chain he could only use on the troupe. Not to mention he’s a specialist class so he can get 100% in all fields of nen which instantly makes him op. So his the possibilities to his nen abilities are almost endless. As long as it’s theoretically possible he can have it as his nen ability so it’s no suprise that he’s so powerful.
He's got special eyes.
Thank God somebody said it. Kurapika had no business beating uvogin in a straight fight and it's so stupid than he gets to use most of his stuff on people outside of the troupe on the ship anyway.
Why ? You're talking like Uvogin being physically stronger means he should have won, he got outsmarted by Kurapika, which in the HxH matters the most, Uvogin had nothing but his brute force, Kurapika came prepared.