Nen

[Kaiten]

General discussion for all things Nen. Discuss characters powers, how nen works, favorite power, least favorite, if you like or dislike how nen works.

Personally I think nen (in general) is one of the best shonen super powers ever. Maybe the least hax of any modern series. Each character has one power, that power does one or two things. As of yet there have been no ridiculous upgrades, no nen spam, and even the training arc have been pretty cool.

 

[blai]

I'd like to throw out the question "What would you do if you could use Nen in real life" but I don't know if I should do it in this thread or make a new thread for that type of Nen discussion :x I'd love a Manipulation/Emission type ability. Basically because it would allow me to control everyone around me. Not completely, but enough for me to live my life as slacky and pleasantly possible.

Also, if you could create your own Nen ability, what would it be? Explain both Type, Description
(Type, as in Materialization, Transformation etc) and description, What does it do, and how.
Share pros and cons about your Nen.


However I must agree. Nen is the most "balanced" type of super power we've seen in today's popular mangas and even though I haven't caught up with HxH, I really enjoy the series, mainly because of how Nen works :-)

 

[kkck]

If I were to have a nen ability I'd be a transformation user. I feel transformation is one of the more versatile styles depending on what your ability is. Take killua, his power is to make electricity with his body but he can also has limitless techniques based on how he shapes it. As a transformation I would shape my nen to resemble water and i'd shape it in many ways. I could use it to create a high pressure attack, drown the enemy, make it very thin and high pressured to cut....

 

[DLord.Van.Buuren]

i could use nen as a healing power , that would be interesting .

 

[Jack Van Burace]

^Intensification Nen is said to have healing abilities, as seen with Kurapica's arm when fighting Uvo.

I think the closer to Specific Nen, the more interesting it gets and more focused on 'how do you use' than 'how much you've got'. The intensification Nen on the other hand seems to me like more focused on gaining more and more of the same, with few variations.

Kuroro and Gon are opposites, but they tend to be the best of each because: a) Kuroro has a lot of powerful techs; and b) Gon uses his' in very creative ways. This makes them full circle in terms of strategy and use of power.

Imo, every person is able to use Specification Nen, it just has more or less effect on each person. Gon has just set a bunch of conditions for gaining more power, that's specification to me. Generally Manipulation and Materialization use conditions more often, because they're close to specification, but everyone can do it, just as everyone can intensify their Nen powers with correct use. So, every time one uses a Nen power with a condition to gain something in return, that's specialization to me.


Imo, I would like to be a Specification Nen user. Don't know if my personality fits, but I think it's pleasurable to have this much array of possibilities by using sacrifice of some to gain others. I feel I'm good at focusing on my goals with minimal losses, giving away the less likely to be missed to get what's trully relevant.

 

[kkck]

Enforcement can accelerate healing but I have my doubts on whether you can use your own reinforcement and heal someone else. I would think you'd need another technique for that. Idealy I'd think healing someone else would require a combination of reinforcement, emission along with either transmutation or conjuration depending on the mean you plan to use to heal.

The manga did say it was possible for people to develop specialization nen later in their life but it was rare and mostly occurred for manipulators or conjurers.

 

[Jack Van Burace]

I think Leorio is an emission user (his personality hints that, since Hisoka pointed out that each Nen type is followed by a personality type) and will use his healing skills from college along with his emission Nen to heal others without cutting. Emission is just beside reinforcement, so perhaps he'll grow a reinforcement to enable healing others.

 

[Fox666]

If I remember well, when Leorio meet Gon and Killua at York city, Killua commented that Leoria would be an intensification type like Gon based on his personality.

 

[Sachsenhesse]

well easy...

manipulation type (fits to my personality) and then something like that woman in the nostradofamily does with her kiss to man

so every damn woman i want would become my "slave" kinda simplyharted, but damn, i would choose this ability over all

 

[Uriel]

Nen is probably the best background to justify EVERY DAMN TECHNIQUE out there. For me it's the most developed and creative concept of all Mangas. Yes, I'm going THAT far.

And I would be Transformation. Probably making it sound waves. So many uses <3

 

[kkck]

Not sure if it really is better than other ki things in comparison to other mangas but I think it is very true it is one of the most developed forms of ki developed by any manga artist. It has a clear set of rules and limitations and most of them are thoroughly explained in the manga. It is also worth noting that even though the rules of nen are clearly defined for the most part, it does have a significant element of randomness to it. For instance, specialization is described as not a nen class but rather something inherently different and inherently random. The whole thing about making rules for you abilities is also rather random and if you think about it a tad nonsensical. Take hakoware. It is technique that when applied and its conditions are fulfilled forces you into zetsu regardless of how strong you are and it is impossible to destroy even by people 1000 times stronger than knuckles. Surely there are rules and whatnot to it but how a technique like that come to be is beyond me -which I guess makes sense considering this is a manga-. Just gotta give credit to the author for creating a set of specific rules which would justify plotkai for no particular reason lol.

 

[Uriel]

For me it's not that random. Hakoware requires Materialization and Emission, and has a powerful rules to make it work in the same way Kurapica's chains. Not only has to hit, but it needs to complete all the aura amount of the target. In top of that, he needs to be close to add the interest. It's a complicated technique, but not random in any way.

Specialization is what makes the whole thing have sense. Mostly because all the techniques from someone with experience ends to be Specialization in some way.

 

[Jack Van Burace]

I think it's not the bottom line. Nen is very connected to each Hunter's personality. If a person is pure-hearted, this person will keep on Intensification alone and will be good at it. On the other hand, if the person has a peculiar mind, an odd person, specialization will give this person a power that represents this.

It's a very good play, as it removes the "My fighting power is over9000!!!" thing, so boring and ultimate, from the fights. There are moves that are circunstancial, and the hardest to meet the circunstances the stronger it is. This is what specialization is.

In Intensification the Hunter must train to master its moves and be better at using his/her powers. In Specialization the Hunter must train to meet the requirements for his/her techniques, and refine the conditions to match his/her way of dealing with people/enemies the most effectively.

One might call it plotkai, because Togashi could just tell the conditions to the readers after they have been fulfilled. That would be plotkai. But he choses to tell us before anything happens, what it is that the Hunter needs to do in order to achieve his/her goals. This is not plotkai, as it requires good writting to keep things surprising, and the conditions become just a chess match that we want to pay attention to because of Togashi's strategy and mind-games.

 

[kkck]

Well, it was said the whole thing about personalities and nen was kinda like zodiac signs so it does not apply to the extent you suggest. Personality is not what defines a person's nen type, its not like gon will turn into a transmutation user if he becomes a tad more of an asshole.

 

[Uriel]

I agree. Even if Personality can hint a bit Nen type, I don't think every kind of person fits 5 groups of personalities.

And what you mean with Pure-Hearted? Because let me remind you that there is people with no such a good heart and they're Intensification type.

 

[kkck]

Would pure mean pure good? You can be pure evil lol -dbz reference lol-. The impression I have of the description given to reinforcement users is that they are simpleminded -not dumb though- and straightforward. Not so much as them being good or evil but rather being the type to just do stuff and not overthink and calculate.

 

[blai]

They can be pure-hearted but yet evil yeah. Pure - Corrupted / Good - Evil.
I think that's what he meant.

 

[Jack Van Burace]

I think Pure means straightforward, unable to lie and hide his true intentions.

 

[Uriel]

Ubog was NOT Pure evil.
I do agree with the simple minded and straight forward, but that's not PURE-HEARTED.

OK, that being said I should move on XD

 

[Tombadgerlock]

Pfff, Reinforcement is, in Hisoka's opinion, not 'pure hearted', but straight-forward. Very different.