I wish I had more HxH…

I’m not at all surprised to see WHA near the top of a list like this. One of the things about the magic system that works really well is that it relies on the ability for the characters to draw these shapes quickly and perfectly under high-stress situations, and that’s a skill that a normal human can actually relate to. When Naruto beats up some dude I mostly just think, “I guess the author chose for Naruto to be stronger this time” or “holy shit the fight is finally over that took so loooong” but when one of the characters in WHA dips their shoe in some ink and draws a massive magic circle on the ground using their whole leg or something crazy like that I can actually imagine how difficult that would be to do quickly and accurately.

I wanna throw Kill la Kill’s hat into that ring. Does it deserve the TOP spot? No, but I like the origin story of where the power comes from.

Aliens come to Earth looking for food back in prehistoric times, if they go about it the usual way (feeding directly off the energy/electricity of a living brain) then the body usually dies very quickly BUT, if they feed off this energy from the outside via skin-to-skin contact then they have a host that lasts longer than 5 minutes. So they choose the most advanced species (us) and after setting up some intentionally-vague groundwork, they go into hibernation until humanity has progressed far enough for a worldwide monopoly on clothing to become a reality, even converting several humans to work with them directly.

Practically all the power in the show comes from/through the school uniforms which have various amounts of these silent, patient, alien beings as part of their fabric. Only real exception is the power of friendship but this is anime we’re talking about, that’s always going to win. Speaking of winning, the main villain of this show should’ve won like 3-4 times over by the time it’s all said and done. Oh well, “La Vie est Drôle” after all

Edit: Also some other little nuances that they manage to throw in: a reference to the “original sin” with Adam and Eve covering themselves; the age-old adage “It’s not the clothes that make the man, but the man that makes the clothes” only in this case both are correct; or even how the more powerful uniforms need to show increasingly more skin i.e. reduce the surface area of the ‘vampiric’ clothes otherwise the host would pass out or die. Idk, there’s a lot you could discuss about this show beyond “all the characters are hot” but nobody ever really does