Tite Kubo’s skills at creating a balanced power system in a story like Bleach, which has a great number of characters, deserve praise. Especially when we consider how power systems are the most interesting aspect of shonen anime-manga series. It’s extremely rewarding to figure out the ultimate extent and the different ways in which these powers can be utilized. 

However, there’s nothing more disappointing than power systems that favor certain abilities more than others. The way Kubo has created the world in Bleach with three different factions, and no sense of superiority to either one of them is admirable. Most Shonen series struggle to establish a similar balance, and One Piece is the best example of this. 

A still from Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime | Credits: Studio Pierrot Co. Ltd.

In the recent arcs of One Piece, there’s a clear disparity and hierarchy between different abilities, which makes the fights less interesting. It’s worth exploring what it is that Bleach does right in this aspect, so here’s an explanation of the power system crafted by Kubo.

Explanation of Bleach’s Biggest Advantage: Its Power System! 

The world of Bleach has three categories primarily, as far as the power system is concerned, namely, the Soul Reapers, Hollows, and the Quincies. All three of them have unique abilities. To start off, we have the Quincies with their Reiryoku or Spiritual energy. With the ability to manipulate Reishi, they can use a combination of Reishi and Reiryoku to forge weapons. The most powerful Quincies or the SternRitters have Schrift, unique abilities given to them by Yhwach. 

The Soul Reapers in Bleach anime | Credits: Studio Pierrot Co. Ltd.

The Hollows are spiritual beings so they also have Reiryoku, and their abilities include soul-body separation and fast regeneration. There are different tiers of Hollows and those at the top like Vasto Lorde are the strongest and capable of the highest degree of destruction. The Soul Reapers have Reiryoku (which is spiritual power), Reiatsu (spiritual pressure) that they use for different techniques, and their swords or Zanpakutō. 

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Tite Kubo makes a clear distinction between different abilities but doesn’t classify them as superior or inferior. In most cases, it depends on how well a character uses his ability to stay ahead of his opponents. And this is exactly how the power system in Bleach surpasses most shonen series as there’s always a factor of surprise. 

Bleach Excels With a Well Done Power System, Something That One Piece Fails At 

A still from the fight between Gremmy and Zaraki | Credits: Studio Pierrot Co. Ltd.

The best example of the brilliance of Bleach’s power system is the fight between Gremmy and Zaraki. The latter was clearly the stronger being as he was quite literally a monster. However, their fight was a constant back and forth-between their abilities. Gremmy was able to fight well because he was capable of utilizing his abilities to their best potential. If we compare this fight to One Piece, in all his fights during Wano, the tides turned in Luffy’s favor with his big power-up. 

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Even Zoro and Sanji’s fight with their respective opponents followed a similar formula. The moment a main character gains a big power-up, it’s all but confirmed that they are superior. Before Haki became a central concept in One Piece, there was always a factor of surprise. Luffy was able to win many fights as he mastered how to use his Devil Fruit the right way.

Zoro and Sanji during their fight against King and Queen in One Piece | Credits: Studio Toei Animation

After the introduction of Haki, no matter how capable a Devil Fruit user is, they can easily be overpowered by Haki. This happens because there’s no balance between Haki and Devil Fruit, the pillars of the power system in One Piece. Something Kubo figured out with Bleach long ago as he established a well-balanced power system. No wonder, the redundancy that could be felt in Wano fights is absent in the Thousand-Year Blood War. 

Bleach and One Piece are available to read on the MangaPlus app and website.
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