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Skill Wars: The Skill Strikes Back

A warning of determination and might.

Remember, im reading this series. I will be the one arguing Hayato's skill. Are you sure you want to set me as your enemy?
 
Firephoenixearl said:
A warning of determination and might.
Remember, im reading this series. I will be the one arguing Hayato's skill. Are you sure you want to set me as your enemy?
Only if I must, my friend
 
I mean i have watched the anime a long time ago, im re reading those parts to get back in track. Kenichi is good though.

It is basically the better version of Fist of the North Star
 
Oh no, the anime never got to where I am referring to. Or if it did in those newer ovas I don't remember much about, they trim out a metric **** ton. Like, Ma Renka can literally see the potential paths and attacks of someone on the level of a master, guiding Kenichi through them until he can even scale the Master's back.
 
So for starters, Katanagatari takes place in a setting heavily populated by samurai, ninja, bandits, and other warriors. This includes warriors who have mastered nearly every form of bladed weapon, those who can easily dispatch armed samurai with their bare hands, and those who can kill 1,000 warriors in a single night.

Above all of these people are the Maniwa ninjas, individuals who are highly trained in martial arts and Ninpo (supernatural abilities gained through skill, sadly unquantifiable). Ninpo are secret techniques passed down through family lines, it takes years of training to even begin to utilize them, and a lifetime to master them. Every later generation of Maniwa further hones their Ninpo to surpass the previous user.

The Maniwa Heads are the deadliest ninjas in the world, skilled enough that they can easily track targets that can turn invisible from great distances, can easily and reliably assassinate nearly any warrior with their hands and limbs tied behind their backs, and have honed their Ninpo to the point that they can merge it with other martial arts. A Maniwa combining their Ninpo with martial arts notes that no warrior has ever managed to counter such a fighting style before the events of the series.

Kuizame Maniwa in particular is able to wield immensely long chains with incredible accuracy to slash apart a large group of people in seconds, and he is looked down upon by most of the other heads.

Even the least impressive worthy wielders of the Deviant Blades are warriors who have surpassed even Maniwa Ninjas in skill. This includes Ginkaku Uneri, whose Iaijutsu strikes are smooth enough to be invisible and produce bladed shockwaves, and easily dispatches a particularly dangerous Maniwa Head before he can activate his Ninpo.

Meisai Tsuruga has such incredible awareness of the battlefield around her that she can keep track of every weapon around her and swap between them on the fly by snatching them from the environment or disarming her various opponents, even if said weapons number in the thousands. She displays this skill by effortlessly passing between Kuizame's chains to slash him apart with her bare hands before he can react.

Shichika at the start of the series surpasses all of the above in skill, and practices a transcendent martial art called Kyotoryu that outmatches all others in the verse when used correctly, and takes on Deviant Blade wielders completely unarmed. He is skilled to the point that he masterfully combines techniques to create new ones whenever he's bored, and is specifically noted to be able to defeat seven comparable opponents in a single combo. When he fights Ginkaku and Meisai, he easily deduces the weaknesses of their fighting styles after dodging a single attack and hearing a description of how it works, respectively, and proceeds to exploit said weaknesses to curbstomp them.

The Squad Leaders of the Maniwa Heads are considered skilled enough that they can even defeat the average Deviant Blade wielder. Their abilities include body control to the point of extending their nails into claws, mastering fighting styles from around the globe by defeating their prior users, and wielding enormously long whips with such skill that they behave like living serpents, with the user instinctively controlling them to defend her body even from threats she can't currently see. Kyoken Maniwa can so thoroughly hide her presence that she is undetectable and untraceable even to the most skilled Maniwas, able to stand right in front of one and remain invisible, and has over 2000 lifetimes of experience, absorbing the skills of every body she inhabits, most of whom were highly skilled kunoichi.

By the middle of the series, Shichika has far surpassed his previous peak, and is able to face the likes of Kyoken while she is possessing a body far stronger than his own, effortlessly precog her every move and curbstomp her. He states that his dodging abilities have increased to the point that he can remain completely dry and untouched by snow during a blizzard. He is equaled by Kanara Azekura, who is so talented that he reached a similar level of skill after only a year of solo practice with his Deviant Blade.

Biyorigou is an autonomous weapon built and programmed to counter martial artists and swordsmen, easily detecting ambushes from all directions, has quick enough reflexes to avoid traps and throws, and has multiple limbs to defend and assault with the force of multiple people at once, moving with perfect efficiency and mechanically calculated tactics. It systematically reads and adapts to counter any technique its opponent attempts, up to and including Kyotoryu combo attacks. It and mid-series Shichika fight to a draw countless times.

Zanki Kiguchi claims that her family seeks to master all forms of combat, martial art or weapon-based, and is evaluated as being 60% as deadly as Shichika in unarmed combat.

Hōō Maniwa is the most skilled Maniwa ninja of all, and is equaled by Emonzaemon Sōda. The two of them surpass any other previous character in both combat and stealth, with Hoo able to assimilate the skills of others, something he has done for at least a century. The two have a duel in which, without the use of Ninpo, they stalemate each other, including a display in which they each fling hundreds of shurikens and kunai at each other at high speeds, with each and every blade deflected out of the air by another of its kind.

And now onto the crazy ones.

Sabi Hakuhei from the beginning of his career was regarded as the most powerful and skilled warrior in all of Japan, if not all of history. It is said that he can surpass the deadliness of any Deviant Blade wielder regardless of the sword he carries, and in fact killed the previous bearer of Hakutō Hari in record time. Only lost to mid-series Shichika because he willingly restrained his power for unknown reasons, and it was during this fight that Shichika improved to the previously-mentioned level of skill he has at this point, and even by the end of the series states that no opponent brought him closer to death. Has mastered the use of Hakutō Hari, a blade so fragile that every movement its wielder makes must be absolutely perfect down to the smallest detail or it will shatter, and can fight at high speeds while holding back without any danger to himself or his sword. Hoo and Emonzaemon are considered far beneath him, and he can use any object as a sword and master their use instantly, to the point of being able to use Ninpo-level techniques with a random sword he has just picked up.

Nanami Yasuri's eyes take in any detail against her will, reading any technique, movement, and weakness instantaneously. The moment Nanami sees the opponent take a stance, she knows and can predict and/or counter every move contained in their fighting style, including supernatural abilities like Ninpo. The first time Nanami sees a technique utilized, she can use it to the extent that its current user can. With each successive usage on her part, she improves it as much as it would have with an additional lifetime/generation of training. If she witnesses the technique being used a second time and thus is given a chance to analyze it further, she perfects it to the point that even countless generations of users inheriting and improving the technique wouldn't be able to surpass her version. This ability even allows her to break her own natural limitations by seeing others do what she is completely incapable of, and can even replicate another individual's superior physical strength. This ability completely bypasses the generational increase of Ninpo, and the training requirements for most powers, and is noted to be "an existence that should not exist".

Even before she began replicating other martial arts, her instinctive and involuntary movements are so incredibly perfect and fluid that even when up against opponents of comparable speed her dodging resembles intangibility, avoiding each attack by a margin that is literally microscopic and invisible. Her instinctive movements contain no superfluous motion or effort whatsoever, and when attacking it looks as though she's simply walking past people and they fall apart like shredded paper and are reduced to paste the moment they enter her line of sight, while her hands move so perfectly that they appear to have vanished from her body. While completely lost in thought, she butchers the entire population of the land of Shireizan, a civilization of warriors. Even Hoo Maniwa considered this to be a monstrous feat. Pengin and Emonzaemon jointly evaluated that nobody, not even Hoo Maniwa, Shichika, or Sabi Hakuhei, had more than a 0% chance of defeating Nanami. When asked how he would fight her, Emonzaemon says he would avoid a fight by any means necessary, and if forced to, would only be able to stall for time until his master escapes. Shichika only managed to narrowly defeat her by creating an inescapable combo using her own advice, while she was completely blinded and probably holding back so that he could end her suffering, and even then she could have killed him and Togame with her death throes if she wanted, and demonstrated this by cutting Togame's hair with a hand chop faster than either of them could react. With her skill fully unleashed and her using her entire body to attack, she could have killed Shichika 272 times before he hit the ground.

By the end of the series, Shichika as a Completed Deviant Blade is far and away the most skilled character in the series. He has far surpassed Sabi Hakuhei and future genius swordsmen that were superior to anything else in prior eras. Can fully analyze and come up with methods to counter sword styles he's never encountered after witnessing a single attack, including styles that had yet to be invented and had moves considered to be undodgeable even to the likes of Nanami and Hakuhei. Even manages to use Nanami's 272-deaths combo with nothing but his fingertips, defeating an enemy that surpassed even her in strength and durability.
 
1) Didn't remember what this anime was until I saw the art style, then I immediately remembered "Oh its the guy that did the Musashi thing before Musashi did it".

So, based on this, where does everyone think Shichika belongs?
 
Shichika never lost his virginity, therefore making him tier 11-C on that list

How badly would FANDOM crack down on us if we made a "Best sex-havers in fiction" thread?
 
They wouldn't but that belief is due to my most likely sorely misplaced belief that no one would be stupid enough to make that thread.
 
They would crack heavily on us.

And I'd say he can fit snugly in spot 3 along with Nanami, if not outright spot 2.

Don't have the energy to argue for 1.
 
LSirLancelotDuLacl said:
They would crack heavily on us.
And I'd say he can fit snugly in spot 3 along with Nanami, if not outright spot 2.

Don't have the energy to argue for 1.
Nanami?
 
If we don't, the list is gunna be flooded with character from the verses of the top 5 places (why I liked the 1 per verse idea)
 
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