A commenter brought up that they like anime such as Jujutsu Kaisen, and Kimetsu no Yaiba, and they asked for suggestions for a tabletop roleplaying game that would emulate that sort of setting well.

Besides a game that does what shonen anime does best: having dudes beat the snot out of each other for way longer than would normally be humanly possible, they also wanted mechanics for a last ditch effort or deus ex machina. They were looking for mechanics for situations where, when things are at their bleakest, the main characters get some spontaneous burst of energy or some such power up that helps them win the day at the last minute.

Tenra Bansho Zero, The Initial Candidate

They mentioned that Tenra Bansho Zero was one commonly suggested to them. Which is a good choice, since Tenra Bansho Zero has several mechanics revolving around taking damage that make for intense shonen anime battles. Among them, is that damage that’s taken is distributed, by the player taking it, across five different tracks.

In increasing severity, they are Fatigue, Light Wounds, Heavy Wounds, Critical Wounds, and Dead. This is incidentally also the most common to least common, and easiest to heal to most difficult.

A character has numerous points of Fatigue, which represents being winded during a fight, and almost always fully heals between scenes with the character. If you ever run out of fatigue, your character is removed from the scene by being knocked unconscious, and comes back when is dramatically appropriate, no matter how improbable their survival would have been.

If they happen to be run over by a tank? Somehow, their organs remained well enough in tact that they were able to drag themselves away to safety afterwards. Or they didn’t quite die, but somebody took them away to safety. Characters in Tenra Bansho Zero don’t die until the player of that characters says so.

Meanwhile, Heavy wounds represent things like deep cuts or severe bruising or even minor bone fractures. These are much more difficult to heal, but, upon taking damage to the Heavy Wounds track, a character gains a +1 bonus to all their dicepools for the remainder of the scene. Meaning, as you take more damage, your character gets a rush of adrenaline that helps the fight harder, but only lasts for a few moments.

The Dead Box is the most special of all these: you only have one, but it can account for ALL The damage you take in an attack, even if it’s some seemingly impossible number like Eleventy Bajillion. Check your Dead Box, and you’ve taken all of it.

But it has two other very important effects. During the scene you check the Dead Box, you gain a +3 to all your dice rolls, the biggest of the bonuses from being damaged, The other being that once you check off your Dead Box, your character can now DIE; which happens simply when they run out of Fatigue. Instead of surviving against all odds, they’re a goner.

While this is something that’d appear straight out of Dragon Ball Super or any other shonen anime, the commenter didn’t want to do disservice to Tenra’s lore and setting. So they were seeking some other possible suggestions. Luckily, Tenra Bansho Zero has a lot of contemporaries that have similar such mechanics.

Kami Ga Kari, The Game of Modern Day Supernatural Monster Fights

(We’ll be using the terms from the Official English translation, which varies significantly from the fan translation)

Kami Ga Kari shares some of the themes of Jujutsu Kaisen, so it was the first I recommended. It’s a game set in the modern day about a secret war being waged between all manner of supernatural forces, and you play as a humanoid that’s aware of this war, and taking part in it.

Player characters have a special ability called called Spirit Burn, which becomes more powerful the more connections they have to the world around them. It’s literally “My friends are my power!” nonsense. The more such Bonds they have, the more they can do with Spirit Burn.

It’s risky to use, however, since every time you use it, it drains the strength of their Spirit Crest, the very thing that grants your character their powers. (Basically, Bonds are how much you can do with Spirit Burn, and Crest is how much you can safely use Spirit Burn.)

If you end a session with less than 0 Crest, there’s a chance your character could be grievously wounded, lose their powers forever, or worse.

…or maybe they’ll luck out, and nothing bad happens. Fate can be fickle, though, so don’t rely on that.

Fabula Ultima, Final Fantasy by Another Name

Fabula Ultima is the second game I recommended, since it’s one massive love letter to tabletop and video game RPGs from Japan, both of which are full of all kinds of shonen anime nonsense.

The way Fabula Ultima pulls this off, is with it’s eponymous Fabula and Ultima points.

Fabula points being a meta-currency for players to use that lets them alter certain aspects of the storyline, use certain skills they have, or get that Power of Friendship power boost that shonen anime loves so much. (And, despite Fabula Ultima’s more bright and optimistic tone, this can be substituted for a “I REALLY HATE THING!” power up, too!)

While there’s numerous ways to get Fabula points, one way to get a nice surefit of them, is to have your character Surrender upon losing all their HP. They basically are left to the villain’s mercy, but gain two Fabula Points immediately.

Though, if you’d rather not go that route, but still want your character to make a big splash at that point, Sacrifice may also an option, for moments like “I’m dragging bad guy to hell with me!” or “I’m going to buy my friends time to escape!”

Ultima Points, by contrast, are the GM’s meta-currency, that can be used for a few weaker effects for the villain of the story. Though if a Villain runs out of them, they’re finally defeated by the heroes.

…unless the Game Master decides to Escalate that Villain, for a “THIS ISN’T EVEN MY FINAL FORM!” moment!