Anime is a beloved type of television that originates from Japan, yet it is rather popular in the U.S. as well. Two of the most popular anime are MHA (My Hero Academia) and HxH (Hunter x Hunter), and both include fighting as a central component. It would be a curious endeavor to compare the strong main characters and hypothesize who would win in a fight. To do this, we must first understand the main power sets of each fighter. They will be analyzed based on their anime television show appearances, not their entire manga.

To begin, Izuku Midoriya is the main protagonist of My Hero Academia with his famous quirk ‘One For All.’ Quirks are what they call powers in the MHA universe. One For All allows him to stockpile an enormous amount of raw power, allowing him to significantly enhance all of his physical abilities to a superhuman level. This results in unbelievable levels of strength, speed, agility, and durability. Having the ability to control how much power he gives off and in what part of his body, Midoriya’s powers are very versatile. However, of the four fighters, he is the least practiced with his abilities. He also is extremely well educated in battle strategies and has a talent for creating plans and analyzing his opponents.

Also from MHA, the second member of team one, Katsuki Bakugo, has an explosion quirk. This allows him to secrete sweat from the palms of his hands and ignite it on command, creating powerful explosions. Unlike Midoriya, Bakugo has a very strong grasp on his quirk’s applications. He can use his power offensively, defensively as a shield, and even harness his explosions to propel himself through the air extremely quickly. His one flaw is that he grows angry often and can disregard his plan or act irrationally.

Next, the first member of team two, Gon Freecss has many abilities, including enhanced senses, stealth, and physicality, as well as the ability to use Nen. Nen is the ability to harness one’s life energy in various ways, which he uses to enhance his physical abilities. When a normal person is attacked with Nen they will die very easily, but for the purposes of this conversation this will not apply to people with quirks. He has a very large amount of wins under his belt in combat considering his quick ascent to the 200th floor of Heaven’s Arena. In comparison to Midoriya and Bakugo, Gon has been given more opportunities to truly fight in the real world and has learned what works for him through trial and error, unlike Midoriya and Bakugo who learned in a school. However, Gon is very naive and reckless, getting him way in over his head in many situations.

Lastly, Killua Zoldyck has countless abilities that make him one of the most powerful hunters in the HxH world. He is a well trained assassin who has been trained since birth to take up the Zoldyck household and be the best assassin in the world. Aside from all of his assassin abilities, he uses Nen as well, harnessing electricity with it that he uses in various ways including Godspeed, a state in which he stimulates his nervous system and increases his speed drastically, even though he already was extremely quick. Out of all four fighters, Killua easily has the most experience by far. The only flaw is Killua’s attachment to Gon and how his electric powers can drain rather quickly.

Both pairs of heroes are extremely powerful and have fascinating skill sets and powers, but if they were put head to head who would come out on top? After analyzing each character’s skills, it would likely be Gon and Killua that would be victorious. Their usage of Nen and well-paired abilities would be too much for the MHA duo to handle. It would be suspected that Gon would go up against Midoriya as they have similar skill sets, and it would be a very tight battle. While they fight, Killua would dispose of Bakugo rather quickly with his insane speed and assassin techniques; although, Bakugo could put up a fight if he did not let Killua get close enough to him to rip his heart out, which is one of Killua’s most efficient moves to kill an opponent that he learned during his assassin training. Nevertheless, Killua would then move on to help Gon and, with both Gon and Killua working together, it would be unlikely for Midoriya to pull out a win.