Dragon Ball Super's New Power Source Draws Major Hunter x Hunter Comparisons

Dragon Ball Super's manga has reached a turning point in the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc as Moro has turned his attention away from Goku and Vegeta for the time being, and this is allowing the two of them to explore new ways to defeat him. One of these new ways involved Vegeta heading to Yardrat to learn their techniques, and the source of their abilities are drawing pretty close comparisons to another famous shonen action series, Yoshihiro Togashi's Hunter x Hunter, as the descriptions for "Spirit Control" sounds a lot like how Nen works in that series.

Chapter 52 of the series introduces fans to the secret behind the Yardrat techniques. Not only do they learn Instant Transmission, but this is one of the many skills they can unlock when they learn how to properly control the shape and shift their spirit to do new moves.

As the Yardrat Elder explains, all of their abilities stem from the mastery of Spirit Control. Achieved by "shifting, splitting, and growing one's very spirit," allows the fighter to unlock new moves. This sounds a lot like how Hunter x Hunter's Nen works. In that series, Nen allows a person to control and manipulate their own aura. While it's a completed set of rules for the powers in the series, it essentially breaks down into six or so different types.

Conjuration, emission, manipulation, transmutation, enhancement, and specialization, it's revealed over the course of the series that mastering a certain type of Nen manipulation ranges in all types of fighting abilities, weapons, and skills. From offensive to non-offensive types, mastering Nen is the key to becoming a threat in the Hunter x Hunter world. And from the sounds of things, the core of the idea might just be coming to Dragon Ball Super.

By learning how to master his spirit, Vegeta will be able to do things like Instant Transmission, making himself larger, and even cloning himself. There's probably more abilities in store, and like Nen, this could very well be a game changer for how power works in the Dragon Ball franchise moving forward.

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings, and is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese-language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super's big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.