I had never thought cursed energy was anything crazy, but I've consumed a decent amount of JJK powerscaling content and its changed my mind a lot.
Seeing the extent to which cursed energy can be utilised and how it can create all types of matchups and scenarios while having narrative and thematic function has honestly really impressed me. Creative, complex, but still intentional and purposeful.
If I had to give a quick top 3 it would be Nen, Stands, and Cursed Energy, in no real order.
Contenders:
- Bleach - I really like Reiatsu, it has strong narrative and thematic relevance, and it can be really creative. However, I plan to reread Bleach and I want that to be a chance to reassess whether its better than any of the top 3
- Fullmetal Alchemist - Alchemy is a good one, especially for being intentional/purposeful narratively as well as setting limits and defining hard rules, but its creativity and complexity only goes so far, probably peaking with Edward reconstructing the carbon in Greed's body.
Chakra has good function thematically in Naruto, and it is complex and creative in application, but the authors ability to be creative/complex with it begins to deteriorate as the story goes on, the War arc being the best example of the limits of Chakra's creativity/complexity (Naruto giving everyone cloaks or the fighitng of the white zetsus on the top of my head)
Devil Fruits / Haki is perfect for One Piece, but I find it hard to see it being a power system exceptional enough to shoot it up to these 3.
I like MHA a lot, but Quirks definetly are not an exceptional power system.
Same with Demon Slayer and Breathing Styles, or Magic from the little I've seen from the first 40 episodes of Black Clover.
Let me know if ya'll agree or disagree, or what top 3 you would have instead.