And that made me wonder: who could defeat Kurapika if he used his Nen restraint against them? That’s what we’re going to discover as we rank some notable anime characters that could wipe the floor with our favorite chain user. Keep in mind that there won’t be any obvious picks like Saitama or Goku here, because debating the matchup is half the fun!
10. All for One
Anime: My Hero Academia I want to start things off with All for One as he’s the most debatable. So here’s my headcanon. Firstly, I’d assume that Chain Jail wouldn’t completely neutralize All for One’s powers. I say that because Eraser Head would’ve killed him a long time ago if he was that easy to shut down. Number two: All for One’s tentacles can mess with Kurapika’s powers and make him break his Nen vow. For example, by making him use Chain Jail on a random civilian. If neither of these is true, it gets a bit dicier. All for One definitely has the advantage when it comes to raw destructive power, wiping out half the city in a single blow. But Kurapika is pretty strong himself and could catch All for One off-guard with his strength/durability.
9. Chuuya Nakahara
Anime: Bungo Stray Dogs This one felt thematically appropriate, as both characters have an ultra-powerful mode that slowly kills them. Although Chuuya’s is a bit more extreme. That being said, I think Chuuya could take Kurapika on in his base form. This is mostly due to the fact that he can affect gravity and thus pin Kurapika’s chains down for a bit. In terms of reaction time and speed, I think Chuuya should have the edge, as we’ve seen him react to bullet shots like they were nothing. This is important because we also know that Uvogin has this feat and he seemed more than capable of reacting to Kurapika’s attacks when they were coming at him. So, the way I see this going down is that:
Kurapika unleashes his chains, and Chuuya activates his power the second the chains touch him (pinning them down for a second) He then quickly goes for Kurapika and does his best to either one-shot him or pin his chain hand to the ground
And if that fails, he’d have to go into his demon mode and start throwing black holes around. Although this would be a short-lived victory as he’d need Dazai to survive the ordeal afterward.
8. Sasori
Anime: Naruto: Shippuden For this one to work, Sasori would need to take the fight seriously from the very start, as Kurapika could one-shot his core. But if he’s serious, Sasori has this in the bag. This is mostly due to the fact that his army of puppets could simply keep Kurapika far away from his main body. His chains are powerful and have a decent range, but when faced with a literal army, they’d have a hard time keeping Kurapika safe. And this is especially important as Sasori has a pretty busted poison that can’t be healed unless you know exactly what you’re doing. So the Cross chain isn’t saving Kurapika from this one. And even if Kurapika manages to get close, I don’t think he’d survive the initial water blast. It cuts through stone like it’s paper, and you can’t heal when someone chops you in half (unless you are Tsunade).
7. Hinata Sakaguchi
Anime: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime For Hinata to have the best odds of winning this one, we have to give her a bit of prep time. I say this because if she puts up her anti-magic barrier, Kurapika is just dead. Remember that even his tenacity and strength are connected to Nen. So the second that goes away, he becomes just as fragile as the rest of us. But even if he does have his Nen, a case could be made for Hinata. This is because she lives by the words “maximum emotional damage” and attacks your soul directly. And in terms of speed and strength, being on par with Rimuru basically means being a god. I’d even wager that she could deflect Kurapika’s chains but that’s a bit debatable.
6. King
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins The main bad guy in Hunter x Hunter went by King at the beginning, so it only makes sense to bring back the horror that came with that name. The main thing King has going for him is how insane his range is. Sure, Kurapika can cover a distance of about 50, maybe 100 feet. But King can blast you from the next village over. And not only does he have range, but he also has versatility. Splitting Chastiefol into a thousand daggers and overwhelming Kurapika would be the most obvious strategy, but it’s not his only option. The Sunflower blast would completely fry Kurapika if he was hit. And even his Bear summon could seriously rough him up with just physical attacks. Overall, the only way Kurapika would ever win this battle is if they started two feet apart and King didn’t take the fight seriously.
5. Satoru Gojou
Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen As I’ve mentioned before, Chain Jail is Kurapika’s most dangerous tool – as it completely shuts down all of your powers. However, Gojou basically carries the same win-condition as Chuuya but on a much higher level. Gojou is just surrounded by infinity, and nothing can ever touch him unless he precisely allows it to. This means that Chain Jail is simply never going to actually catch him. And that’s not even mentioning the huge gap in speed between these two. Gojou moves so quickly that it honestly looks like teleportation at times. Sure, Kurapika is also pretty quick when he activates Emperor Time. But he’s never shown a feat that’s comparable to “leave mid-battle, grab your friend and come back in a second”. They might both have cool eyes and a tragic backstory, but Gojou is on top when it comes to raw fighting power.
4. Daki/Gyutaro
Anime: Demon Slayer First, let’s talk about my serious argument. Daki’s ability seems to be just as oppressive as Kurapika’s chains and would likely require all of his attention throughout the fight. This would leave an opening for Gyuutarou to come in and kill him. Since Gyuutarou has a very specific poison, Kurapika’s poison probably wouldn’t work (or at least not that quickly), and the two demons would just wear him out at some point. Plus since not all of his chains are that good at offense, it would be difficult to kill both demons at the exact same time. Now, for the funny argument. If Kurapika doesn’t have Emperor Time, he just loses flat out. If he does have it, I’d imagine that he’d only put the limitation on Daki (as Gyuutarou doesn’t come out that often and Kurapika probably wouldn’t even know that he existed). This would mean that he couldn’t attack Gyuutarou (as he is a different person technically), and thus he’d never be able to kill both of them. Sure, he could make the vow as “only use the power against Upper Moon Six” and get away with it. But I like my version of the story way better.
3. Obito Uchiha
Anime: Naruto: Shippuden Kamui counters 90% of anime and unfortunately, Kurapika is in the majority. Just like with Chuuya or Gojou, not being able to actually touch the enemy with his chains means that Kurapika has no real options for fighting. And since Obito is a late-game boss in the Naruto universe, we already know that he scales to the main cast when it comes to speed and strength. So Kurapika is taking Ls in both of those categories. But the disadvantages just keep coming. Obito can use Kamui to get rid of Kurapika’s chain hand and end the battle before it even begins. Or he could use Amaterasu and just leave Kurapika to burn to death. And don’t even get me started on the ways in which he could cheese Kurapika by using his Sharingan. But the true nail in the coffin is the fact that Kurapika would lose even if everything went his way. Even if he caught Obito and pierced his heart, he could just come back with Izanagi. There is no way Kurapika could react to that plot twist in time to save his life.
2. Asta
Anime: Black Clover Kurapika heavily relies on countering people, but Asta is basically immune to all of his tricks. Chain Jail wouldn’t do anything against a dude who has no magic to begin with. In fact, Kurapika even states that if you’re physically strong enough, you can just rip his chains. Unlike Uvogin, Asta’s strength is a gym rat’s strength – unrelated to Nen or magic. So I’m pretty confident that he’d pull it off. Plus, Kurapika’s chains are coursing with Nen. So if we consider Nen a counterpart to magic, Asta can use his swords and just decimate them before they ever have the chance to tie him down. And if Kurapika decided to just rely on his Enhancer strength, he’d still get bodied. This is because Asta is simply way more used to fighting in that way. Plus his durability is off the charts.
1. Estarossa
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins I want to end the list off with this matchup, as I’ve been chuckling ever since I thought about it. So, you know how Emperor Time is Kurapika’s main way of becoming extremely overpowered? Well, he only did that against the Spiders because he hated them more than life itself and wished for nothing more than to see them suffer. However, that mentality wouldn’t really work against early game Estarossa, would it? Being that he’s the Commandment of love, a powered-up Kurapika wouldn’t be able to actually attack him. Could you imagine how frustrated Kurapika would be if he reached his mortal enemy only to discover that he has to forgive them in order to actually attack them? It’d be the most depressing and yet hilarious twist anime has ever seen. And if that doesn’t pan out, Estarossa can just kill him the old-fashioned way. He scales way beyond Kurapika’s paygrade regardless of the Commandment (especially later on in the series).
