Uvogin's 20% punch

[Kyo]

When Kurapika fights Uvogin, he blocks two punches from him. The second was at full power, and the first was supposed to be at 20%.

Spoiler

When Kurapika blocks the first punch and emerges unscathed, Uvo is shocked, since according to him, only an Enhancer should be able to block his attack.

Spoiler

Uvo is full of shit, unless he's by far the greatest Nen user and Enhancer to have ever lived, which he's not.


Transmuters and Emitters have an 80% affinity for Enhancement. Conjurers and Manipulators have a 60% affinity for it. Uvo was fighting someone he suspected to be a Conjurer or Manipulator, but let's take his statement literally and examine Transmuters and Emitters first. According to him, Transmuters and Emitters CANNOT block his punch when he uses 20% of his power.

For simplicity's sake, let's say that Uvogin's strength is 100. Let's grant that Uvogin is the best Nen user in the world, and that the best Transmuter in the world is only a 60.

If this Transmuter were to train his Enhancement as much as he could, he would reach a level of 48 in Enhancement. And because he's a Transmuter, he can't use his Enhancer abilities to their full effectiveness; he could only manage an output of 38.4 in his physical attacks and defense.

Let's lay that out:

Uvogin - 100
~~ 20% - 20
Transmuter - 60
~~ Enhancement ability - 48
~~~ Enhancement output - 38.4

He still blocks the punch.

We can be even nicer to Uvo here. Let's say that the Transmuter didn't max out his Enhancement training at his current level. Maybe he only managed to get it up to 30. Even still:

Uvogin - 100
~~ 20% - 20
Transmuter - 60
~~ Enhancement ability - 30
~~~ Enhancement output - 24

Even without getting into the math, is anyone expected to believe that the likes of Razor or Silva wouldn't be able to block a punch at 20% from Uvo? Really?


This brings us to the next point. Is it possible for a Conjurer or Manipulator to block Uvo's punch? Absolutely. It may not be worth their while to train in Enhancement (though pretty much every fighter we see engages in hand-to-hand combat no matter their category, with a few possible exceptions like Shalnark, so we can presume that they do some basic training in Enhancement at the very least), but they can if they want to.

Let's replace our Transmuter from the last example with a Conjurer. Let's again be generous to Uvo and presume that his level in Enhancement dwarfs this Conjurer's level in Conjuration. Let's say that this Conjurer has trained his Enhancement as much as he's able to.

Uvogin - 100
~~ 20% - 20
Conjurer - 60
~~ Maximum possible enhancement ability - 36
~~~ Enhancement output - 21.6

And realistically, there are obviously going to be Nen users who have Conjuration levels more comparable to Uvo's Enhancement, and it's possible for them to train their Enhancement level as well, and they wouldn't even have to max it out to be able to block his punch.

Uvogin - 100
~~ 20% - 20
Conjurer - 90
~~ Enhancement ability - 40 (not maxed)
~~~ Enhancement output - 24



Of course, in saying all this, I've neglected to mention the fact that Kurapika isn't even a real Enhancer anyway, even with Emperor Time.

 

[Papasmurf]

Maybe his whole percentage system is a load of horseshit and he's just talking out of his ass. Categories close to Enhancement can use 80% of its effects, so unless he thinks he has more Nen than Youpi 20-50% of his power shouldn't be enough to affirm anyone's category.

Also lowkey a Toguro reference as both characters have no real powers beyond being mountain loads of muscle with extreme amounts of durability and physical strength.

 

[Warmmedown]

What does 60% affinity mean? Where's the 40% difference show up? Could be where their maximum potential is in terms of Enhancement strength, could be in their ability to concentrate it in one place, could be how fast they can move their nen around their body, could be how much practise they need to be able to enhance different parts of their body.

As far as Uvogin goes, even if his comments do go against the affinity system, it might be that he doesn't know about the affinity system and doesn't know that a non-Enhancer can be that defensively strong. It could be that most non-Enhancers stop training Enhancement once they reach a certain level and at that level he would always be able to hurt them with a 20% punch. But yeh, you could say he's full of it then, due to being ignorant of the affinity system.

But I don't think his comments do go against the affinity system anyway, even if we assume (as you have) that the 60% affinity percentage is telling us a Manipulator is capable of 60% of the Enhancement magnitude of an Enhancer. It's likely that the 60% affinity is assuming the person 100% abandons Manipulating and focuses all their training on Enhancement, so it would still be impossible for someone to have both such strong chains and also be able to block the punch without taking damage. The thing that's impossible isn't a Manipulator blocking the 20% punch, but that they can block it while having strong chains, which are indicative of having put lots of time into training Manipulation rather than Enhancement. It might not even be a question of time - it could be that gaining nen is zero sum, so for a master Enhancer who's reached the limit of their Enhancement potential, improving their Manipulation will always lessen their Enhancement strength.

Uvogin's nen power = 100
Uvogin's Enhancement power = 100
Manipulator's Enhancement power, if living like an Enhancer and has same potential and training time (assuming equal training quality) as Uvogin = 60
Manip's power if splitting Enhancement and Manip training 50-50 = 60x0.5= 30

Which is a lot closer to 20.

What's the least amount of training the above Manip can put into Enhancement to take a 20 punch?
At least 33%, leaving only 67% of his time for training Manipulation. It could be that Kurapika's chains were so strong that Uvogin thought Kurapika must have spent more than 67% of his time training Manipulation.

That's assuming Kurapika has the same total training time and potential as Uvogin, but of course Kurapika appears way younger than Uvogin, plus Uvogin probably expects not many people to have as much natural potential as himself.

 

[Yoshi]

Uvogin VS Kurapika is still the best fight in Hunter X Hunter.