These abilities are the ones that allow users to influence, alter, or manipulate the so-called space-time continuum. You can see how that might be a huge game changer in any fight scene. While fireballs and healing spells are a dime a dozen in anime, spatial and space-time abilities don’t show up often—and that’s what makes them stand out when they do appear. We love them because they often allow for creative use in coordination with other abilities. Here are our picks for the best spatial and space-time abilities in anime and why they’re so cool compared to other abilities.
15. Ope Ope no Mi (One Piece)
In One Piece, Trafalgar Law’s Ope Ope no Mi devil fruit ability allows him to create a “room” where he can do all kinds of things on anyone and anything caught inside, from painlessly dismembering people to commanding inanimate objects. Inside this spherical room, he can even manipulate things to the point of switching places with someone else to avoid an attack or initiating a more devastating combination attack.
14. Kamui (Naruto)
Kamui is one of Obito’s Mangekyo Sharingan abilities (which can also be used by Kakashi, since he has one of Obito’s eyes). The eyes awakened this ability after the tragic event where they lost Rin. Kamui allows the user to enter a special space-time dimension that’s completely separate from the real world. It can be used to hide objects or trap people, cutting off their existence. Obito creatively used Kamui to hide parts of his body’s physical properties, making it look like he was visually present but physically untouchable and invulnerable to attacks.
13. Warp Gate (My Hero Academia)
In My Hero Academia, Warp Gate is Kurogiri’s Quirk, which allows him to summon portals whenever and wherever he wants. His boss, Shigaraki, often uses his ability to make surprise appearances and attacks, like infiltrating a location with hordes of villains. Shigaraki also uses smaller warp gates to touch targets from blind spots, with Kurogiri creating those portals.
12. Flying Thunder God (Naruto)
In Naruto, Flying Thunder God is an ability that comes from a creative application of sealing and summoning techniques, used by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju and Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze. Flying Thunder God involves two steps: first, preemptively placing a seal on an object or location where they intend to visit, and second, using those seals to summon themselves there. In practice, it looks like a true teleportation ability. That makes this ability unique from other abilities that only appear to teleport. Whereas other “teleport” abilities are really just lightning-fast movement from one point to another, Flying Thunder God is an instant disappearance from one point and appearance in another. Sasuke has a very similar ability called Amenotejikara, which comes from his Rinnegan, but instead of using seals and summons, he instantly switches places with anyone or anything.
11. Time Innocence (D.Gray-Man)
In D.Gray-man, Miranda Lotto owns the Innocence that affects the flow and continuity of time. With her Innocence, she can revert damages inflicted and prevent attacks by using a sort of shield (no attacks can enter the space-time field protected by her Innocence). This ability, however, takes a massive toll on her—both physically and emotionally—as seen when she doesn’t want to deactivate her ability because she knows everyone who was healed via time recovery will suffer the effects of unreverted time.
10. Senescencia (Bleach)
In Bleach, Barragan Luisenbairn uses an ability called Senescencia, which allows him to control time itself. He can slow down time around him, making everything in his range move slower, too. Barragan can also use “time” offensively, by speeding it up and causing everything in range to rapidly age and immediately suffer the effects of time. We saw this when Sui Feng’s affected arm began to disintegrate.
9. Hide and Seek (Hunter X Hunter)
In Hunter X Hunter, Knov’s Hide and Seek ability is a crucial element in their mission to exterminate the Chimera Ants. It allows him to create doors that lead to a separate dimension created with Nen, and can be used to instantly infiltrate the castle. In Black Clover, Valtos has a similar kind of spatial magic that works in the same way as Knov’s ability, which he uses to capture Fuegoleon with one of his portals.
8. Dream Magic: Glamour World (Black Clover)
In Black Clover, the Captain of the Coral Peacocks, Dorothy Unsworth, uses the Dream Magic: Glamour World to trap her opponents in a dimension that she rules over. In it, she can create, influence, and affect all matter and events in it. The dream dimension is cut off from the real world, so other magic and curses have no effect on those who are inside. Surprisingly, Yami Sukehiro was able to escape Dorothy’s world with the use of his dimension-cutting technique, Equinox.
7. Gura Gura no Mi (One Piece)
In One Piece, Gura Gura no Mi is a devil fruit that gave Whitebeard the power to cause tremors anywhere he wants. It ends up being one of the most destructive abilities in the entire anime series. Whitebeard can create shatters and fissures through any medium, including air, sea, and land. He can also distort space by grabbing it with his fingers, causing wide-scale destruction across seas and lands. With this power, Edward “Whitebeard” Newgate is a man that can literally destroy the world. After his death, Blackbeard stole his ability during the Marineford War.
6. Megumi’s Shadow Technique (Jujutsu Kaisen)
Apart from summoning spiritual shikigamis (e.g. frogs, owls, dogs), Megumi also uses his shadow technique as portable storage for cursed weapons. He pulls out different kinds of weapons—including his black blade—from a dimension only he has access to.
5. Blood Demon Art: Infinity Castle (Demon Slayer)
In Demon Slayer, after the death of Rui, the other Lower Moon Demons were summoned by Kibutsuji Muzan to the Infinity Castle. The entire majestic castle, however, is Nakime’s ability (the Biwa Demon accompanying Muzan) and every time she strums her musical instrument, the Infinity Castle shifts its interior to her will. The Drum Demon Kyogai’s Blood Demon Art also works the same way, shifting and altering the orientation of the Drum House with every beat of his drums.
4. Finral’s Spatial Magic (Black Clover)
Most of the time, Finral’s Spatial Magic only serves as a means of transportation, especially for Yami. But in their battle against Vetto at the Seabed Temple, his ability is proven to be a game changer when he works offensively with Vanessa and Asta. During the Royal Knights Selection, he incorporated some offensive capabilities into his spatial magic, which was then able to cancel out his brother’s spatial magic. Void, one of the God Hand in the Berserk series, uses the same spatial manipulation ability as Finral’s.
3. Mark of the Wind (Chivalry of a Failed Knight)
Ayase Ayatsuji’s Noble Art, the Mark of the Wind, is a unique application of spatial manipulation in Chivalry of a Failed Knight. Ayase cuts the space with her sword, which leaves an invisible blade. When triggered, the vacuum blades then cut her opponents—even if they are beyond her sword’s reach.
2. Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine (Jujutsu Kaisen)
Domain Expansion in Jujutsu Kaisen is an advanced application of cursed magic, in which the user creates a space that traps his enemies. Inside the domain, the user’s abilities are heightened, unavoidable, and they have influence over everything within. Sukuna’s Domain Expansion, the Malevolent Shrine, is one of the coolest abilities in the series. Contrary to how Domain Expansion works, Malevolent Shrine’s effects can manifest even without creating a space that separates a target from the real world.
1. Deva Path (Naruto)
The Deva Path is one of the abilities granted by the Rinnegan, which we saw used by Pain. The Deva Path allows the user to attract and repulse, pull and push, anything and anyone. It’s a kind of spatial manipulation in which the user becomes the epicenter of a force field that either pulls in or pushes away anything in that field. The devastating Shinra Tensei is a large-scale technique derived from the Deva Path (used by Pain to wipe out Konoha). Uchiha Madara also used a similar technique derived from the Deva Path, except his was a much higher caliber: the Tengai Shinsei, which pulled two meteors from outer space. Read next: The Best Animated Fight Scenes in Anime, Ranked
