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This is my dream, my magnum opus. My life's work in the realm of RPG design.
I've looked at many anime systems or Japanese systems. Big Eyes, Small Mouth, OVA, Tenra Banshou. I've also looked at some recommendations that don't really fit but are often recommended. Please stop recommending Fabula Ultima. It doesn't remotely capture the feeling of Shounen.
But my question is how would you go about modelling a Shounen RPG system? It needs large power scaling and the ability to use powerful attacks. It needs to have a system for creating said attacks. Honestly, the closest I've come looking at other RPGs to what would fit both Demon Slayer and One Piece is either Mutants and Masterminds or Cortex Prime.
I want the big numbers though. I want relatively simple method for making cool attacks. I want to be able to let GMs decide on the power of the world. Over 9000, over 9 million, doesn't matter. But it needs to be intuitive enough that you can calculate the power of an attack in a couple of minutes to give it to players. And it needs to feel like players are powerful shounen heroes that start off as strong as The Rock, but can eventually punch through 5 buildings.
I have plenty of ideas on how to do all of this, but I'm very curious what you all think of it. Looking forward to hearing some cool ideas.
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I do think a narrative system makes more sense if you really want to capture the feel of a shounen cartoon. Rather than rolling for damage etc, I might have abilities like "Just this once I have to go all out", or "Reveal you've been holding back", "Reach a new level of power", "Gain strength through your bonds of friendship", "Take a hit but struggle on", etc, and with costs and consequences and metacurrencies for each of these (actually maybe that's turning into too long a list - I'd probably group & simplify things). Basically, to get the proper arc for combat, you have to take a bunch of hits and sacrifices and draw on friendship, training, and willpower, and eventually build up enough metacurrency to pull off some finishing move. I might also add some rule about "when facing an opponent below your power level, describe how you easily defeat them".