Lucy vs Tetsuo (Elfen Lied vs Akira)
Intro
“Mutation: It is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward”
-Charles Xavier
Lucy, The Queen of the Diclonius.
Tetsuo, the psychic leader of the Great Tokyo Empire.
Abandoned by their parents, a military facility they broke out of, and enough power that their body can’t contain it and nearly taking the world with them. Which of these two psychic* anime teens will end up victorious?
*yes we know Lucy isn’t technically psychic with telekinesis and shit but this has been delayed for a while and rushed out an intro paragraph shush. I swear the rest of the blog isn’t this low effort lol
Before we start…
Both are pretty light on material and will primarily be manga with their animated versions thrown in for support, so instead this is going to be a content warning. Both have large amounts of graphic violence and some nudity is to be expected. The latter will be censored where possible, but some discretion is going to be advised.
As a small addition, since there was a bit of an issue of blog plagiarism at the time of writing, we will be direct and say G1's Magneto vs Tetsuo blog was used as a base for Tetsuo’s side. Credits to Cyber’s document on Carnage vs Lucy too, as certain arguments and justification were used in Lucy's case.
Background
Lucy
Somewhere in the province of Kamakura, a child would be born with horns due to a viral mutation from her mother, and be abandoned. She would soon be found in a forest and left in the care of an orphanage. Whether her parents or the orphanage named her, those in the orphanage would know her as Kaede, more commonly known by her iconic codename Lucy. While she was unaware at the time, Lucy was from a race of evolved humans with horns known as the Diclonius who could control invisible hands known as Vectors– which were able to cut through people and spread the Diclonius disease. Lucy was not any average diclonius, either. In fact, she’s the first pure blooded one in years able to reproduce naturally, making her their queen.
Lucy’s stay at the orphanage certainly wasn’t kind to the poor girl. She'd constantly be discriminated against by the kids of the orphanage because of her horns, with the only comfort in the orphanage being a stray puppy she found and cared for. This was until a girl she trusted to keep the secret snitched to the kids, and they would soon force her to watch as they beat the dog to death with a vase. And so Lucy snapped, and the kids would all be killed by her newly awakened Vectors. This horrifying experience would mark Lucy for the rest of her life. As a result, she fled from the orphanage to bury the puppy and met a human boy by the name of Kouta, the first human who treated Lucy with kindness at her saddest point, whom she would eventually grow quite attached to.
This caused an internal voice representing the primal instinct within her to emerge, whispering to her she couldn’t co-exist with humans. Lucy paid no mind until the day Kouta went away for a festival, and so to not hurt her feelings he told her the person he was visiting was a boy. But when Lucy arrived, she felt betrayed when she saw his cousin was a girl. To be brief, due to this misunderstanding she would kill many people at the festival. Including Kouta's father and sister, which she would quickly regret when Kouta told her to stop. With her previous relation with Kouta permanently gone, Lucy would solely dedicate herself to heeding the voice’s orders, killing humans and spreading the virus for the next five years. During this period, Lucy would meet yet another human by the name of Aiko, a girl who she grew quite fond of and fled with after she accidentally killed her father. The government took notice of this and tracked Lucy’s location. In the process, Aiko was caught in the crossfire. Lucy willingly gave herself up to the institution to be contained in the promises that they’d save Aiko, where she’d be given her well-known name by the Diclonius Research Institute, Lucy. After this, the institution would bear the bad news that Aiko had died, growing her resentment towards the institute and humanity even more.
Years after the tragedy, Lucy would break out of containment, and shortly after suffer a concussion from a sniper bullet in the ensuing bloodbath. With the bullet stunning her and sending her off a cliff into the sea, on the shore of a beach Lucy would reunite with a now amnesiac Kouta with no memory of the murder of his family and his cousin. The concussion she suffered earlier created an alternate childlike personality known as Nyuu, where she’d spend her days living in peace in the Maple Inn alongside her friends while changing personalities. But this newfound peace didn't last, as the Institute attempted to recapture her by sending in armed forces or other Diclonius– many of which Lucy slaughtered. The Maple Inn was eventually raided, it was here where the brutality Lucy showcased to protect her peaceful life eventually jogged Kouta’s memory of his family’s murder. In the process her horns were cracked, debilitating her enough to the point she would be transferred back into the institute.
Now conscious, Lucy would meet the madman who led this whole operation in the first place, Director Kakuzawa, and learned of her other purpose as the queen, to bear the child just like her mother as the next step to guarantee the growth of pure blooded Diclonius and the decline of Humanity. Unsurprisingly, Lucy refused and she didn’t just kill the director— she nuked the whole island. No longer wanting to have anything to do with her race. Lucy would soon flee in a capsule to reach back to shore, reuniting with a wounded Kouta that had remembered everything that had happened up until now. Feeling regretful after all this time, Lucy wanted to atone for family’s murder. But Kouta would never forgive her for such an act. Despite this, Kouta wanted Lucy and Nyuu to stay if she promised that she wouldn’t kill anymore with her powers.
Unfortunately good things like promises don’t last for our queen here, and Kouta would throw himself in the way of fire to save Lucy. This made Lucy completely snap, being reminded of all the tragic losses in her past. So she started wiping all of humanity by using her vectors at the highest frequencies, going far beyond the limits her body clearly could not take. In the moment Lucy realized that she could heal Kouta, and so she sacrificed her body to heal and protect him from the military that tried to kill her. In her last moments, illusions of Lucy and Nyuu begged for Kouta to shoot her body before the DNA voice fully took over, offering him a pistol– dying soon after Kouta shot her. Decades after the Diclonius threat was long over and humanity recovered, an adult Kouta went to visit a spot with his daughter. In the same spot he first met Lucy in, a pair of mysterious but familiar looking pair of twins would arrive and said they were waiting for “an old friend.”
Tetsuo
December 6th, 1992. A new type of bomb exploded over the metropolitan area of Japan. 9 hours later, World War 3 began. Fast forward to the distant, far off year of 2019, Tokyo is rebuilt into Neo-Tokyo, plagued with government tyranny, terrorism, and gang violence. One such gang was a biker gang called the Capsules, led by Shotaro Kaneda, with his second in command being his best friend Tetsuo Shima.
Tetsuo had quite the troubled upbringing, having an abusive relationship with his single mother and growing up in an orphanage. He always looked to fit in, but his general shortcomings and hotheadedness would only be exacerbated by his friend Kaneda. While Kaneda always stood up for Tetsuo in his younger years, this mounting jealousy led to developing an inferiority complex nearly as big as his forehead, and would spell disaster in the future. During a race, Tetsuo would go far ahead of his fellow Capsule members, only to crash into a strange child, one with the body of a 10 year old but had seemingly aged like an old man. This was in fact an escaped Esper named Takashi, and he was running from government agents looking to recapture him, but they would end up taking Tetsuo in.
In the following days, Tetsuo would learn he himself would have similar Esper abilities. He’d break out of his military confinement in possession of the one thing he wanted; power, and a never ending desire for more. He learned of someone called Akira, who in truth was the Esper behind nuking Tokyo to begin with, and began rampaging in search of him. When they met, they became close, and when Takashi, a part of Akira’s group of test subjects, was killed, Akira broke. He would create a second Akira event and destroy Tokyo again.
The ruins of the city would become the foundations of the new Great Tokyo Empire, with Tetsuo and Akira as its leaders. The power got to his head, and all Tetsuo used the position for was drugs, sex, and abusing his power. Despite anti-Akira factions, other Espers and the US Government trying to topple the regime, nobody could touch him. Tetsuo’s newfound power would be used to destroy much of the moon in an intimidation attempt, but this would end up as his downfall.
See, Tetsuo’s power grew at a much faster rate than other Espers, and due to this he began to mutate. Coupled with the loss of his lover Kaori and Kaneda’s rebellion on his doorstep, Tetsuo’s power grew out of control, quite literally as his body began absorbing anything and everything. He would start a third Akira event, and become absorbed by a final event. He swallowed Kaneda and everything else in its wake, where Kaneda would experience Tetsuo’s memories and at last understand each other. When the dust settled, Kaneda had taken over the still standing Great Tokyo Empire, starting the reconstruction process anew.
Experience
Lucy
Since childhood, Lucy has enough experience under her horns killing many people to grow accustomed to her vectors. Having gone unnoticed for years by most people while she frequently spread the virus, and just as often proven to be the deadliest and most tactical Diclonius. While she relies on her Vectors she will not hesitate to resort to the most brutal of methods. Take for example when she mercilessly ripped out and used a guy’s head as a distraction, the time she threw a pen through a guy’s skull or the instance she ripped the floor to crush several soldiers into paste. She even has taken advantage of others and their emotions, like when she threw the remote that would stop bombs implanted on Mariko just to gain an opening to cut off her legs. This resourcefulness goes to the point that people who have faced Diclonius have frequently not left any object on the ground near them, and for damn good reason.
During most of the series Lucy has ripped apart many groups of armed forces, including Bando, whom she defeated twice. For reference he is one of the deadliest assassins in the military, who strategized around her weaknesses and length of her vectors, and despite all that he still lost. She’s also faced and defeated various powerful Diclonii like Mariko and Nana, both having superior range on their Vectors over her at the time. Lucy tore Anna apart, a future predicting Diclonius the size of a small building. And in her final moments, she fought off all the entire Japanese military while healing Kouta.
Tetsuo
Tetsuo doesn’t have a large body of experience to pull from, seeing as how he’s usually the top dog in most fights. He is however one of the stronger Esper’s of the series, defeated Kei who was using the powers of a few other Espers, and has fought the US Military a few times.
Abilities
Lucy
Vectors
Vectors are a set of invisible extendable hands that appear from the back which Diclonii can control simultaneously. As the Queen, her purpose is to spread the Diclonius virus to create more Diclonii to eventually overtake and kill humanity. The vectors themselves are also connected to and physically generated by her horns and oversized pineal gland. Just like her vectors, her horns also grow far longer and well, pointier at the same time. But the Vectors also serve as the main means of both offense and defense to attack from afar for a Diclonii; being quick and tough enough to shield her from all kinds of danger like bullets or missiles.
Lucy used 4 or 13 early on in series and could extend them up to a limit of two meters, but overtime the range of her vectors kept increasing to the point she could adjust their size or length even as a child in times of rage, even increasing their numbers to 28, potentially 47 through scaling to other diclonii like Mariko. She can make them long enough to drill through a 2 kilometer island and reach dozens of miles into space, or large enough to easily eclipse entire buildings and even grow to the size of countries.
The hands also have a different set of effects depending on the frequency they vibrate on, growing deadlier and deadlier the higher they vibrate.
Low Frequencies: At lower frequencies, the Vectors become intangible and are able to phase through all sorts of material like rocks or walls. They can even be used to phase through a person’s body to, say, mercilessly rip out their heart, or mess with blood vessels in their brains to cause instant death, or potentially knock them out if Lucy is feeling merciful.
Medium Frequencies: The Vectors finally become tangible and can punch, squeeze or lift and precisely throw objects like tombs, pens, rocks or boats.
High Frequencies: By vibrating the Vectors even higher and moving them at incredible speeds, Lucy can make her vector's hands become sharp enough to cut through crowds of people.
Extreme Frequencies: At the most extreme of frequencies the Vectors finally become visible to human eyes and vibrate with enough energy to cause nuclear explosions, with the process later being compared to nuclear fusion, where two light nuclei are combined to form a single heavier one, releasing massive amounts of energy as a result. At the end of the manga, it’s stated that the Vector's explosive power being used to wipe mankind is perhaps their true purpose. Also, if Lucy so chooses she can still make them intangible, as shown here and here.
Levitation/Flight
Sort of? It's more accurate to say that Lucy pushes herself off the ground to jump much higher than normal and fight in the air. Lucy can also use the vectors to lift herself off the ground to levitate, and even other diclonii like Barbara have used to launch themselves at high speeds.
Heightened Senses
Though seemingly only working on sensing Diclonii, they can telephatically sense each other from far away.
Healing
Vectors have the ability to be able to precisely stitch cells back together, allowing Lucy to heal grave wounds like gunshots in the chest. The Diclonii also seem to possess some form of healing on minor injuries. Nyuu also ambiguously healed after cutting off her own wrists.
Illusions
Another weird one-off ability. Lucy can induce hallucinations so that only people can see her and Nyuu. Lucy hasn’t used this ability in combat.
Forcefield Creation
Lucy can change the density of vectors to form a protective barrier around herself.
Storm Creation
When angered, the Vectors at higher frequencies can cause entire storms as large as the island of Enoshima.
Alternate Personalities
Throughout her life, Lucy has gained several personalities based on certain potential aspects of her character and act as their own consciousness. These were directly caused by trauma, whether it be physical or emotional and can appear randomly or by choice.
Lucy/Kaede
The middle ground between these personalities and the original one. Generally distrustful of those around her (unless they’re Kouta), reserved and holds a deep resentment towards humanity after all the discrimination (and dog murder) she’s gone through.
Nyuu
After being shot in the head, Lucy developed a more peaceful and childlike persona known as Nyuu (who has a weird obsession with… groping people and couldn’t stop saying Nyuu) that eventually grew out of this phase. With this persona, Lucy finally got the life she wished where she’d be accepted by those around her and to be around Kouta. This persona under emotional stress seems to possess some control over the vectors, albeit limited.
DNA Voice
Experiencing the traumatic events in the orphanage likely caused a voice within her blood to appear in her head dubbed the DNA voice, representing her primal instincts. Constantly influencing the thoughts of Lucy to guide and remind her of her goal to wipe all of humanity. The voice can also take control if it so chooses if Lucy refuses to heed its orders, or if her body is in grave danger.
Resistances
Radiation and Extreme Heat: Diclonii are naturally resistant to radiation after having resided in an island with extreme levels of radiation
Limited resistance towards Toxins and Sleep drugs: Although both had some effect, Lucy was capable of powering through a spiked iron ball’s painful toxins. Which are so normally painful they can incapacitate someone. She was also able to wake up from being sedated as Lucy, with her other self going through the effects of the drug.
Tetsuo
The Stream / The Power
Ever since the Big Bang, the energy and time of it all flowed forward in some type of “cosmic stream”. A great energy was dispersed, searching for “perfection”. In truth, it originates as the memory of the universe - the memories of the most microscopic particles of creation came together and formed this Cosmic Stream. All life forms have a semblance of connection to the Stream, though channeling too much of The Power will deform the vessel using it and break it down, or completely destroy their sense of mental being as it did with Akira. What this all means for Tetsuo is he can use the Stream for a wide number of psychic powers.
Telekinesis
The primary use of his psychic powers, Tetsuo possesses potent telekinetic abilities. He has a variety of uses with it that will be covered later, but his main telekinesis uses are manipulating his environment, converting things like rocks and metal into projectiles. He can use it to repulse matter away from him, shown above and later on a much greater scale when he cratered the Moon. Lastly, should he ever lose a limb in combat, he can use scrap metal from his surroundings to create replacement limbs if he wishes.
Telepathy
Tetsuo is able to know if people are talking about him from across a city and extract information telepathically. It also seems to have evolved into some sort of precognition that allows him to predict future events, although these are more so “visions” he has, which appear at random to him.
Clairvoyance
Espers are shown to have clairvoyance to an extent. Tetsuo’s connection with Akira allowed him to see past and future events alongside viewing Kaneda, who was temporarily displaced from being inside an Akira Event at the time. His own awareness was amplified by his exposure to the Stream, granting Tetsuo a more profound understanding of the universe.
Flight
He can use his powers to fly. What else needs to be said
Teleportation
Exactly as you would expect, Tetsuo can use his powers to teleport instantly anywhere he wants. He also seems able to teleport objects like buildings as well.
Force Fields
Tetsuo’s primary method of defense, he can erect a psychic barrier that can block incoming attacks. It works on laser beams, satellite blasts, and provides insulation against the heat of atmospheric reentry.
Healing Factor
Tetsuo possesses a healing factor to repair wounds far faster than normal. It seems to be tied with his power, as at the beginning of the manga he could heal from gunshot wounds in about a day. Later when his powers more fully developed, he could quickly regrow his arm and it extends to the bottom half of his body
Fire Manipulation/Explosion Inducement
Tetsuo has shown above and in other instances he can cause a target to explode with his own telekinetic power
Storm Creation
His psychic powers allow the creation of large storms, which has covered entire cities
Electricity Manipulation
Tetsuo uses this power to move as a bolt of lightning and has been shown to cause explosions with them. Otherwise, he has more minor uses like being able to hack into a PIN-locked door.
Soul Manipulation
While a bit worthless in combat, Tetsuo was briefly able to return Kaori’s spirit to her dead body.
Gravity Manipulation
His powers allow him some control over gravity. He used this to try and crush Kei during their fight by sucking in nearby debris
Earthquake Inducement
Tetsuo once accidentally created an earthquake, measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale.
Inorganic Matter Fusing
As a result of his ever-increasing power, Tetsuo’s body was unable to fully control it and would fuse with inorganic matter. It's not all bad however, since he’s shown to exert some control over what he fuses with, shown when controlling a jet, an aircraft carrier, and seemingly a falling satellite’s laser. He can even extend metallic tendrils across an entire stadium and seems able to travel along them.
Ego Death/Pure Form
With the increase in his psychic prowess and power usage, Tetsuo begins to mutate, growing grotesquely and out of control, causing great pain. Though he cannot control any of his actions at this point, Tetsuo is still capable of using telekinesis and releasing energy in this state. Sufficient damage can momentarily revert him back to a human state, though he will deform quickly again if his body is still channeling too much power from the Stream. Likewise, gas or drugs that repress his power or affect his nervous system may cause temporary reversion back to human form.
Akira Event
A large-scale release of power, an Akira Event manifests as a singularity which absorbs its immediate surroundings, such as people or buildings, as well as the obvious of sheer explosive might which manifest anomalies such as beta decay, nuclear fusion and gravitational deterioration. The singularity opening leads to a dimensional space linked with the Cosmic Stream, linking trapped individuals to different moments in time and even memories. Miyako states these singularities send the captured victims “beyond the boundaries of this world” and its shown time flows differently within the singularity. Viewing memories within the singularity can lead to a loss of self, requiring a focused mind to counter this.
Resistances
Toxins/Gases - Can take large hits from drugs potent enough that one drop can kill a normal man. A lethal poisonous gas didn’t just not affect him, it was actually absorbed and benefited him. Unaffected by tear gas in the movie
Extreme Cold - Can survive inside Akira’s chamber, which froze people much further behind him into statues and is stated to be kept at nearly absolute 0 temperatures
Heat - With his shields, he protected himself and a falling satellite from the heat of atmospheric reentry, which can hit up to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 1649 degrees Celsius
Vacuum Conditions/Cosmic Radiation - Can survive in the vacuum of space
Feats
Lucy
Overall
Literally murdered her way out of the heavily guarded Diclonius Research Institute
Spread the Diclonius virus and created many Slipelit
Killed over 9,000 people, if not possibly thousands more during her childhood
Defeated Nana, Bando (twice), Mariko, and the future predicting Anna
A vector craft, which normally cancels Vectors, got scared at the mere sight of her explosions
Saved and healed Kouta from a deadly bullet wound while fending off the entire Japanese military
Strength
Vectors can lift and chuck a massive boulder, as well as throw a boat (Anime)
Uprooted a tree with her vectors
Dunked Nana into the ground with enough force to kick up dust
Her vectors in a fit of rage blew up a building during her childhood (1 Ton TNT)
Completely drilled through a 2 kilometer island with her vectors from underground, causing a massive explosion, with the island later being sunk. (247.4 Gigatons TNT)
The explosion later caused a magnitude 9.2 earthquake. With it kicking a tsunami much higher than 30 meters, the result leading to several battleships in sight to be capsized by it. The facility was also built to survive earthquakes and tsunamis, further supporting this.
The Vectors can become so much bigger than buildings to the point they can crush them
Her vectors can become so large to the point they can be seen in space, with Lucy and other people stating she could potentially wipe out humanity and potentially the planet with them. Although vague, it is possible she could reach such a feat with the kinetic energy of her vectors going into space. (At least 1.466 - 210.75 Exatons TNT, possibly higher)
Speed
Stopped a bullet with her vectors before it reached her heart (Mach 112)
Managed to deflect 50 caliber bullets designed to specifically get through a Diclonii’s defenses
Her vectors were fast enough to catch up and destroy several F-15 fighter jets
The vectors can quickly travel into space and shoot back down to attack Kouta in a matter of seconds. (Mach 1547)
Both Lucy and Nyuu managed to take control and redirected the vectors to protect Kouta at last second, making it likely that this scales to their own reactions. (0.122c)
Durability
Survived falling off a cliff after being shot in the head
Was sent flying to a graveyard after being punched by Nana’s vectors
Nyuu survived being slammed through two sliding doors by Nana’s Vectors
As shown above, took the explosion of all the bombs implanted in Mariko, though this did knock Lucy’s horns out.
Powered through having a spiked iron ball stabbed into her stomach, which releases a deadly neurotoxin so painful it can incapacitate someone from the pain.
Survived being crushed by Anna’s massive hand, and later took the explosion of her vectors happening right on top of her.
Vectors can block missiles from the air force with their shields.
Despite being melted to the point of becoming a limbless melted corpse, was still able to keep on fighting while in agonizing pain.
Tetsuo
Overall
One of the world’s strongest Espers
Broke out of military containment
Released Akira, and would have ended up as powerful as him
Lead the Great Akira Empire
Ascended to a new plane of reality
Akira movie is most of the reason anime became a thing in the west
Strength
Creates large explosions with his lightning when he lands
Exploded a soldier, which took out part of an Olympic stadium
Destroyed much of Tokyo's stadium by merging with it
Stated he can lay waste to “all the energy mankind has amassed”, being quoted to be "puffs of air" compared to him (At least 6.3 gigatons TNT)
Flew into orbit while carrying several tons of debris behind him (52.2 kilotons TNT)
Created storms across Neo Tokyo (7.8 megatons TNT)
Displaced a large amount of water and sank a fleet of ships
Created a Magnitude 8.5 earthquake (84.8 megatons TNT)
[Movie] Decapitated a biker with a pipe before his powers manifested
[Movie] Destroyed a bridge
[Movie] Crushed a tank
Speed
Can travel as a bolt of lightning
Flew into orbit in a few seconds in both versions (Mach 119)
Flew to the moon with his lightning travel, shown when he returns using the same ability (At least 0.128c)
Can react to, catch, dodge and deflect laser shots numerous times in both movie and manga (Various results in the relativistic range)
[Movie] Caught a tank shell
Durability
Survived his bike exploding, though barely (29.8 Megajoules)
Literally laughs off falling from a skyscraper
Got hit by a large rock and a subsequent satellite blast
Shielded himself and a falling satellite from the heat of atmospheric reentry followed by an aircraft assault
Unfazed from several tons of collapsing rubble
Was still standing after getting shot by a missile
Has both deflected and tanked blasts from the SOL satellite. Stray shots flew off and destroyed large sections of Neo Tokyo (402.8 tons TNT)
It also might be able to sink the city entirely.
Was next to the explosion when he cratered the moon [Debatable]
[Movie] Thrown through a wall and was fine
[Movie] Tanked being thrown into a pipe
Scaling
Both combatants possess like, all of their franchises feats worth mentioning lmfao this whole section ain’t gonna add shit
Weaknesses
Lucy
The key to Lucy’s power as previously mentioned is thanks to both her horns and unique pineal gland, so if Lucy is hit in the forehead or one of her horns are broke, she will be debilitated and temporarily lose control over her vectors, for a short or long while depending on the severity of the attack. Lucy is also mentally insane and could possibly revert back to Nyuu through various circumstances (at random, a hit to the head, breaking her horns) and potentially be left defenseless. Should Lucy keep going beyond her limits and use her vectors at their highest frequency for too long, her entire body will start to melt due to entropy and her body parts will fall off until she is nothing, though Lucy can fully take the injury just fine for a while (no, melting form was never a thing)
Tetsuo
Tetsuo’s immense power comes at an immense cost. Tetsuo’s body is not able to contain the full extent of his power and he never did gain full control over them, always needing drugs or some equivalent to help. Without, he’ll grow into a mindless mound of flesh. This ended up being his downfall in the actual story, paired with his rampaging ego and inferiority complex.
Q&A
Planet related feats & statements
In Lucy’s case, her own planet level arguments mainly stem from the ending of the manga and could potentially seem hyperbolic, where Lucy threatens to destroy the entire planet and wipe all of humanity (this statement is later paraphrased) by sending in all of her giant vectors and nuking several places. Although it’s unknown if Lucy was gonna destroy it in one go, it is possible she could reach such a level through the potency of her vectors.
Tetsuo’s planet level arguments arise from closer to the end of the manga, where Miyako says Tetsuo and Akira’s combined power would be too much for the planet, backed up a bit since Kaneda believed Akira capable of destroying the planet outright. Both versions of the manga however specify either a multiplication or seemingly squaring (multiplying a number by itself) which makes it unusable.
This actually segues nicely into the other argument, that being Ryu saying early on Japan has the budget to destroy Earth 100 times over. Though Miyako has said Tetsuo is more powerful than all of mankind’s gathered energy, and by some distance, it's more likely referring to simply life wiping rather than destroying the planet outright, given they were talking more about budget than actual capability. The best statement otherwise comes from SOL being allegedly able to sink Tokyo. Tetsuo’s moon crater, while a valid feat, is pretty bluntly sub-planetary even without the VS goggles on and was a major expenditure of his power that he suffered greatly from afterwards. This is also assuming the 100x statement is fully literal, and not the more likely interpretation of simply being hyperbolic or exaggerated.
Lastly, while not planet level itself, there has been one argument proposed that Espers are able to stop the planet rotating, but this is simply Tetsuo using power exerted by rotating the Earth as a comparison to explain the Stream and the power it gives off.
Universal Tetsuo
This will be a simple repeat from G1’s Magneto vs Tetsuo blog, as that blog addresses the arguments from both versions in good detail. The only major difference is some links have been replaced that have since gone dead.
Manga
In volume 5, a team of scientists notes Tetsuo’s Akira Event to be like a miniature Big Bang, and note they are witnessing the birth of a new universe. This alongside cosmic imagery on volume 6 has inspired the notion Tetsuo made a universe at the end of the manga.
However, that is not what occurs in volume 6. In that volume, Akira absorbs Tetsuo into a singularity, alongside Kaneda. The result is Kaneda viewing the past memories of Tetsuo and Akira, alongside the origin of the universe as told by Miyako’s spirit. Kei even refers to these as illusions in the colored version of the manga. The cosmic imagery is simply describing the truth of the Cosmic Stream (check Tetsuo’s abilities section) and its relevance to human evolution.
Even if there was some level of creation going on during this scene, Tetsuo would not scale at all. He is consumed and killed by Akira, with his spirit moving to the afterlife/“higher plane” as a result. Tetsuo stated several times that he would eventually reach Akira’s level of power, but when both finally clash Akira decimates him entirely.
As for the commentary about the Akira Event being a small Big Bang, this doesn't mean it is universal. Miyako gives us two measures of power for Tetsuo, the first being while he was suppressed on drugs and the second when his power had grown so much his body could not contain it. The first measure is simply being above all the energy humanity has amassed and the second is being capable of busting the planet alongside Akira, who is his superior in power, neither of which are universal. The highest level of power shown by Akira Events is destroying Tokyo/Neo Tokyo, even with two Akira Events occurring at once.
It should be noted that at the time the scientists compared an Akira Event to a small Big Bang, they admittingly did not fully understand the Stream, as revealed in their later discussion with Tetsuo. The very Akira Event that was studied (the one generated by Tetsuo) is also stated to be weaker than Akira’s own produced ones.
Lastly, redirecting the Stream, at least for Tetsuo, is not universal. He suffered severe after-effects from making a hole in the Moon, and his body could not contain his increasing amount of power. At best, it’s comparable to the comparison he gives about stopping the Earth’s rotation. Only Akira is ever suggested to be capable of affecting the whole Stream, having been stated by Miyako to have transcended it.
And in case there was any doubt about Akira being superior to Tetsuo for the vast majority of the manga, if not all of it:
Anime
In the film, Tetsuo is likewise consumed by Akira’s singularity. The scientist formerly attending to Tetsuo notes that it might be the birth of a new universe. Tetsuo gets sent to another dimension by Akira, and the film concludes seemingly with a Big Bang caused by a now in-control Tetsuo.
To note, the possibility of this feat being legitimate is far more likely than in the manga’s version of events. We see an actual Big Bang on screen, Tetsuo declares “I am Tetsuo'', and we get a panning shot of stars and galaxies. There is also confirmation that Akira didn't kill him in this continuity, as the Espers mention they left the Earth, and Kaneda mentions he is not so sure Tetsuo actually died.
Issues arise from the fact that Tetsuo needed Akira's interference to even do this. In the film, Tetsuo loses control of his power, with it even being stated that it would kill him. Akira circumvents this by taking Tetsuo and the other Espers to another world/dimension, and the Espers imply they may one day return. One argument is the new universe we see at the end is the new location they went to. The scientist earlier on does say it might be universal creation, but it is noted as a maybe.
Regardless, the time-frame isn't exactly specified, though it may have been quick, and more importantly, Tetsuo cannot simply generate a universe in the middle of a fight. He needs Akira and the Espers' assistance for this, and cannot do so on his own. We also know nothing of Tetsuo’s combat abilities or physical being in this new state. Tetsuo at the end of the film is a big unknown, and that's kind of the point of the ending.
Does Lucy’s durability physically scale to her own Vectors?
This has been a topic that’s been quite contentious for quite a while, and we can sort of see why. Lucy for most of the series spends most of the time protecting herself with her own vectors from things like bullets, and depending on context could be potentially taken out by lesser attacks. Not to mention there’s the big yellow elephant being the potency of her highest frequencies messing her up to the point of killing her, so what’s? Do we think she scales? The answer is Yes. And also No. It depends
What does she scale to?
To clarify, let’s go back to the context of the island nuke in Volumes 10 and 11 of the Elfen Lied manga. When Lucy nuked the Institute and caused an earthquake that kicked up a tsunami, she was previously trapped in Anna’s giant hand after Nyuu attempted to fight back. In the next scene Anna’s left arm was completely gone after the fact. Combining Lucy herself was in the Lebensborn cave, an underground cave with an underwater pond that had high atmospheric pressure from how deep it was, it’s likely that Lucy took the explosion of her own vectors happening on top of her being at the very center of the explosion. Not to mention Lucy had dug a deep hole through the entire island which later caused it to crumble into the sea.
This is also supported by how Lucy’s own body later reacted to the heat from the higher frequencies (she vomited blood after her vector nuke) and how she melted to a limbless person due to entropy eating away at her body (Entropy being the measure of the amount of disorder within a system, in this case), Kakuzawa explicitly also states that constantly going beyond her limits caused this. Very much confirming that Lucy was taking the exact same energies she and her vectors were producing during that time, especially since we know Lucy’s own vectors come out of her and are attached to her back (and are exactly produced/controlled by her too). Since Lucy could take the energies being exerted onto her just fine for a while, as far as we’re concerned Lucy herself should scale to the island nuke and the earthquakes.
What does she not scale to?
This one is pretty straightforward and has its whole can of issues, but she shouldn’t physically scale to the maximum potency of her country sized vectors at all. After Lucy protected Kouta, it is shown and stated that Lucy was going far beyond her limits at the time and her own body clearly could not take the backlash this time like she did prior. And to top this off the healing of Kouta also sped up that process dramatically.
Does Tetsuo’s durability scale to his powers?
Normally, probably not (physically anyways, shields are likely fair game). Even though he has some superhuman feats of survivability, he has shown injury from common methods of harm such as bullets and lasers. A point of note however is that Tetsuo, as seen above (middle panel, left side), is directly next to the explosion he made when destroying the moon. The feat is a bit vague, since while we don’t see him get out of the way, the next time he’s seen is in orbit of the moon, which could indicate he hopped away offscreen. And of course, the possibility exists he may have shielded himself regardless. Still an interesting note all the same.
Verdict
Stats
AP - Lucy normally can sink islands and create large storms, the former getting 247 Gigatons TNT. Tetsuo’s best normally is creating that giant crater in the moon, getting in the low Exatons TNT. This is a dangerous expenditure of power to be fair, but even 1/1000th of that is still far in excess of what Lucy can output. You will note however that both come with the caveat of “normally”, as both come with more self destructive versions of them at their strongest. There’s many ways to calculate the power of Lucy’s vectors, but most get within the hundreds of Exatons, possibly even the Zettaton range. Tetsuo’s best, however, is much more ill-defined and vague in terms of power, but sub-planetary given statements from Miyako. So Lucy at her strongest exceeds Tetsuo’s raw power, but Tetsuo is otherwise the leader for raw strength.
Speed - This category is more in Tetsuo’s ballpark, with a vast pool of laser dodging/reacting feats to draw from. As would be expected, most get around 20-60% light speed, and are supported with his moon jump getting 12% SoL. Lucy doesn’t trail too far behind, being able to redirect Vectors moving at Mach a fuckton at the last second, getting around 12% Light Speed when doing the standard 1 meter for reactions conversion.
Durability - As shown in some of the Q&A bits, neither verse runs off your normal Ki/Chakra/General Shonen power system where your power output scales directly to your durability, so we have to go more off of direct showings. Lucy has more robust and arguable scaling to her island nuking, so that can be more reasonably argued than Tetsuo possibly being in the moon crater, which has a number of holes you can poke in it and was brought up more as a hypothetical. Tetsuo otherwise doesn’t get too high for durability feats
Tl;dr
-Strength - Tetsuo normally, Lucy at their peak
-Speed - Tetsuo
-Lucy is more durable, but both of their APs far exceed shown durability feats
Abilities
Now for the real meat and potatoes of the debate, how their abilities interact.
One thing of note is that they have a good number of ways to just flat out kill the other instantly, regardless of power, by turning off/destroying vital organs. This can even be done at range. Tetsuo does have a small advantage in this field though, since exploding heads doesn’t require anything more than the effort to do so, whereas Lucy’s Vectors need to physically travel to the target to do anything first. Lucy’s vectors are also controlled with her pineal gland, which Tetsuo could potentially target and destroy (on top of, you know, her brain exploding lmao). Still, it’s a strong option that both possess and can net victories in some scenarios.
You’ll remember during Lucy vs Carnage that DB brought up the heat of nuclear blasts being far above Carnage’s shown resistance. The same applies here, 180000 Fahrenheit vs Tetsuo’s best being only 3000. We don’t know if that’s his peak, but it’s unlikely to be that much higher.
Ego Death is a horrible form for Tetsuo to be in, it's a much greater target and hasn’t shown much for maneuvering around. It’s likely to just get him killed. However, it is, however unlikely, possible the form could BFR Lucy via Akira Event, as Kaneda required outside aid to escape. Lucy could use her Vector flight to escape before this happens though.
However, Tetsuo’s advantages begin to add up onwards. First, he has superior mobility tools. Most Diclonii have only shown traversal over city distances with their flight, and Lucy has nothing else in this category. Meanwhile, Tetsuo has shown he can easily fly himself into orbit, or even fly as far as the moon. He otherwise has teleportation for extra maneuverability.
Otherwise, Tetsuo has telepathy, which can give him a leg up and know Lucy’s plans. She hasn’t resisted this and Diclonii even communicate and sense each other by similar methods. Tetsuo creating a gravity well on Lucy is a strong option as well. Although she could fight back against debris being pulled into her, she can’t deal with the actual gravity well itself.
While both have ways to heal injuries, Tetsuo has shown to replace lost limbs and regrow lost parts of his body at his best. Lucy has some of her own healing, which although weaker, isn’t a huge disadvantage anyways. Tetsuo is still going to have the edge in survivability.
Lucy’s storm creation is gonna be worthless. If anything it’ll be actively detrimental since Tetsuo doesn’t need to put in the effort to make a storm of his own for lightning travel.
Overall, Tetsuo has a leg up in abilities
Tertiary Factors
Experience definitely goes to Lucy, like have you seen the lengths of those sections lol. But seriously, Tetsuo is far from worthless in a fight, but Lucy just simply has him outdone in various accomplishments.
Pain tolerance is probably in a similar ballpark. Not much else overall worth mentioning
Lucy
Advantages
Stronger and outranges at her peak
Superior fighting experience
Can produce heat that far exceeds Tetsuo’s shown resistances
Can kill Tetsuo easily in his Ego Death form
Higher durability
1-0 against Marvel
Equivalents
Has means of targeting and destroying internal organs at range
Likely similar pain tolerance
Disadvantages
Tetsuo’s powers are generally stronger while not at their peaks
Slower no matter what
Less versatile toolset, lacking counters to Tetsuo's many abilities
Less mobile
Lynn Okamoto
Tetsuo
Advantages
Generally stronger
Faster, no matter Lucy’s state of power
Generally more versatile toolset
Many of his powers aren’t countered by Lucy
Better mobility
Better regeneration
Equivalents
Has means of targeting and destroying internal organs at range
Likely similar pain tolerance
Disadvantages
Inferior AP and range at Lucy’s peak
Much less fighting experience
Lucy can produce heat that far exceeds Tetsuo’s shown resistances
Ego Death is a death sentence
0-1 against Marvel
Not an easy match to decide, is it? Neither are lacking in ways to kill the other immediately, but Tetsuo’s got a number of smaller advantages that can push him to victory. He has stat advantages, an overall better toolset, good mobility, and isn’t going to be pushing himself as much to keep up. He has methods of targeting organs while being able to lock down any escape attempts with gravity wells. Lucy’s got many ways to win, but Tetsuo’s more minor advantages should let him come out on top more times than not.
Every Lied was exhausted before we got here, but we felt we had The Power to decide the Vector.
Winner
Next time
So if you didn't see the previous blog, next time is going to be Zelda vs Nina (Legend of Zelda vs Breath of Fire). Expect that later down the line, at least after Echoes of Wisdom comes out in case Ganondorf fastballs a sun or some shit lol. Breath of Fire is, unsurprisingly for a series whose last accessible in literally any way entry was 2002, majorly unresearched, so the downtime will be getting that hopefully sorted.I don't have a clever way to outro this uhhhhhh bye
Sources
Lucy:
Elfen Lied(Manga)
Elfen Lied(Anime)
Tetsuo:
Akira (Manga)
Akira (Movie)
Other:
T0m for hard carrying Lucy’s half of the blog
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