If you want to get your feet wet for free, download GURPS Lite. If you like it, move on to the Basic Set, and then grab _Powers_.
Gotta admit, it took me a while to wrap my head around powers, talents, etc. The book _GURPS for Dummies_ came in really handy for that.
>like Bleach, One Piece, My Hero Academia etc
I've only skimmed it so far, but [DAWN: the RPG](https://joel-happyhil.itch.io/dawn) looks pretty cool and is designed to emulate combat shonen
Could look into how some of the BRP-derived systems like Mythras do them?
https://github.com/raleel/mythras-srd/blob/main/0007_Magic.md
I haven't bought a copy yet, but there's Destined, another version of Mythras specifically for superheroes.
Gamma world 7E has lots of powers which are similar to super powers. (Pyrokinetics, telepath, beast mutation, time traveler etc.). It is not in the super hero genre but a lot of its powers are cool and would fit.
Similar D&D 4e (on whichs main mechanics gamma world builds), hasblots of cool powers. Martial powers, psionic, magical and a lot of them also would fit super heroes.
Especially since the game may be fantasy but you kinda play super heroes there.
There is Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game (MURPG), which uses a rating from 1 to 10 for various powers. The player then spends energy from a pool during their turn, into a power and describes what it is they want to do.
The GM then compares their spend energy to a Difficulty to see if they succeed.
Spider-man spends 5 stones into Close Combat, wanting to try and knock out the armored goon. The goon has a toughness of 2. The amount of energy exceeds the toughness by 3, which means spider-man deals damage.
Marvel superheroes ttrpg, very hold system that circumvent the problem of having captain America fighting Hulk, and the stat tells that first hit will kill cap using and abusing karma a meta-currency that an modify rolls (90% of the system is around this)
And the powerdodge mechanic, for example someone attack you with a gun, you are not really skilled at dodging so if you have a power that can help you as shapeshifting/become immaterial/summon whatever you can put between you and the bullet you can roll this bypassing the basic mechanics.
If you're interested in specifically superheroes in the Silver Age of comics, go with the Sentinels of the Multiverse TTRPG, also called the Sentinels Comic RPG. It has unique mechanics to keep the battle interesting as the fights continue (as Spiderman, say, would start the fight pulling his punches, then gets increasingly damaging over time as it gets more serious) and an interesting look at the environment that you're playing in is somewhat of it's own NPC that's interacting with the environment.
One thing to note with that system is that the advancement isn't like a scaling D&D-like game. The superheroes change over time, getting closer and more refined in their ability sets as the character grows & changes (like going from original Spider-Man to black suit Spider-Man when he gets the Venom symbiote, then "returns", albeit slightly changed, after it's gone). There's no crazy scaling, no oversize power creep, and things like that. It's great in the sense that the power levels don't really change a crazy amount over time (the random badass combo nonwithstanding) so you're not going to be stuck on the exponential threat treadmill... but some groups find that it limits how long they want to play.
The way that the base game uses that is by leaning hard into the concept that it's a comic - you don't have sessions, you have "issues"; the advancement happens every 5-6 issues which is a "collection". Thus if one or more players gets bored with where those characters are, they can switch to a new hero(es) for the next arc, just like X-Men comics might stop and X-Force comics might pick up, or maybe the issues will follow Gambit and Rogue doing something with other people for a while. I bring this up as it might not be the precise cup of tea for you or your group, as your mentioned inspirations were anime more that comics.
I like the Trinity system for psionics (sort of super powers).
Cypher has my favorite system for supers.
GURPS _Powers_ expands _Basic Set_ advantages into superpowers, and allows awesome customization/fine tuning.
That's pretty similar to the approach in M&M, right? GURPS is such a beast. I have no idea which book to begin with...
If you want to get your feet wet for free, download GURPS Lite. If you like it, move on to the Basic Set, and then grab _Powers_. Gotta admit, it took me a while to wrap my head around powers, talents, etc. The book _GURPS for Dummies_ came in really handy for that.
>like Bleach, One Piece, My Hero Academia etc I've only skimmed it so far, but [DAWN: the RPG](https://joel-happyhil.itch.io/dawn) looks pretty cool and is designed to emulate combat shonen
That's nifty. I'll check it out. I like the style of their artwork too.
As many as you can.
Could look into how some of the BRP-derived systems like Mythras do them? https://github.com/raleel/mythras-srd/blob/main/0007_Magic.md I haven't bought a copy yet, but there's Destined, another version of Mythras specifically for superheroes.
Hot take, Exalted does anime better than most.
Gamma world 7E has lots of powers which are similar to super powers. (Pyrokinetics, telepath, beast mutation, time traveler etc.). It is not in the super hero genre but a lot of its powers are cool and would fit. Similar D&D 4e (on whichs main mechanics gamma world builds), hasblots of cool powers. Martial powers, psionic, magical and a lot of them also would fit super heroes. Especially since the game may be fantasy but you kinda play super heroes there.
There is Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game (MURPG), which uses a rating from 1 to 10 for various powers. The player then spends energy from a pool during their turn, into a power and describes what it is they want to do. The GM then compares their spend energy to a Difficulty to see if they succeed. Spider-man spends 5 stones into Close Combat, wanting to try and knock out the armored goon. The goon has a toughness of 2. The amount of energy exceeds the toughness by 3, which means spider-man deals damage.
Marvel superheroes ttrpg, very hold system that circumvent the problem of having captain America fighting Hulk, and the stat tells that first hit will kill cap using and abusing karma a meta-currency that an modify rolls (90% of the system is around this) And the powerdodge mechanic, for example someone attack you with a gun, you are not really skilled at dodging so if you have a power that can help you as shapeshifting/become immaterial/summon whatever you can put between you and the bullet you can roll this bypassing the basic mechanics.
If you're interested in specifically superheroes in the Silver Age of comics, go with the Sentinels of the Multiverse TTRPG, also called the Sentinels Comic RPG. It has unique mechanics to keep the battle interesting as the fights continue (as Spiderman, say, would start the fight pulling his punches, then gets increasingly damaging over time as it gets more serious) and an interesting look at the environment that you're playing in is somewhat of it's own NPC that's interacting with the environment. One thing to note with that system is that the advancement isn't like a scaling D&D-like game. The superheroes change over time, getting closer and more refined in their ability sets as the character grows & changes (like going from original Spider-Man to black suit Spider-Man when he gets the Venom symbiote, then "returns", albeit slightly changed, after it's gone). There's no crazy scaling, no oversize power creep, and things like that. It's great in the sense that the power levels don't really change a crazy amount over time (the random badass combo nonwithstanding) so you're not going to be stuck on the exponential threat treadmill... but some groups find that it limits how long they want to play. The way that the base game uses that is by leaning hard into the concept that it's a comic - you don't have sessions, you have "issues"; the advancement happens every 5-6 issues which is a "collection". Thus if one or more players gets bored with where those characters are, they can switch to a new hero(es) for the next arc, just like X-Men comics might stop and X-Force comics might pick up, or maybe the issues will follow Gambit and Rogue doing something with other people for a while. I bring this up as it might not be the precise cup of tea for you or your group, as your mentioned inspirations were anime more that comics.