The term Raise has been thrown around many times in the Choujin X manga. It appears to be a magic word used by many choujins to miraculously heal their wounds and be all better in a jiffy.
The first time we see Raise mentioned and being used is in Choujin X chapter 13, when Simon Kagomura almost kills himself with a knife but then miraculously revives using this ability.
In short Raise is to choujins what shazam! is to magic. It almost seems like plot armor when you look at it, but then, is it really?
Ishida has given every choujin the ability to Raise, and there seems to be a set logic behind it. Keeping that in mind, let’s take a better look at what Raise is in Choujin X.
What is Raise in Choujin X?
As described in the volume 2 extras, Raise is a technique, or rather a physiological phenomenon, that can be used by most choujin to heal themselves or bring themselves back from the brink of death.
It is one of the most fundamental powers of a choujin and stems from their desire to not die.
Related: Who is the Choujin X? Tokio, Ely or Azuma?
When a choujin uses Raise, the Super Cells repair the damaged parts of their body by fusing the process of destruction and creation which results in the revival of a choujin from their pseudo death state. And their desire to survive acts as the trigger that sets the Super Cells on work.
So basically, a choujin is expending their own energy in order to rapidly heal themselves.
As I mentioned before, Raise is powerful enough to revive a choujin from the brink of their death. However, it is not possible to revive a choujin who has died using Raise.
In chapter 34.4, Sato who had lost both his limbs and his lower body seemed to imply that he could still use raise, however Mo Dress was not able to use it as he was dead. Like really dead!
Kagomura too slit his throat and pushed himself to the brink of death and then revived in chapter 13 while fighting Shiozaki. This had led Tokio to mistake that the Sword Choujin had somehow killed himself.
It is also possible to raise a choujin artificially by using something called the Turbo Raiser, which is mentioned by Momoma in chapter 32.1. However, the artificial raising has not been explored in depth yet.
While Raise seems like a pretty broken ability, it comes with its own set of downsides!
The cons involved:
If a choujin ends up using Raise too many times, then they will run out of gas very soon as most of their Super Cells will get used up just to fix them up.
A choujin can raise around 2 or 3 times in a fight before wearing out and losing their mobility.
This happened to Tokio while he was fighting with Azuma, as he used this technique multiple times and hit his limit. Sandek too feels that he used up a lot of his energy as he revived himself from a near-death scenario.
Now, the downsides of using this ability is not just limited to a choujin physically, but it also affects them mentally.
Repeatedly breaking down their bodies and then fixing it negatively affects a person’s humanity.
The more a choujin experiences a pseudo-death and the subsequent raise, the less human they become.
But then, this outcome is not just the result of using Raise. Choujins keep losing their humanity everytime they use their powers. In fact, it is the very overcoming of their humanity that makes them choujin.
This would explain the weird personalities that Chandra and the other veteran choujin tend to have in the manga, given the number of times they might have ended up using this technique.
Other points about Raise:
Raise also has some interesting applications which we have seen so far in the manga. For instance, while Shiozaki had entered a chaos state, Momoma forces him to Raise in order to burn out his Super Cells.
This could come in handy in subduing chaosified choujin, though its effectiveness needs to be questioned, as it did not have the intended effect on Shiozaki.
Also, according to Momoma the first time a person uses Raise is when they awaken their choujin ability.
I guess that’s a valid explanation because, people usually awaken their powers when they are down and cornered. Their desire to overcome the situation gains precedence and the psychological trauma and stress plays a part in activating their ability.
Do you have any other questions regarding Raise? Let me know them in the comments below and we can have an active discourse on it!