Thread:Revriley/@comment-27913057-20170819061126/@comment-3218221-20170824153528

Top five most powerful...well, that's a question that doesn't have an easy answer. There's an interview Narita supposedly did that claims to rank the strongest Naritaverse characters - here you go- but I strongly advise you do not take it as gospel, or even as a reliable source. First of all, its number one pick is No.37564 "Mob Combatant" from Hariyama-san, Center of the World. Now, don't get me wrong - 37564 is stong, incredibly strong, but the problem is I'm pretty sure Hariyama-san isn't actually part of the Naritaverse.

So. There's that.

Moving on...as Untuned-Strings once pointed out, Mob Combatant and Hawking are the only non-Baccano! and Durarara!! entries on there. That just doesn't make sense at all, and it's why you shouldn't put too much if any stock into this list. There are definitely Vamp! characters out there who would factor into that list's Tier 1 - Relic, certainly, along with maybe Garde or Zygmunt. Watt and Loa could potentially count for spoiler reasons. I figure that Etsusa Bridge character Yakumo Amagiri should have been up there too, since he's essentially the 'Vino' of that series.

Now, I've heard that this list isn't actually the real Narita Saikyou Q&A - a Q&A in which Narita supposedly does say that the top five strongest characters are Shizuo, Claire, and Ronny tied for third place, a yet-to-be-seen vampire (Hawking I assume) at second, and 1st Mob Combatant (Again, why is he included if not Naritaverse). Everything else on the list I linked you is 'fan speculation', not something Narita verified.

That sounds a little more believable, but honestly without an original source for this Q&A...I'd be leery of citing it. That being said, I wouldn't dispute Hawking as the top strongest - I mean, he's a black hole - and I do think of Shizuo, Claire, and Ronny as some of the strongest characters. But given how incredibly strong Relic is, I find it hard to believe Narita would have excluded him since that implies Claire or Shizuo could beat him, which...again, skepticism abound. Garde can reanimate corpses and have them do his bidding, meaning that he can summon a loyal (and unlimited) army of the undead. It's said that an all out conflict between Garde's undead and Zygmunt's subjugated would be absolutely devastating, a war that could wipe out Europe in its wake alone. (Gerhardt believes that Garde would ultimately win since he grows stronger in the presence of the dead, but that's just a belief).

Ah, it's tricky, it really is. The only thing I can say with confidence is that Hawking is the strongest (Narita literally called him "power level inflation preventor). I can't confidently say that Claire would be able to beat someone like Relic, who when driven to absolute despair in the fifth novel poses a genuine threat to the entire planet. The power he's building up is comparable to the size of the moon, meaning that he was capable in that moment of 'harnessing' something as big as the moon and making it a part of himself. The destruction of Earth was a genuine possibility.

I'll try to get to Ladd's page today, maybe look at it over lunch since I'm going to be busy with research at some point later on.