Genji

The Master of the Blade

Genji needs healing. Genji Always needs healing. Please someone heal Genji. He needs healing.

Genji Shimada is a damage hero in Overwatch, portraying a ninja, with special unique abilities that make him a much more versatile character than many others, such as having two passive abilities rather than one, which include having the ability to perform a double jump, as well as the ability to climb walls, an ability only possessed by one other character in the game, his brother, Hanzo. Genji’s primary attack is to throw three Shruikens (Japanese weapons resembling three-tipped stars with blades on the edges) at a time in succession. Alternatively, his secondary attack is to throw three Shruikens over a wide, dispersed range, all at the same time. These Shruikens each cause 28 damage, and have a velocity of 60 metres per second. Genji has two special abilities, swift strike, and deflect. Swift strike causes Genji to lunge at his opponents with a blade, at a velocity of 35 metres per second, causing 50 damage to any enemies affected. Deflect causes Genji to shoot any projectile attacks targeted at him within a certain time frame (2 seconds) away from him, in the direction he is aiming, causing damage to anyone affected on the enemy team. Melee attacks are blocked, but not deflected, and beam-like projectile attacks are not deflected or blocked, and still deal damage to him while he is deflecting. His ultimate, Dragon Blade, causes him to switch to a melee weapon, his sword, for 6 seconds, causing 120 damage to enemies affected per swing, as well as reducing his special abilities’ cooldown time for the duration of his ultimate.

The Physics

Primary Fire – Shruikens

Genji’s primary fire, his shruikens, are observed to pass 20 metres in 200 milliseconds (faster than the average human can blink). The mass of most shruikens are 35-150 grams, so that would mean that Genji is using 175-750 joules of energy per star thrown. With an energy this high, the shruikens are capable of piercing through steel.

Passive – Double Jump

Genji’s double jump ability is incredibly unrealistic, although it is still possible. In order for a person to jump, they would push downward with enough force for the ground to push back with equal force to thrust their body mass upwards, explained by Newton’s Third Law. In order for a person to perform a second jump, they would have to push down on the air with this same force, and the air would need to act similarly to a solid. This is possible by compressing the air by pushing atoms together, but in order to do so with such a force would cause an explosion or an extreme shockwave. Alternatively, thrusters could be attached to the bottom of Genji’s feet, but both of these methods would cause a lot of sound to be produced, however, Genji hardly makes any sound when he double jumps.

Ability – Swift Strike

When Genji uses his swift strike, he travels at 90 m/s forward, or nearly 200 miles per hour. Due to him reaching this speed in 66 milliseconds and stopping in 33 milliseonds, he would be experiencing over 275 gs. A person weighing 135 pounds would feel as though they weighed 35 000 at this level of gs.

Ability – Deflect

Genji’s deflect ability is also comically unrealistic and overpowered. The ability is shown to deflect ANY projectile, non-beam attack, for 2 seconds, meaning that Genji would have to not only swing his sword fast enough to weaken these attacks, but enough to send them flying back with equal potency. Bastion, the fastest shooting rate character, who utilizes a minigun configuration, shoots 1800 rounds per minute, with each bullet having 3304 joules of energy. For Genji to deflect the bullet, he would need to meet it with 6608 joules of energy being imparted with his sword, or by swinging his 460 gram wakizashi approximately 170 m/s. Realistically, this energy would cause the sword to be completely destroyed, however, it could be possible that this sword could be made from a fictional material. But to counter one Bastion with one deflect, he would need to do this 60 times to counter all 60 rounds that Bastion shoots in this time. However, Genji could take on an entire team of 6 bastions at once, deflecting 360 rounds. To do this, he would need to accelerate to 170 m/s to counter one bullet, then accelerate to the same speed in the opposite direction, and repeat this 360 times in 2 seconds. His sword would be pulling 6226.6 gs, and would feel like it weighs over 6000 pounds during this.