I prefer the Dresden File's explanation that incantations and such act as mental aides in focusing the magic into doing what the caster intends.
A lot of recent anime's i noticed have also started to adopt that. But still give the main character (Cause they have to) the ability to quietly mentally incant in their head, making all the normal characters look bad by compairison.
Another coin to piggybank of explanations: I remember reading a novel that starts as a regular sword and sorcery, with all spells explicitly voiced (no mental incantations at all). Long story short, turns out that the world is actually post-apocalyptic, and all the incantations are just voice commands to omnipresent nanomachines in the language of their long gone and forgotten creators.
I remember reading a novel that starts as a regular sword and sorcery, with all spells explicitly voiced (no mental incantations at all).
Not uncommon. Series which chants are normal frequently use either it's an aide or spells are caused by a third party (gods, spirits, AI, etc) you have to communicate with. Frequently in the latter you find there is some sort of "magic language" needed to cast spells. An interesting part is whether the setting is tolerant of casting using other languages or incomplete/inaccurate chants, as some setting it has to be exact or it'll fizzle but others it might merely mean a reduction of the spell's power and is used to explain why "modern" magic might be lower power than "ancient" magic.
Not uncommon. Series which chants are normal frequently use either it's an aide or spells are caused by a third party (gods, spirits, AI, etc) you have to communicate with. Frequently in the latter you find there is some sort of "magic language" needed to cast spells. An interesting part is whether the setting is tolerant of casting using other languages or incomplete/inaccurate chants, as some setting it has to be exact or it'll fizzle but others it might merely mean a reduction of the spell's power and is used to explain why "modern" magic might be lower power than "ancient" magic.
Bleach definitely does the "faster chant but lower power" thing, too bad that series never dived into more explanation on how their magic worked and spent more time on sword play. The "normal chants" were hella long in Bleach. You'd never be able to get a full chant in actual combat, especially 1 vs 1.
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