Supernatural Sealing

This is the power or technique that lets someone seal objects. This results in imprisoning beings, nullifying powers, and/or locking away objects within another object and releasing them when needed. Depending on the strength of the user, the seals can weaken over time and cannot seal sufficiently powerful objects. If the sealed object has a power, the user may be able to tap into it. Oftentimes a strong enough seal will require Power at a Price or the continued vigilance of a Barrier Maiden. May involve the use of mediums such as talismans and geometric figures.

Can overlap with Pocket Dimension and Trapped in the Host. May result in a Captured Super-Entity and Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can, Sealed Good in a Can, or Sealed Evil in a Can. Might be used to create Capture Balls. See also Seal the Breach in cases where the object needed to be sealed is a supernatural dimensional gate or otherwise.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Ayakashi Triangle:
  • Mei used her ayakashi medium powers to seal dangerous ayakashi into boulders, accomplished by having her origami servants draw a glyph around her target.
  • Garaku knows a curse that seals away the spiritual powers of any human whose hands he draws a special crest on.
• Secre Swallowtail from Black Clover uses Sealing Magic. Originally, she thought that her magic could only open and close objects like locks, making it useless. However, she learned to seal magic into objects and even close wounds and seal damage. Using the power of Forbidden Magic permanently affected her Sealing Magic, letting her imprison a devil for centuries.
• Bleach:
  • Kisuke Urahara uses the Kido Kyujurokkei Kakafumetsu to seal the now immortal Aizen after he merges with the Hogyoku, piercing him from the inside out with cross-shaped beams which merge into a barrier that seals him inside with his powers weakened.
  • Yukio Hans Voralberna can use his Fullbring Invaders Must Die to seal people in a digital space where their spiritual pressure is completely cut off from the outside world, which is referred to as a "Save" on his handheld video game console.
• In Blood Blockade Battlefront, Klaus Von Reinherz can use the technique Pattern 999 - Ewigkeit Gefängnis to seal away a Blood Breed Elder in a small crucifux through invoking their true name.
• This is the entire point of Cardcaptor Sakura. Sakura accidentally released the cards, so she has to go capture them again. Clow Cards need a master or they run amok. That's why Clow Reed sealed them in the first place, in preparation for the time after his death. When Sakura seals a card she becomes its master. This drains her magic energy, but as her power increases the recovery time shortens.
• Sakura in The Demon Girl Next Door is a Magical Girl who specialized in seals, and not only about sealing per se—she is also adept at tampering other magical seals.
• Dragon Ball combines this trope with Dangerous Forbidden Technique: the Mafuba ("evil-sealing wave") technique will seal away an evil being indefinitely, but is said to cost the user's life. However, later uses of the technique in the story are survivable, merely draining a large amount of stamina. The story also parodies the trope, as the "denshi jar" used for the sealing is noticeably an electric rice cooker with a Paper Talisman attached.
  • Piccolo starts as a Sealed Evil in a Can, released by a hapless Emperor Pilaf, and quickly becomes the main villain of his devoted story arc. On being freed, he immediately sends his minions to kill every martial artist worldwide who might know the technique, to avert being captured again. Nevertheless, both Master Roshi and Tenshinhan use the technique against Piccolo, but both fail and the former dies as a result. Ultimately Piccolo is defeated by sheer strength at the hands of Goku.
  • In the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, Kami attempts to use the Mafuba against Piccolo Jr., who uses a "reverse Mafuba" in response. Being the stronger of the two, Piccolo Jr. wins the resulting Beam-O-War and captures Kami in a bottle. Goku manages to retrieve the bottle and free Kami. No one dies as a result of using the technique.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, the Mafuba is used to temporarily seal Zamasu, whose Complete Immortality makes him otherwise impossible to defeat, but thanks to a problem with the vessel, he escapes shortly after. Roshi later uses the technique in the Tournament of Power, using it to eliminate one opponent, and nearly succeeds with two others, but is prevented from completing the seal both times.
• From EDENS ZERO, Creed's Ether Lock allows him to imprison people in energy cages which then shrink to the size of a matchbox, allowing him and Victory to carry the prisoner away easily.
• Rossweise from High School D×D is an expert at Sealing Magic from studying it to find a way to seal the 666. She can use it in combat to seal her enemies with powerful magic seals. Her sealing barrier is effective even against Armaros, the Grigori anti-magic specialist, if she has enough time to prepare it.
• From Jujutsu Kaisen, the Prison Realm is a cube-shaped special-grade cursed object with a barrier able to absolutely seal anything inside a Pocket Dimension within it. Geto seals Gojo in the Prison Realm at the beginning of the Shibuya Incident, with him unable to be freed unless a cursed tool/technique that nullifies other cursed techniques is used.
• In Lyrical Nanoha, Sealing is a basic Midchildan spell that renders magical constructs of all kinds inert and safe to handle. It sees most use in the original Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series, which revolves around the protagonist's search for corrupting magical artifacts. It also returns in a much darker usage at the end of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, where it is used in the final episode to seal Reinforce — a benevolent and sympathetic magical construct tied to the planet-destroying Book of Darkness, — effectively killing her. In fact, the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable Alternate Timeline gets spun off at exactly that moment because the protagonists refuse to cast the spell at her on moral grounds.
• Fūinjutsu in Naruto is a brand of jutsu that can be used to seal objects, living beings, chakra, or a wide variety of other things within another object. Some notable examples include the sealing techniques that seal Tailed Beasts within Jinchūriki (as was the case with Kurama and Naruto), the Dead Demon Consuming Seal^note Which is used to seal away the target's soul within the reaper's stomach (or parts of the soul if the user is unable to pull it out completely), at the cost of the user's life and their soul being sealed with the target., or the Six Paths Chibaku Tensei (which was used to seal away the Ten Tails's chakra deprived body within the spherical prison that would become the moon). The titular character's clan, the Uzumaki Clan, were well known for their use of Fūinjutsu.
• Nagi Springfield from Negima! Magister Negi Magi uses the binding curse Infernus Scholasticus to seal away the vampire Evangeline's powers and bind her to Mahora Academy.
• From The Seven Deadly Sins, one of Merlin's many magical techniques is "Magic Seal", which seals away the magic of her target.
• Kantarou from Tactics is a Shinto priest and exorcist with spiritual powers far exceeding that of most humans. He seals actual gods over the course of the series.
• In Trinity Seven, the power of Yui's Last Crest is trapping her opponent inside her dream world, after which her opponent becomes sealed inside her material body.
• Zombie Land Saga: In Gaiden, the Hyodo twins have access to this ability, being able to seal away the sagako using special wards made from onions. Yuko specialized in this during her time as a Sagako Buster, while Eikichi has to gradually learn to use this ability when first joining.

Comic Books

• One issue of Iron Man has him battle Doctor Doom, and both combatants get plunged into the past via Doom's Time Cube into the days of Camelot. Doom had been doing research on the sorceress Morgan la Fey with an eye toward learning more of the mystic arts from her. Morgan la Fey has been sealed inside her castle by Merlin's magic after her last failed attempt to overthrow King Arthur.
• In one issue of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW), it is revealed that the Crystal Heart is used to seal away evil beings called Umbrums.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: The dwarfs try to rid of particularly dangerous Keepers by tricking them into a warded airtight adamantine chamber and locking them in.

Films — Animated

• Turning Red: Any female descendant of Sun Yee can seal their red panda spirit into a talisman involving a ritual where they cross over into the astral plane. It can only be performed on a red moon (lunar eclipse). Even so, the talisman is a physical object that can be broken, which will result in their supernatural beast escaping. If they do accidentally/purposely break that Soul Jar, they can always perform the ritual again during the next red moon. However, if they fail to do so by then, the red panda spirit becomes one with them and can never be sealed away again.

Films — Live-Action

• Ghostbusters showcases a rare technological version of this, with the Ghostbusters able to seal away malevolent spirits and even gods with Mad Science.

Live-Action TV

• Supernatural: Various Geometric Magic designs are frequently used to trap and temporarily de-power supernatural creatures who enter them. Most common is a star-and-circle Devil's Trap for demons, but monster hunters make use of other options, up to and including a ring of holy fire to confine an archangel.
• True Blood: Through being eaten, the Lumiere Fruit seals Fairies in a land where there is no perception of time lost.

Tabletop Games

• Several spells in Dungeons & Dragons can be used to seal magic, creatures, and all manner of other things into objects for imprisonment or to plan a later release. Quite possibly the strangest is the magic jar spell, which the caster uses to seal their own soul away into the eponymous jar.

Toys

• BIONICLE: A group of Toa can create a Toa Seal using their Elemental Powers. The Toa Metru were able to seal Makuta Teridax in the 2004 storyline. The only way to unlock such a Seal is to strike it with the same elements used to create it in the first place.

Video Games

• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
    • Bongo-Bongo was originally sealed within the Bottom of the Well by Impa before escaping.
    • At the climax of the game, Zelda and the other Sages combine their powers in order to seal Ganondorf within the Sacred Realm.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Link must seal The Imprisoned about three times over the course of the game using the sealing spike embedded in its head in tandem with Skyward Strikes from the Goddess/Master Sword, the seals getting more complex as the game goes on. Notably, the time between sealing gets shorter and shorter as The Imprisoned gathers more power and transforms, with The Old One noting the seals are just a temporary measure at best. By the time they finally manage to kill The Imprisoned, it's literally started to break out of the seal for a fourth time before it gets killed via falling floating island.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Zelda herself acts as the seal, entrapping her and Calamity Ganon in Hyrule Castle for a century for Link to return and find a way to properly destroy the evil.
• In Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, Itsuki's Back-Up Chorus inflicts Seal when it procs, and his Infinity -1 Sword Ama-no-Mitsurugi has a chance to inflict it too. A Radiant Skill makes him immune to Seal.
• Remnants of Isolation: Celesta's final spell, "Dutiful Melody" to do this to the castle where most of the story takes place, so it can't harm anyone else:
  Permanently seal away the castle.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt Series: Introduced in Azure Striker Gunvolt 3, Kirin has the Septima "Radiant Fetters", which allows her to seal all manner of supernatural powers, including the Septima of other Adepts. However, it's not always an instant sealing and she needs to beat down on particularly powerful foes before she can get it to work. Notably, this is the first time such a power has been the primary ability of a Septima, as previously similar abilities have been the result of secondary effects or due to clashing elemental powers.

Webcomics

• The Treasure in Homestuck is a literal plot hole that can seal someone with Metatextual Attraction, overwriting their powers and imprisoning them in a nexus outside of canon.

Western Animation

• In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Tom Lucitor tries using a Black Speech incantation to seal Mina Loveberry in a runic stone box. It doesn't work and Mina takes out Tom herself.
• Using the Magic Puzzle Box, Dashi from Xiaolin Showdown sealed away the powerful Heylin witch Wuya for centuries.
• In DuckTales (2017) series finale, this is how the Papyrus of Binding incapacitates Scrooge and keeps him from saving his family (the contract keeps him from ever going on adventures again). When a loophole is discovered, the bounds break.

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