So here again a thread with the same theme as my last…
Some of you may say "This article again?" "We will discuss this again?" Maybe a bit dull and often discuss generally and do not change anything just a discuss but a discuss always offer many things
So here it is
Every type of story has its own dangerous pit-falls — things that bore the audience and are too predictable. And often times, the best stories are the ones that know how to handle these delicate story-elements in a way that is unexpected or understandable. For shonen anime, that problem is the power curve.
Curving the Class
The power curve, for those who don't know, is a character's propensity to get stronger and stronger as the story goes on. And as the character gets stronger, so do the villains. At the same time, the hero's opposition must usually be stronger so the hero can, at the last moment, dig deep inside themselves and pull out the underdog victory. That's the underlying source of tension in almost every anime fight (and really any confrontation in any story). If an obstacle is too easy to overcome, the audience will be bored. No one wants to read a story about the time Edward Elric had to employ his mastery of alchemy to stop a purse thief. The only exception is when those mismatches are played for laughs — but that's not really what we're talking about.
Balancing Act
While managing a story's power curve sounds simple, it's really easy to lose control. For one, you can't really go backward without pissing off an audience. Watching the hero grow in strength only to see them de-powered is super frustrating. Not only does it invalidate all the episodes you watched the hero train, but you have to go through it all over again. On the opposite end of the spectrum, making your character too strong can be just as boring. Say the hero goes from a rural child to being able to single-handedly topple a galactic empire — you're likely to lose the viewer's willingness to suspend their disbelief at that point.
Shonen Sensitivity
While many other genres struggle with this problem, few are as susceptible as shonen anime/manga. As something generally marketed to a younger crowd (between 10 and 17), most kids are just happy to see their ass-kicking action. It doesn't matter if the character's progression is paced well. They may question it during the show's calmer moments, but when the action starts up they get distracted and forget.
Even adult fans can fall prey to the unique spirit of shonen that can obscure almost any problem. After all, when Naruto is giving a speech about how he'll defeat his enemy with the power of friendship right before delivering his Rasenshuriken attack, you can forget how over-powered the thing is (it destroys things on a fucking cellular level!) And don't even get me started on what's going on in the manga right now.
On an even more basic level, shonen stories, by nature, expose themselves to the risk of a broken power curve. Most of them are about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, and almost everyone has some degree of supernatural power that gets stronger over time. But the difference between the stories that don't fall into the pit of power curves and those that do is the writer's ability to balance his characters. It can be tempting to make your lead character the most powerful badass that ever lived, but that's a quick way to ruin a story.
And just to drive the point home more, here are some examples of how certain stories handled their power curve — one good, one mixed, and one bad.
Article quite big (and perhaps tedious for some) so continue reading here if you want it
So comments and discussion are welcome