and this what's he doing yes to go even
further beyond the escalation problem
one of Shonen anime and manga is biggest
problems with Ivan possibly pointless
filler arcs slow pacing and never-ending
fight it's an issue that the majority of
shows miss John reward inevitably face a
constant battle escalation either an
escalation of fakes or an escalation of
power levels once one arc ends the
logical conclusion is to raise the face
of introduce more powerful characters
but while this makes sense from a short
term stretched over years or even
decades and the show will reach a point
where it ceases to be recognizable as
the same show as when it started either
characters become so powerful 5/7 even
resemble earlier battles or stays keep
escalating to the point of
ridiculousness and starts alienating its
audience you can see countless examples
of this throughout the history of shown
in shows and I'm not sure the problems
that will go away anytime soon
this opening paragraph has been a
summation of a video I saw recently
called Shonen anime the biggest problem
by the reality punch Studios it's a
great video and I highly recommend you
give it a watch as I'll put a link in
the description but it does a great job
of detailing this problem through the
history of shonan's biggest titles but I
thought I could expand this idea further
by property going in-depth into how we
can go about fixing this problem as
unlike other common issue shown in faces
this one's a bit more complicated
at its core the issue lies at the way of
magazine like shounen jump is structured
for anyone who's read Barca mind you
know that the manga published in the
magazine is designed to go on for as
long as possible and normally only stops
when the title really starts blues
popularity this means that manga artists
are in a constant weekly battle to stay
popular at the risk of getting cancelled
prematurely but inversely if they do
manage to make something popular that
they are push to continue it as long as
they can and herein lies the escalation
problem as a reader you want to feel
like there its progression as you stick
with a series so what that logically
means from Gloucester's perspective is
that they need to keep raising the
stakes or power levels in order to feel
like their story is progressing while
not every shown in anime is from the
Shonen Jump magazine it is a common
problem we see all throughout anime in
this genre whether it be your typical
battle anime or even a sports anime so
how can we go about fixing this it's all
about the sense of progression and how
we tie in the escalation to that FEM
let's start with something simple though
a lot of shows already do setting up a
clear goal from the start becoming
Hokage finding one piece becoming the
greatest hero by making the eventual
finish line apparent from the beginning
even if you also doesn't know exactly
how they learned up there it gives a
view of something to look towards and
give the author's room to play around
with the journey no matter how long was
short it may be we know that Naruto was
always going to become Hokage that Luffy
will find one piece but it was never
about the goal it's about the journey so
no matter how specific or broad this
goal is the adventure to realize this
idea is always relevant and the plot
will feel like there is progression
towards some things even if it is
minimal well this may seem simple and
obvious the problem becomes majorly
apparent when this isn't done as in the
case of a show like bleach
bleech had something really going for it
for its first two arcs and have some
interesting characters in the world I
was basically superpower deaf samurai
building up to a rescue art that
contains all the right reasons you'd
want to watch as shown in anime after
the arc ended however there was no clear
direction for the series to go which
started a never-ending loop of recycled
ideas with power escalations it really
couldn't keep up with more rescue arcs
soul society is in danger again let's
add a bunch of new characters hey we
need h codes power up why not add
another trait once make him the true
Soul Reaper Hollow Quincy pirate ninja
Saiyan Gundam hybrid that he definitely
always was from the start not having a
final goal the plot became reactive
rather than proactive and I feel Kubo
didn't have enough ideas keep it up
stretched out for as long as it did
while keeping the reader engaged which
led to master the fast jump ship when we
slowly realize I don't say the series
has any idea what the [ __ ] it's doing it
lacks that sense of progression which
even if you have a bloated and drawn-out
arc like the fourth [ __ ] ninja war
you can keep readers invested just
because they want to see what happens to
these characters when their journey ends
but in a long story you have the problem
of constant power escalation which is
the trap countless shows have fallen
into as if the habita was introduced
pretty much thanks to the granddaddy of
Shonen being probably the most
influential title of this genre Dragon
Ball was a start of many of these
problems none more apparent than
endlessly introducing new characters
more powerful than the last the point of
ridiculousness but there have been shows
that have been able to rectify this and
this comes with the concept of
introducing a power feeling
showing off some of the most powerful
characters in your universe way before
the series is nearing its end will
introduce a power feeling and this
ground viewer expectations of how
powerful characters can be this sets an
approximate bar so that we are
escalating towards something instead of
escalating for the state of escalating
preventing that power escalation from
feeling ridiculous I'm sure we all
remember the days when Naruto had tats
called down to a fight and fallen Madara
started dropping the odd meteos over an
army of [ __ ] ninjas or hell before
the universe threatening fights the
Dragon Ball manga star so for general
martial arts tournament you are not
looking at the stark contrast between
earlier and later fights to think wow
how the hell did we get here which can
alienate the audience the change was so
jarring for Dragon Ball Z the anime had
to split it up into two separate series
but a show that seems to be doing this
right is with my hero academia within
the very first arc we are shown the
power feeling of this world in the epic
speaking of all my teaching villain how
to go beyond the [ __ ] stratosphere
he's meant to be the number one hero of
this world I'm seeing him go all out so
early given that you a clear goal that
he's escalating to war so from the
beginning we already have a rough
estimate of what endgame flights will be
like even in the series led one piece
where the power feeling was shown in the
white beard war arc a good ten years
after series inception it's still
actually appropriate in the grand scheme
of things as according to oder that was
still only about halfway through the
overall story which if that's really
true then
[ __ ] me in the ass man but the fact that
these power ceilings are not being
introduced at the end of the series
prevents this need of adding in
characters are they constantly raising
the ceiling after every arc but it's not
just about the power ceiling either it's
also about the scale of escalation
a lot of serious things I don't need to
add a significant power gap between each
escalations but if you look at a sports
anime like haikyuu a title that's more
grounded in reality compared to other
shows the scale of escalation is pretty
small characters will learn a simple new
technique or they grow their team
synergy slightly but because of the way
it's portrayed even these small steps
can feel hugely rewarding and makes it
some epic moment and it's a far cry from
people with suddenly shooting laser
beams out of their hands not that
there's any problem with that either the
point is that authors don't always need
to escalate powers by a ridiculous scale
every time to feel like there is
satisfying progression which is why
Hajime no Ippo which is well over a
thousand chances now has managed to stop
itself from having its characters fly
around the ring doing super punches
however even without a shrewdly
established ceiling progression and
development of conflict can be made all
the more compelling through a well
established and clearly defined power
system we've discussed this idea before
in one of our fight analysis videos but
an intricate power systems greatest
strength is being able to increase the
scale of what's happening via complexity
rather than raw power and strength
getting more powerful doesn't mean you
can punch things harder it can mean you
gain more knowledge more experience to
take advantage of the power system
present if you look at every single
final villain of JoJo's Bizarre
Adventure their power levels are always
a level far beyond that of our main
characters they are only able to be
eventually taken down in the final act
due to either their own hubris or the
cunning and intelligence of the main
characters using their powers an
interesting and compelling way often the
combination of the two unless of course
your name is giono Giovanni of course
calling back to exactly what we
discussed in the fight video in
reference to Hunter hunter then as a
power system is so well defined that
even though it has incredibly powerful
characters nobody is defeated through
pure brute force and power-ups and then
as the concept is utilized to its
fullest extent and through tactics and
exploitation zuv weaknesses are battles
won to enhance this idea any situation
where brute force are powering up is the
resolution it always comes at an extreme
cost with serious story implications and
even some characters from a appear weak
have an ability that is useful in a
certain fight this entirely avoids the
problem I like to call the piccolo
effect you know what I mean that one
rival who's introduced early on that
poses a huge threat but eventually
becomes completely irrelevant
once this problem of escalation renders
them up
of course this leads to probably the
biggest problem which is how the author
can drag out a series for so long while
keeping it fresh and compelling years or
even decades after it start even if
there is an initial goal deposits
progressing toward and I don't think
there is a candidate that does this
better than one one piece is just
hitting its 20th anniversary and if
someone who's caught up with the manga I
can say that it's still managing to do
new things and continuing to develop its
characters in fresh directions two
decades later which while I don't have
time to break down exactly how it's done
this the big thing is how Oda treats
each arc almost as a self-contained
story so one of one piece is massive but
one of the greatest selling points of
the series is the sense of adventure and
exploring as much of this world as we
can the arcs are structured around what
the crew discover on each Island they go
to links loosely under the goal of
getting to the last island and finding
one piece instead of explaining in a
linear fashion the plot expands
outwardly as we learn more about the
world and its inhabitants and this is
what allows ODIs tell a huge variety of
different stories and genres of varying
scales and personal space under the same
banner of the straw hats pirates
this stops the story from ever getting
too similar or boring without making it
feel a drag that will give them that
all-important sense of progression even
if it is just a tiny bit at a time as
what you don't want to do is make it
feel like that goal is constantly moving
further and further away as that will
feel very unfulfilled for the viewer and
in the case of something like Erin's
basement in attack on Titan have become
not much more than a running joke in the
community at this point sure come
shining down to take noni night in the
end all these ideas in mind of the issue
that needs fixing most through this
escalation problem it is exactly what
effect it has on the characters that we
love the reason we all love the earlier
arcs of many of these shows isn't
because of the nostalgia it's because
before the spirit bonds infinite
tsukiyomi and God knows what other world
or universe destroying threat to
introduce it's the more intimate
character interactions that drew us in
the threat of the entire world just
doesn't resonate with the viewer in the
same way that the threat of mortality
does for one's beloved characters seeing
death whose dreams of being a hero
crushed upon finding out his Qualys
drove many of us to tears see
luffy in a world shattering war was
important because of how grand it was
but because how important we knew it was
for luffy to save his brother and the
bond that they share that is real it's
relatable and we've all likely been
there compared to that the fate of the
entire world is to larger scale for us
to comprehend because the people we care
for most are the people right beside us
for you see the problems we as an
audience have the escalation is that
many serious and feel like it's lost the
heart and soul of the show we initially
fell in love with and the shows that
continue to be successful for so long
after they started are the ones that are
able to carry the spirit through to the
end because that really is why we want
to follow these characters grow up with
them bond with them all the way to the
end through both of our long life
journeys the car on our knee montana
nike me more hey guys hope you enjoyed
that video thank you very much to had
really on babel lee what patrick madison
thrones melts and everyone else on
patient the helping support me for this
month and making this video possible
i'm also been told by book walker that
they'll be having a special no game no
life giveaway on the 24th of july if you
buy any volume of the no game their life
light novel on that day you'll have a
chance to win posters or shiro figure
links in the description if you want
some no gamer life right not use coupon
code ski got store discount I was gonna
have a no gamer live video up on that
date but that's been delayed so you're
gonna get that later anyway that's it
for me no other updates I've been doing
and I'll see you all next time
[Music]