Are there any examples of power creep where the author handles it very well and it seems like a natural progression in the story? I find it rare to watch or read a series where this concept is anything but forced.
Conversely, what are some of the worst examples of power creep out there? It seems to be most prevalent within the Shounen demographic.
TTGL
...
I'm not requesting anything. I'm genuinely curious about this trope.
Yeah there is
Have you not read One Piece? The characters scale to the creep.
Tokyo Ghoul handled it pretty badly. Ghouls at the start of the series were already at A and S class in the standard shonen power level letter ranking scale. At this point even an SSS class ghoul is a worthless jobber. What's next, SSSS class?
You're asking for examples of a certain kind of show. It's a req thread, whether you realize it or not.
I don't think you know what /wsr/ is for. One of the criteria is:
>Asking for recommendations for a new anime or TV series to watch, or a new manga or comic series to read.
I'm not asking for any recommendations on what I should read or watch. I'm asking about this specific trope and how certain series handle it.
Holy shit you're right. TTGL really is one of the only ones.
I hated how Eto was taken out.
Maybe not worst, because it was handled very well, but the most unbalanced example I can think is the VN Evolimit.
It has three routes, and in the first two the MC reaches the power level of the average Gundam by taking careful steps up the metaphorical stairs of evolution. But in the final battle of the third route, he, his girlfriend and the antagonist start running up the stairs, and end running across dimensions and throwing Big Bangs at each other.
I'm a few years behind, but Hajime no Ippo was pretty good with power levels. Being in the sports genre makes that a lot easier though.
Power creep in TTGL is acceptable because the show clearly did not give a single flying fuck. It didn't try to cook some half-assed reason or logic behind how much more powerful STTGL got during the final fight. It was just pure, unadulterated fun.
Hxh
Hail Satan
Also, TTGL works that way because a major theme of it was constant growth. It just works extremely well, and you come to expect it, instead of it coming from left field.
HxH handles powerlevels pretty well.
>setting small goals for the MCs (eg: punching Hisoka in the face or taking his tag rather than actually beating him) so they don't have to power up to achieve things/advance the plot
>lots of strategy based fights that say more about a character's ability to plan rather than their strength
>literally just not writing all that many fights into the story so there's no need to increase powerlevels for the sake of increasing hype
>killing off characters that inflate the powerlevels in a way that doesn't necessitate increasing another characters powerlevel in a permanent way (eg: bombs and one-time-only power boosts).
>writing non-combat powers into the story that can't be measured on a powerlevel scale, like gaseous life forms, plants, diseases, parasites, etc in the DC.
In contrast, I think power creep in YYH was done quite horribly by the end of the series' run. Seneui was an S-rank fighter who by far outclassed everyone who fought him, then it suddenly turns out that Yusuke is actually from demon ancestry and his ancestor was ridiculously OP. The way Raizen possessed Yusuke and foddrized Sensui without any effort really doesn't sit well with me to this day.
It's at that point you can tell Togashi was just phoning it in to get to the end of the series as soon as possible.
Magi
Who will be the super Gary Stu now that Arima is dead?
toriko was handling it alright until the monkey king arc ended
Now it doesn't make any sense
HxH before Gon got hair extensions.
excluding Kurapika
Someone hasn't read the latest chapter.
I dunno I feel the power levels just change to what the story wants rather than progressing nicely. My main problem has to be the author writing himself into a corner in the chimera ant arc
Have you never read a dumb power level manga before? Some other guy will show up and we'll get a shot of a bunch of CCG guys going "whoa isn't that the super legendary strongest guy from that other branch whoa this one is the strongest for real even stronger than Arima" and we'll be settled for another 100 chapters.
Amon
ishida isnt that fucking retarded dude, amon is an already established character that will very likely be coming back as incredibly powerful for whatever fucking reason ishida chooses
>ishida isnt that fucking retarded dude
Man I'm in until the end at this point, but Ishida has done plenty of dumb stuff
Also, Amon was awful and having him return with a powerup would be just as bad as pulling a new guy out of someone's ass. At least the new guy could be interesting.
I have a theory that because the EM's aren't coming from the Djinn themselves, then the spells aren't as potent as they would be from an actual King Vessel.
I like how it happens in Gundam 0079. At first Amuro gets by only because Zeon Mobile Suits can't pierce the Gundams armour. But over time he gets better and better, as does Zeons tech. It gets to the point where Amuro is no longer relying on his machine to beat outdated tech, but his machine is relying on him to beat superior tech.
>having a mental trauma counts as a power up
>takizawa coming back absolutely retarded and instantly getting an SS rating
>Torso in general
desu he has done some bad shit but i dont think he would pull a guy out of his ass just to fill in for the death god
Power creep in OP really isn't that bad. I mean, at the level Luffy is now, he needed a million and one handicaps just to beat Doffy. The Strawhats still aren't anywhere near the level of a Yonko or their crews.
Amon was the best character in the original TG.
Those were cast by an entire army of magicians controlled by an ancient magi with fuckton years of combat experience.
And gravitational shenanigans being the strongest type of magic was explained like 100 chapters ago.
>superior tech
At no point in 0079 does Amuro face anything better than the Gundam, except for arguably the Big Zam and the Zeong, but that wasn't even complete
Dragon ball z maybe.
What? After Frieza, the power creep became unbearable.
Nanatsu.
Debuffers are fucking overpowered there though.
True enough. It's established from the first episode as well. Simon kept growing and growing even before Kamina died.
Nah, it was handled pretty well.
Gelgoog was arguably superior. Amuro had to deal with constant mobile armours, many of which involved new type fuckery.
It's still a bit of a shame how powerlevels came into it at all. Back in the day fancy skills like Logia were tackled with a scheme or elemental counter. People used to argue about how anyone was going to exploit a way around Aokiji, now the answer to everything begins with Yonkou-tier Haki.
>untold threat attacks
>mc (usually goku) overpowers their base form
>villain changes form and overpowers mc
>mc grows exponentially during the fight and ends the fight one shotting the villain
Its awful m8
It really wasn't. The fabled legend of the SUper Saiyan became a joke when literally any other Saiyan character could access it. Trunks and Goten especially killed it. Frieza, the most terrifying power in existence, became a joke when some cyborg brats were stronger than him. And it just progressively kept getting worse and worse.
>a scientist in his fucking basement made a couple of cyborgs that where more than twice stronger than the "menace of the galaxy"
KEK
Dragon Ball has some of the worst power creep ever. Starting at 'Z':
>Raditz has (gasp) a power level of over 1000! Goku must join forces with his greatest enemy yet to even possibly beat this new unstoppable foe!
>With a little training, Goku's power level is over 8000, even Krillin shits on Raditz's old power level
>Rinse and repeat. Each threat must be exponentially stronger than the last.
>Soon Freeza has a power level of over 1 million and he's only on his second form. Power level numbers become irrelevant at this point, but the relative strength scaling still continues.
Do you know how many times Toriyama brought back an old powerful villain just for him to get destroyed really easily just to show how powerful some new threat is?
every time genos takes a step up its sorta just an upgrade. I dont think its handled perfect but " upgrade" is usually an easy way out when you involve tech and he isnt exactly insainly stronger which i think feeds more into the creep in power creep
There's also the fact HxH follows multiple characters and Gon is never really the strongest person around. Having characters like Gin or Netero around makes it possible to show the top rank-in universe fights, but since they aren't part of the protagonist group they can be written off if necessary.
I think Kurapika is allright since he can't use the chains to dispel nen or imprison on anyone but spiders. Although the eyes feel like bullshit he hasn't fought against anyone particularly strong like ant officers.