Shōnen anime are infamous for their power-ups and transformations that do more to create spectacle than well thought-out battles. While not every anime takes forms to such extremes, certain shōnen anime & manga prioritized how powerful they could make their main characters instead of telling a grounded story with a tight ending. Sometimes, creating a cool transformation is more iconic than writing a believable battle for the rule of cool, but in doing so, such anime fail to stick the landing.

Not every shōnen anime and manga is guilty of this, of course, but when a story cares more about a particular power-up over how that boost will impact the rest of the world or narrative, then the ending is almost guaranteed to fail in certain respects. Ultimately, shōnen that focus on transformations and power-ups may have their moments in the heat of battle, but such moments will only hinder the story, especially the ending.

5

Attack on Titan Overrelied on the Founding Titan’s Importance By the End

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Attack on Titan shocked the anime landscape by being a brutal survival thriller that captured an entire generation of anime fans. AoT‘s story followed Eren Yeager as he sought revenge against giant Titans that took everything from him. After enlisting in the Scout Corps, Eren unravels a mystery that shakes the very world as he attempts to eliminate every Titan by turning into one to reclaim humanity. Except, the Titans were just a byproduct of a wider conflict between two peoples, the Eldians and the Marleyans.

Attack on Titan focused on the importance of different types of Titans that certain humans could transform into, but as the story progressed, the plot focused more on the importance of the Nine Titans over the brutal nature and perspective of the humans fighting said Titans. Obviously, the shōnen anime is named after Titans, so that isn’t the issue, but by the end of the story, Eren’s Founding Titan could do practically anything the plot needed it to, making Eren stronger than the combined might of the other eight primary Titans.

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One could argue that Attack on Titan‘s ending was always about the Founding Titan’s importance, but the story gave Eren the most powerful power-up in the entire series, giving him the literal power to control and order around every other Titan. By the end of Attack on Titan, Eren Yeager stood as the most powerful character in the series with the most broken transformation, making him less of a character and more of a force of nature that only failed because of plot.

4

My Hero Academia Prioritized Deku’s Powers Over Plot

Streaming on Crunchyroll

My Hero Academia started off strong, with Izuku “Deku” Midoriya being chosen by the world’s strongest hero as the next in line to inherit the power of One For All – turning a Quirkless Deku into the next most powerful hero. MHA followed Deku as he learned how to be a hero after enrolling in U.A High School. The anime kicked off extremely well, but as the story progressed, My Hero Academia became about how strong Deku could become by mastering One For All. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, as every shōnen series has its own training arc, except the entire story of MHA was one long training arc for Deku to master his powers.

By the latter arcs of My Hero Academia, Deku unlocked the secrets of One For All, being the collected powers, knowledge, and wisdom of every previous user, granting him up to six different quirks to use in the final arc against his arch enemy, Tomura Shigaraki. The final arc consisted of a battle between two characters who would each one-up the other with a sudden power boost, creating a lackluster situation where the fight focused on Deku pulling another ability out of his hat whenever the need arose.

Shigaraki and the rest of the hero cast weren’t safe from sudden power-ups, either, as any character received a powerboost as the plot needed them to, destroying any semblence of strategy and stakes from previous seasons. The final arc ultimately focused on god-like powers over the more intimate nature of Deku using his single quirk to analyze the situation and create a strategy to win in an underdog scenario.

My Hero Academia

Release Date

April 3, 2016

3

Fairy Tail Made Friendship Into the Greatest Power-Up

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Fairy Tail was never shy to focus on sudden power-ups for the sake of friendship. After Lucy Heartfilia joins the legendary guild Fairy Tail, she follows Natsu Dragneel on a life-changing adventure alongside his friends to complete quests for the guild, often being put in life or death situations. Almost every final battle had Natsu’s team being defeated, only for Natsu to get up again and receive a sudden boost of power for the sake of his friends. Fairy Tail thrived on the rule of cool, focusing on the spectacle of Natsu rising after being defeated to beat the bad guy and save the day.

Fairy Tail‘s formula became infamous for how the anime dealt with power-ups and transformations, with friendship being the literal powerboost. As the anime went off, however, the repetitive formula of Natsu getting a power-up only became ludicrous after the Fairy Tail guild went to war with the Alvarez Empire. By the final arcs , Natsu wasn’t the only guild member capable of suddenly getting up after being defeated. Practically, the entire guild became invincible for the sake of their friends, unable to die or stay down if a single one of their friends was in danger.

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Ultimately, Natsu’s powers became plot relevant as it was revealed he was the creation of Zeref Dragneel, a demon known as E.N.D., who was purposely created to be the only one capable of killing the immortal dark wizard. Plot devices aside, the end of Fairy Tail truly focused on the importance of power-ups and Natsu’s transformation over creating a satisfying ending with a well-written conclusion. Fairy Tail won the war because their friends were in danger, becoming literal walking plot armor to save the day and their guild.

Fairy Tail

Release Date

2009 – 2018

Directors

Shinji Ishihira

2

Dragon Ball Super Became a Never-Ending Game of Multi-Colored Transformations

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Dragon Ball is infamous for swapping power-ups like trading cards, but Dragon Ball Super takes the cake as each arc upped the ante in terms of powerscaling and transformations. While the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z became legendary for how they framing power-ups around compelling circumstances and stakes to earn such power, Dragon Ball Super forgot all of that. Instead of crafting compelling sequences for Goku and other characters to earn their powers, Dragon Ball Super often gifts its characters with a random new form for the sake of it, using villains as tests for Goku and Vegeta’s new abilities.

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Dragon Ball Super‘s greatest issue is specifically how the anime deals with transformations, often overshadowing previous transformations with every arc. From Super Saiyan God being immediately replaced by Super Saiyan Blue, to Ultra Instinct, Dragon Ball Super tries to outdo itself with every subsequent arc for the sake of nothing other than spectacle, ruining the powerscaling that initially grounded the shōnen anime in hard work and training.

The Tournament of Power became a showcase of power-ups and abilities over being a story. Ultra Instinct was handed to Goku as a power-up out of nowhere during the middle of a fight, ruining the stakes of how characters earned such powers like previously in the series. Sure, there may have been some foreshadowing of Ultra Instinct beforehand, but the ability essentially fell out of the sky. Add in some villians with more powers than personality, and Dragon Ball Super created the worst of both worlds.

1

Naruto: Shippuden Ruined Ninjutsu With Poor Powerscaling

Streaming on Hulu

By far the most infamous case in shōnen anime , Naruto: Shippuden upped the ante too much in terms of powerscaling, completely subverting the importance of ninjutsu with how powerful one’s magical eyes could be or their connection to a Tailed Beast. What made the original series of Naruto so iconic in the first place was the intimate and tactical nature of shinobi fighting each other with nothing other than a few abilities and their wits.

By Naruto: Shippuden, the importance of ninjutsu and strategy was left by the wayside and replaced by Dojutsu and jinchuriki. The War Arc is what truly put the final nail in the coffin, but the writing was on the wall for the vast majority of the shōnen. The Fourth Great Shinobi War was a war between dojutsu and Naruto’s power as a jinchuriki, being capable of destroying entire nations with a single Tailed Beast Bomb.

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Madara Uchiha and Naruto’s full control of the Nine-Tails is what truly created a situation of pure, unrivaled powerscaling that broke the rules of the shōnen. By the end of the story, Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha became walking gods as the two most powerful individuals in history in such a short timeframe that it barely makes sense from a powerscaling perspective. In a single arc, they were given god-like powers and rose to shape the war. Ultimately, the shōnen genre is full of powerscaling instances that focus more on power-ups and transformations for spectacle than creating a satisfying and well-written conclusion.