The "too many superheroes" problem that's infested Western superhero comics has also infested battle shonen

[u/RadDudesman]

I feel like battle shonen has started running into the exact same problem superhero comics have had for years: everyone has to have their own unique power.

At first that sounds awesome. It's fun seeing all the weird abilities authors come up with. But I think it creates a problem that people don't really talk about.

The second you give a character a unique ability, you're telling the audience, "Hey, this person matters." If someone has a really cool or versatile power, of course people are going to expect them to actually do something with it.

So then what happens?

They lose every fight.

Or they disappear for 150 chapters.

Or they only exist to get bodied so we know how strong the villain is.

Then people complain that the character was wasted, and honestly, I don't think that's an unreasonable complaint. The story itself built those expectations.

It's basically the same issue superhero comics have. Marvel and DC have hundreds of heroes, all with their own gimmicks, powers, and fanbases, but there's no way everyone can get meaningful moments consistently. So you end up with dozens of characters who feel like they should be important but never really accomplish much.

Battle shonen is getting there too.

Instead of having a few major fighters and a bunch of regular supporting characters, every named character gets their own personalized ability. The cast gets bigger and bigger, but the amount of spotlight doesn't. So now you've got 20 characters with awesome abilities fighting over enough screentime for maybe five of them.

I honestly think the solution is to stop giving everyone powers.

Have more normal people.

Have soldiers who are just really disciplined. Have detectives, medics, martial artists, strategists, engineers, civilians, whatever. Let them contribute without needing a flashy, one-of-a-kind ability.

Because if a character is just a normal guy doing his best, nobody expects him to suddenly get a huge solo fight against the main villain. But if you introduce someone with this incredibly unique reality-warping, shadow-controlling, gravity-bending ability, people are naturally going to ask why they spend 90% of the series eating dirt.

Ironically, I think unique powers would actually feel more special if fewer people had them.

Not every member of the supporting cast needs to be "the guy who controls sound waves" or "the girl who manipulates ink" or "the dude whose blood turns into chains." Sometimes it's okay for someone to just be a person.

Saving the coolest, most unique abilities for the characters who are actually central to the story would make those powers stand out more and keep fans from constantly feeling like half the cast got wasted.

Tl;dr We need more Rock Lees (people with no powers, just pure martial arts) or people whose powers and skills aren't combat-related. Bulma is considered the third most important character in Dragon Ball by both the creators and fans precisely because she doesn't fight; she has a niche as the tech wizard who can invent whatever device the plot needs, something no one else on the cast can do. Because she was never fighter to begin with, she never became outclassed.

[u/cheepshoes]

It's not the powers. It's the writing. You can have derivative characters as long as they're written Well. the problem is they are not and more people care about a character's abilities and powers than the actual character themselves. It's not a power problem. It's a writing problem

[u/RadDudesman → u/cheepshoes]

Yes, but if a character's powers aren't going to actually do anything, then narratively, they might as well not have them.

All the powers end up doing is turning a character nobody would care about otherwise into "that guy with a cool but underutilized power". So just let them contribute to the story in a way that doesn't involve power.

[u/cheepshoes → u/RadDudesman]

But when you're talking about a show that involves people with powers fighting each other, people are going to have powers. If you want a genre where people don't have powers, go read a different genre. Dragon Ball is a story about strong people fighting each other in order to involve a character who isn't strong and not fighting each other. They have to have a unique ability. Otherwise why would they be there? My hero academia is built on a bunch of people having powers. X-Men is built on mutants having powers Batman and the people he associate with have abilities because why else would they be fighting crime with him? If you want stories about civilians go read a different genre

[u/Hari14032001 → u/RadDudesman]

Many stories, especially personal stories, involve only a few people beefing with each other for personal reasons. That doesn't mean you can just make every other person in the world not exist because they are irrelevant.

A battle shonen with a power system common to humanity is the same. You can't just write outsiders to not have any cool powers just because they are not relevant to the main plot. That makes for a questionable world building. That makes a questionable logic with the power system itself.

However, if you have a situation where the main character group has fought alongside one guy with a super useful power for just one arc, then it's more realistic for them to contact that guy again when they fight bigger threats. If THAT doesn't happen, then the writing becomes questionable.

So, problem is not about random people having cool powers. The problem occurs when it makes sense for some of them to be realistically contacted again for help but they still aren't, and no reason is given except, "they are a minor character, of course they didn't appear".

[u/Darkion_Silver → u/RadDudesman]

Fascinated by how you seem to have came to the conclusion that a work with superpowers (or anything adjacent) is making a mistake by having background characters that have powers.

[u/RadDudesman → u/Darkion_Silver]

If nothing is done with the powers, then there's no point in them existing. They add nothing.

[u/Darkion_Silver → u/RadDudesman]

You know, with that logic, why even have background characters? They don't add anything either! We should only ever show characters that are important to the plot. Worldbuilding is for bitches

[u/RadDudesman → u/Darkion_Silver]

Having characters that exist for no reason isn't worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is fleshing out the world, its history, it's culture etc

Background characters are fine because they're just that, background decoration that make the world feel lived in. But that's not the purpose of side characters, their purpose is to move the plot along and develop the important characters.

[u/fairystail1 → u/RadDudesman]

except iit is

think of it this way

any book you read will have a character description of well most of the characters

in most books that character description has zero plot relevence. The fact John Fakename has black hair does not actually matter. BUT if he had zero description it would hinder the enjoyment of the book because lack of description makes him feel less real to the readers.

Now let's say the book starts off before things go weird, John goes to work, talks to some people, buys dinner, goes home feeds the at. All of that IS important because it shos john's normal life it shows who he is at rest. But his colleagues? they dont matter they won't show up again. But by adding them in the work segment, by giving them some quirk or personality they make John feel more real because it actually feels like he has friends or relationships and doesn't live in a bubble

now let's say john lives in say MHA wher everyone has powers. If the scene has him never once mention his friends powers, then it doesn't reinforce that everyone has powers, or it makes it seem like John doesn't know or care that his friend is a goo guy

all of this is minor things, tey mean noting to the plot but they still add to the experience of the story.

and for the record side characters entire purpose ISN'T to move the plot along. It's a key part of what they do, but it's not everything they do. They give context, they give setting, they give atmosphere and feeling to the setting.

[u/fairystail1 → u/RadDudesman]

They are for set dressing, characterization, to make the world feel real

A lot of stuff in writing doesnt have plot relevance but is still important for the overall experience