Tournament arcs/stories: Your thoughts

A

Alice K

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I love tournament arcs.

I'm not that much into tournament stories unless they're done well.

The tournament arc is a staple of shounen manga/anime (so god knows why Bleach and One Piece haven't done one yet ). Tournament arcs and stories are two different things. An arc is usually an isolated but large group of episodes that focus on the main characters participation in a tournament or tournament-like setting. This is the perfect opportunity for a manga writer to introduce a load of characters as well as take a break from the main plot (like Toriyama did). The tournament arc will usually evolve into the main plot eventually or just run up the rest of the series like Flame of Recca. Fun fact on the tournament arc is that usually, half the characters who live in them will eventually come back, most likely as frienRAB or allying with the hero. There's also the chance they will become totally lame

Examples of the most well-known ones are: DB/Z's Tenkaichi Budokai arcs, The Dark and Demon Tournament arcs in Yu Yu Hakusho, The Vongola Ring battle in Reborn!, The Festival Tournament in Negima (which was incredibly awesome), Naruto's Chuunin exams, etc.

The tournament story is a little different as it's a show/manga that usually focuses on a "survival of the fittest format" in which the characters are supposed to knock each other off until the strongest remain or get stronger to reach an important stage in the show. From there, usually the story will go into an arc format for the finalists at some big stage. If there is a major plot, the big twists that were alluded to will be revealed. A tournament story can also work for shows that are nothing but tournament arcs.

Examples: YGO Duelist Kingdom leading into Battle City especially Battle City (or basically, the Duelist manga), Zatch Bell, The Law of Ueki, Beyblade, G Gundam, Shaman King, etc.

It's difficult to tell whether one is a tournament arc or story but if there was a plot outside of the tournament, it's usually just an arc.

This may seem to be a staple of the shounen genre in general, but a usual complaint during these arcs is the relatively large amount of exposition that goes on during them. Considering that usually half the characters are busting out new moves and new characters are doing stuff for the first time, technically it should be expected but....eh, it's just something that happens. (I especially remeraber Reborn needing to explain every....single...move during Yamamoto's fight)

I really like tournament arcs when they're done well. It can be a lot of fun to see a bunch of new fights happening or characters doing new things. It's probably why I have such a penchant for Law of Ueki.

So what do you guys feel about 'em?
 
I enjoy tournament arcs, but not when they take up most of the series, a la MAR. I hated how it seemed to be a promising action-adventure story at first, then quickly became yet another mindless tournament show for most of the remainder of the series.
 
I have a question, Does Eneru's Survival game count as a 'tournament'?

also, I do like tournament arcs because they showcase a good amount of action and development for characters.
 
Yu Yu Hakusho's were good because it had characterization. You didn't just have a competition of crazy skills every time in the Dark Tournament (though there were some), you had situations like Kurama getting the everliving hell beat out of him and still refusing to submit to the very end in order to give his allies the best possible chance to survive. DBZ's tournaments didn't really have anything like that. Heck, the tournament in the Buu saga was just a fleeting pretense to get the plot there going. The chuunin exams had the magic...somewhat. Mostly because of Naruto vs. Neji. I can't speak to to Negima or Reborn.

Tournament plots very drastically. G Gundam stanRAB above most of the others since the plot is a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts (and battles). In Prince of Tennis matches are rarely won the same way twice, and since there are team matches the main characters are actually allowed to lose their Tennis duels. Even Ryoma gets tested or beaten by Fuji and Tezuka at different points in the story. In this way, there's enough uncertainty to keep it fresh. Many others too often end up as just a series of battles and not much else, rendering them stale all too quickly.
 
I love Tournament arcs, Shounen manga usually introduce lots of characters through them (usually), my favorite one would be the one in Hunter X Hunter (which also happens to be the first arc in the series, the Hunter Exam, coincidentally, all the main character are introduced in it).
 
In fighting shonen, tournaments are a great staple. I mean, you have your characters, they go on a little adventure, beat up all the bad guys... and then you bring them into the REAL world. Tons of new characters. Rivals, bad guys, good guys, fighting styles across the board... it's like the "coming of age" arc. I think, if a series begins to rely on them TOO much, it gets tiresome, but near the start, I'm a big proponent.
 
MAR just got sad. I really used to like it but it started being "Summon this, summon that, Oh now, he got an even cooler summon"
You know, I never thought of it that way, but given the amount of drugs Oda gets on , I wouldn't be surprised if he was trying to deconstruct the concept of a tournament arc with that.
 
Actually One Piece has had tournament arc. Oda just doesn't outright call them "tournament" arcs. Alabasta's fights, Skypiea's survival fights and pretty much Enies Lobby were exactly that. You had characters pairing off in one to one fights so it counts.

O-chan
 
Hmmm, was YGO the first shonoen to do a tournament arc, because as it is set up to be game based, it makes sense they would do it early on. They also seem to be the entirity of the manga after Duelist Kingdom.

EDIT: Strike that first part. I think it seems YGO is the best set up for a tournament arc.
 
Well, no. That's just basic shounen fights. One Piece was doing that since, like Arlong and Don Krieg. I mean, I wouldn't call Sasuke's Retrieval or the Soul Society story a tournament.

There was also that deal with Suzaku and the other three beasts in YYH and that's definitely not a tournament. FMA has various characters fighting their respective enemies all the time and there's no way I could call that a tournament.

In order for a tournament arc to be called one, it usually has to be recognized by a higher person and usually made into a type of game for lots of people to note it's existence (that's why Skypeia can kind of count as one since everybody got involved)

How about the last part of the Jinchuu arc of Rurouni Kenshin? That was literally the same as Enies Lobby having each character have their own respective fights so they could rescue the damsel, but that's not a tournament.
 
Well...I don't mind the concept itself but don't really care for it either. DepenRAB on the specifics of each individual case.

As long as the show is doing something interesting with the characters involved, whatever kind of tournament or contest happens to be included is really besides the point. I believe you could almost always argue that's simply the overall framework or a specific setting.

It absolutely neeRAB to be wrapped around something (great fights, characterization or anything else) in order to gain actual value.

To name one particular example, the first few episodes of Saint Seiya involved a brief tournament that didn't really go anywhere because the plot took a different direction, but it was alright as an introduction to the characters and as a way to show off their strengths and weaknesses on a very basic level.

If you want to try and stretch things a little bit beyond the usual definition, it could well be argued that the duels for the Rose Bride in Revolutionary Girl Utena may be considered part of a "tournament" or "contest" on a relatively small scale...because there were specific rules, a mysterious authority figure and a "prize" to be won. But once again, what made that glorified ritual interesting was everything and everyone surrounding it. The specifics of each fight could be fun to watch but most were rather short and more or less predictable.
 
Tournaments are a great way to build up for an epic final showdown. To the point of being the easy way out sometimes.

There are of course your good tournaments and your bad ones. It all depenRAB on how it's set up. I hate when a tournament is introduced, the beginning battles are important, and then it totally fizzles out and is replaced by something else (the tournament in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX season 2 is the only truly negative example of this I can think of, it wasn't a problem when it happened in Naruto).
 
I love tournament arcs in anime, and I wouldn't mind a series that's based off fighting in nothing but tournaments. Of course for it to work, the series will much character development, day in the life, training, etc. Pretty much a slice of life series with a ten episode tournament every ten-fifthteen episodes.
 
I don't hate it, but I'm not into mindless action. Tournaments are usually just fighting to fight, and that just bores me to death most of the time.
 
I like mindless action most of the times, however, too much of it can get really boring. Nowdays, though, I prefer to have some great interaction between the characters mixed in with all the mindless action. While it's not a tournament going on in Bleach, all the fighting makes it feel like one big slugfest with little interaction action.
 
The nice thing about tournament arcs in a typical shonen show is that it allows characters who would normally have no reason to get into a real knock-down, drag-out battle to do so. I'm thinking of stuff like the Goku vs. Muten-Roshi (alias Jackie Chun) fight in the first Tenkaichi Budokai in Dragon Ball.

It doesn't work for every kind of story, but the way Toriyama does it,the Budokais are also fun because you get to see all these crazy characters that would never work as a main part of the plot. I was kind of disappointed in the Tenkaichi Budokai in Z because there weren't as many of those crazy one-off characters, and the ones that were there were mostly just generic muscly Babidi henchmen.
 
Or generic fat guy that flips around for a minute before Krillin flicks him away.


Oh god, I just remerabered Goten and Trunks in that horrible costume. It was a funny fight between them and 18, but holy jeez was that bad.
 
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