Many shonen anime are known for following a variety of archetypes, patterns, and conventions, and while some of these ideas are worn-out clichés, others are timeless, such as tournaments and training sequences. Tournament arcs may feel like a sports season, and training is relatable when compared to real-life studying or athletic training.
Training and tournament arcs are bound to keep appearing in shonen fiction well into the future, but shonen fans may be split about which concept is more entertaining and enriching for a given show and its characters. Many shonen series have both, but one particular arc may contribute far more to the story than the other.
10 TRAINING: Training Shows The Virtues Of Hard Work
In shonen series where the combat system is easy to learn but difficult to master, sheer hard work can go a long way toward a character's success. This is especially true if a character was born with few talents or abilities, so they must make up for it with sheer hard work.
Rock Lee is an example of this, as are Asta the warrior, Izuku Midoriya, and many others like them. Such characters weren't born with a convenient Quirk or Sharingan eye; they reach new heights through sheer blood, sweat, and tears, and set a noble example for anyone.
9 TOURNAMENT: Such Arcs Feel Like Real-Life Sports
Tournament sequences in shonen anime may feel analogous to real-life sports seasons, where teams are formally ranked according to their win/loss record, and fans of the NFL, Major League Basketball, major-league hockey, boxing, and more may appreciate the core of any anime tournament.
The Pokémon franchise makes heavy use of tournaments, but so do other shonen series featuring swordsmen, wizards, martial artists, and more. But in this case, an individual fighter will stand in for an entire sports team.
8 TRAINING: They Can Focus On One Character More Deeply
Once in a while, a training sequence will involve many characters at once, such as the forest training camp in My Hero Academia. More typically, though, a training sequence will focus on the character who is undergoing the training, and perhaps the coach or instructor, too (if one is present).
This can provide an organic reason for the story to focus deeply on just one or two characters, and not just in terms of their powers and skills. Such an intimate story sequence will deepen a character's backstory, worldview, personality, backstory, and far more.
7 TOURNAMENT: Cheating, Backroom Politicking, & More Can Create Fun Twists
In an ideal world, a tournament or sports season will proceed without any incidents or illegal activity, and everyone will win or lose fairly. But in a story, things are much more fun if there's some cheating, backroom deals, agendas, and more at work.
A tournament arc may become less predictable and far tenser when someone is cheating and isn't caught, or if the tournament sponsors and organizers have an agenda. Perhaps, for example, they want to get rid of the hero and match him or her against someone perfectly suited for defeating them.
6 TRAINING: They Can Deepen The Combat System In Intimate Detail
A series' combat system can be expanded upon and deepened at any time, even during a tournament arc, but a training sequence is the best time for a lecture. An in-depth lecture on chakra or zanpakuto powers will slow down and muddle a battle, but training is different.
During a training session, the trainee needs to know more about how their powers work, and naturally, their coach will explain and demonstrate all kinds of things to the trainee. This way, the trainee and hero can learn more about a new power without distractions in the way.
5 TOURNAMENT: Friends May Be Turned Against Each Other
For a shonen hero entering a tournament, one of the worst-case scenarios is to face his or her own allies in combat, due to the random whims of the elimination chart or other rules. But the hero has no choice; they must fight their friends if they don't drop out first.
Dropping out is anticlimactic, so most often, the two friends will reluctantly face-off, and this can be absolutely fascinating to watch. Will the friends take it easy, or go all out? Will they resent each other afterward? And most of all, this pits two fighting styles against each other that normally don't clash, making the battle feel novel and fresh.
4 TRAINING: Taking A Break From It All
A properly paced story knows when to dish out some rapid-fire developments and twists, and when to slow down and give the characters and audience alike a quick breather. Training arcs are an ideal time to make some advancements while blowing off some steam at the same time.
A training arc is still productive since the hero is learning a new power or skill, but the plot can slow down for a bit and the audience can take this opportunity to "digest" recent events and prepare themselves for what comes next. Then, the action may resume, all in good time.
3 TOURNAMENT: They Are Predictable & Unpredictable At The Same Time
Amusingly, a tournament may feel incredibly predictable but completely unpredictable, all at the same time. But this is done in a sensible and fun way. In a single-elimination tournament, the matchups are plain for all to see, such as when there is a bracket set up.
Viewers can look forward to (or dread) certain fights, but without knowing who will win, or how. What is more, there is a slim chance that both fighters may lose, or one of them may break the rules and alter the tournament's entire course.
2 TRAINING: They Can Transition To Proper Battles Easily
A training sequence takes the character away from the front lines and allows them to essentially exist in their own tiny universe while training. But of course, the villains won't always respect those boundaries and might attack the hero during training. Or, the villains might create a situation that demands the hero's immediate intervention.
In western fiction, Luke Skywalker halted his Jedi training to rescue Leia and Han at Cloud City, and in anime, villains such as the Six Paths of Pain are about to ruin the entire world, so the training hero can quickly race to the front lines and "finish" their training against a real enemy. This can be a fascinating transition, moving from the safety of a training area to the do-or-die battlefield.
1 TOURNAMENT: There May Be An Incredible Prize
Since a tournament will be officially sponsored and formally organized, then there will be a prize laid out for the winner. This ups the stakes and motivates more fighters to sign up and fight their hardest, which in turn gives a good show to in-universe spectators and real-life viewers alike.
The actual prize will vary, but prizes such as a huge sum of money, granting a wish, a position of authority, knighthood, or sheer glamor and fame may await, spurring all the fighters on. It's fun to imagine what each character would do with the prize, and in some stories, the "prize" is even more intense, such as simply avoiding a terrible fate instead. Perhaps the villain is holding the hero's friends hostage, and the hero must win the tournament to free them--or else.