A common, yet successful, reoccurring arc in anime, particularly shounen, is the tournament arc. Tournaments are easy to introduce into a story but difficult to pull off correctly. While they appear to be a mere string of fight scenes, that way of thinking completely misses the point of why people love tournament arcs. With The God of High School, essentially a tournament arc extended to a full series, one of the Summer's biggest hits, now's a good time to take a look at tournaments in anime, from Hunter x Hunter to My Hero Academia, and how they remain interesting despite being used so often.
Tournament arcs are a battle format that allows for character narratives to take place in a low stakes competition that nonetheless feels high stakes. Sports anime are built on the continuous strain of reaching for tournament arcs. In a real-life scenario, the Olympics would qualify as a massive tournament arc between countries. Despite usually featuring one-on-one battles, a tournament done right does not feel like throwaway action but instead is necessary to the plot and to the characters. It may not advance the plot directly, but there are many storylines being weaved together once they are placed in the spotlight and expanded upon.
The main emotion that a good tournament manages to pull from its audience is hype. Action combined with great animation can only keep you entertained for so long. What keeps these arcs so fascinating, despite being drawn out over several episodes, is a good story that keeps you invested in each fight. Action with no meaning is pointless. What makes these battles so exciting are the emotions behind them. Friendships and rivalries are put to the test and are either built up or torn apart in a one-on-one battle scenario. The tension emitting from these friendships and rivalries is set up prior to where these previously established conflicts are finally brought out in the open during the adrenaline rush of a tournament.
Everyone walks in with their own goals and ambitions, forced to put their power levels on display if they want to win. This showcases the characters' strengths and weaknesses as everything is placed out in the open for spectators to see. This either adds depth to characters we are already familiar with or introduces new characters in memorable ways to spice up the tournament and to add new obstacles for old characters to face. In a way, having their strengths and flaws out in the open exposes them and makes them vulnerable, allowing the audience to see all sides to their character. During whatever challenges the tournament places them in, they become established as the overpowered ones, the underdogs, or the dark knights.
Character backstories, goals and relationships all work together to build the hype of these arcs. The storylines become personal very quickly and even if it is not a do or die situation, it definitely feels like it. These characters are challenged, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Their actions define who they are and we get to see the fruition of their journeys on display in an epic way. When two characters are put against each other, the audience gets to witness those characters facing their internal struggles and flaws as well as their opponent.
When used effectively, tournaments are used to flesh out existing themes in the form of intense fights. The outcome of who wins isn't as important as how the fight plays out. This is what makes iconic fights like Gaara vs. Rock Lee from Naruto, Gon vs. Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter and Midoriya vs. Todoroki from My Hero Academia so much fun and satisfying to watch. It wasn't a matter of who would win, but rather showing off the essence of Rock Lee's training as the underdog who can only use taijutsu, Gon finally landing a revenge punch on Hisoka and Midoriya trying to save Todoroki from his pent up internal conflict. These intense raw emotions are what make these fights so fierce and memorable years later.
Tournament arcs are not simply a massive game drawn out for the sake of hype. Just like winning an Olympic medal, it's years of hard work, determination and personal stakes driven by ambition all coming into the spotlight. The fights become personal and characters are able to let their true selves shine as well as showing off a few awesome moves. Sometimes these fights are the embodiment of everything they've learned and grown from throughout their stories thus far. All of these aspects are combined into extraordinary battles, some of which manage to stick with us for a long time.