By: Ethan Rogers
Anime has no shortage of extraordinarily powerful characters. Heroes survive attacks that should be impossible to survive, discover new abilities at exactly the right moment, and eventually face opponents who make earlier villains look almost harmless. Debating which character could defeat another has become part of the fun of being an anime fan.
But raw power isn’t necessarily what makes a character worth following.
For anime and donghua enthusiast Elijah Ladapo, whose interests range from familiar Japanese series to Chinese animation, the characters who stand out tend to have something more than impressive abilities. Intelligence, persistence, adaptability, loyalty, and the capacity to change can make a protagonist compelling even when someone else in the fictional universe is technically stronger.
“A character becomes much more interesting to me when strength is only one part of who they are,” Ladapo says. “I want to see how they think, how they react when they’re outmatched, and whether they actually learn from what happens to them. If the answer to every problem is just becoming more powerful, eventually the story becomes predictable.”
That helps explain why some anime heroes remain memorable decades after audiences first encounter them. Their abilities may draw viewers in, but personality and development give people reasons to stay invested.
Being Outmatched Creates Better Problems
An overwhelmingly powerful protagonist can certainly be entertaining. The storytelling challenge is finding credible obstacles for that character.
When a hero isn’t guaranteed to win, however, writers have more possibilities.
The protagonist may have to study an opponent, recognize a weakness, work with other characters, retreat, seek instruction, or reconsider an assumption. Physical strength becomes one tool among several rather than the automatic solution.
Battle Through the Heavens, Ladapo’s favorite donghua recommendation, makes that process central to Xiao Yan’s development. After beginning life as a celebrated talent, Xiao Yan mysteriously loses his abilities and becomes the subject of ridicule. He eventually discovers the reason for that decline and begins training under the ancient cultivator Yao Chen.
Xiao grows tremendously stronger as the story progresses, but strength alone doesn’t explain his success. He learns techniques, studies alchemy, develops relationships, benefits from mentorship, and gains experience through encounters with opponents whose abilities sometimes exceed his own.
The result is a hero whose accomplishments have history behind them.
Elijah Ladapo: Intelligence Can Make Power More Interesting
Tang San in Soul Land offers another variation on the idea.
Tang San is unquestionably powerful, but much of his appeal comes from how he uses what he knows. He enters the world of Soul Land carrying knowledge from his previous life in the Tang Sect, including expertise involving hidden weapons and specialized techniques. As his abilities develop, that knowledge continues to influence how he approaches problems.
He isn’t simply waiting for the next power increase. He observes, plans, combines abilities, and thinks strategically.
“That makes battles more interesting because viewers aren’t only asking whether Tang San is strong enough,” says Ladapo. “They’re also wondering what he will do with the resources available to him.”
This distinction appears throughout good action storytelling. A character with limitations has to make choices. Those choices reveal personality.
A hero who knows when to fight, when to cooperate, when to improvise, and occasionally when to walk away can be more interesting than one capable of overpowering every obstacle immediately.
Goku’s Greatest Strength May Be His Attitude Toward Strength
Few anime characters are more closely associated with power than Goku. Entire generations of Dragon Ball fans have watched him reach levels that once seemed unimaginable.
Yet Goku would be far less interesting if power defined him.
One of his most recognizable characteristics is his enthusiasm for improvement. A stronger opponent isn’t merely a threat. It’s also an opportunity to discover how much further he can go.
Goku trains with people who can teach him something, accepts that others may temporarily surpass him, and repeatedly returns to practice after major victories. The destination keeps moving because his curiosity about his own limits never really disappears.
That mindset helps distinguish improvement from status.
Goku doesn’t simply want the title of strongest. Much of the enjoyment comes from the challenge itself.
“I’ve always liked characters who can encounter someone better than they are and become curious instead of defeated by it,” Ladapo says. “There’s something appealing about seeing a character think, ‘I can’t do that yet, so what do I need to learn?’ That’s a very different mentality from needing to be the best person in the room all the time.”
Loyalty Gives the Battles Something to Mean
Great heroes also need reasons to fight.
Without relationships, values, or responsibilities, escalating battles can eventually become little more than spectacle. The animation may remain impressive, but the outcome carries less emotional weight.
This is why supporting characters matter so much.
Friendships, families, teachers, teammates, and even rivals help reveal who a protagonist actually is. How a character treats people when nothing is being fought can tell us as much as what happens during the climactic battle.
One Piece has built much of its enormous appeal around this principle. Monkey D. Luffy possesses remarkable abilities, but his devotion to his crew is fundamental to his character. His willingness to put himself in danger for people he cares about repeatedly gives otherwise fantastical conflicts an understandable emotional foundation.
Similarly, Naruto spends enormous time developing relationships between characters whose loyalties, rivalries, losses, and histories shape their decisions. Naruto Uzumaki’s increasing strength matters, but so does his desire for recognition, his capacity to empathize with people who have experienced isolation, and his determination to preserve relationships others might abandon.
Power can determine who wins the fight. Relationships often determine why viewers care who wins.
Flaws Give Characters Somewhere to Go
A perfect protagonist creates another problem: there isn’t much room for development.
Some of anime’s most memorable heroes can be reckless, stubborn, naïve, arrogant, impulsive, or overly trusting. Those weaknesses sometimes create problems every bit as significant as the villains they face.
Inuyasha is a good example. He can be impatient, defensive, and quick to anger. His growth involves far more than becoming a better fighter. Over the course of the story, his relationships force him to become more trusting and emotionally mature.
Those imperfections make development possible.
They also make fictional characters recognizable. Most people know what it’s like to possess a quality that is useful in one circumstance and counterproductive in another. Determination can become stubbornness. Confidence can become arrogance. Caution can become fear.
Good character development doesn’t necessarily erase those qualities. Instead, characters learn when and how to manage them.
Adaptability May Be the Most Underrated Ability
Anime battles frequently establish rules. Certain techniques counter others. Opponents have particular weaknesses. Characters have limited energy, specialized abilities, or circumstances that prevent them from relying on their usual approach.
Those constraints make adaptability valuable.
The same principle applies to character development. A protagonist who responds to every setback in exactly the same way hasn’t learned very much, regardless of how much stronger they’ve become.
The most satisfying progression often involves changes in judgment alongside changes in ability. A hero learns to ask for help. A fighter who once rushed into every battle becomes more strategic. Someone accustomed to working alone learns to trust a team.
Those developments aren’t as easy to quantify as a new transformation or power level, but they can matter more to the story.
Strength Is Better When It Has a Story Behind It
None of this means strength is unimportant in anime. Spectacular transformations, impossible martial arts, and increasingly powerful opponents are part of what makes many series entertaining.
The difference is what surrounds that strength.
Xiao Yan becomes more compelling because viewers remember the young man who was mocked when his abilities disappeared. Goku’s extraordinary power means more because audiences have watched him train for decades. Tang San’s abilities are interesting because he combines them with knowledge and strategy. Characters such as Naruto and Luffy become memorable because their relationships and values give their battles consequences beyond simply winning.
The strongest character may settle an argument about who would win a hypothetical fight.
The best hero has to accomplish something harder.
They have to make us care.
