Disclaimer: This post contains minor spoilers to come in Dressrosa.

“‘Power creep’ is the gradual unbalancing of a game due to successive releases of new content. The phenomenon may be caused by a number of different factors and, in extreme cases, can be damaging to the longevity of the game in which it takes place” (via Wikipedia).

A phenomenon widely seen in video games and card games, power creep has been known to afflict fighting manga. Perhaps the most widely recognized example of this is Dragon Ball–namely, the second half of the story, better known by its anime name, Dragon Ball Z. In each successive story arc, Goku and the Z Fighters are met with a new villain who entirely outclasses them in strength, and who dwarfs the strength of the previous nemesis. The heroes inevitably match their new foe’s power through a combination of training and willpower.

Without skillful storytelling, it is easy to fall prey to power creep. After all, it is only natural for the hero’s next obstacle to be bigger than the last, isn’t it? It’s important to note, however, that power creep only becomes a hindrance once the plot becomes predictable and uninteresting.

This is evident in the familiar formulaic pattern Dragon Ball Z arcs took: “How long can we stall until so-and-so is ready to fight?” “Who is due for a power-up this arc?” “What level of Super Saiyan do we need to achieve this time?” A story told in arcs needs to be innovative in its plot development in order to avert this predictability.

Series with a bad case of power creep is also prone to lapses in logic. For instance, how lucky is it that the Z Fighters fought Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu in that order? There is no glaring reason why these sagas needed to play out in that order, as they are unrelated in terms of plot development. Once you get to Arcs B and C of a story with heavy power creep, Victory A may retroactively feel coincidental, contrived, and cheap. The solution to this is proper planning and give the audience a ceiling or endgame. If the audience knows that Villain A must be overcome for the heroes to have a chance against those later foes, then the plot will collectively gel in the long run and hold up as one story.

In a fighting manga as long as One Piece, there is bound to be power creep to some degree. The remainder of this article will examine where Eiichiro Oda, author of One Piece, has introduced power creep, and whether or not he has managed it well.

Oda preemptively quashed many of the lapses in logic that can stem from power creep simply by laying out the groundwork for his story. When Luffy sets the lofty goal of becoming the Pirate King, a feat only achieved by one man, he gives the audience the expectation that this undertaking will be a long one. It gives the audience the sense that many strong foes are either trying to achieve that goal, or will aim to prevent him from attaining it.

Early on, several tiers of strength are established. There is the navy, which can be assumed early on to have high-ranking officials. In chapter 49, Dracule Mihawk and decisively defeats Zoro, alluded to the disparity in strength between the Straw Hats and the Seven Warlords. Chapter 432 introduces the Emperors, the four most fearsome pirates and those closest to the title of the Pirate King, while the ensuing chapter foreshadowed the New World. Finally, during the battle at Marineford, Whitebeard entered the fray, the Emperor known throughout the Grand Line as “The Strongest Man in the World.” His appearance, along with the Navy Admirals, definitively capped the power we could expect to see in the world of One Piece. Such a hierarchy has given fans a kind of measuring stick with which to gauge their expectations. Rarely do I ever find myself thinking that the strength of a given foe is unreasonable with these expectations in mind.

Another way Oda has combated power creep is through fights that have more to do with strategy than brute strength or powering up. In Skypiea, Luffy’s advantage over Eneru is elemental rather than physical. In Alabasta, Luffy learns from his prior defeats and overcomes Crocodile using moisture. On Thriller Bark, Luffy is only able to defeat Gekko Moria under the temporary Nightmare Luffy transformation. Even in the present arc, Luffy has worked together with Trafalgar Law to finally get an edge against yet another Warlord in Donquixote Doflamingo. That the conclusions to these arcs had more to do with strategy than with the protagonist’s current power strengthens the position that Luffy’s victories had little to do with the order of the fights. Of course, predictability is evident in that we expect the Straw Hats to be victorious, but the diversity of these conclusions contributes to our enjoyment of them while diminishing any fatigue that would stem from repetition.

Although I have mentioned that certain tiers of strength are established in One Piece, Oda does not confine his characters to “power levels.” Pirates in One Piece will often have bounties, but these bounties merely indicate a character’s perceived danger to the public or world government rather than fighting prowess. Oda has used this misconception on occasion to undermine bounties. Chopper receives a low bounty for being perceived as the crew’s pet. Robin’s high bounty as a child is the product not of her exploits in piracy but of her ability to read the poneglyphs. I should also mention that in an SBS, Oda stated that the bounty Eneru would have earned as a pirate on the Grand Line could have exceeded 500,000,000 berries–lower than Portgas D. Ace and perhaps Don Chinjao. The fact that Luffy was able to defeat Eneru during the Skypiea Arc further serves to diminish the notion of power levels in the manga, preventing bounties from escalating to absurd numbers under power creep.

There are two major instances of “power ups” in One Piece that have undeniably contributed to power creep in the series. The first, Luffy’s Gears, debuts in chapter 387.

A product of the Gum-Gum fruit, Luffy attains enough mastery of his powers to abuse them in such a way that accelerates his speed. This technique, physiologically akin to doping, allows Luffy to compete on par with members of the CP9 in Enies Lobby. Luffy is able to devise this technique only after observing the Six Powers used by the CP9, which had bested him to that point. The debut fight of Gear Two against Blueno was one of the rare moments in manga where my heart pounded in my chest with excitement. My skin crawls with goose bumps every time I watch episode 273. There is no denying how cool this fight is, and no quantifying how satisfying a victory it was.

The feelings Gear Two conjured in me are reminiscent of Goku going Super Saiyan for the first time. Not coincidentally, this is the first major instance of power creep. From this point on, Luffy’s adversaries would need to be an even greater challenge than even his Gears could handle, and the plot had not yet reached the halfway point. At the time, I feared that this power creep would set a precedent of periodic power-ups, which would become formulaic and inevitably uninteresting. It is also reasonable to question how coincidental and convenient Gears Two and Three are at this point in the story. Should Luffy be able to execute these dangerous techniques with little-to-no practice?

Almost four hundred chapters later, Luffy has not developed a fourth Gear. Unlike other examples of power-ups, Luffy continues to use Gears Two and Three in most fights, and Oda has utilized the Gears in creative new attacks. While the Gears were certainly surprising at the time, Luffy’s own explanation for needing them in episode 272 helps to justify them for me. “When I lost to Aokiji, I realized something,” he calmly reflects to Blueno. “If I keep running into guys that are stronger and stronger, unless I can get stronger too, then I can’t protect my friends.” That encounter with Aokiji laid the groundwork for another tier Luffy would have to reach, the Navy Admirals, necessitating some immediate power creep.

Haki is, at this point, the greatest observable offender of power creep in One Piece. A manifestation of one’s willpower in three forms, this fighting technique is a signature style of New World pirates and navy men alike. Those who cannot perform Haki stand little chance in the second half of the Grand Line.

I believe there are a fair number of criticisms for a fan to have once they reach this point in the series concerning plot holes. For instance, why is the Armament Haki that we are to assume was used in the Paramount War by Boa Hancock against Smoker, by Jozu against Crocodile, or by Akainu against Ace not colored in the “imbued” fashion that we see beyond chapter 605? Haki is nearly nonexistent in the first half of the Grand Line; couldn’t Haki-users from the New World retreat into Paradise and abuse this? It even adds new meaning to old panels. Was Doflamingo very brazenly toying with Crocodile when he decapitated him with his String-String powers, when he could have killed him using his Haki?

With regard to that first question, I don’t believe that Oda had settled on a style he had wanted to use at that point in the story to illustrate Haki, nor was he ready to explain how it worked, and thus he chose not to. There are also varying degrees of Haki mastery, although this does not explain why the powerful characters we’ve seen use it were drawn differently. In retrospect, the mystery of Haki increased my interest in the series at the time. As for the other hypotheticals Haki creates, I don’t think we’ll ever have a definitive answer for those questions. Here, I think we have to concede that Haki could have been more planned out.

Oda did lay a few “Chekhov’s guns” around the Grand Line that hint to the existence of Haki prior to its official introduction. There is no way of knowing whether Oda initially conceived of the ability we now call Conqueror’s Haki as being a form of Haki. There is, however, evidence as early as chapter one that he wanted it to factor majorly in the plot down the line. Here, Shanks scares off a Sea King with a glare, possibly using Conqueror’s Haki. Later, Conqueror’s Haki clearly debuts, yet unnamed, when Shanks knocks outs much of Whitebeard’s men in chapter 434. The mantra of Eneru and his priests was a precursor to Observation Haki. But Armament Haki is a concept not alluded to until Amazon Lily, whereupon it begins to factor majorly in the story.

In defense of Armament Haki, Oda was not going to have Luffy use tricks or some innate advantage to defeat every Logia Devil Fruit user he encountered throughout the series. There had to come a time when a weakness to these powers was exposed. My issue lies with the inconsistency of the art used to indicate instances of Armament Haki, and how rampant Haki now runs throughout the series. It is no longer the rare phenomenon we saw during the Paramount War, but something we can expect to influence every serious fight the monster trio will have in the future. Do not misunderstand this point: I am not opposed to characters powering up in One Piece. What concerns me is how quickly Haki became old hat, as well as when and how Oda plans to “one up” Haki. When that next level of power makes its appearance, I hope that it receives more plot development than Armament Haki did when it burst onto the scene.

How does the power creep in One Piece compare to that of other shonen manga you follow? Give me your take either in the comments or on Twitter @renfield89.

Piece out!