[quote=@Krayzikk] These are some decent points. I don't know if I necessarily agree on the proposed solutions, but honestly shounen is usually pretty over the top by definition. [/quote] Yeah they aren't too good for sure. And I can kinda see where the OP is coming from with balance if its too over the top, but then thats why Dragonball has, well, Dragonballs. A nice writer's miguffin that lets you do things in universe that you need to do to rein in the over the topness if you need to for the sake of a good story. [quote=@Silvan Haven] I feel like half of the problems you have there could be solved with a co-gm. [/quote] Yeah, I agree here. [quote=@VitaVitaAR] You can have something over the top and still have a setting where there are consistent rules that get followed. In fact, that can make character planning a lot easier if you know what you're working with. I'll be honest, as much as I love One Punch Man it's not the inspiration I think we should be looking at here. Neither is making death a joke if we want to have any kind of serious plot. [/quote] I mean, most shonen anime are usually with a single protag or their team of people, so death tends to be a non issue as having the main character die ends a series anyway. and most of their plots tend to be either whimsical or super serious depending on the writing. (Heck, even Hunter x Hunter laughs at death even with all of it happening in Chimera Ants. If you've seen it you know what I mean. Even then it was still super good.) Either way, its usually never in the middle. Its a tricky thing to balance for sure.