Even an anime snob, if they watch for long enough, will eventually come across a series which takes advantage of what I like to refer to as “The Exponential Battle”.  This sort of fight choreography is the kind that is prevalent in popular kids’ anime such as Naruto or Dragon Ball Z, but that often leaks into better produced anime as an easy way to create action without much thought.

The basics of exponential battling are as follows:

1. Good guy and bad guy meet and begin to do battle.
2. One side or the other gets beat down.
3. The person who gets beat down reveals some secret power that they’ve had all along and refused to use until now.
4. The other guy gets beat down.
5. Now the other guy reveals his own secret power that will enable him to keep fighting.
6. Repeat above process until fight is over.

The particularly over-blown versions of these exponential battles will often last 2, 3 or even a half-dozen episodes as two enemies seek to get the best of each other but just can’t seem to do it.  Rampant exposition explaining every little thing that is going on often accompanies these battles so that the viewer is aware of why each power is cool and how it will effect the next phase of the battle.

One may be inclined to think that this is a Japanese cultural element, since it seems to pop up in dozens (if not hundreds) of animes.  The reality is that US live-action movies have been using this formula for years.  Just take a look at any over-produced action film with five-minute fistfights.

So is the exponential battle a good way of conveying action, or is using 3 hours to resolve one conflict simply too much?  Personally, I try not to watch any anime where this convention is prevalent, though perhaps there are people out there who really do just want to watch two people mutating and beating the snot out of each other all afternoon long.