Ideas For Deconstructing Your Generic Fighting Series?

One element of deconstruction could be that, when characters move at supersonic speeds, they actually create sonic booms, blowing out the eardrums of any non-Made of Iron people who are nearby.

Now apply that to Flash Step. Potential Accidental Nightmare Fuel, surely.

I have no idea about the physics of sonic booms, but isn't it dependant on the size of the thing breaking the sound barrier? Whips and bullets also make a sonic boom but hardly loud enough to wreck eardrums.

Not to mention anything made of glass.

And a human being is many, many times the size of a bullet or a whip-tip.

Oh, and what about a Tournament Arc where lots of policies meant to improve safety for the participants means that most of The Hero's really flashy and impressive moves are actually against the rules. You could also have all the distinct character designs hidden behind lots of protective body padding, and fights decided by judges awarding points to each blow struck, while actually knocking your opponent unconscious costs you points.

edited 1st Aug '11 7:16:25 AM by RavenWilder

Heroes come back from a tournament arc only to find that not only is the city in a disarray, having been under attack by enemies without them there to defend it, the powers that be tapped the little sister/childhood friend/whoever who the lead swore to protect to be his substitute.

This leads into a bit of playing-around with nakama; hanging out with someone who has the special-abilities of the setting leads to you eventually developing the potential to have them yourself, as long as you train. Hence, while some people avoid you because you're That Weird Kid who skips a lot of class, other people aware of this rule descend like vultures to try to be your very best friend or get you to tutor their kid or whatever. This causes you to value your true friends more.

Oh! More! A delinquent hero finally gets kicked out of school because he never has time to study. The powers are unimpressed by his tantrum and decide to just start paying him a salary. And then his parents start to worry he's working for a boryokudan! And an IRS-equivalent-agent starts making inquiries about him.

edited 1st Aug '11 3:12:12 PM by FurikoMaru

You could always go the right of Miracle Man and depict the fight in series as wuite bloody and the hero could actually suffer soem life cripping injuries. I know there are real examples already and even the humorous shonen can show potential consequences of this. Also, we could analyze the gang mentality of the villains or even try to implement how most mooks can be attributed to real world gangs. Even better, what would attract real life people into evil nebulous organizations? Or were they ever evil?

Hi, the last post was made more from a year ago, but if you're still interested, I invite you to check Muteki Kanban Musume, a deconstruction of the Fighting Series Played for Laughs, where the classic characters are fighting in a mundane commercial district.

Here's a few ideas:

1.) Don't have escalating power levels. The hero begins with his skillset, and...Well, that's it. Think Ninja Gaiden rather than a shonen series - Or Dark Souls. There's only so much you can do, because there are *limits*.

2.) Don't have the nakama do combat commentary. The hero fights alone, or there are multiple things people have to do.

Be wary of making something dark simply to make it 'serious'. There's a thin line between a deconstruction and grimdark, and you'd have to be careful not to simply make everything horrible. A deconstruction can also be played in an positive way - Say the hero's on the ropes, and getting severely beaten; His armor's nearly wrecked.

It turns out that he's actually part of a squadron, and the rest of the squadron - In extremis - turns up to help him. Of course, there'd have to be a good reason why they're not all operating at the same time: Maybe the armor slowly drains your life, and rotating the pilots is a good way to extend the operating time. Or they do it for PR purposes, so that he can be made into a symbol...When in actuality, many good men have filled the role before.

edited 4th Nov '12 7:58:21 AM by iridium248