YMMV / The Newest Challenger

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Akuma a total badass and Noble Demon who is looking for an opponent worthy of killing him, or is he a Spoiled Brat with an It's All About Me mentality who thinks everyone and everything exists to give him some form of amusement? Likewise, his claim of wanting to find a worthy opponent seems odd, given his tendency for ambushing his opponents and trying to kill them before they could possibly give him a challenge.
  • Gen also. Is he trying to get Naruto and Sakura to achieve their full potential, or is he just a total asshole who enjoys damaging the lives of young children simply because he hasn't accomplished anything worthwhile in his life? He even comments on this to Gouken.
• Broken Base: Oro stopping Naruto from killing Urien. Some are okay with it, others regard it as pointless and question whether or not this was even necessary.
• Moral Event Horizon: Gen crosses it when he tells Akuma where Sakura is, thus knowingly endangering her life and Naruto's, supposedly to motivate them to reach their full potential, but really just because he's bored.
  • Seth crosses it by kidnapping and torturing Karin.
  • Juri also crosses it by attacking Sakura and her friends, then mutilating Abel, just for fun.
• Villain Decay:
  • Bison goes from a total badass and The Chessmaster in his first story arc to a Smug Snake in his second one when he doesn't take advantage of his enemies' vulnerability and just dispose of them at night while they are both asleep and recovering from their wounds. Naruto even lampshades this. The fact that he gets unceremoniously killed in a sneak attack by Akuma before he can ambush Naruto and Sasuke (an act that would have likely failed and gotten him killed anyway) certainly doesn't help much.
  • Akuma also suffers this, depending on how you look at him. He goes from a seemingly invincible force of nature to an Entitled Bastard whose threats and snarls could easily be interpreted as childish whining.
• The Worf Effect: A frequent complaint is that Vega should not have been able to survive a Vermillion Rasengan to the chest. Sure he dies later anyway, but still...