I can't speak for Bleach, since it's been awhile since I read it, but from what I recall, it had the same setup as Naruto: the fights are there for a reason. When the fight doesn't have some kind of tension, it'll be a short fight, or one that's happening on the sidelines while the big fight takes the majority of the pages. (Notably, if there's a female character, her fight is a sideline fight with very few pages, so "low-tension" also means "less-important".)
In Naruto, like in Bleach, and most of the fairly reliable shonen series, the fight scenes cover several developments at once. First, they're a status check -- they show where the character (or antagonist) is, skill-wise. That's usually the first few moves of the fight, showing us that the hero only has X and is simultaneously (often) making the assumption that the antag has Y. Second, you get the revelation (done well and done badly), which is, "ahah, you didn't know I'm actually left-handed!" kind of reveal. Antags get this most often, like an ace up the sleeve. If the hero gets this moment, it's usually a moment of awesome (Edward gets this a fair bit, in FMA).
The shorter fights may only cover the first two steps, especially if the fight's really just a ramp-up to a bigger one. And is almost always the pattern of a fight where the hero loses, since this leaves him to rise to it and win, next time. What you get in the meantime, then, is the hero asking why his opponent is fighting. The message is that you can't really beat someone until you know what they really want (so you can deny it, or find another way to grant it, or whatever). It's the strategy part.
And in a longer, pivotal fight, that strategy happens mid-fight, which is where you get the revelations about motivation -- why the guy fights. In mediocre shonen, it's repetitious -- "I fight to protect those precious to me" blah blah blah. Or from the antag: "I fight for revenge!" or whatever. Better-quality shonen tries to vary that up, or to have the hero recognize a greater/alternate motivation. D Grayman does this, by having Allen's motivation expand in certain pivotal fights -- that he's not just protecting people, but wanting to save them, and then wanting to save his opponents, and then protecting his opponents. Allen's motivations (his overall scope, you could say) expand, little by little, through each fight.
Sometimes it's the best opportunity to gray up the opponent, too, when the antag expresses a reason that quite valid. The really good fight scenes in shonen series -- and Naruto's been fairly decent at this one -- present antag-motivations that the hero actually agrees with, or at least can empathize with. (I'm thinking in particular of the main finale fight with Pain, in which the antag reveals his family were bystanders slaughtered in a war engineered by Naruto's own village.)
Basically, a fight amounts to: A wants this, B wants that, and only one will get their way. The "fight" aspect is just a lot of eyecandy and exciting illustration, on what is fundamentally (at least, in well-written fights) a conflict like any others. A fight that resolves without a resolution of the motivations is a hollow fight -- and on this score, D.Grayman does really, really well, because it doesn't leave stuff unresolved. Or, at least, if it does, it amps it up with higher stakes for what it'll take to resolve the situation in the next go-round. Ah, and D.Gray-man also ranks quite high in this "raising stakes" because Hoshino is unafraid to slaughter a fair number of the secondary characters.
Bleach, Naruto, GetBackers, and many others I've watched aren't quite so brutal; anyone who 'appears' to be dead probably isn't. They may be damaged, but they'll pull through. (If they don't rise mid-fight to show they were just, idk, faking it.) That reduces the stakes considerably -- but Naruto, at least, makes up for it by giving the opponents valid and believeable reasons for fighting (well, usually) -- outside the "because I'm evil that's why" nonsense. GetBackers... well, it seemed like a lot of antags amounted to something even less: "because I'm being paid!" ...and that's not even evil, so much as mercenary. It doesn't feel quite as personal, so there's rarely a personal revelation, because the opponents are just getting a paycheck. They don't have anything on the line, to reveal.
I skim because I read very, very, very fast. (I think my last count was around 800wpm.) So you might not want to take me as a good example, but I can say that most of what I'm reading for in fight scenes are three things: dialogue to tell me who's revealing what, quick side-flashes (who else, around, is doing what, which is where you can get foreshadowing of one side's rallying or setting up a trap), and then a quick skim across the main panel, just to make sure I know who still has the upper hand.
Obviously, Hoshino's D.Gray-man is mediocre on the second (because it's damn hard to tell, sometimes, how these side characters are related to and/or placed respective to, the main fight) and she pretty consistently falls down on the third one. So I have to rely on dialogue, and lean heavily on the aftermath to figure out what just happened. It annoys me, sometimes, but the story keeps drawing me back in, so I put up with it. Doesn't mean I won't complain, though.
no subject
Date: 26 Jan 2012 10:35 pm (UTC)In Naruto, like in Bleach, and most of the fairly reliable shonen series, the fight scenes cover several developments at once. First, they're a status check -- they show where the character (or antagonist) is, skill-wise. That's usually the first few moves of the fight, showing us that the hero only has X and is simultaneously (often) making the assumption that the antag has Y. Second, you get the revelation (done well and done badly), which is, "ahah, you didn't know I'm actually left-handed!" kind of reveal. Antags get this most often, like an ace up the sleeve. If the hero gets this moment, it's usually a moment of awesome (Edward gets this a fair bit, in FMA).
The shorter fights may only cover the first two steps, especially if the fight's really just a ramp-up to a bigger one. And is almost always the pattern of a fight where the hero loses, since this leaves him to rise to it and win, next time. What you get in the meantime, then, is the hero asking why his opponent is fighting. The message is that you can't really beat someone until you know what they really want (so you can deny it, or find another way to grant it, or whatever). It's the strategy part.
And in a longer, pivotal fight, that strategy happens mid-fight, which is where you get the revelations about motivation -- why the guy fights. In mediocre shonen, it's repetitious -- "I fight to protect those precious to me" blah blah blah. Or from the antag: "I fight for revenge!" or whatever. Better-quality shonen tries to vary that up, or to have the hero recognize a greater/alternate motivation. D Grayman does this, by having Allen's motivation expand in certain pivotal fights -- that he's not just protecting people, but wanting to save them, and then wanting to save his opponents, and then protecting his opponents. Allen's motivations (his overall scope, you could say) expand, little by little, through each fight.
Sometimes it's the best opportunity to gray up the opponent, too, when the antag expresses a reason that quite valid. The really good fight scenes in shonen series -- and Naruto's been fairly decent at this one -- present antag-motivations that the hero actually agrees with, or at least can empathize with. (I'm thinking in particular of the main finale fight with Pain, in which the antag reveals his family were bystanders slaughtered in a war engineered by Naruto's own village.)
Basically, a fight amounts to: A wants this, B wants that, and only one will get their way. The "fight" aspect is just a lot of eyecandy and exciting illustration, on what is fundamentally (at least, in well-written fights) a conflict like any others. A fight that resolves without a resolution of the motivations is a hollow fight -- and on this score, D.Grayman does really, really well, because it doesn't leave stuff unresolved. Or, at least, if it does, it amps it up with higher stakes for what it'll take to resolve the situation in the next go-round. Ah, and D.Gray-man also ranks quite high in this "raising stakes" because Hoshino is unafraid to slaughter a fair number of the secondary characters.
Bleach, Naruto, GetBackers, and many others I've watched aren't quite so brutal; anyone who 'appears' to be dead probably isn't. They may be damaged, but they'll pull through. (If they don't rise mid-fight to show they were just, idk, faking it.) That reduces the stakes considerably -- but Naruto, at least, makes up for it by giving the opponents valid and believeable reasons for fighting (well, usually) -- outside the "because I'm evil that's why" nonsense. GetBackers... well, it seemed like a lot of antags amounted to something even less: "because I'm being paid!" ...and that's not even evil, so much as mercenary. It doesn't feel quite as personal, so there's rarely a personal revelation, because the opponents are just getting a paycheck. They don't have anything on the line, to reveal.
I skim because I read very, very, very fast. (I think my last count was around 800wpm.) So you might not want to take me as a good example, but I can say that most of what I'm reading for in fight scenes are three things: dialogue to tell me who's revealing what, quick side-flashes (who else, around, is doing what, which is where you can get foreshadowing of one side's rallying or setting up a trap), and then a quick skim across the main panel, just to make sure I know who still has the upper hand.
Obviously, Hoshino's D.Gray-man is mediocre on the second (because it's damn hard to tell, sometimes, how these side characters are related to and/or placed respective to, the main fight) and she pretty consistently falls down on the third one. So I have to rely on dialogue, and lean heavily on the aftermath to figure out what just happened. It annoys me, sometimes, but the story keeps drawing me back in, so I put up with it. Doesn't mean I won't complain, though.