How to (Not) Handle an OP Character

So in researching my Isekai video, I started watching In Another World with My Smartphone… and well it’s kinda bad. No hard feelings if you like it, but personally I just can’t get into it, and I started to wonder why that was. Because it’s made… competently, there were some parts I enjoyed and its premise isn’t that dissimilar to Konosuba. Guy dies before his time, so he gets to live out his life in a fantasy world and is allowed to bring one thing with him. Yeah, the start line is almost identical, except Aqua’s gotten an upgrade and is actually useful. But from there, these two stories diverge drastically. Because in Isekai Smartphone, our protagonist didn’t just get to keep his cellular device, God also gives him a stupidly high affinity for magic, Matrix-level reflexes, and basically a photographic memory, making him right off the bat one of the strongest characters in the world he wakes up in. Very OP, if you will. And this is where the problems start. There are right ways and wrong ways to portray an overpowered character, and this show firmly falls into that latter camp.

[Title Sequence]

I don’t think OP characters are inherently bad. It can be incredibly entertaining to just watch somebody utterly dominate in a fight, but there’s a limit. And the stronger that character is, the faster we as an audience reach that limit. Once the initial shock and awe of someone’s power fades away, we’re just left with ultimately meaningless action. It holds no real narrative weight after we establish that they are in fact overpowered and we kind of stop caring. Why should we when we know they’ll win? So how do you get around this? Well normally, the overpowered character has some Achilles heel or character flaw that prevents them from being OP all the time. Things like Allmight’s time limit or Meliodas’ perversions keep the characters tethered to their more vulnerable side, thus making them somewhat relatable. At the very least it’s something to balance out their overpowered nature. This main character… doesn’t seem to have that. Best I can tell he has no real defined personality; actually, this problem extends to much of the cast but let’s focus on him for now. In terms of character flaws... he’s a bit of a perv I guess, but by anime standards, it’s really nothing. Worse than these things though, as best as I can tell, he has no defined motivations either. So not only does he have no traits or flaws to balance out his insane power, he also has nothing, no goal, to apply that power towards. This makes him feel even more hollow as both a character and just a person in this world. I know he just arrived, but you still think he’d have something, ANY THING driving him.

And don’t get me wrong, I know what you’re going to say. It’s a comedy show, or it’s a harem and these things don’t matter, I just wanna see the MC be OP and get all the bitches. And you know, I’d be inclined to agree with you if establishing motive was this complex multilayered facet of storytelling… but it’s not. You don’t need a novel the length of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment to let someone know why a character is or isn’t doing something. Seriously, think about some of your favorite protagonists in anything ever. For most, their core motivation can be broken down to something that can fit inside a fortune cookie. Wants to find One Piece, wants to be the world’s greatest hero, wants to f**k his sister, yeah you know you’re putting in zero effort when Eromanga Sensei is better at establishing motivation than you. It’s just so painfully simple and yet this show still manages to fail. So much no that it’s kind of amazing really. I’ve gone through the first couple episodes several times now, giving this show every chance to show me the slightest motivation for our main character, and best I can tell his motivation is “I don’t know but adventuring seems cool.” That’s it, general ambivalence at best. Congratulations you have the same level of motivation as the common house cat.

I harp on these things so much because personality and motivation are two of the main factors that allow us as the audience to contextualize the interactions and behaviors of the people we’re watching. Take away one and your show can suffer, but take away two and why even have a show at all? How can I laugh if I don’t understand the characters? How can I feel any sense of awe or be impressed when they’re adventuring if our MC is this aimless of an OP? Now I could continue to nitpick… so I will… actually. I’m going to break down one scene from this first episode that I think highlights many of my complaints with this show.

Okay, quick background information so you’re up to speed. Our main character hears a commotion in a nearby alleyway, so he goes to investigate. Now sure, this sets him up as being generally a good guy. Congrats show, you have established the baseline of a personality. It’s something sure, but constructing a compelling character isn’t quite as simple as defining said character’s motivation. This aspect though, however small, I assure you will be undercut by the time we’re done here. So as the scene continues we see two girls in what appears to be a shakedown in the aforementioned alleyway. More time passes though, and we learn that these girls were hired to fetch this Crystal Antler for these gentlemen… which they already have in their possession… *sigh* okay time out, time out. Already this scene is falling apart. So if they were officially hired for this job, why are they now conducting this business in a shady alleyway? How did these guys convince these girls that this would be the place to do the exchange? And girls, did you seriously give him the antler first without seeing any payment? At best you’re being too trustworthy and at worst, you’re a dumbass. God. And then you dickheads, why do you toss them a silver coin anyway? You already have the antler. Or are you just trying to be slightly less of a dickhead? Also, you girls are far from helpless as we will soon see. One of you is a skilled mage and the other is an adept fighter. Kick their asses for crying out loud! Our MC Toya is about to do just that and he will see no repercussion, so why can’t you? These are just common thugs by the looks of it. To top it all off, why did you even accept this job in the first place? We’re offered no explanation. Maybe it pays better than the safer guild jobs, but we’ve seen how that turned out. And even so, these girls already have equipment, a place to stay and some food, so it doesn’t seem like they are desperate for money at the moment. Nothing about this scene works because it’s just meant to show how badass and damsel saving our OP MC can be. No care was given to motivation or personality and so I couldn’t care less about their trio that’s formed as a result.

It’s just a painfully generic and ordinary way to handle an extraordinary character. You might think I’m just being hypercritical, and if that’s your opinion that’s fine, but the fact remains that we’ve seen enough examples of OP characters done well, that I give little leeway to a show that clearly doesn’t want to try. Look at characters like Saitama or Mob, both works by One and both exceptionally overpowered characters in their respective stories. Despite this fact though, One Punch Man manages to still be a fun and hilarious story throughout and Mob Psycho 100 does a terrific job of making its characters relatable. One is able to achieve this because of a number of reasons, but it all starts with motivation. Imagine how dull One Punch Man would get if Saitama wasn’t bored by his own power. If he didn’t just want to be a hero for fun. Imagine if Mob didn’t bottle up his emotions or care about using his psychic powers on other people. You take these aspects away and you’re left with characters who are just OP for the sake of being OP. And I think the aforementioned examples show how you can still turn the dial past 11, without sacrificing the integrity of your story or characters. In Another World with My Smartphone seems to enjoy using said dial, but in its case there weren’t really any characters or story to offer up in the first place.

Is this an awful show? Eh, awful is a strong word, I just have found it bland. That Isekai buzz I touched on in my last video wore off for me halfway through the second episode and I began to nitpick like crazy. And reinforcing my argument, some of the episodes I enjoyed the most were ones where there was some goal, albeit short term, that our main character was focused on. Overall it’s an interesting idea for sure, I just wish they would’ve done something different with him. Have God mess up a second time and send him to a world where magic is outlawed, or have him be so overpowered at his magic that anybody he heals is accidentally made immortal. Maybe some of these things will be addressed later on, but the show has failed to the point where I have no investment and I don’t want to watch to find out if these things might happen down the road. There are good and compelling ways to handle an OP character, and at least from what I’ve seen, this is not one of them.

But those are just my opinions and I want to hear yours. What do you think of OP characters? Have I misjudged this one? Who’s your favorite OP MC?