Hunter X Hunter is one of the few manga I've read that handles power levels in an effective manner. You see...

Hunter X Hunter is one of the few manga I've read that handles power levels in an effective manner. You see, in a typical shounen, the structure usually demands that the next arc antagonist should be more powerful than the last. It's an easy way to allow the stakes to be higher and justifies the main characters becoming stronger. However, this format can lead to several problems: Firstly, upping the scale of the threat each time can be nonsensical in terms of how the story started. The first major antagonist could be a local threat but the next is a planetary one. An example of this being Naruto where older villains at best were threatening a village but then later the planet. Second, if the stronger antagonist is connected to the older ones, then it makes that villain (or whoever is at the top of the food chain) an idiot since they don't decide to simply get rid of the main characters themselves, opting instead to send out their henchmen in an ascending order of power. An example of this is Bleach. Aizen could have, in almost any point in the story, killed Ichigo when it became clear that he was a major threat but is instead content with sitting in his throne doing nothing while Ichigo kils his men. Lastly, antagonists who are stronger than the previous can have piss poor reasoning as to why they are that strong. An example of this is Dragon Ball. Frieza was by far the strongest opponent Goku has ever fought at that point. The following arc then introduces the androids who with 17 and 18 are somehow stronger than Frieza despite being earth made fighters. The reasoning that Gero was collecting battle data on Goku the entire time was not only silly but just plain retarded since he could have done that to anyone and wiped the floors with Goku earlier. To be fair on Toriyama though, the editor-san forced him to make 17 and 18 hence the lack of justification.

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Now mind you, the above mostly happens for long running shounen since authors like to up the ante during long periods of time and I'm not even hating on shows with insane scales of power either. Something like TTGL is still good because it establishes early on that we are dealing with conflicts on a galactic scale so a universal threat like the Anti-Spiral are not a suprise. Likewise, something like Jojo flip flops on the power levels of their antagonists as so to keep things fresh. This is where HxH comes in as not only does it solve the issues of rampant power escalation, it also tries it's best to keep old antagonists relevant .

The earliest characters that the protagonist comes into conflict with are Hisoka and the Phantom Troupe, the former an expert Nen user and fighter and the latter, a group entirely composed of expert Nen users. Over 300 chapters and 6 arcs later and they are still by far some of the most strongest characters in the world whom even the main characters (save for one) could still never hope to defeat despite improvements of their own. It is a testament of Togashi's own skills as a writer that he is able to keep old threats alive for so long while introducing new ones.

Already HxH is dodging the problems I listed above by doing certain key things: 1) The villains usually are not larger than life and have down to earth motives. 2) The antagonists are not related and if they belong to some group they usually lack knowledge of the main characters to prevent them from just steam rolling with their strongest guys and 3) when a new villain is introduced, there is build up or foreshadowing to their power which explains why they are that strong. HxH follows a similar model to Jojo with the ever so fluctuating power of the antagonists as so to keep things interesting and present new challenges beyond "they are just stronger".

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Waiting on the part where this isn't exactly what is happening in HxH as well...

This is best exemplified by Tserriednich, the antagonist of the current arc (a role he shares with the Phantom Troupe). This guys is by no means "strong". Much of his panel time is spent trying to learn the power system our protagonist Kurapika learned arcs ago and is really just a wimp that could be beaten by almost any beginner Nen user. *Yet* despite that, he is a threat even greater than what Kurapika has faced before. This was done by creating a unique context and motive for the arc: Kurapika is a bodyguard for two people and must engage in subterfuge to get what he wants. Punching Tse won't do anything and would in fact just make his life harder all thanks to the rules he has to follow in the arc. Information is far more valuable than strength this time and so, Tserriednich represents a different kind of danger which is unconventional for battle shounen.

With all that said, you might be wondering: How do the main characters beat the antagonists if they are powerless? The answer is, they don't. You see, HxH isn't content with having the end of every arc be a bombastic showdown with the villain, instead climaxes are done through much more interesting ways. In Yorkshin, the conflict ends with a hostage exchange, in the Hunter Exam, Gon is beaten and tortured for his goal. In Chimera Ant, the antagonist was killed by poison as an after effect of a bomb and Gon needed to sacrifice his Nen. Some of these are really just Pyrrhic victories but the point is that HxH shows that it can allow the main characters to win despite being vastly weaker than the villains which has the added effected of making things unpredictable unlike typical shounen.

Of course, the actual powers of the antagonists themselves are also important in establishing the power levels of the characters and it helps that Nen is one of the best devised magic systems in manga. Beyond just being an efficient categorization chart, it also allows tactical battles where brute strength doesn't always win which means weaker characters could stand a chance, a problem all too common with battle shounen. However an aspect of Nen I want to talk about is the idea of Nen vows, restrictions and conditions. You see, in HxH, abilities are measured not by the strength of the user, but by how difficult are they to actually use or pull off. By putting restrictions/conditions on an ability, it can enable it to become stronger beyond what the user is capable of. The trade off being it becomes too much of a hassle to use. On paper this could come across as arbitrary but thus far, every ability had a sensible level of power. From a writing stand point, the advantage such a rule allows is that weak abilities still get use and that weaker characters can best stronger ones, Kurapika vs Uvogin being an example of this. What is cool about this then is how HxH deals with the actual strong abilities and how they affect the users.

In typical shounen, the main antagonist has an absurdly broken power or strength that eclipses everything seen before. This in itself isn't a bad thing but the problem is authors love to give antagonists these godlike powers with no justification, the most notable ones being Cell, Aizen, Blackbeard, Madara and Zeref. What ends up happening when you have a villain of such comical levels of power is that you give up. The writer reasonably cannot solve the conflict in a satisfying manner and so resorts to asspulls. HxH doesn't fall to this trap for the very reason I brought up: Nen vows. HxH justifies why an antagonist can be powerful (because they made a vow) and why they can't spam it (hard to use).

Skill Bandit, an ability that allows Chrollo to steal other abilities would be broken in any other shounen but as usual, things are different in HxH. With Nen vows (which is why Chrollo is so strong), not only is the very act of acquiring an ability a pain in the ass, he can only use one or two at once. Essentially, HxH subverts the idea of the versatile all powerful villain by hampering their capability to use all of those powers. It prevents Chrollo from being another faggot bishie invincible villain and instead makes him a mortal villain with flaws he must deal with. This line of thought is everywhere within Nen: If you want to be strong without training your ass off for it, you must pay the price.

So with these series of posts, hopefully you understand how HxH does power levels really well and why it's a unique manga.

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One Piece is long running but it still handles power escalatation relatively well. It introduces Mihawk fairly early to give you a sense for high tiers and the power ceiling is pretty much defined at the halfway point in the summit war, feats of which scale have yet to be replicated, even after 10 years.