

So if the question sounded a bit confusing, allow me to explain.

In media that feature a lot of non-human characters, such as many video games,
anime, manga, or movies, the low-level enemies always tend to look blatantly
non-human, ie generic monster.

However, as you encounter more enemies, you start to notice that the more
powerful the enemy, the more human they look. They might still retain some
monstrous features, such as horns, tentacles, claws, etc, but their overall
figure is very clearly humanoid.

Let me use some examples to illustrate this observation.

**Dragon Ball** : Cell has various forms that he transforms into. However, his
most powerful form looks the most human.

**One Punch Man** : The final villain of the first anime season is Boros, an
extraterrestrial. Most of his subordinates look very alien-like, such as
[Geryuganshoop](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/onepunchman/images/7/73/Geryuganshoop_anime_AV.png/revision/latest?cb=20151222074111),
with the big eyes and tentacles. However, Boros [himself looks very human-
like](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/deathbattlefanon/images/a/ad/Render_1.png/revision/latest?cb=20160228030045),
save for the single eye. His hands even have 5 fingers.

**Gantz:** In the Osaka Arc, the final villain was an alien called Nurarihyon,
[who just looks like an old
man.](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gantz/images/f/f4/Nurarihyon_Alien_Boss.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141124124112).
His human-like appearance even caused some of the characters to doubt his
status. However, his two subordinates look viciously demon-like, and all the
other lower-ranked aliens also look very monstrous. Nurarihyon is the
strongest of them all, but resembles a human the most. Also, in the final arc,
the final alien antagonists are almost identical to humans in appearance,
behavior, and civilization. They serve as the final villains since they're the
most powerful aliens our humans characters have had to face.

**Bleach:** The Hollows all look like [your average
monsters](https://cdn.myanimelist.net/s/common/uploaded_files/1445787031-10e017b1f94530461d63ce1fb2777900.jpeg),
and are usually not that strong. However, the Arrancar, which are basically
Hollows that have ascended and gained new powers, [all look like
humans](http://pm1.narvii.com/5804/3055358fd24a8357adf7e6e72cc3bb491a660580_00.jpg),
save for a few features. The Arrancar are exponentially stronger than regular
Hollows, and serve as the antagonists for a major story arc.

There's a lot more series that implement this trope, and it extends far beyond
just anime and manga. I'm just curious as to the reasoning behind it.

Is there some kind of physics-based reason for why stronger enemies tend to be
humanoid? Is the humanoid form factor the most optimal one for combat?

Or is this some kind of literary technique that I'm not familiar with? Clearly
these creators all have this type of design philosophy in common.


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question
anime-production tropes manga-production
Why do the stronger enemies in anime/manga tend to look more human?


I am pretty sure this is something that originates from the intention of the
medium (film, novel, game) to tell a story. Weak enemies that are quickly
dealt with don't need a fleshed out personality. But strong enemies are often
your main antagonists and therefore need a personality, motivations and so on.
In order for us to understand these motivations the antagonists thought
pattern needs to be somewhat human. The more human the physique of a character
is the more intuitive it is for that character to also have human thought
patterns. This results in the general trend of fictional characters to be more
human/anthropomorphised the more important to the story they are.

You might also want to consider that weaker enemies often come in bulk and
that killing something is less morally taxing if it dosen't look human.

other observations to back this up:

  * Cartoons for kids often feature anthropomorphised animals instead of normal animals even if the story doesn't involve combat
  * Video games with less focus on story and more focus on gamplay don't follow this "trope"


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answer