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As far as presenting threats to the main characters in a long-running series I believe that battle mangaka often blow their load too early in giving the main characters a big challenge and it almost always leads to problems later down the line without fail. It is sort of understandable as it's just the short-sighted thing to do in a long-running series where you want to up the stakes and draw badass shit or whatever, but you'd think someone would at least pay a little mind to how the implications would pan out over time.
A really easy example is Luffy's fight with Crocodile in One Piece. The very first main villain that Luffy confronts upon entering the Grand Line is one of the Shichibukai? The Shichibukai who are later revealed to be part of the "Three Great Powers" and somehow an equivalent to the fucking Yonko? Luffy beats him by bringing along a little barrel of water and then later by punching him with his bloodied fists? Has Croc never fought someone with blood on them before? There's no way Croc goes down that easy. And Oda clearly thought so too since he brings back Croc in the war arc and has some dialogue to try and retroactively explain how Crocodile will *really* get into his groove now or something -- I forget the exact lines, but it's clear what it means when you read it and, if you really want to stretch things, compare it to some of the things he says to Luffy in Alabasta. Even if Croc had just gotten complacent or whatever he should still have a vast experience gap over Luffy, one that shouldn't be bridged simply because Luffy figures out his weakness. Despite the versatility of Luffy's devil fruit, the fact that he was still able to fight against such a supposedly strong fighter as he did just feels wrong. Also 80mil is a bitch bounty, why was he recruited at such a low bounty and why would he have grown so strong after that point (like we're meant to believe later) given what we know of his character? All Oda seemed to have really thought up until that point is that Croc'll be the first experienced pirate to give Luffy a challenge in the Grand Line and Luffy's gonna come out with a bigger bounty when he's done because he beat Croc obviously. Moreover, there's also the fact that he seemingly doesn't have a clue about Haki during the Alabasta arc, since Oda just hadn't planned that far ahead yet. Oda not planning Haki yet would be just fine if he hadn't had Luffy fight someone like Croc yet. Croc is clearly not some irrelevant guy at Marineford by any means. Anyway, it's just too much. Enel has kind of the same issue, but at least rubber vs electricity is a lot more believable and you can more easily see how Enel would fuck people's shit up despite what Luffy did to him imo while Croc getting a little soaked was just silly. (Though basically doing the same thing with Logias twice in a row was boring, but I digress.) Enel also gets some benefit of the doubt since he unknowingly uses Haki, and doesn't necessarily have any reason to know about it in the first place. (Again, I digress.)
Another example that I think doesn't get talked about much is early Naruto (though it's probably not quite as egregious as the above). The Zabuza stuff is kind of forgivable, since Naruto and Sasuke use strategy and bs kyuubi power-ups to do their thing and the real fighter of that arc was Kakashi. But the damage is kind of done here since Kishi has already tossed these guys an A-rank mission, and in the next arc he's got to throw them into another similarly dangerous threat by having Naruto take on the Shukaku aka the One-Tailed Beast, who may be the weakest but is still a Tailed Beast (even if this wasn't revealed yet), whose Jinchuuriki would completely style on pre-finals Sasuke and Naruto no problem without transforming at all. I know there was some strategy involved but it makes Naruto incredibly strong and makes a Tailed Beast seem kinda meh. I know he woke Gaara up to make the Shukaku go away, but with what we see later in the series I don't see why Shukaku doesn't just fucking murk everyone there instantly. In order to win Naruto had to summon Gamabunta which is an incredible feat for a genin to pull off. Part 2 is guilty of this to a lesser degree by having Naruto and Sakura immediately fight members of the Akatsuki, particularly Sasori who had this ridiculous hype of having defeated Suna's strongest Kazekage (fucking lol). We already know how power creeped Naruto got, but the seeds were really planted pretty early because of the tendency mentioned in the title.
Even a more competent series like Hunter x Hunter falls victim to the same issue, which is disappointing because HxH somewhat avoided the long lasting effects of this mistake and could have avoided it completely if Togashi played his cards right. Kurapika should have never performed as well as he did against Uvogin in the Yorknew arc before Uvo used his full power. Had Uvogin styled on Kurapika prior to the latter's use of Chain Jail, then there wouldn't really be much of a problem. But in a strange twist of typical shounen fanfare, Kurapika clowns Uvo in CQC and speed (though is unable to damage him really) and goads him into using more of his power, giving us the "that was only X% of my power" trope until Kurapika reveals that he's worthy enough for Uvo to use everything he's got. In terms of true combat prowess Uvo fails to keep up with Kurapika at all, Pika who was not even faster than Gon/Killua in the previous arc, which really calls into questions Uvogin's capabilities as a good fighter. His 20% Big Bang Impact punch did not do much to Pika because "Pika has to be an Enhancer," except not really because that's not how Emperor Time works nor is that how mastery over Nen works. His full powered punch shatters Pika's arm and may have done more, but it's still ultimately an underwhelming result coming from someone who's supposed to be a "Master Enhancer," and the injury is healed in like 5 seconds. He never hits Pika with a 50% punch but we can assume it would not be as devastating as it really should be. This is not even going into how Uvo never once uses Gyo during the fight despite the chains disappearing midfight, or how his Hatsu is really just a glorified Ko punch. And yet Nobunaga insists that Uvogin would never lose in a fight and yadayada, luckily every other Troupe member has been shown to be much faster and not a total dumbass so Togashi mostly avoided long-lasting adverse effects from this mishap and mostly just has the fight stick out like a sore thumb and has some of the characters sounding stupid here and there when talking about it.
Even in a series that don't have much potential to commit this sin, they still kinda do because mangaka just can't seem to help themselves or plan ahead far enough. See Son Goku beating Roshi at the 21st, only for Roshi to play take-backsies later -- "I trained and am now stronger for the 22nd, and my prime self was even better, so yeah Goku surpassing me back then totally meant nothing." Also that out of place statement from Karin wondering about an even stronger Goku potentially surpassing Roshi. At least there's some noticeable attempt at backpedaling here.
I don't think there are too many series that avoid committing this sin. Fullmetal Alchemist is probably one that I can recall, likely because its priorities are pretty different and it doesn't have power-ups for the most part anyway so power tiers aren't that big of a deal and stakes are built in other ways. FMA is not that long of a series easier, which makes it easier to avoid making a mistake that seems to be mostly related to short-sightedness in the face of writing a very long series.
A really easy example is Luffy's fight with Crocodile in One Piece. The very first main villain that Luffy confronts upon entering the Grand Line is one of the Shichibukai? The Shichibukai who are later revealed to be part of the "Three Great Powers" and somehow an equivalent to the fucking Yonko? Luffy beats him by bringing along a little barrel of water and then later by punching him with his bloodied fists? Has Croc never fought someone with blood on them before? There's no way Croc goes down that easy. And Oda clearly thought so too since he brings back Croc in the war arc and has some dialogue to try and retroactively explain how Crocodile will *really* get into his groove now or something -- I forget the exact lines, but it's clear what it means when you read it and, if you really want to stretch things, compare it to some of the things he says to Luffy in Alabasta. Even if Croc had just gotten complacent or whatever he should still have a vast experience gap over Luffy, one that shouldn't be bridged simply because Luffy figures out his weakness. Despite the versatility of Luffy's devil fruit, the fact that he was still able to fight against such a supposedly strong fighter as he did just feels wrong. Also 80mil is a bitch bounty, why was he recruited at such a low bounty and why would he have grown so strong after that point (like we're meant to believe later) given what we know of his character? All Oda seemed to have really thought up until that point is that Croc'll be the first experienced pirate to give Luffy a challenge in the Grand Line and Luffy's gonna come out with a bigger bounty when he's done because he beat Croc obviously. Moreover, there's also the fact that he seemingly doesn't have a clue about Haki during the Alabasta arc, since Oda just hadn't planned that far ahead yet. Oda not planning Haki yet would be just fine if he hadn't had Luffy fight someone like Croc yet. Croc is clearly not some irrelevant guy at Marineford by any means. Anyway, it's just too much. Enel has kind of the same issue, but at least rubber vs electricity is a lot more believable and you can more easily see how Enel would fuck people's shit up despite what Luffy did to him imo while Croc getting a little soaked was just silly. (Though basically doing the same thing with Logias twice in a row was boring, but I digress.) Enel also gets some benefit of the doubt since he unknowingly uses Haki, and doesn't necessarily have any reason to know about it in the first place. (Again, I digress.)
Another example that I think doesn't get talked about much is early Naruto (though it's probably not quite as egregious as the above). The Zabuza stuff is kind of forgivable, since Naruto and Sasuke use strategy and bs kyuubi power-ups to do their thing and the real fighter of that arc was Kakashi. But the damage is kind of done here since Kishi has already tossed these guys an A-rank mission, and in the next arc he's got to throw them into another similarly dangerous threat by having Naruto take on the Shukaku aka the One-Tailed Beast, who may be the weakest but is still a Tailed Beast (even if this wasn't revealed yet), whose Jinchuuriki would completely style on pre-finals Sasuke and Naruto no problem without transforming at all. I know there was some strategy involved but it makes Naruto incredibly strong and makes a Tailed Beast seem kinda meh. I know he woke Gaara up to make the Shukaku go away, but with what we see later in the series I don't see why Shukaku doesn't just fucking murk everyone there instantly. In order to win Naruto had to summon Gamabunta which is an incredible feat for a genin to pull off. Part 2 is guilty of this to a lesser degree by having Naruto and Sakura immediately fight members of the Akatsuki, particularly Sasori who had this ridiculous hype of having defeated Suna's strongest Kazekage (fucking lol). We already know how power creeped Naruto got, but the seeds were really planted pretty early because of the tendency mentioned in the title.
Even a more competent series like Hunter x Hunter falls victim to the same issue, which is disappointing because HxH somewhat avoided the long lasting effects of this mistake and could have avoided it completely if Togashi played his cards right. Kurapika should have never performed as well as he did against Uvogin in the Yorknew arc before Uvo used his full power. Had Uvogin styled on Kurapika prior to the latter's use of Chain Jail, then there wouldn't really be much of a problem. But in a strange twist of typical shounen fanfare, Kurapika clowns Uvo in CQC and speed (though is unable to damage him really) and goads him into using more of his power, giving us the "that was only X% of my power" trope until Kurapika reveals that he's worthy enough for Uvo to use everything he's got. In terms of true combat prowess Uvo fails to keep up with Kurapika at all, Pika who was not even faster than Gon/Killua in the previous arc, which really calls into questions Uvogin's capabilities as a good fighter. His 20% Big Bang Impact punch did not do much to Pika because "Pika has to be an Enhancer," except not really because that's not how Emperor Time works nor is that how mastery over Nen works. His full powered punch shatters Pika's arm and may have done more, but it's still ultimately an underwhelming result coming from someone who's supposed to be a "Master Enhancer," and the injury is healed in like 5 seconds. He never hits Pika with a 50% punch but we can assume it would not be as devastating as it really should be. This is not even going into how Uvo never once uses Gyo during the fight despite the chains disappearing midfight, or how his Hatsu is really just a glorified Ko punch. And yet Nobunaga insists that Uvogin would never lose in a fight and yadayada, luckily every other Troupe member has been shown to be much faster and not a total dumbass so Togashi mostly avoided long-lasting adverse effects from this mishap and mostly just has the fight stick out like a sore thumb and has some of the characters sounding stupid here and there when talking about it.
Even in a series that don't have much potential to commit this sin, they still kinda do because mangaka just can't seem to help themselves or plan ahead far enough. See Son Goku beating Roshi at the 21st, only for Roshi to play take-backsies later -- "I trained and am now stronger for the 22nd, and my prime self was even better, so yeah Goku surpassing me back then totally meant nothing." Also that out of place statement from Karin wondering about an even stronger Goku potentially surpassing Roshi. At least there's some noticeable attempt at backpedaling here.
I don't think there are too many series that avoid committing this sin. Fullmetal Alchemist is probably one that I can recall, likely because its priorities are pretty different and it doesn't have power-ups for the most part anyway so power tiers aren't that big of a deal and stakes are built in other ways. FMA is not that long of a series easier, which makes it easier to avoid making a mistake that seems to be mostly related to short-sightedness in the face of writing a very long series.
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