About half of the Boo arc takes place on one day (May 7th, Age 774 by the Daizenshuu 7 timeline): the day of the tournament takes up 49 of the story arc’s 99 chapters. It’s the second longest day in the manga (as I go over
here). The longest is the day of the battles with the Ginyu Force and Freeza (December 24th, Age 762), which is a whopping 60 chapters. As for how many days the Boo arc lasts, there’s a bit of a controversy. Daizenshuu 7 says Boo gets destroyed on May 8th, the very next day after he’s unleashed, but if you keep track of things you see that two days actually pass between his revival and death, placing his defeat on May 9th (basically, Boo revives, shit happens, the narrator says a day passes, then Gohan begins his 25-hour power-up, his power-up finishes, more shit happens, the end).
With Boo, I find it kinda funny that Jeff can’t take him seriously because of his name, whereas apparently “piccolo”, “vegetable”, “freezer”, and “cell” are suitably intimidating.
As for “Shonen power creep”, I find it odd that you guys seem to think that it’s just now getting hard to take seriously. I mean, it’s been 20 volumes since the aliens who are way stronger than the super-demon who’s way stronger than
God showed up. I think we passed “silly” a long time ago.
I mean, let’s break this down: First we’ve got (1) Kame-sennin, who’s supposed to be the strongest in the world, until (2) Tenshinhan surpasses him, only to have his clock cleaned by (3) Drum, who then gets instantly killed by (4) Goku, who fights evenly with Piccolo but then is completely outclassed by (5) Popo, who admits that he’s far weaker than (6) God, but then even God is no match for (7) the reborn Piccolo, who trains for an additional five years just to be treated like a kid by (8) Raditz, but even he wouldn’t have been any match for (9) Piccolo and the other Earth warriors after their year of training, though all of them together can’t defeat (10) Nappa, who’s taken down in no time by (11) Kaio-Ken Goku, who can’t beat (12) Vegeta, who we later learn wasn’t much compared to (13) Zarbon or Dodoria, who then are outclassed by (14) Vegeta after his power-up from the battle on Earth, though he then gets the tar beat out of him by (15) transformed Zarbon, but Vegeta powers up again and beats Zarbon only to be wiped out by (16) Recoom, who’s effortlessly defeated by (17) Goku after his gravity training, but even Goku is no match for (18) Ginyu, at least not until he (19) uses Kaio-Ken and outclasses him, though even then he can’t hold a candle to (20) first-form Freeza, who’s only about half as strong as (21) his second form, who furthermore can’t compare to his (22) third form, which as you might expect by now is no match for (23) his fourth form, who Goku seems to fight evenly with only to be utterly outclassed after (24) Freeza starts using only 50% of his power, but even at 100% of his power he finally gets outdone by (25) Super Saiyan Goku, who trains hard for three years only to be no match for (26) Androids No.17 and 18, who turn out to be much weaker than (27) Android No.16, whose head is effortlessly blown to bits by (28) second-form Cell, who is humiliatingly outdone by (29) Super Vegeta, who freaks out when he feels only half of (30) Full Power Super Saiyan Goku’s power, but even Goku is no match for (31) perfect Cell, who self-destructs only to (32) revive in a much more powerful form, only to finally be destroyed by (33) Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, who we now learn probably wouldn’t be any match for this new villain, (34) Majin Boo.
So why are steps 1-33 in that sequence perfectly OK, but suddenly at step 34 now it’s over the top? I think Mike and Meri, and even Jeff what with his prior exposure to the Cell Games and early Boo stuff, are just too used to the middle “Z” portion of the story and so accept Freeza or Cell’s power as a given, when really they’re just as ridiculous as Boo.