Fillers that ruined an Anime.

tthor

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GamerKT said:
Naruto. 80 episodes? Are you joking?

(I know they were too close to the manga at the time.)
f-ing Naruto.

Naruto actually seemed like it had an interesting plot, which would have been much more interesting if they actually STUCK to the main story! for the majority of the show they completely forget the main plot, and instead have tons of filler stuffed in there.

But filler isn't inherently bad, right? I mean, one could say that Cowboy Bebop was almost entirely filler. Well, filler is bad when it generally is the same basic side-plot repeated over and over and OVER! We get it, some angsty kid, blahblahblah, GET BACK TO THE MAIN STORY!
 

tthor

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Schierke said:
They're annoying yes, but in that case, why not just skip over them?
the problem with skipping filler is you don't know if it will be complete filler, if there will be some major plot development revealed in it, or if there will be some interesting character development in it that makes it worth watching. Filler isn't always bad, it can be used for great character development, or even possibly connect back to the main storyline. What sucks is that you often can't tell the difference between good filler and bad filler until after you've watched it..
 

Asuka Soryu

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spartan231490 said:
Bleach. Just bleach. It's more filler than anime at this point. And all the different times when the relative power levels just radically change. In the bount arc, Ichigo can't even fight as well as a damn lieutenant level, despite beating a captain in the arc previous. and in the Hueco Mundo arc, Ichigo is saved by someone he had beaten before he even unlocked bankai, and there's no way he gained more power than ichigo did with all the abilities that ichigo has gained.

To argue the Hueco Mundo arch, Ichigo beat Zaraki because he had the full power of his sword. That wasn't his natural power at the time, after that battle he returned to the strength he had in wich Zaraki beat him with ease. The energy that he used to beat(and I mean beat losely, as we all know Ichigo collapsed first while Zaraki was still standing and had time to reminisce)Zaraki was his Zanpakuto's power, power he didn't have untill later on.
 

Schierke

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Honestly, I usually look up plot summaries for fillers before I decide to watch them. It can be very frustrating to find a decent, enjoyable anime that chugs along for a while and then end up stranded in the mire of pointless filler.

Obviously, the worst offenders would be Bleach/Naruto/One Piece/etc, but I have found fillers in other series, and occasionally, a series made nearly entirely of filler. *coughsamuraichamploocough*
 

Korten12

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l3o2828 said:
Naruto, Shugo Chara (Although this one was intended for small kids so i don't blame it too much for keeping things simple and repetitive)
Erm.....Bleach, One Piece....
Mostly Long Runners.
They don't move the plot forward, they just keep making up reasons for the characters to fight or just..go on a vacation or something
One Piece has a couple of them, but compared to the others, they are still fun to watch.
 

DRes82

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I've watched Naruto from the beginning up to the end of the Pain saga. I just skip the filler episodes for the most part. They very rarely have any bearing on the main story arcs. Now that I'm talking about it, I should start watching it again.
 

spartan231490

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Asuka Soryu said:
spartan231490 said:
Bleach. Just bleach. It's more filler than anime at this point. And all the different times when the relative power levels just radically change. In the bount arc, Ichigo can't even fight as well as a damn lieutenant level, despite beating a captain in the arc previous. and in the Hueco Mundo arc, Ichigo is saved by someone he had beaten before he even unlocked bankai, and there's no way he gained more power than ichigo did with all the abilities that ichigo has gained.

To argue the Hueco Mundo arch, Ichigo beat Zaraki because he had the full power of his sword. That wasn't his natural power at the time, after that battle he returned to the strength he had in wich Zaraki beat him with ease. The energy that he used to beat(and I mean beat losely, as we all know Ichigo collapsed first while Zaraki was still standing and had time to reminisce)Zaraki was his Zanpakuto's power, power he didn't have untill later on.
And according to the mythos you gain your zanpakto's power when you gain bankai. And even if that's not true, bankai should have made him several times stronger, and his vizard powers multiply his strength yet further. And zaraki's power would have been reduced because it was hueco mundo, and soul-reaper powers are weaker in hueco mundo, whereas Ichigo's vizard powers should have been made stronger. And those were only 2 small examples, there are dozens more.
 

spartan231490

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Nalgas D. Lemur said:
spartan231490 said:
Bleach. Just bleach. It's more filler than anime at this point. And all the different times when the relative power levels just radically change. In the bount arc, Ichigo can't even fight as well as a damn lieutenant level, despite beating a captain in the arc previous.
Thanatus1992 said:
Seriously, when the Bounto arc popped up halfway through the Heuco Mundo arc I was simultaneously pissed and confused.
Heh. I knew Bleach was going to get mentioned early and repeatedly. The really sad part is that after watching more recent episodes, the Bount filler arc looks great in comparison to the absolute clusterfuck the show devolved into. The more recent filler has been absolutely atrocious, and even most of the non-filler has been worse than the Bount arc was. I ended up watching most of the episodes from I think 200-300 or so at 1.5x speed just to see how much worse the show could possibly get and what would eventually happen with the Aizen nonsense, and holy crap did it ever get worse. As strange as it is to say it, I miss how good the Bount arc was in comparison and completely stopped watching it after the massive derp-fest of the Aizen showdown. My brain can only take so much stupid.
I never even finished the aizen arc. I just couldn't take it anymore and stopped. The fact that Ichigo's level of strength follows the path of a seismograph print-out if you throw it in a washing machine and then a dryer just ruined the whole thing for me.

The bount arc was tolerable, before that was awesome, and the rest just got worse and worse and worse. So much ruined potential that it really made me die a little inside.
 

Furioso

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Alar said:
All the giant recap bits in episode of Dragonball Z, Naruto, and Yu Yu Hakusho.

Seriously, I don't need to see the last two minutes of an episode I just watched.
Agreed, but at least with Yu Yu Hakusho the actual show had slim to no filler at all, the first season even managed to get through 5 important story arcs, as for in show filler, everything I could say has already been mentioned with bleach, naruto, and DBZ
 

Asuka Soryu

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spartan231490 said:
Asuka Soryu said:
spartan231490 said:
Bleach. Just bleach. It's more filler than anime at this point. And all the different times when the relative power levels just radically change. In the bount arc, Ichigo can't even fight as well as a damn lieutenant level, despite beating a captain in the arc previous. and in the Hueco Mundo arc, Ichigo is saved by someone he had beaten before he even unlocked bankai, and there's no way he gained more power than ichigo did with all the abilities that ichigo has gained.

To argue the Hueco Mundo arch, Ichigo beat Zaraki because he had the full power of his sword. That wasn't his natural power at the time, after that battle he returned to the strength he had in wich Zaraki beat him with ease. The energy that he used to beat(and I mean beat losely, as we all know Ichigo collapsed first while Zaraki was still standing and had time to reminisce)Zaraki was his Zanpakuto's power, power he didn't have untill later on.
And according to the mythos you gain your zanpakto's power when you gain bankai. And even if that's not true, bankai should have made him several times stronger, and his vizard powers multiply his strength yet further. And zaraki's power would have been reduced because it was hueco mundo, and soul-reaper powers are weaker in hueco mundo, whereas Ichigo's vizard powers should have been made stronger. And those were only 2 small examples, there are dozens more.
Yes, but Ichigo's main power is the same as Zaraki's, so once his mask came off he should also feel the same decrease. Not to mention Ichigo was near dead with only 1/3rd his Bankai power when Nnoitra kicked his ass around.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Naruto comes to mind, the filler ones got just stupid, like a ninja prison? The only way it would work is if it was a graveyard. Naruto was awesome but the filler... a few of them were good but mostly they just sucked.
 

sage42

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Bleach and Bleach alone once Naruto hit filler I switched to the manga, but Bleach, uarrg that was just agrivating, plus the fact they kept showing re-runs(adult swim). course they seemed to have rebooted the series after last nights episode, might be fun to try again.
 

NeutralDrow

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On-topic: I rarely watch anime over reading the original manga or light novels. That said, I'm quite certain some of my favorite manga would be considered by some to be 70% filler (like Ai Yori Aoshi), so I guess I'd have to say I don't really think filler ruins anything. At least, not in-and-of itself.

Shoggoth2588 said:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which wasn't ruined by filler but rather, by mood. The first few episodes are fine, as are all the bits of comic relief but I don't like how they over-dramatized the thing. It would have fared better as a strictly comedic series.
That's because the first six episodes of the first season were the adaptation of the first book. The other seven all adapted various short stories from books 3 and 5, with the only genuine anime-only "filler" being the final episode.
 

Canadamus Prime

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You know why the fillers exist, don't you? It's because the anime in question is, or rather was, being produced along side a still running manga counterpart. The fillers occur every time the anime outran the it's manga counter part, so the producers of the anime had to fill in the gap while waiting for the author of the manga to create the next run of stories for them to create episodes off of. Of course by the time the series is exported to other regions it's usually already completely run it's course in Japan so to us it seems like so much unnecessary fluff.
Of course some fillers can be hugely entertaining, like the driving episode of DBZ for example, I believe it was entitled "Goku's Ordeal". Watching Goku and Piccolo try and learn to drive nearly made me bust a gut.
 

gphjr14

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Bleach and Naruto of course. Dropped the animes years ago but still read the manga. I can see why studios put fillers in to prolong the story and maintain support for the manga, but I recall Naruto's animation be sourced out to a Korean studio and the characters looked absolutely terrible.
 

Azure Sky

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Thanatus1992 said:
Seriously, when the Bounto arc popped up halfway through the Heuco Mundo arc I was simultaneously pissed and confused.
I actually was enjoying Bleach up until that point, gave up after seeing a few bounto eps though, turned me right off.

Slightly on the flip side of the thread, there has been one filler I think has pulled itself off quite well, but that also assumes people have seen the Japanese version of Sailor Moon. =3
 

Kurt Cristal

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fatal2704 said:
You know the deal: you're watching the first episodes of an anime, everything is great, storyline works, and the characters are deep. Then you run across a problem. Fillers seem to kinda take away from the general experience of an anime for me. My example would be Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The story was mysterious and engaging, and all the characters except for the main one wore normal clothes and had actual arcs. But then fillers came and killed it. All the story lines involving tachicoma and whiny derpy derpy doo-ing ruined the streak of excellence the show had put in my heart. So tell me, Escapists, what animes have you seen that were ruined by fillers?
Are you referring to the standalone self-contained episodes? Or just the annoying Tachikoma-centric ones? Either way, those were abundantly more tolerable than that "Night Cruise" episode. We interrupt your futuristic espionage show to bring a paranoid schizophrenic rambling for 20 minutes. Guh. Most of the episodes were fine for me, though.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

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canadamus_prime said:
You know why the fillers exist, don't you? It's because the anime in question is, or rather was, being produced along side a still running manga counterpart. The fillers occur every time the anime outran the it's manga counter part, so the producers of the anime had to fill in the gap while waiting for the author of the manga to create the next run of stories for them to create episodes off of. Of course by the time the series is exported to other regions it's usually already completely run it's course in Japan so to us it seems like so much unnecessary fluff.
Of course some fillers can be hugely entertaining, like the driving episode of DBZ for example, I believe it was entitled "Goku's Ordeal". Watching Goku and Piccolo try and learn to drive nearly made me bust a gut.
I watched one from the original Dragon Ball the other day, called The Time Room. Basically, Mr. Popo sent Goku back in time to train under the guy who taught Master Roshi, and he met a young Roshi and a young Crane Hermit while he was there. It was hugely entertaining, and there was some actual plot development, to boot. I really wish they would just make an entire series set in that time period; there's even room for an overarching plot, since

It was during that time period that King Piccolo first showed up, and the war to defeat him was initially fought. It was Roshi's old master who wound up sealing him in a rice cooker. The reason the power levels of the martial artists at the start of the show were so insanely low is that all of the really powerful ones were killed in that war, and it was up to a few survivors to teach a new generation, often without having been fully trained themselves.

Basically, Dragon Ball filler is great when it's an entire episode or arc that has nothing to do with the Manga. It's only really a problem when they don't have room to make up random plot points, so they have to stretch out the ones that they're already working on. Cue the fight with Freeza, which took 5 minutes of plot time, but multiple hours of episodes.