I complain about this with One Piece, but the worst was the Hueco Mundo arc in Bleach. It got so bad that there was one episode that consisted of, I sh-t you not, 15 minutes of recap of the previous episode. That was a few years back and represented the turning point in anime adaptations. The "Big Three" (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece) were all being paced ridiculously slow or having extremely long filler arcs, people stopped watching, and the studios started to react. Now, even adaptations of popular long running mangas are being done in several short seasons or blowing through the source material and going on hiatus at points (Kuroko, Fairy Tail, Bleach, probably HxH, Attack on Titan, etc). Makes for a much better viewing experience. I think the long drawn-out method may be dying out with OP (admittedly has another 10 years left, according to Oda), and Naruto (likely already in its final arc). I do hope Bleach gets brought back for a "Final Act" run of its last arc, as happened with Inuyasha. It always was a treat to see Tite Kubo's art style animated.
Loved Inuyasha! But yeah fillers are the worst... and you guys didnt even mention the looooong seemingly endless staredowns to prolong every dramatic scene or fight. Fillers/waiting and slow pacing are what led me to read Naruto/Berserk/Fullmetal Alchemist/Attack of the TITan and other long running mangas rather than watch them. For the most part I've found the manga to be better than the anime with the notable exception of Attack of the Titan. The anime is much better edited and animated.
I kept reading through Inuyasha and was totally disappointed, didn't bother to watch the Final Act. Attack on Titan anime also draws out the source material, for obvious reasons. The long term thinker in me hopes they take a two year break or there will be a lot of slow-mo expositions that "philosophically" draw out a manga page's worth of dialogue for 10 minutes. I'm really disappointed at the HxH creator. I watched the first series 10 years ago, which stopped right after Greed Island, and lo n behold, there's only 2 1/2 years worth of anime material. It's a shame like Berserk... Speaking of Berserk, the creator's friends with Kubo, so as insurance, he told Kubo the final plot points in the event that he keels over. WTF, can you imagine a Bleach styled Berserk? It's already insanely, out of focus, and drawn out as it is. At least one won't wait 3 months for an epic 2 page hand drawn set piece. At his current pace, maybe 3 month waits are worth it.... If Bleach and Naruto weren't so popular, the final arcs would be over right now. At this point, I just want them to finish.... I wonder if One Piece wants to break Hajime no Ippo's record. Anyways, these are the gripes that have built up over time. I still like most of the series. I'm a binge watcher, so being patient is not my strength.
How do you do this? I watched all of the exam part already, but if it slows down any, I'd be willing to skip over the filler.
Press the right keyboard arrow to skip 3 seconds. Do it when they're talking and with flashbacks. Rewind with left arrow if you miss some action. You can do this trick with any Google/Youtube hosted media...
I was a huge Inuyasha fan, but can understand how someone can get sick of it after awhile due to the repetitive storyline. Found the characters & the world, really interesting but the pattern of them failing to defeat the same main bad guy episode after episode and arc after arc can get tiresome. Wow didnt know that about beserk and kubo, I actually find that comforting considering I believe the author of berserk to be George RR Martin's japanese twin - the mangas been updated at a snails pace the last decade! Also the anime/ovas has only covered less than half of the manga. As for Bleach I stopped watching/reading at the end of the Aizen arc. I know they continued on, but wasnt that what kubo intended to be the end of the series, but was persuaded to add more? Naruto - stopped watching the anime around the Pain, nagato, Arc. Still reading the manga tho out of habit mostly and just wanting it to end lol. Think we're almost there! I've never gotten into HXH or one piece, was put off by the character designed, seemed very childlike, cartoonish, though I've heard good things about both.
What particular part would you need skipping? Episode 13 (recap) is the only true filler I could think of which is skippable. If you're talking about fast forwarding parts of the ant arc, Understandable, but I was so hyped up it made every single detail they talked about that much more interesting.
As long as it keeps it's pace, I think I'll be fine. I watched up till 22 today, so at this rate I'll be caught up relatively soon haha. I did skip the letter home one though, if that's the one you're referencing
I watch it more like a comic book. They do a lot of exposition by sitting/standing while talking so I shave off seconds when I finish reading the subtitles. Like I said before, it's a bit ADDish but pretty handy for shows with flash backs.
I was a big fan too for like the first 200 episodes. They mercifully canceled it for awhile, and I kept on reading the comics until it ended. The problem with the ending is that the creator totally sold out and redid four or five powerups for the characters and they went into a circle. The ending itself didn't really need that many powerups except for a few main characters, so you had a feeling she sold out and stretched the story four or five years. I forgot her name, but she's notorious for doing that. But yeah, great characters and very addicting early on. I haven't read or seen one piece. Always wanted to binge read it, but I figured it hadn't ended yet so I'll wait until it does... I don't have plans to watch the anime entirely or filler free. HxH is worth it even if it hasn't completed. I was new to shonen anime then around ten years ago and thought how many aspects of Naruto were ripped off of it (the original series' main character had the same voice as Naruto...). It's a better written shonen series though, and displays a lot of game theory for its characters even if it doesn't pan out. Not that it's a deep series and I give its shonen characters more than it deserves, but like other shonen, it's entertaining when you turn off your brain and watch what crazy unpredictable thing pops up.
One of my personal top five favorite animes of all time. Absolutely loved that show. Started in on Aldnoah Zero and Tokyo ESP last night. AZ started out slow and I was close to dropping it halfway into the 1st ep... but then the end of that episode happened, then the entire 2nd episode. Man, this series is EPIC. Can't wait until the next ep now. Tokyo ESP was... an X-Men ripoff. That's it. A well done, action-filled, X-Men rip off. I'll probably keep watching.
So I did what you said you were close to doing, I dropped aldnoah zero half-way through. Should I really just push through and try to watch it? Is it really that epic? Like Akame ga kill epic?
I would say more so actually. Just watch through the 2nd episode after the all out invasion starts. That's what got me hooked. If it does't have you by then it's probably not your cup of tea.
Aldnoah.Zero is basically living up to all the hype I had for it before the season. It's a little different from what I imagined, since I didn't think it was straight action mecha. But man, it's really doing it without pulling any of the traditional cliches that you associate with action anime. For anyone who thinks that episodes 1 and 2 are slow, I recommend you at least watch episode 3 before dropping.
Just watched episode three the other night. Feeling like its gonna be an epic show. I love the music during the action sequences...its so good.
Really enjoying Aldnoah.Zero too! Even the 3D mechs look good and I hate when they go the 3D route instead of just drawing them. I also like how they are introducing the Characters. Often times when it comes to these Mech anime's they give you the characters in one large clump and then expect you to remember them when they show up on screen again. Aldnoah.Zero is introducing characters in a way where I'm not confused (except one). Rayet Areash, the red head martian traitor, do we know her part in the assassination attempt on the martian princess? did I miss it in the first episode?
Yeah, Aldnoah.Zero has been incredible so far. The epic scale and extensive use of planning and tactics combined with mechs reminds me a lot of Code Geass. Watched episode 3 yesterday. Torn between where it or Akame Ga Kill is my fave summer 2014 anime. Haven't had a chance yet to watch AgK's 3rd episode, which came out today. Also really enjoying SAO II so far. Shino is a fascinating character (with a brutal backstory) and I like that the show is featuring her more than Kirito.
