Favorite Filler Moments

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Favorite Filler Moments

Post by matt0044 » Sat May 13, 2017 12:30 am

I'm sure this thread was already made but it's something I've hoped to share. Namely what are the Anime exclusive moments that you feel Toei did right to include, particularly ones that enhanced the story rather than merely stretching it out needlessly.

For one, Gohan going out to face Freeza after Goku got knocked out was a nice touch to really show how he had grown and even more so was how he planned to keep Freeza on Namek as it exploded, essentially going on a suicide mission. Thank god, Chi Chi never knew...

Next, the start of the Cell Saga has some neat foreshadowing of Vegeta and Bulma's future relationship right before Trunks comes along complete with his infamous BADMAN shirt. We also see her care for him after an incident with a gravity chamber coupled with his nightmare of not being a Super Saiyan.

The Saiyaman fillers definitely exploited the whole teenage superhero thing far more than how the Manga just let's Videl recognize Gohan right after his first outing.

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by Jinzoningen MULE » Sat May 13, 2017 12:34 am

My favorite parts of the series are anime-only. Z Episode 16, Z Episode 288, the Saiyaman mini-arc. Non-Toriyama contributions are grossly underrated.
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by Cipher » Sat May 13, 2017 12:49 am

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by precita » Sat May 13, 2017 1:19 am

Hands down the best is during the Cell games while Gohan/Cell are having their energy beam clash, all the other characters like Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tenshinhan are contributing by blasting Cell with their own attacks while talking about how much Goku meant to them. I couldn't believe in the manga they just stand there watching.

It was also the perfect sendoff to Krillin, Yamcha and Tenshinhan (and even Piccolo) especially because they don't do any real fighting in the Buu arc. It's also one of Yamcha and Tenshinhan's best moments in the anime. I never understood why people overlook this.

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by Sandubadear » Sat May 13, 2017 1:30 am

Piccolo & Goku driving test.
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by Jinzoningen MULE » Sat May 13, 2017 1:32 am

precita wrote:Hands down the best is during the Cell games while Gohan/Cell are having their energy beam clash, all the other characters like Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tenshinhan are contributing by blasting Cell with their own attacks while talking about how much Goku meant to them. I couldn't believe in the manga they just stand there watching.

It was also the perfect sendoff to Krillin, Yamcha and Tenshinhan (and even Piccolo) especially because they don't do any real fighting in the Buu arc. It's also one of Yamcha and Tenshinhan's best moments in the anime. I never understood why people overlook this.
This is one of the cases where the sentiment of "good idea, bad execution" actually does apply. On paper, it sounds really cool to have everyone chip in a little bit to give Gohan the little extra advantage he needed. In actuality, the scene not only didn't add anything even mildly impressive to the mix, it brought the pace of the struggle to a crawl. It totally disrupted the flow at the worst possible moment. Have you ever read that scene in the manga? I implore you to if you haven't recently. Not only does it flow much better, but it redeemed Vegeta's selfish retaliation against Cell, which had resulted in Gohan's injury.

If you're looking for stand-out moments, each character had a far better one at an earlier point in the arc. (Granted, Yamcha's involved getting impaled through the chest, but y'know how it goes)
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by Footlong Shoe » Sat May 13, 2017 1:48 am

Jinzoningen MULE wrote:My favorite parts of the series are anime-only. Z Episode 16, Z Episode 288, the Saiyaman mini-arc. Non-Toriyama contributions are grossly underrated.
Episode 16 is one of my favorites as well, along with Z Episode 9. There were many times that I felt the anime added something that was much needed in the manga, Gohan's training arc being one example.
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by precita » Sat May 13, 2017 2:08 am

Jinzoningen MULE wrote:
precita wrote:Hands down the best is during the Cell games while Gohan/Cell are having their energy beam clash, all the other characters like Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha and Tenshinhan are contributing by blasting Cell with their own attacks while talking about how much Goku meant to them. I couldn't believe in the manga they just stand there watching.

It was also the perfect sendoff to Krillin, Yamcha and Tenshinhan (and even Piccolo) especially because they don't do any real fighting in the Buu arc. It's also one of Yamcha and Tenshinhan's best moments in the anime. I never understood why people overlook this.
This is one of the cases where the sentiment of "good idea, bad execution" actually does apply. On paper, it sounds really cool to have everyone chip in a little bit to give Gohan the little extra advantage he needed. In actuality, the scene not only didn't add anything even mildly impressive to the mix, it brought the pace of the struggle to a crawl. It totally disrupted the flow at the worst possible moment. Have you ever read that scene in the manga? I implore you to if you haven't recently. Not only does it flow much better, but it redeemed Vegeta's selfish retaliation against Cell, which had resulted in Gohan's injury.

If you're looking for stand-out moments, each character had a far better one at an earlier point in the arc. (Granted, Yamcha's involved getting impaled through the chest, but y'know how it goes)
I've read the manga although it's been a while. As far as I remember the DBZ version only goes on for an extra episode of that beam struggle, so I don't think it was drawn out. It also gives the humans some relevance of actually showing up in the Cell Games in the first place. And as I said before, it largely capped off their arcs of being main fighters in the series as the Buu saga moves on beyond them.

As for other fillers, I like the episode Krillin/Gohan discover those human aliens in the spaceship on the run from Freeza. Their designs were bland but it was a nice preview of things to come.

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by TheBigBoy » Sat May 13, 2017 8:38 am

It's absolutely in the wrong place, but I always liked the Ginyus Vs. The Scrubs on Kaio's planet. It gave those guys *something* to do.

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by TheZFighter » Sat May 13, 2017 8:44 am

Is DBZ Episode 16 the one with Pigero and the orphans in? For some reason I have always absolutely loved that episode, not sure why.

When my friends and I used to "play" DBZ on the playground at school, we always had Pigero train under Roshi, Korin, etc, and join the Z-Fighters. Not sure why we used to do that either haha, but I'm sure he returned as a character in a fairly popular fanfiction. Dragon Ball Elsewhere, I believe?
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by Lord Beerus » Sat May 13, 2017 9:22 am

- The Driving Episode: That filler episode is timeless. I always get a major laugh out of it.
- Everything about involving the Great Saiyaman: The slice of life/superhero parody antics were always such a riot. Gohan's social awkwardness is such unappreciated comedy gold.
- The Otherworld Tournament: Such an awesome throwback to the tournaments during the old school days of Dragon Ball but with a few cool twists. And it provides a great expansion on the lore of the Dragon Ball universe and netherworld. The episode that has the SSJ Goku/Pikkon fight in particular is great.
- Gohan's training and survival prior to the Saiyan's arrival: This is arguably my favorite filler in all of Dragon Ball. The way that Gohan's character was developed and evolved was fantastic. You really saw how the trials and tribulations transformed Gohan from a scared little boy into a child solider. I became a fan of the character because of those filler episodes. They were that well done. I have to specifically give a special shout out to the episode with Gohan and the orphans.
- The Baseball Episode in Super: It's fucking hilarious. What more needs to be said.

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by ABED » Sat May 13, 2017 10:05 am

This is one of the cases where the sentiment of "good idea, bad execution" actually does apply. On paper, it sounds really cool to have everyone chip in a little bit to give Gohan the little extra advantage he needed. In actuality, the scene not only didn't add anything even mildly impressive to the mix, it brought the pace of the struggle to a crawl. It totally disrupted the flow at the worst possible moment. Have you ever read that scene in the manga? I implore you to if you haven't recently. Not only does it flow much better, but it redeemed Vegeta's selfish retaliation against Cell, which had resulted in Gohan's injury.
It doesn't slow it to a crawl. The pacing is often very fast in the manga, sometimes WAY too fast, to the point where it doesn't allow the moments to play out to their fullest. In the anime, it gives the other characters something to do and the sentiment is full of heart. If the cutaways were to a Roshi joke or Chichi complaining or something akin to that, I'd be inclined to agree, but in this case, faster isn't better. The moment wasn't about them chipping in a little. It's there to show how much Goku has meant to them. They know they won't do anything, but they love Goku and his son so much that they will do whatever they can even if it's all for nothing. And I don't see how the anime doesn't redeem Vegeta's foolhardy retaliation.
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Sat May 13, 2017 10:44 am

The driving episode and when the other Z Fighters try to help Gohan against Cell.
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by ThatFanaticJackatoo » Sat May 13, 2017 10:53 am

Piccolo and Goku's driving lesson were hands down the best thing

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by precita » Sat May 13, 2017 3:05 pm

Honestly outside the Freeza arc, most of the filler in DBZ has been alright except for maybe a few boring eps here and there. I never had a problem with Saiyan, Cell or Buu saga fillers at all, even the ones I didn't particularly like.

It really seems that since the entire main cast was on Planet Namek, they couldn't come up with filler stories outside of it so they just extended the main casts fight scenes, showed Bulma wandering around, and then constant clips to Yamcha/Tien/Chaiotzu dead on King Kai's planet. That's why the pacing goes to hell the moment Goku starts fighting Freeza.

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by Jinzoningen MULE » Sat May 13, 2017 5:03 pm

ABED wrote:It doesn't slow it to a crawl.
Compared to other parts of Z, maybe not. Compared to how the scene is actually supposed to play out, the anime's version is painful. Totally out of place.
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by GreatSaiyaJeff » Sat May 13, 2017 5:22 pm

My top 5

1. When the other Z-Warriors are helping Gohan, and we get resolutuion to their characters. Like Piccolo saying how Gohan was his first freind, Krillin not giving up, Tien saying he wouldn't be where he was without Goku, and Yamcha wanting to help Gohan when he couldn't help Goku.

2. Yamcha, Tien and Chaozu vs. The Ginyu Force, it was always great to see these characters get a win in when they haven't had one in a while. Especially Chaozu and Yamcha.

3. The other world tournament, such a great filler arc.

4. The driving episode was hilarious.

5. This one is tied with two fillers between Nappa and Vegeta going to the bug planet and Krillin and the others going back in time fighting the past saiyans.
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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by precita » Sat May 13, 2017 5:35 pm

I think all the "downtime" moments, as in filler scenes in important episodes are good too.

Anyone love that scene in the early Cell arc where Yamcha tries to train in Vegeta's spaceship at 300 times Earth's gravity? While he nearly got himself killed, the fact that Yamcha was able to struggle enough to turn it off when Goku nearly killed himself at just 100 times Earth's gravity on the trip to Namek was nice. I know it doesn't really make much sense (Yamcha shouldn't be able to withstand that if Goku couldn't), but I liked the scene.

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by Forte224 » Sat May 13, 2017 5:52 pm

To me the driving episode is overrated. Personally I liked most of Gohan's wilderness training/adventures. Specifically the robot episode, but that's because back when I bought the Orange Bricks I had no idea that episode ever existed (due to it being cut in the Ocean dub) so it was so cool to see something new. And more recently because it's the first episode where I started to accept the Japanese version of the show that I now love above all else.

The tournament arc where Goku fights Pikkon is good.

Also, any filler that doesn't interrupt fights is good with me, like the episodes pre-Cell Games, Great Saiyaman, etc. The filler that interrupts in the middle of canon fights is just annoying because of how constant it is

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Re: Favorite Filler Moments

Post by ABED » Sat May 13, 2017 6:42 pm

Jinzoningen MULE wrote:
ABED wrote:It doesn't slow it to a crawl.
Compared to other parts of Z, maybe not. Compared to how the scene is actually supposed to play out, the anime's version is painful. Totally out of place.
It's not out of place at all. It helps the emotion of the scene immensely instead of it just being a mechanical struggle of power against power. The manga's version is far too quick. The struggle doesn't feel nearly as dramatic or intense.
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