KBABZ wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 9:33 am
Huh, to me GT is the proof that the anime is its own timeline since it connects directly to Z.
GT connects directly to Z, but EoZ (identical in anime and manga) does not connect directly to GT. There’s nothing in the last few episodes of Z to hype up a continuation. Pan and Trunks, for example, don’t get extra attention in that part of the anime, and the ending narration doesn’t say “come back next week for GT.” The only connection between EoZ and GT is the Next Episode Preview. GT works as a continuation of the manga just as well as it works as a continuation of the Z anime. Likewise, it’s just as unnecessary for someone who watched the anime as someone who read the manga.
There are significant points in the anime that do contradict or deviate from the anime. For example, even in non-filler Goku's fight against Frieza is much less one-sided than it is in the manga, not to mention the introduction of lava which wasn't originally present either. There's also that bit much later where it's stated that King Cold is more powerful than Frieza, where in the manga they're said to be about equal. Or Trunks specifying 19 and 20 in the manga, or...
About the Freeza fight: I suspect they didn’t have the intention to deviate. They were in a bind for that stretch of episodes, because they were right up against the manga. And in the manga, that fight is more action-driven than any other part. It was probably the hardest thing to adapt to animation. “There was lava” is the biggest deviation not related to padding, but that’s hardly significant.
They changed that line of Trunks’ dialogue (perhaps the only line not rendered verbatim from the manga) because it did not make any sense in the manga. They were playing damage control for Toriyama.
I consider these exceptions to prove the rule: the anime is intended to tell the exact same story as the manga, and besides a few glitches, it does this. The anime and manga are far too identical episode by episode, chapter by chapter, to be considered separate timelines. The fact that Kai could be made just by trimming the filler proves that the anime is the same as the manga.