What's with the love for filler?

[ABED]

People feel like the fillers in Naruto, Bleach and One Piece drag the show and they wish that they were gone. One of the biggest criticism in the DBZ anime was the pacing and how slow it was. So how come DBZ gets a free pass on it's fillers, but not those three?

I never got the idea that DBZ ever got a pass for its filler.

[Hellspawn28]

A lot of people seem to love the filler now in DBZ, but hate the filler in those three shows.

[Kamiccolo9]

A lot of people seem to love the filler now in DBZ, but hate the filler in those three shows.

You're being way to broad in your generalizations. Plenty of people like some of the filler in DBZ. One doesn't have to like the "Bulma and the Crab" episode to enjoy the Driving Episode, for example.

Personally, I find some of the filler in DBZ to be pulled off pretty well, such as Piccolo and co. helping Gohan out against Cell, Gohan's Saiyan Arc training, and the Garlic Junior Arc, while, on the other hand, I find plenty of it to be absolute trash, such as the aforementioned crab episode, Mr. Satan's student's at the Cell Games, and the constant breaks to Chi-Chi's antic during the Saiyan fight.

[superrayman3]

Personally I think filler can be both good and bad depending on how it's executed, for example something that would fall into the bad filler category is the 19 or more episodes of Frieza powering up because those episodes virtually add nothing in terms of plot or character development, an example of good filler on the other hand is the driving episode because it gives the audience a break from the serious aspect of the story and gives the characters some time to go on a side adventure and flesh themselves out more.

[Gokuden]

People feel like the fillers in Naruto, Bleach and One Piece drag the show and they wish that they were gone. One of the biggest criticism in the DBZ anime was the pacing and how slow it was. So how come DBZ gets a free pass on it's fillers, but not those three?

Because, back in those days, when it aired, we'd have to wait for an episode a week, and when the episode came, it had Goku flying from what seemed like one end of the planet to the other, and then doing an extra lap, while people in front of the villain, waiting for Goku would listen to some trash/pep talk from either side. And then another episode would be Goku finally arriving, and the episode would finish as both the villain and Goku would lock eyes, and hearing the announcer's voice would make you sad, letting you know it's over. You're then like ''That's it! That's it for the week? DAMMIT?''

Those were back in the days where you were in kindergarten, and didn't have computer ressources (Ocean Dub era) to download the episodes yourself, heck, you had a bedtime, and there was no assurance that you would be at home to watch the next episode. You would rely on your parents to hook up the t.v., vcr, cable, or video cassette. I recorded my first cassette when G Gundam aired on Toonami.

And at that age, you wanted to know what happened next. I hated the pacing of how they would air the show. 1 episode a week. 1 FRICKEN episode a week. There was also a late late DragonBall Z on YTV after midnight, I would catch it as I would catch colds as well, and have the privilege of staying home, watching tv. Sometimes the early morning episode followed the week, sometimes it was a random episode.

As a kid, you couldn't catch the show, I complained about the pacing of how they would release it, leaving us hanging, because we want to know more.
It was the broadcaster who would bust your dreams, not the filler.

Now that we have the ability to buy, netflix, and download the series, I can see why the complaints of this 'pacing' went down.

[Sshadow5001]

Maybe some people who liked the filler in Dragonball but hated it in these other shows is, By the time we became fan of the series it had already finished in Japan. We pretty much got a brand new episode every weekday when it aired on cartoon network so the dragged on filler didn't seem nearly as bad (plus we were young and didn't care) where as One Piece, Naruto etc are still going, this means it may be months before we get anything relevant to the actual story happening because the episodes are weekly.

[ABED]

Because, back in those days, when it aired, we'd have to wait for an episode a week, and when the episode came, it had Goku flying from what seemed like one end of the planet to the other, and then doing an extra lap, while people in front of the villain, waiting for Goku would listen to some trash/pep talk from either side. And then another episode would be Goku finally arriving, and the episode would finish as both the villain and Goku would lock eyes, and hearing the announcer's voice would make you sad, letting you know it's over. You're then like ''That's it! That's it for the week? DAMMIT?''

That's hyperbole. There was plenty of action in those episode which is why many of us kept coming back week after week. One episode a week was typical of programming.

[Darknat]

People feel like the fillers in Naruto, Bleach and One Piece drag the show and they wish that they were gone. One of the biggest criticism in the DBZ anime was the pacing and how slow it was. So how come DBZ gets a free pass on it's fillers, but not those three?

Dragon Ball filler is not as bad as Naruto's or Bleach's. It's also not as long as those. Naruto had almost a hundred episodes of filler at one time (I haven't seen Shippuden), which it's really way too much, Bleach has filler sagas that interrupt the flow of the story and change the setting and time constantly. Dragon Ball on the other hand had short fillers here and there, and addons to the manga parts. The only part of filler I personally dislike is during the fight with Freeza. At that time they were very close to the manga that they needed to add something, and usually they added parts with Bulma, Earth, or even recaps from Freeza's point of view.

We got some problems with filler like Dr Frappe which, by the way, was not retcon out of existence. Guidebooks still mention him, and suggest he could have helped Gero, which I don't see a problem with that at all.

[sintzu]

People feel like the fillers in Naruto, Bleach and One Piece drag the show and they wish that they were gone. One of the biggest criticism in the DBZ anime was the pacing and how slow it was. So how come DBZ gets a free pass on it's fillers, but not those three?

I think it's because it's already over and we know the story plus we can skip to where we want but if we were to watch one episode per weak i think a lot of us would stop watching it till it's finished

[Vijay]

People feel like the fillers in Naruto, Bleach and One Piece drag the show and they wish that they were gone. One of the biggest criticism in the DBZ anime was the pacing and how slow it was. So how come DBZ gets a free pass on it's fillers, but not those three?

You can find almost in any Anime Review websites of reviewers criticizing Naruto, Bleach, One-Piece fillers which'll make snail blush-in terms of plot progression. They've also mentioned how all those 3 anime learned from DBZ & even made it worse. So can't say only DBZ gets free pass.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

The fillers are for DBZ, not for DBKai. If you want to watch them, just watch DBZ. They have no place in Kai, not because they are good or bad, they just have no place there (except if they are unavoidable), just like Naruto or Superman has no place in a DB episode.

[RedHotFlip]

I've always loved the filler before the cell games start...but that's just me

[omegalucas]

I think the "free pass" Dragon Ball gets with filler (internationally, that is; my argument doesn't really work when seen from the Japanese side) is more because of the time we live on. The show is over, and it was already over when it got to most countries. Also (and I speak for me only), we only had the anime to go by, so we didn't really know what was filler then and what wasn't (and now that we know what is filler we can merely skip it). With One Piece, Naruto and Bleach we watch the anime just a few days after it airs in Japan, same thing with the manga so we do have an idea of what's going on and have to wait months for the 'canon' (can't think of a better word) story arcs to resume.

[hulkty]

A Kai version of Bleach and Naruto/Shippuden would be GREAT.....BUT Filler is still extra stories about specific characters you may have wanted to know about and have a lot of surprises. It be nice of they also released a collection set for nothing but the fillers.
The fillers in old Naruto are fine where they are in my opinion. Shippuden however....... :/
OH GOD Kai up Bleach right now!!! LOL XD Bleach needs it BAD...

[Basaku]

Fillers have their place, usually to ease the pacing especially after very action heavy arcs. But honestly, I would never watch Freeza fight in original anime lenght again lol. Namek arc flows very good in Kai

[ABED]

Fillers have their place, usually to ease the pacing especially after very action heavy arcs. But honestly, I would never watch Freeza fight in original anime lenght again lol. Namek arc flows very good in Kai

Agreed, the Freeza fight is long in the manga and in Kai, but too long in Z, and it's not even the fight, it's the cutaways to Bulma, and Chichi on Earth, as well as the long flashbacks to previous episodes. Some other filler I can't stand is the fake Namek and Bulma and the Crab. Awful, just awful. However, I do like the mirror ship stuff. It's short, but it's a neat precursor to the Freeza arc and helps with the aura around Freeza.

[Basaku]

Agreed, the Freeza fight is long in the manga and in Kai, but too long in Z, and it's not even the fight, it's the cutaways to Bulma, and Chichi on Earth, as well as the long flashbacks to previous episodes. Some other filler I can't stand is the fake Namek and Bulma and the Crab. Awful, just awful. However, I do like the mirror ship stuff. It's short, but it's a neat precursor to the Freeza arc and helps with the aura around Freeza.

It's tricky to balance it perfectly, especially when you're working with already pre-existing material. They still did a decent job and if we couldn't have a true remake, then Kai's good enough.

[ABED]

Agreed, the Freeza fight is long in the manga and in Kai, but too long in Z, and it's not even the fight, it's the cutaways to Bulma, and Chichi on Earth, as well as the long flashbacks to previous episodes. Some other filler I can't stand is the fake Namek and Bulma and the Crab. Awful, just awful. However, I do like the mirror ship stuff. It's short, but it's a neat precursor to the Freeza arc and helps with the aura around Freeza.

It's tricky to balance it perfectly, especially when you're working with already pre-existing material. They still did a decent job and if we couldn't have a true remake, then Kai's good enough.

True, I think the Saiyan arc is too short in the manga. The training isn't long. I think that filler helps build tension and Gohan's character. I really loved the training filler before the 23rd Budokai.

[The Monkey King]

Sometimes filler helps things look more epic than in the manga. For examply SSJ transformations.

In the manga it was just boom! Goku has spikey white hair now:

Spoiler:

While in the anime you had Goku struggling to properly attain the form as his power fluctuated, you had the awesome lightning storm backdrop and the veins and pupils dissapear as he screams and gets covered in a golden aura:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uub6sXZcLvE

[Payne222]

Do people not understand anime needs filler for the manga to get further?