Your Thoughts on the Really Long Fights

[PelicanDynasty]

I watched the 23rd Tournament over the past week and the Junior fignt really got me thinking: Does anyone else just hate when the fights are that long?

I like the Goku-Junior fight a lot but at the same time it's like come on, hurry it up fellas. It's far from the worst offender. Obviously Freeza comes to mind, but really every major enemy in Z just lasts for an eternity. I'm sure it's been discussed before but do other people feel the same way about this?

[Jinzoningen MULE]

It's only annoying to me when I'm binge-watching, which I don't do with DB anymore. Taking it 2-3 episodes at a time, it's not a big deal.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Depends if the fight is kept interesting, or if they just repeat the same stuff over and over again (Goku vs. Beerus in DBS was one of the worst offenders in this category).

[RandomGuy96]

The only really long fight that was well-done was the battle with Vegeta, and I guess everything in the Buu arc from Gotenks fusing to Gohan being absorbed if you count all that as one battle. My problem with very long fights in general is that 90% of the time they can only BE that long for one or a combination of these three reasons:

1. There's a shitload of time spent talking, charging attacks, powering up, grunting, doing basically everything but actually fighting (case for pretty much every overly long anime fight, but actually rare in the manga).
2. No one's blows have any effect on each other, so everyone needs to be hit a thousand times before they go down. This makes fights boring and seems to make the endpoint arbitrary if they're barely selling each other's offense.
3. They're doing that fucking stupid "warm-up battle" bullshit where a character reveals they were using 3% or whatever of their power, thus rendering the whole battle up to that moment completely pointless. This is especially pointless when both fighters are doing it (e.g. most of Goku vs Freeza, the entire Piccolo vs Freeza fight, the first portion of the OTHER Goku vs Freeza fight, etc.).

[Soppa Saia People]

Hate them. Vegeta vs Goku was the only one that worked, and that's only because of it's not just Vegeta vs Goku, it's Vegeta vs Goku, Gohan, Kuririn and Yajirobe. Freeza vs SSJ Goku is terrible, and Gohan vs Cell is the worst fight in the series. The Boo arc in the Manga is kinda of the reverse of this for the most part.

[sintzu]

I don't like fights to be too long like Goku and Freeza's fight in Z (Kai was also a bit long) but if it's the arc's final then I'd rather it be too long instead of it being too short.

[precita]

There aren't any really long fights in DBZ anyway outside of the obvious Goku Vs. Freeza.

All the others are only a handful of episodes, or drastically different things happen in them to keep them interesting (like the whole tail-end of the Cell games), etc.

[Lord Beerus]

To be blunt, I really don't like them. Goku vs Freeza, as much as an "epic" fight that felt, lasted way too in the manga. The only way you can really sustain a lengthy fight without it feeling repetitive is if it's like Vegeta vs Goku and the gang. Where there are multiple characters involved to keep the fight intriguing and unpredictable.

[WobbuSleuth]

I really don't like them. That's one of the reasons why I prefer DB over DBZ. DB have more balanced story, with adventures, comedy, character interections e.t.c, DBZ was all about fights. It's can sounds controversial, but I think one of the best parts of DBZ were... Fillers, in fact! (I don't mean power-up sequences kind of filler) Because they gave us what mostly can't give main story. Something besides fights!

[Cipher]

I don't mind them, but:

1) They tend to be a lot more tolerable in the manga.

2) The lengthiness isn't inherently entertaining. What lets the long fights work, at least in the manga, is Toriyama's ability to constantly introduce new wrinkles and dynamics. Very seldom is there simply fighting happening with the same status quo. Character developments and new tactics are introduced at a steady pace. There are several "chapters" (not literal chapters, but wholly different dynamics and situations) to each of the manga's long fights.

I actually love Goku vs. Freeza in the manga. Unfortunately in the anime it's one of the most boringest things ever.

[Doctor.]

I never had a problem with the length of any of the fights in the manga (at least, not in the sense of them being too long, I did think that Goku vs Majin Vegeta was too short however). Many of the fights in the anime adaptation are plagued with terrible padding, however, and they're extremely slow-paced.

[ABED]

It depends on what you consider long. It also depends on execution. Some of the fights in GT are excruciatingly long and they only last 2 or 3 episodes, whereas the fight against Piccolo is 5 or 6 and it's riveting.

[Abra kadabra]

You couldn't pay me to watch goku vs freeza again. Gohan vs cell and vegito vs buuhan are just as bad. I'd rather a fight be short and well choreographed

[ABED]

You couldn't pay me to watch goku vs freeza again. Gohan vs cell and vegito vs buuhan are just as bad. I'd rather a fight be short and well choreographed

Vegetto vs. Buu is four episodes.

[MozillaVulpix]

There's nothing wrong with a long fight, to me, as long as things actually HAPPEN. Something like Goku vs Freeza, even before he transforms, has a lot of parts where you could really say "and then they keep fighting and nothing is gained or lost for another chapter/episode". There are moments there that work, like the Kaioken x20 and the Genkidama, but in something like Everyone Else vs Freeza, the stakes and the status quo are constantly changing. Characters are getting hurt, healed, getting power-ups and revealing more transformations. Maybe you could say the transformations were often contrived, but it means you can't really skip out an episode. Something important always happens. Say, Krillin firing Kienzans at Freeza is crucial so Dende can heal Gohan, so we can find out Dende heals.

Although it can go too far in the other direction. Gohan vs Cell is barely even a fight, and more just random things happening to justify Goku sacrificing himself and Gohan getting the power to beat Cell. I still enjoy it because I like those random things that happen, but I get why people wouldn't if you judge it by the level of a 'fight'.

[Kanassa]

I dislike the length of Z fights, hell, I don't even think I'd be a fan of DBZ if I didn't watch it over the internet where I could skip through all that fluff. I feel sorry for those people who had to wait a week between each episode of those fights. That's why I've stopped watching anime like One Piece until they're done.

[ABED]

There are moments there that work, like the Kaioken x20 and the Genkidama, but in something like Everyone Else vs Freeza, the stakes and the status quo are constantly changing. Characters are getting hurt, healed, getting power-ups and revealing more transformations. Maybe you could say the transformations were often contrived, but it means you can't really skip out an episode

Maybe forms are changed, but when you look back at it, at no point does anyone truly get the leg up on Freeza. It's a lot of buying time.

My biggest issue is 1 of 2 things, lack of intensity or a lot of start and stop, 3 if you count filler cutaways to Bulma or Chichi.

[Lord Beerus]

You couldn't pay me to watch goku vs freeza again. Gohan vs cell and vegito vs buuhan are just as bad. I'd rather a fight be short and well choreographed

Vegetto vs. Buu is four episodes.

The fight itself lasts two chapters but they managed to stretch it out into last four episodes. That's insane. I love Vegetto but that fight was very dragged out to hell, given how short it was in the manga. That fight should have lasted just one episode. Two if you really want to push it, but not four.

[ABED]

You couldn't pay me to watch goku vs freeza again. Gohan vs cell and vegito vs buuhan are just as bad. I'd rather a fight be short and well choreographed

Vegetto vs. Buu is four episodes.

The fight itself lasts two chapters but they managed to stretch it out into last four episodes. That's insane. I love Vegetto but that fight was very dragged out to hell, given how short it was in the manga. That fight should have lasted just one episode. Two if you really want to push it, but not four.

They stretched the fight, but that's not a bad thing. Maybe it should've only been 3 episodes in Z, but that part of the manga blows through things way too quickly. I don't use the manga as the bar for how things should go.

[Boo Machine]

If they can keep the fight interesting (like Everyone vs Kid Buu or Everyone vs Vegeta) or other events happening during the fight interesting then I don't mind a long-ish fight. I only find it a problem if it's only the fight going on and it's a few episodes long. There are many examples in DBZ but a more recent example in Super would be the Goku vs Beerus fight. I liked the fight but it went on for a little bit too long. Could have been an episode less and I would have loved it.