Forum - View topicAnswerman - Who Writes Anime Filler Episodes?
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TheSleepyMonkey
Posts: 953 |
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This is definetily the kind of thing people need to see, as often times I see people just blaming one person in particular for this kind of thing. For example, I often see people shitting on Shuhei Morita for what happened to Tokyo Ghoul Root A, even though he already explained what happened in a Reddit AMA. [/url]https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/88fddm/im_shuhei_morita_the_director_of_anime_series/[url]
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4618 |
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One thing that has always bothered me somewhat is that the term "filler" is used pretty broadly. It gets applied to the the odd episode or two in a long-running series, the season-long situations (ex: Bleach) and anime where it goes in a different direction instead of filling the time slot until there is more material to adapt (ex: FMA 2003).
To me, "filler" means it's intended primarily to fill a time slot, rather than a catch-all term to apply to anything that doesn't follow the source material. In the Tokyo Ghoul example referenced above, it sounds like they had input for the creator to handle things a certain way. From what I have read about Fullmetal Alchemist, they were given the go ahead to create their own story. People are certainly free to like/dislike, compare, etc. but it seems like many don't know that an anime isn't likely to go and do its own thing without some measure of approval from the creator, and the "filler" moniker then gets equated with being a negative. Some of that, though, I think comes down to production committees and how broadcasts are handled. Ordering more episodes than there is material to use leads to having to decide what to do with the rest. The use it or lose it approach to broadcast times also means sticking something in there ends up happening, even if the creatives would prefer to pick it up later. |
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varmintx
 Posts: 1233 Location: Covington, KY |
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How did I miss this column coming back for months now?
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zztop
Posts: 650 |
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I recall hearing that the Black and White story was not well-received by some viewers, who thought it an awkward addition for the sole purpose of connecting the source material's anthological chapters. Ironically, I also heard that viewers also disliked S2's strategy of following the manga as is because everything felt too disconnected with no proper narrative link between them. |
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 650 |
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I liked the Black and White storyline a lot. It tied the world together and created a really nice thematic resonance and sense of growth for Leonardo. He's a sweet kid, and I really enjoyed seeing his relationship with white grow. I thought the second season was much weaker, in part because the direction was much more pedestrian, but because it lacked that feeling of continuity and growth. I was actively annoyed at the finale, which tried to use a bunch of footage from the anime-original season one ending to show how much Leonardo had grown since coming to Hellsalem's Lot, but then completely failed to build on that growth itself. Also I wrote the article that Kim cites for that and wow there's a lot of sites that just plagiarize from ANN. |
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Haterater
 Posts: 1728 |
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Filler can be hard to be consistent. Nice to know of the behind the scenes stuff. I admit, can get heated with some filler but some do try, but hard to be consistently good across the board.
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Sekaro
Posts: 390 |
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Ughhh... I'm gonna feel really bad about bringing this up after trying my hardest to forget about it for the longest time but I do wanna know what in the world happened to The Promised Neverland S2 in the context of this question. The series just completely fell apart after the 2nd episode & got progressively worse all the way to the end. Also, I vaguely remember reading an article that the original author wasn't even included in the credits for the final episode but have no way of confirming its validity.
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Juno016
 Posts: 2420 |
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I feel like it is used pretty broadly is because it applies pretty broadly. I can see utility in highlighting non-manga-canon episodes to avoid for a long series like Detective Conan, even if those episodes have continuity with one-another or have as little impact on the main story as even some manga-canon cases. Likewise, you can't refer to manga-canon episodes for a show like Pokemon, so "filler" understandably changes to refer only to plot/character-relevant content. Ultimately, neither usage is wrong. If there's any confusion, simply clarify which usage you were intending to use, or ask the person what they meant. |
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Erufailon4
Posts: 197 Location: Finland |
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Original manga writer Kaiu Shirai was credited for series composition together with Toshiya Ono for the first 9 episodes - after that, Shirai's credit disappeared and only Ono's remained. (However, Shirai and Posuka Demizu were credited for original work in every episode.) TPN S2's writer credits are a bit of a mess in general. Ono only wrote the first 4 episodes, ep 5 was co-written by Seiko Takagi and "Nanao", and eps 5-9 by just "Nanao". Episodes 10-11 have no scriptwriter credit whatsoever. Whoever wrote those last episodes was clearly not proud of their work. I doubt we'll ever know exactly what happened behind the scenes, but my guess is some combination of executive meddling and pandemic-caused production trouble |
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Rob19ny
Posts: 1976 |
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And yet both adaptations of Kazuki Takahashi's amazing Yugioh manga were intentionally altered so bad that the original series ended up having 3 different canons (manga, Toei, Gallop) because they did not care to stick to Takahashi's vision for their own reasons. The only excuse that was viable was TV regulations, but if you know the differences, you know it was a staff decision. Out of both adaptations, only the Toei anime sticks to the theme of the manga/title (Yugi Ou means Game King) by playing many different games. Duel Monsters either removed every non-card game battle (Eg: Dice in Cup & Four Aces) or forced the card game into it (Eg: DDD arc & Step Johnny episode). And that's before I mention the removal of important story events related to each character and also their characterization plus manga duels being altered which made the moves made not make sense in the anime. Ever wondered why Yami Yugi stopped using the powers of the puzzle after Duelist Kingdom? It is literally explained in the final chapter of DK, but it was left out of the anime because they altered the aftermath of his battle with Pegasus, which had important story elements (This later connects to Yami Yugi's meeting with Ishizu when he asks her a certain hostile question). And because it was left out of the anime, Shin Yoshida, who was involved during the DK arc episodes and finally was in charge of Doma filler arc, added story elements that contradicted Yami Yugi's character in the manga. From the Japanese perspective of reading Yugioh weekly then later watching this filler arc, the natural response to what Yoshida did was "What the heck? That goes against his character development from the end of DK." Because it was left out of the anime, Yoshida could get away with it. But it doesn't change the fact that Yoshida and the staff had to read the source material before deciding what to keep or leave out. Considering that Doma arc had final arc manga scenes in it from the start of its 1st episode to later in the arc, this is evidence that they did review the source material. As for the final arc in the anime, the manga was done when it started. It was so far ahead that there was no reason to alter anything. Yet, aside from the Sugoroku flashback episode to start the arc, they altered a majority of unprovoked. Shin Yoshida was in charge of this arc. This was the most butchered manga arc in the anime. Now, anime only viewers in Japan could at least be educated by manga readers on the changes, but for the non-Asian viewers at the time who did not read manga (even though the Yugioh manga was being released), the things that were added to this final arc had irreversible effects for the non-Asian fanbase that would last to this day. Unfortunately, Yugioh is one of those series that a majority of non-Asian fans try their hardest not to read no matter how old. Lastly, as I stated before, both adaptations were altered so badly that there were 3 different canons of original series. For the 20th anniversary of manga in 2016, Takahashi made Transcend Game and The Dark Side of Dimensions. Takahashi chose to make them only sequels to his manga obviously he's a manga-ka and its a manga anniversary, but because the anime did not honor his work/vision that it could not be advertised as a sequel to the anime in Japan. They may have remastered Duel Monsters and had a recap special before the movie released using DM anime scenes, but it had no connection to the movie. 4K Media had to alter the movies description and state it was a sequel to DM for overseas viewers and the funny thing is that they kept the dialogue/scenes in the English dub that contradicted the events in the anime. Unfortunate that the 25th manga anniversary passed and there was no remake anime announcement, especially when Shueisha allowed Takahashi to make a manga canon sequel for the 20th manga anniversary. Whatever agenda the 1st 2 adaptations had is over. The series relies on newer anime for its agenda. There's no reason 2 Yugioh anime targeting 2 different audiences can't co-exist for a couple years. Yugioh manga sold 40 million and has worldwide money making power. Series like Shaman King that sold less and has less brand power than Yugioh got a remake. It's really unfair. Takahashi's manga deserves a proper adaptation aired at midnight. PS: Shout out to the Naruto staff for making 84 episodes of straight filler (136 to 220; some manga scenes are in 141-142, but the majority of each episode is filler) because they couldn't go on hiatus. I would have went crazy from that. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
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Fluwm
 Posts: 1014 |
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I can't say I watch much shounen battle anime any more, but I've gotta ask -- is filler really still a thing? My understanding was that most adaptations either wind up condensing the material (resulting in cutting content rather than adding it) and/or produced in shorter spurts in order to avoid running out of material to adapt.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4788 |
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Love seeing One Piece's G-8 arc get a shout-out. It's the filler arc that's so good it feels like canon content...and then the canon arc that follows feels like it's filler.
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MagicPolly
 Posts: 1623 |
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I feel like the only example these days is Boruto, which famously is almost entirely filler due to the manga being monthly so there's almost nothing to adapt while running the anime constantly |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5146 |
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And let's not forget the Anime-only Ending™ 
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