Which are worse fillers or recaps?

[EzikialRage]

From what I understand the most basic definition of fillers are episodes that are not related to the story line in the manga that the anime is based on.

The most basic definition of recaps are episodes that are mostly made of clips of other episodes that have been formed into a episode. Usually recaps are shown as a season or series recap or flashback/do you remember when episode.

I have no problem with fillers since I do not read mangas and the fact that over here in the US a lot of comics and shows get retconned all the time,especially if the make a tv show or movie based on a comic book or a movie based on a tv show or cartoon. I do however hate recaps/flashback episodes. It is basically reruns that have been chopped up and marketed as a new episode. The worst case scenario I can think of was Shuffle Memories where all the episodes except for episode 12,that might as well been labeled episode 25 or Shuffle OVA.

 

[Sakunyuusha]

I think it really does depend on the quality.

Worst: shitty fillers
2nd: shitty recaps
3rd: recaps
4th (Best): fillers

If the filler is "good filler," then I don't mind it at all. Good filler tends to be only possible for certain kinds of anime. Slice-of-life animes are great picks: for example, Azumanga Daioh could be said to be nothing but filler! (Where is the "main story" in AzuDai?) Or how about Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody for Suzumiya Haruhi Season 2?

But when the filler is "bad filler," like Naruto's filler in between the epic fight every fan knows what I'm talking about and the beginning of Shippuuden, then it's undoubtedly the worst of the bunch. Beast-men? Hoshikage? Puke. The only good part of this trainwreck was seeing Hinata learn a really cool move that was uniquely her own.

"Good recaps" are recap episodes which do the recapping in a way that actually feels like you're watching a new episode and which actually *do* contain some fun, new material, usually only of the omake-grade but still worth seeing if you're a big fan. A good example here would be episodes 9, 18, and 27 of the anime Chobits. The first recap episode was done in a way involving Sumomo and (iirc) Shinbo. The second was Sumomo and Kotoko and was quite humorous. The third, Episode 27, was a really impressive recap episode: it recapped all the previous episodes but did so in a way that felt really, really new.

Finally, we've got "bad recaps." These are the ones which shamelessly have one of the main characters narrating at you what you're looking at onscreen. It's usually done as though the main character is daydreaming or writing in a diary by him or herself. It also feels very stilted, with any attempts at flow-of-consciousness being entirely derailed by the rigid progression of one episode to the next.

 

[elgringo14]

A filler episode is, by definition, an episode in which the story was created especially for the anime adaptation, and not existing in the source material (manga, novel, game, etc).

So I guess, when you say Azumanga Daioh is made of nothing but filler, it's not really true, since the 4-panel manga is just made of random gags. There is not a "main story" as far as I know.

For Naruto I agree, something like 90 episode filler is a record in itself.

Does Haruhi has an original story (made by the animation studio I mean) ? If so the term filler is not adequate, I would say "side story" episode...

 

[koalatek]

Hmmm. My definition of filler is slightly different. It's anything used to pad out a season or artificially extend a series' run. So recaps are filler in my book. And regardless of whether or not all of these side stories are actually in the manga, Bleach is getting tiresome for not just finishing off the Aizen arc and instead we've been interrupted four? times. This isn't even counting the "every fight lasts three episodes" approach they've had lately.

 

[Sakunyuusha]

A filler episode is, by definition, an episode in which the story was created especially for the anime adaptation, and not existing in the source material (manga, novel, game, etc).

I disagree. But I might be technically wrong, and may be pushing my own belief of what the word "filler" means.

Filler to me is "content which is almost entirely a side-quest, so much so that neglecting to watch it would have minimal or no impact on the viewer's overall experience."

I would say that the episodes in Naruto are both filler and custom-made for television but that there are other episodes which may be adapted from manga or book source material and are still fillers. For example ...

Love Hina: when they go to the island in the South Pacific and meet Shinobu's doppelganger, that was shameless filler, and it's in both the comics and the TV show. If we never saw Nyamo (that was her name, right?) again, then the entire story arc would have had literally zero impact on the final four books of the manga (or the three episodes of Love Hina Again).

Hikaru no Go: they dedicate entire episodes to character or plot developments which would normally take only 5 minutes in most television programs. For example, an entire episode is used to show Hikaru discovering Internet Go and then going to a net café and making an account on one of the Internet Go clients for Sai to play on. It's important to the plot, yes, but it didn't require 22 minutes to tell. It required maybe only 10% of that time. :\ But I'm not complaining about the episode or the series, mind you! Remember what I said: "bad filler is the worst, but good filler is the best." HnG has a lot of filler in it but it doesn't really feel like filler when you're watching it.

Rozen Maiden: one of the best filler episodes I've ever seen, and also a fan favorite, is Season 1's "The Stairs" in which Jun and Hina Ichigo wage war against Suisei Seki and a reluctant Shinku. This is in the manga, but it has zero impact both on the plot of the anime and on the plot of the manga. It's just a fun, fluffy chapter that helps to develop Hina's and Suisei Seki's characters in a light-hearted way. To you, that may exonerate this from being filler. But to me, it's still filler. I could say the exact same thing about Naruto's filler, too: "hey, it helps viewers to get a better sense of who Naruto is and what he believes in!" Right? Citing character development, unless it is *major* character development, does not convince me it's not filler. :\ If a character loses a limb and this is seen in later episodes, okay. If they lose a limb and it grows back but their trauma is seen in later episodes, okay. But if they lose a limb, it grows back, and they never ever ever ever EVER talk about it again nor do they seem to be changed from that gruesome experience, then I'd say it's filler -- whether or not it was in the manga. Because it had no ultimate impact. Ultimately it did not matter whether it was there or not, and for that reason, it's filler.

 

[elgringo14]

Hmm, I know how you like long discussions, Sakunyuusha :secret:

Let's say there is anime filler, manga filler, and "manga to anime" filler.
For me a true filler is the third category.
Developing an unsignificant event in a manga to a full anime episode IS filling.

A major feature of real filler is that the characters don't behave like normally, or things that don't happen normally suddenly can happen, or a major twist happens to characters that is magically solved at the end of the filler. And as you said, filler characters don't (cannot) show up in the normal story.

"content which is almost entirely a side-quest, so much so that neglecting to watch it would have minimal or no impact on the viewer's overall experience."

So if a series doesn't have a main story or is not evolving much, it's a filler series ?

 

[Sakunyuusha]

I would say so. :goodboy: I actually sold AzuDai for this very reason.

To put it to you another way, Scooby Doo and Seinfeld are also "filler series." lol They don't have much in the line of significant continuity. Oh yes, sure, there's SOME continuity because there is SOME character development (moreso in Seinfeld than in Scooby Doo, lmao), but still: you could watch Episode No.802, followed by 307, followed by 905 and not be able to tell their chronological order apart.

A cartoon show like the 1980s/early 90s TMNT was not a filler series but instead was "a cartoon with tons of filler." I'd say 30% or so of the episodes had to do with "the main story," unlike Scooby Doo which has no main story XD.

A cartoon show like Avatar: the Last Airbender has almost zero filler. Every single episode matters. And you have to watch every single episode in order. Watching them out of order's a big no-no.

[/my view, not necessarily the correct view ^_^; ]

 

[cattz]

Bad fillers are the worst. Some of the worst story comes from them, and they usually destroy every bit of characters involved with them.

People point out the cake making one from bleach was pretty bad, but someone also pointed out naruto 192 to me as the worst filler ever and I have to freaking agree.

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=4HVDK4LF

watch it for yourself, it really is the worst most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

It showcases just how freaking moronic and miserable they are..

Recaps are annoying, but they don't make the show a hundred times worse like fillers.

 

[ShanksYYZ]

I don't watch Wolf's Rain, but I'm glad I don't becuase apparently it was 4 recap episodes back to back.

Imagine being a Japanese fan and turning on the TV every week for recap

 

[rush808]

I think it really does depend on the quality.

Worst: shitty fillers
2nd: shitty recaps
3rd: recaps
4th (Best): fillers

If the filler is "good filler," then I don't mind it at all. Good filler tends to be only possible for certain kinds of anime. Slice-of-life animes are great picks: for example, Azumanga Daioh could be said to be nothing but filler! (Where is the "main story" in AzuDai?) Or how about Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody for Suzumiya Haruhi Season 2?

But when the filler is "bad filler," like Naruto's filler in between the epic fight every fan knows what I'm talking about and the beginning of Shippuuden, then it's undoubtedly the worst of the bunch. Beast-men? Hoshikage? Puke. The only good part of this trainwreck was seeing Hinata learn a really cool move that was uniquely her own.

"Good recaps" are recap episodes which do the recapping in a way that actually feels like you're watching a new episode and which actually *do* contain some fun, new material, usually only of the omake-grade but still worth seeing if you're a big fan. A good example here would be episodes 9, 18, and 27 of the anime Chobits. The first recap episode was done in a way involving Sumomo and (iirc) Shinbo. The second was Sumomo and Kotoko and was quite humorous. The third, Episode 27, was a really impressive recap episode: it recapped all the previous episodes but did so in a way that felt really, really new.

Finally, we've got "bad recaps." These are the ones which shamelessly have one of the main characters narrating at you what you're looking at onscreen. It's usually done as though the main character is daydreaming or writing in a diary by him or herself. It also feels very stilted, with any attempts at flow-of-consciousness being entirely derailed by the rigid progression of one episode to the next.

Rush concurs..

 

[Groper_love]

Filler = Sub-plot?

I really do not want to mention this, but, Endless Eight anyone?