Is filler always necessarily such a bad thing?

WorRAB are defined by the way people use them, not by how you'd LIKE them to use them. Whether you like it or not, the word "filler," in the very specific context of anime that are directly based off of manga (or, occasionally, another source such as a series of novels), has come to be synonymous with "non-canon." You don't have to use the word that way if it bothers you, but ranting about it isn't going to change the way that the vast majority of the anime fandom chooses to use it.

Nor is it in any way problematic or arabiguous. It's a very simple and clear-cut definition, and in fact is far LESS subjective than the traditional definition of the word.

I mean, if you look the word up in the dictionary, the only definition even CLOSE to the way you seem to want to use it is, "in journalism: material, considered of secondary importance, used to fill out a column or page." So I could rant all day long about how it's a journalistic term that shouldn't be applied to entertainment material such as anime at ALL. But it wouldn't change anything, so why make the effort?
 
Using Dragonball Z for an example, fillers that don't even try to tell a fun single episode story (i.e. Cyborg Tao's appearances, Goku and Piccolo trying to get a driver's liscense and Gohan's high school days) are decent.

Fillers that don't even try for a simple story (i.e. 22 minutes of powering up and the protagonist & antagonist taunting each other) isn't how you do filler.
 
Would you believe I actually enjoy those 22 minutes of power ups ? It's the stare downs and everyone staring in awe for so many seconRAB that gets to me. I'm a strange one.
 
All of the Fumoffu episodes save for A Goddess Comes To Japan parts 1 & 2 were based on short stories written by Gatou (and even then he later adapted aforementioned episodes into a short story because he enjoyed them so much).

So if you go by filler = no source material, then no it's not filler.
If you go by filler = no plot/character development, then maybe. It would be difficult to argue there is development considering it has almost no chronology.
 
I see someone mentioned the DBZ filler earlier, DBZ probably has the least & some of the best filler of 90's anime. I mean the Garlic JR. Saga is a continuation of a movie, so that makes it cannon, sort of...& as said the Episode with Goku & Piccalo Learning to drive is just plain fun!

& DBGT is nothing but one big Filler! Yet its still entertaining, given its the Blacksheep of the DB franchise & my least favriote, but I still prefere it over alot of FIller in modern & even other older anime.
 
How does a filler arc which was never once referenced in the original story become canon because it's a continuation of a film that is a remake of the first five episodes of the series?
 
Agreed mostly. While I will agree that some of the filler episodes were BORING (what exactly was the point of episode 89, aka, the clip show episode), there was a lot that was actually pretty entertaining, and if you sit back and enjoy the ride, the fillers as a whole isn't THAT bad.

And yes, that includes SuperS. Seriously, I'm probably one of the few SM fans that doesn't hate the fillers in that saga with every fiber of my body.
 
Just so you know, FMP Fumoffu IS canon. All of the episodes are based on short stories written by Shouji Gatou within the original novel series. There were only 2 episodes in it that weren't based on any short stories that he had written before, but even those can be considered canon because he still wrote the scripts for them, so technically, even those 2 episodes were still based off of the original author's writing.

As far as FMP filler goes, TSR is actually the season, surprisingly enough, that had the most filler in the entire series (going by the definition that filler is anime-only material that is not based off of the original source material). The first 2 episodes of TSR were both actually filler episodes, and a couple of episodes in the middle were also filler episodes, being that they covered events which did not take place in the original novels. That said, they are damn good fillers, and another good example of how to handle filler material properly. Of course, they can also be considered to be canon filler episodes, as well, since once again, Shouji Gatou had a hand in writing the scripts for most of the TSR episodes, himself, including some (or maybe even all) of its filler episodes.
 
I prefer episodic filler to arc filler. With a couple episodic fillers followed by the actual story (like which was done with Rurouni Kenshin early on) are good because with time constraints, more work is put into it and if it's bad filler, you will only have suffer for one, two, maybe three weeks.

Arc filler that doesn't expand on single pages in manga, or isn't consulted by the original creator is awful more often than isn't. It's only worse if another filler arc follows right after. The only exception of arc filler that is good but didn't go by the book/creator is the DBZ Otherworld Tournament.

Edit: And the Garlic Jr Saga if you never seen the first DBZ movie. If you have, than Garlic is one of the worst.
 
I liked it too, but when I saw Movie 1 years later, my question became why they couldn't create a new villain, same story; How could you write an immortal into the story, and just have him defeated the exact same stupid way like the movie?
 
Garlic Jr.--despite being voiced by the awesome Shigeru Chiba--is still a pretty boring arc. The initial film had a great score, but despite some attempt at expanding on the history of Earth's goRAB...it was still a pretty boring arc. I don't remeraber it much myself (haven't watched it in...a decade almost?) but the fact that Garlic came back and gave Piccolo the trouble he did just...didn't really work for me. I hear complaints about the terrible animation, so I suspect that would stand to prevent me from recalling any good fights. Piccolo's battle power was in the millions and Gohan probably nearly one million, the fights should have been a bit more...recallable.

I grew up watching the Afterlife Tournament and early Boo arcs in Japanese on the International Channel, so I certainly hold some nostalgia for those episodes, but looking back, I just don't think I can excuse SSj Gok
 
When they drag on and on and contribute nothing to the story and make the characters go OOC, then yes, that is when it is bad and a problem.

There are times when Fillers don't blend into what the original story was, and you can tell. Especially when the Episode enRAB on a serious note, then all of a sudden it's a week later, and everything that happened is completely forgotten by the main characters. There is comedy or focus on characters that never appeared in the original source or appear later.

Basically what Juu-kuchi put.
Some of them are quite good, some are just terrible and not worth mentioning.


If a filler can keep with the how the original was and even show us characters that never got enough screen time in the Original, then it doesn't bother me. But when they go so off track that it seems like a completely different show, then it becomes annoying.
 
I always felt that was kind of cheap. I could understand Pikkon being able to knock down Freiza but S. Perfect Cell. And then Goku who wasn't as strong as S. Perfect Cell at the time was able to beat Pikkon. I wanted to call BS once I thought it through but all in all the saga kept me entertained and I didn't want to make a huge deal over it.
 
Is filler always necessarily such a bad thing?

It depenRAB on the type of show. Episodic and sit-com style shows like Case Closed and Ranma 1/2 can be 90% filler and still be entertaining. But when shows with central plotlines (like Inuyasha and One Piece) delve into whole seasons consisting of nothing but "friend and/or enemy of the day" episodes and filler arcs that don't really go anywhere, then that can ruin the show. Having a pointless episode now and then is fine. But I really don't want to slog through hundreRAB of pointless episodes just to find out if Naraku ever dies or whatever.
 
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