This New Brand of Anime Filler. (Mostly a long JJK/MAPPA rant)
(This isn't about the new episode btw, and to preface, I actually really like the adaption overall and don't hate MAPPA or anything. pls read before throwing out a downvote. Also won't spoil anything pass where the anime's at.)
So, to start, the word "filler" refers to stuff in the anime that's not in the manga. This is important, because a lot of people seem to think "filler" means "boring" or "not important." Alot of people automatically assume the baseball episode in jjk s1 is filler for example, but it's absolutely not, that's chapter 54 in the manga. People think this because filler episodes or plots in older stuff like Naruto absolutely were boring and unrelated to the canon manga stuff, and **they stayed separate usually.**
This brings me to this "new" kind of filler where a fight scene that's in the manga gets new anime original scenes that make the fight longer or change the choreography. Sometimes this is just to make it longer so it fits into the required episode length, and other times it's for a different art direction. This usually isn't too oppressive, but MAPPA has been taking this to a new level in JJK with imo mixed results. Before I go into s2 stuff, I'll show a change they made in the first episode of this new season.
https://preview.redd.it/vmvstbrattdg1.jpg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9a78d517542b6b43331fc342858e7502aeab461
https://preview.redd.it/4pcpknwettdg1.jpg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05c684fb2011e269da594d841db5e40c3d47fd67
https://preview.redd.it/buowwqrfttdg1.jpg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=32d571552ba06d21efee380ac38dc7af8591c56b
https://preview.redd.it/3lxidp8gttdg1.jpg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e468108450467e0475ab759b879547cc590f996
Anyone who's seen the first episode knows they changed this scene so it was just Yuta throwing Yuji out of the theater. They changed it so that they could start the episode *in medias res* with Yuta and Yuji in front of a cool background, which never happens in the manga. I find this to be noteworthy because it was *their personal choice* to change the choreography. Another original thing is that hilarious hair slick back shot when Naoya's beating the breaks off Choso which gets a big thumbs up from me. I'm not completely against this, but I *know* some people would've love to see those two throwing cars at eachother, and just want to give a concrete example of how they're choosing to adapt the manga. In Hidden Inventory, the first few episodes of season 2, most fights are very faithful to the manga with no added filler, but, the second season doesn't continue this into the episodes that follow. Now, let's talk about the Shibuya Incident.
I think there's a good 25 minutes of anime original filler fighting in the Shibuya Incident episodes *at least*, and I'll be fair and say some of it's genuinely amazing and improves on the manga. My 2 favorite upgrades are Yuji vs Choso's fight in the bathroom and the Sukuna vs Jogo fight. They both are expanded upon with original choreography. But why do these work beyond just "cool?" For me, I think both are only about 2-3 minutes longer, so the pacing is preserved and the original choreography in Yuji vs Choso tells a coherent story. The script says more than just "they fight." Megumi's rabbits throwing hands with Toji's an amazing addition, and there's a few individual original scenes I think are really cool.
Now, to the stuff I take issue with. Sukuna vs Mahoraga is one of the main things I didn't like, mainly because it's 10 minutes longer than in the manga. It also changes the plot in weird, unnecessary ways. Mahoraga gets hit by less than a dozen of Sukuna's slashes in the manga, and has already adapted to the point that Malevolent Shrine isn't enough to get the job done. Sukuna also immediately figures his ability out. Compare this to the anime where he gets hit like a million times before adapting, and Sukuna takes a half episode to catch on to his ability. Mahoraga also grows to the size of like a building, (not something he can do in the manga) and regenerates after being completely disintegrated by the initial activation of Malevolent Shrine (not something he can do in the manga). The confusing thing about the extension of this fight is that we have no emotional connection to Mahoraga, and we know Sukuna's going to defeat him because if he doesn't, Megumi dies. There's no real stakes, so why make this fight so excessively long? I encourage everyone read chapter 118-119 to see how short and succinct this fight is, and to understand how long it takes for Mahoraga to adapt because it's extremely important when he next shows up to know it only takes 3 or 4 hits before he's immune. This isn't "harmless" filler, it straight up changes how strong Mahoraga's ability is.
Mahito vs Yuji 2 is the next place where we get a *whole* lotta filler stuff. People probably just think this is all me nitpicking, but here's a youtube vid with 800k views where, in an anime original scene, Todo breaks reality to clap. People take note when the anime introduces mistakes.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVynCBwZGUY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVynCBwZGUY)
Here's another example. A huge majority of that one Todo Black Flash scene is anime original and it's really cool, but Todo can't damage Mahito so it's not very important from a plot standpoint. In the manga it's pretty pedestrian for a reason, but the anime wanted a cool scene, so they made it look like One for All activating and got people going crazy for practically nothing.
https://preview.redd.it/hp3omb3u0udg1.png?width=734&format=png&auto=webp&s=e28a116be5ad0b11d0e2478ff1a8c2e5781cc332
That scene of Todo imagining himself and his idol defeating Mahito after he loses his hand and get's black flashed by Mahito completely interrupts an otherwise tense scene. In the manga, he get's his hand removed, black flashed, Mahitos running at him with Idle Transfiguration back online, the pendant's string is fraying, Yuji's running but not going to get there in time, it's hopeless, than Todo claps with Mahito's hand and Yuji smashes Mahito with a black flash back! In the anime, the pacing is circumcised by adding this comedy scene into the middle.
Here's Yuji walking down Mahito in the manga.
https://preview.redd.it/utbm4bk02udg1.png?width=491&format=png&auto=webp&s=08c36a03db7b880bbb57c75e0178799dcfa0919e
huh? Kinda short right? That's cause that's practically it. Kenjaku shows up immediately after this and Yuji ain't waiting he's chasing Mahito down. In the anime this scene is like 2 minutes long and Yuji is *slowly walking* towards Mahito, which gives Kenjaku enough time to show up. The anime makes it look like Yuji was playing with his food. Even worse, Special Grade Curse Mahito somehow breaks his ankle (???) while running away. It's all so strange and unnecessary to do this.
JJK Zero did some of this too, but to a much more *reasonable* degree. Gojo can rip Disaster Curse arm's off like it's nothing but a 20 piece combo and some fries on Miguel doesn't end the fight? Gojo states he's in a hurry and his students are being killed by Geto at the school, but he doesn't really seem to be *that* urgent in the anime because they wanted to make the fight longer. Yuta also lands an anime original black flash on Geto's face, which is a cool addition that I liked. Nanami's 5 black flashes was cool too.
The Reze arc has a little bit, where Bomb's strong enough to mess Denji up with a single direct hit, but lands like 20 in a row in that anime original building scene. Bomb also cracks Denji's chainsaw by kicking a rock at it? This is genuinely just nitpicking though that movies perfect.
Other anime do this too. Demon Slayer often adds anime original fighting, which is usually more good then bad imo. Most of that last section of Uzui vs Gyuutaro is anime original, and amazing. 80% of the movement in the first Hinokami Kagura scene in Tanjiro vs Rui is anime original and stunning. But even this series can have some anime original scenes that are stinkers. S3 episode 4 has Tanjiro getting severly sliced up with blood flying everywhere, and the series never brings any of those injuries up again because they were anime original and just there to pad the length of the episode.
In conclusion, this trend of adding anime original fight choreography *can* be great in some situations, but I do think MAPPA atleast has been getting a bit out of hand with it, to the point where I'd say they're not being completely faithful to the manga. There were a bunch of anime original scenes in episode one of Yuji fighting more curses than he did in the manga, and yeah, they were cool, but why are these scenes here? For what purpose other than "it's cool?" I understand that viewers love seeing animators flex and stuff, but the best scenes tend to be the ones they rip from the manga straight. Aki vs Samurai Sword, Gojo vs Toji 1 & 2, most of the Bomb vs Chainsaw fight are good because the animators obeyed the source material, instead of thinking they could do better. I *do* like the adaptations MAPPA's been putting out, but I think they're better off being faithful to the source material, and that's all.
So, to start, the word "filler" refers to stuff in the anime that's not in the manga. This is important, because a lot of people seem to think "filler" means "boring" or "not important." Alot of people automatically assume the baseball episode in jjk s1 is filler for example, but it's absolutely not, that's chapter 54 in the manga. People think this because filler episodes or plots in older stuff like Naruto absolutely were boring and unrelated to the canon manga stuff, and **they stayed separate usually.**
This brings me to this "new" kind of filler where a fight scene that's in the manga gets new anime original scenes that make the fight longer or change the choreography. Sometimes this is just to make it longer so it fits into the required episode length, and other times it's for a different art direction. This usually isn't too oppressive, but MAPPA has been taking this to a new level in JJK with imo mixed results. Before I go into s2 stuff, I'll show a change they made in the first episode of this new season.
https://preview.redd.it/vmvstbrattdg1.jpg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9a78d517542b6b43331fc342858e7502aeab461
https://preview.redd.it/4pcpknwettdg1.jpg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05c684fb2011e269da594d841db5e40c3d47fd67
https://preview.redd.it/buowwqrfttdg1.jpg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=32d571552ba06d21efee380ac38dc7af8591c56b
https://preview.redd.it/3lxidp8gttdg1.jpg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e468108450467e0475ab759b879547cc590f996
Anyone who's seen the first episode knows they changed this scene so it was just Yuta throwing Yuji out of the theater. They changed it so that they could start the episode *in medias res* with Yuta and Yuji in front of a cool background, which never happens in the manga. I find this to be noteworthy because it was *their personal choice* to change the choreography. Another original thing is that hilarious hair slick back shot when Naoya's beating the breaks off Choso which gets a big thumbs up from me. I'm not completely against this, but I *know* some people would've love to see those two throwing cars at eachother, and just want to give a concrete example of how they're choosing to adapt the manga. In Hidden Inventory, the first few episodes of season 2, most fights are very faithful to the manga with no added filler, but, the second season doesn't continue this into the episodes that follow. Now, let's talk about the Shibuya Incident.
I think there's a good 25 minutes of anime original filler fighting in the Shibuya Incident episodes *at least*, and I'll be fair and say some of it's genuinely amazing and improves on the manga. My 2 favorite upgrades are Yuji vs Choso's fight in the bathroom and the Sukuna vs Jogo fight. They both are expanded upon with original choreography. But why do these work beyond just "cool?" For me, I think both are only about 2-3 minutes longer, so the pacing is preserved and the original choreography in Yuji vs Choso tells a coherent story. The script says more than just "they fight." Megumi's rabbits throwing hands with Toji's an amazing addition, and there's a few individual original scenes I think are really cool.
Now, to the stuff I take issue with. Sukuna vs Mahoraga is one of the main things I didn't like, mainly because it's 10 minutes longer than in the manga. It also changes the plot in weird, unnecessary ways. Mahoraga gets hit by less than a dozen of Sukuna's slashes in the manga, and has already adapted to the point that Malevolent Shrine isn't enough to get the job done. Sukuna also immediately figures his ability out. Compare this to the anime where he gets hit like a million times before adapting, and Sukuna takes a half episode to catch on to his ability. Mahoraga also grows to the size of like a building, (not something he can do in the manga) and regenerates after being completely disintegrated by the initial activation of Malevolent Shrine (not something he can do in the manga). The confusing thing about the extension of this fight is that we have no emotional connection to Mahoraga, and we know Sukuna's going to defeat him because if he doesn't, Megumi dies. There's no real stakes, so why make this fight so excessively long? I encourage everyone read chapter 118-119 to see how short and succinct this fight is, and to understand how long it takes for Mahoraga to adapt because it's extremely important when he next shows up to know it only takes 3 or 4 hits before he's immune. This isn't "harmless" filler, it straight up changes how strong Mahoraga's ability is.
Mahito vs Yuji 2 is the next place where we get a *whole* lotta filler stuff. People probably just think this is all me nitpicking, but here's a youtube vid with 800k views where, in an anime original scene, Todo breaks reality to clap. People take note when the anime introduces mistakes.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVynCBwZGUY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVynCBwZGUY)
Here's another example. A huge majority of that one Todo Black Flash scene is anime original and it's really cool, but Todo can't damage Mahito so it's not very important from a plot standpoint. In the manga it's pretty pedestrian for a reason, but the anime wanted a cool scene, so they made it look like One for All activating and got people going crazy for practically nothing.
https://preview.redd.it/hp3omb3u0udg1.png?width=734&format=png&auto=webp&s=e28a116be5ad0b11d0e2478ff1a8c2e5781cc332
That scene of Todo imagining himself and his idol defeating Mahito after he loses his hand and get's black flashed by Mahito completely interrupts an otherwise tense scene. In the manga, he get's his hand removed, black flashed, Mahitos running at him with Idle Transfiguration back online, the pendant's string is fraying, Yuji's running but not going to get there in time, it's hopeless, than Todo claps with Mahito's hand and Yuji smashes Mahito with a black flash back! In the anime, the pacing is circumcised by adding this comedy scene into the middle.
Here's Yuji walking down Mahito in the manga.
https://preview.redd.it/utbm4bk02udg1.png?width=491&format=png&auto=webp&s=08c36a03db7b880bbb57c75e0178799dcfa0919e
huh? Kinda short right? That's cause that's practically it. Kenjaku shows up immediately after this and Yuji ain't waiting he's chasing Mahito down. In the anime this scene is like 2 minutes long and Yuji is *slowly walking* towards Mahito, which gives Kenjaku enough time to show up. The anime makes it look like Yuji was playing with his food. Even worse, Special Grade Curse Mahito somehow breaks his ankle (???) while running away. It's all so strange and unnecessary to do this.
JJK Zero did some of this too, but to a much more *reasonable* degree. Gojo can rip Disaster Curse arm's off like it's nothing but a 20 piece combo and some fries on Miguel doesn't end the fight? Gojo states he's in a hurry and his students are being killed by Geto at the school, but he doesn't really seem to be *that* urgent in the anime because they wanted to make the fight longer. Yuta also lands an anime original black flash on Geto's face, which is a cool addition that I liked. Nanami's 5 black flashes was cool too.
The Reze arc has a little bit, where Bomb's strong enough to mess Denji up with a single direct hit, but lands like 20 in a row in that anime original building scene. Bomb also cracks Denji's chainsaw by kicking a rock at it? This is genuinely just nitpicking though that movies perfect.
Other anime do this too. Demon Slayer often adds anime original fighting, which is usually more good then bad imo. Most of that last section of Uzui vs Gyuutaro is anime original, and amazing. 80% of the movement in the first Hinokami Kagura scene in Tanjiro vs Rui is anime original and stunning. But even this series can have some anime original scenes that are stinkers. S3 episode 4 has Tanjiro getting severly sliced up with blood flying everywhere, and the series never brings any of those injuries up again because they were anime original and just there to pad the length of the episode.
In conclusion, this trend of adding anime original fight choreography *can* be great in some situations, but I do think MAPPA atleast has been getting a bit out of hand with it, to the point where I'd say they're not being completely faithful to the manga. There were a bunch of anime original scenes in episode one of Yuji fighting more curses than he did in the manga, and yeah, they were cool, but why are these scenes here? For what purpose other than "it's cool?" I understand that viewers love seeing animators flex and stuff, but the best scenes tend to be the ones they rip from the manga straight. Aki vs Samurai Sword, Gojo vs Toji 1 & 2, most of the Bomb vs Chainsaw fight are good because the animators obeyed the source material, instead of thinking they could do better. I *do* like the adaptations MAPPA's been putting out, but I think they're better off being faithful to the source material, and that's all.
Commentaires
I feel that Mappa grabs an anime that relies purely on action, and then add more choreography, then it becomes widely successful.
Money talks. Many people just want action and don't care for much else.
I might watch the newest season since I did like both the movie character and the clap/teleport comic relief guy (I don't give a flying shit about any of the other characters).
I saw season 1.
I'm probably going to procrastinate a decade before I reach season 2.
And I am ONLY NOW binging Golden Kamuy.
Btw, I highly recommend Golden Kamuy and Dogsred. I love the comic relief. Binging both currently. They're so silly, oscillating between hard boiled monsters and acting all effeminate. (same mangaka)
Not in a rush, but I'll get to season 2.
I'm falling in love with both Rou and the coach. The comic relief is so derpy.
...
Reading and watching these has been a huge mistake, I am now an empty shell. I must be tired.
I don’t think that’s quite true but even if it is, why does it matter? There’s no hard written rule that an anime needs to be completely faithful to the source material.
I think most manga fans would prefer a direct adaptation and I think it's fair to say that that should be the main audience.
The CSM anime actually benefits from ***extending*** its fight scenes. Fujimoto draws action scenes in a way that's almost the **complete antithesis** of JJK's meticulous, moment-to-moment hand-to-hand combat that IMO suffice to be adapted 1-to-1 animated.
No, A lot of CSM fights are conveyed through a single page of sudden violence that reads more like a still image or a painting. If those moments were adapted 1-to-1, most fights would be over in like 5 seconds tops and feel incredibly abrupt in animation.
Ironically, one of the few things S1 followed too closely from the manga was how quick and anticlimactic the fights are, and that approach did not translate well to an animated format.
S1's real issue w/ the JP fanbase was that its overall tone failed to capture the manga's raw batshit energy. Meanwhile the Reze movie is absolutely beloved because while it also took creative liberties with the source material, it does so in a way that elevates and enhances the source material instead of flattening it.
Most of the action scenes in Reze are **anime original** and simply adapted the arc's batshit energy.
I’d argue they *should* think they can do better, when they’re a whole team working in a dynamic, colored medium and don’t have the limitations of black and white static images. That opens up a lot of new possibilities (that sadly a lot of adaptations don’t properly make use of, or even attempt to)
I don’t think it’s ever a problem as long as the narrative isn’t significantly altered in a negative way in the process, which it isn’t
Hell, when I go from manga to anime that’s exactly what I want to see, an enhanced and unique anime experience. New content that fits thematically/artistically and adds to the atmosphere. I don’t really care about panel to panel faithfulness
u/YUME_Emuy21, I can only speak as a jjk anime watcher but, for example, Mahoraga and Sukuna's fight isn't about the audience's emotional connection to Mahoraga. It's a showcase of a technique's might that took down a six eyes a few centuries ago. It's about the destructive power of all powerful beings at the expense of the ants that live beneath them. Mahoraga's ability to quickly to adapt isn't diminished because otherwise he wouldn't have lasted that long and even then Sukuna is a king who reinforces the notion that it is all about his pleasure and amusement (and isn't it scary that such a creature needs Megumi alive?). We get a better understanding of Sukuna's technique and it's grandiose. The stakes get higher because even if a power like Mahoraga can be sufficiently harnessed (without destroying all), what can it do against Sukuna? I would argue that an anime like jjk needs moments such as this so that the audience can be invested beyond the outcome.
Compare the first season of Chainsaw Man's reception to the Reze Arc. One does something new with the art direction and style and most Japanese fans hated that, while the Reze Arc *mostly* is just panel to panel with some scenes being a little longer and everyone loves it. Reze Arc doesn't really try to do anything different than the manga, just fits an already fantastic story into the anime medium, and that worked better.
An anime adaptation exists to add sound, voices, music, color, and movement, but not *changing scenes* unless it's necessary. An anime is enhanced and unique from the manga just by being an anime, the new content can absolutely be good, but if it's 50/50 where sometimes it's useless and muddies the narrative, I'd rather them just be faithful.