Apr 15, 2023 6:23 PM
How Slow Pacing Can be Good
One of the worst things for anime watchers is bad pacing, but what if I told you that could be its advantage in certain circumstances. Before, we talk about the good side, which is the main premise of the blog. Let’s talk about how bad pacing can be the worst thing, if it has no meaning; like Tokyo Ghoul after the first season.
Bad pacing usually isn’t intentional and is how you can tell that there’s bad writing, because they are rushing the adaptation from the manga, or they’re stalling while more of the manga is coming out. These issues are definitely prominent in the long airing anime, which is in every big shounen out there. The pacing can make you very disinterested in continuing watching and can make you very bored, which ends up making people drop the anime.
Bad pacing usually isn’t intentional and is how you can tell that there’s bad writing, because they are rushing the adaptation from the manga, or they’re stalling while more of the manga is coming out. These issues are definitely prominent in the long airing anime, which is in every big shounen out there. The pacing can make you very disinterested in continuing watching and can make you very bored, which ends up making people drop the anime.
There are however some anomalies, which people associate with the previous points, but to based individual like me, they are actually masterpieces. Slow pacing is not always bad, it can add to the whole psychological side of it, or it can make you more invested in the situation. Although, from our evolutions in entertainment with the likes of TikTok rotting the brains of our generation, anything that’s not fast-paced is often hated as the influx of media that we consume every day has made our brains too fast. I have seen people call anime that’s normal pace, too slow to the point even fooly cooly which is super short is considered slow. So the ones I’ll be talking about may be pain-stacking slow for the generation z’s, without getting stuck on these semantics; let’s continue.
Now what would you want from a fighting anime, you'd say high intensity, eye candy, meaningful resolve, and satisfaction. Well, let’s introduce Dragon Ball Z. DBZ is infamously viewed as long-winded and has a lot of slow pacing which people aren’t a fan of, as I’ve recently finished it the other day while going on a huge binge finishing nearly 100 episodes of it in half a week. I’d say that DBZ pacing is unique to Dragon Ball and works for this series, to the point that I started Dragon Ball Super and lord Beerus fight at the start with Goku felt not enough and was short to me as I was conditioned to the fights in DBZ. The fights in DBZ are very long, but I think it works for this series especially, as the more you spend time on the fights the more you get invested into it. Now, I think Frieza's fight in DBZ was too long, which is something we can all agree on. However, the perfect cell fight and some of Frieza's fight were one of my favourites out there for this very reason.
Now what would you want from a fighting anime, you'd say high intensity, eye candy, meaningful resolve, and satisfaction. Well, let’s introduce Dragon Ball Z. DBZ is infamously viewed as long-winded and has a lot of slow pacing which people aren’t a fan of, as I’ve recently finished it the other day while going on a huge binge finishing nearly 100 episodes of it in half a week. I’d say that DBZ pacing is unique to Dragon Ball and works for this series, to the point that I started Dragon Ball Super and lord Beerus fight at the start with Goku felt not enough and was short to me as I was conditioned to the fights in DBZ. The fights in DBZ are very long, but I think it works for this series especially, as the more you spend time on the fights the more you get invested into it. Now, I think Frieza's fight in DBZ was too long, which is something we can all agree on. However, the perfect cell fight and some of Frieza's fight were one of my favourites out there for this very reason.
DBZ fights are long and work for me because it adds to the intensity to the show, for it being an exuberant experience the fights also have to show the show's nature. I got more invested into the fights so much that when Perfect Cell was defeated; it felt amazing for them to win, and you feel more excited too. The writing is great for this fight, they didn't lack out on the soundtrack or the visuals for what they had back then. For its time and what was before DBZ was one of the greatest, and it still holds up to which is verified as I finished recently and think it is a ten out of ten. If you can manage to get past the longest fight in all of anime, then you’ll actually very much enjoy this anime if it’s your kind of thing. I know I have talked about it, last blog, but I have more to talk about involving the anime and this won’t be the last blog either so look forward to that, Dragon Ball fans.
The next one that is on the list is .hack//sign which is without a doubt the slowest paced anime of all time which even beats Texholyze. This anime is so slow that you could die from boredom if you were addicted to tiktok. This anime is very strange, not really much goes on in the anime, but at the same time stuff happens, and it keeps progressing very slowly. With this being a very early version of an isekai back in the early 2000’s, as well as being an anime about amnesia; which they did a different take on the genre for so early. I think the pacing helps the premise of the anime very well, as it’s about a kid who is teleported to an unknown world and forgets where they came from, who they are and where they are.
The next one that is on the list is .hack//sign which is without a doubt the slowest paced anime of all time which even beats Texholyze. This anime is so slow that you could die from boredom if you were addicted to tiktok. This anime is very strange, not really much goes on in the anime, but at the same time stuff happens, and it keeps progressing very slowly. With this being a very early version of an isekai back in the early 2000’s, as well as being an anime about amnesia; which they did a different take on the genre for so early. I think the pacing helps the premise of the anime very well, as it’s about a kid who is teleported to an unknown world and forgets where they came from, who they are and where they are.
The very slow pacing gives the whole show an eerie vibe and adds a psychological aspect to it as you’re experiencing what the main character is feeling from having their memories be short term. This show is very much misunderstood by a lot, and not a lot of people have gone through the anime from start to finish and appreciated it as much as I have. With the best soundtrack (by Yuki Kajiura) in anime I’ve ever heard, which I talk about in a blog I made in 2018, that adds to the entire experience and makes it worth it for when the ending is revealed.
Slow pacing is common in psychological anime such as Ergo Proxy, Hack Sign, and Texhnolyze. Which can be very different for someone who is not familiar with the genre, and why I think the genre isn’t as popular for its difference to any other anime. It is why the genre is people’s favourites as people who have gone through with an open mind have found that the psychological genre is far above any genre because of its deepness and thoughtful experiences. You can learn a lot from these shows, and gain valuable lessons. For people who want to try something new, should try to get into this genre as underground it still is compared to other genres.
Thanks for Reading!
Posted by
Konatose
| Apr 15, 2023 6:23 PM |
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