The franchise of “Dragon Ball”He has had a fairly curious relationship with his manga. Today, most of the anime wait for the manga to be well advanced or even finished before working, but “Dragon Ball” did the opposite. The anime and manga were thrown almost at the same time, which caused animated adaptation to be dangerously closer to manga.
And of course, this brought the most viable solution: the filling. Whole sagas, extra episodes and endless training were the protagonists of these stories that did not contribute anything to the plot, but that were important in another context.
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How did the gap between anime and manga start?
The anime of “Dragon Ball” started on February 26, 1986, and when the first episode was issued, the manga was already by chapter 63. At first everything was going well, but by 1987, the anime had already advanced until episode 103, while the manga was in chapter 136. From that moment, the gap began to grow. The creators had to fill the series to lengthen and prevent the anime from reaching the end of the manga too fast.
In 1989, with episode 148 of the anime, “Dragon Ball” came to an end, but the manga was still running. In fact, when the anime finished the “Dragon Ball” part, the manga was already in the new “Dragon Ball Z” saga.
The first filling: the wedding dress surrounded by the flames
One of the first filling moments occurred with the saga of the “wedding dress surrounded by the flames” (episodes 149-153). This arc was completely invented for anime and, although it does not have much impact on the main plot, it is quite fun to see how Goku and Milk work together to save Milk's wedding dress, which had been trapped by some flames. This filling gave the manga five episodes of respite, which allowed the gap between them to increase to 26 chapters.
Vegeta's saga: more filling to stretch time
Then came the vegeta saga, and with it, more stuffed. By the time episode 9 of the anime arrived (now “Dragon Ball Z”), the gap was only 19 chapters, which made the anime need to put more stuffed. This is where we see Gohan go through a series of solitary adventures in the forest, fighting against robots and rare creatures. Although these episodes are not strictly necessary, they helped the anime could lengthen the vegeta arch and maintain the distance of 20 chapters with the manga.
The false Namek saga: filling, but not so much
The saga of the false Namek (episodes 38-40) is one of the rarest in the series. Krillin, Gohan and Bulma reach a false planet that is supposedly Namek, and face the “false Namekians.” Although this saga is a total filling, curiously it was not because the anime was too close to the manga, but rather because it was an arc that simply lengthened the plot without really necessary. The gap was still in around 21 chapters, something that was already normal for that point.
The battle against freezer: the closest moment between anime and manga
One of the times when the anime and manga were closer was during the final fight against Freezer. In July 1991, episode 97 of the anime was covering the destruction of Namek, while the manga had already advanced until chapter 331. The interesting thing is that at that time the gap was only 10 chapters, which caused the creators to extend Goku's fight with Frieza. And 5 minutes in the world of Dragon Ball do not last what one would think!
The anime decided to stretch that fight of 10 chapters in 10 episodes, and that gave the manga time to catch up. In addition, to take advantage of those 10 extra episodes, they put the saga of Garlic Jr., which although it is not a canon, served to give Gohan and other characters while the manga continued to advance.
The filling of the Cell saga: the last big lag
Already for the Cell saga, the filling was present again, but this time in a more strategic way. For episode 194, which was broadcast in July 1993, the gap between the anime and the manga was already only 10 chapters, which meant that again the anime was getting too close to the manga. To prevent the anime from running out of material, they put the arc of the martial arts tournament of the other world, a completely invented arch where Goku fights in a tournament with dead characters. Although this filling does not have much to do with the main plot, it served to give time to continue advancing.
The filling was not just to stretch the plot; Actually, if they had not put these extra episodes, the anime would probably have reached and surpassed the manga much earlier. In addition, Toriyama, the creator of the manga, was known for writing the story on the march, which made even more difficult for producers to know what was going to happen next. “Dragon Ball” was printing money, and they couldn't stop just because the manga had not advanced enough.
Although many fans do not like the filling, the truth is that it was not as invasive as some think. In fact, if there had not been these extra episodes, the anime and manga would have ended up being very different products. So, although some filling sagas are quite rare, in general the filling was not as harmful to the series as many believe.
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(Tagstotranslate) Dragon-Ball
