User blog comment:Xilinoc/Doing Filler/Padding Right - Episode 743/@comment-24850639-20160529113155

I'm glad you made this blog. I've done a lot of bitching about the tug-of-wars myself, and most recently that King Kong Gun. But the more and more I've watched the vid over the past few weeks, I decided to give the anime a pass on that one. At the end of the day, its the anime's job to bring life to the moments that we all enjoy reading so much. They have to recreate those emotions, sounds, and actions in a way thats just as good, but hopefully better than reading it on a page. That means they also need to take story context into consideration as well, and just what impact certain moments actually have to the story. In the case of the Doflamingo fight, this was the climax of a 100+ chapter arc, and Luffy's greatest foe to date. The birdcage was definitely also one of the most sinister plots by an arc villain up to date, and A LOT of lives were at stake for Luffy to succeed. I can understand the cinematic effect of using the tug of war to sort of recap (and commence the feels) just how important and all-encompassing that final clash was. They wouldn't have been able to pull that off quite the same way if they had the clash play out exactly as it did in the manga.

Them recycling the exact same Gear 4th animation was definitely not ok, but more importantly the Grizzly Magnum against Caesar you mentioned was a perfect example of a good contrast. Extending that clash the way they did made absolutely no sense when they just had Law absolutely annihilate Vergo and give the dopest speech ever about the new kids on the block. I'd imagine its safe to assume that Vergo would obliterate Caesar, and the stakes of the Caesar fight were a joke compared to that of Mingo, or even Hordy for that matter. The padding for the Doflamingo fight was great otherwise though, and so was this bout with Fujitora. They just need to be more selective of when they use it, and apply it to the moments that make the most sense.