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Is a timeskip always justified?

Yes, its always justifed. 0.071428571428571 7.1% [ 4 ]
No, its never justifed. 0.071428571428571 7.1% [ 4 ]
Ehhh, it really depends. 0.75 75.0% [ 42 ]
I don't really pay attention to the reasons. 0.10714285714286 10.7% [ 6 ]
Total Votes:[ 56 ]
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I normally don't make many threads here, but recently, something caught my attention and got me to thinking a bit on the subject.

As many of you may or may not have heard, the Naruto series (the manga) ended a little while ago, and its caused some controversy in the fandom. Of course, this thread isn't about Naruto at all, its about timeskips, I am only using Naruto as a example here. The author used a timeskip to show the end results of many problems solved. Problems such as "will Naruto become hokage"?, and "who will end up with who?" Personally, I believe these could have been answered WITHOUT a timeskip, but people have disagreed with me on this before, so it got me to thinking, when is a timeskip in a series justified? What kind of reasons are needed to justify it?

I don't consider myself as someone that has watched THAT many anime, so I will be listing examples of what I have seen so far.
One Piece had a timeskip to get the crew back together.
Naruto had two timeskips. The first to show them more grown up, with the second one to end it.
Fairy Tail has also had two timeskips. The first was caused cause of a means to survive. The by product of a spell. The second most recent one was caused by everyone needing to find their place in the world.

So it begs the question, what reasons are good enough to justify the author needing a timeskip to display it in your opinion? Have you seen examples that are different from the series I explained, and if so, what were they?

I would like to hear your opinions AMC, is a timeskip in a series always justified?

Questionable Conversationalist

Nothing is ever always justified.

Timeskips are useful when you want to move the story along in a huge chunk that conveniently also creates room for mystery or character changes that can be used as development from the start of the time skip despite already having happened. Like skipping a couple getting together and in the new present, they're together and from that point on you get to see them together and probably get peeks into the past or exposition dialogue/mention exchanges that allow you to use it like it's new without having to go through every little detail and nuance of what happened between the end point and new start point.

I think that kind of is the root of my point, that you don't have to cover every little detail between then and now but can peek back on it when needed for the new present story.

The timeskip in NANA (at the last bit of the anime, in the middle of the manga) is handled rather well for the anime as it leaves a lot of MYSTERY AND WHAT IS GOING ON WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BABIES WHAT ABOUT THE FIREWORKS FESTIVAL??? And in the manga, the timing switches a bit between the "present" and the "future/post-time skip" and Yazawa is really good at writing in the first place so now you're treated to two different stories and points in time and just as invested in what's going on in either story and wondering how what contributes to what. Also if you were only watching the anime, the timeskip gives you A HELLUVA good reason to pick up the manga.

I'm not against timeskips, I actually quite like them and find them convenient. Of course they can be handled weakly but it's all a matter of writing. I think a bad timeskip is one where they skip and then vomit a bunch of exposition rather than build things up again.

I don't follow Naruto but I consider that last timeskip to show them as adults with kids was more of a fanservice wrap-it-up epilogue than an example of a normal time skip to be honest.
I think in the cases of of Fairy Tail and One Piece were fully justified. Fairy Tail needed it to give us the events with the dragons, as well as giving us more guilds. The second have us a change to the characters as well as being a good chance for personal growth and power increasing.
One Piece's time skip gave us character growth, power increasement and more possible enemies. It also gave Luffy a chance to gain a mentor and allowed him, Zoro and Sanji to learn Haki.

Naruto's first time just did the same as One Pieces, and gave us some cool stuff. Sadly though that didn't last as Naruto became a ditto and the second time skip was just lazy. Hell, they could have had a whole story arch of Hinata and Naruto, and Sakura and Sauske finding who they wanted. But instead we get a glorified movie teaser.
Bleach did it the worst. A cheap lazy way to give Ichigo a quick power boost, and then take it away. The second didn't even make sense as the series should have ended with Rukia disappearing infront of Ichigo as he lost his powers and them saying goodbye to each other. Infact, have the final page just be where Rukia was standing with the simple words Good Bye. But we instead got this ******** of a final arc.

Obsessive Shoujo

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I have yet to watch anything major that wasn't justified but I know my sister watched this one anime that time leaped and you had to read a huge section of the manga to be able to understand what happened between there.
Kiroii Senko
sTRANGE GoofY wEIRdo

Bleach did it the worst. A cheap lazy way to give Ichigo a quick power boost, and then take it away. The second didn't even make sense as the series should have ended with Rukia disappearing infront of Ichigo as he lost his powers and them saying goodbye to each other. Infact, have the final page just be where Rukia was standing with the simple words Good Bye. But we instead got this ******** of a final arc.


Oh my god, I agree with the fact that it should've ended when he lost his powers the first time. I honestly don't even know what's going on anymore in the Bleach series, it's basically Quincies everywhere ******** s**t up, along with Ichigo getting his 500th power up. Bleach is an even bigger mess than Naruto was during it's last arc.


Yeah, turns out Ichigo is half Quincy. I xed out my window and gave up on the manga in pure disgust. Of all the forced BS the mangaka could have reached into his a** and pulled out, that was by far the most sad attempt at a "What a tweast!". It's not even surprising as it is just out of left field.
And yeah, after that he still manged another power-up... sort of. I know cause I've got back and looked even few chapters just to see what happened. That pink haired loli that hangs out with Zeraki finally got to show her stuff, and what a bad-a** she turned out of be. Unfortunately though they ruined her chance with more bullshit.


PS: I adore your Erza avi. Very well done, and quite sexy if I do say so my self.

Scompiglio's Wife

Eh... it really depends on how it is used.

For example, Sword Art Online's time skips ruined a lot of the experience in regards to character development, but that was considering how long the time skips were.

However, something like Kyou Kara Maoh, that features various amounts of time between visits with minimal confusion most of the time does it well.

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Yeah, I feel like Bleach's timeskip it had after Ichigo lost his powers and before the fullbringer stuff seemed to have no point to it, other then to move time forward. Nothing seemed to really develop out of it. Well....Orihime got longer hair? lol
Also, this may just be how I feel, but I feel that when a mangaka struggles a few episodes or chapters to explain something that could have just been explained in past tense after a timeskip, I feel more pride in their dedication to their work. It sometimes feels like mangaka take the easy way out in their works, instead of trying to put forth development at a steady pace.

Magical Lunatic

Training montages are always justified, necessary, and mandatory.

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DOROHEDOROBRO vIh
Training montages are always justified, necessary, and mandatory.
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But that's the thing, typically those are only shown AFTER the timeskip in past tense. Timeskips tend to skip those training montages.
Like how in Yuyu Hakusho, after Yusuke beats Rando, we timeskip the time he took training with Genkai, and from then on only see flashbacks of it.

Kawaii Shounen

well it depends, at least in tokyo ghoul it gives you a feel of suspension.
well.. the first manga ended ''open ending'' sort of.
in naruto, I know what you mean, but that time skip didn't explain s**t
The ending was completely bullshit, like how can he forget about characters.
in fairy tail, well... I personally started to dislike the manga ever since the S rank
test for mages started but hey, I think that time skip (when they froze in time or w.e)
wasn't THAT BAD... does code geass count as having a time skip?
well it's not like it affected the story.

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bittersweet music
well it depends, at least in tokyo ghoul it gives you a feel of suspension.
well.. the first manga ended ''open ending'' sort of.
in naruto, I know what you mean, but that time skip didn't explain s**t
The ending was completely bullshit, like how can he forget about characters.
in fairy tail, well... I personally started to dislike the manga ever since the S rank
test for mages started but hey, I think that time skip (when they froze in time or w.e)
wasn't THAT BAD... does code geass count as having a time skip?
well it's not like it affected the story.
User Image

Hay gurrrrl!
Yeah, I guess that counts as a timeskip in code geass.
Yeah, its like the author just wanted Naruto to be over, so he told the ending and ran, without saying what led to those conclusions in the first place.

Visiting Star

I think time skips can be a good and a bad thing. Time skips can sometimes move a story or show forward effectively so that the important details stick, instead of little things here and there that are not really important. Sometimes, they can be bad if not used properly and can just be a lazy excuse to end a story or get to the important details across to potentially end the story soon or move on to a larger piece of the story. I don't think EVERY game, anime, or story needs a timeskip though...I think it is really overused, BUT time skips can also help with our imagination and help us guess with what happened next to keep the story alive and our interests flowing.

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