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Time-skips(Major spoilers included, read at own risk)

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Topic Starter
-Athena-
Yup, almost every long manga/anime series has one, more so with shounen stuff.
For those with no clue, a time-skip is when the story in a manga skips over a very significant period of time(to develop characters/events while avoiding unnecessary and uninteresting story-telling), depending on the manga this may range from a few weeks to decades.

So post your thoughts on this narrative device, along with examples of time-skips done well and some that went horribly wrong perhaps.

A personal opinion on a well done time-skip, spoilers about Fairy Tail:
SPOILER
I believe the seven year time-skip was really awesome, although quite a long period of time(7 is a special number in this manga though so it was expected), and the fact that the main characters didn't develop at all, it was done well because the rest of the world did, and oh boy did it develop. Fairy Tail was about to lose it's appeal before this, the guild had basically reached the pinaccle of everything, even destroying the strongest dark guild, the time-skip was introduced at a very good moment, resetting power level and giving more variety to the world around.
Oreiora
Actually out of all the mainstreams, fairy tail's time-skip was the most annoying one.Not only did they NOT get stronger (until Ultear appeared), the seven year gap didn't do much specifically and the way how the appearances of many other characters in manga (e.g. Jenny from Blue Pegasus still looked young) didn't even change despite seven years is a little unnatural. The Naruto -> Shippuuden was a typical time-skip which worked pretty well, the main purpose of a time-skip is to power up characters and reveal interrelationships and advancements of events during the time-gap. Personally, my favourite time-skip would be from One Piece. Most of the characters had a significant physical appearance change and they underwent training which got them new powers.
Azure_Kite
The most prominent example of this I've seen is probably from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. After Simon defeats the Spiral King, it skips forward a number of years, where Simon is a young adult, all the children in the previous episodes are teenagers, and some of the adults are settling down into a relatively retired lifestyle.

As a plot device, it does allow for storyline progression without any/many filler episodes, allowing for more "fast paced" storytelling, where the story is told, and nothing else (Character Development, etc) matters as much.
ychao
Re: TTGL
It is indeed somewhat refreshing to see how (or rather, how much) each character has developed post-Lordgenome's defeat, and how they are coping with their various roles within the society, be those fitting or not to the personalities of their younger selves.

I recall being especially interested in seeing how well the main characters were dealing with Kamina's passing 7 years on, and lol-ing at his commemorative statue being in a pose à la Saturday Night Fever. Pretty sure Kamina himself would too, wherever he was in the afterlife.

I have a funny feeling that this thread is going to be full of black bars. Funny in more ways than one.
Topic Starter
-Athena-
Yea I expect that as well, perhaps use spoiler boxes for tidiness? XD
ampzz
Might as well just allow the posting of spoilers inside this thread otherwise the entire thing will become a black void.

If people come into a thread talking about time skip moments in any particular series they're bound to expect the spoilers to pop up with it; this leaves it to being at their discretion as to whether they pay heed to them or not.

Just mark in the OP and/ or thread title with spoilers included or something along those lines.
JesusYamato
One piece
dolljoints
Cahf ah nafl mglw'nafh hh' ahor syha'h ah'legeth, ng llll or'azath syha'hnahh n'ghftephai n'gha ahornah ah'mglw'nafh
Topic Starter
-Athena-
I was waiting for someone to mention claymore, and yes the time-skip was done very well(agreed on Raki x100)
But though it was done well, somehow Claymore changed after that,

Quoting myself from another site:

I admit it lost a little of it's feel after the time-skip.
The Teresa arc and the last stand before the time-skip were the 2 best arcs of the manga, and the villains before also had a lot more charm.

Perhaps I didn't feel it as much because I read from scratch up to the chapter before in just 3 days, but something was definitely lost from Claymore post time-skip, I can't put my finger on it though.
But Miria's apparent 'death' nearly brought me to tears, that was one very awesome chapter.
dolljoints
Cahf ah nafl mglw'nafh hh' ahor syha'h ah'legeth, ng llll or'azath syha'hnahh n'ghftephai n'gha ahornah ah'mglw'nafh
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