The 3 hour rewatch debate that split my anime club in half

Last month my local group in Denver did a full rewatch of an old 90s mecha show, one episode a night for 3 weeks. Half the people wanted to skip the filler arcs and just hit the main plot. The other half said filler is where the character bonding happens. We actually had a 40 minute argument about episode 17, which is just a beach episode with zero plot. Has anyone else had a rewatch turn into a full on philosophical fight about what counts as 'necessary' content?

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the_nina22d ago

Honestly, I’m totally on the filler side here! That beach episode is where you actually get to see the pilots acting like dumb kids instead of just war machines, and that stuff matters. Skipping it feels like you’re just speedrunning the show to say you finished it, not actually watching it. The main plot is great, but without those slower moments, the big battles hit way less hard when someone you care about is in danger. I get that people want to save time, but you’re basically trading the soul of the show for a checklist. You guys should have made everyone sit through a panel discussion about episode 17, that would have settled it real fast.