History OffscreenMomentOfAwesome / AnimeAndManga

* ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'' episode four had an intentional example, and spent a large part of the end of the episode rubbing it in viewers' faces: [[spoiler: Shichika barely manages to defeat the mysterious white-haired badass the show had been building up for the past three episodes, thanks to Togame drafting him a brilliant strategy]]. Or so we hear, at length, from the two afterwards. The audience spends the majority of the episode with his sister, on an island miles away.
** Preview at the end of episode 3 involves parting the sea, slicing up rocks, exploding ''a whole island'', and fighting a giant shark.

** At the end of Battle City, Joey challenges Yugi to a duel with the Red-Eyes Black Dragon at stake to determine how far he's grown. The episode then ends and the outcome is not revealed, but considering Joey got the Red-Eyes Black Dragon back, he won.

* The ending of ''Anime/BioBroly'' in ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. Goku was apparently supposed to fight Broly in Hell due to the latter acting up for some unknown reason. The movie ended while Goku was going back to filling his stomach in preparation, and they never show the fight, as it ends right there. There's not even a reference to it in the next three movies, despite the immediate next movie dealing a lot about Hell and the Afterworld, namely it mingling with the mortal world.

* Shin's fight against Raoh in the 1986 movie of ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar''.

* The MedakaBox finale sees Medaka defeat [[spoiler:the ''MOON'']] in offscreen single combat. She follows this up with an offscreen takedown of [[spoiler:[[BossRush every named character]] in the series]]. Yeah, it's that sort of series.

* The MedakaBox finale sees Medaka defeat [[spoiler:the ''MOON'']] in offscreen single combat. She follows this up with an offscreen takedown of [[spoiler:[[BossRush every named character in the series]]]]. Yeah, it's that sort of series.

* ''BananaNoNana''. We see Hoshi Budou kick Nana's butt pretty badly. Then suddenly Nana has somehow won. Fans are very curious how a [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Banana Manipulator]] could defeat a FragileSpeedster NinjaMaid.

** The end of Season 3 has Juudai fusing his soul to Yubel's and the two disappearing. They reappear in Season 4, some months later, without saying what they were doing. Judging by the dialogue at the end of episode 155, however, they were off ''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu kicking the ass of]]'' ''[[EldritchAbomination the Light of Ruin]]''. While it makes sense that such a fight wasn't shown (since it's very unlikely they dueled it), it's still disappointing to miss.

** The end of Season 3 has Juudai fusing his soul to Yubel's and the two disappearing. They reappear in Season 4, some months later, without saying what they were doing. Judging by the dialogue at the end of episode 155, however, they were off ''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu kicking the ass of]]'' [[''EldritchAbomination the Light of Ruin]]''. While it makes sense that it wasn't shown (since it's very unlikely they dueled it), it's still disappointing to miss.

* In ''MajokkoTsukuneChan'', there's an episode called "Tsukune-chan vs. Aliens." [[spoiler: It's five seconds long, and all we see is the Mayor asking Tsukune-chan for help, and then a brief shot of the alien ship blowing up.]] Afterwards, an off-screen voice says "[[LampshadeHanging But I wanted to see that...]]"

** Erza destroys [[spoiler: 100 monsters of the Pandemonium]] this way. It is [[AdaptationExpansion expanded]] in the anime.

** When Yukio and Shino begin their stint as Karakura Town's guardian Shinigami, they immediately run afoul of a gang of very powerful Hollows. Cue the arrival of Ichigo, Uryuu, Sado and Orihime. When Yukio comes around later, he recalls Orihime talking about his injuries and Ichigo and Uryuu engaging in SnarkToSnarkCombat while fighting. He's awed by the gang's ability to fight Hollows, but that is awe is all that's really revealed.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Subverted with the Byakuya/Kenpachi versus Yammy battle. Byakuya and Kenpachi are set to actually team up against the most powerful Espada of all, who has just released his full power, and the scene cuts away. The pair eventually arrives in Karakura Town looking ragged, beaten and with healers running after them saying they can barely stand. It looks like they've returned from an epic battle, so one Shinigami dares to ask how good the fight was... "Boring", is the response.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' hinted at a battle between Head Captain Yamamoto and Captains Kyoraku and Ukitake, two of the more powerful Soul Reaper captains. After the three release their zanpakutos, we never see the fight again until they call it off after [[spoiler:Aizen's treachery is revealed]].
** ''Bleach'' manages to use this twice in the same battle, between [[spoiler:Rukia and Rudobon]], thanks largely to being overshadowed by another fight taking place at the same time.
** So Rukia, Renji, and Chad are confronting [[spoiler: Yammy.]] They're thinking they can take him, since all three of them have fought [[spoiler: stronger Espada than him]] and lived to tell about it. Then [[spoiler: he releases his sword, turns into a giant dinosaur-man who towers over them, and reveals that he isn't the 10th Espada, he's the ''0th'' Espada, the ''strongest'' of the bunch. Oh, man, whether you think that's a good plot twist or not, it just ''has'' to lead to an epic fight, right? Then, just as this fight begins...the viewpoint cuts away to other battles. For several months. And when it comes back to them, Yammy has [[CurbstompBattle already won]]. Easily. Off-screen.]]
*** The past two examples are somewhat averted in the anime, which extends/shows parts of both fights.
** Byakuya and Kenpachi are setting up to fight [[spoiler: Yammy, Espada 0,]] at his full strength. The scene cuts away to Karakura town, and the war with Aizen.[[spoiler: More than fifty chapters later, we see that they won off-screen, and Yammy is left dying in Hueco Mundo.]] Even the anime didn't do much to extend the fight.
** In the Zanpakutou Tales Filler Arc, Kenpachi is facing down Tengen, Komamura's Zanpakutou, whose Bankai is basically just him transforming into a 60 foot giant. Giant!Tengen smacks Kenpachi around, Kenny declares he's going to get ''really'' serious, then...nothing. Tengen later appears, fully tamed at Komamura's disposal, at the arc's climax. A similar issue happens with Yoruichi's fight with Haineko and Tobiume, though more of that fight was shown overall.
** The fight between Kensei and Wonderweiss has the same problem. Although we know that Wonderweiss won, it isn't shown how at all. Kensei just kind of disappears.
*** [[spoiler: Kensei reappeared more than two years later, reinstated as a captain after the time skip...although we still don't know the results of that battle, beyond that Wonderweiss escaped.]]
** Kenpachi does this again in the Vandenreich arc - while superpowered enemies are killing everyone in Soul Society, he casually shows up carrying three of their corpses over his shoulder. Bonus points for describing their powers (turning into a giant ape with a sonic roar, turning into an exact copy of the opponent, and... he's not sure what the last girl could do, because [[ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy she kept trying to explain her powers]] [[WhatAnIdiot instead of defending herself]], and Kenpachi was still deaf from the sonic roar).
*** [[spoiler: And immediately afterwards, [[TheWorfEffect he gets beaten off-screen by the leader of the Vandenreich.]]]]

* The ending of Bio Broly in ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. Goku was apparently supposed to fight Broly in Hell due to the latter acting up for some unknown reason. The movie ended while Goku was going back to filling his stomach in preparation, and they never show the fight, as it ends right there. There's not even a reference to it in the next three movies, despite the immediate next movie dealing a lot about Hell and the Afterworld, namely it mingling with the mortal world.

* ''Anime/GundamSEEDDestiny'', remember that preview scan of a badly damaged Strike Freedom against a badly damaged Destiny? [[CurbstompBattle That never happened]].

* ''DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries'': in the final episode, Dante finally pulls out his Devil Trigger SuperMode...Offscreen. He's grappling with the BigBad, the camera zooms in on his face, he starts glowing, his eyes widen and his voice deepens. The camera cuts back to show an explosion on the roof they are fighting on. When it comes back to them, the fight's already over (though this also holds the implication that he may have used devil trigger explosion and killed the demon instantly with that).
* ''BlackButler'' emulates ''Devil May Cry'' as Sebastian reveals his true form in the first season finale to fight. We never get to see it kicking asses.
* Parodied twice in the ''TheLawOfUeki'', with characters describing how awesome a DangerousForbiddenTechnique was, after it was used ''off-camera''. The {{Narrator}} then [[{{handwave}} explains]] that it was the result of a lacking special effects budget.
* Midway through ''BloodPlus'', Saya confronts Diva face to face after Diva has [[spoiler: rampaged through the good guy's base of operations, killing dozens of mooks and raping and killing Saya's younger brother Riku in the process.]] The episode ends with Saya and Diva sizing each other up in preparation for a no-holds-barred beatdown. The next episode...starts with a one-year TimeSkip and follows the supporting cast as they struggle against Chiropterans in the U.K.. Saya show up by episode's end, of course, but the big fight is never mentioned again, not even when the two characters fight for real later on. Also in the same episode [[spoiler: Riku was killed on the verge of [[TookALevelInBadass Taking a Level in Badass]]]], though this is much more defensible dramatically and indeed becomes crucial later on.
* The first season of ''CodeGeass'' ended on a massive cliffhanger with several characters' fates hanging in the balance. But ExecutiveMeddling forced the second season to start with a TimeSkip and a reboot, after which part of the season was spent on a retread of season one's plot. To their credit, the writers tied up most of the dangling plot threads eventually via flashbacks, but the end result was rather anticlimactic.
** Also, in R2 Turn 22, [[spoiler: after the epic showdown with Lelouch's parents, Suzaku finally confronts [[WeUsedToBeFriends Lelouch]]and the two are about to speak honestly with eachother. Keep in mind their love-hate relationship has been [[TheNotLoveInterest the driving conflict in the show.]]The narrative cuts to a month later, with Lelouch and Suzaku's alliance having formed off-screen. Now, it makes sense for narrative reasons, but it still feels anticlimatic.]]
* ''KareKano's'' abrupt TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised ending, especially since we were getting all hyped up about the play Yukino had been preparing for the past few episodes. This is made even more unforgivable by the fact that, after religiously following the manga virtually to the ''panel'' for almost its entire length, Gainax diverted from the story to add an ''original filler episode'' just before the end, when only one more episode would have allowed them to portray the play in its entirety.

** ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' manages to use this twice in the same battle, between [[spoiler:Rukia and Rudobon]], thanks largely to being overshadowed by another fight taking place at the same time.

* ''MahouSenseiNegima'' humorously references this when Jack Rakan shows [[BackStory a film about the war that he and Nagi fought in]]. He leaves out everything except the final battle, calling it "[[TakeOurWordForIt A thrilling series of battles that would take a whole trilogy of movies or about 14 volumes to actually illustrate!]]" This is [[BoisterousBruiser entirely in character for him]].

* In ''{{Canaan}}'', it is never shown how Yunyun [[spoiler:saves Maria from being blown up by the time bomb in that train car]]. That must have been quite a stunt, especially considering how little time she had to pull it off.
* ''OutlawStar'' gets very lazy with many fights, cutting away from the action at bad moments. The second to last episode in particular totally skips two apparently awesome fights: Suzuka's finishing attack was shown as flashes of light in her eyes, and Aisha's frenzied assault in beast form was totally obscured by a whirlwind.

* In the second ''FutariWaPrettyCure Max Heart'' movie, [[SixthRanger Hikari/Shiny Luminous]] decides to fight a [[MonsterOfTheDay Zakenna]] ''by herself'' [[YouShallNotPass so Nagisa/Cure Black and Honoka/Cure White can proceed]]. Aside from a 2-second scene later, we see nothing of the fight. It should be not that Luminous is a SupportPartyMember and a [[NonActionGuy Non-Action Girl]].
** Also between episode 5 and 6, the three girls have their first battle against a major villain (Circulas) and it just started in the [[{{Cliffhanger}} end of episode 5]]. The battle was completely skipped in the following episode, and both sides were fine and didn't have any signifant looses.

* ''{{Katanagatari}}'' episode four had an intentional example, and spent a large part of the end of the episode rubbing it in viewers' faces: [[spoiler: Shichika barely manages to defeat the mysterious white-haired badass the show had been building up for the past three episodes, thanks to Togame drafting him a brilliant strategy]]. Or so we hear, at length, from the two afterwards. The audience spends the majority of the episode with his sister, on an island miles away.

* The ending of Bio Broly in ''DragonBallGT''. Goku was apparently supposed to fight Broly in Hell due to the latter acting up for some unknown reason. The movie ended while Goku was going back to filling his stomach in preparation, and they never show the fight, as it ends right there. There's not even a reference to it in the next three movies, despite the immediate next movie dealing a lot about Hell and the Afterworld, namely it mingling with the mortal world.

* In ''Saiyuki'', Hakkai takes of his demon power limiters to take down these highly annoying immortal demons, we lean forward, they go back to the other characters, we're like "okay, they'll go back to it in a minute" and the next time you see him is going to help Gojyo. The fight was skipped. Completely.
* GundamSEEDDestiny, remember that preview scan of a badly damaged Strike Freedom against a badly damaged Destiny? [[CurbstompBattle That never happened]].

* ''{{Trigun}}'' anime Episode 18: Vash and Wolfwood are about to take on about two hundred men to save Lina. We are then shown Vash getting his hair cut by Lina post-fight, as well as the ruins of the battle.

* In ''Anime/FairyTail'' during the Phantom Lord Arc Mystogan visits Porlyusica and reveals that [[spoiler:he defeated every subdivision of Phantom Lord by himself and proves this by scattering all the subdivisions' flags across her yard.]] He also reports that [[spoiler:he was the one responsible for regathering Makarov's magic power, which was drained from his body by Aria, giving him the strength to defeat Jose Porla.]]

* In the series finale of ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'', Saito somehow [[spoiler: stole a fighter jet from a Japanese military base]] and used it to fly back and save everyone.

** The Setsuna/Tsukuyomi fight in the climax of the [[MagicalLand Magica Mundus]] arc. Here we have Setsuna getting a rematch against an opponent that not only defeated her earlier but also implied that she'd rape Setsuna, or something to that nature. This time Setsuna is armed with a renewed self-confidence and [[spoiler: a new pactio forged by her fandom-pleasing make-out session with Konoka]] while Tsukuyomi [[spoiler: uses some kind of demonic power up of her own]]. The fight starts, it's good and then [[spoiler: it just kind of jumps to the end. We're told that they fought for over half an hour, but we're only shown like a third of that.]] Good build-up that lead to a rather hollow climax because we didn't get to see the stuff that lead up to it.

* The ending of ''SailorMoon S'' skips Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn's fight against [[BigBad Pharoah 90]]. We even get to hear some of it, but it all takes place inside an opaque dome of energy so nothing is seen. This is also the closest Saturn really gets to ''doing'' anything in the series.

* Shin's fight against Raoh in the 1986 movie of ''FistOfTheNorthStar''.

* In ''{{Naruto}}'', the Nine Tailed-Beasts, almost all of which are fought and captured offscreen. When it was revealed one of these characters had control over ''lava'', many fans were extremely annoyed.
** To say the least. Many fans were crushed that such important characters were treated like forgettable {{Mook}}s. The fillers expand on at least one of the Jinchuriki, but still, much is left to be desired.
** Another particularly {{egregious}} example would be Kakashi's [[spoiler: battle against the remaining zombified Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Fans were looking forward to seeing him "go on a rampage" and finally offset the massive [[TheWorfEffect Worf Effect]] that he'd accumulated. Indeed it is implied to be an absolute ''CurbStompBattle in his favor'', but the battle occurred entirely off-panel.]]
*** Fortunately, the anime team was well aware of Kishimoto's choice to omit the battle and gives us a generous AdaptationExpansion, showing a full and proper fight. As we all know, it was probably because a.) fans would've pissed on the animation studio doorstep if they tried to skate around showing the battles, too, and b.) to provide some padding so that the anime won't lap the manga- one filler marathon run was bad enough.
**** The same goes for ''VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStorm3'', which [[AdaptationExpansion expanded]] it into a full boss fight.
** The most {{egregious}} example of all may just be [[SatelliteCharacter Tenten]] [[spoiler: fighting ''Kakuzu'' with the Bashosen - a war fan that drains an immense level of chakra, but in return, can create a vast amount of a specific element. Being a weapon's specialist, and getting some slight screen time (which compares normally to how she gets less panels than a landmark, the hokage mountain) you'd expect a full out fight for the ages coming up, right? Wrong! Instead we see Tenten passed out, face down in the dirt as a medic tells her never to touch the fan again while the panel just before showed two of the three masks broken (Asuma destroyed the other one). Kishimoto basically teases us again later, implying she's planning something with Team 10 but that'll never be revealed either.]]
*** That aforementioned wrong becomes a "Right" in the anime. We get to watch Tenten destroy both masks- one right after she obtains the Bashosen, and then again after several episodes when sunset is approaching and she's heavily tuckered out from hours in battle. Yay, AdaptationExpansion!
** Itachi [[spoiler: blackmailing ''Danzo''.]] Who ''doesn't'' want to see how that went down?
** [[spoiler: Five Kages off panelled by Madara. 'Nuff said. In this case, it's PlayedForDrama and shock potential.]]
*** To be fair, it was made perfectly clear that they didn't stand a chance in hell.

* In the second ''FutariWaPrettyCure Max Heart'' movie, [[SixthRanger Hikari]] decides to fight a [[MonsterOfTheDay Zakenna]] ''by herself'' [[YouShallNotPass so Nagisa and Honoka can proceed]]. Aside from a 2-second scene later, we see nothing of the fight.