Note: This thread was proposed by Wyldchyld.

Wick Check: Inaction Sequence Wick Check

The Problem: Inaction Sequence is a trope that's explicitly about how anime adaptations of manga will use a specific form of padding to extend the original work's fights to overcome the problem of the fight being over in a few minutes of animation in the new medium; the fights get extended by putting in a lot of non-action sequences to drag out the fight. What I found was the following:

• This trope has existed since at least August 2008, yet it only has 20 on-page works (some with multiple bullet points) and 111 wicks.
• The redirect "Not So Fast" had only a handful of examples, all of which were misuse for the dialogue-based "Aha! Not so fast!" moments. As a result, I started to investigate potential misuse of the trope more closely. I conducted a wick check.
• Both the on-page examples and wicks indicate that this is almost exclusively anime/manga-based, and its origins do lie with anime adaptations of manga. The three non-Anime examples on the trope page are either discussions about this happening in anime, or a parody of it happening in anime.
• There was a TRS for this in 2011 to clean-up misuse. At the time, the biggest source of misuse was ignoring the requirement for the example to be about non-action padding that's added to an adaption of an action sequence from an original work. While the clean-up did happen, the subject of it having wider conceptual problems was flagged. However, the TRS was eventually closed due to lack of activity, so nothing was resolved.
• There is a possibility that this is not distinct enough from Padding to merit its own trope.

Wick Check Results:

Of the misuse, by far the most common misuse was using the trope to describe any fight that contained any non-action moments:

I don't think expanding to cover the misuse would be the solution here. In anime/manga, fights having non-action sequences is normal. It's not even for padding, it's the style. It's effectively PSOC for anime/manga and extends into competitions or any kind of non-fight confrontations (especially in more comedic works).

This also seems to be anime/manga exclusive. There aren't many non-anime/manga examples and almost all of the ones I checked were trope misuse. Where it is correct, the question arises of whether this is distinct enough from Padding to exist in its own right.

• Discussed in one of the "Fourth Wall Week" strips of Kid Radd, which discusses how, more often than not, the transition of manga to anime often results in the creation of these to fill time, since it's simpler and cheaper to animate lengthy conversations between characters instead of action sequences. Correct use of Discussed Trope.
• Defied in Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. In one episode dedicated parodying Yu-gi-oh!, Ami starts thinking about a strategy while she's fighting Yumi...only for Yumi to tell her to get on with it. Correct use: defied trope parody.

• .hack//SIGN which took place inside of a video game is well known for its extremely talkative and long conversations. However, because of the background investigations going on with the leads, it's forgiven. There are moments of intense action and suspense, but the dialog to action ratio is easily 5:1. No adaptation padding; the original work just has more dialogue than action during fights.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion is infamous for its use of this trope. Misuse: These examples are just about things taking a long time, which is nothing to do with an adaptation padding out a fight with non-action scenes compared to the original.
  • The 53-second long elevator scene, where Asuka and Rei stand motionless in an elevator.
  • After Kaworu reveals himself as an angel, there is a long shot of Unit 01 holding him in its hand before decapitating him.
  • Misato's several minute long sex scene with Kaji is depicted from an angle that only shows the dresser in the bedroom. The long silent periods make this particularly uncomfortable.
• The anime Gantz gets ludicrous with this trope later on. One might suspect the protagonist body count to have been significantly less had they just shut up and shot the bloody aliens more. Misuse: Complaining misuse about how fights are structured in the work.
  • The Abridged Series parodied this when Kato and another character start a long winded philosophy discussion rather than saving Nishi. Who is beaten to death.
  • The talking instead of fighting is ludicrous from the get-go and only gets worse. The first few battles probably would've been over in seconds if someone was willing to just shoot instead of angsting over taking the life of something that just tore a teammate limb from limb. One would think they would get used to it later, but no such luck. The sad and ironic part is that the above-mentioned scene in the Abridged series isn't that far off from what actually happened in the real anime...
• Sailor Moon Crystal is a Shot-for-Shot Remake of the original manga, and as a result it gets hit with this hard. Examples include one of the Shittenou killing Tuxedo Mask with a shot meant for Sailor Moon, after which he does nothing for eight minutes while the other characters stand around mourning, and the final episode of the Death Busters arc, which starts with a three-minute recap followed by ninety seconds of Combat Commentary before anything actually happens, ruining the dramatic tension of the previous episode's Cliffhanger. Misuse: Example admits the anime is faithful to the manga, so the issue isn't adaptational padding.
• GaoGaiGar does this on occasion, with the action stopping for a short time while the narrator described what was going on, such as describing the effects of somebody's new attack, though the inaction is never long enough that it keeps the Monster of the Week from being flattened this episode. Misuse: The anime is the original, so this isn't adaptational padding, it's about the structure of fights in the original work.
• The matches between big-name teams in Slam Dunk suffer from this too. Not only in the anime, where a single 40-minute match takes up around five 24-minute episodes (in average, being generous) to have a result, but also in the manga, in which they take mostly three whole volumes from start to finish. While other things that usually would take much longer (such as Sakuragi spending one whole week improving on his shooting) are said and done in a single issue. Misuse: Both the original and adaptation take a long time to do fights.
  • Sports anime series in general tend to be guilty of this. Perhaps the earliest offender would be the original Captain Tsubasa anime series. Later remakes would shorten the matches somewhat,though. Misuse: Examples are not general.
• The final episode of The Sacred Blacksmith has the black-cloaked man wait for a minute while Cecily gives Luke a motivational speech, and then another two minutes while Luke and Lisa use magic to forge a sword to fight him. It's not as drastic as most other examples here, except that neither Luke nor Cecily have a weapon at that point, and he seems to have no compunction against killing them while they are unarmed. Misuse: This just seems to be something taking a long time, and not adaptational padding.
• Ramen Fighter Miki plays this trope so straight it could be a parody at episode 2B: Kankuro and Miki are less than ten meters apart before their fight. Then Kankuro begins to run towards Miki to attack her, and he manages to imitate the voice over of a local train before fighting. Miki stays immobile while she begins to imitate the voiceover of a bullet train and adopts an Ass Kicking Pose. Then she begins to run towards Kankuro. Akihiko desperately cries to Kankuro to stop. Kankuro manages to answer that he will increase the power. Miki and Kankuro take one minute and ten seconds running into themselves a distance of less than ten meters. And it's epic. Misuse: This isn't about adaptational padding.
• Parodied in a Questionable Content strip in which Dale and Marigold are watching Ass Swordsman Tetsuo, an anime about a guy who pulls swords out of his butt and fights demons. Misuse: This doesn't seem to be about adaptational padding, just the tendency for manga and anime to draw out fights regardless of medium.
  Dale: The first six episodes were just a scientist explaining the physics of butt swords. The second arc was him meeting a demon and convincing it to be nice using logic.
  Marigold: Then there were 4 filler episodes about a trip to the hot springs with his dad. His dad is really boring.
  Dale: We are 22 episodes in. He has yet to pull a single sword from his ass.
  Marigold: I can't tell if it's a brilliant deconstruction of shonen anime tropes or if it's just garbage.

• Often mocked in Black Lagoon. Most who have tried have ended up taking at least one bullet, courtesy of Revy. ZCE

• This trope describes half or more of the screen time of Bleach, in which Ichigo and his friends invade the Soul Reaper citadel in agonizingly slow motion. One on one duels with the Soul Reaper officers often take up most of two and three episodes to complete, most of the time occupied in taunts, threats, warnings, and detailed explanations of each character's strengths and invincible spiritual powers. Unclear: The original manga does this with all the fights and the anime repeats this. As a result, this entry isn't being clear about whether the anime adaptationally pads the fights compared to the original.
  • Cutting to a flashback just before the climax of the fight, in order to explain the bad guy's entire life story. Although, those flashbacks happened in the manga as well, just with slightly less detail. Unclear: while it's saying there is more flashback detail in the adaptation, it's really downplaying the significance of it, thereby talking itself out of being an example.
  • In this case, the anime is very faithful to the manga. After the Soul Society arc is over, you get the feeling the writers have no clue how to continue the plot and just shove out more and more Midstrike Dialogs. Unclear: Talking the example off the page by claiming the anime is faithful to the manga, and then complaining about the rest of the work.
  • The fight between Kurotsuchi and Szayel is a particular offender; the two of them are Mad Scientists, so they more or less spend the entire fight just staring at each other and explaining all their countermeasures. Unclear: the original fight pretty much was a war of words and science instead of actual fighting. So, this example isn't explaining whether the anime created adaptational padding.
  • Seemingly subverted when Ichigo fights Renji the first time. While Renji pauses to gloat about how much more powerful he is than Ichigo, Ichigo strikes. Of course, then it's Ichigo's turn to stop and gloat. Unclear: The original fight covers multiple manga chapters, so the example isn't being clear whether the anime engaged in adaptational padding.
• Reborn! (2004) does this fairly frequently, to the extent of making the battle for the sky ring — which is supposedly a bit over half an hour — take up eight episodes. Unclear: It doesn't clarify if the anime has padded out the fight compared to the manga. It only tells us how long it takes in the anime.
• Ninja Nonsense parodies this, with Onsokumaru into a long series of flashbacks from the previous week of his life... to explain something that occurred five minutes earlier. All of the ninja wonder why he wasted their time. Unclear: This may be a parody of manga taking a long time to get through a specific sequence, but there's no indication it's a parody of adaptational padding.
• In Street Fighter II V, one of the worst inaction sequences was in the second-to-last episode, where about 4 minutes into the episode consisted of nothing but M. Bison powering up and the Shadowlaw base collapsing. Unclear: This is complaining about a long inaction sequence, but isn't clear whether this is due to adaptational padding or not.

Dragon Ball

• The all-time king of this sort of time-filler is the Dragon Ball Z anime, where a single fight scene can last upwards of five episodes before the first punch is thrown. It was one of the earliest examples of this trope, as the rule was to make each episode match one chapter of the manga. To their credit, they did sometimes engage in Lampshade Hanging, such as when Goku tries to emulate the silly pose of his opponent, and points out that it looks cool, but offers no tactical advantage. As the joke goes: "How many Dragon Ball Z characters does it take to change a light bulb? One, but it takes him six episodes to do it." And that's if it's just a minor event. If changing a lightbulb is a major plot point, it will take half the cast, an entire season, and at least two wishes on the Dragon Balls. These examples were mostly due to Filler, as the original manga was a lot faster paced. Mostly correct, except for the last sentence: filler doesn't count for this trope because it's created new for the anime medium to pass time until there's more manga to adapt.
  • The most infamous example of this is the 19-episode Goku vs Frieza fight, after which Frieza set the planet of Namek to self-destruct in "5 minutes", and they continue to fight on Namek for an additional 9.5 episodes. In fact, halfway through the battle a computer calculates how long until Namek explodes, and the answer is 3 minutes. Frieza powering up must have taken longer than that, and none of the previous statements were exaggerations - well, except for maybe the bit about Frieza powering up. Correct use: the anime padded out the fight over a huge amount of episodes with vast amounts of non-action sequences, compared to the original fight in the manga.
  • Whenever there is a draw to choose placement in a tournament, expect at least five episodes. This also goes for the original Dragon Ball. Misuse: The entry states that it took a long time in the manga, too, implying that the anime isn't padding it out excessively compared to the original.
  • Speaking of the original series, this trope is kinda unbuilt early on in the story. When Oolong first confronts Goku, he transforms into a bull and smack-talks him in an attempt to drive him off, since Oolong isn't all that strong. Goku is pretty much unfazed, and asks Oolong to fight him already. This ends up dragging on long enough for Oolong's transformation to wear off, forcing him to run out of sight before anyone finds out that he's just a tiny little pig. Misuse: This is discussing how dragged out the fight is in the original work, so it's not talking about adaptation padding.
  • Dragon Ball Z's spending large amounts of time talking about doing things before actually doing them was lampshaded by Super Buu of all people, who gets increasingly pissed that everyone is just sitting around talking and waiting when he wants to fight. Amusingly, it was an invoked trope - they really were stalling for time in that instance.^note it's a sign of how prevalent this trope was in the series that the only time anyone gets suspicious of all the pointless talking the characters do is the one time all the talking actually does have a strategic purpose - the rest of the time, they can blither as much as they like and no one will suspect a thing Misuse: Example is citing a plot reason for dragging out the fight, so it's not an example of adaptational padding.
    "ALL YOU PEOPLE DO IS TAAAAAAAAAAALK!" (goes into a homicidal rage)
  • Much less egregious in the remake, Dragon Ball Z Kai, though it still has its share of monologues. The amount of pointless chattering removed is truly amazing. ZCE: Examples are not general misuse making the entry ZCE.
  • Thanks to all this padding and every single episode of the dub explaining the plot of the previous episode and the next episode (Next time, on Dragon! Ball! Z!) you only need to watch every third or fourth episode to keep up with the plot. Misuse: Focussing on other types of padding; the trope is for adaptational non-action padding of action scenes.
  • The material covered by Kai is half the length of the same storylines in Z. (Kai is often said to have covered it in a third of the time. However, Kai doesn't go all the way to the end of Z until recently, so some material definitely isn't there. However, the material that was covered was cut in half and loses nothing; remove the endless speeches and flashbacks that cover material we just heard/saw, and you have an infinitely more watchable show.) Misuse: This example is about an adaptation dealing with storylines faster than originally, which isn't the trope.
  • This trope was parodied mercilessly in the video Dragonzball P, where the battle is so consumed by clunky exposition, childish and incoherent banter, and characters staring each other down and making funny faces, that the actual fight consists of one second of Goku lightly slapping Vegeta, at which point the latter falls over and announces his defeat. Correct use: parody adaptation of the original.

Yu-Gi-Oh

• Another major offender is Yu-Gi-Oh!, which is a show about a (children's) card game. Most duels of any importance are stretched out to three or four episodes, because every single turn involves at least one player shouting "Not so fast!" and revealing an unexpected countermeasure, prompting several minutes worth of explanation as to how the countermeasure works. It seems that skill in this game is dependent on the fact that no player, however skilled, has any idea how any of the cards work except for their own. The phrase "You see, my card has another special ability..." is uttered at least twice in nearly every episode. With almost equal frequency, a character will place the duel on hold in order to tell their entire life story to their opponent. Blofeld would have been proud. Correct use: adaptational padding compared to the original card game.
  • Incidentally, the average two-episode duel lasts for about six rounds, and no more than ten. This would take maybe ten minutes to play in real life, without the endless exposition. Misuse: natter; it's just reiterating what the paragraph above it is saying. It should probably be rolled into the above paragraph.
  • Mitigated by the fact that the Duelist Kingdom arc only had the duelists working with 2000 life points and the Battle City arc with 4000, decreasing the amount of time it takes to win significantly. Misuse:debating the example.
  • Oddly, this is averted in most backup or filler duels where not only do the duels take place at a rather fast pace, but they also end up actually being marginally more epic due to the pacing of the duel. An example is the duel where Rebecca is pit against the Chinese duelist. She uses a classic hurt-and-heal strategy that maintained a very consistent beat that puts the other duels in the series to shame. And she did it all in one episode. Misuse: aversions aren't troped.
  • This is given a Lampshade Hanging in The Movie which was told its entire story in 80 minutes, shorter than most large duels. When Pegasus plays a very common card and explains its effect, Kaiba yells at him to shut up, insulted that Pegasus thinks he needs it explained it to him. Amusingly enough, Kaiba then explains the exact effect himself. Correct use.
  • Additional Inaction Sequences come from the large number of flashbacks in episodes. To keep more casual viewers abreast of the plotline, any time a character references a prior event, the scene cuts to a brief flashback of the event. For example, count how many times during the Battle City arc Joey mentions his promise to Yugi, which always leads into the flashback of him saying, "It's true. We'll whip this Marik creep and his Rare Hunter goon squad so hard, they won't know what hit 'em." That same phrase every time. Misuse: this is talking about other kinds of padding; the trope is supposed to be about non-action padding of action scenes.
  • Its Oddly Named Sequel Yu-Gi-Oh! GX started as an anime, so it isn't as bad about this; most duels on that show only last about half an episode. In an ironic turn-around, both players will start out with only a fraction of the standard Hit Points as in a real-life game (except when playing a triangle or tag duel), in order for the duels to not take up so much time. (Nevertheless, Edo/Aster is apparently aware of this trope in the dub: "Is he gonna duel or stand there and ponder his purpose in life?"). Even the longest of duels in GX were at most two full episodes, which is half the time of the average long duel in the original series. Most duels, even the important ones, begin in the latter third or quarter of an episode (where the first bit set up the scenario), end on a cliffhangers, then are finished in the first third or half of the next episode, using the remaining time to detail the aftermath of the duel. Most duels that spent at least one full episode on a duel also had several cuts to other characters making progress on other parts of the story. Though the duel pacing is significantly increased, the amount of exposition is still sometimes painful. This may be a correct use of Averted Trope, given that it's deliberately invoked by the creator to try and avoid this trope.
  • The Bonds Beyond Time movie more or less falls victim to this. It's only an 8 round duel, with two of the protagonists only getting one turn. But it's padded into a 1 hour movie due to explaining Paradox and how he acquired his deck and plan. Correct use.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS ends going back to this practice thanks to Power Creep tied to real life, with turns growing increasingly complex and having to devote a significant time in each episode to explaining each card's effects, summoning animations and long combos. Thus, despite most average duels taking 4 turns at best, they're still 2 episodes long - with the last duel between Playmaker and Bohman taking the cake. Despite being only six turns long, it still takes four episodes to end. Correct use.

Naruto

• Naruto, as you might expect from the vast differences in the speed of the production of the anime and manga, uses this often. Frequently during a fight (especially the Chunin Exam arc), after someone uses a special technique of any kind, another character will spend the next 10-20 seconds explaining it before the attack is even done. The Land of the Waves arc, in all seriousness, flashed back to something that had happened 5 minutes ago. Unclear: It doesn't explain if this is adaptational padding compared to the original.
  • During a section of the first battle between Kakashi and Zabuza, Naruto and Sasuke rescue Kakashi from Zabuza's hydro-prison technique. Zabuza swings his sword, which Kakashi blocks with his fist. For the next 5 minutes, they both stand in this posture, until Naruto completes explaining what they had just done to rescue Kakashi. Unclear: It doesn't explain if this is adaptational padding compared to the original.
  • It gets particularly bad with the first one or two story arcs of Shippuden where they went from covering about 1.5 chapters per episode, to about 1 chapter per episode, necessitating multiple stretches without even any dialogue. Luckily, when they actually started to pad it out with a lengthy filler arc, they came back to more regular levels (or at least adding new scenes instead of nothing). At least 5 episodes have been nothing but Kakashi and Naruto chasing Deidara while Sakura and Chiyo do all the hard work! Correct use.
  • It appears to have subverted this trope in later episodes. The last several episodes have covered multiple chapters in one episode, sometimes up to three, resulting in a much faster-paced show. It might have something to do with the fact that these episodes were made after the manga was announced to end, meaning they don't have to worry about padding as much. Misuse of subversion; it's just the trope not being in play later on.

One Piece

• The One Piece anime usually avoids this, generally preferring to add more scenes instead of dragging out the existing one. However, there is one glaringly ridiculous instance of this trope: during the fight against Enel, Luffy has a brief flashback of something that happened less than ten seconds before. The purpose of the flashback is explained a minute later by Nami anyway. Correct use.
  • The worst example of this was episode 377, which covered a single chapter that had no extended action sequences or was particularly dialogue heavy. The first full ten minutes were a recap of the previous episode and the rest of the episode was full of pans and zooms. However, the events being covered were very dramatic, and the artwork was movie-quality, so it's a bit more forgivable. Unclear: It's not clear whether this is talking about a fight that's been padded out by the adaptation or a non-action scene that's been padded out (which would be misuse).
  • It seems to be happening more after the timeskip, the Punk Hazard arc being the greatest offender. ZCE.

• Fight Unscene: Compare Inaction Sequence. Correct trope description use; Fight Unscene is a method of action-inaction caused by budget constraints. It's therefore not treating Inaction Sequence like they're the same trope.
• Overtook the Manga: Another popular option is to just pad the episodes out and slow the story down. Trope description correct use of Inaction Sequence as a method of padding out an anime that is being adapted from a manga.
• ArtifactTitle.Anime And Manga:
  • Dragon Ball:
    • While the title Plot Coupons are the driving force of the first third or so, once the story is done with Namek in Dragon Ball Z it becomes centered entirely around Villain Arcs, featuring long-winded bouts against said villains. The aforementioned Dragon Balls are relegated to little more than a plot device the protagonists customarily fall back on when too many of their own die, and the obstacle of gathering them up is either done off-screen or made trivial with Goku's Instant Transmission. This comes full circle in Dragon Ball GT, where the Dragon Balls are the central focus again (at least until the producers realized that they couldn't make the new story work and fell back on Villain Arcs again). Seems to be a complaining entry, but the use of Inaction Sequence appears to be correct (adaptational padding).
• Creator.Toei Animation:
  • Filler:
    • Very often, especially in Dragon Ball. Interestingly, Dragon Ball Z receives more flack for being heavy on filler, even though its methods of keeping pace with the manga were reliant on padding and inaction sequences with comparatively few filler episodes/arcs. The entry is natterific, but it does use the Inaction Sequence pothole correctly.
• Webcomic.One Punch Man
  • Inaction Sequence: Frequently defied and deconstructed, as Saitama doesn't like overly long speeches. Whenever someone tries to pull this off, Saitama tends to put a stop to it either verbally or physically. This is a non-subtle 'jab' at mangas/animes that love padding. Entry is aware that this is a padding trope.

• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Also a subtrope of Inaction Sequence, with the extra bonus that the character is making a glaring mistake. Trope description misuse of Inaction Sequence. It's using Inaction Sequence as any occasion where action has moments of inaction. Given that Explaining Your Power to the Enemy is not limited solely to adaptational padding, it cannot be a subtrope of Inaction Sequence (but can be a method for how Inaction Sequence gets employed).
• Growing with the Audience:
  • Transformers:
    • Transformers: Animated found a new mixture of goofy humor and mature storytelling that they could combine with Continuity Porn, which came in contrast to the previous Unicron Trilogy that didn't appeal as much to older fans due to the more simplistic plot, Inaction Sequence and Stock Footage heavy show. After Animated, Transformers: Prime and its follow-up Transformers: Robots in Disguise would flex back and forth between which demographic it was aiming towards but still kept an eye towards keeping the Multiple Demographic Appeal. Talking about the original having lots of inaction moments during action scenes, and not about it being introduced by the adaptation for padding.
• Real Life: On the battlefield, feudal Samurai often engaged in single combat, all the while exchanging colorful and extravagant insults and self-promotions. It occasionally got to the point that they'd momentarily stop dueling just to argue or praise their own combat prowess. Using Inaction Sequence as being just a moment in a fight where the action ceases. Example is also talking about real life, which isn't possible for Inaction Sequence, due to it being about adaptation-introduced inaction sequences for padding purposes.
• Mid-Battle Tea Break: See Inaction Sequence, where a break in the fighting isn't for comedic purposes. Mid-Battle Tea Break is not limited to adaptational padding, so it's misusing Inaction Sequence to be just a dramatic version of Mid-Battle Tea Break.
• Sphere of Destruction:
  • Dragon Ball: Used a lot in Dragon Ball Z, especially in the video game adaptations. Sometimes you can apply a few cubic feet of air for the people who shoot these blasts. Using Inaction Sequence as an example of any occasion when a non-action sequence occurs. It mentions the original and adaptation (video games) in the same breath, thereby ignoring that it's about adaptational padding.
• Talking Heads: For animation, especially action-focused ones, compare Inaction Sequence Trope description misuse; Talking Heads is a trope about people talking and nothing else; it's establishing Inaction Sequence as an anime-specific equivalent trope for action scenes, which is misuse.
• Wraparound Background: It's rarely found in anime, where the tendency is to avoid long running sequences to begin with, Trope description misuse of Inaction Sequence as an anime-specific trope that employes inaction scenes to avoid Wraparound Background, which is misuse.
• Anime.Bakugan:
  • Inaction Sequence: Like with most card and toy based games. Although when it's averted, it's averted awesomely! Laser-Sword Fight! Looking into the history of this work, this anime was not based on a card game or toys. It was designed to be both an anime and a card game that were released simultaneously, but the card game ended up coming out a year before the anime started airing. So, there's no adaptational padding element going on, plus the entry leaning into aversions. It's ZCE and misuse as written, but isn't an example at all.
• Anime.Future War 198 X:
  • Covers Always Lie: The movie poster depicts so many explosions and things going on that watching a movie that is full of inaction sequences is a bit disappointing. They hired the poster designer that did Godzilla and foreign Star Wars, so that might explain it. This seems to be complaining misuse, and the pothole context indicates that Inaction Sequence isn't been referenced because of adaptational padding but just because fights are dragged out compared to the trailer.
• BigDamnHeroes.Anime And Manga
  • Saiyuki:
    • Used again in the finale of Gunlock, when Goku, Hakkai, Gojyo, and Hakuryuu have gotten sick and tired of being attacked by assassins thinking they're still the Sanzo party after they split from the priest, so they decide to go kick his ass right as he's being shot repeatedly. Plenty of jeering, Sanzo gets shot some more...only after that does Goku get a chance to punch him, and then Sanzo punches Gojyo, Sanzo tells them they're pains in the ass, they agree wholeheartedly. All is right with the world. A fight that has periods of inaction misuse.
• Characters.Fairy Tail Redux Salamanders Time Traveling Escapades Main Protagonists:
  • Staring Down Cthulhu: Natsu does this to the Chairman in chapter 10. For twenty minutes. The entry is about a discontinued fanfiction that doesn't appear anywhere online anymore, but the entry is just "fights have moments of inaction" misuse.
• Fanfic.Fairy Tail Redux Salamanders Time Traveling Escapades
  • Inaction Sequence: After Natsu implies that he’ll kill the Chairman for not pardoning Jellal, they just stare at each other for twenty minutes. Despite the threat, however, Jellal gets pardoned. "Fights have moments of inaction" misuse.
• Horrible.Webcomics:
  • WarMage (on hiatus since 2009) is an MS Paint-spawned harem porn monstrosity covered in a hash of superhero (in)action, 20 Minutes into the Future cyberpunk, and whatever Wicca and Hindu mysticism the author feels like tossing in. The antagonists tend to be assorted flavors of Judeo-Christian fundamentalists because, apparently, monotheism equals evil. The webcomic is already bad on its own, but the author decided to clone it for different genres - Monster Lover (a mishmash of RPG Elements) and A Call to Destiny (a mishmash of RPG elements in space!). The creator's fourth comic breaks the pattern but is otherwise just as bad: Shadow Root, which is basically Fifty Shades of Grey meets Urban Fantasy. The Webcomic Relief took a belated look at WarMage here. This is a work summary that misuses the Inaction Sequence pothole for superheroes not fighting.
• LampshadeHanging.Anime And Manga
  • Anime.Dragon Ball Z: The entire fight between Gotenks and Super Buu is made of this trope. Gotenks does every stupid bit from the earlier fights in the show, such as taking forever to power up and holding back so much he risks losing the fight, but draws attention to it. Fights have inaction moments misuse.
• Manga.Death Note
  • Inaction Sequence: The anime; see Walls of Text below. ZCE, so checked the Wall of Text entry.
    • Walls of Text: The manga, partially because of the very nature of the story and partially because Ohba made sure it had 108 chapters. Confirms misuse because the two entries together are effectively saying "the anime, because the manga does it for reasons that have nothing to do with adaptational padding".
• Manga.Ga Rei
  • Inaction Sequence: Chapter 45, which is more or less an Infodump about The End of the World as We Know It. Infodump misuse.
• Manga.Kaiji
  • Inaction Sequence: As the gamble goes on, entire chapters will be spent with one character debating whether or not they're going to raise or fold. Non-action scene during non-fight scene misuse.
    • Taken to the extreme with the final round, where it takes three chapters for the machine to flip over the cards to reveal the winner. Non-action scene during non-fight scene misuse.
• Manga.The Prince Of Tennis
  • Inaction Sequence: During tennis matches. ZCE, but it's misuse because it's the original story (not an adaptation).
• PlayingWith.Heroic Second Wind
  • Parodied:
    • The hero and villain play a continual game of one-upmanship with this trope, each getting up repeatedly after being beaten down. Cue Inaction Sequence. "Fight has moments of inaction" misuse.
• PlayingWith.No Sell
  • Averted: The entire series is based on posturing and bragging, so we never see Evulz' claims put to the test. "No fights occur misuse.
• Quotes.Animation Age Ghetto Pothole misuse for fights that have inaction moments.

• Recap.Epic Rap Battles Of History Goku Vs Superman
  • Inaction Sequence: Superman calls Goku out for his fight scenes being these. As he puts it, "Just one punch and over 9000 screams!" "Fights have moments of inaction" misuse.
• Recap.Kill La Kill Ep 9 A Once In A Lifetime Chance
  • Inaction Sequence: Gamagoori invokes this, refusing to fight Ryuko until the proper time by a few minutes. He's that disciplined for the rules. "Fights have moments of inaction" misuse.
• SoBadItsGood.Anime And Manga
  • Super Atragon, especially in the English dub, gets the nod here for:
    • Transformers: Armada 's dub: "Stairs? This keeps getting weirder and weirder!", the fight scenes where nobody seems to move, the long pauses between responses from characters, the lack of movement in non-fight scenes... the failure to keep track of which character has which name... "Fights have moments of inaction" misuse.
• TropersDoIt.Before Anyone Else
  • Shonen heroes do it while standing perfectly still. "Fights have moments of inaction" misuse.
• VideoGame.Siege Of Avalon
  • Inaction Sequence: Your health is low? Your healing rate is low? You're out of Mana? You didn't bring any party members who know healing magic? Stand around and wait for your mana to regenerate, then use it to heal yourself. Then wait more so you have some magic to throw around in battle. And make sure you're in a nice out-of-the-way place, so you don't get attacked. There are no potions of any kind in the game (that you can use, anyway), and only one person (besides your party members) who will use magic to heal you and restore your mana—and he's inside the castle, which you certainly aren't when you need him. This is just about characters not being able to fight for extended periods of time, and may be complaining misuse as well.
• WebAnimation.Red Vs Blue The Chorus Trilogy
  • Inaction Sequence: Intentionally played out in the finale. Just as Charon's troops are about to bust through the door and make a last stand against the Reds and Blues, Epsilon slows time down to a halt, and leaves several recordings apologizing from the bottom of his heart for what he's about to do, before sacrificing himself to grant Tucker some extra power. As soon as this happens, the episode ends, leaving the audience hanging. Misuse. It's not adaptational padding and actually occurs before the fight begins. It's an example of Bullet Time to focus on how the AI can make complex calculations and decisions and even entire speeches in fractions of a second and then the episode ends as a Bolivian Army Cliffhanger without the fight ever occurring.
• WebAnimation.Terrible Writing Advice
  • Inaction Sequence: Encourages using exposition scenes in the middle of an animated fight scene as it pads the runtime and saves on animation budget. Bonus points if your characters outline how their powers work instead of actually using it! Misuse; It's conflating Inaction Sequence (adaptational runtime padding) and Fight Unscene (padding fights with non-action for budgetary reasons).
• WebAnimation.Weekly Tube Show
  • Take That!: To the original series: "Fight has moments of inaction" misuse.
  One of Cell's duplicates: We're supposed to be killing Goku, why are we still still standing around talking?
• Webcomic.Game Destroyers
  • Inaction Sequence: Lampshaded by the Nintendo Otaku. "Fight scenes have moments of inaction" misuse.
  Otaku: Are we gonna fight, or are you just gonna stand there and bitch?'

• Deranged Animation:
  • Dragonzball P, a parody of the numerous Inaction Sequences that Dragon Ball Z is known for, is filled to the brim with nonsensical dialogue, frequent Art Shifts, faces distorting and rearranging at random, and characters inexplicably spinning in place. ZCE pothole.
• Film.Werewolf 1996
  • Inaction Sequence: The barroom scene. ZCE
• IReadThatAs.N To S
  • Shirtless Scene
    • Shitless Scene (Or, in other context, Shitless Scene) ZCE.
• ImageSource.Webcomics
  • Chainsawsuit
    • Inaction Sequence ZCE
• Manga.Magi The Labyrinth Of Magic
  • Inaction Sequence: The anime gets pretty bad with this in the later episodes. ZCE.
• Manga.Spiral
  • Inaction Sequence: More of an ending alteration. ZCE and Examples Are Not Arguable misuse.
• Webcomic.Buttlord GT
  • Inaction Sequence: Everywhere. ZCE.
• YMMV.Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans
  • Just Here for Godzilla:
    • Some fans who were not entirely fond of episodes with inaction sequences are waiting for Mobile Suit battles instead. Then again, this is hardly a new trend for the Gundam franchise. ZCE pothole.

• Adaptation Distillation:
  • Dragon Ball Z Kai cut out a lot of the Filler and Inaction Sequences in the original Dragon Ball Z. Not only did this reduce the story from 291 episodes down to 167, but it was also far more faithful to the original manga than the 1989 TV series. Conversational use of the trope; Pothole appears correct but context is talking about aversions.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • Dragon Ball
    • The Universe Survival Saga from Dragon Ball Super is inconsistently hit with arc fatigue. After a setup that takes twenty episodes, mostly spent gathering team members and watching the arena be built (for the former, the intro made Universe 7's whole lineup clear beforehand except for Frieza replacing Buu), the actual tournament starts. Initially, it was well-received for its wild action and Visual Effects of Awesome. However, as the tournament goes on for significantly longer than even the Future Trunks arc — despite, in classic Dragon Ball fashion, the tournament only lasting 48 minutes in-universe — it starts to fall into fatigue territory. While some fans enjoy the unique battles and non-stop action, others criticize many of the fights for being glorified Filler that lack plot progression or emotional impact. This reaches a head when Jiren takes prominence as the clear Arc Villain, doing away much of the tension and appeal of a Battle Royale since it's clear from early on that it will come down to a final battle between Jiren and Goku in his latest Super Mode, while the other battles just serve to waste time and whittle down the cast. Not helped at all by Jiren himself being a very divisive character for his personality, effortless defeating of multiple popular characters, and what is perceived to be a poorly done Freudian Excuse. Unclear pothole: Conversational/complaining use; context is unclear as to whether adaptational padding is in effect or whether this is just the how the original fight; also some implication of misuse as the context seems to be complaining about how long it took rather than it being about padding non-action into action scenes.
• Backstory:
  • Shonen anime such as Naruto or Bleach will often spend entire episodes - occasionally right in the middle of a major battle - delving into the backstory of a character as they gather their energy for a 'second wind' to get back into the fight. It most often takes place while they are (apparently) critically wounded... perhaps a nod to the old cliché of one's life passing before one's eyes. Unclear pothole: Context does state it's about non-action moments within action scenes, but isn't clear whether this is an adaptational padding issue or an original work issue.
• Just Between You and Me: Many anime use this as a technique to drag out the fights. Trope description misuse of Inaction Sequence as just being an anime-style of dragging out fights with inaction. It implies that it knows the trope is about adaptational padding, but doesn't confirm that, making it unclear whether it's correct use or not.
• Plot Time: Inaction Sequence: Characters ostensibly in the middle of an action sequence spend most of the time talking. Index entry: It's correct that Inaction Sequence is a type of Plot Time, but the entry doesn't make it clear that it knows the trope is specifically a type of Plot Time used for adaptational padding.
• Funny.Boxxy Quest The Gathering Storm:
  • In one sidequest, you get hired part-time at the Battle Arena… to do the laundry. As in, the entire process, including the part where you sit beside the washing machine and wait for the rinse cycle to finish, so you can take the load out, put it in the dryer, and keep waiting. This doesn't even seem to be connected to the fight, just an inaction scene instead of or alongside a fight, but it's not clear enough.
• Manga.Soul Eater
  • Inaction Sequence: In the anime, after their initial clash, Stein and Medusa sat and eyeballed each other for about five episodes while the students ran ahead to stop the Black Blood. Unclear; it's clearly about the adaptation, but it's not clear whether it's faithful to the manga and the new format just means it's stretched by default, or whether the eyeballing is put in to pad out the action.
• NeverLiveItDown.Anime And Manga
• Dragon Ball:
  • DBZ is often poked fun at for its dragged out fight scenes... However, the only time it was really as bad as the jokes made them out to be were during the Namek Saga. Other times were not as bad. Unclear pothole, but implied correct use.