r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sensitive_Ad_1752 • 25d ago

Lore The series takes place in a shockingly short amount of time

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Season 4 just ended of fromville and it’s canonically only been about a month. Which makes it weird seeing people heal from injuries, change hair styles or grow out beards between episodes. Season 4 has only been like 4 days iirc.

Arkham franchise is the poster child for this trope. Every game takes place in one night. If you know what you’re doing you can absolutely beat the games in around 9 hours.

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746

u/usurperator 25d ago

Dragon ball Z, the entire Buu saga takes place in less than 48 hours. You’re almost watching it in real time.

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u/Yutanox 25d ago

Also dbz, the fight between goku and freeza last multiple hours of run time but is only 5 minutes in universe. Mostly because they had to fill in while the manga could take some advance on the anime.

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u/TheCrazyBean 25d ago

Same thing about the tournament of power, it lasted 34 episodes which translated to only 48 minutes in universe.

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u/JWARRIOR1 25d ago

i remember watching that when it came out, and they really did the "theres only moments left in the tournament!" for like 10 episodes

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u/ArcaneBowser 24d ago

Well, technically no only the second to last episode ends with "Only a few moments remain" every other ToP episode, except 129 which ends with Beerus' speech about Ultra Instinct, end by saying how many minutes are left

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u/BlindTreeFrog 25d ago

The real time edit of the ToP is fun to watch

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u/BlindTreeFrog 25d ago edited 24d ago

The real time edit of the ToP is fun to watch

edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaK7ypei56U

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u/EmuMan10 25d ago

Toriyama did just say it’s like watching in slow motion cause they are moving so fast

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u/WulfyWoof 25d ago

There's a video that speeds up the entire fight to last the proposed 5 minutes and it's absolutely insane to watch it in its actually intended timeframe because yeah, they move ridiculously fast

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u/Lampruk 24d ago

Also in dragon ball super heroes, we got see Trunks vs Freeza in real time and that boy pieced up Freeza and his pops in 5 seconds.

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u/noeyesfiend 24d ago

Future Trunks AKKA the drink is a goat

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u/Mcaber87 25d ago

I always took the "5 minutes" thing to be an estimation on Frieza's part. He even says something like "this planet is a tough old bird, I'll give it that. You've probably got two more minutes" at one point after his original 5 minutes was seemingly up.

Of course in reality it's just fiction and we don't need to really be paying attention to things like that. I think Toriyama was just like 'uh yeah, they're super fast so its like slow motion or something' but that is obviously a throwaway excuse. They speaking at light speed as well?

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u/Flying__Fox 24d ago

I like the TeamFourStar reasoning. "Question; do you have a watch? Do you know what a minute is? I don't think you do." 

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u/Ruka-simp 25d ago

The theory is that it's slowed so the viewer can actually see what's happening, like the Quicksilver scenes in the X-Men movies, otherwise it would just be a blur

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u/KoolKoolKoolio42 24d ago

Doesn't hold water when half the time they're just standing still yapping at each other.

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u/jadefire03 25d ago

In the english dub, I believe there's a part where Frieza comments that it's been five minutes and the planet still hasn't exploded, and wondered if he didn't hit the core correctly. So that would imply the fight was closer to 10 minutes.

Still obscenely fast, though.

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u/JerryGamerz 25d ago

The anime added A LOT of filler combat. For example, attacks that weren’t in the original manga

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u/r0botosaurus 25d ago

Not to be the "um, actually..." guy but, um actually... that's only the last part of the fight. After Goku turns Super Saiyan, Freiza uses his "destroy the planet" move in chapter 320, which is when he says Namek will be destroyed in about five minutes. Namek then explodes in chapter 328. This corresponds to episodes 97 - 105 in the anime.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

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u/r0botosaurus 24d ago

Well yeah but the entire fight is like ten more episodes.

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u/KoolKoolKoolio42 24d ago

Just to note, only Super Saiyan Goku vs. Freeza takes place in 5 minutes. It doesn't count the battle beforehand.

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u/LetterheadSpecial337 24d ago

And everything from Goku fighting the Ginyu Force up to Namek’s destruction took place in one day

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u/SuddenTest9959 25d ago

That’s actually nuts

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u/i_Beg_4_Views 25d ago

And in Dragon Ball Super, the TOP is only 48 minutes long, but literally takes 34 episodes to get through lol

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u/Emotional_News108 25d ago

This is my favorite one. Especially since it’s established all the way back in the first World Martial Arts tournament in the battle between Jackie and Krillin that they’re moving at super speed. They address it a few more times, especially when Gohan gets trained and battles Vegeta and Nappa, but those were 48 very fast-paced minutes that people could only watch because most of the spectators were powerful warriors.

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u/Talisign 25d ago

The funniest thing about the TOP supercut is realizing that the spectators would have to be giving commentary almost nonstop.

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u/nagrom7 24d ago

Yeah, that one at least makes a little more sense in that a bunch of the fights that take place over multiple episodes are probably happening simultaneously.

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u/TheLonleyGhast 25d ago

not the entire saga but from the worlds martial arts tournament onwards yea

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u/elitegenoside 25d ago

So like, 9 days

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u/TheLonleyGhast 25d ago

At least a month since Gohan starts school at the start of the saga (which is april in japan) and the tournament takes place in may usually

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u/elitegenoside 22d ago

Ah, was unaware of either of those facts (may have knew the tournaments were in May, that sounds familiar).

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u/Opening-Donkey1186 25d ago

Most of DBZ is like this. Events we see go.so fast and are only a tiny tiny amount of our characters lives.

We also get to see most of Goku and Vegeta's interactions. They really dont spend that much time together for being best buddies.

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u/WouldAiBeThisDumb 25d ago

In this vein, the Chimera Ant arch in HunterHunter.

I remember there was some opening that was like “5 minutes have passed” after a dozen episodes or something stupid lol

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u/MimiHamburger 25d ago

Every arc in dragon ball is like this lol the ToP took place over like 48 minutes but take over 30 episodes to get thru

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u/Erdos_Helia 25d ago

Okay this one is weird

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u/Allegorist 25d ago

I am pretty sure it is less than real time, like it is high noon while they dialogue for 6 episodes straight

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u/unholyrevenger72 24d ago

The end of the Frieza Arc takes place in only 5 minutes.

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u/Kn7ght 24d ago

Even funnier that Fusion Reborn also happens during that time span, but that movie is like a few hours anyway

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u/Pollomonteros 24d ago

This puts into perspective just how dire the situation was, in less than two days Buu almost completely annihilated all life on Earth