History Main / OvertookTheManga

* With ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', apparently Creator/{{CLAMP}} was very upset that production company Bee Train had to resort to making stuff up. When the manga reached the [[DarkerAndEdgier Acid Tokyo arc]], the damage was already done and CLAMP gave the rights to Creator/ProductionIG to continue the anime in [=OVA=] form. The fillers did break several rules that CLAMP stories strictly abide by. Most egregiously, one episode had the heroes using a wish to restore the dead to life. An immutable, unbreakable law of nature in the Tsubasa-verse is that the dead '''never''' come back to life, no matter what happens. Hell, it ends up being one of the ''central themes of the entire story''.

* The ''Literature/NikkiHeat'' novels are a strange example, being a {{defictionalization}} of an [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe novel series]] from the ''Series/{{Castle}}'' TV show. In the show, the fictional ''Nikki Heat'' novels gradually stop being mentioned by about season 5; the series itself was ScrewedByTheNetwork at the end of season 8 in 2016. The real-world ''Literature/NikkiHeat'' novels ran for ''ten'' volumes through 2019, the second-to-last of which crossed over with Castle's earlier ''Derrick Storm'' novel series, which itself had been given [[ComicBook/DeadlyStorm a defictionalized comic book adaptation]] by this point.

* A similar example occurs with the SNES adaptation of ''VideoGame/JurassicPark''. Ocean couldn't wait for the sequel (or even the novel it would be loosely based on) and created their own, ''VideoGame/JurassicPark2TheChaosContinues''. It had a vaguely similar plot to the eventual sequel--a rival genetics company tries to take control of the island by force, and Alan Grant is sent to stop them. Nobody stopped to question why Grant was suddenly a gun-toting Contra-esque mercenary… or why he'd care about any of this.
* Ocean got hit by this on the Genesis[=/=]Megadrive with ''VideoGame/JurassicParkRampageEdition'', which is an ActionizedSequel that takes place after the first game (although, unlike the SNES sequel, it retains the gameplay style of its predecessor).

* When Konami wanted to make a sequel to ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' following the success of the NES port in North America, they commissioned one of their teams to make a sequel specifically for the American market, resulting in the creation of ''VideoGame/SnakesRevenge''. This inspired Hideo Kojima to make his own sequel for the [=MSX2=], ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake''. ''Snake's Revenge'' is not considered part of the official ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' continuity, as the events of the game are incompatible with what occurs in the official sequel. [[spoiler:Namely, the way Big Boss' return is handle in both games. Both games takes place three/four years after the original ''Metal Gear'' and have Big Boss forming a new terrorist organization with a new Metal Gear prototype in his hands. However, in ''Snake's Revenge'' he also turns in a huge cyborg during the final battle.]]

* ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureAllStarBattle'' was released shortly after ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureJojolion JoJolion]]'', ''[=JoJo=]''[='=]s eighth part, began serialization, resulting in only one character from it (Josuke) being included, with his moveset based on what little the developers had to go off of at the time, Its story mode also consists of Josuke fighting against all the previous parts' protagonists rather than a condensed retelling of the manga. Its remaster, ''All Star Battle R'', didn't change this even though it came out over a year after ''[=JoJolion=]'' ended.

* ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' finished Episode VI in mid-2017, but the writers decided to hold off on adapting the still-in-progress sequel trilogy until ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' was released in late 2019. To compensate, they adapted ''Film/RogueOne'' as a WholeEpisodeFlashback, which worked out nicely as the original Episode IV adaptation (released in the early 2010's, years before ''Rogue One'' was even announced) started InMediasRes and never showed the earlier important events, which neatly lined up with the time-frame of ''Rogue One''. When they still needed more time, the comic then adapted the ''Franchise/StarWars''/''Franchise/TheMuppets'' crossover special as a post-Episode VI story, while also slowing down uploads from thrice-weekly to once-weekly. The Episode VII adaptation, ''The Forced-Away Kin'', finally began in early 2020.

* A similar example occurs with the SNES adaptation of ''VideoGame/JurassicPark''. Ocean couldn't wait for the sequel (or even the novel it would be loosely based on) and created their own, ''VideoGame/JurassicPark2TheChaosContinues''. It had a vaguely similar plot to the eventual sequel--a rival genetics company tries to take control of the island by force, and Alan Grant is sent to stop them. Nobody stopped to question why Grant was suddenly a gun-toting Contra-esque mercenary… or why he'd care about any of this. Good music, though.
** Ocean did the same thing on the Genesis[=/=]Megadrive with ''VideoGame/JurassicParkRampageEdition'', which is an ActionizedSequel that takes place after the first game (although, unlike the SNES sequel, it retains the gameplay style of its predecessor).

However, if a series is especially popular (and/or marketable), its anime version will begin before the manga even ends. Because of medium conventions, it takes longer for events to unfold in manga than it does in anime -- the average conversion being roughly 2 (weekly) manga chapters to make 1 anime episode -- and this often means that before long an anime will simply run out of source material. While some manga series are published weekly (e.g., ''Shonen Magazine''/''Sunday''/''Jump'', etc), others are published on a monthly schedule (e.g., ''Magazine/Nakayoshi'', ''Shonen Ace''). However, most anime are aired weekly, which only makes it worse, especially for manga that have just started recently. The producers of the anime are then in a fix: they can't just wait for the creator to produce more material because they have a broadcast schedule to meet. Japanese shows are almost always broadcast solely as original episodes without re-runs, so no new episodes is akin to being cancelled. This is something that is frequently lost in translation outside of Japan, with the result being that, unlike Western shows, television shows aren't really made in the form of "seasons", with breaks written into the production schedule. They just keep going and going and going until they finish/get cancelled, or stop at a predesignated point. This is also why lots of anime are only 12/13 or 24/26 episodes long, because that's all they were scheduled for, regardless of popularity. However, there are shows that are starting to break this tradition by adopting the "seasons" model, such as ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''.

** The Namek Arc is possibly the most infamous arc by way of desperately trying to avert this trope, having a huge amount of padding and filler. This was unfortunate because Namek was an uninteresting [[SingleBiomePlanet archipelago world]] whose sparse population was almost completely wiped out by the BigBad before the heroes even get there, meaning they couldn't conjure up new locations or characters like in earlier stories set on Earth (so it introduced its own Earth-set B-stories). Despite its efforts, the anime still came dangerously close to fulfilling this trope: the conflict with Frieza was ''right up'' against the manga by only a couple of chapters, with the episode of Goku transforming into a Super Saiyan being the closest the anime ever got to overtaking the source material.
** As a result of the above, the Garlic Jr. saga occured in the timeskip immediately after Namek to give some breathing room for the manga to forge ahead into the Android Arc. [[TropesAreTools While the arc itself does delve into story elements the manga would not]], it too has a fair amount of padding and nonsensical storytelling.

* The first anime adaptation of ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'', ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', went into an AlternateContinuity from its very early episodes, although the changes were fairly subtle in the beginning. This is because the creators [[PragmaticAdaptation knew in advance that it would overtake the manga]], as did [[Creator/HiromuArakawa the manga's creator]], who explicitly asked them to take this route. Averted with the second series, ''[[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood]]'', whose release was carefully timed to end almost simultaneously with the manga -- the final episode was aired about two weeks after the final manga chapter was released.

* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'''s first anime went a completely different direction with characterization in its second half, the "Incognito Arc", due to catching up with Kohta Hirano's manga '''''extremely''''' early on (as in, ''before the BigBad was even introduced''). This was made worse by the fact that (1) Hellsing was a monthly series, and (2) Hirano is famously {{lazy|Artist}}, regularly turning in chapters only 10 pages long in a magazine where the average is 25-30. Hirano was extremely unhappy with the anime, and further adaptation of the comic was postponed for years. ''Anime/HellsingUltimate'', an {{OVA}} series ''much'' more in line with the original, was then made.

Unfortunately, unpopular or unwelcome [[FillerArc filler arcs]] and episodes may often be {{Misblamed}} as being the fault of the original creators, when in reality the creators almost always have nothing to do with the filler plot. Some fillers that were better received by fans are often cited as being opportunities to develop lesser characters (this helps a lot with anime that have a cast size near the size of the production staff).

Another popular option is to just [[{{Padding}} pad the episodes out]] and [[InactionSequence slow the story down]]. This was common in the ''Manga/DragonBall'' series, which unfortunately meant that many people thought the manga was exactly the same or that Creator/AkiraToriyama's [[{{Misblamed}} writing was at fault, when in reality the pace of the anime was out of his hands]] (his manga is a much brezzier experience, but unfortunately nowhere near as famous).

Finally, the writers can choose to just diverge from the manga entirely and do a GeckoEnding instead. An example of this is [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003 the 2003 adaptation]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', which was actually produced with this in mind due to the mangaka knowing that this trope was inevitable and feeling the other two options would ruin the story.

* ''Manga/AkameGaKill'' really started deviating from the manga once it reached around Episode 20, with many source readers outraged at [[EverybodyDiesEnding the direction it went in]]. The manga ended 3 years later in 2017; ironically enough, its ending was actually rather similar to the anime's, with only a ''slightly'' lower body count.

Another popular option is to just [[{{Padding}} pad the episodes out]] and [[InactionSequence slow the story down]]. This was common in the ''Manga/DragonBall'' series, which unfortunately meant that many people thought the manga was exactly the same or that Creator/AkiraToriyama's [[{{Misblamed}} writing was at fault, when in reality the pace of the anime was out of his hands]].

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' is notorious for introducing loads of {{Padding}} and filler as they waited for the manga to catch up. There are also notable points that allowed the anime to capitalize on large stretches of time the manga doesn't cover and write its own original stories:
** The very first occurrence of a filler sequence in ''Manga/DragonBall'' is after Goku departs to search for the Four Star Ball after the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, where Goku encounters Colonel Silver early, fights the Pilaf Gang again and spends an episode or two with Chi Chi and the Ox King (all at the same time!).
** Easily the most common excuse for filler sequences are manga time skips where characters train and prepare for an upcoming battle. It would be used in ''Dragon Ball'' where characters train for the 22nd and 23rd Tournaments, and in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' it appears during the build-up to the arrival of Vegeta and Nappa, the arrival of the Androids, and the wait until the Cell Games. These episodes typically show characters gaining new fighting insight, introduce some characters slightly early, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking or have them take driving lessons.]]
** The Garlic Jr. saga in ''Z'' occurs after the conclusion of the Namek storyline. This is particularly significant as the conflict with Frieza was ''right up'' against the manga by only a couple of chapters, with the episode of Goku transforming into a Super Saiyan being the closest the anime ever got to overtaking the source material, necessitating the filler to give some breathing room.
** The last significant filler sequence is the Other World Tournament, that occurs after Cell is defeated but before the appearance of Buu, as well as some extra Great Saiyaman shenanigans. After that, the anime was just as likely to take a week or four off the air to stall for time by using filler to pad out existing fights.

** ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' is a case of AdaptationExpansion, because it was made after the original manga ended and Toei ordered an anime-only sequel to ''Dragon Ball Z''.

Finally, the writers can choose to just diverge from the manga entirely and do a GeckoEnding instead. An example of this is [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003 the 2003 adaptation]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', which was actually produced with this in mind due to the mangaka knowing that this trope was inevitable and feeling the other two options would ruin the story

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'''s anime is the result of what happened when a mid-nineties anime adaptation running simultaneously with the manga ''didn't'' opt for a GeckoEnding: the anime started production ''right'' before a certain MidSeasonTwist occurred in the manga, which abruptly shifted the tone of the story from an episodic caper story to an [[RuleOfSymbolism allegory for human connection]] and built off of {{Foreshadowing}} that had seemingly been irrelevant beforehand. Because the anime didn't account for this, it removed most of the {{Foreshadowing}}, moved important episodes around in order, and added {{Filler}} that [[StatusQuoIsGod backpedals on major developments]] and [[NegativeContinuity practically comes from an alternate universe]], yet continued to adapt the story all the way to the manga's original final arc and ending [[TheArtifact despite everything leading up to it not making sense anymore]]. Contemporary Japanese fans of the manga understood the situation well enough to be satisfied with the anime being a relatively faithful adaptation by the era's standards (in the sense that most of the manga's important scenes have an animated counterpart), but joked about it and its {{Filler}} being "[[DenserAndWackier an animated children's picture book]]" that swerves sharply into the manga's original final arc; meanwhile, the manga's [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes shaky localization history]] resulted in international fans getting a completely different impression of what the story was about due to [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole the story no longer having a coherent plotline]].

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'''s anime is the result of what happened when a mid-nineties anime adaptation running simultaneously with the manga ''didn't'' opt for a GeckoEnding: the anime started production ''right'' before a certain MidSeasonTwist occurred in the manga, which abruptly shifted the tone of the story from an episodic caper story to an [[RuleOfSymbolism allegory for human connection]] and built off of {{Foreshadowing}} that had seemingly been irrelevant beforehand. Because the anime didn't account for this, it removed most of the {{Foreshadowing}}, moved important episodes around in order, and added {{Filler}} that [[StatusQuoIsGod backpedals on major developments]] and [[NegativeContinuity practically comes from an alternate universe]], yet continued to adapt the story all the way to the manga's original final arc and ending [[TheArtifact despite everything leading up to it not making sense anymore]]. Contemporary Japanese fans of the manga understood the situation well enough to be satisfied with the anime being a relatively faithful adaptation by the era's standards, but joked about it and its {{Filler}} being "[[DenserAndWackier an animated children's picture book]]" that swerves sharply into the manga's original final arc; meanwhile, the manga's [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes shaky localization history]] resulted in international fans getting a completely different impression of what the story was about due to [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole the story no longer having a coherent plotline]].

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'''s anime is the result of what happens when a mid-nineties anime adaptation running simultaneously with the manga ''doesn't'' opt for a GeckoEnding: the anime started production ''right'' before a certain MidSeasonTwist occurred in the manga, which abruptly shifted the tone of the story from an episodic caper story to an [[RuleOfSymbolism allegory for human connection]] and built off of {{Foreshadowing}} that had seemingly been irrelevant beforehand. Because the anime didn't account for this, it removed most of the {{Foreshadowing}}, moved important episodes around in order, and added {{Filler}} that [[StatusQuoIsGod backpedals on major developments]] and [[NegativeContinuity practically comes from an alternate universe]], yet continued to adapt the story all the way to the manga's original final arc and ending [[TheArtifact despite everything leading up to it not making sense anymore]]. Contemporary Japanese fans of the manga understood the situation well enough to be satisfied with the anime being a relatively faithful adaptation by the era's standards, but joked about it and its {{Filler}} being "[[DenserAndWackier an animated children's picture book]]" that swerves sharply into the manga's original final arc; meanwhile, the manga's [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes shaky localization history]] resulted in international fans getting a completely different impression of what the story was about due to [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole the story no longer having a coherent plotline]].

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'''s anime is the result of what happens when a mid-nineties anime adaptation running simultaneously with the manga ''doesn't'' opt for a GeckoEnding: the anime started production ''right'' before a certain MidSeasonTwist occurred in the manga, which abruptly shifted the tone of the story from an episodic caper story to an [[RuleOfSymbolism allegory for human connection]] and built off of {{Foreshadowing}} that had seemingly been irrelevant beforehand. Because the anime didn't account for this, it removed most of the {{Foreshadowing}}, moved important episodes around in order, and added {{Filler}} that [[StatusQuoIsGod backpedals on major developments]] and [[NegativeContinuity practically comes from an alternate universe]], yet continued to adapt the story all the way to the manga's original final arc and ending [[TheArtifact despite everything leading up to it not making sense anymore]]. Contemporary Japanese fans of the manga understood the situation well enough to be satisfied with the anime being a relatively faithful adaptation by the era's standards, but joked about it and its {{Filler}} being "[[DenserAndWackier an animated children's picture book]]" that swerves sharply into the manga's original final arc; meanwhile, the manga's [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes shaky localization history]] resulted in international fans getting a completely different impression about what the story was about due to [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole the story no longer having a coherent plotline]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BlakeAndMortimer'': Only one of the continuation albums (''The Francis Blake Affair'') was adapted when the series was done adapting the Edgar Pierre Jacobs canon, due to the others not existing at the time it was made (the next one, ''The Voronov Plot'', was published in 2000, over one year after the end of the animated series). As a result, the remaining episodes are original stories.

* The ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] (monthly) and [[Anime/SailorMoon original anime]] (weekly) were essentially produced ''[[ExaggeratedTrope simultaneously]]''. Creator/ToeiAnimation wanted to create an anime based on ''Manga/CodenameSailorV'', which lead to the ''Sailor Moon'' manga starting the ''month'' before the anime premiered. Thanks to ProductionLeadTime, the anime wasn't directly based on the manga; Toei were just given characters and broad outlines of what would the source material would be like. Not only was the majority of the anime original MonsterOfTheWeek stories, plotlines nominally based on the manga are barely recognizable, and even main characters were drastically different.

* While most of the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' seasons are based directly off of one of the handheld video games, having Ash and co. visit the region of the currently-released installment and compete in the regional League, it had to go off the paved path twice, simply because they got to the end of "pavement":
** The second season, named "The Orange Islands", took place on a completely original set of islands. This was due to ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' not yet being released at the time; while they could've had the characters putter about the Kanto region for another 35 episodes, moving the story to a more original setting allowed the producers to start [[MerchandiseDriven introducing more of the new Johto Pokémon]] ahead of ''Gold and Silver'''s release. This actually allowed the Finnish MTV channel to [[NoExportForYou forgo the Orange Island saga entirely]].
** The last portion of the ''[[Videogame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Best Wishes]]'' saga (the second half of Season 16 in the dub) contains various {{Filler}} episodes that did not fit within any of the saga's plotlines, plus a few {{Early Bird Cameo}}s for ''Videogame/PokemonXAndY'' as per usual, and a brief arc regarding [[WellIntentionedExtremist a certain]] [[AntiVillain villainous team]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen that would have appeared earlier on in the Unova arc]].

* ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterI Street Fighter]]'' was another interesting example in that Tiertex, the company responsible for porting the original ''Street Fighter'' to home computers, decided they couldn't wait for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' to revolutionize the fighting game genre, so they took their port of ''Street Fighter'' and made their own original sequel to it, titled ''Human Killing Machine''.

Finally, the writers can choose to just diverge from the manga entirely and do a GeckoEnding instead. An example of this is the 2003 adaptation of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', which was actually produced with this in mind due to the mangaka knowing that this trope was inevitable and feeling the other two options would ruin the story

* The [[Anime/FullMetalAlchemist 2003 anime adaptation]] of ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'' went into an AlternateContinuity from its very early episodes, although the changes were fairly subtle in the beginning. This is because the creators [[PragmaticAdaptation knew in advance that it would overtake the manga]], as did [[Creator/HiromuArakawa the manga's creator]], who explicitly asked them to take this route. Averted with the second series, ''[[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood]]'', whose release was carefully timed to end almost simultaneously with the manga -- the final episode was aired about two weeks after the final manga chapter was released.

* The ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] (monthly) and [[Anime/SailorMoon original anime]] (weekly) were essentially produced ''[[ExaggeratedTrope simultaneously]]''. Creator/ToeiAnimation wanted to create an anime based on ''Manga/CodenameSailorV'', which lead to the ''Sailor Moon'' manga starting the ''month'' before the anime premiered. Thanks to AnimationLeadTime, the anime wasn't directly based on the manga; Toei were just given characters and broad outlines of what would the source material would be like. Not only was the majority of the anime original MonsterOfTheWeek stories, plotlines nominally based on the manga are barely recognizable, and even main characters were drastically different.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' created the Bount, Shusuke Amagai, Zanpakuto Tales, Beast Swords, and Division 13 Incursion arcs due to Creator/TiteKubo's legendarily slow pacing. Sometimes the filler arcs slid neatly in between canon arcs but at other times, they occurred in the middle of canon arcs, resulting in comedy segments where the canon characters behaved like actors taking set breaks. Eventually, Pierrot decided to cut their losses and end the anime altogether while the final arc ran in the manga.

* The anime for ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' only had 25 episodes, because the manga wasn't finished at that time. It also caught up way too fast with the source material, leaving out less than 15 chapters of content. Because of this, there was a ''4-year'' long delay in the production of the 2nd anime to allow for story developments to catch up and to avoid this happening again. It seems to have worked: after the second season aired in 2017, the anime has managed to continue releasing annually after that, with Season 3 divided into two parts in 2018 and 2019, and the same goes with the first part of the final season in late 2020 to 2021. The manga ended in 2021 which gives enough time for the second and third part of final season to be produced and released on early 2022 and 2023.
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' is a monthly ([[ScheduleSlip mostly]]) series that had already run for several years by the time its animated TV adaptation came out in 1997. That anime was a single season that covered only one arc of the manga (10 volumes worth of material – nowadays that's less than a third of the total story). Rather than a GeckoEnding, it stops at a large CliffHanger (technically it's a [[WholeEpisodeFlashback whole series flashback]] that doesn't tell the viewer how we got to where we started). It's been described as "the world's most elaborate ad for the manga" for the way it drives viewers desperate for resolution back to the original. TheNewTens' film trilogy adaptation re-adapts that same plot arc, ending only very slightly further on in the plot – roughly one chapter's worth, which fortunately is enough to ''finally'' resolve that cliffhanger. The creators of the trilogy have expressed the desire to continue adapting the manga story up through the unwritter ending, with a new TV series. Due to passing of Creator/KentaroMiura, the only way to end the series is this very trope.

** Easily the most common excuse for filler sequences are manga time skips where characters train and prepare for an upcoming battle. It would be used in ''Dragon Ball'' where characters train for the 22nd and 23rd Tournaments, and in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' it appears during the build-up to the arrival of Vegeta and Nappa, the arrival of the Androids and the wait until the Cell Games. These episodes typically show characters gaining new fighting insight, introduce some characters slightly early, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking or have them take driving lessons.]]

* ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' got an adaptation less than two years into its run, which was a problem due to its being a monthly series. However, the anime producers made a deliberate attempt to avoid this by going for a completely different storyline – officially it covers the first five volumes, but only a handful of episodes (mostly in the first and third quarters) have ''any'' connection to the original manga at all. For the record, ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' gets considerably darker – and is much more of a satire than a parody – not long after the adapted-to-anime material ends.

* The [[Anime/FullMetalAlchemist 2003 anime adaptation]] of ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'' went into an AlternateContinuity from its very early episodes, although the changes were fairly subtle in the beginning. This is because the creators [[PragmaticAdaptation knew in advance that it would overtake the manga]], as did [[Creator/HiromuArakawa the manga's creator]], who explicitly asked them to take this route. Averted with the second series, ''[[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood]]'', whose release was carefully timed to end almost simultaneous with the manga-- the final episode was aired about two weeks after the final manga chapter was released.

** Beginning in 2014, Oda started having health problems and would take occasional breaks from the series. Unfortunately for everyone, it happened in the middle of a major story arc [[ArcFatigue that had already run for over a year]]. This caused the anime to have to slow its pace to an absolute crawl to avoid this trope. It still hasn't gotten hit ''DBZ''-level because Oda packs a ''lot'' more dialogue and movement into each chapter than Toriyama.

** The second season, named "The Orange Islands", took place on a completely original set of islands. This was due to ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' not yet being released at the time; while they could've had the characters putter about the Kanto region for another 35 episodes, moving the story to a more original setting allowed the producers to start [[MerchandiseDriven introducing more of the new Johto Pokémon]] ahead of Gold and Silver's release. This actually allowed Finnish MTV channel to [[NoExportForYou remove the Orange Island saga from their TV]].
** The last portion of the ''[[Videogame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Best Wishes]]'' saga (the second half of Season 16 in the Dub) contains various {{Filler}} Episodes that did not fit within any of the saga's plotlines, plus a few {{Early Bird Cameo}}s for ''Videogame/PokemonXAndY'' as per usual, and a brief arc regarding [[WellIntentionedExtremist a certain]] [[AntiVillain villainous team]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen that would have appeared earlier on in the Unova arc]].

* This ironically ''[[AvertedTrope did not happen]]'' to ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire''; the first season of the anime stopped about halfway through the first serialization of the manga, which itself was just getting into its second, but not only did they rush to release the second season anime within a few months of the first, but rather than picking up where they left off, they skipped the rest of the first serialization and went directly into the second, which had barely been around for a year by then, though they did touch on some of the plotpoints from the first serialization. The result is [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not well-liked]].

* Nearly avoided in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' when the [[Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone first movie]] was released in 2001 after the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire fourth book]] was published in 2000. Creator/JKRowling told Creator/AlanRickman about the true nature of Severus Snape, his character, which made him the few people who knew about Snape's motives until the publication of the seventh book. Hence, Movie Snape appeared to be nicer than his book counterpart. Though Rowling did supervise the scripts, she made the final word about the characters such as Kreacher's importance in the last book and Dumbledore's sexual orientation. Though the movie managed to catch up with the books with [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the seventh book]] released in the same month as [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the fifth movie]]'s release date, the movies had a problem with the official pairings. It seemed that the production staff thought that Harry and Hermione are going to be a couple due to the chemistry between the Creator/DanielRadcliffe and Creator/EmmaWatson except they're confirmed as LikeBrotherAndSister in the final book. When Harry is finally paired with Ginny Weasley, it's more of an extreme case of StrangledByTheRedString where the movies had fewer scenes of Harry and Ginny being together than in the books and that shoe-tying scene in [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince the sixth movie]] only confirmed that their status as a couple.
* The film ''Film/TheLastAirbender '' was written while the final season of the [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender show on which it is based]] was in production. Because of this, the showrunners didn’t have time to consult on the movie which caused some issues. Avatar Roku is AdaptedOut as Ong’s mentor in favor of a dragon. Aang ran away in the show because he was a kid who was understandably terrified of having to take the responsibility of saving the world. Ong runs away because he’s told the Avatar can’t have kids which is something [[SarcasmMode all twelve-year-olds care deeply care about.]] In the third season of the show, {{Deuteragonist}} Zuko finds out he’s the great-grandson of both Roku and Firelord Sozin. This is the climax of his CharacterDevelopment and the push he needed to pull a HeelFaceTurn for good to join Team Avatar to teach Aang firebending so Aang can take down his dad. Zuko wouldn’t exist if the Avatar couldn’t have kids. Also Roku is the person who tells Aang that he and Sozin [[WeUsedToBeFriends used to be friends.]] Aang doesn’t find out that Zuko is related to Roku until the tie-in comics but a layer to their relationship would have been completely lost. This ended up being a moot point as the film barely broke even and therefore became a StillbornFranchise.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' caught up with the published ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' novels in the fifth season. Book author Creator/GeorgeRRMartin gave the show's writers a detailed explanation of the events he'd planned for the final two novels, and the remaining TV seasons progressed past the latest point in the book series. As no more novels have come out since the end of the TV series, it's unclear how much in the remaining seasons is based on the books' plot and how much is a GeckoEnding.

* Creator/TimBurton's 1989 ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'' movie was adapted to an [[VideoGame/BatmanSunsoft NES game]] by Creator/{{Sunsoft}}, who took great liberties with the plot of the movie but still managed to churn out a pretty good sidescroller. However, Sunsoft couldn't wait for the next movie to come out before making a sequel to the NES game, and created ''Batman: Return of the Joker'' as a standalone sequel based on the comic.

* No other manga series has the distinction of [[AvertedTrope averting]] this trope the way ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has. This is due to two things: For one, the gap between the original work's first publication and the eventual television adaptation. Published in 1987, it was one of the longest-running manga series without a TV anime adaptation, not receiving one until 2012, in stark contrast with the vast majority of manga series that typically gain their adaptations in 1-5 years or so, meaning that [[FillerArc Filler Arcs]] won't be an issue for Creator/DavidProduction for quite some time, if at all. The second is that there's been a two year gap between the first airing of each season[[note]]Parts 3, 4, and 5 in the manga are each considered their own seasons in the anime. However, Parts 1 and 2 of the manga were adapted into just one season[[/note]], so even though Creator/HirohikoAraki is publishing ''Jojo'' monthly, the team at David won't outpace him any time soon.

* Some of the early ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' material that was published between the movies of the original trilogy, like ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye''. It was written as a sequel to the first movie, but published when it was unknown if ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' was ever going to be made. The ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977'' comic book series fits this trope despite ironically being a comic book adaptation of a screen franchise. First it adapts the original movie, then it has a bunch of original stories, then it adapts the second movie, followed by more original stories, then the third movie, before running out of source material.

* ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' finished Episode VI in mid-2017, but the writers decided to hold off on adapting the sequel trilogy until ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' was released in late 2019. To compensate, they adapted ''Film/RogueOne'' as a WholeEpisodeFlashback, which actually worked out as the original Episode IV adaptation (released in the early 2010's, years before ''Rogue One'' was even announced) started InMediasRes and never showed the earlier important events, which neatly lined up with the time-frame of ''Rogue One''. When they still needed more time, the comic then adapted the ''Franchise/StarWars''/''Franchise/Muppets'' crossover special, while also slowing down uploads from thrice-weekly to once-weekly.

* At the time ''Film/TheKissingBooth3'' was released, Beth Reekles had only published [[Literature/TheKissingBooth two books]] and a short story, ''The Beach House'', with ''The Kissing Booth 2: Going the Distance'' being released the same year as the [[Film/TheKissingBooth2 second movie]]. Due to the sequels being filmed concurrently so they could be released back-to-back, the third movie is the first instalment not directly based on the books (although it takes some inspiration from ''The Beach House'').
* Played with regarding the ''After'' film series. The book series has five books, but the 5th one is a prequel (titled ''Before''). After the 4th film (''After Ever Happy'') was released in 2022, it was announced that the next movie wouldn't be based on the prequel book, it would be a new instalment entirely (titled ''After Everything''), [[https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a40981886/after-everything-movie-cast-news-release-date-spoilers/ and it's currently in production]].

* At the time ''Film/TheKissingBooth3'' was released, Beth Reekles had only published [[Literature/TheKissingBooth two books]] and a short story, ''The Beach House'', with ''The Kissing Booth 2: Going the Distance'' being released the same year as the [[Film/TheKissingBooth2 second movie]]. Due to the sequels being filmed concurrently so they could be released back-to-back, the third movie is the first installment not directly based on the books (although it takes some inspiration from ''The Beach House'').