User blog comment:Savalric/Problem with pacing/@comment-7092747-20131017061102

Much of this starts with the manga itself when speaking of character development. Depending on the type of manga and its story, battle is a better place to develop a character (such as Kenpachi Zaraki who thrives most in battle) while some characters develop more outside of battle (Orihime Inoue). I wouldn't really call it "normal" to develop a character exclusively outside of battle as a manga with lots of fighting (such as Bleach) does rely on the battles to delve deeper into characters (for instance the deeper development of Ichigo's skills and better understanding of his zanpakuto and its techniques).

If, say, Ichigo were to develop only outside of battle, where would the feeling of honesty to his development be? If he came to understand why he fights AFTER a battle or BEFORE it feels a bit weak and forced rather than understanding his driving principle and what it means to hold to it against those who don't feel the same.

As for the animes, we have to remember that an anime is filling in 20-22 minutes of time and so they have to work as best they can with what the manga gives them in terms of paneling. Sometimes an episode can be critical and missing it leave you lost the next episode, sometimes it's the opposite and you can skip entire lengths of episodes and miss nothing of value. This all depends on the manga and what it lends. There have been chapters in mangas where it's pretty much the Dragonball Z affect of an entire chapter of back and forth between two characters without much going on at all in the entire process other than a quick shot to someone elsewhere scratching them self. All falls back on the manga first.