I think it's more like a soap opera to the Japanese, that's a guess though. It started in 1998 or 99, which means if you were 5 when you started watching it, you're in your upper 20's which is wild. I think there are people that cut out all of the filler of the anime that you can watch and the netflix adaption is about 4 years' worth.
It's called One Pace, it's a fan edited version that takes out filler and overly long panning shots etc. to make the pacing of the anime match the manga more closely.
I realize that’s something I really like about unvoiced JRPGs, and manga; my reading pace dictates the scene’s pace, and I’m a decently fast reader. I’m not going to rush delivery on a dramatically impactful line, but I also won’t linger on some duke blabbing about the history of his house’s conflict with the weekend’s villain.