Filler or wait?
 

The question is simple. Do you think that an anime should come up with filler arcs when it catches up to the manga or not? Fans of Bleach and Naruto know exactly what I'm going through with poorly composed plotlines and a reduced animation budget.

Being raised on Cartoon Network for anime I'm used to waiting months and months for a new season or for the local Sam Goody's to get the next volume of a manga I like, so I would prefer that they wait. What do you all think?

It's just that with something like Naruto, there CAN be filler eps because of the nature of their village - they're sent out on missions to help people and do certain jobs.

I haven't read the manga, but they should seriously rethink the plots they're pumping out for these fillers.

EDIT:
Mind you, there are filler eps on some anime that work really well.
So it just depends on the anime itself, really.

I mean, there WAS episode 101 of Naruto involving Kakashi's face.
THAT was great stuff XD
I really liked it because it was just everyone having fun, and Sasuke and Naruto being regular kids instead of being angsty emo bitches.

That's exactly the same way I feel. I never really liked Sasuke all that much, but I liked him in this episode because, like you said, he was being normal...or as close to normal as he can get.

You're right though, some of the filler has been pretty weak, especially the most recent plot line. I was hoping they'd do more character exploration in the filler considering we know next to nothing about TenTen and she's barely had any chance to really show her skills, the same goes for Shino. We've had background episodes on every other character. I guess it's not all bad, thank god there are only 5 weeks left!

Not much of a fan of fillers in anime, but i don't read the manga for the animes i watch so i can't compare. I can still tell which things are fillers though because they're nowhere near as good as anything else in the anime. I think they should just leave out fillers altogether because they're so damn annoying

Filler arcs are generally something I don't like, if I've read the manga. I tend to read the manga for my favourite shows, but not for just the average ones. There are good filler stories, though. Not even all the Naruto fillers were bad.

Fillers are typically lame. However, with Naruto, the last few (well not this week's) have really had some purpose to them. They actually found a way to go into a character's background and tell you something interesting about them.

Fillers are pretty lame, but I feel like they're kind of necessary. If we were bombarded with the main plot for a whole season, a.) it wouldn't last very long and b.) it'd get kind of boring, what with so little character development.

More often than not, filler episodes tend to flesh out characters, both main and supporting. And a lot of times the filler episodes are funny, as is the current case with Inu Yasha. On the same coin though, too many filler episodes can be bothersome, especially when you're already fairly eager to back into the main plot.

Kenshin had probably the worst set of filler episodes in any anime I've seen. It almost wasn't even filler -- the main story was finished after episode what, 52 I think? And for another 40-something episodes, it was just unnecessary filler! I know I'm not the only person who would argue that the entire second arc of Kenshin was unnecessary filler.

I dont know Naruto, Bleach or Kenshin, but the discription of a "filler arc" matches greatly to the YuGiOh Atlantis-Episodes.

To hell with it http://forum.rpg2000.4players.de/images/smiles/seek.gif

It really all depends on what the filler episodes focus on. Most of the time, filler arcs surround either a "second-rate mission" or "deeper character and plot development". It all depends on how it's pulled off.

I generally don't read manga, but I can still tell when I'm watching filler or not when the quality of a show seems to take a drastic turn for the worst. I most recently experienced this while watching Inuyasha with the Band of Seven arc, which really, really sucked.

Filler is half the reason I usually shy away from long running series anyway. At least when I'm watching a shorter 13 or 26 episode series, I know it's going to be better overall because it's not dragged out and there's usually no filler.

You consider the Band of Seven arc to be filler? I didn't, as I thought it was tied directly to the main plot, what with them hunting the Jewel Shards. Now, this business about Master Musshin and Shippo's Heart Scar attack -- that's filler.

I can deal with it and everything, but as long as they don't do like 5 or more of them. Usually after that, I give up on them. But hey, who didn't?

so far the naruto fillers were a bit boring. i think after this one filler episode.. it should be back to where it is now...

I voted no, but I guess it really depends. If the filler arc can be turned into something entertaining, then I wouldn't have any problems with it. However, I find that bad filler arcs cause me to lose interest in a show, which will probably also cause me to stop watching it altogether, whether the main story was exceptional or not.

Raiga was ehh.....the end was rather comical with the way Lee was getting his ass kicked.

Isaribi's little part was nice because of the history the fillers gave.

I don't mind the Bleach filler episodes so far, but I stopped watching Naruto. I'm just going to wait until the latter gets back to the main story. I find myself skipping over all the filler in order to see the real plot.

A filler here and there, to just have fun and be silly in a long show(50+eps) when an arc just ended, one or two is ok, but what naruto is doing now, is just retarted, you shouldnt have almost 2 full seasons of filler episodes, its just stupid. Fillers are fine as long as they are kept to a min.

Well, in all technicality, it is filler (as it wasn't in the manga), even though they did try to tie it into the main plot (which is easy to do on a show as wide open as Inuyasha, which is only about getting jewel shards that there seems to be thousands of :) ). But regardless (since I don't read the manga), couldn't you tell that it seemed different from the other episodes, just in the fact that it actually was an arc (on a show that generally doesn't even have arcs)?

No, because not only did that particular arc have a tie to the jewel-shard-hunting plot, it also had ties to Naraku and was directly involved with the main plot. In a case like that, I wouldn't consider it filler.

99.99% of the reasons they have Naruto filler is because they have pumped out a new episode almost every week since 2002. They should just take a break and get their script writing skills up. Nearly a season and a half of filler is unacceptable by any means (the last Manga material they adapted was from wayyy back in 2004).

Yes. I'll be one of the few odd ones out.

Fillers keep me entertained, and come one, who doesn't love entertainment? It gives us a break from the series, and well, what's the big deal? It'll only lengthen the series by several episodes, so, whoop-de-do. I've sat through DBZ, and Naruto, and well, I'm used to long animes, so, bring on the fillers.

I have no problems with fillers that is unless they take up way to much time. But if its a few episodes then I think its perfectly fine. Since most fillers are pretty funny and I guess its a way for the animators to kind of unwind or whatever.

However one kind of filler episode I can't stand, Gundam's flashback fillers, just the charaters "reflecting" on what happened over the last 10+ episodes. There is no real reason for such episodes to even exist, they're a waste of time. And in the case of Gundam seed destiny, really bad placement of filler episode (i think it was like what? 3 episodes from the ending? FILLER!!!).

Well, lke I said earlier, it wasn't in the manga, so it is considered filler just by the definition of the word. I personally don't see how you can't see it as such, as it is glaringly different than most of the episodes in the series (it's a 20+ episode arc, as opposed to most episodes only being 1-3 parts long). Oh well.

There are some good fillers... yes only some, very few actually. Most rediculous fillers I have came across is Naruto. The first 100 eps are really amazingly well done, and now the fillers are making the anime exceedingly retarded and I have a LOT of friends alreayd ditched naruto. If its naruto kind of filler... I am ko.. I will pass.

Fillers are usually written by TV producers that either lack creativities or intelligence. These episodes' only purpose is to let manga go on a bit more before the TV series catch up, with that goal set, whatever the content is, as long as it could waste some time, the goal is achieved. Take One Piece or Naruto fillers for example, when you get some cheesy stories about collecting fruits on an island, or unvealing Kakashi's true face behind his mask, you know instantly that these episodes are just there to fill in that time slots when the anime series are supposed to be played...

Fillers should be banned from anime. It kinda invents plot holes in the entire story when it suddenly shifts to something totally abnormal (i.e. Samurai Champloo and MONSTER). The series itself is still good, but fillers mess up things.

Most fillers surround larger series, especially ones like Inu Yasha, Naruto, and One Piece. It's a little more difficult to pull off filler for the standard 26 episode series'.

i dont want fillers on anime that im currently following week by week, waiting an entire season(naruto) for what will happen is mean!

how bout..they should not make fillers and just re-air some episodes orr..not air anything at all til its time to show it >.>..

btw...detective conan is scarred with fillers..

I personally got out of Naruto because of the fillers, sad to let go of a great show. But my friend still watches it, so whenever he gives the word that the fillers are done, I'll start from there :)

I'm pretty much doing what Jukos here is doing. I'm just waiting for the Fillers to end so that I could focus on the story when it DOES return. I'd rather not waste the space and the effort to download the fillers episodes now anyway. They're not very exciting to begin with.

Wait. Fillers are pointless. I usually don't watch them anyway. And it makes me lose interest.

Some episodes that the original artist does themselves (like the removal of Kakashi's mask eps) are usually pretty good and intended to be breaks from the main plot. Those aren't the ones I have beef with. It's crap they put in an anime just to flesh out a season or in this case, create an entirely new season. It kind of has me wondering what they're going to do when the anime catches up again; are we going to have another whole season of individual episode storyarcs that have nothing to do with akatsuki or any of the recent events?

Well, I don't enjoy fillers much but once in a while they come up with a few good episodes, so I would rather watch fillers than watching nothign at all.

Fillers stinks. Take a good look at Naruto. More than 5 weeks of fillers and there are actually suckers watching that damned episodes.

If they want to make fillers, get someone better to do the job. Naruto episodes fillers do not contain any "Naruto Culture", making it stinks worse than my trash can outside my house.

Many different anime seem to contain large volumes of filler arcs, some of the more short anime series's will probably have at least one filler episode which is usually done to explain all that has happened up to the point of the filler episode.

While some may contain these one episode fillers, anime series's that run longer than the standard 26 episodes will most likely have (quite) a few fillers episodes and filler arcs when they believe the audience is too dumb to remember what happened a few twenty-or-so episodes ago.

This is why I'm such a big fan of Twelve Kingdoms (Juuni Kokki). No filler episodes at all. A few flashbacks here and there, but by no means filler. Same goes for X TV.

Hell, I don't think even the original Robotech had much filler in it, if it even had any.

In my opinion, if the anime is not hindered with waiting for the manga chapters to continue, then there is no excuse for a filler. One good example of an anime that did not use fillers but went ahead of the manga was Fullmetal Alchemist. But animes not based on mangas should really have their team in gear with producing something worthwhile instead of putting useless fillers.

Yes, up to 10 eipsodes. Then "WTF?!?!?!?!?!"

I suppose I really have no opinion. While on the one hand every anime I have watched that had filler arcs; the arcs really sucked and add that the animation quality goes down as well only compounds the lame story. The other hand is that at least you get to watch the damn show; you don't have to wait till the next year to eargerly wait for the new season.

Filler arcs are what destroy long series. It just takes quality away from you. They did it to shows Naruto, DBZ, Inu Yasha, and Conan.

I didn't mind the filler with Conan much at all because most of the episodes were still thought-provoking.

Inu Yasha's filler-type was more a long the lines of an attempt at character development. Too bad the characters (and their intentions) are so plain and obvious that additional episodes to try and add depth are meaningless.

DBZ...well...yeah. Should've just been the Android saga to the Cell Games. Everything before that was painfully prolonged, and everything after was beyond pointless.

Naruto's biggest problem is that the storyline goes by at a snail's pace. It almost falls into the same bin as DBZ. Believe it!

I swear companies would make a killing if they started selling Series Sets with all the filler episodes taken out. :judge: