Filler or wait?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by SouthJag

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.

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)?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by SouthJag

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.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.