For those of you who watch various long running anime series such as Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece, etc., you’ve probably noticed that many of these series occasionally enter an arc which feels less substantial than many other arcs within the series, particularly in hindsight. These arcs may focus more on comedy and have little to no bearing on the overall story with seemingly throwaway villains and side characters. These are typically referred to as filler arcs and there are various reasons why these episodes exist and why anime continues to make these arcs.
I think one of the most important aspects to look at when it comes to why anime filler is made is the way Japanese shows are aired on television. If you take a look at the airdates for the episodes of any long running anime series such as Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece etc., something that might stand out to you is how, beyond the occasional one week break, the episodes air continuously throughout the year. This results in about 50 episodes per year, a very impressive number.
However, this presents a problem in that the three series I mentioned as well as many other long running anime series are adaptations of ongoing manga. Even with a few years of content to adapt, the anime adaptations will soon catch up with their source material and they will then have to make an unpleasant choice. Dragon Ball being a perfect example, the pacing of the episodes were slowed down to a crawl with some episodes featuring the characters talking inanely, charging moves without firing them off until the next episode, long staredowns etc. The first 50 episodes of Naruto Shippuden also ran into this problem with fights sometimes taking 9 episodes to finish!
Instead, these shows may decide to create an arc that seemingly has little to nothing to do with the main overarching story. While these episodes air, it gives the manga enough time to release enough chapters for the anime to continue the main story at a decent pace once the filler arc is over. These filler arcs can be quite notorious for their poor quality, cringey humour and lack of relevance but I do confess that I occasionally come across a filler arc that I genuinely like.
While most definitely associated with manga adaptations, that is not to say that filler episodes cannot appear in other anime. When I think of filler episodes, one of the anime that I tend to think of is a series called “Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water”, a series I’ve praised in the past for its sense of wonder. Covering episodes 23-34 of the series, keep in mind the whole series is 39 episodes long, the series sees itself stuck on an island with little character development, plot progression and some appallingly bad attempts at humour. Not being based on a manga, you may be curious why this series ended up creating a filler arc. Apparently, these episodes were commissioned by the network due to the success of the show’s ratings. The episodes saw a lot of their animation outsourced to other animation companies and Hideaki Anno had little to no involvement with these episodes. While, understandably, something like this is less frequent than manga adaptations, it’s still worth noting.
In the past, I believed filler episodes were necessary but, as time has progressed, I’ve become more critical of the need to produce them. An easy solution would be to adopt the American practice of seasons, leaving a gap of time between airings. This would give the manga time to produce chapters and the anime wouldn’t have to either disrupt the pacing of the show by either making filler or slowing the episodes down. We’ve seen something like this adopted by My Hero Academia where they leave a gap of about a year between seasons with very little filler being produced for the series.
While the reasoning why anime filler is so common is fascinating, I do hope that more anime series choose the method that My Hero Academia has adopted so that less filler is produced overall. This is due to the negative perception of anime filler by the general public as well as to maintain the quality of their series. Let me know your thoughts on anime filler, whether you consider them necessary or, like me, you see them as a relic of the past, if you can think of any other non-manga adaption that was infamous for its filler like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!