Why Anime Filler Has A Bad Reputation

 If you've watched some of the long-running anime series, such as Naruto, Bleach or One Piece, you've likely heard of filler arcs or filler episodes, which are generally greeted with dread and dismay, as boring slogs that add nothing to the story. They have their purpose, but there are better ways to accomplish that purpose. I will spend this entry discussing why filler exists, why it's hated and what alternative approaches exist.

What Filler Is And Why It Exists

The basic definition of a filler episode is any anime-exclusive episode that does not follow the manga's canon plot. For example, in Naruto, the Land of Tea filler arc involves Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura going on a mission to the eponymous country, their last mission as a team before Sasuke leaves the village. The concept of a story that's original to the anime sounds exciting, but I will explain why anime fans have low expectations and even lower opinions of filler arcs.

For now, the basic point to understand is that filler arcs are often considered an unpleasant necessity. Anime episodes, which generally run 20-25 minutes, cover much more ground in the story than a single manga chapter, which is usually 15-20 pages. The exact difference varies from series to series, and depends on the chapter; dialogue-heavy panels take a relatively long time to get through, while large panels showing attacks landing and reaction shots don't take much time at all, unless they're unnecessarily drawn out. In either case, the anime tends to cover content more quickly than the manga, and it's fairly common for a single episode to cover 2-3 manga chapters.

Most manga adapted into anime come out weekly, and take breaks more often than the anime, so the anime tends to quickly catch up to the source material. To use a hypothetical scenario, let's imagine an anime that started its adaptation when the source manga was up to 50 chapters. If one episode of that anime covers two manga chapters, it will take 50 weeks(a bit less than a year) for the anime to catch up. If one episode of that anime covers three manga chapters, it will get that far in 25 weeks, a bit less than half a year. Of course, this is theoretical, and an anime adaptation usually will not want to get too close to its source material. Monthly manga often have longer chapters than weekly series, but it's even easier for an anime to overtake them, since they aren't four to five times as long as their weekly counterparts, and they take breaks, too.

That's where filler arcs come in. Let's say that the anime discussed earlier, which averages three chapters per episode, had an arc that begins in Chapter 60 and ends in Chapter 81. Ordinarily, the anime would overtake the manga as of Chapter 75, but let's insert a 10-episode filler arc as of the end of Episode 20, when the anime is up to Chapter 60, and the manga is up to Chapter 70. By the time the filler arc is over, the manga would be up to Chapter 80, and by the time the anime gets to the end of that arc in Episode 37, the manga would be up to Chapter 87. This wouldn't permanently solve the problem, as another filler arc would be necessary in the near future, but this does demonstrate what how filler arcs can buy the manga artists time to get ahead.

Why People Don't Like Filler

As I said before, filler could be seen as an extra treat for anime watchers, so it's all good, isn't it? Unfortunately, people dislike it, for several reasons.

The first and most obvious reason is that it doesn't add to the plot. The Land of Tea arc is about Ibiki's missing younger brother Idate and his competing in a race on behalf of his benefactor; after Idate wins, he's never seen or heard from again in the story, something that commonly happens to filler characters. None of the main characters undergo any permanent development in the arc, since while the arc exacerbates Sasuke's feelings of inferiority to Naruto, it only puts him on track to the inevitable canon outcome- him getting into a fight with Naruto and leaving. In fact, Sasuke ends up back in the hospital at the end of the arc, this time recovering from the injuries he suffered in the climax rather than his brother's Tsukuyomi.

The second reason is that it's generally not produced by the original creator, and tends to read like bad fan fiction. The plots often end up being rehashes of canon arcs, if not each other. Characters can often be portrayed as shallow caricatures of their original selves, if not out of character. There can occasionally be plot holes that contradict later revelations in canon. For example, Zoro is shown cutting steel chains with his swords in the Warship Island arc of One Piece, despite the later Alabasta arc proving that he doesn't know how to cut steel until the end of his fight with Mr. 1 (if he'd known that, the fight would have been over in about a minute). The anime adaptation of the Coby and Helmeppo cover story, which included scenes not shown in the manga, also showed Coby and Helmeppo's ship going over Reverse Mountain to enter the Grand Line, creating a plot hole when the anime showed that Marine ships can safely cross the Calm Belt.

As you can see from the first two reasons, people generally consider filler inferior to canon. This leads us to the third reason- people don't like waiting for the series to get back to canon. Those familiar with the manga generally know which parts ahead are most exciting, and are disappointed that they'll have to wait longer for them. Even those who only watch the anime can tell a filler arc from a canon arc, and obviously prefer the latter. Unfortunately, people can wait a long time; at the end of the first part of Naruto, there was an 80-episode filler arc.

This leads to another problem with filler; it can often be poorly timed. In most cases, filler arcs are inserted between canon arcs as a side adventure, as mentioned with Naruto's Land of Tea arc. However, there are times when they may need to be put into a longer saga. For example, during Bleach's Hueco Mundo arc, in the manga, Ichigo's victory over Grimmjow is almost immediately followed by him fighting the even more dangerous Nnoitora. In the anime, however, he briefly enjoys his triumph with Orihime, the friend he came to rescue (forgetting that Rukia and Chad are badly wounded if not dead). At that point, a filler arc that takes place at an unspecified point in time begins, since it focuses on a captain appointed to lead the 3rd Division (replacing the traitorous Aizen's accomplice Gin) but otherwise features no references to what has happened in canon since the Soul Society arc.

In short, there's generally little reason to watch fillers, which aren't as enjoyable as the main series and don't help you understand the story. Some fillers are more enjoyable than others, particularly those that are well-written, show scenes that weren't covered in the manga or fit with the storyline, but they're the exception, rather than the rule. One question remains-is there a better way of preventing anime adaptations from getting ahead of the source material?

Alternatives To Filler

There are some ways of dealing with the fundamental problem of the anime outpacing the source material that may not involve resorting to filler episodes.

The first is simply to not adapt the entire series. For example, Fullmetal Alchemist's first anime featured most of the canon storylines up to Greed's arc, but had several notable changes, particularly a different main antagonist and different ending. There were several side stories, but they generally served less as filler and more as proof of the anime taking on a more episodic style. Opinions vary as to whether the anime or manga is better, but fans of the latter got a more faithful adaptation when the anime was relaunched as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

The second is to reduce the chapter-to-episode ratio and slow the rate at which the anime overtakes the manga, which I will illustrate with the example I mentioned before. If one episode of the anime covers one and a half chapters of the manga, then it would take 100 episodes for the anime to catch up to the manga in Chapter 150. If, however, the anime and manga had a perfect 1:1 ratio, then the anime would never overtake the manga.

The One Piece anime eventually went this route. With several back-to-back arcs before the timeskip, there were no feasible places to insert filler arcs, so they slowed the storyline down, with many episodes only covering a single chapter. Unfortunately, while this avoided the requirement for a filler arc, it also resulted in many superfluous scenes being added to canon episodes, as well as others being unnaturally drawn out. This approach tends to adversely affect the quality of the canon arcs, which is why many anime watches wish One Piece was doing filler arcs again. At least in those cases, viewers didn't have to sit through the filler arcs if they didn't want to, so perhaps filler was the better approach.

The third approach is to make the anime a seasonal one. My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan went this route, generally ending each season once it reaches some multiple of 12 or 13 episodes, as well as at the end of a story arc; the first season of the former ends after the attack on the USJ, while the latter ends after the Female Titan's defeat. There are generally no filler episodes or padding involved here, and most additional scenes tend to add to the story, such as My Hero Academia adding fight scenes that were mostly offscreen. This means that viewers will have to wait some time, usually a year or more, for the next season, but viewers are generally rather patient.

One last approach is to launch an anime long after the manga ends. Muhyo and Roji's anime began in 2018, long after the manga ended, and as mentioned before, the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime began when the manga was nearly finished. This may not always be viable, since most anime launch within a few years after the source manga begins, while it's popularity is on the rise, but there's no risk of overtaking the source material when it's already past the finish line.

Conclusion

Filler arcs have their purpose, but the anime industry seems to have moved on to a seasonal format, so they are no longer as necessary of an evil as they once were. For the sake of the viewers, it's necessary for anime production companies to think outside the box and consider new ways to adapt anime without overtaking the manga.