History Main / Filler

They are extremely common in {{Anime}}, where many shows have 26 or more episodes per season. The producers have to use filler just to meet contractual demands. Filler is usually something entirely original for the anime, but not always; many manga – particularly weekly manga – employ filler just as ruthlessly due to the extreme deadlines. Sometimes entire filler {{Arc}}s are created, most often because the series OvertookTheManga. Just about every long-running manga-based anime action series will have gargantuan amounts of filler over time. This is because Japanese networks, unlike western ones, pretty much don't do reruns or season breaks at all. This especially gets compounded when they go beyond the 26 episode mark. Many series air over 40 episodes per year, when they would have a hard time making even half of them related to the main plot.

In most cases, the defining aspect of filler is the total [[StatusQuoIsGod ''lack'' of series momentum]]. Filler can be safely ignored without any loss of important information. However, there is also a style of filler called the "single upgrade filler". Basically, it uses a filler episode to introduce a new power, machine, costume, minor character, etc. without having to work it into the greater narrative. In these cases, the episode can be ignored outside of "something got an upgrade".

* ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' had an episode concerning one of the CloudCuckoolander neighbours of the protagonist actually giving him a mysterious egg, and he frets the whole episode looking after it, not knowing if he should eat it, keep it in his fridge or try to hatch it...
** And yet MI has probably the ''least'' filler of any RumikoTakahashi series.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' had a significant amount of filler. The relaunched series, ''Anime/DragonBallKai'', eliminates much of the filler in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. Throughout the first two series events end up being contradicted by canon events in several places, such as:

*** Unless Gero commissioned the scientist to make the android in secret, thereby making Gero 8's creator by proxy.

** Also notable about the ''Shippuuden'' fillers is that they go against canon. Rather than a long series of MonsterOfTheWeek episodes evenly mixed with random variations of DefeatMeansFriendship (as the original TV series did), the Ninja Guardians arc actually details a full-on storyline with an interesting backstory. Some arcs – such as the 3-Tailed-Beasts arc – focus on giving one last chance for screentime to many of the characters who would later get killed or otherwise be lost from the limelight. Other filler arcs – like the 6-Tails arc – use the episodes to expand on characters like the Tailed Beast Hosts. While very important to the plot, most of them are killed off-screen in the manga, or killed after a very small amount of screentime.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Due to the anime catching up to the manga on a regular basis, series-long filler arcs were created. Individual filler episodes do randomly occur through canon arcs, including canon scenes that might only consist of a few panels being expanded into an entire filler episode.

** The Karakurizer stand-alone filler episodes (213, 214, 228 and 287) are based on a series of manga omakes (about life in Karakura when the main cast is off fighting battles) expanded into a mini-plotline but also crash head-first into self-parody at times.

* [[Anime/MegamanStarforce]] was even worse. It had a great plot for the first half, a lot of promise. Then the creators forgot there was a plot for almost the entire second half of the series. So we got a bunch of random episodes about the [=FMs=] goofing around on earth until the last few episodes when the creators finally remembered that there was a plot. The series was hastily ended with a lot of loose threads and a bunch of stuff that made no sense unless you had played the Starforce video game, and even then the plots between the two mediums were so different by that point that is was more of a "fill in the blanks and hope you're right" thing.

The term "filler" is also used by fandom to refer to ''anything'' that isn't in the source material. This stems from the practice mentioned above of adaptations that are threatening to catch up to the source using original story arcs, episodes, and general content to pad things out. [[{{I Thought It Meant}} That is not this trope]], but such cases are often related to it.

* The ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' anime only starts a new game-based arc on the day the games in question are released, in Japan at least. This has led lots of filler episodes. The Johto arc is considered terrible due to the many bad filler episodes and poor pacing since it had no filler to fall back on before the next region. The Hoenn arc however was considered an improvement, as May's quest was given same the importance as Ash's and thus there were able to get two storylines worth of episodes and need less filler. The Battle Frontier arc was a mixed bag, due to uneven placement of the filler episodes.

** According to math, Johto was comprised of 50% filler. Surprisingly, the Sinnoh arc was only 20% filler. The Unova arc also contains less filler.

* In something of an inversion, ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' had at least three or four per season, but they are usually the funniest episodes.

** Megaman Starforce was even worse. It had a great plot for the first half, a lot of promise. Then the creators forgot there was a plot for almost the entire second half of the series. So we got a bunch of random episodes about the [=FMs=] goofing around on earth until the last few episodes when the creators finally remembered that there was a plot. The series was hastily ended with a lot of loose threads and a bunch of stuff that made no sense unless you had played the Starforce video game, and even then the plots between the two mediums were so different by that point that is was more of a "fill in the blanks and hope you're right" thing.

* Lampooned in ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'': Dean Learner states that so many slow-motion sequences were used because the episodes often ran several minutes short and they had to be bulked out somehow.

** Before the filler in Johto, there was also a Filler Season in the Orange Islands, caused by Game Freak being unable to finish ''PokemonGoldAndSilver'' in time. Amusingly, the Orange League is also the only tournament which Ash was able to win.

* ''{{Final Fantasy X}}'': Arguably, the whole Blitzball section in Luca is this; nothing relevant to Yuna's pilgrimage happens here because there isn't a temple, and it's most likely that the player will lose the Blitzball match anyway, due to a random number generator, and the Goers' far superior scores. (Winning itself only bags the player a Strength Sphere, which isn't all that useful). Sure, you meet Auron in Luca, but that only happens ''after'' Blitzball is over.

* The two episodes of ''{{Daria}}'' not seen as canonical or even all that good by fans: the one where everyone bursts into a sing-and-dance routine about an impending hurricane, trhe other when the supernatrural spirits of various public holidays intrude into reality. If these were devised as last-minute filler to get the number of episodes up to a series-friendly 26, it explains much.

* The Bohrok-Kal, 2003's winter setline from ''Franchise/{{BIONICLE}}''. They were noting more than {{Palette Swap}}s of the previous year's enemy sets and their story was essentially a half year-long extension of 2002's Bohrok Saga (though it wasn't exactly filler). The line was probably produced to give {{LEGO}} enough time to prepare for the movie and the tie-in toys released later that year, although it reportedly affected their profits pretty badly -- however that was partly because no regular-sized hero sets were released that year.

** Additionally, establishing shots – used to give context to the next scene or act – can sometimes be used as padding, especially if they come into play for more than a few seconds or if several are used in succession.

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'',episodes [[FreakyFridayFlip 19]] and 50.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'' was basically ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' with Big Boss instead of Snake or Raiden. It's not considered a bad game since the story and the characters are all quite entertaining, but it is considered a disappointment, since all it contributes to the overall arc of the series is to retcon a few character's backstories for (nonsexual) FanService, and shows where Big Boss thought up the name "Outer Heaven." On the other hand, its important to the overall saga as it also acts as an early-bird clue that [[spoiler:its Zero, not the CIA Director from Metal Gear Solid 3, who founded the Patriots, something that's later confirmed in VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4]].
** ''Metal Gear Solid Mobile'' is this as well - a completely pointless mission that ''does'' show the development of Solid Snake and Otacon's friendship, but also chooses to have Snake's memories of the mission erased at the end. So much for that, then!

* When a person has set goals or a long term agenda to just get there, they are sometimes required by other forces to meet with other people or do things pertaining to other matters that are third-party and do not help further their activity at all. Percent of the time, these people or things are never heard about again. (See also: The airport personnel, when your luggage is on the wrong flight.)

** The Zanpakutou Unknown Tales Arc was a plotline where an enemy turned the zanpakutou against their shinigami owners while struggling with one captain also defecting, combining an action story with a mystery story as both the enemy's and the defector's motivations were both slowly revealed.

--> -- ''NarutoTheAbridgedSeries''

[[quoteright:212:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/suggyfiller_small_3451.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:212:Webcomic/SluggyFreelance suffers from ScheduleSlip.]]
->'''Sakura''': "So, did we even do anything this episode?"\\
'''Kakashi''': "Sakura, welcome to the wonderful world... of filler."\\
'''Everyone''': "[[BigNo Nooooo]]!"

In most cases, the defining aspect of filler is the total ''lack'' of series momentum. Filler can be safely ignored without any loss of important information. However, there is also a style of filler called the "single upgrade filler". Basically, it uses a filler episode to introduce a new power, machine, costume, minor character, etc. without having to work it into the greater narrative. In these cases, the episode can be ignored outside of "something got an upgrade".

* ''Manga/{{Dragonball}}'' had a significant amount of filler. The relaunched series, ''DragonballKai'', eliminates much of the filler in the second series. Throughout the first two series events end up being contradicted by canon events in several places, such as:

* ''{{Maison Ikkoku}}'' had an episode concerning one of the CloudCuckoolander neighbours of the protagonist actually giving him a mysterious egg, and he frets the whole episode looking after it, not knowing if he should eat it, keep it in his fridge or try to hatch it...

* ''{{Dragonball}}'' had a significant amount of filler. The relaunched series, ''DragonballKai'', eliminates much of the filler in the second series. Throughout the first two series events end up being contradicted by canon events in several places, such as:

* ''{{Naruto}}'''s anime went into filler for ''over a year'' (80 weeks to be precise) after it OvertookTheManga. The producers of the sequel ''Shippuuden'' initially took steps to have minimal filler so as not to break things up too badly. There's more filler as Shippuden goes along, but the producers try to keep it down by slowing the pace of canon episodes. Many episodes – especially the first couple of arcs, where it was ''every'' episode – were adaptations of a single manga chapter. However, many individual chapters of the manga contained long stretches of not much happening. This hasn't changed, and since there were ''still'' chapters where not a lot happened, this led to episodes where characters ''literally'' did ''nothing'', including an egregious one where Naruto, Yamato and Sakura stood around for 20 minutes talking about ''how they needed to get moving'' and catch up to Orochimaru. The pace is pretty odd, considering that the anime is usually two years or so behind the manga.

* In an example of how Filler can go dangerously wrong, ''RurouniKenshin'' [[TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised was actually cancelled]] due to the extremely low quality of its {{filler arc}}s, and given a movie with a GeckoEnding.

* Ditto ''{{Kinnikuman}}'' and ''KinnikumanNisei'', whose filler arcs got them cancelled. Both of them got revived later, but ''Nisei'' got canned again and TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised.

* ''NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'', despite being only 39 episodes, wound up having a filler arc added in the middle of production. These were the "Island/Africa arcs" (episodes 23-34) in which the entire quality of the production, from the [[OffModel animation]] to the storyline, sank like a stone. They were commissioned only because the show's ratings were very high and imposed on the production team [[ExecutiveMeddling against their will]]. Hideaki Anno actually had nothing to do with their production because he was so taxed with just fulfilling his original duties, and in later interviews expressed that if he could redo the series he would only keep ''parts'' of two of the filler episodes at most because the arc was so unimportant to the story.

* In something of an inversion, ''{{Slayers}}'' had at least three or four per season, but they are usually the funniest episodes.
* The third season of the ''IkkiTousen'' anime, Great Guardians, has no basis in the original manga and has little bearing on the overall plot. The slightly slower pace and bigger emphasis on character interaction still make it a fairly enjoyable watch though.
* A large part of ''[[MegaManNTWarrior Rockman.EXE]]'' Stream was like this.

* ''MagicKnightRayearth'' anime in the first season has a lot of filler episodes. This, however, proves to be very important when it comes to CharacterDevelopment. It also borrows several elements used in the manga too.

* ''SoulEater'' had a few hilarious fillers involving the character Excalibur, who's pretty much a filler-character, although he does come in on the last arc.

* ''SailorMoon'' has a fan guide called "[[http://animania.eclectic-world.com/post.cfm/sailor-moon-essential-episodes Sailor Moon Essential Episodes]]" that roughly pinpoints 53 episodes as completely irrelevant filler, with an additional 51 being single plot point/power upgrade curiosities (along with five vital episodes of the Doom Tree arc still considered filler). The show only had 200 episodes total.

* ''DennouCoil'' is mainly the story of Isako and her connection to the weird phenomena in the virtual world. This makes the episodes in which she doesn't even appear feel rather pointless.

* Compared to most shows of its length (thirteen years and counting!) ''{{One Piece}}'' has had relatively few filler arcs, due in part to how jam-packed with details Eiichiro Oda's stories tend to be (making it easy for writers to do {{adaptation expansion}}) The filler arcs which ''are'' present are a mixed bag; fans generally hate the Warship Island/Apis arc, but many consider the G8 arc to be good enough to stand with the best of the canon material. The Ice Hunter arc got high marks as well, perhaps because it was outlined by Oda himself.

*** Case in point for [[AdaptationExpansion Adaptation Expansion]], after the events of Sabaody, the fates of the remainder of the Straw Hat Crew was given a single chapter of the Manga. From that chapter, the writing staff created four episodes, covering the fates of two members in each. This was aired in-between Amazon Lily and Impel Down, due to fitting with travel time. In-between Impel Down and Marineford, the writers created another four episodes that touched upon the cover-stories that were put into the Manga during Marineford.
*** While OnePiece is good-and-all at being free of Filler, that doesn't mean that the anime is epic 24/7. It's instead subject to some pretty excruciating Padding as it attempts to stretch the chapters out.

* ''{{Fist of the North Star}}'' had more [[{{villain of the week}} episodic villains]] than there were in the manga. This is particularly in the first season, due to [[OvertookTheManga overtaking the series to a huge extent]], and wanting to put the first major fight (Kenshiro vs. Shin) at the end of the season. This involved inventing new henchmen for Shin every week and turning some independent enemies into his lackeys. The third season also overtook the manga, but stretched out the Souther fight and put [[RecapEpisode five recap episodes]] at the very end of the season.
* The ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' 'Endless Eight' arc is filler taken UpToEleven: the beginning and end have slight differences to begin and resolve the story, but the other six are [[GroundhogDayLoop almost the exact same things happening over and over again]] albeit completely re-animated and re-voiced. Other stories of similar length were handled in 1-2 episodes.

* ''CodeGeass'' had two ClipShow episodes that the staff openly referred to as Filler; they weren't even included in the DVD release. However, many fans consider any episode that doesn't directly correlate to the war between the Black Knights and Britannia to be Filler, resulting in a lot of hate for the {{Breather Episode}}s that focus on Ashford Academy. The writers possibly fired back in the final SchoolFestival episode, where [[StudentCouncilPresident Milly]] remarks (paraphrased) "There's nothing wrong with the little filler moments in life" - and in the English dub, she outright uses the word "filler".
* KimagureOrangeRoad is one of the few series to have fillers that fans considered to be awesome.
* Being only 49-episode long, the fillers in ''MacrossSeven'' are incredibly hard to deal with since you can't totally avoid any episode without missing out some important events. In the first half of the show, you can count around 10 battles with nearly identical situation, the villains repeatedly announce their objectives (more Spiritia!) but ultimately retreat while accomplishing nothing, boring StockFootage and the same songs being performed over and over. But mixed among those sequences are bits and bits of important information, making the show an obvious result from ExecutiveMeddling to make the show longer than it should be.

* Manga/AiYoriAoshi: Enishi contains a tremendous amount of filler compared to the first series; which is unusual, since it's actually ''shorter''. Annoyingly, no single episode can be just skipped over, since the creators almost invariably throw in a scene or two of story or character development just to keep it from being ''entirely'' irrelevant. To the point that removing all the filler from episodes 2 through 9 would leave about one and a half episodes of relevant material.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' didn't have very many of these (due to its being only 26 episodes long), but the most notable was Episode 7, "A Human Work". It contains no Angels, has no real bearing on the story, has little to no character development (other than Shinji's anger over Misato's slobbiness, leading to Shinji's being assured by Toji and Kensuke that knowing how slobby she is compared to her beautiful real-world persona makes them "a family"), and pretty much serves only to fill in the space between the battle with Ramiel and Asuka's introduction to the story. Though it is worth noting that despite the episodes afformentioned lack of content it does add a bit of world building and drops some large hints at NERV's more seedy involvements in the overall events of the series.

** Being the previous contender for the most episodic instalment, [[Anime/DigimonAdventure02 02]] was surprisingly good at averting this – but episodes 12 and 15, which featured romps through a Digital western and Little Edo town respectively, did nothing to advance the plot or characterization.

* ''{{Yu Yu Hakusho}}'' has episode 3, where [[TheHero Yusuke]], as a ghost, helps [[TheRival Kuwabara]] in his dealings with a [[SadistTeacher nasty teacher threatening one of his friends]]. Aside from a dub-added line, none of the events in this episode are alluded to again, and the next episode's Recap doesn't mention it at all--a viewer could skip from episode 2 to episode 4 without feeling like anything's missing.

* InuYasha was infamous for this. Although many of the earlier seasons were mostly storyline-based with filler thrown in here and there (because the manga was well ahead of the anime) many fans noted [[SeasonalRot a deterioration]] starting during the fourth season before the Band of Seven Arc; after this arc, the anime was more or less caught up with the manga, causing copious amounts of filler to be created in order to compensate. This led to the show's premature ending, necessitating a short revival (''The Final Act'') several years later, after the manga ''finally'' ended.

* ''JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' has Filler Bunny, a cute little bunny rabbit who was created and tortured by cruel scientists for the purpose of filling pages when Vasquez can't come up with enough material.
* Book 5 and 6 of [[ComicBook/LesLegendaires Les Légendaires]] count as this: not only does it have few, if anything, to do with what was the main plot at this point, but most of the events of those Books are retconned in-story thanks to Jadina's time reset. The main villain of those book, Captain Ceyderom, is the least important of all the major villains and the only one to not appear again after this arc. On the other hand, Prince Halan, who is also introduced in this book, appears again later, and theme such as Jadina's ArrangedMarriage are further explored later.

* ''[[Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'' has an unsubtly named FillerArc. [[SubvertedTrope It's not actually filler.]]

* ''Twin Peaks'' was only intended to last until Laura Palmer's murderer was caught. Unfortunately, it was popular enough to spawn another ''season'', which was completely unplanned and directionless as a result.

* Related example: ''SuperSentai'' and ''PowerRangers'' mostly follow the [[HalfArcSeason "half arc, half filler"]] formula, but each ''Sentai'' series has to run for a whole year's 48-52 episodes, whereas ''Power Rangers'' are usually much shorter. While some fans prefer the higher story-density of PR's shorter seasons, others miss the fleshing out of the characters (the girls in particular) that the additional fillers episodes allow the writers to indulge in in Sentai.
** Early seasons of PowerRangers, which aired on weekdays, we're stuffed with filler, the first season in particular having run for a whopping ''sixty'' episodes and abstained from doing story arcs that didn't focus on the green ranger (For example, those Power Eggs in the episode with the chicken monster? They were originally the last two dinosaur eggs, a subplot that ran all the way to the end of the series in the Sentai.)

* A few seasons into ''TheXFiles'', the show settled into a mixture of [[MythArc "mythology"]] episodes and [[MonsterOfTheWeek "Monster of the Week"]] episodes. If you were watching for the myth arc, the Monster of the Week episodes were filler.
* ''ThePrisoner'' was originally intended to be a seven episode miniseries. The network wanted more, and so ten standalone episodes were created and intermixed with the main StoryArc. Less noticeable than in other series with a high filler percentage, as most of the filler episodes are still good.

* Swedish children's sci-fi comedy show {{Vintergatan}}, both 5A and 5B, had children getting to call the characters and help them with personal things. These conversations could get very, very, ''very'' annoying. Even more frustrating in the sequel, which only had ten episodes instead of around forty-fifty -- conversations on the ship between one certain alien and one certain human, mostly showing off their OddCouple-sort of relationship, and serving absolutely no purpose, aside from minor CharacterDevelopment -- which was forced by the plot later on anyway.

* It usually happens in ''{{Fringe}}'', where there's always a {{Monster of the week}} focus and mostly all of the episodes advance very little on the plot. There was one episode in the second season, for example, that showed [[spoiler:Charlie Francis]] alive. Keep in mind, the character had already died in the show, but apart from that, it felt like a normal episode. Apparently, it had been filmed for the first season but they waited until then to air it.
* One particularly obvious example of this on {{SaturdayNightLive}} was the 1985-86 season's Christmas episode hosted by Teri Garr. The centerpiece of the episode was meant to be a 'made-for-TV movie' spoof called "The Big Tree," which was split across a commercial break due to its length. However, the entire second half of the sketch was cut (most likely after 10 PM dress rehearsal) after the audience failed to respond, so the live episode has painful patches of filler. Segments such as Teri's monologue and Don Novello's 'Mr X.' commentary on Weekend Update are clearly padded out to be much, much longer than they should've been; and a sketch about a tropical island further drags out the episode by using a number of overlong stock-footage clips.
* SonsOfAnarchy Season 2 has the first couple of episodes seem to set the stage for the rest of the series...until it becomes apparent that the resolution to this begins about three episodes from the end. The remaining episodes generally expand on subplots and have many, many instances of JustShootHim.

* Improv-heavy ''{{Outnumbered}}'''s solution to an episode coming up short seems to be having little Karen act out a RealityShow with plushies, and cutting that into the episode as necessary.

** Pretty much all filler before the 7-year-timeskip was all either cut material Hiro chose not to use or to serve as AdaptationExpansion; the lone exception being the four-part Daphne filler in which Natsu is forced into a mechanical Dragon.

** Subverted with Roy Thomas's run in the 1960s, especially during the Factor Three storyline. Thomas uses the lengthy storyline to flesh out details (such as the X-Men struggling with reaching the bad guys lair without Xavier's resources) most writers would have glossed over.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' managed to avoid major anime filler until the end of the Soul Society arc, 63 episodes in, at which point the story was dangerously close to [[OvertookTheManga overtaking the manga]], and had to do 1.5 seasons of filler arc in order to regain breathing room. Lengthy filler arcs became increasingly more common through the run of the series, since the Hueco Mundo, Fake Karakura Town, and Deicide arcs occur over just a couple of (very very busy) days in story time but take up dozens of episodes in RealLife without many convenient stopping points. Most of the time ''Bleach'' avoided the "poor-quality filler" complaint with arc-based writing that brought back characters who were OutOfFocus in the main storyline. However, some of the constraints of filler writing (like StatusQuoIsGod to avoid changing anything that might turn out to be relevant to the main plot) did tend to make the material weaker overall than the manga-based arcs. Filler arcs in order:
** The Bount Arc, which commenced immediately after the end of the Soul Society arc, was considered the second weakest filler storyline in the series' run. It introduced a large number of new characters who were promptly KilledOffForReal and failed to resolve major issues from the end of the previous arc (like Uryuu being powerless), leading to a general feeling of pointlessness. On the up side, the Bount Arc did manage to do some character development--for example, it briefly explored the issue of Uryuu's MissingMom which has never even been mentioned in the manga.
** The Captain Amagai arc, meanwhile, started pretty randomly in the ''middle'' of an established story arc, where after defeating Grimmjow, Ichigo wound up back in Karakura Town. "Orihime was kidnapped by [[spoiler:Aizen's]] group, but let's take a break and look at something else." It addressed issues that did eventually have to be dealt with the manga (i.e. [[spoiler:the lack of captains for squads three, five, and nine]]) but it was just so ''random''.
*** Lampshaded in the episode preview:
---->'''Ichigo''': Hey, what's going on here? What happened to Hueco Mundo and the Arrancar?
*** They even [[LampshadeHanging acknowledged]] the worthlessness of the Amagai arc in TheStinger of its final episode. Ichigo trots back to [[spoiler:Hueco Mundo]] like nothing happened (and [[CanonDiscontinuity nothing]] [[ResetButton did]]), and Orihime ''shows him the point in the manga where they left off'' when he arrives.
*** Amusingly, in the framing for the Amagai arc, all the characters but Ichigo [[AnimatedActors behaved like they were actors in a show]]. Ichigo was quite confused...
** The manga-based Turn Back the Pendulum arc was believed by many anime-only fans to be another round of filler, because it takes place entirely in flashback and ''in the middle of a Hueco Mundo Arc fight''...but it's actually some of the most important exposition in the series.
** The Karakurizer stand-alone filler episodes (213, 214, 228 and 287) are based on a series of manga omakes (about life in Karakura when the main cast is off fighting battles) expanded into a mini-plotline but also crash head-first into self-parody at times. They're extremely popular in the fandom and have been accepted as more-or-less canon even by hardcore manga devotees.
** The Zanpakuto Unknown Tales arc proved that filler can too have not only decent writing but also animation and fight choreography on par with much of the original manga material. The Beast Swords mini-arc that followed right behind it admittedly wasn't as intense or exciting as the previous one, and more on the level as episodes 213/214, but it was downright [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]], and provided surprising depth and/or development for several Zanpakuto spirits. Even so, the arc is sometimes a [[BrokenBase source of fan contention]].
** That said, Bleach's final Filler arc, known as the Invading Army Arc, is considered by fans to be the worst writing in the series, even compared to the Bount arc. Well-received animation alone couldn't make up for massive inconsistencies, numerous plot holes, a villain (Kageroza Inaba) even more overpowered than [[VillainSue Aizen]], and [[FlatCharacter Nozomi Kujo]] [[GodModeSue embodying]] [[JerkSue several]] [[BlackHoleSue aspects]] of a MarySue. She [[SpotlightStealingSquad takes control of the storyline]], breaks many established rules of the ''Bleach''-verse, and proves to completely outmatch the Gotei 13 (including Yamamoto, who gets trashed twice this arc). This got her labelled as the ''most hated filler character'' in ''Bleach'' history (which is saying something when compared to the Mod Souls from the Bount Arc and Lurichiyo-hime from the Amagai-arc) even beating out '''Aizen''' as a CreatorsPet.
*** It's speculated that the anime's cancellation following the (manga-based) Lost Agent Arc's conclusion was due to hangover low ratings from the Invading Army arc. Whether Bleach will receive an {{Inuyasha}}-style continuation for the Thousand-Year-Blood-War finale arc remains to be seen.

** According to math, Johto was comprised of 50% filler. Surprisingly, the Sinnoh arc was only 18% filler. The Unova arc also contains less filler.

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' didn't have very many of these (due to its being only 26 episodes long), but the most notable was Episode 7, "A Human Work". It contains no Angels, has no real bearing on the story, has little to no character development (other than Shinji's anger over Misato's slobbiness, leading to Shinji's being assured by Toji and Kensuke that knowing how slobby she is compared to her beautiful real-world persona makes them "a family"), and pretty much serves only to fill in the space between the battle with Ramiel and Asuka's introduction to the story. Though it is worth noting that despite the episodes afformentioned lack of content it does add a bit of world building and drops some large hints at NERV's more seedy involvements in the overall events of the series.