View Full Version : Fillers! How much do you hate / like them?
roriconfan
2009-10-13, 04:17
For the sake of clarifing what a filler is in this case, it is any part of the story that does not progress the plot and NOT only extra stand alone stories.
So, you noticed how almost all anime have those. How much do you like them or not?
I have nothing agaianst fillers really, if they're interesting enough. Some anime you just follow for the action and don't care about the plot so it doesn't matter if they don't advance it in anyway.
Right now I'm watching the Zanpaktou fillers in Bleach and I'm finding them far more interesting than the main plot.
The problem is that the majority of time, the fillers will have much lower quality which is evident. I hate it when that happens.
Archon_Wing
2009-10-13, 06:21
If it's to the extent of DBZ or Naruto, where it becomes like a chore to deal with, then no. A random waste of time now that gives a break from the action now and then is fine.
You know haw bad fillers are?
It killed Rurouni Kenshin in the past. After Kyoto Arc, all of them are filler arcs while its manga only have one, Jinchuu Arc.
Triple_R
2009-10-13, 07:58
Fillers killed Bleach for me, personally (specifically, the Bounts filler).
I can tolerate a few episodes of fillers, but that's about it.
The length and quality of the filler are definite factors on whether or not I can enjoy it. For instance, when I watched Honey and Clover I saw the two OVA episodes, which contain humorous side-stories, in two spots in the middle. They didn't really advance the plot at all, but they were very funny and short, so I enjoyed them quite a bit. Endless, low quality story-arc length fillers (Naruto, etc) are pretty excruciating.
Probably another reason people hate fillers is on the principle that it's not a story written by the mangaka. A lot of people think, correctly or not, that if it isn't from the original source material, it is automatically bad.
Normally I dislike them, but there are some fillers that are enjoyable.
And yes Naruto/Bleach fillers are the plague of all fillers.
Riza-chan
2009-10-13, 08:17
Fillers killed Bleach for me, personally (specifically, the Bounts filler).
It was the same for me, and when I remember how much I loved the soul society arc, but then the fillers started and it was so downhill after that.And it was the same for Shugo Chara, I couldn't bare to watch anymore around ep 33 and to think season 3 just started...
if there are a few filler episodes in an anime I can handle that, but if more than half of the episodes are unimportant fillers then no way.The count of Bleach fillers was enough for on life.
chikorita157
2009-10-13, 08:57
Depending on how much fillers, sometimes fillers can be enjoyable, as long they are not rehashes and there is very few of them. If you talking about ongoing series like Naruto, Bleach and Pokemon, yes these fillers can be very annoying and watching it will be a total waste of time. Again, this depends on the quality of the story presented in the filler episode.
A few fillers here and there to slow down the progression of the anime so it won't get caught up to the manga is alright, but too much filler is annoying.
KholdStare
2009-10-13, 15:29
Filler are mostly good. It's the terrible ones that tend to come up first when we think about them.
The CCS fillers are among the best in anime, because they didn't seem like fillers at all.
Daniel E.
2009-10-13, 15:44
Probably another reason people hate fillers is on the principle that it's not a story written by the mangaka. A lot of people think, correctly or not, that if it isn't from the original source material, it is automatically bad.
Not to mention the fact that manga can also contain fillers, that is, chapters that do nothing whatsoever to advance the main point or focus of the story.
The last several years of the Ah my Goddess! manga have been, IMHO, nothing but fillers. :rolleyes:
So-so -or- depends on how well they are done
Some fillers are really good. I may mistake them for an actual ep within the storyline occasionally.
Too much fillers is a nuisance. >.>
That's the reason why I dropped a lot of animes, particularly filler-fest Shugo Chara.
But there are, of course, some animes that do good fillers like Akazukin Chacha (though honestly the fillers were more true to the manga than the anime plot :heh:)
Woopzilla
2009-10-14, 13:25
When I hear Filler, I think Bleach. I haven't seen many other animes that contain fillers though... so I might actually develop a higher opinion of them if I see one with decent fillers.
But currently, I feel fillers are just a pain to watch. I'd rather have the anime come out in seasons with considerable gaps to let the Manga get ahead. The fillers stories just seem to throw you off. Depending on what hapens in them you think: When is this? Does this actually happen? He's got his current powers/weapons but he's missing this and that...
The one-episoder fillers are just flat out terrible though... (baking a cake for a ghost? :/).
But I keep plowing on watching Bleach anyway in hope for it to kick ass again like it did in the Soul Society Arc.
clarakiss~
2009-10-14, 18:50
fillers definitely shouldn't be allowed. period. i dislike anime shows that put in numerous fillers then cramp in the 'much needed story plot' in like 3 or 4 episodes and the anime show will end. u.u
Filler are mostly good. It's the terrible ones that tend to come up first when we think about them.
The CCS fillers are among the best in anime, because they didn't seem like fillers at all.
This is the truth.
If fillers are done well, then they can enjoyable. And very hard to detect if you aren't familiar with the work. That being said, because the most fillers aren't so good because the people creating them lack the depth of the original author.
Endrance
2009-10-14, 19:08
There a hit and a miss with me sometimes i mean with bleach i liked all the fillers except for the Lurichiyo parts although i did enjoy the amagai fillers and with naruto loved everything except the sora fillers
Well for me if the story is really intense I think it is nice to have fillers.A sort of lightening of the mood.Since I have noticed most can be silly.
Wattstax
2009-10-17, 09:05
I hate filler episodes in general. Especially if it's only a short show. But I don't mind them in Saiyuki.
-KarumA-
2009-10-17, 15:11
I hate fillers, specially in shounen shows...
It goes to an extend where I simply drop a series, this is why I stopped with Naruto and Bleach
as soon as I thought I could pick up Bleach again they started a new filler season barely 8 episodes after starting an interesting season...
Naruto's filler period which back then started after the 1st series ended was enough for me to quit, the only episode I saw was the curry one and that was more than enough for me
There are fillers I can stand though, One Piece did a great job once by simply animating the plot of one of their games, I loved that
But usually if multiple fillers start then I simply skip them or run through them with many time skips
If it is 1 filler episodes that I can bare with but don't let me wait 4 weeks before anything decent starts airing that is actually relevant to the plot...
As for Bleach their fillers are simply messing up the storyline in general... I read through some blogs and seriously.... they couldn't mess up bleachiverse any more than this could they -_-;
straferd
2009-10-20, 06:55
Naruto? Isn't that just 350+ episodes of filler? ;)
I personally hate fillers, but understand why they sometimes are necessary
It really depends. A lot of filler actually treats the material better than the canon does.
Look at Naruto, from the canon stuff you'd barely know half the characters even exist (especially if they're women). See also: Hinata, who the anime people like much, MUCH more than Kishimoto does...
James Lame
2009-10-22, 05:44
Meh, I'm not that big of a fan of fillers but to be fair there are wide variety of them, ranging from good to horrendous.
As long as it doesn't drag out too long or feel completely worthless I'd be fine with them.
Fillers are okay, as long as they don't distract the viewer from the main story.
fillers definitely shouldn't be allowed. period.
Yup. Mainly because I believe each film and episode should have a story to tell that is in line with the grand picture. I.e: if a man dies in episode 1 he should still be dead by episode 3. Not miraclously resurrected in episode 2 just so he can be killed again in ep3. Just in a different way.
Tbh, fillers can be somewhat acceptable in TV, where you watch the serie only occasionally and really can't remember or care what happened previously, but not as a full package. Since I don't watch TV and mainly download the series in full packages it's easy to see where the fillers are and what is their theme. So right from the first five minutes you will know everything there is to know about the story.
Which is plain boring. Like watching a re-re-replay.
Solafighter
2009-10-25, 12:11
Fillers are, like they are named chapters/episodes, to fill up time or pages. They almost dont follow the main plot and have mostly nothing to do with it.
I hate them?
Yes in most times, i do. In all animes and mangas, where fillers appear, are episode and chapters, that are the most boring ones in the whole series. I prefer series, which are mostly about the main plot or are related with the main characters.
Well with or without fillers, if i read a manga and i see in a certain chapter, that the story gets in a boring dirction, i browse through the pages till the next chapter. :D
Uchiha Soul
2009-10-25, 12:42
well some of them are ok and some are :bash:
but i guess its good to see some fillers from time to time .. it gives some space for the additional characters.
HayashiTakara
2009-10-25, 12:48
I rather have a series go on a break for 6 months than sit through 6 months of filler
~ Lawliet ~
2009-10-26, 20:14
Absolutely hate and never watch.
Cinocard
2009-10-26, 20:34
I dislike fillers in general, though some of them are actually quite good.
But I can tell you that I hate cutting-corner of original materials even more than fillers. I don't mind watching more, but I hate being left out from watching less.
Kannagi fillers were entertaining.(removed)
Kannagi fillers were entertaining,index's too.
Huh? Are you talking about To Aru Majutsu no Index? That didn't have any fillers...
Marcus H.
2009-10-27, 07:54
Fillers are good for 24-episode series, especially for series where you are bombarded with unusual terminologies and you're left with a "O_O??" emote.
Speaking w.r.p to manga to anime adaptations here ...
Just as any other anime episode its depends entirely on the content . O.Piece has really good anime original episodes, heck due to quality of content I actually confused them to be manga adaptations .
And fillers have gone on to become really popular and commercial successful show . Look at Gundam Macross or Code Geass
Langknow
2009-10-27, 13:55
It really depends on the show I guess.
Some anime have really , really bad fillers, e.g Naruto, Bleach., while others have awesome fillers, that make sense, and are pretty good , e.g. One Piece
Riskbreaker
2009-10-27, 15:34
For me, it really depends on the content of the episode.
As long as they're, i guess you could say "imaginative", so to speak. A prime example is the musical episode in Kure-nai. It was as blatant as you could get with regard to filler. But it was a very well delivered episode and as a result, produced lots of fun & laughs. That kind of filler i like.
Also, i don't mind if they help to give screentime to characters who haven't been properly fleshed out via the main storyline because it's always nice every now & then to put the focus on someone who isn't the main character.
As long as it's along those lines then i don't mind. If it's any other kind of filler, then i don't want to know.
And fillers have gone on to become really popular and commercial successful show . Look at Gundam Macross or Code Geass
I'm not really sure what you're defining as fillers here. Those are original storylines for anime, but that doesn't mean they are fillers. There's a difference between fillers and original animation. Even the show format can have an effect on deciding if something is a filler or not.
Obviously, the most notorious kind of fillers come in long shounen shows based on manga. These are episodes or whole arcs with anime-original plots in order to take up time because the show has caught up to the manga. Naruto is a good example of this. Episodes 1-135 are taken from the manga, then 136-220 were filler episodes, made up for the anime, while giving time for the mangaka to get ahead. The show then continued from the manga in Naruto Shippuden. These 85 filler episodes were generally considered poorly written/animated and really did nothing to advance the plot.
There is also the single episode style filler. There was an OVA only episode of Spice and Wolf (episode 7, I believe) which took a break from advancing the plot, instead focusing on some interactions between Horo and Lawrence. These episodes are pretty commonly found in shows that concentrate heavily on plot and are often humorous breaks in the show.
However, these aren't the same as episodes in Slice-of-Life or episodic shows. Kannagi was mentioned earlier as having good fillers, but I don't believe it had any fillers. This is because it's a slice-of-life, and therefore the episodes are all supposed to be about "random" events in the life of the characters. Even though there is some plot overall, the show is more about the characters interacting, so this kind of episode is typical of the show and not a filler. This applies to shows that are episodic as well. Cowboy Bebop has only five episodes that directly deal with the overall plot of the show. The rest of the shows are not fillers, but are self-contained stories. Because this is the intended format of the series, these should not be considered fillers either. Similarly, Gundam, Macross, and Code Geass are all anime with original plots (not based on manga), but that doesn't make them fillers. I haven't watched all of these (as they are some long groups of series) but I can't recall any of the series that actually had fillers (though there were some recap shows).
Generally, I think most people tend to like single episode fillers, as these usually tend to be humorous, and since they are of a short length, people don't tire of them. As far as fillers that last entire story arcs of non-manga material, many of these are bad because they are just designed to increase the length of the show, do not receive much attention, and are a detour from the main story of the show. However, when well written, they can be as entertaining as other plot arcs of shows.
Huh? Are you talking about To Aru Majutsu no Index? That didn't have any fillers...
Hmmm,I guess I mixed it up with another magic anime...Removed..
Thanks.
Triple_R
2009-10-28, 19:55
I'm not really sure what you're defining as fillers here. Those are original storylines for anime, but that doesn't mean they are fillers. There's a difference between fillers and original animation. Even the show format can have an effect on deciding if something is a filler or not.
Obviously, the most notorious kind of fillers come in long shounen shows based on manga. These are episodes or whole arcs with anime-original plots in order to take up time because the show has caught up to the manga. Naruto is a good example of this. Episodes 1-135 are taken from the manga, then 136-220 were filler episodes, made up for the anime, while giving time for the mangaka to get ahead. The show then continued from the manga in Naruto Shippuden. These 85 filler episodes were generally considered poorly written/animated and really did nothing to advance the plot.
There is also the single episode style filler. There was an OVA only episode of Spice and Wolf (episode 7, I believe) which took a break from advancing the plot, instead focusing on some interactions between Horo and Lawrence. These episodes are pretty commonly found in shows that concentrate heavily on plot and are often humorous breaks in the show.
However, these aren't the same as episodes in Slice-of-Life or episodic shows. Kannagi was mentioned earlier as having good fillers, but I don't believe it had any fillers. This is because it's a slice-of-life, and therefore the episodes are all supposed to be about "random" events in the life of the characters. Even though there is some plot overall, the show is more about the characters interacting, so this kind of episode is typical of the show and not a filler. This applies to shows that are episodic as well. Cowboy Bebop has only five episodes that directly deal with the overall plot of the show. The rest of the shows are not fillers, but are self-contained stories. Because this is the intended format of the series, these should not be considered fillers either. Similarly, Gundam, Macross, and Code Geass are all anime with original plots (not based on manga), but that doesn't make them fillers. I haven't watched all of these (as they are some long groups of series) but I can't recall any of the series that actually had fillers (though there were some recap shows).
Generally, I think most people tend to like single episode fillers, as these usually tend to be humorous, and since they are of a short length, people don't tire of them. As far as fillers that last entire story arcs of non-manga material, many of these are bad because they are just designed to increase the length of the show, do not receive much attention, and are a detour from the main story of the show. However, when well written, they can be as entertaining as other plot arcs of shows.
Excellent post.
I don't necessarily agree with your take on how enjoyable fillers are, but I completely agree with you on what is, and what is not, a filler.
RadiantBeam
2009-10-28, 19:58
In general I judge fillers based on how well they're done. If the story is well developed, the canon characters stay consistent, and new characters introduced for the filler are likable or at least tolerable, then generally I don't mind them.
Spectacular_Insanity
2009-10-28, 20:45
I both think they are unavoidable because manga can only be written so quickly, but I'm not totally biased against them, especially if they are well thought out. In other words, if they're like Bleach filler I like them, if they're like Naruto filler I hate them with a passion.
synaesthetic
2009-10-28, 20:45
I really liked the whacky baseball filler episode #9 of Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo. I would watch a whole series about that shit.
But as someone already mentioned, filler killed Rurouni Kenshin. So we must be wary of filler.
I love filler as long as it's well played, which means no wiseass moral teachings for 5 year olds, focus on secondary characters and more gags than usual, if possible. Yeah, I know, I'm asking for too much :(
Kimitachi
2009-10-29, 21:15
I like it when the number of episodes is moderate and its function is to refresh the anime.
For me, fillers ruined Naruto, even though I enjoyed a few of them, but then again, they were too many!.
GreatTeacherKen
2009-10-29, 22:45
I'd say it depends on execution. The filler episodes from Slayers are usually the funniest and a welcome diversion from the main plot. But in other cases, like Rurouni Kenshin, the filler episodes are bland (though there are a few good ones now and then) Not too mention the anime has a bit too many of them, which led to the show getting canceled and the Jinchuu arc (my favorite part of the manga) never getting animated in its entirety. :(
technomo12
2009-10-30, 00:44
all i can say i hated somany naruto fillers but liked some of em (like the curry of life with rocklee and neiji at tenten's team)
but Gintama has one of the best filler ever
edited:
in short filler just makes an anime longer and by making asat that it kills it still a filler is a welcome sight UNLESS it is played good or has a good connection with the story atleast kinda like that basesball part in "the girl who leaped through space" man i was laughing to much i vomited hehe
Crimson Cloud
2009-10-30, 09:25
I like fillers in general, they are extension of anime. Some fillers are more entertaining then others but quite a few bring character interactions, funny situations or have additional battles. It's interesting for me to see the characters I like in different situations.
The thing about fillers is that they're not canon, and if they're really good, they wouldn't appear in the end of the story and eventually, you'll feel suckered and miss those characters you liked or the aspect of the story when they're not mentioned or anything. But they are needed when the anime is catching up to the manga or when the anime needs a break from it's usual content.
woodyfly
2009-11-02, 10:38
Totally hate them. They drag too long and isn't reveled until the very end of the episode or arc.
You know a filler is coming when in the beginning of an episode, they show a foreshadowing of something or somebody strange.
They're the main reason why I stopped watching Naruto, Bleach, Soul Eater, Inuyasha, or any other ongoing/25+ episodes anime and went on to reading the manga.
Haladflire65
2009-11-05, 22:40
They're the main reason why I stopped watching Naruto, Bleach, Soul Eater, Inuyasha, or any other ongoing/25+ episodes anime and went on to reading the manga.
Soul Eater doesn't have fillers, and it has only 51 eps. Unless you count the Excalibur episodes... It wasn't a bad series in terms of pacing.
Dark Adonis
2010-01-03, 21:15
I don't mind an occasional filler here and there. They can quickly become excessive though.
Konakaga
2010-01-03, 22:34
Depends how they're done, and how long it is. Though for series that follow a manga it seems to be necessary.
However some can be very done, and enjoyable for example Nyan Koi had a few episodes that would be technically filler since not from the manga, and they're just as good as the non-filler episodes I'd say.
Also some of the bleach filler has been good but parts of first two filler arcs were pretty dam slow/bad in some episodes, though got ok towards end, and current one started off great and has gone to ok, but not great now.
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