Hot take: filler episodes in long-running anime are actually important for pacing

I keep seeing people skip entire arcs in shows like One Piece or Naruto because they call it filler. But I watched Bleach from episode 1 to 366 last year, filler included, and the payoff in the canon arcs hit way harder. The breather episodes let you care about side characters so the main story has more weight. Has anyone else noticed that skipping episodes makes the main fights feel rushed?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlesj461mo ago

Yeah, because nothing says "immersive storytelling" like watching 12 episodes of a cooking contest in between the main villain showing up and the final battle.

ben4361mo ago

Oh man, I've been there (that's rough). Honestly, just fast-forward through the filler episodes - most streaming services let you skip whole scenes now, and you'll probably miss nothing important. The payoff is way better when you don't have to sit through a souffle contest.

wendy6741mo agoTop Commenter

My buddy tried that with a show once and accidentally skipped a scene where a main character's dog died. He spent the next three episodes totally lost because people kept being sad about something he never saw. Had to go back and hunt for it on YouTube later. So yeah, fast forwarding works but you gotta be careful not to skip the quiet little moments that actually matter later.