Have Fillers Ruined Anime?

I'm so glad that Ranma 1/2 was my FIRST anime series and before all the internet crazy I got to experience stupid filler (anything after Season 2) first hand.

I think the general problem is not how closely the filler does and does not follow the manga. But how the different directors of anime tend to handle it. I'll go back to my first example Ranma 1/2. Ranma is a series that derailed around Season 3 and got bogged down with tedious amounts of filler episodes that focused on one annoying character and how much he could screw with everyone else. The director of the series made this character to be far more malicious than he was in the manga to the point where anytime he appeared on screen I groaned in pain. But Season 4 happened and the guy seemed to learn how to balance out the cast more and create more interesting filler.

There are quite a few anime series that are predominately filler but ultimately if you have a good director at the helm you get some very good episodes and story arcs. Animes like Dragonball/Dragonball Z, sometimes One Piece, Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha and Yu-gi-oh fall into this category.
In fact, the first Fullmetal Alchemist series, is a definitive example on how you can NOT follow the manga and still do excellent storytelling (its polar opposite being Hellsing which BEGGED for a revival).

I think when we think of "filler-abuse" three Shonen Jump series come to mind. Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, and the king of abusers Naruto. RK is saved buy having an on again and off again filleresque Season 1 while Season 2 is epic and has a good ending point for the series. Season 3 is a gradual decline in story telling but to be honest by having the Seasons divided it makes it easier to find a stopping point.

Bleach has started the ugly habit of interupting whatever is going on in the current arc but this is more of the fault of Tite Kubo not creating "breathers" in his manga storytelling and taking waaaaaaay to long to get to a freakin' point. I don't think SJ authors are required to create break points but it seems with other properties the anime people can find points to insert original storylines but Bleach has been dragging to the point where I really hardly care what's going on anymore...

Naruto's filler arcs (I 'm using Part 1 as the example since Shippuden's filler has been far more tolerable and better intergrated into the series) started off with potential but then there was a point where it just became blatantly obvious the anime people were just buying time. What amazes me is that Naruto had like 84 straight filler episodes and that is just as many as DB and DBZ had in their ENTIRE RUN which just speaks volumes of how stupid it got. At least Bleach (before the cut off arcs) tried to make Season long interesting arcs while Naruto just put the main character with any random cell and had them protect whatever generic filler character needed it.

In the end I think overall filler doesn't have to be excellent but it has to at least be original or engaging enough where it doesn't INSULT the characters of the show. I don't mind lulls in character arcs (like in DBZ and One Piece) but not when you get multiple arcs of crud.

O-chan
 
Well like the above post said all the naruto filler did was put Naruto with someone who grew up lonely or was a spoiled brat then Naruto came, said character would say "You don't understand how I feel!" Naruto would have a flasrabroadack, character would turn a new leaf. None of the supporting characters with him got a chance to shine own their own without Naruto nagging his way onto the mission
 
Dude it's callled NARUTO, so it makes sense for Naruto to be involved with the plot in some shape or form, it'll make as much sense as Bleach without Ichigo involved or One Piece where Luffy isn't there. And what you've said isn't entirely true since there were several fillers that didn't follow that motif to it's core and actually spent time developing it's supporting characters as well. Infact the only episode that followed your post was the...ugh...Money bag jutsu episode
 
The Naruto fillers don't make any since because Naruto leaving with Jiraiya to train is supposed to be urgent, instead in the anime he goes on a bajillion missions for no real reason.
 
It was never urgent in the manga to begin with, it was Jiraiya's decision to train him and he gave him time to make his decision on the matter after he got out of the hospital, of course the anime changed this so that Jiraiya had "important business" to do elsewhere (even though he appeared in the episode following that). It just so happened that Naruto made his decision right then and there which is why we had so many damn episodes with Naruto wondering when is Jiraiya coming back.
 
I understand it Naruto but even in One piece the other characters get a chance to shine without Luffy which is my point with the fillers. Some filler episodes devolped a character but it would have been better if there were a mission that Naruto wasn't on.
 
You know what could have been really cool filler for Naruto? Showing stuff that happened during the three-year time-skip. It would have been a lot less tedious than what was actually shown.
 
Which would have been a perfect place for filler. They could have created original stand-alone filler arcs in that timespan, that may have had no real bearing on the canon material down the line, but still actually tried to be something more than a bunch of random stories. I mean I'm sure Naruto and Jiraiya got into some misadventures in that expanse of time, same with the Konoha ninjas.
 
Yeah, but Kishimoto probably wanted that timeline blank so he could pull surprises and say they had their origin in the training trip. Too bad that never happened, but it was a thought.
 
Misadventures pretty well sums up what the actual filler arcs were.


Not that the filler are really relevent anymore. They're easily skippable and have no baring on the series outside of themselves.
 
I find filler sort of irksome but I just skip it when I'm watching a show. All I really care about is what is relevant to the plot.

Now that season breaks are becoming increasingly accepted in Japan, I don't get why they don't start taking hiatuses between spurts of canon material. There are a few J-Dramas which follow a more Western-esque season pattern. I don't get why they don't expand that to anime as well.

For example have Bleach run April-Septeraber, take a break and then pick up again next April. I'm sure it can't be much trouble to find another show to fill the other 6 months. There's no shortage of manga to adapt or probably no shortage of directors clamouring to get their original work produced.
 
Filler is okay, IMO, if it's handled correctly (like with the current Zanpakto arc going on in Bleach right now), but doing too much of it (like the case of Naruto prior to Shippuden) can kill a fan's interest in the series. Even if it's to provide buffer space between an ongoing manga and its anime counterpart, if there's no substance to it to gain fans' interest, then what's the point. Just take time off from the anime and come back when you have enough material to use to continue the story.
 
The term filler doesn't automatically translate to destruction of a great show. It can be used in creative and interesting ways to flesh out the story or the plot (Fullmetal Alchemist) or even provide fun sidestories provided the characters remain consistent (Slayers seasons save TRY). Those abovementioned examples are good filler. Heck, there are even some episodes in The World of Narue which could probably be called "filler" (the Hot Springs episode, the pool scene, the beach episode), but they are very delightful because they do a good job at retaining the characters' personalities and keep the production values on par. (The only exception to this is the "cosplay" episode, which, while by no means bad, is weaker than the rest of the episodes--I think they could have done a much better job with that story without warping the male lead character's personality.)

The only thing that truly can ruin, or at least hamper, Anime is truly bad filler. Aside from the examples of Naruto, I don't remeraber being so badly disappointed by poor episodes as I was when I wasted my time with the island/Africa arc (23-29, 32-34) in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, which is probably the absolute worst case of "filler" I've ever suffered through: slapdash animation, poorly written stories, and characters all turning into cartoonish mockeries of their former selves.

So ultimately, it depenRAB on the quality of it.
 
That's not true. Sakura and Ino both decided to become medical ninjas in the fillers and that has a big effect on the canon episodes.
 
That was integrated into the end of a filler episode from the chapter in which Naruto set off with Jiraiya (which was also then integrated into episode 220), not that that stuff isn't easily skippable (or can be read in the manga).
 
I guess you could say filler ruined anime. Or rather "unfinished stories" ruined anime licensed from Manga. It really wasn't such a factor in earlier decades of anime was it? Somewhere in the 80's was when licensed manga really became prevelant right? So, it ruined the fact that earlier anime wasn't hogtied by an unfinished manga and could tell a story of their own.

Sure you can tell a good story but the truly great anime are the ones that have a beginning middle and clear end. Usually we are talking original anime like Cowboy Bebop or at least something like Full Metal Alchemist which created an ending.

It seems that anime and manga are mutually promoting machines. A popular enough manga gets licensed and an anime is made, the anime promotes the manga making it more popular.

It certainly seriously hurts the quality of anime licensed from shojo manga. How many of these shows actually get an ending?

On my page right now is the banner ad for Fruits basket, a really good anime... but no real ending. No, you have to read the Manga for that.
In my recent nominations for the top ten manga I started with the disclaimer that almost the only manga I read are ones whose anime leaves a story open ended. One of the very worst endings of an anime I've ever seen is to His and Her Circumstances, half a dozen stories left open!

You have to become accustomed to it.

I say you big shonen series fans are spoiled. You may get filler which may be subpar, but at least you are almost garaunteed an ending. Even Inuyasha is getting an anime ending now. You lucky so-n-so's.

Not that I avoid all shonen anime. I echo and elaborate on what I think should be a solution mentioned here. Collaboration with the writer. It doesn't have to be a constant note giving exercise either, more like an outline to follow of a story that may not be central to the manga but could elaborate on it. Naruto Shippuden's filler plotline is an example of how it sort of worked by chance but could have worked better if they had gotten more help from Kishimoto. They were gifted with the fact that the manga didn't really reveal anything about the turtle/tailed beast's capture and they could do something with that story, it certainly fits in with overall story so you're getting something that "happened" in some sense. But it certainly would have been better if Kishimoto could have helped them integrate it better by providing the outline of a sidestory to follow- maybe provide the bonus of revealing a power of a supporting character that he won't bother telling in the main story or something. Give us a story about Kiba and Akmaru or something.

These licenses make the authors some coin right? Shouldn't they want to have some say in keeping the supporting anime interesting so it doesn't pull a Kenshin and disappear?
 
The reason Sakura became a medical ninja was given in the first filler arc after the Rescue Sasuke arc. She then trained throughout the rest of the fillers and when Ino saw how experienced she had become during the last filler arc, she too decided to become a medical ninja.
 
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