Complete Anime Filler List: Rankings, Hidden Gems, and Zero-Filler Picks

One Piece just went seasonal. Bleach is wrapping up its final arc with zero padding. The era that gave us hundreds of filler episodes across anime's biggest franchises is officially closing.

But the backlog from that era isn't going anywhere. Millions of fans are still working through Naruto's 720 episodes, Bleach's 366, and One Piece's 1,168 (and counting). If you're one of them, you need more than a database of episode numbers. You need an anime filler guide that tells you what to skip, what to keep, and which filler episodes are secretly better than some canon arcs.

You'll find all of that in this anime filler list. Below, every major show is ranked by its filler percentage, alongside a curated set of filler arcs that genuinely deserve your time and a rundown of modern anime with zero filler at all. Consider it your complete map of the filler landscape, updated for 2026.

Anime Fillers at a Glance

What Is Filler in Anime (And Why Does It Exist)?

Filler refers to anime episodes that aren't adapted from the original manga. They're original stories created by the animation studio, usually inserted when the anime's production pace catches up to (or threatens to overtake) the manga it's based on.

Why do anime have fillers in the first place?

The answer comes down to production math. A weekly anime needs roughly 40 to 50 new episodes every year. A weekly manga, meanwhile, produces about 48 chapters per year, and most anime episodes burn through one to two chapters of material. It doesn't take long before the anime is knocking on the manga's door, and the studio has to choose between going on hiatus or creating original content to buy time. For decades, studios chose the original content. The result was filler.

The question of why do anime have filler episodes gets more interesting when you look at the three types that exist in practice.

• Pure filler has no manga basis at all (think Bleach's Bount Arc or the infamous Naruto stretch from episodes 136 to 219).
• Mixed canon/filler blends manga material with anime-original padding, stretching one chapter across a full episode with added scenes.
• Anime canon, a newer category that Boruto popularized, where the studio produces original stories considered part of the official continuity even though the manga never told them.

Whether anime canon counts as filler depends entirely on who you ask, and the debate gets heated.

Which Anime Has the Most Filler? The Complete Leaderboard

When fans search for the anime with the most filler, the answer depends on whether you're counting raw episode numbers or percentages. Detective Conan wins by sheer volume with nearly 570 filler episodes. But percentage tells a more honest story, because a 26-episode show at 65% filler and a 1,200-episode show at 47% are very different viewing experiences.

Here's the complete anime filler list leaderboard, ranked by filler percentage.

A note on Boruto: The official filler count sits around 26 episodes out of 293 (about 9%), but the community largely considers the massive volume of "anime canon" episodes as functional filler. If you include anime-canon content, the number climbs past 70%. The answer depends on your definition and your patience.

Records worth knowing:

• Most filler episodes ever: Detective Conan (~569 and still climbing)
• Highest filler percentage: Trigun 1998 (65%, though it's only 26 episodes)
• Longest consecutive filler stretch: Naruto, episodes 136 to 219 (83 episodes, May 2005 to February 2007)

Show-by-Show Quick Filler Guide

The leaderboard gives you the big picture. Here's the quick reference for the shows fans search for most on any filler episodes list, with a brief take on what to skip and what to keep.

Naruto + Naruto Shippuden

Filler count: ~294 out of 720 episodes (41%)

The original series back-loads its filler hard. Episodes 1 through 135 are almost entirely canon, and then episodes 136 to 219 are 83 consecutive episodes of filler right before Shippuden begins. Skip that entire block and jump straight to Shippuden. In Shippuden, filler is scattered more evenly, but Kakashi's Anbu Arc (349–361) and Itachi Shinden (451–458) are worth keeping. Everything else is safe to pass on.

Bleach

Filler count: 163 out of 366 episodes (45%)

Bleach drops its filler arcs directly into the middle of canon storylines, which makes them especially disruptive to momentum. The Bount Arc (64–109) is widely considered the weakest stretch of the show. The New Captain Amagai Arc and the Gotei 13 Invading Army Arc are skippable without hesitation. The Zanpakuto Rebellion (230–265) is the exception: watch it if you want the best filler Bleach has to offer. And if you're catching up for the Thousand-Year Blood War finale in July 2026, know that TYBW has zero filler across all four cours.

One Piece

Filler count: ~98 out of ~1,168 episodes (8%)

One Piece has the leanest filler ratio of any classic long-runner. Most filler arcs are short (5 to 15 episodes) and clearly separated from the main story. The G-8 Arc (196–206) is genuinely excellent and worth watching. The Warship Island, Ice Hunter, and Silver Mine arcs are safe to skip. With One Piece moving to a seasonal format in April 2026 (26 episodes per year for the Elbaph Arc), new filler has effectively stopped.

Dragon Ball Z

Filler count: 39 out of 291 episodes (13%)

Relatively clean for its era. The Garlic Jr. Arc is skippable. The Other World Tournament is worth your time for the fun factor alone. Most other filler is scattered across single episodes or brief scene extensions that pad out fights. If you're watching Dragon Ball Z Kai instead, filler is already cut, giving you a tighter 167-episode version of the full story.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

Filler count: 26 pure filler out of 293 episodes (9%), or 70%+ if you count anime canon

Boruto is the most polarizing entry on any anime filler list. The official filler count is low, but the show's heavy reliance on "anime canon" episodes that don't adapt the manga makes it feel far more padded than the numbers suggest. Fans who want the core story typically stick to the manga-adapted arcs: the Chunin Exams reimagining, the Kawaki Arc, and the Kara storyline.

Fairy Tail

Filler count: 63 out of 328 episodes (19%)

Fairy Tail's filler is concentrated in a few distinct arcs. The Key of the Starry Sky Arc and the Eclipse Celestial Spirits Arc are the biggest offenders and easy to skip. Canon-heavy stretches like the Grand Magic Games and the Tartaros Arc are where the show is at its best.

Detective Conan

Filler count: ~569 out of ~1,200+ episodes (~47%)

The all-time filler champion. Detective Conan's episodic, case-of-the-week format makes filler less painful than in a serialized story, because many standalone filler cases are genuinely fun mysteries on their own. Early filler episodes are especially well-regarded among longtime fans. If you're only interested in the overarching Black Organization plot, though, you're looking at skipping roughly half the show.

Sailor Moon

Filler count: ~99 out of 200 episodes (~49%)

Nearly half the original anime is filler, but much of it is charming monster-of-the-week content that builds out the characters' daily lives in ways the manga didn't have room for. Fans who grew up with the show often have a real soft spot for these episodes. If you want a leaner experience, Sailor Moon Crystal (2014–2016) adapts the manga directly with no filler, though its early animation quality was a sore point for some viewers.

Anime With Zero Filler: Where to Start if You Don't Want to Skip Anything

If the entire concept of checking filler guides before each viewing session sounds exhausting, these shows have none. Every episode is canon, every minute counts.

The pattern across all of these is clear: seasonal production (12 to 26 episodes per season) eliminates the need for filler entirely. When studios wait for source material to build a buffer before animating, they never have to invent content to fill airtime.

The Best Anime Filler Arcs Actually Worth Watching

Filler has earned its bad reputation. But a handful of arcs are genuinely great television, and skipping them means missing some of the most memorable moments in their respective series. Here are the ones the fan community consistently champions.

One Piece: G-8 Arc (Episodes 196–206)

After falling from Skypiea, the Straw Hats crash-land inside a heavily fortified Marine base and have to bluff, sneak, and fight their way out. Every crew member gets a spotlight moment. Sanji takes over the kitchen. Robin infiltrates the intelligence division. Luffy hides inside a burlap sack (badly). The filler-original character Captain Jonathan is sharp enough that fans have wished he'd appear in the manga for years. And the Condoriano gag has become one of the most referenced jokes in the entire One Piece community. Fans regularly say they didn't even realize G-8 was filler until they looked it up years later. It's that seamless.

Naruto Shippuden: Kakashi's Anbu Arc (Episodes 349–361)

A deep look at Kakashi's years in ANBU Black Ops after his father's death and before he became Team 7's sensei. The arc builds out his relationship with a young Yamato and a teenage Itachi, both of whom served in ANBU alongside him, and it paints the darker side of the ninja world that the main story only hints at. The emotional weight here rivals any canon arc in the series. Fans on community polls consistently rank it alongside the Pain Arc and the Chunin Exams as peak Naruto. If you skip all other Naruto filler, keep this one.

Bleach: Zanpakuto Rebellion Arc (Episodes 230–265)

Every Soul Reaper's Zanpakuto spirit materializes and rebels against its master, led by the mysterious Muramasa. The concept alone is creative enough to justify the arc, but the execution delivers too. Seeing Byakuya's Senbonzakura and Rukia's Sode no Shirayuki as independent characters adds real texture to the weapon-wielder dynamic that the main story never fully explored. Muramasa himself became a fan-favorite, and the fight choreography holds up well for its era. In a show with 45% filler, the Zanpakuto Rebellion is the one arc fans consistently defend.

Naruto Shippuden: Itachi Shinden (Episodes 451–458)

Based on the Itachi Shinden light novels (which some fans argue makes this "novel canon" rather than true filler), the arc follows Itachi from childhood through the Uchiha massacre. Shisui gets fully realized as a character for the first time. Izumi's relationship with Itachi gives the massacre a personal, heartbreaking angle the main series never achieved. The arc recontextualizes one of anime's most iconic twists by showing every agonizing step that led to it. Even fans who skip every other filler arc tend to make an exception for Itachi Shinden.

Dragon Ball Z: Other World Tournament

After the Cell Games, Goku finds himself in the afterlife competing in a martial arts tournament against deceased warriors from across the universe. It's pure Dragon Ball fun: new opponents with creative abilities, escalating fights, and Goku doing what Goku does best. Some fans call it better than the actual ending of the Cell Saga. At minimum, it's one of the best tonal palette cleansers in any Dragon Ball series.

Saint Seiya: Asgard Saga

An entire filler saga that the fan community treats as honorary canon. Set in the frozen lands of Asgard, the Bronze Saints face the God Warriors in battles with gorgeous choreography and surprising emotional depth. The original characters are well-designed and motivated, and the saga builds to a climax that earns its payoff. For a filler arc, the Asgard Saga punches absurdly far above its weight class.

Honorable mentions

Gintama's filler in general (impossible to separate from the canon because all of it is equally hilarious), the Boruto Time Slip Arc (Boruto meets young Naruto in a love letter to the franchise's 20th anniversary), and Samurai Champloo's baseball episode (the crew plays baseball with Americans, and it's one of the funniest single episodes in anime history).

The Era Ends, the Backlog Remains

The era of anime filler is closing. One Piece went seasonal. Bleach's comeback proved the model works. Every major new anime ships with zero padding. Give it a few more years, and filler might be something only older fans remember wrestling with.

But right now, in 2026, the backlog is still enormous. Naruto still has 720 episodes. Detective Conan is past 1,200. Bleach's original run is still 45% filler. And millions of fans are still starting these shows for the first time, still wondering which episodes matter and which ones don't.

If you want weekly anime coverage, seasonal guides, and honest takes on the shows worth your time, the Kaminari newsletter is where that happens. Sign up at joinkaminari.com, and we'll keep you posted every week.

FAQ

Which anime has the most filler episodes?

Detective Conan holds the record with roughly 569 filler episodes out of over 1,200 total. By percentage, the original Trigun leads at 65%, though it's only 26 episodes long. Among long-running shonen, Bleach (45%) and Naruto (41%) have the highest filler ratios.

Is it okay to skip filler episodes in anime?

Yes. Filler episodes are designed to be self-contained, and the main story almost never references them afterward. You can skip every filler episode in Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece and follow the plot without any gaps. The exception is a small number of arcs that add genuine character depth, like Kakashi's Anbu Arc or the G-8 Arc.

What is the best filler arc in anime?

The One Piece G-8 Arc (episodes 196 to 206) is the most widely praised filler arc in anime. Fans regularly say they didn't realize it was filler until they checked afterward. Kakashi's Anbu Arc in Naruto Shippuden and the Zanpakuto Rebellion in Bleach are close seconds.

What is the longest filler arc in anime history?

Naruto holds the record with episodes 136 to 219, a stretch of 83 consecutive filler episodes that aired from May 2005 to February 2007. The entire block aired between the end of the original Naruto story and the beginning of Naruto Shippuden.

Do modern anime still have filler?

Rarely. The shift to seasonal production (12 to 26 episodes per season, with breaks between seasons) has largely eliminated the need for filler. Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, and Spy x Family all have zero filler episodes. Even One Piece moved to a seasonal format in April 2026, ending its 27-year weekly tradition and stopping new filler production entirely.