Dragon Ball Super Filler List: Every Episode to Skip; Ones You Should Actually Watch
Trim the fluff between sagas with our full Dragon Ball Super filler list. Most of DBS is canon, but the gaps have skippable filler. 🐉✨
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Join KaminariDragon Ball Super has 14 filler episodes out of 131. At 11% filler, it's the cleanest Dragon Ball anime ever made. You can skip everything non-essential and lose barely five hours of content. The number isn't the problem.
The problem is that DBS also has 15 anime-original episodes that aren't in the manga and aren't filler. They're anime canon, and they matter. Some of them directly set up the Tournament of Power. Skip them because a color-coded list told you to, and you'll walk into the show's best arc missing context you can't get back.
Below is the complete Dragon Ball Super filler list with verdicts for every episode, plus the honest calls on which "filler" is actually worth your time. Consider it a Dragon Ball Super filler guide from someone who's watched every episode and has opinions about all of them.
Dragon Ball Super Filler at a Glance
| Stat | |
|---|---|
| Total Episodes | 131 |
| Filler Episodes | 14 |
| Filler Percentage | 11% |
| Anime-Canon Episodes (not in manga, but essential) | 15 |
| Mixed Canon/Filler Episodes | 3 |
| Watch Time Saved by Skipping All Filler | ~5 hours |
| Aired | July 2015 to March 2018 |
Every Dragon Ball Super Filler Episode, Arc by Arc
Here are all the Dragon Ball Super filler episodes broken down by saga. Skip means you lose nothing. Watch means I'd keep it even on a lean rewatch. Your Call means it's fun but not essential.
God of Destruction Beerus Saga
| Episode | Title | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | "Aim for the Dragon Balls! Pilaf Gang in Action!" | Skip. Pilaf gang filler. Nothing connects to Super's plot. |
Golden Frieza Saga
| Episode | Title | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | "Make a Miracle, Satan the Hero!" | Skip (but it's funny). Mr. Satan fights aliens to protect his reputation. Zero consequences, pure slapstick. |
Post-Universe 6 Tournament (Copy-Vegeta Arc)
| Episode | Title | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 42 | "Monaka vs. Son Goku!" | Your Call. Beerus disguises himself as Monaka. A gag episode paying off the tournament joke. |
| 43 | "Looking After Pan is a Lot of Trouble!" | Your Call. Goku babysits Pan. Cute if you like slice-of-life Goku, easy to pass on. |
| 44 | "Secret of the Superhuman Water is Unleashed!" | Your Call. Copy-Vegeta mini-arc starts. Weird detour, fun fight at its core. |
| 45 | "The Menace of Duplicated Vegeta!" | Your Call. Copy-Vegeta continues. Low stakes, quick resolution. |
| 46 | "Goku vs. Duplicated Vegeta!" | Your Call. Arc wraps up. Goku punches the problem away. If you skipped 44-45, you missed nothing. |
Post-Future Trunks Saga
| Episode | Title | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 68 | "Come Forth, Shenron!" | Skip. Everyone argues over a Dragon Ball wish. Setup for nothing. |
| 69 | "Goku vs. Arale!" | Watch. One of the best standalone episodes in DBS. Breakdown below. |
| 70 | "This Time We Fight With Baseball!" | Watch. The baseball episode. Yamcha's death pose. A meme was born. |
Pre-Universe Survival Saga
| Episode | Title | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 73 | "An Unexpected Great Saiyaman Movie?!" | Your Call. Gohan gets rare screen time in a lighthearted Saiyaman story. Thin plot. |
| 74 | "The Unbeatable Great Saiyaman!" | Your Call. Wraps up the Saiyaman arc with an alien parasite fight. Better than 73, still skippable. |
| 75 | "Back to the Old Training Grounds!" | Watch. Krillin's best two episodes start here. Do not skip. |
| 76 | "Krillin's Fighting Spirit Returns!" | Watch. The payoff to 75. See below. |
Secretly Peak: DBS Filler Worth Watching
Three filler episodes in Dragon Ball Super that aren't just "good for filler." They're good episodes, full stop.
1. Episode 69: Goku vs. Arale
Before Dragon Ball, Toriyama created Dr. Slump, a gag manga about a hyperactive robot girl named Arale who could punch the planet in half. Episode 69 brings her into the DBS power structure, and the results are beautiful chaos. Arale fights evenly with Super Saiyan Blue Goku. She one-shots Vegeta. She cracks the Earth in half and treats it like a joke, because in her world, it is one. Vegeta breaks the fourth wall to complain about "gag characters," which might be the single funniest moment in the series. A love letter from Toriyama to his own creative roots that works whether you know Dr. Slump or not.
2. Episode 70: Baseball
Champa challenges Universe 7 to a baseball game. Goku doesn't understand the rules. Vegeta takes it too seriously. Yamcha, borderline irrelevant since the Saiyan Saga, finally gets his moment in Dragon Ball Super. And then the moment kills him (sort of): he makes the game-winning play and ends up collapsed in the dirt in his iconic death pose from Z, a callback that became one of the most shared memes in the show's run. Beerus and Champa close it out with a full god-of-destruction fistfight over the score.
3. Episodes 75-76: Krillin's Fighting Spirit
Krillin hasn't fought seriously in years. He's a cop now. Then Goku asks him to train, and the show does something it almost never does: it lets a side character sit with real emotion. The training generates illusions of past enemies. Krillin faces Tambourine, who killed him in the original Dragon Ball. Frieza, who killed him on Namek. Cell. Nappa. The Ginyu Force. Every villain who ever ended his life is standing in front of him again. The payoff isn't a power-up. It's Krillin deciding to keep fighting anyway. For anyone who's been watching since the original series, these episodes are a character payoff decades in the making.
Dragon Ball Super's Best Writing Is in Its Filler
Hot take: the standalone episodes in Dragon Ball Super have better character writing than most of its canon arcs.
Think about it. The main arcs belong to Goku and Vegeta. Everyone else holds the line until the Saiyans show up. But the filler? The filler belongs to Krillin, Gohan, Yamcha, and the rest of the roster that gets sidelined the second a real villain appears. Episodes 75-76 give Krillin more genuine character development than the entire Tournament of Power does. The baseball episode gives Yamcha more personality in 22 minutes than he gets across the rest of the series. The Arale crossover lets Vegeta be funny in a way no serious arc ever allows.
DBZ taught fans to dread the word "filler." The Garlic Jr. arc earned that reputation. But DBS was never stalling for the manga to catch up. Its standalone episodes were written on purpose, as breathers between arcs, and Toei used them to give screen time to characters who'd otherwise get nothing. Skip them if you want. Any Dragon Ball Super filler list, including this one, exists so you can make that call. But the best episodes on the skip list are better than some of the canon surrounding them, and that's not something you can say about Goku learning to drive.
Your Dragon Radar for the Rewatch
The whole point of this Dragon Ball Super filler list is the gap between a spreadsheet and a guide. The numbers get you through the series faster. The verdicts make sure you don't lose anything worth keeping.
Fourteen filler episodes are safe to skip. The anime-canon episodes (especially 71-72 and 78-81) are not filler, no matter what label they're wearing. And the secretly peak picks, episodes 69, 70, 75, and 76, are the kind of standalone Dragon Ball the franchise doesn't make often enough. Treat this DBS filler list like a Dragon Radar. It finds the real Dragon Balls and filters out the rocks. A Scouter would just give you a reading and explode the second it hits something it can't classify.
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FAQ
How many filler episodes are in Dragon Ball Super?
Fourteen out of 131 episodes, putting DBS at an 11% filler rate. That number jumps to 22 if you count anime-canon episodes (original to the anime but important to the story), which this guide treats separately.
Can I skip Dragon Ball Super episodes 1 through 27?
If you've seen the Battle of Gods and Resurrection F movies, yes. Episodes 1-27 retell both films. Skip to episode 28 (Universe 6 Saga) without losing new plot. If you haven't seen the movies, watch the episodes instead.
Is Dragon Ball Super worth watching without skipping filler?
Yes. Five hours of extra content at 11% filler is nothing for a 131-episode series, and several of those filler episodes (69, 70, 75, 76) are among the most entertaining in the show.
What's the difference between filler and anime canon in Dragon Ball Super?
Filler is standalone content that doesn't affect the plot. Anime canon isn't in the manga either, but it was written for the anime and feeds into the main story. The Hit assassination arc (71-72) and the Universe Survival recruitment (78-81) are anime canon, and skipping them means losing setup for the Tournament of Power.
Does Dragon Ball Super have less filler than Dragon Ball Z?
Yes. DBS is at 11% (14/131) versus DBZ's 13% (38/291). The bigger difference is why the filler exists: DBZ needed it because the anime caught up to the manga. DBS chose it as intentional breathers between arcs.
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