How To Understand The Naruto Filler Arcs?
If there is something that unites the Naruto fanbase, it is a common distaste for anime-original episodes, more commonly known as fillers. Even audiences who gave the show a chance–perhaps viewing more than a hundred episodes–appear to drop interest in the face of extended chunks of filler. To a lot of fans, Masashi Kishimoto is the sole writer capable of producing persuasive Naruto stories, so they bypass the fillers on principle.
However, argue that the fault does not lie with the quality of the fillers–although the tales are not necessarily A-material–but the frequency with which the manufacturers churn them out. As of episode 417, Naruto Shippūden has aired 165 filler episodes. It is not a simple count, mind you, because some episodes only partly qualify as filler. Combine that with the first series’ 89, which translate to 254 episodes unrelated to the source material. With few exceptions, a new episode of the Naruto anime has dipped every week for almost 13 years, and until last fall, the series was created concurrently with the manga. Since the normal episode adapts anywhere from two to three manga chapters, it was just a matter of time before anime-original stories sprung up.
To be honest, the fillers are not always placed in the most logical story spots, particularly as of late. That disturbs the pacing of the main narrative, so it is easy to dismiss the fillers as nothing more than annoying distractions. Nonetheless, if you make a point of skipping every non-manga-inspired narrative, you will lose out on some excellent anime. The manufacturers need anime-original stories, and the world of Naruto Filler List is ripe for further exploration. By way of instance, only from the fillers do particular secondary players get time in the spotlight. The anime screenwriters actually appear to enjoy Tenten. Furthermore, these first stories give audiences an opportunity to explore different states and shinobi villages not featured in the original manga. It is easy to forget that most this world’s inhabitants are not ninja since the manga-based narrative is so heavily concentrated on the Village of the Hidden Leaf. Skilled writers can play around with a world and characters from a different founder; it is merely a matter of creating the trip feel as believable as possible.