Why does anime have fillers

Learn more. Why are there so many fillers in long-running animes? Ask Question. Asked 8 years, 11 months ago. Active 6 years, 4 months ago. Viewed 21k times. Improve this question. Ali1S Ali1S 3 3 gold badges 8 8 silver badges 20 20 bronze badges. What kind of anime do you watch? There is barely any fillers in anime I watch. Euphoric usually in the long run animes there are fillers, and one piece and fairly tail are exceptions in that group tough since they don't have that much.

Saying all anime or that only anime contains filler is short-sighted. There's no real way to authoritatively answer this; each series will have different reasons and circumstances. Show 4 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. There are lots of possible explanations to that: As you said, the anime catching up to the manga, so they have more time. Special events, as anniversaries, movie-related specials or so. Also, the narratives are different and that depends on the production team.

In your example, Naruto as Bleach did commonly makes battles really fast-paced, so they tend to catch-up with the manga quickly. Whereas One Piece, while having lots of battle too, tends to make them less dynamic, so in the end, they are longer and don't catch up to manga as easily. Improve this answer. Ikzer Ikzer 1, 2 2 gold badges 12 12 silver badges 23 23 bronze badges. Not all filler is bad.

Though it might not be as good as the material produced in the manga, it can supplement that material when done well. The original iteration of Fullmetal Alchemist is considered inferior to the more manga-faithful Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood -- and rightfully so. With only a third of the manga completed at the time of the original series, the original anime had to spin off its own narrative mostly on its own.

However, until the more faithful adaptation was released, many fans hailed Fullmetal Alchemist as a triumph. One aspect the original anime had over its later remake is that it took time to develop its characters further. When we are introduced to Shou Tucker and his daughter Nina in Brotherhood , we are introduced to both of them and learn what happens to them in the same episode. In the original series, this plot is dragged out further, giving audiences time to grow attached to both of them before The same is true for Maes Hughes.

Maes Hughes appears for ten episodes in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood before being very famously killed off. Hughes's death in the original series happens in episode While both series establish Hughes as a lovable dork, it's undeniable that the longer we spend with Hughes, the more attached we as audience members become to him.

While many filler arcs are of a subpar nature, many others are less bad. Some are even fun. While the filler arcs that led to Rurouni Kenshin's cancellation were weaker than the Kyoto Arc that preceded it, Season 3 isn't by any means bad. It's a step-down, certainly, but the arcs present some fascinating concepts. Most notably, the Christian cult, which draws heavily from the historical Shimabara Rebellion. The ending is also fitting for the series -- arguably, far more fitting than the Samurai X: Reflection movie.

Returning to Dragon Ball , while many fans decry the Garlic Jr. One arc that stands out as particularly good is Dragon Ball 's final five episodes, where Goku and Chi-Chi go on an adventure to retrieve a magical fan to stop a fire burning up the Ox King's house. For extensive manga like One Piece or Naruto , anime adaptations have a wealth of information to pull from, but that pool will eventually run dry.

Anime's cheaper cost makes it very time efficient, and animation on a show can be done more quickly than inking a manga page. In order to protect popular franchises from running out of material, studios often created padding to ensure shows like Bleach would not have to go on hiatus or even be canceled.

Filler is what happens when an anime either catches up with its source material or is expected to in the near future. Of course, there are some fans who would prefer to see an anime like Naruto come to a halt when filler would become necessary; However, money and status is what keeps popular series bogged down with filler arcs. Anime is more competitive now than ever before, and even a few weeks off the air can spell disaster for revenue and ratings.

Fans may despise filler or wonder why it's even needed, but those episodes are necessary evil in the industry. Without the bridge, there would be no connective tissues bringing together key manga arcs. Take Dragon Ball Z for instance; The acclaimed series is famous for its action-packed arcs, but each one is held together by filler which helped Toei Animation keep the anime on air.