As a new anime watcher, you may come across many interesting stories as well as interesting characters that may make a huge impact on you. However, as new anime watchers, you may hear some new anime terms that may cause confusion. These terms include ONA, OVA, AMV, etc. From all these terms, the most basic ones you need to understand are what is “canon” and what is “filler”. Thus, this article will let you in on the meaning of Canon in anime as well as what fillers are. Not only this, but below mentioned are five anime with fillers that you can watch.
As mentioned above, Anime can impact our minds so much that we wish to see more of it. Maybe that is why watching anime is so cool. Thus, before getting into the article, we should appreciate the creators. Regardless if they are the original creators or the adaptors, they work hard to provide us with the thing we love the most.
What Is The Meaning of Canon In Anime?
The meaning of Canon in anime refers to episodes that are a part of the original storyline it is adapted from. As we know, most of the stories in anime are adapted from manga, light novels, or novels. Thus, when the anime production crew closely follows the plot of the text they are adapting the anime from, these episodes become canon. In simpler words, Canon episodes are the main quest of the entire anime. For instance, in Naruto, Obito becoming an antagonist was a part of the canon. However, the entire Kakashi Gaiden arc was a filler arc.
What Is The Meaning of Fillers/Filler Arcs?
If canon exists, then what are the other episodes called? They are called Fillers, and they usually have an entire arc dedicated to them. When the episodes of the anime catch up to the text it is adapted from, anime writers come up with separate stories and animate them so that the original writers can release more chapters. These filler episodes often introduce us to new characters, or they use characters that are canon but have not been introduced yet. Naruto is another example of using the latter. Thus, if canon episodes in anime are the main quest, then filler episodes or filler arcs become the side quests. You can either skip it or go for it.
Are Fillers Important?
Although most people that watch anime skip through fillers, we still need them because they are fun and let us watch our favorite characters for a longer time. However, there are also times when the original artists and writers of the story need a break from their work, then the anime writers step in, giving the audience not only content to watch but also for the original artists to take a healthy break.
It is understandable that fillers can be boring and sometimes annoying to the fans that are heavily invested in the canon story. This is because fillers can impact the engagement the storyline of the anime has built with its audience. But as mentioned above, they let us watch our favorite characters engage in side quests that may be more interesting than the canon.
5 Famous Anime with Fillers:
Detective Conan/Cased Closed
It is understandable why Detective Conan or Case Closed series has the most number of fillers. This is because it is one of the longest-running anime that started its journey on the 8th of January 1996, two years after its manga release. The series is still ongoing and still remains one of the most interesting anime series. To be fair, most of Detective Conan’s fillers are unskippable because they are as interesting as the canon storyline. Detective Conan has 1044 episodes so far, and 459 of them are fillers.
Naruto/Naruto Shippuden
Most Naruto fans have a love-hate relationship with the fillers in its series. While some of the filler arcs are very interesting, the others are just straight-up boring. Maybe the filler arcs in Naruto were tolerable, but the ones in Naruto Shippuden did annoy many people because most of them just pop up in between intense battles or when the plot is getting really good. However, there are some fillers that are unskippable, like the Kakashi Gaiden arc. In Naruto, which has 220 episodes, 90 of these episodes were considered to be fillers. Whereas in Naruto Shippuden, out of 500 episodes, there are 201 fillers.
Pokemon
An anime that probably welcomes many otakus to the world of Anime is Pokemon. Pokemon was a fun adventure anime to watch. It started its journey in 1997. As of today, it has released more than 1000 episodes that introduce us to many characters and pokemon. Out of all its episodes, only 231 of them are considered to be fillers. Yet again, just like Detective Conan, Pokemon filler episodes are interesting to watch as well.
Bleach
Another anime that is very popular in the anime world for its story, as well as interesting characters is Bleach. Even the antagonists of the series are acknowledged and appreciated. The first episode came out on the 5th of October 2004 and has released 366 episodes. Out of these, 163 of them are considered to be fillers. Like Naruto, these fillers can get annoying to watch since they interrupt the interesting canon episodes. But again, there are some interesting filler arcs in the anime.
One Piece
Another anime that is one of the longest-running series is One Piece. The journey of the One Piece anime started in the year 1999 and is currently going strong. However, this anime probably is the odd one out of all the five anime on the list because it has more canon episodes than fillers. Out of the 1020 episodes that it has released, One Piece has only 93 filler episodes.
Also Read: What Is The Meaning Of ONA In Anime?
