Some ramblings about filler.
There hasn’t been an update here in a while, so I figured maybe it was my turn to soapbox a bit. I want to explore a little bit of the history and mechanics of “filler” in anime. If you’re interested, read on …
Now, I daresay that most of us here know (all too well) what filler is, but for the uninformed, the term refers to non-canonical material introduced to fill space and keep viewers watching, while waiting for the manga artist to get enough plot advanced to continue the canonical plot at a good pace. With very few exceptions, you don’t see filler in shorter series.
But how did this practice come about, you may be wondering to yourself as you slog through yet another “country of tea” or “country of rice” arc of Naruto, waiting for them to get back to the manga story and return to decent production values and reasonably well-crafted and well-told stories instead of the putrid effluent you’ve gotten tired of watching over the last two years. Even worse, how did it get so acceptable as to infect not one but two high-rated shounen action series?
Consider back to the days of Dragon Ball Z. Now, Toriyama had been producing Dragon Ball manga since the mid-1980’s, and the original Dragon Ball TV series is largely free of filler, but Dragon Ball Z resorted to it. Look at the Frieza saga, and you see this horrible pacing (several episodes of screaming and powering up, and very little else) which happened when the series caught up with the manga. That arc singlehandedly destroyed the good name of the series. Anime producers learned that nobody really likes that crap, and generally abandoned the practice of artificially slowing down the series by tying a 22-minute episode to a single 20-page chapter of manga.
So then they came up with a clever idea: introduce non-canonical action, stuff that doesn’t really matter or count, but buys the mangaka some time. And the Garlic Jr. saga (also horrible) came about. You’re really damned if you do, damned if you don’t… but a bit less so for inserting filler instead of slowing the series down.
But sometimes that idea backfires, especially if the filler is particularly bad. Rurouni Kenshin is the classic example of this: The first episode up through about episode 63 (the end of the Kyoto arc) is canonical, manga-sourced material. Then, at the end of that sequence, the cast takes a slow stroll back home, visits some hot springs, and then gets embroiled in these really incredibly stupid Geomancer and Christians arcs. Now, the Christians arc is … tolerable. It’s not great, but it’s tolerable. But the Geomancer arc is arguably the worst thing to happen to a reasonably good series since … well, ever. Faced with the declining popularity of the show, the tv stations cancelled it before it could pull itself out of the ratings nosedive that the poorly-constructed filler brought about.
The lesson here: if you’re going to have to use filler, you need to at least make it entertaining and well-crafted. Doing things that are clearly outside of the scope of how the universe should behave (geomancers, bounto, meteorite-chakra) are bad ideas, they make viewers forget to suspend their disbelief, and really snap them out of the show, and then they get tired of it and go watch something else.
But there’s another way you could go: the Hunter x Hunter route. Togashi was drawing HxH as the show aired, and after 62 episodes, the series caught up with the manga, and left the story in a place where you couldn’t really just transplant the characters into non-canonical story. And you also couldn’t jump ahead of the manga, because of possible story conflicts that would occur. So they just stopped doing the TV show, and released a couple of OVA series to finish out the pending parts of the plot (up through the end of the Greed Island arc). Good thing, too, ’cause Togashi’s been pretty slow about drawing the rest of the series, spending large amounts of time on sick leave for some unspecified reason. It’s best, if a series isn’t going to see itself through to completion in an animated for, just to engage in the Fremen “Philosophy of the Knife” — that is, if it doesn’t look like it’s going to end, cut it off, then you can say “there, it ends here.” Or, to put it another way, choose how to end it before the fans and the studio lose interest and force it down on a bad note.
But with Naruto and Bleach, there’s hope. The fillers will eventually end. Hopefully sooner rather than later. The upcoming manga is already comfortably ahead of the anime in both cases. Naruto bought nearly 2 more years for Kishimoto to finish more storyline, and he’s made regular, consistent, somewhat exciting progress. Manga-readers can’t wait to see that stuff animated. Similarly, Kubo’s got some interesting stuff going on in Bleach, and again manga-readers can’t wait to see it come to life.
Naruto and Bleach can get away with it, because they’ve been extremely well-received in general. But their ratings are still suffering, and filler isn’t sustainable forever. Both series have learned from past mistakes though, and while it’s generally crappy (ie: Bleach spending a full episode having the crew frantically running away from water), it’s still better than destroying good material by catching up to the manga and wrecking the pacing of the show.
Still, this stuff is there for a reason, and that reason is that the TV production began “too early” on both shows, to capitalize on the popularity of the manga. But that’s really not a fair evaluation: if Naruto had been started in 2004 instead of 2002, there would have been no need for filler at this point, but there would also have been no huge groundswell of anime fandom that resulted from it, the market as a whole would be smaller and the world would be a different place.
Was it the right decision to walk the filler-littered path? Probably, in the case of Naruto and Bleach. But it’s certainly a dangerous one.
Good stories take time to put together, and it’s hard to tell an epic over a decade when you’re publishing a chapter a week… a lot of planning and preparation has to go into it, to decide exactly where the series is going and how it’s getting there. Authors like Stephen King can pull it off (with his Dark Tower series spanning 1982-2004), and Rowling’s story of the 6-ish years of planning and writing she put into the first book in the Harry Potter series are a bit telling of how that can be done too. But both King and Rowling only have to publish a total of 7 times, they can sit on their storylines and ruminate for months, revising the story, weaving later hints at the story into earlier parts. By publishing as they go, manga authors have a lot less of that flexibility — they can’t go back after chapter 20, and insert pages into chapter 2.
Moreover, good storytellers deserve our support, whether they be bomb-droppers like King and Rowling or incremental builders like Kishimoto and Kubo. So, while it’s disheartening to watch the things we enjoy slide downhill, have faith that the stuff that’s coming up is going to be worth the wait.
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Update to address some of the things that have been commented on:
Yes, you’re right, a year and a half is not 2 years (unless you’re rounding pretty coarsely :p). However, any guesses as to the end of the Naruto filler are also pure speculation at this point. It’s not over yet. Maybe it’ll be over this week, maybe it’ll be over this season, maybe it won’t. They very well COULD make another season worth of filler and get away with it.
Dragon Ball Z’s poor pacing in the Frieza saga indeed did not kill the series, but it DID wreck its reputation among anyone turning even the mildest critical eye at the show. Drooling fanboys will be happy as long as there’s pretty colors and some semblance of fighting, and if that’s the only market you’re able to keep happy, at least it’s a lucrative enough one in Japan (and the US, I might add) to keep the show on the air. The thing is, if you mention DBZ to anyone, ANYONE in the US who hasn’t really given it more of a chance than it probably deserved in the first place, the first thing they’ll think of isn’t the series’ profuse “redemption” and “karmic atonement” themes, but the screaming and powering up. The show lived, but the reputation of the show died.
Stopping the airing of the show is likewise a bad idea. When you do that, you automatically lose an embedded, habitual viewer base. Yes, the TV studios are out to make money, and as long as the show is profitable, they’ll make their money. But more than that, when a show stops airing, it’s extremely unlikely that the show will ever air again. The ONLY examples I can think of are Family Guy and Futurama — american shows largely killed by Fox’s poor scheduling practices, and largely revived by their extremely vigorous DVD sales pointing to an eager marketplace. However, the other canonical example would again be Ruroni Kenshin, which ended up with another substantial story arc that never got animated and never will. Further, HxH has another several volumes worth of manga drawn, but there haven’t even been credible rumors of another series in production to address those.
But the only things that have successfully done that have been episodic in nature. The Hunter X Hunter experiment, while it sold some dvds and tapes, is largely a failure — even with a successful OVA, nobody in the production chain is going to make nearly the revenues that a successful TV show (with all the trappings: merchandizing, accessorizing, advertising, movie spinoffs) would make. When it was airing, the TV show generalized to virtually all of East Asia (at least, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore), and on into several arab nations too. The OVAs simply aren’t going to get that level of penetration, no matter what they do, because of all the new licenses that would have to be hammered out for every locale.
Even though the Naruto fillers are decidedly causing some people to lose interest in the series, they’re still making substantial amounts of money, keeping up the feeling of continuity for the viewers, and generally working out for everyone involved. While the latest movie didn’t stay in the top couple of movies in Japan very long, it did make it into the top 5 (if I remember correctly, I haven’t found a source for that) — not a bad achievement, but a complete failure compared to the stellar performance of the first two movies.
Okey, sure filler is needed, and I and many with me can tolerate bad fillers for a season or two but come on four seasons and we are in for a fifth? Has that ever happened in the history of anime? It has completly destroyed Naruto as most of the filler is the worst filler ever created by man, as opposed to Bleach which is like a real arc, although a very, very slow one it makes sense and has good moments and a bearable story. Bleach filler is not to complain about.
Why does Naruto need two years of filler? Has the author been sleeping like Saya or something? As far as I know the manga is like 8 volumes worth of chapters ahead of the anime, correct me if I’m wrong…
How long will it take before everyone just lose intrest and stop watching the series? My guess is that if this series does another season of filler it’s not going to survive.
wow, well i didnt even realize that it has been 8 volumes worth already…geez
i thought it was like maybe 4 volumes at tops. i think it’s about time that the fillers just stop. i mean it’s ridiculous now. they’ve done so much filler since epi 1 that it’s getting quite annoying now.
i’m seriously beginning to think that:
a. kishimoto and studio pierrot are just lazy bums now and dont want to animate the gaiden and part 2 stuff
b. kishimoto, studio pierrot, and viz media are like collaborating on how they can make more money off of dvd’s (i mean imagine how much money they’ll bring in just on the dvd’s of fillers thus far in naruto…)
and with like this week’s epi being aired on thurs AND being a 90 minute filler…seems like they really are doing what i said that they were just before this part.
why else would they have been doing filler for soo long? and on top of that, according to the epi titles by ANN, it seems like up to 207 is filler as well…
if 208 isnt the gaiden or any part 2 epi, then i fear for the worst…maybe another season worth of filler?
:evil::evil::evil:
Since I don’t read the mangas, it took a long while for me to find out that the Bounto Saga in Bleach is actually filler. For filler I think it’s excellent content, it’s gotten exciting, it’s had it’s interesting points, and let’s face it, watching Ichigo in Bankai is hawt whether it’s filler or not. ^.^
As for Naruto, I honestly thought the meteorite-chakra was neat, of course naturally I was hoping Naruto would get crazy-exposed to it and with the nine-tails simply just become stronger without ever getting hurt by it’s crazy coolness. So I found that highly disappointing. Naturally looking forward to the end of the filler in Naruto like everyone else.
One note however…Sakura learning to become a medical ninja, and it’s starting to become apparent that she has some strength getting similar to the Fifth’s. Since I don’t read the manga, and afaik that is part of the filler, I think it’s interesting, and hope to see more of it when the filler ends.
And finally, what if there’s so much filler that the producers want to ease back into a canonical plot with filler that flows into it, build some pre/back-story before it starts now that they’ve had a chance to view whats next in the manga. The next episode looks like it might have something to do with Orochimaru somehow…from the preview in episode 202. At some point in the ep I mean.
Thanks for your attention. ^.^ Bye now
I think in the case of Naruto, they’re waiting until there’s a continuous story arc they can animate — ie: until they can make a clear run to the end of the series. 2 years of filler is certainly unprecedented, but when you consider the series burned through 230ish chapters in 130 episodes, the 100 more chapters they’ve got since then are probably only going to last a year. In that time, they’ll get ~50 more chapters (another season worth), and while airing that they’ll get 26 more (not even a full season). Meaning, if they end the fillers now, they’ll catch up to the manga again regardless in about a year and a half. To put it another way, every season they run fillers, they get half a season more of manga.
The question is: is the manga going to be done in a year and a half? Or at a good point to break for more filler? I’m sure Kishimoto knows where he’s going with the story, and has a good estimate of how long it’ll take to get there, so the question is really whether it’s going to get there in the time the fillers have already bought, or needs even more.
Why do fillers have to be ineherently crappy? I think that there are a number of US animated series that have great one-shot episodes. Batman TAS and Gargoyles come to mind. Why can’t filler writers take a lesson from great series like these?
Regarding the comment about the Freeza saga..this is incorrect. It did not “destroy” anything, though it may have somewhat diminished the quality of the series. The series went on for years past that saga. Even when Toriyama wanted to finish the series, fans demanded more. Its popularity remained high until the very end.
And samsonlonghair, fillers are not inhereently crappy, though you probably didn’t really mean this. As anyone who has ever watched any anime, you can see it can be either reasonably well-written or just bad. There is nothing to say a filler episode can’t be good, as it all comes down to the quality of the writing, and varies from one series to another.
On a side note, what was with Studio Pierrot saying the fillers would end in the Spring? Was this just an unconfirmed rumor the whole time?
Oh, one final thing. The fillers started just after the Naruto/Sasuke fight, episode 136. This episode aired in Japan on May 25th, 2005. This is hardly “two years ago”.
I have to say that I have lost interest in the Naruto series. I’m completely taking a break from it until they get back to the manga. I still read the manga, but the fillers have lost my interest. Naruto’s super moves have become weak. It doesn’t take any concentration to do them. They are just action scenes. If they go back to the manga, I’ll go back to the anime.
i agree with genook. i havne’t watched naruto since about 10 episodes into filler and it sounds like i still got awhile to go till its good again.
and does anyone else think that the animation has just gotten sloppy in general…it doesn’t look as clean as it used to
Just one thing to say. Fillers are NOT needed! You can stop the series for about one year and guess how happy the fans will be when the series goes on. I would say finish one plot, fill up to 26 episodes and then stop. Long time of senseless fillers just SUCK. I totaly lost my interest in watching the anime, it is just to keep fans watching and make money over money. This is not how i want to be treated and it is no way to treat a wonderful series as well. It is destroying it just an many other series befor. The naruto anime once was one of the best, now it is down to average.
Just look at Hunter x Hunter. They paused, produced some new episodes and then they paused again. The result: A nice series which i hope to be continued soon. Watch over to Naruto: A series which i hope they will just STOP befor it gets even more absurd.
what they really need to do is stop with the fillers now. they’ve had plenty of time to give us this junk that they call an epi..
i would assume that if they at least showed the gaiden (with extra made up scenes/fights/dialogues/past sequences), then they could make the gaiden part pretty long~
but then again, i hear that after this week’s 90 min special, the week after is a 1 hr special. and then afterwards, they’re gonna take a 2 week break from naruto..
summary
90 min filler
60 min gaiden (maybe?!)
2 week break (like the 2.5 years naruto took training and when the manga took a break as well)
and then after which i think they will actually begin part 2…or maybe like “conclude” the gaiden…you know, like show us half—2 week break to get fans excited over–show us 2nd half in another 1 hr special, then begin with naruto part 2
i think that sounds just about perfect~ dont u think so??:wink:
posted an update to address some interesting comments here … look up.
Personally, I think Naruto is still doing fairly strong and that most are being overly critical about all the filler. it doesn’t have to necassarily be a bad thing, but I can understand the desire to finish what was originally started with Sasuke. Even I am very curious, but I think that the filler is helping to bulk up the story and the characters and in the end, the story is truly what counts. The filler isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I stipped watching for about 5 months because I moved and had no internet, but as soon as I got a new connection, I caught up completely with the series, and now I am happy to have Naruto back at all. The filler I think will ultimately be for the better of the series and will possibly make future episodes that much better.
for me, the filler is bad enough to stop watching. Even though it has a little bit of real character development, it is still a pain to watch. It would be good if all of that was compressed into maybe 5-10 episodes. I mean, the fillers remind me of the stories i tried to make in primary school. I guess the little 12 year olds still like it. I think they’re putting enough fillers so that as much time passes in real life as in the anime. Remember how orochimaru said he has to wait 3 years until he can move into a new body?
No offence to the people who are not 12 years old. I actually watched the fillers, but not worth my time. I would rather do the dishes for 30 hours than these 30 hours of filler. But I watched it just for completeness. There’s dishes to be done, there’s fillers to watch.
Yo, just adding to your comments on dead shows and series inconsistancies.
You quoted american shows and stuff and I just wanted to mention a anime that had a strange run. REBOOT. Each season ranged from 10~16 episodes a season, AND it died and came back more then twice. This was rare indeed.
If they are going to kill the series, they should at least end it with some real story dignity!
I stopped watching Naruto around ep. 174…which was right around when the filler started…I decided to go back and pick it up again since I figured it must’ve ended almost 30 eps. later…I was sadly mistaken. I gave up on Bleach, too; though, whenever I hear that the filler has ended, I’ll most likely bite the bullet and force myself to watch the crap to catch up. One thing that helps is that I watch One Piece. There’s a ton of filler there too, but sometimes it just doesn’t feel like filler. The creators have been able to buy some time without totally stumping the audience’s desire to watch the anime by extending fight scenes or by making utterly incoherent episodes. It’s the one anime I never get tired of watching. Thanks to One Piece, I have hope that the Naruto filler will eventually get better with time. GO ONE PIECE!
This post is spoiler, so if you havent mad it to ep 120, dont read it.
I fast forwareded though eps 170 onwards, while watching it, but not really. I fully understand the reason for the fillers, but im curious how they are they are gonna fix the training time w/ frog hermit. I’m to lazy to look up what was said or how to spell names, but wasnt it like 3 years before Orochimaru could take Susuke’s body? So that gave Naruto that much time to train. Well, the anime spoilers have filled up at leat 6 months in Naruto time. I read the manga most recently, but i dont think they changed the time limit did they? They could have so went about the spoilers so they didnt just seem awkward all to gether in the series. Like have the spoilers focused on Jiraiya training Naruto. I know they enjoy having Naruto fill in for x-random team member in x-random team, but it is just so awkward in the series, not to mention after you have seen one spoiler arc, you have seen them all.
Speaking as a longtime anime fan in an area of the US that does’t really get a lot of anime or even understand the attraction, I have to say that watching the Naruto fillers has been better than watching the crap they put on Saturday mornings on the local networks. My two sons, ages 9 & 7, would rather sit with me through subbed fillers of Naruto and Bleach than watch what passes for animated series around here…so I guess what I’m trying to say is that one person’s crappy filler is some kid’s decent entertainment…of course, the boys not understanding the lame dialogue does help them get thru the epi’s,
And as far as fillers continuing…as long as the writers try to make them make sense and even fill out the characters, continue some story ideas such as Naruto’s and Sakura’s training, I think we could live through another season….so hopefully they (the writers) hear our pleas and respond with some reasonably good story arcs…just cause they aren’t from the manga itself doesn’t mean they are inherently bad…unless the writers don’t try any harder.
No one seems to be pointing out a rather obvious, extremely successful and utterly compelling use of filler — the second half of Fullmetal Alchemist, which brilliantly created an anime-only storyline to finish the series at 51 episodes (plus feature film) that is indistinguishable from the original manga storyline. Mizushima Seiji and his team had their own take on the series, one that doesn’t diminish the greatness of the original material, and sometimes even surpasses it, in terms of emotional resonance and depth. Even before the plot divurgence the anime-only one shot episodes still maintained the feel and believabilty of the manga-based plot. Filler is definitely *not* inherently bad, but it is unfortunately very rare for studios to take the time to truly re-imagine the world in which they are working, instead of just throwing in whatever cheap storyline they can think of to waste time. Filler should be used for character development and background history, for exciting one-time-only adventures, to create more substantial relationships between the cast and to just have *fun* while waiting for the main action to resume. If only the Bleach fillers were more like the extras tagged on the end of each episode, which are almost always amusing and show the cast doing activities other than running around fighting things. (Or rather, being frustrated that they are unable to fight things. Grr. Arrghh.) *That* would be far more interesting and enjoyable to watch. I’ve never seen HunterxHunter but I’m intrigued by the way the series ran, although I can imagine it was a bit frustrating at the time it was aired. I do think FMA is a shining example of what companies can and should do when their original material runs out, and they need to explore the story from an entirely new perspective. It’s just a shame poor Kenshin was unable to receive the same treatment.
I’m sure there’s still a lot of hope for Bleach and Naruto though.
Ok I will be the first to admit, a couple of the filler episodes are actually good, and by a couple i literally mean a couple. I dont know the numbes, but the episodes were the one where akamaru gets infected by some virus and the one where naruto fights with the sea boss with the frog boss. Other than that the only enjoyable times with naruto filler has been when im drunk and the lame jokes they use are kinda funny.
If the studio wants to make filler, they should do it the correct way. BACKSTORY. I have not read the manga so I dont know if this is filler or not, but when naruto was fighting gaara (not sure on spelling) and they spent almost an entire episode telling about gaara’s past. I thought what everyone else thought “gah i dont want to know about this now there is a cool fight to watch.” But after watching the backstory, I started to actualy feel for this guy.
The naruto series has shown me some of the worst filler ever *cough* episode 101 *cough* The only reason I still download and watch the filler, is the fact that I am obsessive compulsive in the fact that i have to have all episodes of an anime on my hard drive, or burned onto a dvd.
On another not, stop complaining about the bleach filler. Its actually good. Well i wont say good ill say decent and enjoyable. But look at the alternative. Do you know how easily they could have turned Ichigo into an anime version of teh power rangers. Oh no there is a hollow *crowd screams* Its morphin time (turn into a shinigami or death god as its supposed to be) lets fight this hollow for about 5 minutes, then ill use my sword that can shoot out energy. Dead hollow. Character development at the end. Next day oh no two hollows BAN KAI booom boom two dead hollows now charcter development.
Would you want to see that every week. I mean unlike naruto they actually have a long developing plot thats is way better than anything naruto filler is. Plus anytime you get to see the captains go all out, you get a really good fight.
I think we have forgotten about prince of tennis. The second half of fullmetal is not really considered a filler to me, because it’s like a totally different story from the manga and they’re not doing it so that the manga-kun get ahead with the manag. Prince of tennis fillers are soooooo nice and funny. And they’re full of character development too, showing their friendship and everything. It doesn’t spoil the show but makes it even better. The fillers are like part of the story and without them, i doubt the anime is this nice. Not only that, there’re some very funny chibi episodes that doesn’t affect the story but are simply pure entertainment. They help make the characteristics of each individual more outstanding. Those who watch Prince of Tennis will understand.
I’m pretty sure this doesn’t meet the requirements to be categorized as spoiler. It’s old news I’m sure but…
ZOMFG THE 15TH ENDING SHOWS NARUTO IN HIS TIMESKIP CLOTHES FOR ABOUT 4 SECONDS ZOMFG
End spammage.
heh, yea i know….i’m just hope that since they actually showed the “part 2″ naruto like 3/4 of the way (not his head area) that the fillers are ending or at least the animators are considering to end the fillers really soon.
honestly, i think that everyone would agree that the 1 year+ we’ve been seeing of filler is more than enough for the manga to be ahead. at the rate the anime goes, they can drag out soo many fights as well as add scenes to the “manga” scenes in the anime..
they can even have like an epi or 2 of before part 2 actually begins and they can even extend the gaiden to make it run for like 6 epi or something like that (1 epi per chapter which i think is way too long cuz an epi will usually cover about 2~3 chapters)…
It would have been a good idea to put kakashi gaiden in the middle of the fillers cause it isn’t even part of part 2 and would have fun to finaly watch some epesode with a little quality after those exteemly boring fillers
they should at least show naruto training with ero-sannin instead of lightsables and money no jutsu and stuff like that. A few wer not that bad though like kakashi’s true face and the smellinsect ep sodes
that might have been a bit m ore tolerable.
i mean showing the 2.5 years of training. but i doubt that the animators would do that because they’d be working completely from scratch on material that is half-non-filler~
and yea i agree that they should’ve shown the gaiden. but what i think they’re planning is doing a filler or 2 more, then doing a gaiden as a 1 shot special, then moving right on to part 2 saying right before that naruto went on a 2.5 week training~
but then again, the 2.5 years of training could be fulfilled by not showing the anime for 2 weeks..which i heard that they’re planning on doing anyway~
so it’ll be like..
fillers — 1 hr special — gaiden — 2 weeks off (so basically gives the manga 2 chapter boost) — start part 2 with changed stuff in OP and ED to suit part 2 characters..
although obviously naruto fillers are getting excessive and have many times gone into an awful lull, some of the arcs haven’t been that atrociously bad. for all you people who refuse to even watch the fillers, i think thats a little harsh, because a lot of the episodes are pretty funny, and others have a fairly interesting story. some of the older filler arcs were pretty decent, overall, and i think the most recent one was quite interesting. By now i totally wish it would end soon, but im willing to accept them for the sake of the canonical series to be able to come at us at its best. also, i like the bleach bounto arc fillers!! (even though it’s a tad long)
Hey everyone. I don’t feel like commenting on what you all said, I just want to add something to see how this “conversation” will end… Did anyone checked the OP and ED in the 90 min special yet? I am not sure that they are not the same as before but I am sure of this… Want tell you though… I’ll just give you a hint…:twisted:
Just observe carefully at the ED while naruto runs and the camera goes from feet to head… Did you see that…? Let me know what you think:mrgreen:
(You can find the episode RAW around. Just check youtube if you dont wish to dl the whole high quality stuff)
(Oh and sry for the double post but I have a question that I can’t find the answer. I know it’s off topic and I am really sorry for that but what is exactly a “gaiden”?:???:)
Gaiden is a Japanese term for a side story. Sometimes the English phrase “Another Story” is used within a Japanese title.
Thank you
ok well from watch the 90 min filler crap we got for last week, it looks like next week no naruto, and then continuing with regular 30 min epi a week every thursday now…
-_-
i’m really hoping fillers end in an epi or 2 but from the ANN epi titles, doesnt seem that way, yet from the new OP and ED it seems like fillers are ending and the Kakashi Gaiden and Part II will be airing soon~
ah~ the confusion~~~:???:
I will NEVER stop watching Naruto,for it is the single greatest anime series I have ever seen. Even with all the filler, I still watch, and watch, and watch, and will continue until my eyes blled and fall out!
If you think Naruto is the best anime ever, you haven’t seen very many good animes..
I don’t agree. Naruto is one of the best animes around, I’m not saying the best. But it’s one of the best. I’ve always thought Naruto is better than Bleach in a way cause i am a more emotional person than an action person. While watching Bleach you can get so excited but have you ever cried??? Though seeing Ichigo get stronger all the time and defeat Byakuya is extremely exciting. Bleach and Naruto are not the only animes that’re good, they’re more like Prince o Tennis, 12 Kingdoms ect. So i think Naruto is one of the best. The storyline’s great.
Talking about fillers… I thought for FMA it was anime first manga later. Same goes with Eureka 7, but please, correct me if I’m wrong. And the Naruto fillers are seriously taking its toll on viewers imo. But I’d like to point out a great series with fantastic filler arcs, One Piece. All its fillers were awesome, although the seahorse(memory stealer) arc was quite boring to an extend. Fillers need not be crappy. But Naruto fillers sure are.
yea…naruto fillers are seriously taking its toll now on us viewers and fans…yet they still continue to give us this crap and also do like 1 week breaks and whatnot in between~
yet, we still watch and love the series for some bizarre reason…lol
Ok ANN just added up to Episode 209 – “The Enemy ‘Shinobazu’” can anyone tell if this is non-filler?
It airs Nov 9th so they say.
well, from the title, i would have to assume that it is filler seeing how nothing about:
SPOILERS
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kakashi
gaiden
obito
rin
part 2
are mentioned,,,
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its been … 2 years since the Naruto fillers started?
Naruto is a case apart. I don’t think any series has had fillers for that long…
Now i juss think they want to wait like before. I mean, when they start anime series and how much manga chapter they have at that time.
Well, first of all, i hate the filler as much as most of you do.
Still, i do like a part of it, when they get a char. and explain a bit of his/her past. Now that’s something and that’s usefull…
But now, seeing that damn naruto randam crap, kage bushing and rasengan stuff is getting old…. i mean, we get to see them each and every episode… in the anime, they learn new stuff, do new moves, everyone is growing slowly but surely. Now, in the anime, when there’s a filler, they just stop growing stronger, they stay the same, the techniques are getting lame, even the graphics are worst, (less animation and the 3d is crappier) and that’s what most people hate the filler for. Naruto grown realy quickly in the first and second season, way up to the filler episode where he just stayed the same. For now a years and a half (slowly getting 2 years) naruto just froze, each time he appear, i just kept seeing the same stuff over and over again, I’m not saying the filler wasn’t usefull for the author and to further explain the past of some other people around naruto, but for christ sake it got to stop now.
I lost my interrest in naruto anime cause of that.
Most of the people that never read the manga actually like the fillers, still, most of those that followed that series from the start also read the manga now and they mostly hate the fillers.
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***An other comment, Is it just me thinking that the author is starting to lack new ideas ***when it come’s to naruto??
***No, i mean common, for his new technique, a rasengan upgrade???
***Ah common, didn’t we seen enough of it already with the filler and stuff???
***It’s a good thing he stop showing Naruto, finally, the storyline can go on
***That part with shikamaru and the akasuki was totally great
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END OF SPOILER
I have to say, really well-written and very educational – not to mention interesting, but then I’m a fangirl, afterall. Man, you could add a reference list and probably get that published in a zine, I’m highly impressed.
You’re preaching to the converted, though. I still faithfully watch every episode of Naruto that comes out, only if to see the “next week, on Naruto….” but it truly is horrific. Not only are the storylines regurgitated, convoluted and Pokemon-esque, the animation quality also took a plummet. Or maybe it’s just that there’s no good plot there to distract us. The last episode was interesting but the animation….it was almost like looking at western animation there for a bit….ick.
And don’t you just love people who use, common, instead of come on? Gotta love the illiteracy!
Thought I’d add a retraction – I actually have enjoyed SOME of the filler, but recently, I’m just getting that little bit impatient. And in the end credits, that teaser was like a little needle in the eye. I think it would have been interesting to have seen Naruto’s earlier childhood. Could have had an entire season on “memories” or something like that. Or they could just start thinking about doing seaons, like live action series’ do.
i agree with the “needle in the eye” comment~
people who dont read the manga were probably going “what the heck?!” but most also read the manga and by them choosing to show literally 3 sec of part 2 naruto in the ED animation, that just kills it~
yet, i see it as a perfect marketing strategy to give the fans & audience “hope” that the non fillers are coming soon…(or eventually)
Ok me and some friends were watching the 90 minute epi in ananime cafe when it came out, and one of my friends said “Damn I would jiraiya would came and get naruto so that we can see his training.” To which i replied. Umm you dont actually see his training he just leaves and comes back older. (Not sure on that havent finished reading all the current manga). My friend goes “… then why didnt they make the filler out of his training and just throwin a few extra seens here and there of each characters development.”
I got to thinking, you know that could have actually been good i mean think about it. You get to see jiraiya teaching naruto the super ultra mega rasengan and they could even throw in a very tiny bit of the real story here and there. Just so you dont piss off the manga readers and you keep the others happy.
Possible Spoiler
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Now i’m not sure as to wether the manga actually shows his training because i havent read all of the current im only to the part where kakashi and gai’s teams are trying to save gaara.
but think about it, that would have at least saved the friggin anime from the mediocrity it has become.
one last thought
I think the reason why they showed the older versions of the charcaters in the op and ed is becuase this season will be mostly filler except for the last epi where they show naruto leaving with jiraiya then they show the gaiden then its off to naruto 2. Or it may just be the producers saying here you go enjoy while you make 98975656more episodes of filler.
i m really sick of the naruto fillers aswell and i havent watched naruto since episode 186,but i have continued watching bleach which is some what barable and actually decent to watch, i m currently reading both bleach and naruto manga and i have to say i m counting the days till they get animated (it might be long but it is worth it) espeically in bleach opening where they showed ichigo battling his hollow and then showing ichigo in his fully masked form. that really got my blood boiling with excitement i cant wait to see the arrancar arc, and i think it might start soon because i dont think bleach is as flexible as naruto when it comes to fillers, because you have very limited resources in bleach unlike naruto where he goes on countless missions where in bleach you are just pretty much facing a super opponent and his followers consisting of probably 8-9 followers. i just hope bleach doesnt follow in narutos foot steps or we are all doomed
hopefully this is true, but according to ANN
2006-11-16
210. Kakashi: A Time of Rememberance
2006-11-30
211. The Man With Lightning Speed
http://cal.syoboi.jp/tid/210/subtitle only has up to 209, so no, it’s unfortunately not true.
Accordin to http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=239
Episode 209 The enemy is “Shinobazu” 09.11.2006
& looks like they put 210/211 now as Kakashi Gaiden
2006-11-30 211. Kakashi: A Rememberance
2006-12-07 212. The Man With Lightning Speed
There is no end
Sorry I meant ANN shifted it
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1825&page=25
coz as per a post above it was suppose to be 210 that starts the Kakashi Gaiden
Thats efffed up. But if you saw the last epi it does seem like they are going to stop the filler becuase they talked about taming the beast inside yourself or something like that.
the Naruto series came to a conclusion at episode 135. It’s been 1 1/2 years of pure filler. We are talking about over 70 episodes of fillers. The Bleach filler arc is not so bad even though the manga is way ahead of the anime. The Naruto filler arcs stinks which everyone agrees on. The manga is so far ahead of the anime that Kishimota should start following the manga again.
Err… Kishimoto is the guy that creates the manga. Studio Pierrot is the company that produces the anime. They’re the ones responsible for the fillers.
And for the umpteenth time, DO NOT believe anything on ANN. ANYONE can edit the stuff on there. If it isn’t on http://cal.syoboi.jp/tid/210/subtitle, IT ISN’T TRUE.
You know if the naruto fillers werent so Eyegouging make you wanna puke your guts out and swallow them again bad, people woudnt be this mad about fillers. What I want to know, is why cant a TV studio actually come up with good plot lines, or at lease steal good plot lines…like family guy does with simpsons plot lines. Its like ok lets create a new village even though there are only supposed to be five, and use that village for some horrible sceme. And we will have main characters almost die, then naruto will use rasengan. You know what would be great if naruto wakes up leaves with jiraiya and finds out that every naruto filler was just a dream. I mean hell as shitty as that sounds that would at least get rid of a whole bunch of greif.
Lightning, I couldnt agree more. Not only that, but the whole idea that it was all a dream is actually a good plot line in and of itself. Much better then everything that we have seen so far.
i completely agree aswell, nothing good has come out of the fillers except buy more time for the manga to progress, but some where in this thread someone gave evidence and pics or naruto 2 plushis that will go on sale in february and that means that naruto 2 should start in december. this happened once before 2 month after the susuke retrieval arc started the rescue team plushis were released. thats the best evidence i have seen yet and lets hope its true.
And don’t forget the little poster thingies going on sale December 21st! ^^
Fillers are gonna end, yay!
i think you might be talking about the poster scrolls
alright guys here is something i think you should read this was taken from the narutofan website. “Naruto Anime Fillers to last until Spring?
Reported by: Tazmo on Tuesday, Nov. 21st, 2006 at 01:08PM
According to what we would consider a more reliable source than the guy who lives down the street and swears that the fillers will be over after every single episode and filler arc, the Naruto anime fillers will be coming to an end in Spring 2007, that is about 3 – 4 months from now, or 12 – 16 episodes from now. The source? Allegedly the information was posted in the Weekly Shonen Jump, with none other than Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto dishing out the details of when Naruto fans can expect a storyline that will once again continue to follow the story of the manga. We are working to independently confirm this, by walking to the store and picking up a copy when it becomes morning in Japan. But until then, blame these guys if they’re wrong! Look for more information on this in the future.” feel free to verify the information here is the link http://www.narutofan.com/
In my opinion, to regain interest in the fillers, (not the shows itself, once the fillers end Im sure it will regain all the popularity it lost and more) the animators and the manga artists need to comunicate more. The artist/author telling the animators and filler writers what will and will not conflict with their stories, and pitch in the odd ideas for story arcs. Maybe it will demand alot from both sides, but Im sure it would keep people interested and actually have some pretty good filler episodes that would get people excited again.
Confirmed: Naruto Anime Fillers to end in February; Series Re-named
Reported by: Tazmo on Thursday, Nov. 23rd, 2006 at 12:30PM
It has now been confirmed that the Japanese Naruto anime series will be returning to it’s original storyline as told in the Naruto manga series, coming this next February, a few short months from now. Along with returning to the story, Naruto will be getting a brand new name to go by. It is nothing big that will blow your mind, but nonetheless a couple of words have been added – Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles – which appears to play reference to Naruto being a Wind Element user. This is also the name that the fourth Naruto movie, due to be released in theaters next Summer, will be going under as it is a movie that will take place after the time-skip. Now there, is something to the thankful for this Thanksgiving. taken from www,narutofan.com
you know ive only been watching naruto for about a 3 months. So for me there was only 3 months of filler. God i love coming in to a series late.
you are definatly the lucky one
Dammit! And now Dattebayo stopped Naruto fansub… (to tell you the truth I did dl their version, only cause the got it on the next morning). AoNE is pretty late… Anyone knows a better source? If the first episode of Part2 comes out and i can’t see it right away i am going to commit suicide! O_O (well i won’t but it doesn’t matter. Someone has to be making the subs… and FAST dammit >.
yhbt…thats the thing db has used to post that comment..
it’s basically their jokes again, so i’m assuming that they’re still subbing naruto so dont worry.
uh and aone is the best in quality, but db beats aone in speed.
so what i do is watch the raw epi…delete…watch the db release…delete…get the aone version and check it so it looks ok…archive.:grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin:
oh man we finally solve the problem with the fillers and then once the deadline for the fillers appear something else has to come out and burst our bubble i hope DB is joking about this because this isnt funny at all. considering that naruto 2 will begin sometime in february
I hope it’s a joke too…
:???:
Its a joke. They will stop subbing Naruto…and start subbing Naruto Hurricane Chronicles.
But if you take a look at their website, they made it all pikachew. Thats kinda funny if you ask me.
well now that we know dattebayo was screwing around with us, i have a question that has yet to be answered, since we know naruto 2 will begin in febraury. can anyone tell me exactly as to when will bleach go back to the manga story line?
A question from me too. Anyone knows how much it will be till we see the 3rd naruto movie subbed? I just started watching naruto in the summer and i am a big fun. I’ve seen every single anime apisode+the 2 movies+all the part II manga. So since i am new, anyone with more experience on the time it takes to come out subbed? Thank you:)
i can easily tell u that, it will be out and subbed sometime in april of 2007 because thats when the dvd is scheduled to be released in japan and DB fansubs will have it there the following day once its released and subbed. it was the same with naruto movie 1 last year and the same with naruto movie 2 this year, so pretty much expect the same thing next year.
Thank you
To the guy with the question about bleach, but it will probably end after the bounto arc. The manga is pretty far ahead of teh anime so they could easily do a couple of story arcs. I could be wrong, and they could do more filler, i just hope they dont. Even though the bounto stuff isnt that bad, i would still like to see the regular stuff.
thank you very much, greatly appreciated
All an all I would have liked to see bleach and naruto take the Tsubasa Option As in End the last ark then Announce an new series as a new season kind of deal. People would know more is coming and not potentially mess things up quite royaly.
Naruto fillers will end soon, this february i guess. thank good.
thx for the nice filler insight by complich8.
but theres a question coming up my mind looking at the nice picture of kagome and inuyasha: why did sunrise give in producing inuyasha? was it also a caught up manga-anime thing?