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Naruto is an anime with many episodes. Not all of them are story-relevant, but so-called filler episodes. An episode overview is important to many fans
Filler episodes of Naruto from all seasons
Naruto is one of the most successful shōnen manga/anime of all time. The manga by Masashi Kishimoto was published in 72 volumes from 1999 to 2014. The story of the ninja aspirant Naruto was brought to the big screen as an anime in a whopping 700 episodes. Some of these are so-called filler episodes that do not advance the main storyline any further. Here is an overview of the episodes concerned, which you can skip.
- Special Report: Live from the Forest of Secrets (Arc): 26 (episode), Season 1
- Adventure at the Hot Springs: 17, Season 4
- The Land of Tea: 101-106, Season 4
- Jiraiya’s Education: 136-140; 143-219, Seasons 7 and 8
- In addition, there are episodes that are partly filler, but partly also advance the manga canon. You’d better watch these episodes, otherwise you might miss some information.
- Tsunade’s Warning: 98-100, Season 4
- Sasuke’s Recovery: 107-135, Season 4
- Sakura’s Decision: 141-142, Seasons 7 and 8
- The Future Mission Begins: 220, Season 8
The meaning behind filler episodes
Filler episodes are additional episodes that do not advance the storyline any further. They are more about character development or a deeper dive into the manga or anime world.
- The reason for these filler episodes has something to do with the manga market in Japan. The aim of every manga author is to get into one of the big manga magazines like Shōnen Jump. There they are given space for a manga chapter every week.
- If a manga is successful, but also to promote a manga, an anime, i.e. a TV series, is produced from it. However, a chapter of a manga does not (always) correspond to an anime episode.
- If the manga author is unable to print a chapter in the magazine for a week for various reasons, such as illness or other projects, the anime producers are forced to deliver “material” anyway.
- The studio then comes up with a storyline for an episode to fill the gap until material for the original storyline returns.
