Forum - View topicIs Naruto filler worth watching?
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AnimePaul
Posts: 8 |
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Well, I read that Naruto has a lot of filler. From what episode to what episode are these fillers. Is the filler worth watching or should I just skip to the last episode and proceed to Shippuden? I've watched up to episode 119 so far.
Last edited by AnimePaul on Sun Jan 13, 2008 2:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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Filler is from about 136-220 ish. And my answer is yes, you should skip it. My short list: Nothing except a new move from Hinata that seems will be carried on. Terrible enemies. Naruto + random Konoha young ninjas take on bad guy and win, with shadow clones, rasengan and all the basic moves you expect from every character. Writing is dull. Tactics and skill are almost non-existant.
If you want something to throw on and zone out to, and really love Naruto, it's not the worst thing you could be doing. That said, there are a lot of more constructive things to do or just better anime you could be watching instead. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6900 Location: Kazune City |
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I'd say it's worth watching if you're (A) a major Naruto or shounen fan, or (B) if you're an obsessive completionist, regardless of the type of series. I fall under (B) so I plan on finishing them
One thing you could do is to watch through #135 and then check the Wikipedia summaries for Seasons 5-6 and Seasons 7-9 and decide which story arcs among the fillers look the most interesting to you. My friend who suffered through all of them week by week says that the arcs of 4 episodes or longer are decent, but most of the standalone episodes or mini-arcs are bad. |
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Aromatic Grass
 Posts: 2424 Location: Raleigh, NC |
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Me too, regardless of my inconsistent completion schedule. Someday, I would like to finish Naruto so I can finally move it over to "Seen all." Though it's not likely to happen very soon (within the next decade). 
These episodes are so hard to watch because they take all of the development and go backwards. Naruto's personality almost "resets" and repeats over too many seasons. |
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BellosTheMighty
 Posts: 767 |
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Well, I'm hearing nothing but hate from these boards, as you can see yourself, but I've also heard from people who like it. It's pretty much irrelevant to the series' wider storyline, but when it puts the spotlight on the supporting cast or humor it produces some solid episodes. I know this secondhand, however, so it could be wrong. And even the biggest fans say that it's something of a hit-and-miss affair.
If you ask me the smart move for Viz would be to split the series when the Naruto vs. Sasuke arc wraps next month- do the filler and the Shippuden episodes at the same time, maybe one episode of each a week on CN. Or one of one and two of another, if they're keen on catching up to the JP series so that YouTube doesn't cannibalize their ratings. |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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A simple rule of thumb? That episode where Naruto was "trying to get the the stadium on time" and ended up getting chased by bulls? That was a filler episode. The episodes about the ninja race with the lightning sword? That was a filler arc. If you enjoyed those, you MIGHt enjoy at least some of the filler and it might be worth your time to give them a shot, but personlly I couldn't stand most of what I saw and gave up a few arc into them. It's perfectly reasonably to skip to the end of the filler if you don't enjoy it.
Either read the manga chapters that are right before the Shippuden volumes start to get the idea of how the two sections connect, or watch the last arc of the pre-Shippuden Naruto. Or you can just read the spoilers bellow (but not before finishing the first series, if you care about spoilers) At the end of the "official" storyline to the first series, Naruto spoiler[runs off to train with Jiraiya, and is gone from the village for about two years. Sakura decides to suppliment her worthlessness by apprenticing under Tsunade. ]That's about it, but those two elements are cut out of the last pre-Shippuden official episode and spread into the next couple episodes and the last filler arc) |
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AnimePaul
Posts: 8 |
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I had a feeling the filler episodes weren't going to be that great and all this negative feedback kind of confirms it. I read the summaries on wikipedia and they don't seem very interesting, but what can you expect when it isn't from the Manga. DBGT sucked for that very reason DBZ was way better. I guess I'll just watch up to the Naruto vs. Sasuke episodes, then skip to the last episode, and finally to Shippuden.
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Clodus
 Posts: 497 Location: Kansas |
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its not like all of them are horribly bad. i mean there are some decent/good. You should at least watch the laughing Shino one(186). That was unexpectedly creepy and hilarious at the same time! i also vouch for the Hinata arc. a few more that i actually liked are the star village arc and the onbaa episode(185).
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Emerje
 Posts: 7411 Location: Maine |
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Here are some of the more notable arcs (in my opinion of course):
Infiltrating Orochimaru's Lair arc (eps 136-141) -- spoiler[This is the only time we ever see Sakura travel with Jiraiya. The story is pretty much on par with any one of the movies. There are a couple nice Sakura moments. ] Mizuki Strikes Back arc (eps 142-147) -- spoiler[Return of Mizuki from waaaay back in episode 1. The story was pretty good at first, but derailed pretty badly in the end. Our only look at the Konoha prison.] Bikochu arc[b] (eps 148-151) -- spoiler[Great Hinata arc, not to bad of a Shino arc either. Too bad the ending was a waste.] [b]Raiga arc (eps 152-157) -- spoiler[Kinda cheesy, even for a Rock Lee arc, but notable because it introduces us to another one of the Mist village's Seven Swordsmen (Zabuza and Kisame). Raiga is basically a canon character introduced in a filler story, he could be at least referred to by name in the manga eventually as we're currently starting to learn more about the Seven Swordsmen.] Land of Birds arc (eps 162-167) -- spoiler[An all too rare Naruto ghost story. Not bad really, but could have been better thought out in some places. ] Land of the Sea arc (eps 169-173) -- spoiler[An honest to god Anko arc! We actually get a much better understanding of her relationship with Orochimaru. We also see the return of Yoroi Akado and Misumi Tsurugi whom we haven't seen since the Chuunin Exams in Kabuto's team. This was one of my favorite arcs, but I'm a big Anko fan so that's probably why.] Hidden Star Village arc (eps 178-183) -- spoiler[Not everyone liked this arc, but I did. I really liked the concepts in this episode, especially the idea of being able to fly with chakra. Some things could have been handled differently and they bend the rules a bit, but it was a nice story IMO.] Best 5 Battles special (ep 202) -- It's a clip show, and it really isn't the best battles (because Lee vs. Gaara isn't on the list!) but it is hosted by the characters so it's a fun diversions. Kurama Clan arc (eps 203-207) -- spoiler[This arc actually focuses mainly on Kurenai Yuhi. Not a bad arc if you watch it all at once. Pretty creepy for a lot of reasons too, mainly the heavy use of genjutsu.] Shitenshonin arc (eps 216-220) -- spoiler[The last arc and last episode of the series. This one is based on the Sand village and shows Gaara as a much kinder person as he attempts to teach students in a ninja weapons class. Not a bad way to end the arc as it plays well off of the first major arc of Shippuuden.] None of these are particularly strong episodes on their own. But each arc watched at once helps pass them off as fairly good stories. For the most part none of the single episodes are worth watching. Emerje |
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LuckySleven
 Posts: 426 Location: Refer to page 2 |
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Probably the last arc is the one to at least check out. This one for me was worth at least some of my boundless time. I liked it because spoiler[it showed how much Gaara changed after his intervention from Naruto. But as well shows how the Sand Village is slowing accepting him as a "human being" instead of a monster.] As well the one with Shino laughing was good too.
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BellosTheMighty
Posts: 767 |
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I'm sorry, I have to take issue with that reasoning. Firstly, by your logic as stated, every anime not adapted from a manga is inferior. I think you mean that the problem is that it wasn't from the same author, but that's not true either. By that reasoning, the live-action Death Note, which ends well before the end of the manga's storyline, is also inferior. Whereas most fans say that the movies' ending was in fact better, and it's the second half of the manga that's inferior. Likewise the second half of Fullmetal Alchemist, which departs completely from the manga, would also be inferior, whereas fans have testified that it's the better half of the series. This goes back even before anime- in the early 17th century a playwright named John Fletcher wrote a play called "The Woman's Prize", which was a sequel/response to Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew". While it's not as well-known or as popular as Shakespeare's original, most scholars agree it has merit, and has attracted attention as a proto-feminist work. You could come up with a number of other examples if you tried. My point is that the real problem is not when things get taken over by a *different* writer, but by a *lesser* writer, one who can't or doesn't do the material justice. How this applies to Naruto, I don't know. All I'm saying is that you can't judge something based on whether or not someone else has done related material- you have to focus on the story itself, and let it succeed or fail on it's own merits. Hmm... You know, if you really wanted to, you could probably analyze the filler episodes and try to determine from writing style and focus which ones were written by the same authors. |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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Filler anime and original work anime are two very different things. Original work anime at least typically has some solid creative design behind it, writen by a writer that intends, on some level, to produce quality work. Filler episodes in long-running shonen episodes are just filling time, executed with minimal creative talent.
But this is true. The live action Deathnote IS vastly inferior to both the anime and the manga. The sequel was even worse. To their credit, I think that they diod the best they could with a total of about three hours to tell their story, rather than 20-some, but they're nowhere near as good.
That, however, was a case of the anime being completed before the manga, so obviously it would have to take it's own liberties with the plot.
Why bother, when you can just know that, by being filler, it mostly sucks? |
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blind_assassin
 Posts: 755 |
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I believe Hiromu Arakawa explicitly asked the writers for the anime not to animate the ending that she has intended for the manga. |
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AnimePaul
Posts: 8 |
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BellosTheMighty
Posts: 767 |
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Because you DON'T know that. That's exactly what I just said. Pay attention.  If you look at the odds and decide not to chance your valuable time watching it, okay, that's your prerogative. If you see the work, don't like it, and want to say why, go ahead. If you hear about the work from others and want to relay their opinions, that's reasonable so long as you make the distinction. But if you're going to judge the work without seeing it, based purely on your experience with similar works, then that pisses me off. All artists, good or bad, deserve at least a chance. If you're not willing to at least look at something before saying it sucks, you're just spreading unearned ill will. And for what purpose?
If you're not watching it because anime filler has a bad rep, then say that. If you're not watching it because people have warned you it sucks, then say that. A sweeping blanket statement like "what can you expect when it isn't from the Manga." is unsupportable, for the reasons that I enumerated.
Think harder. Off the top of my head- Neon Genesis Evangelion (admittedly not as good as it's 90's fans would have you believe), Cowboy Bebop, Mobile Suit Gundam, Eureka Seven, Bubblegum Crisis, and I *think* most of Satoshi Kon's work. Anyone else have ideas? |
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