For anime fans no one word brings feelings of hate, anger,
and frustration as much as does the word “filler”. Filler episodes or short
“filler miniseries” are a common occurrence in anime. The nature of the
industry makes it so, as most anime are based upon manga and follow manga
storylines. If the anime series gets too far ahead and catches up to where the
manga is then the anime producers make the call to bring out the filler.
Recently the decision was made in Japan to cancel new
episodes of Bleach which were airing
regularly on TV Tokyo. At a time Bleach
was one of most popular and beloved anime series in Japan and North America. But
over the last couple of years enthusiasm for the series has been in decline.
A major reason for the show losing support was its obnoxious
amount of filler. If you ask me, Bleach
is a casualty of filler. But not just any filler, exceptionally bad filler. An anime, no matter how good the main story is, cannot
survive if for every normal episode there is a horrible filler episode to match
it.
With Bleach it
certainly felt like this was the case. The New
Captain Shūsuke Amagai arc definitely comes to mind with over 20
excruciating episodes of Ichigo trying to save an annoying little girl.
The popular anime series Naruto
and Naruto Shippuden also have their
fair share of awful filler. Though in Naruto’s
case, the production team opts for smaller mini arcs instead of full season
filler storylines like in Bleach. Hard
to say which one is worse. Both are terrible in their own ways.
In fact, for these anime there are even entire filler guides
dedicated to allowing fans of these shows to bypass filler and escape the pain
of having to sit through it.
So what does all this mean?
To me, this is a clear signal that shows like Bleach can’t last if every time a filler
episode is aired it makes fans want to bang their face against a wall.
It’s sad that horrible filler ruins what is otherwise great anime.
But even sadder is that it doesn’t have to be this way.
Believe it or not, filler doesn’t have to be bad. There are
series with watchable or even (get this!) likable filler. Inuyasha and Full Metal
Alchemist are both anime with filler that blends seamlessly into the
main story. Episodes that are not taken directly from the manga are very well
written and cannot easily be told apart from any other episode.
These series have filler that adds something of value to the
show. This could be an interesting side story or just flushing out the main characters’
personalities. These types of episodes are not intrusive and don’t harm the
integrity of the normal show.
So, to the producers of Bleach
and any other anime with Bleach
quality filler, if you are incapable of making filler that doesn’t ruin your
show, or filler that serves no purpose other than to stall for time, then
please simply don’t use filler.
Just wait. Wait until the manga or other source material gets
far enough ahead for the anime to resume. Most fans would be far happier
waiting a little longer for a new season to begin rather than spending that
time wading through filler hell. I know I would be.
