Took me four years to notice I was skipping the best filler arcs

I used to blow through anime skipping every filler episode because I thought they were just time wasters. Then I was watching an old Naruto episode last month with my friend Kyle and he pointed out how a filler arc actually explained a character's backstory I never understood. I had skipped that whole arc back in 2019 because I was following a list online. Turns out I missed like 30 decent episodes that added real depth to side characters I barely remembered. Kyle showed me how the filler gave context to a major fight scene that seemed random to me before. Now I feel kind of dumb for trusting those skip lists so blindly. Has anyone else found a hidden gem filler arc that changed how you saw the main story?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivera.holly16d ago

Felt this hard after I finally watched the Gintama filler that tied everything together lol.

webb.victor16d ago

Kyle did you a solid, man. I had almost the exact same thing happen with Bleach (the bount arc gets so much hate but it actually made a couple of the later fights hit way harder). I skipped all of it back in high school because my older brother swore it was pointless, but when I went back last year I finally understood why a certain character acted the way they did in the final arc. It's like the filler writers knew stuff the main show forgot to mention, you know? Those online lists are too harsh, they treat every filler like it's the same garbage when some of them are basically mini-movies that flesh out the world. Now I always check if a filler is considered "story important" before I skip, learned my lesson hard.