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Many animes have filler episodes and arcs. So this question has two parts:

  1. Which anime has the most number of filler episodes?
  2. What is the length of the longest filler arc?
кяαzєя
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Ero Sɘnnin
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    You should specify what you mean by "filler". Some people use it to mean "anime content that was not present in the manga", while other people use it to mean "episodes that don't advance the plot". – senshin Feb 20 '15 at 18:13
  • When a show has no plot arcs spanning multiple episodes (not an uncommon format) and is not based on a source material, wouldn't that make it 100% filler? – Philipp Feb 21 '15 at 19:24
  • @Philipp That would be [alternate continuity](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlternateContinuity) and is not actually considered a filler. – Dimitri mx Feb 21 '15 at 20:13
  • @senshin the term filler is used for anything that does not relate to the main plot, or generally does not advance the plot. Fillers also occur in manga, and there for I think you might be confusing it with whether it is cannon or not. – Dimitri mx Feb 21 '15 at 20:18
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    Well, if we're going to say that filler means "anything that does not relate to the main plot", that's awfully subjective. Who's to decide what relates to the main plot and what doesn't? – senshin Feb 22 '15 at 00:20

2 Answers2

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Percentage wise has the most fillers, since it has a total of:

  • 366 episodes

  • 160 filler episodes

which means 43.4% of the anime are fillers.

and combined have

  • 640 episodes
  • 238 filler (1st season 89, 2nd season 149)

which means 37.2% of the anime are fillers.

has

  • 682 episodes
  • 97 filler episodes

which means only 14.2% of the anime are fillers.

But if you were to look at the sheer number of filler episodes, has more fillers with 214 filler episodes.

And I believe the longest filler arc would be in where the last 35 episodes were fillers.

Source: Own experience, Google, Filler Guide (webarchive)

EDIT

"why in your estimation, none of the longer-running series beat out Bleach and Naruto under the definition of "filler" that others already provided above" - seijitsu

Taking a few of your given long running samples such as and makes the question quite simple to answer.

In the case of Nintama Rantarou non to barely non fillers have been aired. This does not mean it did not have fillers, because they certainly had. They were extras which as far as I know where only available on dvd. Furthermore they did not have a plot/story to follow, which makes the only deviation the moment the story would not be based on the manga, which in almost all episodes is the case. Also with the episode length given in this series 3 episodes would be the equivalent of 1 episode in naruto and the likes, which in this way easily out does this particular one.

In the case of Sazae-san, Sazae-san actually Did not have ANY filler episodes. Long running does not mean it needs fillers, there are several which never got a filler, even though they had a particularly long run time. Here follow a few

  • GE 999
  • Hoka Hoka Kazoku
  • gundam First
  • Sazae san
  • Kochi kame
  • Lupin III
  • the Super Robot Saga shows [ Maziger z Getta Robo and Grendizer]
  • Ninja Hitori kun
Dimitri mx
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    I completely agree with this, however I'd like to change Kenshin from the longest filler arc, Naruto has nearly a year of fillers at the end of naruto. I belive it was from Episode 143 till 219. This was pretty much a chain of random stories all in a row that had nothing to do with the main story – Chen Orihara May 22 '15 at 08:05
  • In order to answer this question sufficiently, please explain why far-longer running series do not beat Bleach or Naruto for largest amount of filler. For example, [Sazae-san](http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/7678/how-long-is-the-longest-running-anime-series) at over 7,000 episodes, [Nintama Rantarou](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anime_series_by_episode_count) at over 1,800 episodes, Doraemon, Ojarumaru, Soreike! Anpanman, or Chibi Maruko-chan. – seijitsu May 23 '15 at 03:54
  • @seijitsu It depends on how you view fillers: ". A filler episode can be as short as 1 episode, or as long as an entire season of the anime. These episodes were not a part of the original source content's story, and usually serve absolutely no purpose in furthering the main story.". Excluded pokemon on purpose as it can be seen as a real/technical filler. As some episodes can be classified als half fillers. as for the others, I did not specifically research them, But I do believe the filler count is not that high. – Dimitri mx May 23 '15 at 06:43
  • @Dimitri mx, I'm requesting an answer as to why, in your estimation, none of the longer-running series beat out Bleach and Naruto under the definition of "filler" that others already provided above (either "does not further the main story" or "is not from the original manga"). I would be surprised if a lengthy ninja series like Nintama Rantarou has a very low filler count whereas a shorter ninja series like Naruto would necessarily have a far-higher filler count. – seijitsu May 23 '15 at 07:14
  • @Dimitri mx, In Pokemon's case, if the original source material is the Game Boy game that corresponds to that season of the anime, then any episode that follows the game's storyline (basically: catch all the pokemon before someone else does) would not count as filler, but any anime episode in which no pokemon are caught by the protagonist might be filler. – seijitsu May 23 '15 at 07:15
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    @seijitsu I hope my edit reflects enough why these shows do not beat the ones previously mentioned. Why I excluded pokemon? the combination of all seasons would definitely beat all of the above mentioned in total filler Episodes, as roughly 30% of each season is considered filler. But would still not have the longest filler arc/continues filler. Nor would it even beat naruto percentage wise when combined. – Dimitri mx Jun 04 '15 at 22:16
  • @Dimitri mx, thanks for the update! I imagine that a nichijou series like Sazae-san may not have any filler, but could you explain why you deem Nintama Rantarou "did not have a plot/story to follow?" I've only read the 1st manga volume & seen a little of the anime, but it seems that there is a main plot of the 3 protagonists (Rantarou, Kirimaru, & Shinbei) becoming fully-educated, full-fledged ninja; in that case, if there's an episode where hijinks ensue but the 3 characters don't progress in ninja skills would be filler. Why do you think the main plot is dissimilar from that of other series? – seijitsu Jun 04 '15 at 23:02
  • @seijitsu It is true that a final goal has been set for the series, becoming full fledged ninja. But the story they follow is just, him and his friends attending school, and the activities surrounding this. Furthermore it is more of a gag anime/manga then the other ones. I think it is somewhat comparable with Gintama, all tough personally I think Gintama has more story in the end. Which is also a series which is very debatable whether it is a filler or not. – Dimitri mx Jun 04 '15 at 23:12
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    One Piece is the crooked accountant of anime fillers. It goes through long periods where each episode only has a few minutes of new material. The rest of the airing time is consumed by recapping and long intro and ed songs. It would be interesting to measure the amount of filler or repeated material per episode. I suspect One Piece will shoot up the charts with that. We'd have to be more precise about what filler is, though. – zibadawa timmy Jun 04 '15 at 23:46
  • @zibadawatimmy We are assuming anime content that was not present in the manga or product that first produced the story line. Op's, Ed's and recaps in before the episode should not be counted in my opinion, as it is not actual part of the currently told story. But maybe creating a meta topic regarding cannon/non cannon, fillers and all such terms and what the scope of these is. – Dimitri mx Jun 04 '15 at 23:59
  • @Dimitrimx I'd say that zibadawatimmy makes a very valid point. While having the least amount of straight out filler episodes, each episode is padded worse than Frieza's "five minutes". Yes, filler is generally used to refer to plots and episodes, but any content that is used to 'fill' in the run time is technically filler. – Suman Roy Apr 03 '17 at 12:20
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Detective Conan (Case Closed) has the highest total filler amount of 313 filler episodes out of 811 episodes. Detective Conan has most fillers spread out so it doesn't have very long filler arcs.

Naruto (not shippuuden) has the longest filler arc with episodes 136 - 219 being fillers, which makes a total of 83 fillers in a row. This filler arc ran from 25 May 2005 to 1 February 2007.

Source: Detective Conan Naruto Naruto Shippuuden

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