After the Valley of the End battle in the Naruto Anime, the animators were in danger of catching up to, or even passing the story progress in the Manga. So, they did a a series of ‘filler arcs’, little self-contained stories mostly centered around Naruto working with other members of his cohorts on Teams 7, 8, 10, and Gai. Fans, who were evidently disappointed that they were not immediately jumping past the Time Skip like the manga version did, were less than amused. In fact, outraged would be a better description. I got a good bit of this on the mailing list, and then the following quote appeared on the same group:
“I just wish that Kishi would show more of the shinobi countries,” See, this is why I don’t sneer at the filler arcs.
And I don’t really understand what the people who trashed those story lines wanted. The animators couldn’t follow the main storyline until Kishimoto advanced it further. If they tried to ‘guess’ they could end up with a mess like what what happened with Ruroni Kenshin (anime deviated so far from the manga it was unrecognizable and was cancelled). If they simply suspended the series, the production crew would likely have been split up looking for work (they have to eat, you know) and might not all have been available when they wanted to restart. Worse, public interest in the series might have waned during the hiatus and the series might have risked being cancelled completely. Granted the anime writers had to limit themselves to self-contained arcs that didn’t touch on the main plot-line (or risk creating a conflict/paradox), but all the hate going on from the ‘purists’ sounds really stupid to my ears.
*exits soapbox* Sorry, but that rant has been building up for a while now.
It wasn’t that they did about 3 months of filler arcs. In fact the producers of the Bleach Anime did exactly the same thing at the same time for the same reasons.
The problem was that what the anime produces of Naruto produced trasher small filler arcs that really didn’t show any character growth.
While the Bleach filler arc focused on a single story and showed a great deal of character growth in both terms of power and personality.
The Naruto producers could risk smaller conflict with true canon by sticking a one arc filler and involved lesser known/devoloped characters. We all know Neji, Kiba and everyone else who participated in the Sasuke hunt.
However we never really saw much of Hinata, Shino and even when featured we didn’t see much. Though that Bichouchu ark or however it was spelled was kick-ass. Hinata was awesome. But that could have been put to better use with say, they actually forming a semi permanent team with the full duration of the arc.
Anyway thats my two ryou on the subject.
You know, I have to agree that the fillers were definitely a necessary part of how everything worked out. I’m not mad that they made them, in fact some of them were great, offering little glimpses into things and people that I really enjoyed. The quality (in my opinion) was not quite up there, but then they are FILLER arcs, not main arcs. Do I wish that they had done Kakashi Gaiden? Definitely. But if it is a choice between the fillers and the end of the series? Fillers for the win!!!
I think the issue with the filler wasn’t the filler episodes themselves, but the fact that they did nothing but filler for 2 years, when they could accomplish the same thing in 6 months. That was definitely the problem for me. It would have been much better if they did a few filler episodes for 5-6 months, went back to the main story line and occasionally tossed a filler episode in to buy some time for the manga.
I think part of why they did such a long run of fillers was to get Kishimoto a little bit of a lead. I think he also didn’t have everything nailed down in his head either – which is why they didn’t do more storylines that went into the backstory. If Kishimoto didn’t give the Anime producers the background to explore, then they run the risk of contradicting themselves later if he decides to use it in the Manga. I thought the bug hunt was great, and the Curry of Life was funny – (Rock Lee is usually good for a laugh, and stories focusing on him can be entertaining.)
If you thought the story lines were sub-par, then that’s okay. It’s at least an informed opinion. But the vociferous outcry started the day they announced that there were going to be filler episodes until April of the next year. If the anime producers were paying any attention to the fan communities before then, that display of ignorance probably killed their interest.
Hi there! I just found this and couldn’t resist leaving a comment! I didn’t exactly like the fillers because I think they lacked a basic plot. It was more like “Naruto wakes up and a random thing happens”. I liked the idea of them making the fillers instead of rushing and try to guess what will happen, but I missed Kakashi Gaiden and a nice storyline. The Jiraiya Arc at first wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, but at least it was a story. I found most of them plot-less, and it’s painfully obvious they were devoting more time to the Bleach movie they were doing at the same time. Also the animation was better in Bleach, and they were doing a filler arc at the same time…
I found the fillers to be a little longer than I’d have liked, but I agree with you in that point. I think he still wasn’t sure how the manga was going to follow, which was quite obvious still in the first chapters on the Sasuke Arc (in fact, I think he wasn’t really sure of it until the moment Sasuke gets his little group together). I loved the bug hunt and the Curry arcs too; the Curry was fun, though I didn’t exactly like the end of the arc (butLee kicking while asleep was hilarious!), and we got to see a bit more of team 8, which is severely ignored in the series… *big fan of Team 8 speaking here*
The problem I have with the fillers is just what they did (which kind of killed the anime for me, so I just read the manga now).
First off instead of training with Jiraiya, it seems Naruto was always with another team on a mission (although you could give the reason it was for practical experience). He’s supposed to be training with Jiraiya to both avoid Akatsuki and to have a chance at being able to fight just one of them (and being on all those missions with how much time passes, without training does not help in that regard).
The second one deals with any techniques they show that are original. While that technique Hinata created is pretty nice, the problem is that as far as the manga is concerned (to current knowledge), it doesn’t exist. So what happens when she gets put into a situation where such a technique would be useful, people who’ve seen the filler episodes would be asking “why doesn’t she use her technique to stop that?”. So while it’s nice they tried to do some character growth, they created a problem by introducing original techniques. The only way this won’t be a problem is if they recieved permission from Kishimoto to do it (so that way he can incorporate the technique into the manga). Also what about those people who didn’t watch the filler episodes, they will be missing information on events that happened (unless Kishimoto includes those as flashbacks in later chapters, which is unlikely).
While I do have to agree with those who have mentioned that without the filler arcs, the cast would have broken up, and possibly the series being cancelled as well. The fact is that since most of the other ninjas were from clans, they could have just as easily used some of the clan techniques for what they learned.
This is just my opinion on the matter so don’t let it bother you too much.
I registered just so I could comment on this. You are absolutely right. I had a rant just like this (with almost the exact same heading) half written – I was going to submit it to Zac Bertschy’s column back when he had a section for Rants. I think what makes filler so difficult to accept is the fact that the preceding episodes are so meaningful and the filler is so pointedly meaningLESS. The fandom is built on the fact that we draw some kind of meaningful experience with the series – bonding with the characters, being drawn into the long plot, etc. Giving us Saturday morning cartoon stories in lieu of that is like a slap in the face. A couple of them? Fine. Almost a hundred? Be honest, it hurt to watch after a while. I’m glad the series was able to keep going, however, and I’ll happily sit through filler arcs ad nauseum toward that end.
Also on the plus side, at least in the filler you can get some minor plot fulfillment within a few episodes rather than, say, dragging out a single fight scene over half the season until the audience is so starved for catharsis they’re tearing their hair out and screaming “JUST KILL THE *&#$! ALREADY!” . I’d much rather have plot at a reasonable pace and the occasional filler arc.
S_Wander – I think the filler arcs are ‘what happened between the Valley of the End and Naruto leaving with Jiraiya’ – not taking the place of them.
And as far as new techniques go, I sort of doubt that too much was included in the filler arcs that Kishimoto didn’t approve of. I can’t see him giving up that much artistic control – especially given some of the current plot directions.