The real scourge of every anime ongoing are fillers - additional episodes that are almost completely unrelated to the main plot of the canon. They can be quite interesting or, on the contrary, absolutely stupid and inappropriate, sometimes the plot is so obvious that even the most devoted fans of anime begin to resent. However, in the anime “Naruto” fillers created a nice addition to the description of an already beloved world. Kishimoto Masashi, the mangaka who created the story of Naruto, has nothing to do with the filler series, but this does not prevent viewers from loving them, especially now that the story has ended successfully.
Is it worth watching the fillers of "Naruto"?
Opinions of narutomans regarding fillers are divided into two approximately equal parts. Fans of the canon were very negative about the desire of animators to stamp the series, guided by some kind of their own fantasies. Criticism took on a particularly sharp connotation if the next filler series was deliberately sloppy. An experienced look will always note serious errors in the anatomy of the characters, and the attempts of animators to save on backgrounds and dynamics. However, in the anime "Naruto" fillers did not always cause negative, there were also successful stories.
You can be a zealot of the canon and watch only those episodes that correspond to some chapters of the manga. This will significantly reduce the anime, and almost twice. The peculiarity of Naruto is that the created world is distinguished by its undoubted appeal even in isolation from the canonical plot of the manga. No wonder fans still want to.
"Naruto": a list of fillers
- The first filler appears at the very end of the first season, this is series No. 26. According to the basic laws for releasing ongoings, the first seasons always go without fillers - they simply are not necessary, because there are still enough chapters of manga ahead.
- In the fourth season there are only three fillers - series No. 97, No. 99 and the humorous omake series No. 101.
- The fifth season of "Naruto" fillers complement fully. This is a separate story about adventures in the Land of Tea - 5 episodes in a row.
- The sixth season of twenty-nine episodes consists almost entirely of fillers, only the first five episodes correspond to the canon, all other stories from No. 136 to No. 156 were invented by scriptwriters.
- The seventh, eighth and ninth seasons are all made up of fillers, and this has become a huge challenge for Naruto fans. The second part of the Naruto Hurricane Chronicles ongoing is overwhelmed by them, and, according to fans, they have become worse than in the first part.
Fan art or canon?
Can filler series be considered part of the canon? In many respects, it depends on what the viewer is generally oriented to. Many have not read manga and are not eager, because a static picture and a minimum of text is a very specific method of conveying the story itself. For proponents of the anime "Naruto," fillers can be considered the canon.
However, it is worth remembering that Kishimoto Masashi did not write this. If you rely on the author of the story, then the filler series can be considered the fan art of the scriptwriters, although in fact it is not. For ease of perception of fillers, it is worth recalling such a familiar phenomenon as “film adaptation based on motives”. Not only the Japanese are able to inflate an elephant out of a fly, Western filmmakers and animators use this technique very well.
Add-ons to the Naruto World
If the author really succeeds in the world, then the reader or viewer will want to travel on it longer than the mangaki fantasy can offer. The same thing happened with the world of "Naruto". Hurricane fillers swept over the plot and created interesting additions, deviations and assumptions, and their own theories. Nevertheless, you should not consider the scriptwriters as soulless businessmen who seek to stamp more episodes. This is not entirely true. In the vast majority of cases, when creating additional series or even seasons, the logic of the world created by Kishimoto was used.
Why are fillers needed at all?
It was necessary to do without them! Something like that, an enthusiastic fan of the Naruto manga thinks. The list of fillers is simply overwhelming by its volume. But would the viewer stand if absolutely new chapters were filmed? The fact is that when shooting manga, one episode has an average of two chapters. The series is released once a week, this is really a fast-paced process that is designed to capture and hold the attention of viewers, and for a long time. The captured versions of ongoing inevitably catch up with the mangaka, and soon the animators have a problem: there is nothing to shoot further, you need to take a break and wait until the mangaka comes up and draws new chapters. But this is an unproductive approach.
As you know, demand creates supply, and in this case, fillers are such. “Naruto” (season 2 and following it) practically did without these additions just because it was the very start of ongoing, but then we had to act according to the standard scheme. It is worth noting that the creators of the anime did their best. During the existence of ongoing, many successful filler series have been created, full-length animated films have been shot. “Naruto” did not share the fate of many ongoings - it successfully ended both as a manga and as an anime, confidently holding out in the ratings in leading positions.