Everything You Need to Know About Naruto Shippuden Filler
Naruto Shippuden has roughly 220 filler episodes out of 501 total, which means almost half the series is non-canon. The filler distribution is uneven though. Early episodes carry a heavy concentration of standalone adventures, and the later part of the series has long stretches of pure filler between major canon arcs. If you are trying to watch through efficiently, you need to know where to skip and what you are actually missing. The main filler arcs break down like this:
naruto shippuden filler
The Rootless Soul Arc (Episodes 135-136) — Team Kakashi goes on a mission to rescue a hostage. It has no relevance to the main story and doesn't even connect well to itself. Skip it entirely. Sai and the Missing Nin Arc (Episodes 137-142) — This is one of the longer filler runs. It focuses on Sai's early days before he joined Team 7. There is some character work here, but it retreads ground that was already covered in the manga. I watched this stretch twice when I was younger and only once after I learned to skip.
Naruto's Return Arc (Episodes 143-151) — Ten episodes dedicated to Naruto coming back to Konoha and dealing with various side missions. Not terrible, just completely unnecessary. Itachi Pursuit Mission (Episodes 152-166) — This is one of the most ambitious filler arcs in the entire series. It follows Sasuke hunting down Akatsuki members who are not part of the canon storyline. Some fight choreography is actually decent here. But it contradicts established timelines and character knowledge from the manga. The payoff is essentially nothing if you read or watched the actual story.
Nine-Tails Capture Mission (Episodes 222-242) — A twelve-episode arc centered on capturing the Nine-Tails. It was produced during a manga hiatus when the anime simply ran out of source material. The best thing you can say about it is that it gives some screen time to minor characters. The worst thing is that it delays the actual story for nearly three weeks of runtime. Itachi's True History (Episodes 358-361) — A four-episode flashfiller that shows events from Itachi's past. While it is filler in the strict sense, it covers emotional beats that are actually meaningful. This one gets debate because it fills in gaps rather than creating distractions. I still skip it now, but I understand why some people watch it.
Lost Story Arcs (Episodes 385-387) — These three episodes explore alternate "what if" scenarios. They are self-contained and do not impact the main narrative in any way. I learned to identify filler quickly by checking episode summaries before watching, but I made a practical error early on. I used a skip list from one forum that had outdated episode numbering because it was based on an uncut broadcast run instead of the standard Netflix/streaming order. I ended up skipping a canon episode thinking it was filler. The workaround I settled on was using the Naruto Filler List website and cross-referencing with the MyAnimeList episode database. Those two sources agree on the exact skip points for the current streaming release, and I have not had a mistake since.
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There is a skip site at natoru.fillerlist.com that marks every filler episode with color codes. Green means filler, yellow means partial filler, and red means canon. The site updates when new arcs are confirmed, so it is worth checking before you start any long binge. I also keep a personal spreadsheet where I log which arcs I have already skipped so I do not accidentally re-watch them. The biggest misconception people have is that filler is always bad. Some filler arcs have solid animation and interesting side characters. The Sai and Missing Nin arc gives Tsunade more screen time than she gets in the manga. The Itachi Pursuit arc has some creative jutsu designs. But none of that justifies watching every single filler episode. The time investment is real. Watching all 220 filler episodes adds roughly five full days to your total runtime. That is time you could spend on other shows or reading the manga where the story is actually written.
If you want the most efficient path through the series, here is the practical order to follow: Watch episodes 1 through 134, skipping episodes 26-28, 61, 62, 67-69, 92, 93, 96-99, 106, 107, 109-111, 115, 116, 119, 120, 127, 128, and 133. Then jump to episode 135 and continue through episode 220, skipping the Rootless Soul arc and the Sai arc. After that, watch the Pain invasion arc starting at episode 220, then continue through the canonical Five Kage Summit and Naruto's return to Konoha. The filler resumes heavily after episode 359.
The later filler episodes from 388 onward are mostly standalone stories with zero stakes. The War arc that begins near the end is canon and worth watching straight through. By that point, the filler fatigue is so high that many people just speed through the remaining episodes or use a skip tool. Some people argue that filler anime like Bleach and One Piece have worse ratios. That comparison is irrelevant to your actual viewing. You are watching Naruto Shippuden, so you need a skip list for this specific show. The filler list I use has been accurate across multiple releases including the Crunchyroll stream and the Blu-ray packaging.
The main downside to skip lists is that they assume you are watching in release order. If you are watching a dubbed version or a region-specific edit, some episode numbers shift slightly. Always double-check by looking at the episode title before you skip. The skip site sometimes has minor discrepancies between regions. I used to download entire filler arcs in bulk and then delete them without watching, which saved about forty minutes per arc but required careful file management. Now I just open the skip site tab alongside my streaming player and skip in real time. The real-world difference is roughly three minutes of setup per arc, but the margin for error drops to near zero.
There is no perfect solution for filler. Every skip list has edge cases. The Naruto Filler List is the most widely used and least wrong resource available. I rely on it as my primary reference and verify anything that looks suspicious by checking the anime wiki for episode summaries. That two-source approach has kept my skip accuracy above ninety-nine percent across thousands of episodes. One advanced detail most beginners miss: some filler episodes contain small pieces of canon content sandwiched between filler scenes. Episode 160, for example, starts with a filler mission but includes a brief return to the main storyline around the middle. These hybrid episodes are marked yellow on the skip list, and the site provides timestamps for the exact canon portions. If you are trying to minimize skipped content, check the yellow markers and watch only the timestamped segments.
The bottom line is that Naruto Shippuden filler is a known problem with known solutions. Use the skip list, verify your episode numbering, and stop treating filler as optional entertainment that you owe yourself. The story you are interested in exists without it.
