Choose your episodes carefully to avoid filler if you want the authentic Bleach anime experience.
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The long-running Bleach anime is infamous for frequently including the filler material, much like its shonen rivals Naruto and One Piece. The Bleach anime has fillers for about one-third of its run, including a few filler/canon hybrid episodes. Story-focused anime aficionados would like to omit the filler, but more casual anime viewers have no trouble watching everything, filler and all. The filler-only episodes can be skipped by new Bleach fans who would rather save time and concentrate on the main plot. To ensure they don’t miss anything, they can also watch the mixed filler/canon episodes in addition to the pure canon ones. Almost 50 filler-only episodes must be skipped as a result, but they are not all clustered together. Instead, these filler episodes are scattered throughout the Bleach anime, so novice viewers might need guidance on how to spot and stay away from those unexpected filler arcs.
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Although a couple of the first 30 episodes have a little filler built into them, the first season of Bleach anime will be easy sailing for anyone starting their animated shonen trip. Nonetheless, Episode 33, “Miracle! Mysterious New Hero establishes the first noteworthy filler episode. The Reviving Lion, Episode 50, which is uncomfortably positioned near the conclusion of the “Soul Society” storyline, is the only other fluff episode in that narrative. For lovers of canon-only anime, the original Bleach arc and the renowned “Soul Society” arc are both easy sailings.
The Bleach anime starts its first significant run of filler episodes after Episode 63, spanning from Episode 64 all the way through Episode 108, with canon content picking back up in Episode 109. With dozens of episodes padding the runtime between the “Soul Society” and “Arrancar” plot arcs, this is a serious blow to the pace of the Bleach anime. With the proviso that some filler characters from the “Bount” story arc will be thrown into canon episodes, fans may jump from Episode 63 to Episode 109 in order to replicate the original Bleach manga’s tight pacing and good overall storytelling experience.
In the middle of the “Arrancar” plot arc, where Ichigo Kurosaki and his Soul Reaper allies fight Sosuke Aizen’s Arrancar minions in Karakura Town, there is a subsequent series of filler episodes from Episodes 128 to 137. During Episodes 147 to 149, there is a three-part filler mini-arc about a Menos forest in the Hueco Mundo realm, and from Episodes 168 to 189, there is a longer filler storyline. The canon “Fake Karakura Town” story arc is interrupted by two further pairs of filler episodes, which are Episodes 204, 205, 213, and 214.
Before Ichigo’s ultimate fight with Ulquiorra Schiffer, the 4th Espada, the “Fake Karakura Town” arc is interrupted by yet another sizable number of filler episodes. Fans of the canonical Bleach series may choose to skip episodes 228 through 266 as well as episodes 287 through 299, 303 through 304, and 305. A short while later, a new lengthy swath of fillers airs, running from Episode 311 through Episode 341. After that, there is just one more filler episode left for Bleach fans to skip, Episode 355, and the story of the original, canonical Bleach anime will be finished. Similar to Season 8, Season 9 is entirely filler, allowing canon-only fans to bypass the full box set.
Fortunately, only the first season of the Bleach anime saw regular fillers, much like its rival Naruto. With cutting-edge animation, quick pacing, and a complete absence of filler episodes, the new Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime is a more contemporary production in every way. The original Bleach manga had already been finished by the time Thousand-Year Blood War started, eliminating the primary justification for the creation of filler episodes in the Bleach anime. Story-focused fans of the TYBW anime can watch it without any hassles because the first season of the story arc, which consists of 13 episodes, does not contain any filler episodes or episodes that mix canon and filler. Given that the first TYBW story arc is rather long and there isn’t much time to squander, it is likely that the TYBY arc’s subsequent three chapters will also be free of filler.
