Ah, the legendary Big Three: Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto. These are the franchises that defined a generation of shōnen anime. But as any seasoned fan knows, following a weekly anime while the manga is still publishing leads to one thing: filler. Filler episodes are the necessary evil, a buffer to keep the anime from catching up to the source material. However, the quality, quantity, and style of these non-canon arcs vary wildly between the three giants. This inevitably leads us to the biggest debate: of Bleach, One Piece and Naruto which has the worst fillers? Let's dive deep into the trenches of the non-canon war.
The Case for Naruto: The Most and The Worst Fillers
When fans discuss the worst fillers among the Big Three, Naruto is often the first name that comes up, and for good reason. Both the original Naruto and Naruto Shippuden have massive amounts of filler, with reported percentages reaching over 40% for both parts of the series. The original run featured a brutal 80+ episode filler stretch right before the time-skip, a true test of viewer patience. While the show tried to make some of this content fit into the timeline, much of it was criticized for being incredibly boring, badly written, and featuring main characters acting completely out of character. This sheer volume of low-quality, mandatory-feeling viewing is why so many fans crown Naruto as the absolute king of bad filler.
There are a few standouts, like the excellent Kakashi backstory arc in Shippuden, but those are needles in a massive, overwhelming haystack of mediocrity.
Bleach: The Pacing Problem and Skippable Arcs
Bleach comes in a close second in terms of filler percentage, hovering around 45% of its total run. What sets Bleach apart from Naruto's approach is that it usually bundled its filler into long, self-contained arcs. This is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because these arcs—like the fan-favorite Zanpakuto Rebellion Arc—were generally well-animated, had cool ideas, and are easy to skip when binging. The curse, however, is the placement. Imagine being at a crucial, high-stakes moment in the canon story, like the Hueco Mundo invasion, only to be yanked away for 40-50 episodes of non-canon material that actively ignores character development and plot progress. This jarring, disruptive placement is why many consider Bleach's filler to be a major flaw, even if the content itself was often more "watchable" than Naruto's worst offerings.
One Piece: The Art of the Stretch
One Piece is the anomaly, officially having the lowest percentage of dedicated filler episodes (around 11%). This leads many to argue that it has the least worst fillers of the Big Three. However, it trades explicit filler for an arguably worse sin: atrocious pacing. Instead of creating long filler arcs, the One Piece anime decided to stretch one manga chapter over nearly an entire 20-minute episode, sometimes even less than a chapter. They accomplish this with excessive reaction shots, long flashbacks, and drawn-out running sequences. This method means the "filler" is woven into the canon episodes and cannot be skipped.
Here is how the three franchises tackled the problem:
- Naruto: Large volume of mostly low-quality, skippable, one-off or long arcs.
- Bleach: High volume of long, self-contained arcs, easy to skip but often poorly placed within the canon narrative.
- One Piece: Low volume of explicit filler, but pervasive pacing issues that pad out canon episodes, making the show feel agonizingly slow.
Conclusion
While the frustrating pace of One Piece is a serious issue that ruins rewatches, an overwhelming number of fans agree that Naruto ultimately takes the crown for the worst fillers. The sheer quantity of its poorly executed, dull, and out-of-place arcs, particularly in Naruto Shippuden, is a hurdle most viewers actively advise skipping entirely. It disrupts the momentum and narrative far more frequently than Bleach's easily identifiable filler arcs or One Piece's slower, but still canon-moving, pace.
