Similar to its shonen rivals Naruto and One Piece, the long-running Bleach anime is notorious for having frequent filler material. Roughly one-third of the Bleach anime is nothing but fillers, with a few episodes being filler/canon hybrids. For more casual anime fans, it's no problem to watch everything, filler and all, but story-focused fans would rather cut the fluff. The manga's always an option to avoid filler, but the Bleach anime definitely deserves a watch.
New Bleach fans who'd rather focus on the real story and save time can skip the filler-only episodes. Further, they can watch the mixed filler/canon episodes along with pure canon ones in order not to miss anything. This means skipping over 50 filler-only episodes, but they're not even all grouped together. Instead, these filler episodes are sprinkled throughout the Bleach anime, meaning new fans may need a guide on where to find and avoid those surprise filler episodes/arcs.
Updated on May 14, 2024, by Ajay Aravind: The Thousand-Year Blood War arc will be releasing its third cour of 13 episodes in 2024. Thankfully, there's not likely going to be a single episode of filler during this final anime storyline. That said, Bleach fans still have to wade through tons of filler to finish the anime, so we've updated this article with some more relevant information.
The Filler-Only Bleach Episodes That Can Be Safely Skipped
When a new Bleach anime fan begins their animated Shonen adventure, the first season will be smooth sailing. There are no filler-only episodes, though a few episodes within the first 30 have a little filler built into some of them. However, the first true filler episode arrives early in the "Soul Society" story arc with Episode 33, "Miracle! The Mysterious New Hero." The only other filler episode in the "Soul Society" arc is Episode 50, "The Reviving Lion," which is awkwardly placed in that story arc's climax. Otherwise, both the first Bleach arc and the famed "Soul Society" arc are smooth sailing for canon-only anime fans.
After Episode 63, Bleach begins its first serious chunk of filler episodes, lasting from Episode 64 all the way through Episode 108, with canon material resuming in Episode 109. This is a major blow to the Bleach anime's pacing, with dozens of episodes padding the runtime between the "Soul Society" and "Arrancar" story arcs. To recreate the original Bleach manga's tight pacing and enjoyable overall storytelling experience, fans may go from Episode 63 straight to 109, with the caveat that some filler characters from the "Bount" story arc will be sprinkled into canon episodes. It may be awkward to watch canon episodes with unexplained filler characters in them, but if anime fans know what they're in for ahead of time, they can overlook such oddities.
The next chunk of filler episodes runs from Episodes 128 to 137, in the middle of the "Arrancar" story arc, where Ichigo Kurosaki and his Soul Reaper friends battle Sosuke Aizen's Arrancar minions in Karakura Town. A three-part filler mini-arc runs from Episodes 147 to 149, dealing with a forest of Menos in the realm of Hueco Mundo, where they meet a Soul Reaper named Ashido Kano. Interestingly, this was originally meant to be in the manga but was removed due to Tite Kubo's tight schedule. Another major filler arc runs from Episodes 168 to 189, introducing Captain Shusuke Amagai. Two more pairs of filler episodes interrupt the canon "Fake Karakura Town" story arc, these being Episodes 204, 205, 213, and 214.
Another large chunk of filler episodes interrupts the "Fake Karakura Town" arc, all before Ichigo's final duel with Ulquiorra Schiffer, the 4th Espada. Canon-focused Bleach fans may skip everything from Episode 228 to Episode 266, and then skip Episodes 287, 298, and 299, as well as Episodes 303, 304, and 305. Just a few episodes after that, yet another large chunk of filler arrives, spanning from Episode 311 to Episode 341. Once that's out of the way, Bleach fans have just one more filler episode to skip, that being Episode 355, and then the original, canon-only Bleach anime adventure is complete. Season 9 is also 100% filler, so canon-only fans can skip the entire box set, too.
Why Does Bleach Have Filler Material, and Should Fans Try It or Skip It?
Newer anime fans may wonder why a popular "big three" shonen anime like Bleach would even bother to have episodes that aren't part of the actual story. Longer anime like Bleach have filler arcs not for its own sake, but for practical reasons that are highly relevant while the anime is still airing. When an anime like Bleach adapts an ongoing manga series, it is important that the manga stays ahead so the anime studio has enough material to work with when creating new episodes. If the anime catches up, it may stall out, and the animators don't want that. So, the animators keep the anime and manga aligned properly by stretching out the anime with filler episodes or even entire filler arcs. That buys the manga time to keep publishing new material, giving the animators ample material for making a whole new season that follows the manga. Tite Kubo definitely needed that time for his Bleach manga, hence the anime's high percentage of filler episodes. Something similar can be said about another big three anime, Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto, although One Piece is famously low on fillers.
As for whether anime fans should watch the filler episodes in an anime like Bleach, there is no single right answer, though individual anime fans can find compelling reasons one way or the other. Even if fans know filler episodes aren't part of the real story, they may still enjoy filler simply because it's more of the same anime universe they love. Further, the filler episodes tend to explore ideas, often humorous or experimental ones, that the main story cannot indulge in. Canon or not, filler gives anime fans more insight into how a universe like Bleach's can be explored and fleshed out, such as the idea of the Soul Reapers' Zanpakutos revolting against their owners. When Bleach was airing, fans had little choice but to watch filler or at least wait for the actual story to resume, but with the original Bleach anime finished, fans can easily choose to watch filler or skip it all to resume the story.
Watching all Bleach episodes without filler is also a strong option for basic, universal reasons that could apply to any story, most of all pacing. Mangaka Tite Kubo paced his Bleach manga the way he did for good reasons. That said, anime filler episodes disrupt the pacing by putting the real story on hold to explore a totally unrelated narrative. It may be a totally jarring experience to go from an intense, canonical story to a goofy, entirely new narrative partway through and then resume the canon story as though nothing had happened. Bleach may not have the most complex lore or narrative in anime, but serious fans may still struggle to juggle all that information with filler episodes derailing the story. If anime-only fans want to experience Bleach the way Tite Kubo intended, pacing and all, skipping filler is a must. Then, if so inclined, fans might watch select filler episodes or arcs just for fun.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War & Anime Viewing Options
Fortunately, it's only the original Bleach anime that suffered from constant fillers. The new Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime is a more modern production in every sense, from cutting-edge animation to brisk pacing and an utter lack of filler episodes. By the time Thousand-Year Blood War began, the original Bleach manga was already complete, ridding the Bleach anime of the main reason why filler episodes were created in the first place.
The first cour of the TYBW story arc, 13 episodes in total, has no filler episodes or mixed canon/filler episodes, so story-focused fans can enjoy the TYBW anime with zero complications. Most likely, the TYBY arc's next three cours will also be filler-free, especially since the original TYBW story arc is quite lengthy and there's little time to waste. Interestingly, however, Kubo used the opportunity to incorporate new characters, powers, and storylines into the anime's ongoing season, such as the original Gotei 13 and Hirako Shinji's Bankai. Despite some of them not appearing in the manga, everything in the TYBW arc as of the second cour is considered canon.
Interested anime fans can find the original Bleach anime available to stream on Hulu in the U.S., and on Disney+ internationally, and the same applies to the TYBW anime. Anime fans can also find Bleach Blu-ray and DVDs for sale on both Amazon and the Crunchyroll Store, although the latter is currently all sold out. That said, fans should be aware that some box sets might have nothing but filler episodes in them. The Bleach anime's fourth season, for example, is 100% filler, so canon-only anime fans can skip the Season 4 box set and go to Season 5, which is mostly filler except for the canon Episode 109 at the end. Season 15, meanwhile, is nearly all filler except for the canon Episode 342 at the end.
