When it comes to absolute powerhouses of anime,Narutois up there with the best of them. AcrossNarutoandNaruto: Shippuden, you’ve got 720 episodes to sit down and binge, but are all of them strictly necessary?
While the originalNarutoseries is 220 episodes worth of world building and getting-to-know-everyone fun and drama,Naruto: Shippudenadds a whopping additional 500 episodes, furthering the story and adding new characters into the mix.
To watch all ofNaruto: Shippuden, you’ll need over 200 hours spare (more than 8 days), and that’s one hell of a time sink and a rather daunting commitment. And that’s without adding in the time to watch the original series first, and then the huge number ofBorutoepisodes that come after.
While each episode holds a certain amount of world building and additional lore, not every episode is considered to be integral to the overarching story ofNaruto. If you’re wanting to know which episodes are canon and which are considered filler, we’ve got you covered.
Should you skip the filler in Naruto: Shippuden?
While filler episodes ofNaruto: Shippudendon’t really bring anything to the table in terms of the overall story, you will miss out on some important world building and background if you choose to skip over them. For instance, Kakashi’s Anbu Arc (episodes 347 – 361) offers valuable insight that will help you to truly understand the impact of Kakashi, who is an absolute fan favorite character.
There are a lot of moments you’ll miss if you choose to skip over the filler, but the choice is yours to make. You won’t be left wondering about anything by missing these episodes, and you can always go back later to fill in the gaps once you’ve reached the end of the main story.
Consider it like completing the main story of a game, then going back to complete side quests afterwards.
Every filler episode in Naruto: Shippuden
Naruto: Shippudenmeets back up with the now beloved characters two years after the original series ends, and there’s a whole new cast of people to meet and events to catch up on. However, of the 500 episodes that make upNaruto: Shippuden, 203 of these are considered to be filler.
Sometimes, entire arcs of the anime take you off on side stories that aren’t strictly necessary if you only want to keep up with the main story.
Here’s every filler episode ofNaruto: Shippuden,along with what arcs that they make up:
How to watch Naruto: Shippuden
Regardless of whether you want to consume every episode in order, or you want to get through that main story and then get the side stories under your belt, how you may watch it depends on where you’re located.
Here’s how to watchNaruto: Shippudenin both the US and the UK:
Naruto: Shippuden in the US
If you’re US based, then you can watchNaruto: Shippudenon bothHuluandCrunchyroll. Each has all 500 episodes available, and offers its own perks and advantages, depending on your watching style.
Hulu offers 473 of the 500 episodes with English dubbing, so it’s easier to watch in the background or if you’re not entirely able to focus on subtitles. However, the episodes are split into strange and inaccurate seasons, so it’s easy to lose track of exactly where you are unless you’re paying close attention to the episode numbers.
Crunchyroll, on the other hand, only has the series available with subtitles. However, the episodes are split into their respective arcs (for the most part, it all seems to fall apart after the Fourth Great Ninja War – Sasuke and Itachi arc), so you can find specific episodes pretty easily as long as you know which arc they belong to.
Naruto: Shippuden in the UK
If you’re based in the UK, you can still watchNaruto: Shippudenvia Crunchyroll. The fan subscription package for us Brits is £4.99 per month. Sadly, that’s our only option when it comes to bingeing this beloved anime, unless you want to invest in a VPN (or happen to have one) to use for this purpose.
Wherever you are, you can also add Crunchyroll to yourAmazon Primeaccount as an additional subscription, which does make it a lot easier to manage and cuts back on websites you need to visit in order to watch.
