Filler Episodes

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Part of a series on Internet Slang. [View Related Entries]

About

Filler Episodes is an internet slang term used to reference uneventful episodes of anime series or TV shows that have no significant impact on the overall plot and are perceived to merely be there to make the series longer. The term is often used in reference to Naruto and other long-running anime series. In August 2022, the term became popularized on TikTok in videos where users joke about having Filler Episode Days, often set to the song "Afternoon of Konoha" from Naruto. The term is also sometimes used alongside the term main character.

Origin

The term "filler episode" is most often used in reference to episodes of anime series that have no impact on the overall plotline and are therefore seen as unnecessary or "filler." Oftentimes, filler episodes are the result of the anime adaptation catching up to the manga, leaving the producers unable to continue the story properly and resulting in them writing new arcs and plotlines that tie themselves up in a short period of time. This is the case with Naruto fillers, which is one of the most widely criticized and memed series for containing filler (examples shown below).

Spread

Filler episodes have been the subject of memes throughout the 2010s and are often the subject of criticism for being boring or a waste of time. While the term is mostly used to reference long-running anime series like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Bleach or Naruto, it is also used with other TV shows (examples shown below).^[6]^[7]^[8] On April 2nd, 2021, TikToker^[9] @rachelszero posted a video where she explains the necessity behind filler episodes, garnering over 35,000 views in a year.

On March 6th, 2022, YouTuber^[10] AnimeWorld posted a video about the anime series with the most filler episodes, claiming that Detective Conan and Pokemon have the most, garnering over 1.2 million views in eight months (shown below).

Filler Episode Days

One of the earliest online posts about days feeling like filler episodes was posted to /r/depression^[1] on February 9th, 2019. The post is titled, "Just feels like every day is a filler episode," and reads, "Nothing is changing. I just feel tired. I don't feel alive. All I want to know is how to start living instead of just existing," garnering over 570 upvotes in three years.

The idea of "filler episode days" started to become popularized on TikTok in mid-2022. On May 16th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @forrestf1re posted a skit captioned, "How the filler episodes of my life start," garnering over 5,400 views in six months (shown below, left). The video is set to "Afternoon of Konoha" from Naruto, a song attributed to the show's filler episodes. On August 29th, TikToker^[3] @jibreeeel posted a video about his day feeling like a filler episode set to the same song, garnering over 1.2 million views in three months (shown below, right). This is the first known viral instance of the phrase used in this context.

On August 31st, the term was defined on Urban Dictionary^[4] as "A day where nothing special or exciting is happening." On November 16th, Mashable^[5] published an article about the idea of filler episode days and people on TikTok acting like they're in a movie or TV show in general.