With over 200 episodes, Naruto has a healthy amount of filler that punctuates all the epic ninja battles. It can be tricky to know what’s what, but that’s where we come in.
As part of the Big Three of manga in the 2000s, alongside Bleach and One Piece, Naruto has been wildly popular for decades now. Given its popularity on the page, it’s unsurprising we got a long-running anime show, that’s since spawned a couple of incredibly successful sequels.
Starting from scratch on the original Naruto can be daunting. There’s just so much to get into and learn, across hundreds of episodes. Lucky for you, there’s plenty of non-canon material you can gloss over, and just like all the One Piece filler, we’ve broken it all down for you.
Yes, we’ve gone through all 220 episodes, and listed every single bit of filler among them. That includes complete arcs, and one-off pieces of fluff.
Naruto filler guide
| Episode No. | Episode/Arc Title |
|---|---|
| 26 | Special Report: Live from the Forest of Death! |
| 97 | Kidnapped! Naruto’s Hot Spring Adventure! |
| 101 | Gotta See! Gotta Know! Kakashi-Sensei’s True Face! |
| 102-106 | Land of Tea Escort Mission |
| 136-140 | Land of Rice Fields Investigation Mission |
| 143-147 | Mizuki Tracking Mission |
| 148-151 | Bikōchū Search Mission |
| 152-157 | Kurosuki Family Removal Mission |
| 158 | Follow My Lead! The Great Survival Challenge |
| 159-160 | Gosunkugi Capture Mission |
| 162-167 | Cursed Warrior Extermination Mission |
| 168 | Mix it, Stretch it, Boil it Up! Burn Copper Pot, Burn! |
| 169-173 | Kaima Capture Mission |
| 174 | Impossible! Celebrity Ninja Art: Money Style Jutsu! |
| 175-176 | Buried Gold Excavation Mission |
| 177 | Please, Mr. Postman! |
| 178-183 | Star Guard Mission |
| 184 | Kiba’s Long Day |
| 185 | A Legend from the Hidden Leaf: The Onbaa! |
| 186 | Laughing Shino |
| 187-191 | Peddlers Escort Mission |
| 192 | Ino Screams! Chubby Paradise! |
| 193 | Viva Dojo Challenge! Youth is All About Passion! |
| 194 | The Mysterious Curse of the Haunted Castle |
| 195-196 | Third Great Beast Arc |
| 197-201 | Konoha Plans Recapture Mission |
| 202 | The Top 5 Ninja Battles! |
| 203-207 | Yakumo Kurama Rescue Mission |
| 208 | The Weight of the Prized Artefact! |
| 209-212 | Gantetsu Escort Mission |
| 213-215 | Menma Memory Search Mission |
| 216-219 | Sunagakure Support Mission |
How much of Naruto is filler?
Naruto has 91 filler episodes, so just over 40% of the show. There are 220 episodes in total, and if you just wanted to see the crucial plot points you can knock that down by nearly half.
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That’s a substantial amount, significantly more than what’s in One Piece or Dragon Ball Z. Consider it a blessing though, since it means you’ve less to watch if you’re hooked!
Should you skip the Naruto filler episodes?
In all honesty, you should give the Naruto filler episodes a chance. A lot of them are fun, relatively low-stakes misadventures involving Naruto saving someone from a haunted castle or trying to help someone escape a false conviction.
The real problem is that a lot of them are short and frivolous, and arrive in swift succession during the backhalf. So you may find yourself frustrated by that more than anything.
If you’d like to keep up with the way of the ninja, you should check out our guides to which anime ninjas could beat Naruto, and who is the best Rinnegan user.