Every episode you can skip

Bleach It has an excessive amount of filler episodes, making it necessary to have a list of which episodes are essential and which are not. As with other long-running anime adapted from the manga Bleach often employed filler to complete the show. This did Bleach and many other similar anime feel tiresome and a poor substitute for the manga, which is why one of the biggest attractions of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War is that it is adapting the final arc of the manga from beginning to end, without any filler.

However, Bleach is another long-running anime with a lot of filler, and here is a list of all the skippable episodes. Although the definition of filler in media has become somewhat nebulous, for anime adaptations, it is generally accepted that filler is anything that was not in the source material. It should also be stated that none of this is necessarily a criticism of the episodes; filler episodes often provide great content, but that doesn’t change the fact that they can be skipped and Bleachare no exception.

Every filler episode of Bleach

And which ones are worth skipping

When added together, Bleach It has 165 filler episodes, more than half of the original anime’s episode count. Calling these egregious would be an understatement, and what made them even worse was that, due to the time BleachAs canon arcs were, filler episodes often caused the main story to come to an abrupt halt for months. For those who watched Bleach As it aired, this practice undoubtedly made the experience worse than necessary, and with how often the content consisted of tedious stories that detracted from the established canon, it was almost always impossible to justify.

Which Bleach Filler arcs and episodes stand out in the pack

While most BleachThe filler content adds very little to the series, there are some filler episodes and arcs that stand out. Episode 132, “Hitsugaya, Karin, and Soccer Ball,” for example, is a surprisingly good episode for the way Toshiro and Karin play off each other and for being one of the few times Karin gets any meaningful character work. The Floresta de Menos arc is also worth noting for the way it expands on the series’ lore, and this makes sense especially when considering how it was a story that Tite Kubo wanted to write in the manga, but didn’t have time for.

If any filler is worth watching, however, it’s the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc. Unlike the anime’s other long filler arcs, the conflict in the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc does not conflict with established lore, it merely enhances itand getting the chance to see everyone’s Zanpakuto spirits and their personalities gave the arc a great hook, especially since these aspects and others would later be incorporated into canon. Add great animation and fight scenes, and the arc perfectly shows that although most Bleachthe filler wasn’t worth watching, there were definitely some gems every now and then.

Which Bleach Filler Episodes You Should Skip

As noted above, the Bount arc is considered one of the worst filler arcs in the original Bleach anime because of how strangely it interrupts the flow from the Soul Society arc to the Arrancar arc. At 45 episodes, the arc also drags on painfully, and anyone familiar with the manga will be dying to get to the next canonical episode. The Bount also doesn’t make much sense in the lore of Bleachsince its association with immortality goes against the entire premise of Soul Reapers.

Another filler arc commonly ridiculed by fans is the New Captain Shusuke Amagai arc, which deals with a new captain being selected to lead Squad Three after Gin Ichimaru defected to Aizen’s side. Its positioning is extremely odd, as it gets in the way of the main characters’ struggles in Hueco Mundo for this largely irrelevant introduction of a new captain who ultimately won’t stick around because he’s not canon. Given the mix of powers seen in the arc, there’s also no way to fit it into the show’s timeline.

A common refrain of Bleach fans is that new viewers skip all the filler episodes on first viewing and only then go back and watch the filler if they’re dying for more Bleach happy. Since the Bleach filler tends to devote a lot more time to characters that wouldn’t otherwise get much focus, it can be a great way to spend more time with a favorite character, especially popular characters like Toshiro Hitsugaya. The characterization in the filler can be a little strange at times, especially when it comes to characters who were virtually unknown in the canon, like Yamamoto before Thousand Year Blood War.

Where to stream Bleach

All episodes of the original Bleach are currently streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus, and both services have their benefits. Both services offer the original series as well as Thousand Year Blood WarSo it’s really a matter of preference. For the complete Bleach experience, including the latest series, fans may prefer Hulu despite the commercial breaks. Unfortunately, neither service has any of the four anime films in the series, although they are fillers, so fans who just want canon events may not be disappointed to miss them.

Regardless of how fans experience Bleach however, padding should not be used to measure the actual material of the canon. Bleach was one of Shonen Jump’s biggest titles of all time for good reason, but filler doesn’t always do a good job capturing what makes the series so remarkable. Knowing which episodes are filler and which are not can be essential to enjoying Bleach.