Every Episode You Can Skip

When it comes to weekly anime series like One Piece, filler episodes are an unfortunate fact of life. Defined as anything not found within the original manga, filler episodes are usually lighter, inconsequential stories written by the animation company to avoid catching up with the manga.

Compared to the likes of Naruto and Bleach, One Piece is surprisingly light on filler. Despite clocking in at over 1,000 episodes, the TV show doesn’t stray into non-canon territory often, and One Piece filler also isn’t as bad as fans might’ve seen in other anime series. No Luffy and Zoro learning to drive here.

Plenty of One Piece episodes embellish legitimate manga material with filler scenes, like an extended fight scene here, some additional dialogue there, and these are definitely worth watching, but others are fabricated entirely and contain nothing of value.

Every Filler Episode of One Piece

One Piece Filler Episodes That Are A Secret Treasure

While One Piece‘s later episodes involve many large-scale situations, twisted class wars, and disgustingly evil villains, the series didn’t start with stakes so high. One common complaint with later One Piece content is that viewers don’t get much time to watch the Straw Hat crew interacting, which they often did in early filler episodes.

Many filler episodes contain light-hearted scenes filled with comedy and time for the Straw Hats to show off their quirks in a way canon stories don’t always have time for. However, one particular filler arc after Skypiea exceeded all expectations. Episodes 196–208 feature an arc where the Straw Hats land the damaged Going Merry in the middle of the impenetrable G-8 Marine base. The ship is captured, and many of the Straw Hats go undercover as Marines to find a means of escape.

The G-8 filler arc is filled with moments for each member of the Straw Hats to shine, including Sanji’s infectious cooking, Robin’s infiltration skills, Usopp’s lying, and Luffy’s lack of subtlety, creating some of the biggest laughs of the series while telling a compelling story of cat and mouse as the Straw Hat’s avoid total capture.

Another notable filler arc is the anime’s most recent filler arc, which served as a tie-in to One Piece Film: Red. While it did disrupt the Wano arc at the height of its action, the story of Luffy’s friendship with Uta did a great job of fleshing out his character, even if it’s not completely canon. It’s one of the few times a filler arc added something meaningful to someone’s character in One Piece, and with how much that sort of character writing was further emphasized in One Piece Film: Red, it makes the small arc even more worthwhile.

More Than a Few of One Piece’s Filler Arcs Are Rough Sailing

Though One Piece undoubtedly has some strong filler arcs and episodes, there are more than a few that just don’t hold up. The Warship Island arc, for example, has the typical hallmarks of a filler arc through things like bad art and an uninteresting story, and it also ruined the pacing by pushing back the Straw Hats’ entrance to the Grand Line.

The Warship Island arc is also infamous for how it goes against One Piece canon by introducing a dragon, as when dragons would be referenced years later, everyone would remark on how they thought dragons were only myths.

Most filler arcs in One Piece don’t fare much better than that. For example, the Silver Mine and Cidre Guild arcs both disrupt canon for mindless action and stories that don’t add anything to the overall narrative, and the Cidre Guild arc is especially infamous for that because of how it comes at the beginning of the Wano arc.Making things worse is how the Silver Mine and Cidre Guild arcs are movie tie-ins that don’t have anything to do with their movies, and that weird handling of things makes them come off as even more pointless.

Even more infamous are the Spa Island and Foxy’s Return arcs. Both the Spa Island and Foxy’s Return arcs are infamous for bringing back the incredibly divisive Foxy and doubling down on everything people hated about him, only making him less popular with fans and further fueling the misinterpretation that Foxy isn’t canon. There might not be a lot of filler arcs in One Piece, but unfortunately, most of them aren’t worth anyone’s time and are better off skipped at the end of the day.

How One Piece Avoided The Filler Problem Other Shonen Have

While One Piece has been running since 1999 with over a thousand episodes, it’s managed to maintain a surprisingly low filler count compared to other long-running shōnen anime. Where Naruto and Bleach were infamous for marathon stretches of non-canon content, One Piece took a different approach that prioritized pacing, planning, and world-building.

One key factor in One Piece’s success lies in Eiichiro Oda’s consistent involvement and the anime team’s respect for his vision. Toei Animation has historically avoided long filler arcs by adapting the manga at a slower pace rather than creating entire new storylines. Instead of adding massive chunks of non-canon material, they extend existing scenes or add short comedic detours that still feel authentic to Oda’s world.

Another clever strategy is the anime’s use of movie tie-ins and “bridge” episodes that blend canon and filler. These arcs, like the G-8 or Film: Red tie-ins, serve as narrative cushions between major sagas, offering extra character moments without derailing the main story. This approach not only keeps the anime close to the manga but also gives viewers a smoother, more cohesive experience overall.

Unlike its shōnen peers, One Piece rarely loses momentum because its filler is sparingly used and often charming enough to feel like part of the adventure. The anime’s pacing and dedication to Oda’s storytelling have helped it avoid the pitfalls that plagued series like Naruto and Bleach, ensuring that even when it slows down, it still feels like One Piece through and through.

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Writers

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

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  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

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  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)