In the world of anime, no word is feared as much as the forbidden word itself. You know the word you never want to hear when you start a new anime. If you're reading this you know the word we speak of is filler and there is no anime fan that gets excited from hearing it.
Filler is usually present in anime adaptations due to space in the anime and manga stories. The reason no one cares for this addition is that it doesn't add anything to the story of said anime. However, not all filler is bad. In fact, the filler arcs in this list are definitely better off watched instead of skipped.
10 HERO AGENCY INTERNSHIP ARC
Although this My Hero Academia arc added absolutely nothing to the story it did offer some hilarious scenes and great character moments. It also, amazingly enough, seems like there were no major complaints from any viewers over its inclusion.
From the scene with Bakugou and his new, more professional look, to the scenes of Tsuyu helping out save people from a sinking ship, this filler arc actually had a lot of great things to offer. You know a filler arc is good when you don't even notice it isn't filler.
9 OTHER WORLD TOURNAMENT SAGA
Dragon Ball Z is one of the most infamous anime on the planet when it comes to filler. The show is packed full of pointless and dull filler that even the most loyal Dragon Ball fan would end up falling asleep on. That isn't the case with "The Other World Tournament Saga" in the slightest.
This saga showcases Goku partaking in a tournament in, duh, The Other World during his time dead after his sacrifice to save the planet from Cell. It's actually really cool to actually see what he was doing up in Other World during his time off.
8 WALKING THE DRAGONS
The Yu-Gi-Oh! filler arc, "Walking the Dragons" or the "Orichalos" arc is one of the greatest to grace television screens. This arc provided viewers with a lot of important character moments and introduced a few fun and interesting original characters for this anime exclusive arc.
This arc showed Yami's weakness and gave viewers a look at him with the wool pulled over his eyes. One of the biggest downfalls of this arc, however, is the amount of crazy broken original cards it introduces. You can mess with the show's pacing but please don't try to mess with the game. It can really make things mad confusing.
7 DAVY BACK FIGHT
This One Piece filler arc is in a really weird position because it's technically canon but it can all be skipped beside one event that happens. Canon filler can be a thing we're guessing.
Anyways this filler arc is really fun despite a few plot inconsistencies involving Chopper and his powers. However, the group of added sidequests the anime team gave our favorite ragtag team of pirates is really enjoyable to watch. Each character gets to use their abilities in a special way that is exclusive to them. This arc is skippable but you'll definitely be doing yourself a disservice by not watching it.
6 MAKAI TREE ARC
The original Sailor Moon anime threw in this great filler arc that even the most diehard fans can enjoy. It's amazing that such an old show got filler right the first time they implemented it even way back then.
This arc is very short, clocking in at about 13 episodes, so it doesn't step on any toes. In those 13 episodes is a smorgasbord of great character moments, tons of character growth, and it introduces two fun original villains. More anime filler arcs really should take notes from this old dog that introduced a new trick to the anime world.
5 Pokémon S1 EPISODES 15-18
While this filler arc has no clear cut name, it is most definitely its own thing. Pokémon has no manga it's basing itself of but these three skippable episodes are definitely classified as filler.
Before these three episodes, the show was relatively disconnected when going from episode to episode. This very small arc changed that up by continuing from week to week with pseudo-cliffhangers. This was a real gamechanger for a show where you could just jump in wherever and continue from any point. Not to mention these three episodes really introduced human stakes in Pokémon training affairs.
4 DRAGON BALL Z PRE-CELL TOURNAMENT ARC
The Pre-Cell tournament arc was one of the greatest in terms of Dragon Ball fillers. While there is no fighting, this short arc was great in terms of showing us our favorite Z-Warriors during their time off. Each fighter was trying their best to relax before the big day of protecting the Earth vs an overpowered android from the future and honestly, that's valid.
It was a great time seeing everyone doing something other than fighting to expand on their character more. Plus Krillin throws a rock at Goku's head.
3 KAKASHI'S ANBU ARC
This is one of those great anime filler arcs that doesn't even feel like filler. This arc gives more insight into Kakashi's Anbu history and is, like most great filler, a great character-building arc that starts off very well.
Sadly while this arc is good, it can become a drag to get through at times. However, right when it slows down Itachi and Shisui show up so things go right back to being interesting. This is definitely a must-watch arc for anyone that's a fan of Naruto. Believe it!
2 HARUHI SUZUMIYA'S ENDLESS EIGHT ARC
These eight episodes are actually brilliant. Think the classic Groundhog's Day movie formula but with the Haruhi Suzumiya cast. Basically our main cast is stuck reliving the same day over and over. Like the title says it takes place over eight days, for eight episodes.
The episodes are fun and lend themselves to the tone of the show well, but they have a really bad wrap. Why? Maybe because when they actually aired no one enjoyed watching the same episode each day for eight weeks. It's really good now that you can just binge-watch them in one sitting but back then it was a really a struggle to not get bored with the gimmick.
1 G-8 ARC
This One Piece filler arc is what great filler arcs are made of. When most viewers first land upon this legendary arc they usually aren't even aware it's filler. That's how good it is!
The episodes are full of charm and each thing that happens flows incredibly well with the main story. The character growth is weaved into the storyline in a very creative way as well, by implementing ways to focus on character qualities. This arc also seamlessly connects to the previous arc, Skypiea. There's absolutely no reason to skip this arc as it's short, sweet, to the point, and actually very entertaining!