One Piece has been on our screens since 1999, but with over 1000 episodes, it would take you a long time to watch them all. Luckily, some of them are filler episodes that don’t really contribute to the overall plot, so these are the episodes you can skip if you want to save time.
One Piece is one of the most popular Shonen series of all time. The anime is based on the manga of the same name, which debuted in 1997. However, even after more than two decades, One Piece has far fewer fillers than other Shonen series like Naruto and Bleach. Back when long-running series were the norm, fillers were included in the anime so that the story wouldn’t become more important than the manga.
So, anime studios have always made sure to have enough manga content to cover the anime. If you want to watch One Piece without wasting your time on non-manga content, this list of filler content will guide you.
One Piece Filler Guide: All Episodes
How much of One Piece is filler?
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One Piece currently only has 9% filler. The series is ongoing and has currently aired 1096 episodes, of which only 94 episodes are filler. One Piece usually adapts one or one and a half chapters of the manga into each episode, allowing it to keep up with the pace of the manga. In addition to the slow pace, the anime studio releases recap episodes every few weeks to avoid unnecessary filler.
How much of One Piece is canon?
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With One Piece filler episodes making up only 9% of the series, the remaining 91% is purely canon. Compared to Naruto (nearly 41% filler episodes) and Bleach (45% filler episodes), One Piece is particularly impressive. However, 21 filler episodes are canon to the anime, which are still worth watching even if they don’t cover the content of the manga. Here is a list of canon episodes of the One Piece anime.
Should You Avoid One Piece Filler Episodes?
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Most (but not all) of One Piece’s filler episodes are actually fun to watch. Several filler episodes contain hilarious scenes and engaging side stories despite not being manga content.
The Warship Island Arc follows the Straw Hats as they rescue a little girl, Apis, before heading to the Grand Line. She escapes from the Marines, and it’s not long before the crew discovers her connection to a Thousand-Year-Old Dragon.
Additionally, the G-8 arc is actually a fan-favorite filler arc with many hilarious scenes right after the Skypiea arc. The crew lands on a Marine base with a damaged Going Merry. The ship is captured and the crew must find a way to get it back before escaping. What follows is a series of chaotic situations as the crew infiltrates the Marine base.
And of course, we can’t forget the One Piece and Toriko crossover in episodes 492 and 542, as well as the three-series crossover with Toriko and Dragon Ball in episode 590. Since all of these series are created by Toei Animation, the studio treated fans with these special episodes, which were quite intriguing even if they served no purpose in the story.
Not all episodes of One Piece are worth watching
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While there are plenty of filler episodes that add value to the series as a whole, not all of them are up to par. The Straw Hats’ backstories are just recaps of previous events. The special historical episodes of Boss Luffy, Spa Island, and Foxy’s Return Arcs aren’t really worth watching.
The historical episodes of Boss Luffy take place during the Edo period in Japan. In an alternate reality, a major race known as the Portable Shrine is a race in which pirates can win up to 1,000,000 berries. Therefore, Luffy takes on the role of Boss Luffy and participates in the race alongside his crew. It’s a pretty uninteresting arc, so you don’t need to feel guilty for skipping it.
Similarly, the Toriko and Dragon Ball crossovers are only interesting for fans who watch all of those movies, so you can skip those episodes if you haven’t watched those series. Many filler episodes are set in the One Piece movies, such as the Little East Blue Arc (Strong World movie), Silver Mine Arc (One Piece: Gold movie), Cidre Guild Arc (Stampede movie), and Uta’s Past Arc (One Piece: Red movie). Therefore, depending on your interest in those particular movies, you can choose to watch or skip them.
How long would it take to watch One Piece in full?
So you’ve decided not to miss a single episode and enjoy the One Piece experience to the fullest. Prepare to dedicate a lot of time to it, as there are currently 1118 episodes in total.
One Piece episodes are typically between 22 and 24 minutes long. If we take the median of 23 minutes and multiply it by the number of episodes, we get 27,514 total minutes of epic pirate action. That’s over 428 hours, or 18 days of viewing if you decide not to eat or sleep. That’s a considerable amount of time.
How much time could I save by skipping filler episodes?
Now that you know how long it would take you to watch One Piece in its entirety, how much would you save by skipping the filler episodes? Using the same median episode length as above, we calculate that you’ll save 2162 minutes on your total viewing time, or about a day and a half of your total time. It’s up to you to decide whether you think it’s worth it.
