Filler can be a real drag when you’re binging an anime and sadly Bleach is truly plagued by it. The iconic Shonen series launched at a time when filler was standard for ongoing shows, and now it means you’ve got a ton of content to skip on your next binge.
How Much of Bleach is Filler
While Bleach is 366 episodes long, only 203 of these are considered canon. That means almost half of the series is filler which won’t surprise anyone who has undergone the task of binging the whole thing.
Bleach has a filler problem for the same reason many other shows do, stalling time until the manga can progress further. Most weekly anime series have run into this problem where the anime starts to catch the manga, and while the author is working on more of the original story, animation studios use filler as a way to still give fans their fix. More recently we’ve seen this problem seriously impact shows like Boruto.
The good news for Bleach fans is that they’re still getting more canon material now. In fact, all of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War is considered canon and adapted directly from the now-completed manga run. In fact, if you include all 26 of the current TYBW episodes your Bleach canon watch-through will be increased to 228, which is a decent chunk of Shonen greatness to enjoy.
If it’s your first time watching Bleach and you have the time, keeping the filler in might be worth it. While some of it is very bad, other parts are a lot of fun and it will give you an experience closer to what initial fans felt while it was being broadcast. However, if you’re looking to rewatch the show, or don’t have a lot of spare time then we’d suggest sticking to only the canon and skipping the filler.
