Naruto has earned a reputation for having one of the best anime adaptations of all time, but even so, there is a lot of filler to sort through. For even the most dedicated of viewers, the amount of Naruto filler — roughly 40 percent — is intimidating, especially if you’re new to the show. However, if you really wade through the sea of filler arcs, you can find some truly great episodes that are worth watching even if they don’t tie in with the main plot.
You may be saying to yourself, “There’s 90 episodes of filler in the original Naruto series; I’m not gonna watch all of that just because some nobody on the internet told me there’s a few good ones.” To you, I say: First, that’s rude. Second, who said you have to watch every filler episode to find the good ones? I’ve crafted a list of 10 of the best Naruto filler episodes so you know which ones you shouldn’t skip on your next (or first) watch.
In order from good to best, here’s the list.
10. Follow My Lead! The Great Survival Challenge (Episode 158)
While filler episodes don’t always tie in with the overall story, they can be a nice way to see characters in situations they’d otherwise never be in, and in this episode, we get to watch Naruto lead a small group of children on a practice mission. Normally, the stakes are a lot higher and the missions more intense, but here Naruto attempts to lead Konohamaru and his friends through their survival training mission. You would think that our main character would find this easy after surviving much worse, but no, Naruto finds a way to be as incompetent as possible for the majority of the mission. When things do get dire and the mission is called off, Naruto must step up as a leader in order to keep the group alive.
9. Ino Screams! Chubby Paradise! (Episode 192)
In this filler episode, the seldom-paired Naruto and Ino go on a mission where Ino is tasked with impersonating the princess Fuku during her first meeting with her fiancé, Chikara. Ino looks nearly identical to the princess, in all ways but one: due to stress-induced binge-eating as her arranged wedding nears, Princess Fuku is fat. As her appearance has recently changed, Fuku is insecure and anxious about appearing in front of her fiancé, who she has harbored feelings for in secret for years. Naruto is perplexed, but Ino agrees that “men always prefer thin women.” I expected a filler episode filled with cheap fat-shaming humor, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one; the majority of jokes are at Naruto and Ino’s expense, and I enjoyed the twist at the end.
8. Hot-Blooded Confrontation: Student vs. Sensei (Episode 196)
In this episode, Gai is trapped in a house full of malicious training dummies that are being controlled by three brothers with a vendetta against Gai. Naruto, Tenten, Neji, and Lee brave the house of dummies to save him, giving viewers another team filled with characters who don’t generally get to interact with each other. First underestimating the training dummies, the team realizes they’re up against more than they bargained for when Neji’s Byakugan reveals the dummies are being controlled via jutsu. Meanwhile, Lee and Gai are tricked into fighting one another when a jutsu makes them each believe the other is a training dummy. For a random filler episode, this one has more depth than the premise implies and should definitely be on your watchlist.
7. A Legend from the Hidden Leaf: The Onbaa! (Episode 185)
If you love animals, this is the episode for you. When walking through a forest, a hawk deposits an animal onto Naruto’s back and despite his best efforts, Naruto cannot get it off. He then consults Tsunade who tells him the creature is an Onbaa, a legendary animal that will grow into a gigantic beast with the ability to destroy the whole village. During this explanation, we see a cute flashback sequence of Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru as kids and learn Jiraiya has encountered the Onbaa once before. While at first weary of the Onbaa, Naruto grows fond of the little guy and there’s some cute bonding scenes between the pair. Things get complicated when the Onbaa grows larger than Naruto and its mother returns.
6. Blaze Away, Byakugan! This is My Ninja Way! (Episode 151)
The final episode in the Bikochu Search Mission Arc gives Hinata some time to shine. For a relatively prominent character, Hinata gets few chances to actually show off how cool she is, so it’s nice to see her in action. Things start off pretty badly for the characters in this episode; Shino, Kiba, and Naruto are captured by the Kamizuri clan after being trapped in a beehive. Hinata is presumed dead for a short while, and before Naruto gets a chance to get violent, Hinata reappears and single-handedly takes on three shinobi and their swarm of bees. She shows how strong her work ethic is when she debuts a new technique — Protective Eight Trigrams 64 Palms —she’s been perfecting in order to earn the respect of her fellow ninja, particularly Naruto. Naruto is often criticized for how it depicts its romantic subplots, and here we get some rare insight into how similar Hinata and her future husband’s mindsets are.
5. A New Formation: Ino-Shika-Cho! (Episode 145)
While this episode isn’t perfect, I do enjoy a good Team 10 fight, and that’s what we get in the 145th episode of Naruto. Shikamaru promises Naruto that he and the rest of the Ino-Shika-Cho team can easily handle the Legendary Stupid Brothers (yes, that’s what they’re called) while our main character runs off to help Iruka against Mizuki. The Mizuki plot is kind of all over the place, but seeing Team 10 in action makes up for any inconsistencies in the rest of the episode. I love seeing the group’s teamwork, the strategies they use, and of course their specialty jutsu being used against the brothers. Team 10 is tenacious and even demonstrates a new group technique during their battle.
4. The Last Leg: A Final Act of Desperation (Episode 106)
This is the final episode in the Land of Tea Escort Mission Arc, finishing up a mission where Team Seven is hired to accompany the young Idate, a former Konoha genin, who is in a race on behalf of his adopted family, the Waasabi clan of the Land of Tea. Naruto and Sasuke battle Aoi, who aims to prevent Idate from completing the race, and the two find the battle more difficult than they would have anticipated. Sasuke uses Chidori against Aoi but fails; Aoi adds insult to injury by mocking Sasuke and the Uchiha clan in general, ultimately throwing Sasuke off a bridge when he attempts Chidori again. After Naruto notices Sasuke cracked Aoi’s Sword of the Thunder God, he aims a Rasengan for the crack and ultimately defeats Aoi. This filler episode is one of the most important of the series; without Sasuke’s building resentment over his perceived failure against Naruto, the events of the main story would never happen.
3. A Past to Be Erased (Episode 215)
Naruto learns the identity of the mysterious young man he recently befriended in this ending to the Menma Memory Search Mission Arc. After meeting the kind ninja with no memory, Naruto calls him Menma after the bamboo shoots he had been collecting to make menma ramen. By episode 215, Naruto, Neji, and Tenten go on a mission with Menma, where he gets injured by a group of bandits and is revealed to have been one in the past. While surprised, Naruto chooses to trust Menma after getting to know his personality over the last few days, and when Menma tragically sacrifices himself to save the town from being destroyed by the bandits, we grieve with Naruto. It’s impressive for a filler arc to tell such a complete story and this emotional one is one of the best in the series.
2. Laughing Shino (Episode 186)
Shino, though part of one of the strongest clans in all of Konoha, doesn’t get a lot of time to shine in Naruto. That changes when he gets called to go on a mission perfectly suited for his unique personality; Shino must stand in for Futa, who is set to inherit a large amount of money as long as neither he nor his representative laugh at his father’s funeral. With Shino’s help, the mission is sure to be a success — until Shino eats food laced with a laughing poison and is out of commission, uncontrollably laughing for the rest of the episode. Now Naruto, who will laugh at anything, is forced to be Futa’s representative, and has to fight off the other funeral-goers attempts at making him laugh. This is a fun episode, and Shino’s new laughing personality is the highlight.
1. Gotta See! Gotta Know! Kakashi’s True Face (Episode 101)
Hands down the best filler episode in the entire series, Naruto episode 101 is all about finding out what’s under Kakashi’s mask. One day, Naruto openly wonders what Kakashi’s actual face looks like and manages to pique Sakura and Sasuke’s curiosity (Sasuke comically grows weak when Naruto ventures that Kakashi could have buck teeth). The trio make several attempts to get Kakashi to take off his mask, each wackier than the last, before eventually just asking Kakashi himself. This is a much-needed humorous episode before Team Seven separates and gives some context as to why Naruto considers Sasuke his best friend.
