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Many animes have filler episodes and arcs. So this question has two parts:

  1. Which anime has the most number of filler episodes?
  2. What is the length of the longest filler arc?
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    You should specify what you mean by "filler". Some people use it to mean "anime content that was not present in the manga", while other people use it to mean "episodes that don't advance the plot".
    – senshin
    Feb 20, 2015 at 18:13
  • When a show has no plot arcs spanning multiple episodes (not an uncommon format) and is not based on a source material, wouldn't that make it 100% filler?
    – Philipp
    Feb 21, 2015 at 19:24
  • @Philipp That would be alternate continuity and is not actually considered a filler.
    – Dimitri mx
    Feb 21, 2015 at 20:13
  • @senshin the term filler is used for anything that does not relate to the main plot, or generally does not advance the plot. Fillers also occur in manga, and there for I think you might be confusing it with whether it is cannon or not.
    – Dimitri mx
    Feb 21, 2015 at 20:18
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    Well, if we're going to say that filler means "anything that does not relate to the main plot", that's awfully subjective. Who's to decide what relates to the main plot and what doesn't?
    – senshin
    Feb 22, 2015 at 0:20

2 Answers 2

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Percentage wise has the most fillers, since it has a total of:

  • 366 episodes

  • 160 filler episodes

which means 43.4% of the anime are fillers.

and combined have

  • 640 episodes
  • 238 filler (1st season 89, 2nd season 149)

which means 37.2% of the anime are fillers.

has

  • 682 episodes
  • 97 filler episodes

which means only 14.2% of the anime are fillers.

But if you were to look at the sheer number of filler episodes, has more fillers with 214 filler episodes.

And I believe the longest filler arc would be in where the last 35 episodes were fillers.

Source: Own experience, Google, Filler Guide (webarchive)

EDIT

"why in your estimation, none of the longer-running series beat out Bleach and Naruto under the definition of "filler" that others already provided above" - seijitsu

Taking a few of your given long running samples such as and makes the question quite simple to answer.

In the case of Nintama Rantarou non to barely non fillers have been aired. This does not mean it did not have fillers, because they certainly had. They were extras which as far as I know where only available on dvd. Furthermore they did not have a plot/story to follow, which makes the only deviation the moment the story would not be based on the manga, which in almost all episodes is the case. Also with the episode length given in this series 3 episodes would be the equivalent of 1 episode in naruto and the likes, which in this way easily out does this particular one.

In the case of Sazae-san, Sazae-san actually Did not have ANY filler episodes. Long running does not mean it needs fillers, there are several which never got a filler, even though they had a particularly long run time. Here follow a few

  • GE 999
  • Hoka Hoka Kazoku
  • gundam First
  • Sazae san
  • Kochi kame
  • Lupin III
  • the Super Robot Saga shows [ Maziger z Getta Robo and Grendizer]
  • Ninja Hitori kun
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    I completely agree with this, however I'd like to change Kenshin from the longest filler arc, Naruto has nearly a year of fillers at the end of naruto. I belive it was from Episode 143 till 219. This was pretty much a chain of random stories all in a row that had nothing to do with the main story May 22, 2015 at 8:05
  • In order to answer this question sufficiently, please explain why far-longer running series do not beat Bleach or Naruto for largest amount of filler. For example, Sazae-san at over 7,000 episodes, Nintama Rantarou at over 1,800 episodes, Doraemon, Ojarumaru, Soreike! Anpanman, or Chibi Maruko-chan.
    – seijitsu
    May 23, 2015 at 3:54
  • @seijitsu It depends on how you view fillers: ". A filler episode can be as short as 1 episode, or as long as an entire season of the anime. These episodes were not a part of the original source content's story, and usually serve absolutely no purpose in furthering the main story.". Excluded pokemon on purpose as it can be seen as a real/technical filler. As some episodes can be classified als half fillers. as for the others, I did not specifically research them, But I do believe the filler count is not that high.
    – Dimitri mx
    May 23, 2015 at 6:43
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    @seijitsu I hope my edit reflects enough why these shows do not beat the ones previously mentioned. Why I excluded pokemon? the combination of all seasons would definitely beat all of the above mentioned in total filler Episodes, as roughly 30% of each season is considered filler. But would still not have the longest filler arc/continues filler. Nor would it even beat naruto percentage wise when combined.
    – Dimitri mx
    Jun 4, 2015 at 22:16
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    One Piece is the crooked accountant of anime fillers. It goes through long periods where each episode only has a few minutes of new material. The rest of the airing time is consumed by recapping and long intro and ed songs. It would be interesting to measure the amount of filler or repeated material per episode. I suspect One Piece will shoot up the charts with that. We'd have to be more precise about what filler is, though. Jun 4, 2015 at 23:46
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Detective Conan (Case Closed) has the highest total filler amount of 313 filler episodes out of 811 episodes. Detective Conan has most fillers spread out so it doesn't have very long filler arcs.

Naruto (not shippuuden) has the longest filler arc with episodes 136 - 219 being fillers, which makes a total of 83 fillers in a row. This filler arc ran from 25 May 2005 to 1 February 2007.

Source: Detective Conan Naruto Naruto Shippuuden

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