Believe it or not, fillers in Pokemon tend to bring about their own horde of adventures, somewhat misaligning from the original plot.
Pokemon anime, started in 1997, now has 26 seasons containing 1250+ episodes. Pokemon fillers are fun and entertaining to watch, but the point remains that they are fillers and don’t contain any relevance to the original plot.
So, for newcomers looking forward to a long, long journey ahead, you can use this guide to skim through the fillers to see if they are worth watching or not.
1. Quick List
Pokemon has received 26 seasons to date and has a filler percentage of around 20% which is relatively low in comparison to some other anime. Every season has plenty of fillers in Pokemon, and all the fillers have been listed.
Being a massive series, Pokemon has plenty of episodes that you can skip without any consequences. The biggest advantage is its episodic format, where most episodes begin with a new adventure altogether.
If you only want to focus on the juicy battles, then I advise you to skip the filler episodes from the following seasons completely.
Season 1: Indigo League
Season 4: Johto League Champions
Season 5: Master Quest
Season 8: Advanced Battle
Season 9: Battle Frontier
Season 12: Galactic Battles
Season 14: Black and White
Season 15: Rival Destinies
Season 17: Pokemon the Series: XY
Season 19: XYZ
3. Where to Watch Pokemon?
You can watch Pokemon on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and many other streaming sites.
However, not all the episodes are available on a single site so here is a curated list for you to follow.
Season
Streaming Site
Season 1: Indigo League
Netflix, Hulu, Disney NOW
Season 2: Adventures in the Orange Islands
Disney NOW
Season 3: The Johto Journeys
Prime Video, DisneyNOW
Season 4: Johto League Champions
DisneyNOW
Season 5: Master Quest
DisneyNOW
Season 6: Advanced
DisneyNOW
Season 7: Advanced Challenge
DisneyNOW
Season 8: Advanced Battle
Prime Video
Season 9: Battle Frontier
Prime Video
Season 10: Diamond and Pearl
DisneyNOW
Season 11: Diamond and Pearl: Battle Dimension
DisneyNOW
Season 12: Diamond and Pearl: Galactic Battles
DisneyNOW
Season 13: Diamond and Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors
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Season 14: Black & White
Hulu, DisneyNOW, Tubi
Season 15: Black & White: Rival Destinies
Hulu, DisneyNOW, Tubi
Season 16: Black & White: Adventures in Unova (and beyond)
Filler episodes are born out of necessity. Original content is introduced to anime when the manga is on the verge of running out of chapters. They provide enough time for the manga to catch on before returning to the actual plot.
Thus, canon episodes mean the content that is adapted directly from the manga with no original additions. Fillers can sometimes add more depth to the show as they explore some side quests that might later become endearing to the audience.
Pokemon
Similarly, Pokemon has several filler episodes to prevent the anime from overlapping with the manga and to create a distance between them.
6. How to Watch Pokemon in Order?
It is best to watch Pokemon according to its chronological or release order. You can either watch the 25 seasons followed by the movies or pause the seasons to follow up on the extras to prevent a confusing timeline.
The best watch order for all seasons and movies of Pokemon has been compiled right here:
7. Conclusion
With over a THOUSAND episodes, the main plot of Pokemon follows Ash and Pikachu’s quest of winning the world championship. However, the latest season of the anime has replaced Ash with two entirely new characters.
Despite having tons of filler episodes, Pokemon will always be a classic. So skip the fillers to get directly to the juicy battles.
If you want to reminisce about your childhood through a binge session with friends, Pokemon is the way to go!
8. About Pokémon
Pokémon was first released in 1996 and is set up in a world where humans catch monsters and store them in pocket-sized poke-balls.
They are creatures with an affinity to certain elements and some superhuman abilities related to that element.
Revolving around a teenage boy Ash Ketchum, Pokémon takes us through his journey to becoming the most accomplished Pokémon trainer the world has ever seen.
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