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Naruto is even worse than Bleach for fillers. Bleach had roughly 3 arcs/seasons of fillers, but Naruto unfortunately has a lot more. Innocent non-manga-reading Naruto watchers are misled into thinking they are watching canon material because the producers try so hard to transition between actual plot and filler plots. Despite this, it is my goal to save watchers from non-canon material by listing the filler episodes that can skipped without missing any vital plot.
Quick run down of filler episodes:
~Naruto~
Land of Tea miniarc - episodes 101 - 106
Random Shit - episodes 136 - 219
~Shippuuden~
Sora arc - episodes 57 - 71
Three Tails Bijou arc - episodes 91 - 112
Skip these episodes and watch all canon material! Naruto will be a lot more enjoyable =P.
Because the producers transitions between canon plot and filler plot, there are some important developments at the end of filler arcs. Similarly, there are unimportant filler developments at the end of canon arcs. The suggested advice would be to watch the last few minutes of last episode of filler arcs xP.
Unlike Bleach, I did not watch most of these Naruto filler arcs because they are so ridiculously stupid. Thus, I will just list some reasons why I did NOT watch them haha and a short summary of them based on my limited knowledge.
Land of Tea miniarc (101 - 106)
Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke find out their newest mission will be to protect Idate from attacks by the enemy clan, during a race. Very underwhelming arc, don't watch it please.
Random Shit (136 - 219)
Yes you read it right - 83 episodes of fillers...
DO NOT WATCH THESE EPISODES!! =[[. This span of almost FOUR SEASONS are nothing but craps fillers!! It is a mix of pointless miniarcs and random shit like bug catching. Please save your time and do not watch these! I fell trap to about 1 season of this shit before I realized I'm basically watching nothing.
Sora arc (Shippuuden 57 - 71)
Sora's dad infused some excess Kyuubi chakra into him so he is a pseudo-Jinchuuriki (only interesting thing about him). As a result, he is alienated by villagers and becomes another Gaara to Naruto. This whole arc is a ploy by the producers to give 
Kyuubi Naruto (and Asuma) more screen time. However, this effort generates a lot of powerconfusion and anticlimax to when Naruto first became 4-tailed Kyuubi. It should be noted that Naruto decided to never rely on the Kyuubi's power again because it hurt Sakura, yet here we have him transforming like no other in a filler. I personally only watched 2 or 3 episodes of this filler when it was nearing the end, but I wouldn't recommend anyone else to watch it. Nevertheless, I should note that I did hear some people say that this is the only decent Naruto filler arc. If you decide to skip it, make sure you watch the end of episode 71, because it introduces some new Akatsuki members and another Jinchuuriki.
Three Tails Bijou arc (Shippuuden 91 - 112)
So basically what happened in about half a chapter in the manga, took them a whole season to animate. This is the point when I gave up Shippuuden >_>. Instead of 
Deidara and Tobi coming in to capture the Sanbi, the producers made up a whole array new crap characters with new jutsu (Crystal style...) that try to capture the Sanbi or something. After 20 odd episode, they fail in capturing the Sanbi, AND THEN Deidara and Tobi comes in and captures it for Akatsuki. This basically means the whole filler arc was pointless =P. So take my advice and don't watch it. If you took my advice, make sure to watch the latter half of episode 112 because that's when Deidara and Tobi comes in and make the whole filler season void. Furthermore, Gurren is a filler character that works for Orochimaru, and she was inserted in episodes 89 and 90 to make her look legit. Disregard her existence please =P.
Innocent non-manga-reading Bleach watchers tend to give up the series after Soul Society arc, because "the Bounts are boring and it gets bad." However, I want to save them from non-canon material by listing the filler episodes that they can skip without missing vital plot.
Here's a quick run down of filler episodes:
Bounts arc - episodes 64 - 109
Random - episodes 132 - 137
Forest of Menos miniarc - episodes 147 - 150
Amagai arc - episodes 168 - 189
Random - episodes 204 - 205, 213 - 214, 227 - 229
Zanpakutou arc - episodes 230 - present
Skip these episodes and watch all canon material! Bleach will be a lot more enjoyable =].
Note that I compiled these filler lists from episode titles, so maybe skim the first and the last episode of each filler. This is because the producer wants people to think its the actual thing, so they transition into and out of the fillers. Sometimes, these translations could include cool cliffhangers and such, so just in case watch the ends of these filler arcs.
For those fans who aren't sure if they want to miss out on anime-original plot and character interactions, I will do my best to give a summary of each filler arc and a rating for its watchability.
Bount arc (64 - 109)- Introduces a new class called Bounts, who are humans that consume
human souls to extend their lives. Because of this, they have lived for centuries. After taking the souls of living humans, Bounts are empowered to command Dolls, which are unique to the owners. We learned they finally emerged for revenge against Soul Society.
- Personally, I would recommend skipping this entire arc. Not only does its mediocrity span two season, but it also generates a lot of power level inconsistency. The Bounts race is interesting for a few episodes, but definitely not worth wasting 40 episodes of your time on. I rate it 3/10 for watchability for dragging on too long.
Forest of Menos arc (147 - 150) - After Ichigo and company's infiltration of Heuco Mundo, they fall under the desert, which is revealed to house a whole quartz forest. This place is packed with Hollows of all power levels, and we learn that Aizen was not the first Shinigami to come to Heuco Mundo. Ashido Kanou, a Shinigami, was stranded here during an assault on some Hollows which had invaded the Soul Society.
- This is not a full filler arc, as it only spans 4 episodes. The producers did a good job transitioning into and out of it. Unless you want pure canon-Bleach, you won't even notice that this was a filler. Watchability rating of 5/10 because there's nothing good and nothing bad.
Amagai arc (168 - 189) - Introduces the new Shinigami captain of the 3rd squad, Shuusuke 
Amagai. Also, dives into the mystery surrounding the Kasumiouji Clan, a noble family of Soul Society.
- I highly recommend skipping this arc. Not only did they do a bad job of transitioning Ichigo from Heuco Mundo pointlessly back to Soul Society, but it is also filled with crappy new characters with bad character designs. I give a watchability rating of 2/10.
Zanpakutou arc (230 - present) - The Shinigamis' Zanpakutou souls obtained "free will" from a villain called Muramasa and are rebelling against their owners. The Shinigami must defeat them in a battle to free them from Muramasa's grasp.
- This arc is still ongoing, and its looking favorable at the moment. To view my previously posted thoughts, click on the picture below. I rate this filler arc 7/10 for watchability.
Random (132 - 137, 204 - 205, 213 - 214, 227 - 229) - These are random fillers episodes that have no over arching plot, but do provide comedy and fan service. Some are commendable (beach episode) and others are meh. I place the watchability of these filler episodes at 5/10. Watch them if you are bored, or want more of your favorite character's screen time. Labels: Anime, Bleach
I was going through wallpapers again and found this collage of all the popular girls from anime series. Take a look and test your otaku-ness by seeing how many different anime dames you distinguish from this collage.
I recognize 29 different girls =P.
Try and beat me lol!
Anime Wallpaper Update:
As of today, there exists 4500 wallpapers on my Dropbox =P. Check them out! =D
Hey guys, just putting out there where I'm with anime, since I don't talk about them much.
There are a bunch of anime coming out for the fall season. See list here.
I think I will definitely check out Kampfer, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Seitokai no Ichizon, InuYasha -Kanketsu-hen- (The Final Act), and Kobato. These will give me a good mix of shounen and romance anime series.
The two series that I am the most interested in are Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini and Fairy Tail. I was a fan of the first season of Darker than BLACK so I have high hopes for this sequel. As for Fairy Tail, I am an avid follower of its manga, so I am definitely excited to see it animated and voiced. I don't know how well they will produce Fairy Tail, but I think I will follow it no matter what quality.
Aside from those oncoming series, I am currently following Bakemonogatari, Bleach, Dragonball Kai, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Naruto Shippuuden.
Bleach is currently in the Zanpakutou filler arc, where the Shinigamis' Zanpakutou souls obtained "free will" from a villain called Muramasa and are 
rebelling against their owners. The Shinigami must defeat them in a battle to free them from Muramasa's grasp. I liked it initially because of the interesting character designs but now that I am used to them, the only thing keeping me going at the moment is its above Bleach-average animation quality. This is partly because they have to get through all the vice captains first before they move onto the cool captain stuff. I just watched the latest episode and it was Hitsugaya vs Hyourinmaru. I have to say it was perfectly executed: the flashback was not annoying/slow, the combat was intense and good quality, and the conclusion was interesting.
Naruto Shippuuden just spent two episodes covering Jiraiya's past and his adventure 
with Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato. And of course, to cover one full hour they needed to fill it with extra material. BUT WAIT, the filler material is time is not nonsense! For those of us who have read the manga, the producers included Jiraiya's encounters with Pein's bodies because they died. In addition, they did Jiraiya and Minato's interactions. Lastly, it was cool seeing Naruto's mom and the Yahiko trio animated.
Bakemonogatari (GhoStory) centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school 
student who has recently survived a vampire attack, and finds himself mixed up with all kinds of apparitions; gods, ghosts, mythological beasts, and spirits of which he call oddities. I just simply love the style and animation quality of this anime. It also has a tremendous amount of humor that is dialogue based. So for non-cultured watchers like me, and bit hard to understand sometimes. And just throwing it out there, Senjougahara has awesome fashion sense and Sengoku is cute as hell. =D
Dragonball Kai is a remaster of Dragonball Z. I watched Dragonball Z from the Ginyu 
Force vs Goku onwards and then lost free cable around Cell Games. The rest of the storyline I learned from eclectic sources: DBZ Legacy of Goku and Buu's Fury GBA games, couple volumes of DBZ manga that covered Super Buu to the ending, and various downloaded episodes of Vegeto vs Super Buu. I think this is a good chance to find some continuity in this series that I was deprived of when I was young. =P
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a remake of FMA that differs from the first 
season. Brotherhood follows the ongoing manga closely, unlike the first season, where they created an alternate storyline for the sake of ending the series somewhere. Only this summer have I caught up fully with FMA manga. I have never watched the first season of FMA, so Brotherhood allows me to see my favorite characters animated and voiced. The thing I love most is its animation quality.
Alongside with all these series, I am watching finished series like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and starting To Aru Majutsu no Index and Fate/Stay Night.
Lucky Star is known for its anime references and Konata's sugoi otaku-ness. Today I found a wonderful picture of Konata-chan maxxed out in otaku-ness x].
Try and test your own otaku-ness and see how many different anime are represented by Konata in this picture.
Personally, I can distinguish 16 different series =P.
Comment and tell me what you can get!
Anime Wallpaper Update:
As of today, I have uploaded 4110+ wallpapers to Dropbox. The biggest additions were under Chobits, Fate/Stay Night, and Touhou, so check those out! =D
Like me, I bet many of you have given up on Naruto anime because of copious fillers and slow pacing (further exacerbated by the fillers >_>). However, the anime has finally gotten back on track in the past couple weeks, and I have begun to watch it again.
They did a decent job animating Kakashi Gaiden, the tale of how Kakashi got his Sharingan, in episodes 119-120. In the following weeks, we witnessed the showdown between Sasuke and Deidara, which was animated in above Naruto-average quality, yet still not as impressive as when Naruto and Sasuke fought couple hundred episodes 
ago. The latest episode (125) this week, titled Disappearance, the anime covered the aftermath of Sasuke vs Deidara fight including the converging paths between Konoha, Hebi, and Akatsuki as well as the introduction of Pain, Konan, and Madara. I was excited to finally hear their voices and their colored anime appearance. Madara did not disappoint, he was cool as hell with his cloak and non-Tobi-comical voice. Pain sounded decent, but he looked too pale and angular. Konan looked great, but sounded like a middle-aged woman, maybe this is what they intended but I'm not a big fan.
The point of this post is not to commend Naruto anime, because it has fallen far too below standard, but rather to show those of you who lost faith that it's trying... =P
Personally, I am excited for what is coming in the following months. I foresee after a week or two of transition material, Shippuuden will head into some great landmarks in the manga such as Jiraiya vs Pain, and Sasuke vs Itachi. BUT, this is assuming they won't drag out the transition or going into another filler. Oh my god if they do the latter, I just won't know anymore...
=D
So basically the new Bleach filler arc is about the Shinigami's Zanpakutos. This new villain named Muramusa appears and decides that the Zanpakutos should rule over the Shinigami. He sets everyone free from their owners, and the Zanpakutos appear in Soul Society in personified forms. For now, we don't know his motive; which could be defeating all the Shinigami, or turning them into swords, or taking over their bodies (like in Ichigo's case). Anyways, Muramusa is pretty cool minus the super emo-ness. He has makeup, super long nails, and sheds tears as a form of attack.
Regarding the plot of this arc, I know Ichigo will have to jump in to save the day because he is the main character, but what we don't know is if Zangetsu will defect or not. At the beginning of the episode, he was relieved that Ichigo can still hear his voice (unlike Hitsugaya when he tried to speak to Hyourinmaru), but he mentioned that the voice was not his. So this remains to be seen. Also, people have speculated that Muramusa is Kenpachi's Zanpakuto because it fits its personality and can explain motive for revenge. I don't think they can make up something as important as this until the animators are collaborating with Kubo. Furthermore, in Japanese literature and anime, Muramusa tends to be a demon sword or a sword maker (which can explain his power over the Zanpakutos), so I think Muramusa is not under possession by someone from Soul Society. The plot can either become super cool or super predictable. It also runs into the risk of revealing something major (captain's Bankai or Kenpachi's Zanpakuto name) that has not yet happened in the manga. To make a better judgment we'll need to wait and see =]
With that aside, the fact that they managed to do all this with a filler is simply amazing. Usually, with fillers you expect shitty new characters with horrible design that appears out of nowhere or have existing characters do stuff they would never do (like baking cakes...). However, this new filler arc manages to debunk the negative connotations of fillers with awesome character design and relevant plot.
Speaking of character design, that is my favorite aspect of this arc. All the personified forms of Zanpakutos are really cool. For those of you who are interested or confused, here's what we have so far:
Kyoraku's Katen Kyokotsu
Unohana's Minazuki
Ukitake's Sogyo no Kotowari
Komamura's Tenken
Byakuya's Senbonzakura
Hitsugaya's Hyourinmaru
Mayuri's Ashisogi Jizo
Matsumoto's Haineko
Soifon's Suzumebachi, Hinamori's Tobiume, Sasakibe's (1st squad vice captain), Yumechika's, Kira's Wabisuke, and Rukia's Sode no Shirayuki (L to R)
Renji's Zabimaru - 2 people, Ikakku' Hozukimaru, Omaeda's, and Hisagi's Kazeshini (R to L)
Of these, my favorites are Katen Kyokotsu, Hyourinmaru, Kazeshini, and Sode no Shirayuki =] Labels: Anime, Bleach
Bleach latest: Episode 226
I love it when Bleach decides to use up its animation budget for important fights, because the result is so fluid and awesome. Recent awesomeness: Grimmjow released fight vs Visored Ichigo and Hisagi vs Vegga. 
This week's Bleach 226 amazed me because it had some great animation. I wasn't expecting this because the anime is going into fillers next week to let the manga get some distance. However, Yamamoto's and Hitsugaya's fight was well done and Ichigo vs Ulquiorra was perfect! From what they did this episode, I have very high expectations for the Ichigo vs Ulquiorra fight - hopefully the animators won't disappoint.
Naruto latest: Shippuuden 116
Shippuuden managed to piss me off with its full season of fillers (during its fillers I managed to begin and finish Eden of the East and K-On!). I had almost stopped checking it, but finally in the past few weeks the anime has gone back to canon material. Since its Sasuke's turn to shine, I have begun keeping up with it again. Suigetsu ftw =D
Clannad After Story Completed
Thoughts: Please go watch this now if you're into slice-of-life and love and that kind of stuff. At times it was so moving that I teared up T_T. Also I would suggest watching the first season for the full experience. You can develop an attachment to the characters, and the when you witness the events they are put through you can't help but be moved.
Nodame Cantabile Completed
As a musician myself, this series was a great watch. The music selection was great and there was a lot of comedy. Chiaki's character was great, probably my favorite. After a while you notice that the character never tend to fail at anything. 
I guess this anime is meant for you to feel inspired and happy haha.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Completed
This show was awesome as well. It's got great animation and fight scenes, but the best part about this anime is how there seems to be no bounds to what the characters can achieve. 
The shounen-ness of powerups after powerups gets more and more preposterous, but makes the show a lot more exciting.
Turn back the pendulum ... to when I just finished the Soul Eater series
Wow what a great series!
I began watching the anime because one of my friends told me it had wonderful animation and art style. And I have to say - it did not disappoint.
Soul Eater has a tremendous of humor that is simply amazing, and the fact that I watched it without knowing this just made it so much more enjoyable. Its humor at the beginning was so funny that it actually made me laugh out loud (which I don't tend to do). Soul Eater was worth watching just for the awesome humor but several other things made me persist as well.
One of the best parts of this anime was its character designs. I have to admit that I began this series with its manga, and actually stopped reading because its art style was a little too *special* for me. However, I approached the Soul Eater anime completely unbaised because I wanted to check out its praised animation (which manga could not do). I was immediately drawn in by the OP and Maka's first fight. Furthermore, like Haruhi and Clannad, the Soul Eater anime art was actually better and more refined than its original manga counterpart, which is not the case for other animes... *cough Naruto cough*.
Now on to the character design - I absolutely love Death the Kid.
His appearance, personality, combat, and abilities were definitely for the win. In addition, I thought Soul's voice actor was great and Black Star's arrogance was surprisingly likeable. There were just so many characters and personalities that I enjoyed in Soul Eater, including Patty, Mifune, and Blair.
Finally, one thing you can always expect from Japanese anime is its share of ecchi aka perverted material. It tends to be used for either fanservice or humor, and in Soul Eater's case it is more of the latter.
After roughly episode 35, the Soul Eater anime deviates from the manga with a bunch of non-canon material. The anime certainly became less cool from there on forward, but it was still pretty interesting.
Now I'm going to list the differences I noticed between the anime and manga so there will be spoilers ahead.
**** Spoilers ****
(there are sooooo many, but here's just some):
Brew
Anime: The heralded Brew that Arachnaphobia sought throughout the series turned out to be pretty much a wishgranter, and it granted Shinigami sama's wish of turning Shibusen into an enormous robot. I hate robots...
Manga: The Brew grants the user a temporary, yet extraordinary boost in energy and power level. It made Death the Kid soooo frickin cool =D
Eibon
Anime: Eibon turned out to be a key that unlocks the Brew.
Manga: Eibon's true form is revealed as Noah. It's not certain if he is actually the original, but in the time being he has taken ahold of the name because he possesses the Book of Eibon. His goal to collect everything in the world that interests him into his book.
Antagonists:
Anime: 1. Arachne, Giriko, Mosquito, Kishin Asura
2. Medusa, Stein for a while
Manga: 1. Arachne, Mosquito
2. Medusa, Crona(?)
3. Noah, Justin Law, Giriko
4. Kishin Asura
Powerups:
Maka anime: Maka obtained the Demon Hunter pretty early on in the anime to defeat Mosquito and later Medusa, but it was useless against the Kishin. In the end it was revealed that Maka was also a weapon, and she turned her whole body into scythes to defeat the Kishin.
Maka manga: Maka chain-resonanced with BlackStar and Kid to defeat Mosquito, and then obtained the Demon Hunter to destroy Arachne. Since now she defeated a witch, she can finally turn Soul into a Deathscythe.
BlackStar anime: BlackStar somehow defeats Mifune in one attack because his heart is now resolute on following his own path of neither a warrior or demon.
BlackStar manga: BlackStar obtains a new form after conquering the zebra/demon/deer thing within Tsubaki's soul. All of Tsubaki's weapon transformation has a new form - ShadowStar. Sugoi =]
Death the Kid anime: In order to hold off the Kishin, Kid connected all three of his Sanzu lines, with transformed Liz and Patty into two mounted cannons. Despite this power boost, it still couldn't defeat the Kishin.
Death the Kid manga: Kid used the Brew to boost his powers during his fight against Mosquito. One of his Sanzu lines managed to connect, upping Liz and Patty's caliber from .38 to .42.
The magnitude of the deviation of the anime from the manga practically makes it another series with just the same characters. I strongly recommend reading the Soul Eater manga after finishing the anime. Overall, I like the manga more because it has more plot and more mysteries to be revealed.
**** Spoilers ****