It’s a rare occurrence, but it does happen every now and then.
Fillers in anime are often hated. After all, they contribute nothing to the lore and often don’t progress the story at all. That said, here are some examples where fillers actually became relevant — and canon.
Naruto might be the most common example of this. Perhaps the most famous filler character to end up being canon is Raiga Kurosuki, a renegade Swordsman of the Mist, wielding twin Lightning Blades, Kiba. Raiga appeared in a flashback later in the manga, and the sword itself was wielded by resurrected Ringo Ameyuri during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
This isn’t the only case, though: many movies, while filler, introduced concepts and characters that were reused later. Pakura and a few other characters were originally from The Will of Fire movie. Blood Prison from the movie by the same name was made canon in Naruto Hiden light novels.
One of the most famous antagonists of the Dragon Ball series is Broly, who originally appeared in the Dragon Ball Z filler movies. That said, the character was so beloved that he was reintroduced later.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly rewrites Broly’s backstory to make it more detailed, officially bringing the character into canon. It was created with the direct involvement of Akira Toriyama, the author of the original manga.
Yu-Gi-Oh!
It’s hard to say what is even canon for the Yu-Gi-Oh! (Yu☆Gi☆Oh!) series, as the original manga (and Season 0) wasn’t even about the card game. That said, it was so popular that the franchise became associated with the card game, and many of the cards used in the series are real cards in the game.
They are not always printed first: sometimes, a card first appeared in the anime and only was printed later. Examples are The Seal of Orichalcos and Guardian Eatos.
Originally a spin-off of A Certain Magical Index (Toaru Majutsu no Index) series, A Certain Scientific Railgun (Toaru Kagaku no Railgun) focused on a different cast, although there have been overlaps with the original in both plot and characters.
Still, this spin-off introduced some content that was relevant later in the series. While the anime had some original episodes that never went anywhere, they’re seemingly consistent with the rest of the universe as well.
Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) doesn’t necessarily have any filler, so this is a bit of a misrepresentation. Still, the light novel adaptation of the manga introduced certain things (like Zenitsu’s teacher’s name) that were later made canon by the manga and, presumably, the anime.
The curious part is that the original mangaka didn’t even write the light novels — they just supervised them.
It’s a rare occurrence, but it does happen every now and then.
Fillers in anime are often hated. After all, they contribute nothing to the lore and often don’t progress the story at all. That said, here are some examples where fillers actually became relevant — and canon.
Naruto might be the most common example of this. Perhaps the most famous filler character to end up being canon is Raiga Kurosuki, a renegade Swordsman of the Mist, wielding twin Lightning Blades, Kiba. Raiga appeared in a flashback later in the manga, and the sword itself was wielded by resurrected Ringo Ameyuri during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
This isn’t the only case, though: many movies, while filler, introduced concepts and characters that were reused later. Pakura and a few other characters were originally from The Will of Fire movie. Blood Prison from the movie by the same name was made canon in Naruto Hiden light novels.
One of the most famous antagonists of the Dragon Ball series is Broly, who originally appeared in the Dragon Ball Z filler movies. That said, the character was so beloved that he was reintroduced later.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly rewrites Broly’s backstory to make it more detailed, officially bringing the character into canon. It was created with the direct involvement of Akira Toriyama, the author of the original manga.
Yu-Gi-Oh!
It’s hard to say what is even canon for the Yu-Gi-Oh! (Yu☆Gi☆Oh!) series, as the original manga (and Season 0) wasn’t even about the card game. That said, it was so popular that the franchise became associated with the card game, and many of the cards used in the series are real cards in the game.
They are not always printed first: sometimes, a card first appeared in the anime and only was printed later. Examples are The Seal of Orichalcos and Guardian Eatos.
Originally a spin-off of A Certain Magical Index (Toaru Majutsu no Index) series, A Certain Scientific Railgun (Toaru Kagaku no Railgun) focused on a different cast, although there have been overlaps with the original in both plot and characters.
Still, this spin-off introduced some content that was relevant later in the series. While the anime had some original episodes that never went anywhere, they’re seemingly consistent with the rest of the universe as well.
Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) doesn’t necessarily have any filler, so this is a bit of a misrepresentation. Still, the light novel adaptation of the manga introduced certain things (like Zenitsu’s teacher’s name) that were later made canon by the manga and, presumably, the anime.
The curious part is that the original mangaka didn’t even write the light novels — they just supervised them.
