Can anyone who's watched all the filler episodes of both Naruto series answer whether it's worth watching the filler or not?
I'm fine watching filler arcs that actually go somewhere but not episodic bullshit and it seems to me that Shippuden has filler arcs whereas the first series is episodic from like episode 130 to the end.
Naruto is filler from around 135 to the end (135 is mostly canon but leads into filler while 220 shows him leaving on his trip).
I haven't seen a lot of it, but most of it isn't. Some of it isn't too bad in small doses like an arc or two from the original that only lasts a few episodes such as the one 135 leads into (which feels sensible given what just happened. Shippuuden's I'm even less familiar with but some stuff like the material adapted from the novels at the end of the anime isn't too bad. I enjoyed the wedding planning episodes that concluded the series.
finish the canon stuff
watch the filler when you're done, there's a lot of gems.
Naruto shippuden has this arc of pure filler in the Fourth Ninja War. Its about Tsunade and her perfect world. Dont watch that, its just Naruto (show) according to Naruto's (character) wishes.
The rest of the filler isnt actually bad imo.
the only fillers worth watching on the original naruto series are the ones that happen before sasuke leaves and the final filler arc where gaara and the sand siblings are fighting again.
Damn son
The land of the sea arc in part 1 is actually decent filler.
Skip all of them.
They are some comedic fillers that are quite worth watching for laughs but I forgot which ones.
I actually watched all of Part 1 fillers.... when they aired. I was a kid with nothing else to do, but my god was the wait for the cannon stuff to be back was horrendous,
On top of my head, there are actually some good arc in the mix. There is one immediately after the valley fight, where Naruto, Sakura and Jiraija try to infiltrate the Sound Village. It's actually really well paced and had some good character development for Sakura.
Next one is the obvious Hinata arc. It was sort of stupid all things considered. It's about finding a bug that can track anything anywhere, BUT ONLY IF it's exposed to the scent JUST SECONDS after it hatch otherwise it's useless. Oh, and it's really rare. Contrived as fuck, but hey, we were sorely lacking Hinata screen time back then and we took whatever we got. Makes her winning out in cannon all the worthwhile if you ask me.
Last one I remember is about some murder mystery in this feudal lord house or something. It included Guy's team finding out who's staging a coup, meanwhile protecting a prince, who ends up being a reverse trap. Can't remember the details, but it wasn't that bad.
Best thing about these arcs is that you can breeze through them easily, unlike having to wait weeks after weeks of pointless plots that won't mean a thing in the end.
tl;dr: Some arcs are good, rest is shit.
Skip the Pain arc.
Worst filler arc I've seen to date.