Every Pokemon Filler Episode You Can Skip According To YouTube
Some anime only last roughly 20 episodes. In that instance, it's probably in your best interest to watch the entire thing because every episode is likely integral to the overall storyline. On the other hand, some anime last for hundreds of episodes (looking at you "One Piece"), and if you want to binge-watch one of those, a little help would likely be significantly appreciated, and that brings us to "Pokémon: The Animated Series."
Ash Ketchum and his companions have traveled to many different regions, meeting all kinds of powerful creatures along the way. Ash's journey culminated relatively recently in the "Sun & Moon" seasons when he finally became a regional champion by landing a victory at the Manalo Conference.
It would be a massive undertaking to look at every filler episode across the "Pokémon" series, so for the purposes of clarity, we'll only look at Ash's time in the Indigo League and Orange Islands for this list. The first couple of seasons remain many people's primary understanding of the franchise. For nostalgic purposes, you may find yourself wanting to go back and watch them but can't commit to checking out all 118 episodes. This guide will let you know what's worth going back to and what's worth glossing over, according to the YouTube channel Misty Chronexia.
What makes a Pokemon episode essential?
We'll only go through about 10% of all Pokémon episodes on this list, but we'll use criteria you could technically apply to any episode throughout the series. First and foremost, any episode that contains Ash battling a gym or a rival is an essential watch, particularly when Ash gets into some of the championship matches. This includes episodes where Ash loses because it's all part of the character's journey.
Outside of that, you should definitely watch any episode with additional types of plot progressions, such as any of the trainers catching, evolving, or releasing a Pokémon. Even in the first two installments, Ash's party goes through some changes between Brock, Misty, and Tracy, so you'll want to check out any episodes where there's a development there.
The last criterion is a bit open to interpretation. You'll probably want to tune into any episodes that include a critical moment from the games, such as when Ash and his friends board the S.S. Anne. Outside of these rules, you have a bunch of filler episodes that maybe introduce a new Pokémon but don't do anything else for the larger plot.
The filler in Indigo League
If you want to watch the first portion of Pokémon as efficiently as possible, here are the episodes you can skip without missing really anything: 8, 9, 17, 18, 20, 33, 34, 36-42, 44, 47-49, 53-56, 60, 62, 65-67, and 69-75.
There are a lot of episodes of Pokémon where Ash and his friends go on a little side adventure that has nothing to do with the journey of becoming a Pokémon master. Most often, these episodes only exist to introduce audiences to the Pokémon of the week. The catchphrase of this entire franchise, after all, is "Gotta catch 'em all." Once young viewers know a new Pokémon is out there, they'll immediately want to get a plush or card to add to their collection.
However, for the story, you can skip over them without really missing anything of substance. You may notice that many of the fillers for the Indigo League occur later in the season. The show was actually pretty good at sticking with the meat of the story early on, with Ash getting a new badge or catching a new Pokémon every episode. Unless you have an absolute favorite Pokémon you want to see in a storyline, the above episodes are worth skipping.
The filler in the Orange Islands
Once Ash is done with the Indigo League, he says goodbye to Brock and hello to Tracy as he embarks toward the Orange Islands. For this storyline, Ash has to travel to four islands to obtain badges to compete in the Orange League. But just like the Indigo League, there are plenty of episodes where Ash and his friends go on separate adventures where they help out some locals or assist a Pokémon in need.
Those kinds of filler episodes include the following: 88, 90-94, 97, 98, 100-104, 106, 108, 109, 111, and 116.
When looking at the Indigo League and Orange Islands, you have 52 episodes out of 118 that don't matter all that much. That comes out to roughly 44% filler within those two installments. That's a lot of the show you can skip over, which saves you both time and energy, especially if you already watched the show as a child and just want to go back to rewatch it.
Your goal may be to catch 'em all, but that doesn't mean you have to watch 'em all.