‘Rurouni Kenshin’ Filler Guide: Here’s What Episodes You Can Skip!

Rurouni Kenshin is a manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki. It was published between 1994 and 1999 and was compiled into a total of twenty-eight volumes. It was adapted into a 95-episode animated television series as well as an animated film. The first 62 episodes adapted the first 18 volumes, while episodes 63 to 95 are completely original. In addition, a series of OVA episodes were also released. A new anime adaptation by studio Liden Films premieres in July 2023 as a re-adaptation of the manga. The series, as you might assume, will be the focus of this article, as we will talk about its fillers.

As fans will know, long-running anime series, especially manga adaptations, have a tendency to add so-called filler episodes or arcs during their initial run. Filler episodes were very popular throughout the 90s and early 00s, but they’ve practically become a relic since then. And while the upcoming 2023 adaptation probably won’t have fillers, the original anime had a fair amount of them, and we are going to talk about them here.

How many fillers does Rurouni Kenshin have?

Unlike many series with similar lengths, the number of fillers in Rurouni Kenshin is unusually low, but there is a catch. Namely, out of the 100 aired episodes, a total of 40 are fillers, which means that Rurouni Kenshin has a moderate % filler rate of 40%. This is quite okay, as the number is not high, but the problem is that the final episodes of the original Rurouni Kenshin anime are all original/filler episodes, and while you cannot skip them if you want to see the ending, you know you’re not watching the canon plotline.

Do you need to watch the Rurouni Kenshin fillers?

As we have explained above, the original Rurouni Kenshin anime did not have a large number of filler episodes, but you cannot finish the series without watching these episodes. Namely, practically the whole ending of the original Rurouni Kenshin anime series is a filler (original) ending, and there lies the issue. If you hate fillers, you’ll probably want to skip these episodes, but if you do that – you cannot see how the series ended.

This is why we have to conclude that you need to watch the filler episodes in the case of the Rurouni Kenshin anime series. Otherwise, the show simply won’t make much sense to you.

Rurouni Kenshin filler list:

As we have said, the filler episodes are a must-see if you want the complete Rurouni Kenshin experience. But are they any good? In our opinion, they are, and you should definitely check them out, but we are now going to list the filler episodes and their content here so that you can see them for yourselves. They are:

And this is the complete filler list, including the episodes that have mixed content, i.e., that have both filler and canon content inside them.

As you can see, as the series is nearing its end, the number of fillers increases, but we, as we’ve said, think they’re worth checking out regardless of that.