No, One Piece Fan Letter is not filler, and here’s why

One piece recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the anime’s first broadcast in Japan with a brand new special, and One Piece Fan Letter it’s nothing more than “filler” for the anime’s story. One Piece Fan Letter debuted earlier this month and quickly became considered one of the best anime specials of all time. He has enjoyed a high rating among fans since his debut as One piece notes how far it has come in the 25 years since its release, but there has been some debate about the content of the episode itself as fans question its place in the canon.

One Piece Fan Letter tells the story of a very important period in the Straw Hats’ journey. The anime takes place after the events of Marineford, when Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats gather in the Sabaody Archipelago. The anime special shows events from the perspective of different characters. But while it shows how other characters saw events, it’s far from “filler.” It’s an officially recognized part of the original canon, and isn’t even what should be called “filler” when talking about anime releases anyway. This is far from true.

Video from ComicBook.com

What is filler?

To further debunk whether One Piece Fan Letter regarding filler, it’s time to explain what “filler” even means. Simply put, these are anime-exclusive extras that were created to give the manga more time to develop. This often happens with television anime adaptations that include a weekly manga series that is in development at the time. This is when, during planning, the content of the anime quickly approaches the most recent chapters of the manga. Thus, the anime team decides to create an original story instead to further distance their material from the manga.

IN One pieceIn the case of “fillers” exclusive to the anime release, the Ice Hunter arc from episodes 326–335 before Thriller Bark, or the G-8 arc (from episodes 196–206) before Long Ring Long. These arcs are not in Eiichiro Oda’s original. One piece manga, and thus it is literal content created to fill time. As such, it has been dubbed “filler” by fans because it is considered non-canonical to the events of the series, as everything that happens in these arcs is generally not considered important to anything that may happen later. It has even gotten to the point where fans have even shared edited versions of the anime to speed up the viewing experience without these extra episodes. But it’s not One Piece Fan Letter.

Why One Piece Fan Letter Isn’t Filler

First of all, One Piece Fan Letter anime is not made to fill time. With production on the weekly series suspended until next April for the second half of the “Egghead” arc, One Piece Fan Letter is a spin-off project released to celebrate the 25th anniversary. This is something that was created alongside the anime and not just to fill time in the schedule. Secondly, this is an adaptation of the novel recognized by Oda as the official One piece schedule. Therefore, it is part of the main series canon.

One Piece Fan Letter adapts material from One Piece Novel: Straw Hat Tales Spin-off novel by Tomohito Osaka. This novel doesn’t shake up anything that happened in the Sabaody Archipelago, nor does it move any important points to make them worse. It just makes everything more detailed and complete because One piece fans really get a new look at what the Straw Hats were up to. Not that it’s a completely different story than the one shown in the manga.

While it’s not a manga adaptation, it’s far from just “filler” meant to simply buy time. This is simply a spin-off anime special adapting one of the many canon side stories that have been published in novels and other media that anime fans may not be entirely aware of either. And since this is the only new part One piece anime that we will release in a few months, One Piece Fan Letter Luckily, there is an ironically way to fill the time until we get these new episodes.