Ivvan Cain wrote:Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid had a few filler episodes of a battle in the tunnels which I thought were awesome though technically fillers.
That's not REALLY filler, rather it's filling IN a hole that would have existed in the plot without it. In the novels, the traitor Bluno was the one who arranged for the traitorous soldiers to be on the DeDannan (which was at the end of the first series). Since it wouldn't be practical to have Mithril after him from something that happened two whole series ago (and made by Gonzo, rather than KyoAni) they worked in a new arc which gave him ANOTHER chance to betray Mithril, as well as build up some characters who were practically nonentities in the book (the twins and that psycho Amalgam commander). Other changes in TSR were more padding or fleshing out a story that would otherwise have been rather sparse and making it much more satisfying (even with the padding, the series was still only 13 episodes).
On the other hand, the Naruto filler is mostly just pure crap, totally new stories invented out of nothing and carried off without a trace of the series' true style. Some of the stories COULD have been good if they weren't so badly executed (don't talk to me about curry!) I'll be ecstatic when they're over, but I heard it was some time in March, not February. Oh well, the sooner the better.