User blog comment:Neowitch/New Z Trailer and Luffy Special/@comment-972068-20121119094435

This is the biggest OP movie since Strong World. Of course they're going to get everything they can into it. This includes an anime filler arc. Strong World got that.

I doubt every Straw Hat will get an Episode because some backstories like Zoro and Usopp are incredibly short. I think I heard one of the next ones would be an Enies Lobby Episode or something. We had an Alabasta Episode, remember?

And I have no problem with the filler arc. Sure, it might suck and have no purpose, like any filler, but where the anime is at now, it needs filler. It NEEDS filler. The Fishman Island Arc got dragged on longer than the manga did. The whole point of an anime is to adaptate the manga with faster pacing. Otherwise, there's not much point. But the anime can't pace faster if it's so close to the manga. Especially since the manga got into this whole "no filler-arc phase" ever since it got to Sabody, and still hasn't ended the phase. Just look at the bright side: More filler, more action for the next arc.