Naruto: Shippuuden

After an endless wasteland of filler, Naruto returns! Joy! Happiness! Frowns turned upside down! I couldn't believe it when the fillers ended. I was ecstatic.

Now I'm ready with a pillow whenever I tune in every friday. Question mark? I'll tell you why I'm prone to falling asleep while watching Naruto:Shippuuden - it just isn't Naruto anymore. It just isn't the same series.

Story: Don't get me wrong, Naruto didn't just magically start stabbing me with disappointment because the story started to totally go downhill. In fact, the first episode's preview with Naruto's future encounter with Sasuke had me on the edge of my seat. I ... couldn't believe it: Naruto was back! No, the story continues and follows through adequately as a continuation of the original Naruto. The great elements of the original story are still here: the theme of an everlasting friendship, the importance of maintaining hope, the need to endure and persevere .. these themes are all still there! Naruto is still a great guy and he still strives to protect his friends and 'save' Sasuke while taking on Akatsuki at the same time. So what happened to Naruto? Well, story-wise, nothing. I still love the story. I love the world of Naruto, the ninjas, the techniques, the weapons, the themes, the plot. Although the story doesn't present the viewers with anything deep or complicated, I still like it. But the story isn't the problem. The story as it is and as it continues, gets a 7.5/10 from me.

Characters: It was great to see how much the characters changed from the original Naruto. Character development in this aspect, was great. Pretty much everbody had a new design and they all looked great. In terms of personality, well, they were the same loveable characters, unique in their own way. In terms of Naruto and Sakura, they really developed. Although he still acts like it, Naruto isn't the same happy loudmouth he used to be. He's been deeply scarred from Sasuke's betrayal, and despite all thats happened, he's still obsessed with saving him. Of course, Sasuke's betrayal affected Sakura too and she's really toughened up. She isn't the useless twist she used to be, and shes really grown to respect and care for Naruto. Character development is great, the characters are great, old and new. Sai for example, is an interesting add on, he brought the funnies and kept the comedic aspects of the show alive. The characters aren't the problem either: 8/10

Art / Animation: Here is where Shippuuden starts going downhill. In terms of the new characters and their new character designs, I love em. But Naruto just isn't animated as well as it used to be. There is a lot of repeated animation in Shippuuden. This ranges from terribly animated tree jumping scenes (it actually looks more like they're flying instead of jumping half the time, lazy much?) to staring faces and overused flashbacks. I can understand the need to repeat the frames from things like the tree jumping scenes that are filled with dialog, or the occasional flashback to remind us of what happened in the original Naruto or something a couple of episodes ago. But the extent of it is teetering on the cliff side. The quality is just going downhill. Kakashi's new Sharingan attack for example, was terribly done in my opinion. I could have done that effect in photoshop. To make it worst, they drew it out for minutes on end ... completely destroying the 'cool factor'. There are also several still scenes that consist of pure eye to eye combat with wind blowing in the background. Cool? I think not, not when pointless staring takes up about 15% of the episode's air time. Asides from this, the coloring and detail of the characters in terms of shading and such also seem to be lacking in contrast to the original Naruto. Looking at the two, they just aren't on the same level anymore. Maybe it's because I've gotten so used to the series, or because I've watched so many more series since the original Naruto, but the quality has definitely deteriorated. Of course, some of the big fights are still animated quite nicely: 7/10

Sound: Things just get worst from here. While I loved the new opening and closing songs, the episode bgm just isn't the same. The upbeat action music heard in the original Naruto has been replaced by lame 'lets make this fight seem really tense and epic' music that fails horribly. I want the old soundtracks back! Granted, the series is alot more serious now, but the background soundtracks really can't shake the excitement meter up to where it used to be: 6/10

Ok, so it's the same story, continued. The same characters, with some cool new additions are there. The animatiors are getting a bit lazy, and the soundtracks aren't making me chew my fingernails anymore. Does this really warrant a 6?

Pacing: This is what has killed Naruto. Not Akatasuki, Not Orochimaru, not Sasuke, not Sakura's poundings - the pacing has killed our beloved hero, Naruto. This is the sole reason that the plot development seems slow and nonexistent, this is why character development is hard to note unless you really love the series, this is why animation is being reused, repeated, or not done at all, this is why I can no longer enjoy Naruto like I used to. So much time is deliberately wasted on mundane scenes such as staring, or camera panning that there are often many awkward pauses that make you wonder, 'did my computer freeze?'. This should NOT be happening in an anime! The amount of still scenes and overused camera panning should not be in surplus and evident enough to deteriorate the quality of a show! There are so many episodes that had amazing potential to be jaw-droppers, but they weren't. Intense battles like episodes 41-43 are completely ruined due to horribly SLOW SLOW pacing!

Arguably, the animators want to avoid killing its viewers with a plauge of fillers, but is it really worth it to completely destroy such a potentially satisfying anime? In my opinion, they're ruining the series. We waited and endured just as our hero taught us to - only to be attacked by this monstrosity. The pacing effectively destroyed my love for this show. You may argue that fillers are worse and thats debatable. What isn't however, is that there is enough manga material for at least another 50 FAST paced Naruto episodes. Thats a year! Probably more when you consider that by the time 50 episodes are released, there could be enough material for another 20 or so potential episodes.

Overall: Same enjoyable story with great potential. But the pacing needs to change. That pillow I mentioned at the beginning of this long, terrible review? It wasn't for sleeping. It was to stop me from killing myself from bashing my head against the desk as I watched a potentially good series slaughtered before my eyes. 6/10

At the time of this writing, Naruto is all but over. In fact, it might as well have been over way back when the fillers started in the first season.

What started out as a great anime with a deep story and tons of charming characters has inexplicably turned its back on most of what was good about it, first and foremost the relationship between naruto, sasuke and sakura. And there are still filler arcs in Shippuuden, one of which has just begun.

We are now at episode 95 of the second season and sasuke is still basically nowhere to be seen. The first arc showed bits ... and pieces of him, and he was on screen for 5 minutes at the end of it. Since then, he's appeared sporadically in flashbacks and extremely short vignettes as a way to tease the audience into thinking he will return soon and naruto will get back on track...but then another arc starts without him. And another. To top it all off, another worthless filler arc has just begun!

I don't mean to say that sasuke makes the entire series. Akatsuki is an interesting group of characters, and the majority of those great characters from the first season are still present and basically unchanged. However, Sasuke is a huge part of naruto, and he's gone. Gaara is one of the coolest characters ever, and he's gone. And another filler arc has just begun.

The art has also taken a huge hit with this series. I don't know if they changed production companies or what, but everyone suddenly looks disproportioned and the animation looks choppy and cheap. Sakura has a tendency to look quite mannish when viewed in profile. There is an infamous part of the new ending where Hinata's hair seems to be falling off. The art seems to get even worse during fillers...i don't know if i've mentioned this yet, but a filler arc has just begun!

Naruto is also no longer funny.

Well, I could sit here and write all day about how much naruto has jumped the shark, but there is one thing that should be said: I still watch it. I'm not sure exactly why, but I never miss an episode. If I had to pay even a cent for it, I wouldn't; but I still watch.

Although I might stop watching until this filler arc is over. The problem with fillers is not that they are worthless (i'd rather have fillers than nothing) but that they are so often boring and cheaply done, and often stray too far from the roots of the show. There are ways to get fillers right (see Bleach: Turn Back the Pendulum), but Naruto's fillers fail. Miserably.

Another %*#@%&! filler, and still no sasuke. Can you believe it?

I cannot believe this poor excuse of a directing team gets a near 8 overall, and MANY 9's/10's for their work. Before I begin, I'd like to remind everyone that a "6" constitutes "Fair". Meaning, this anime is better than "Mediocre", better than "Decent".

(the mean of the subcategory values doesn't equal 6 because MAL lacks a "flow" category)

Naruto Shippuuden is probably the most famous anime to the general American populous. You might consider that one guy the whitest guy on the planet, yet he's probably watched some form of anime: Naruto. In fact, Naruto is so widespread that you could actually have friends that can ... relate to you about an anime for once. It is just that popular. However, that exact popularity could lead it to being "overrated", and that is exactly what I believe it to be.

The story, to be honest, is amazing. I like ninjas. I like people fighting. I like people dying. However, Naruto Shippuuden took a turn for the worst. One of the biggest changes in the show (from Part 1 to Part 2) was the feeling of "ninja battles" vs "demon battles". In the first part of Naruto, the highest-caliber battle was between the three Hokages and Orochimaru. Their jutsus were so badass, nobody of a lower level could contest with them. However, that level of power is absolutely LAUGHABLE in today's Naruto world. Sasuke's Susano'o will just eat the living crap out of the Hokages. Nagato will use some overpowered six-path rinnegan jutsu that he pulls out of his ass. Oh, but of course Naruto can defeat him. And that's yet another problem with the story. Naruto is apparently able to do everything, and WE ALL KNOW the Fourth Great Ninja War is going to end with Naruto reigning victorious over the antagonists. We already know that. So, with the lack of suspense, why do people still watch this anime? The only reason I can think of is its development of drama.

Indeed, this anime capitalizes on "Talk no Jutsu" (as coined by Sawyer7mage), where the characters are apparently in a national speech and debate competition over the gold medal or something. Seriously. There is so much talking in this anime that the fighting gets devalued to nothing. And when there is fighting? YOU HIT A WALL OF 20 FILLER EPISODES. IN A DAMN ROW. And that is what I mean by poor directing. A somewhat great storyline with promising battle scenes is RUINED, absolutely RUINED by the existence of filler episodes. Literally 90% of them are completely off-plot and not funny at all; "oh, they're just saving the 43rd Snow-land Daimyo/Princess/cat/dog/frog". It is ridiculous how good the producers are at pissing off the fanbase, including myself. Nothing is more irritating than waiting excitedly for the next episode, only to realize that it is a filler. And when you hit a filler, you know you'll be there for a while. Good luck man, it'll only take half a year to get back onto the main plot (or almost half a year; most filler runs are 20 episodes long). By the time they get back onto the main story, you already forgot half the story leading up to that moment, forcing you to rewatch some of the previous episodes.

Overall, Naruto is a great story and will captivate its audiences for certain; however, Shippuuden's great shift from Naruto Part 1's original premise seriously hurts its cause. The incredible amount of "overpowered" ninjas along with all the "demon" powers and the over-glorification of Eye Techniques leads to a story where only a handful of characters can even function. Couple that with the mass of fillers, and you get an anime series that is much worse than its potential implies.

Back in high school, I was an avid Naruto fan. I discovered the series when I was 14 years old and binged it all in 2 weeks, and started Shippuuden soon after. I loved it at first, and revered it during the Pain arc, but soon after I found the show started to decline in quality. And now looking back, I find the show had pretty serious problems throughout its run.

Just to get this out of the way, the egregious amounts of filler amidst very few canon episodes as well as a lot of episodes consisting of 70% flashbacks and 30% actual content is ... seriously off-putting.

Yes, I know Naruto spent his childhood alone on a swing-set; no, I don't have to see that scene for the billionth time.

These aspects became so unbearable that I (and many of my friends) ended up dropping the show halfway through the Great War arc and just read the manga chapters whenever they would come out. Doing this made me realize how poorly the pacing and execution of that last arc was handled, and when I eventually went back to catch up on what I missed, I wasn't surprised to find these errors hadn't been rectified at all.


I think there's a common theme to be had in considering the series that is Shippuuden: inconsistency. In almost every aspect here, Naruto excels at some point in time and then fails to deliver otherwise. The series is definitely one of highs and lows, and I think the lows have overwhelmed whatever high points the series ever had.


Story: 6/10. Our first look at the inconsistency of Shippuuden is targeted at how the various arcs vary in quality and immersion. I want to talk about what I consider the highest point and lowest point of the series: the Pain arc and the Great War arc (respectively).

The Pain arc was a beautifully told story focusing on themes of abandonment, true peace, war, perseverance and acceptance. We saw amazing character development in Naruto: from the loss of his mentor/friend/father-figure to his ability to finally surpass his limitations and become a great ninja, it seems this was what the whole show had been built up to. Furthermore, we had an amazing villain to complement Naruto: Pain. A rather intriguing villain who we can empathize with, Pain and his tragedy really helped build on the themes of the arc. He challenged Naruto, both in physical prowess and personal philosophy, and through it all Naruto was able to learn what he holds dear. All in all, a really great arc; not without its flaws, but still a great story well told.

Then comes the Great War arc, which is 1) too drawn out, 2) ignores character development and replaces it with obscure power-ups, 3) ignores 99% of the interesting cast to focus only on characters with special eye powers and Naruto, 4) has too many villains, each one diluting the significance of the other.

This arc didn't need Kaguya. Obito and Madara were fine villains on their own, and whatever themes the arc wanted to handle could've been well done using only them. Once Kaguya is introduced, we go into the territory of power creep, bs powerups and no one being able to keep up with the villain unless 1) they're a main character like Naruto, 2) they have special eyes like Sasuke, or 3) they randomly get god powers (i.e. both Naruto and Sasuke). Chakra was such a great power system in the original Naruto that didn't model rather one-dimensional power systems, lie Ki in DBZ. It seems now that chakra unfortunately devolved into becoming glorified Ki.

As an aside, if you watched this arc while it was airing and stuck through it, I'm not sure how you did it. I watched this arc while I was an avid fan of Naruto and ignored every criticism of it, and even then I had to drop it for a time to read the manga before I could eventually get back to watching it. The filler; the flashbacks; the slow pacing: all of these put me off. When an episode is 15 minutes flashback and 5 minutes of actually story progression, the show loses sight of where it wants to go and just becomes something that beats already explored themes and concepts down your throat.



Art: 5/10. Inconsistent once again. Some scenes are downright shoddily drawn and bland. I understand that long running shounen tend to have this problem, and we see it a lot in shows like DBSuper and One Piece, but it still holds that the art leaves something to be desired.

The show does have its moments with some pretty aesthetic character designs and well animated fights. The Pain fight is an example of pretty bad art at times, but amazing animation.


Sound: 9/10. The OST for Naruto is pretty freaking great. However, given that the show has around 20 openings and endings (maybe even more, I haven't counted), there have been a fair share of really bad and really good songs.


Character: 5/10. After the Pain arc, we see character motivations start to morph into one-dimensional determinations or become outright forgotten. The biggest offender is the Great War arc, which takes away 99% of an interesting cast to focus solely on Naruto and Sasuke and their bs powerups.

Also, imo, Sasuke is probably the worst written character in the show. I don't want to get into an entire essay on why I think this (because trust me, I could), so I'll just list out some of my points for why I really despise him and the writing that surrounds him and his circumstances.

1) The love relationship between him and Sakura makes no sense. They literally have no chemistry together.
2) Itachi gives up his life to ensure his brother can live in peace, and Sasuke decides to start a war to honor him. Way to respect your brother's wishes. Alright buddy.
3) Dude causes grief to literally every character in the show, then pops up like it's nobody's business during the war and lets it slide that he's going to become Hokage. I actually had to pause because I burst out laughing. Did he really think he'd be taken seriously?
4) His overbearing arrogance borders on stupidity. He attacks a 5 kage summit, ignores advice from others and then cries about the arrogance of the leaders of the hidden leaf who put Itachi through pain. You're not any better, dude.
5) My last point, his undeserved strength and the fact that his relevance to the plot hinges on that alone. Without his eyes, he would be NOTHING. Everything special about him comes from Kishimoto giving him powerup after powerup; atleast in Naruto he had to work for things like Chidori. Now, he can just fire off infinite Chidoris, summon black flames that never go out and eventually conjure up a gigantic Titan made of chakra to dispose of enemies.


Enjoyment: 5/10. My enjoyment, as well, was inconsistent: it varied a lot while watching, from downright bored to immensely engaged. I consider the Pain arc the highest point of the series and one of the best arcs in shounen, and that arc alone deserves a 9/10 at the very least. But after that, I'm afraid the show went through a downward spiral and destroyed itself with the final arc.

Overall: 5/10.

+ Pain arc
+ Everything up to the Pain arc is somewhat interesting


- Show falls into a downward spiral after the Pain arc and crumbles during its final arc
- The diverse and interesting cast is underused in the final arc
- Chakra loses its nuance
- Fights after Pain become a matter of who can stack on more god power + eye powers to win
- Some sub-plots are entirely ignored and never answered in the show.


If you really want to watch Naruto, you might have a better time now that you can skip the filler, but the pacing still leaves something to be desired. At the very least the manga fixes the pacing problem somewhat, but I still find it fails to deliver in terms of story and characters. All in all, the show was a major disappointment.

An incredible work ethic and boundless determination should never be underestimated.

At first glance, Naruto Shippuuden, the continuation of Naruto, has a few noticeable differences. Firstly, Shippuuden shows its complexity and serious undertone early on in the series, through the obvious change in Naruto’s personality. And secondly, protagonist is easily defined as Naruto, opposed to our duo of Naruto and Sasuke in the previous season.

The story of Shippuuden is driven through the ploy of the Akatsuki, whom are fixated on capturing the jinchuriki and extracting the tailed beasts within. The canonical plot of Shippuuden is definitely attention grabbing, through the use multiple plot twists and ... numerous life or death situations. The non-canon plot however, is not so great. Overused flashbacks, dwelling on insignificant season one plot, and the apparent need to remind us of events that take place no less than a dozen episodes ago gets tiresome, quickly. It’s truly a shame that the amount of filler in Shippuuden is so high, because the canon portion is outstanding.

Once the storyline unfolds after a few episodes the character cast of Shippuuden presents great depth and variety. Each of the reoccurring Hidden Leaf Village shinobi and kunoichi are developed to a great extent, they each have a unique back story and you’re almost certain to find someone you can relate to, if not, become attached to. The ninja of the other main villages and the antagonists all display distinctive features that allow them to be memorable, be it the untouchable Kazekage, Gaara or the cunning missing-nin Orochimaru.

The quality of artwork in Shippuuden’s canonical differs greatly from the non-canon. It’s painfully obvious that the filler in Shippuuden is of a lower standard than its counterpart. With that being said, in the main storyline, Studio Pierrot has done a great job. Battle animations are fluid and eye-catching, the scenery is vivid and emotions are portrayed outstandingly.

Simply, an outstanding soundtrack, those are the first words that come to mind when I think of Shippuuden. With outstanding openings such as OP3 “Blue Bird” almost welcoming you into an episode with open arms, and endings such as ED12 leaving you begging for more, the soundtrack of Shippuuden is definitely a memorable one. The composer Yasuharu Takanashi incorporates gritty strings, rhythmic percussion, penetrating woodwind instrumentals that captivate the moment, from intense, heart pumping battle music, to calm, vivid emotion evoking melodies, no expense is spared.

Overall, Shippuuden is an amazing ride if you can either grind your way through the filler, or skip it entirely. The canonical plot more than makes up for the shortcomings presented though out its counterpart. Comedy is used at appropriate times, the action is engaging and the emotions are high. If I’ve learnt anything from this viewing ,it’s that sticking through the bad times with your head held high whilst never lowering your work ethic will rewarded, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but definitely someday, believe it.

Did you enjoy watching Naruto, or are you still reading Naruto's manga, impatiently waiting for next chapter?

Then Naruto Shippuuden is NOT for you.

As Naruto was an great anime, it's successor is just one, big soap opera. This "work of art" is overloaded with fillers and many sub-plots. What is more, every one fight or event is extended to the maximum possible amount of time - because of "we-don't-want-to-reach-manga's-plot-so-soon".
Oh, look, it's Kakashi preparing an eye technique! In manga, it was prepared within 2 frames. In anime, it took _whole_5_eps_ to make it prepared (that's 5 weeks of waiting! o_O)

If you have plenty (I mean, very, very ... much) of free time and you're sure NOTHING will bore you, try watching Naruto Shippuuden.

Naruto makes up one of the Big 3. This review shall be for the entirety of Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden and shall contain my opinion of Naruto while trying to be as unbiased as possible. Before anyone asks, yes I have read Naruto entirely, and it was one of my first mangas/anime and I was somebody who thought Naruto was a perfect anime before realizing its fair share of flaws and before watching/reading other animes/mangas.

Progression (6): Naruto is a manga with 700 chapters... 700 CHAPTERS, it is definitely long and of course has some useless arcs which make you wonder what the point of that ... arc was. There are also useless conversations that feel repeated between two characters in the show, and there are the past of characters remembered that are often repetitive. However, the fight sequences are done absolutely spectacularly. The hype level while major fights occur are often unreal and are often deserved because the fight scenes are quite good.

Story (4): The story of Naruto is somewhat mediocre to be very brutally honest. It is riddled with Deus Ex Machina writing, so much so that the fans have dubbed the very often Deus Ex Machina writing with a term called "Plot no Jutsu." There are also some plot holes within the show, but I do not find too much fault with the plot holes as any show this long shall probably have at least one plot hole. The themes of Naruto would be good if they were not told from a black and white morality viewpoint in which the victor of the battle was always correct. Also the themes are not depicted very well (as with the case of Neji believing that heritage meant everything, and oddly enough turning out to be correct in the end as we find out who Naruto's father is, even though he concludes that heritage does not matter.) The biggest theme in this show seems to be about friendship, and although it's interesting the first and second time they talk about it, it becomes too repetitive whenever all Naruto says is his answers are his friends. Humor also loses its effect in the story when it's done in the middle of the story which breaks immersion. I wouldn't mind it if it was a slight chuckle, but the fact that they are trying to make you laugh uncontrollably drives you away from the story.

Art (8): The art is not anything to write home about in Naruto, however the fight scenes are done very well. Very little times have I seen fight scenes in other anime and manga be able to compare to Naruto.

Sound (10): The music in Naruto goes very well at times with what is going on in Naruto. In fact some soundtracks are good enough to be listened to without any accompaniment of the episode, such as "Sadness and Sorrow."

Characters (1): My reviews are always honest, and being honest, I must be brutally honest that the characters in Naruto were AWFUL. The reason why I say this is that although there are interesting characters in the show, they become quite insignificant. My point is this, there are maybe 10 characters that matter in the entirety of Naruto, and everyone else could have never existed and the plot would have been relatively the same. Fan favorite characters such as Rock Lee or Neji become insignificant enough that towards the end of the manga, my brother (who also reads this with me) asked me who Rock Lee and Neji were. The characters that do matter are often cliche and even boring. There is the main character who falls very easily into the shonen mainstream hero archetype, there is the angry child archetype, the girl who has a crush archetype, and the wise teacher archetype.

Enjoyment (5): Although the story was not very great and the characters were terrible, at the end of the day the product was still somewhat enjoyable. The main reason why was because of the fight scenes and the fact that you get to see MAGICAL NINJAS FIGHTING. If that isn't an awesome setup for spectacular fight scenes, then I do not know what is. However, the really boring and generic story, the boring characters, and the nothing that often happened in an arc puts this score down quite a bit.

TLDR?

Pros:

*The fight sequences are spectacular
*Good soundtrack with the fight scenes
*Chuunin Exam arc has remained up to date one of the best shounen arcs I have seen
*The humor can be funny as a pick-me-up.

Cons:

*Terrible Story - Much deus ex machina (plot no jutsu) writing, or writing that feels as though it were made up in the last moment, and there are few plot holes. The plot holes are faulted slightly less by the fact that any story this long will probably have at least one plot hole.
*The length of the story is far too long. It loses much charm and interest after such long periods of time. After a while you lose immersion.
*Much filler (doesn't really apply to the manga or to those who skip filler so it does not have much minus on the review)
*Very cliche characters, and the minor characters who were fan favorites become completely irrelevant to the point where they could be nonexistent and nothing would change.
*Themes are not depicted well, especially with the black-white morality. It feels as though whoever wins the battle has the correct viewpoint which is narrow-minded.
*Plot often feels repetitive, just about everyone has lost somebody close to them in the past and have decided to become the villain because of that.
*The pacing is inconsistent. At times you'll be going down a rollercoaster ride having a character learn much at one time, other times Naruto will be yelling Sasuke's name and looking for him in a fruitless attempt to reconcile.
*The humor can also get in the way of the story. At times, the tone will be feeling more serious, but when comic relief (beyond a chuckle) happens the atmosphere is broken, immersion is lost, and you lost the chance of taking that scene very seriously.

Overall Score: 5.5/10 (Just round it up to 6/10)

***Please keep in mind that this is just a review and a personal opinion. I am just being entirely honest here about what I thought was good and what I thought was bad. This is not a hate review or a love review, and I try my best to be unbiased and write what I truly thought about the show/manga after watching/reading it. If you enjoy/hate this anime/manga, feel free to accept my thoughts on said anime/manga or discard it.

Before I even start the review, I would like to mention this is based off of the anime only.

Story 6/10
I have to admit Shippuden starts off weak, but gets better once you reach the Hidan and Kakazu Arc which is the 5th anime arc. Then it keeps getting better until the Shinobi War Arc where both the manga and anime go way downhill. I always found Naruto had the best pacing and the most consistent story out of the big three. Even though many fillers, it wasn't until the War Arc where it started to directly affect the canon material and this was due to ... canon episodes and filler episodes being mixed together in one arc.

Art 1/10
At first I defended Shippuden's animation because it was just new, not worse. And it was like that for a long time. Then came the famous fight between Naruto and the final Pein where the animation was just horrendous. Then it got a bit better, but when the 5 Kage Summit Arc started, animation began to go downhill. The point where I stopped defending the animation was the double episode 220 & 221. This double episode was the most inconsistent animated episode I have ever seen. Even if you are an anime only watcher, you could tell canon from filler just based on how the scene was animated. I am serious on this. But that wasn't even the worst yet! And the next example I am going to use may not be either since at this point it is only at episode 321, and unfortunately the animation may get even worse. Anyways the worst animated was episode 298. This was the first episode of a 2 episode fight; the fight Naruto and Killer B vs Itachi and Nagato. Don't get me wrong episode 2 was also bad but this was worse. Not only did the characters look like rag dolls swinging around when they fought, but Itachi didn't even look like Itachi. At least in episode 2 he looked like himself. And BTW these were canon episodes.

Sound 9/10
I've always like the openings and endings better in Shippuden than in Part One. I guess they are more of my type of music. As for the soundtrack, it was different than Part One, but I enjoyed it just as much. I have always found that the OST's in both Part 1 and 2, were matched perfectly with the scene and the music is just really overly well done.

Characters 5/10
Why I am giving this such a low score is because all attention is focused on either Naruto or Sasuke and every other character that showed promise in part one, seemed to be instantly dropped from the canon material. At least the fillers gave them a bit of spotlight, but in my opinion it was by no means enough.

Enjoyment 6/10
Why I am giving this such a low score is because of all the filler that interrupts the series. Now that wouldn't be necessarily a bad thing if the filler was good, but its just really bad; except for the Konoha History Arc which was done well.

Overall 5/10
Face it, Shippuden just isn't as good as part 1. Maybe if Masashi Kishimoto would have focused on making more characters a part of part two and he paid even a little attention to what goes on in the anime, it might have been decent.

This thing which many of you call anime used to be cool at some point until the producers decided to just destroy with loads of fillers. Of course, it was never a top anime. The twists and the storytelling is fine but I don't understand why is everything so Cliche in it. I mean, one character dies on the battlefield and everyone just stand still and stop fighting and look at that dying character. Also the dialogues appear to be the work of 9 year old writers. The art is fine but it got very bad in some critical points like the Pain arc. (I'm ... pretty sure everyone remembers the crappy animation and style during Naruto's fight with pain)
The character development is fine also but they ruin it by giving them too many crappy dialogues.
Overall it is good at some certain points but the story started to get worse and worse with time until recently when the story was just totally destroyed.

I was all into this show back when I was was in middle school. At some point later, this show was moving too slow for me so i started going with it through the manga releases. Eventually I ran out of time and lost rhythm with the anime. I ended up finishing the manga version though. I already know what happens story wise. This manga is too slow paced and long winded. They could of made this show happen in 250 episodes combined. Both naruto and shippuuden. Instead it became a cash cow and quality suffered. It could be I fell out of love with ... this show because perhaps my tastes changed as I got older. It was one of my favorite shows when I first started watching it. Then when at some point during high school it just didn't attract me, it ended up feeling like a chore rather than an enjoyment.

Story wise it started out good, then became way too repetitive and predictable. They drag things out for no reason. Its not like this show will make you think on a deeper level. The plot is basically what you would expect for a shonen anime. Nothing artistic or out of the ordinary.

Overall, i would give this anime a 6/10. If you asked me to rate 10 years ago I would of given it an 8 or 9 out of 10.

Covering the 2nd half of Naruto manga, Shippuden adapts the teenaged years of the titular character. I wanna start this review by admitting that I am quite thankful there were people who managed to really enjoy the full road Shippuden brings. It's a long one, 500 episodes counting filler and around 300 even if you aren't. It took me 5 months to get through all the material skipping everything filler related. Now, it's actually been quite a while since I finished Shippuden (finished it last November) but I feel with a clearer head now's a better time than ever to go over everything with the ... series.

I enjoyed very little of Naruto Shippuden.

To start with, Naruto is... Well, not a very fun protagonist to say the least. He starts off the series seeming at least a little more mature and less annoying than his original counterpart but as the series goes on his character takes a complete nosedive and it was hard for me to really enjoy him as a character by the end. His obsession with getting Sasuke back (who at the end of Naruto abandoned the Hidden Leaf to join that series' big bad in a move that would've potentially ended with his death), while understandable, feels completely unbelievable and unjustified. I feel this could've been corrected by exploring both characters similarities (which happens... 470 episodes in...) But for the majority of the series the goal of bringing back Sasuke feels so hard to care about. Another one of the main characters I enjoyed very little of was Sakura. Sakura is actually just not good. Her character in the previous series, while annoying and mostly unlikable, made sense. She was the most realistic of the cast, reacting to events how an actual 12 year old girl would in the events. Her treatment of Naruto and obsession over Sasuke back then felt understandable and it led me not to really dislike her much.

Enter Shippuden Sakura.

She starts off fairly well with some new abilities (becoming stronger plus learning to heal from Tsunade). However this only lasts for one story arc as by the second story arc she's reverted back to her old ways fairly quickly, rarely amounting to much in the story. She gets one cool moment towards the end of the Ninja World War when Team 7 reunities but not only is the scene poorly built up, aside from landing a good blow to the final villain she doesn't do too much. As a character her interactions with Naruto are dreadful. Really amounting to nothing more than Sakura deriding Naruto for being stupid, praising him for managing to do things despite that or maybe sometimes a little bit of hero worship. However she hits her absolute lowest as a character anytime something involves Sasuke. Her little childhood crush never goes away and while it doesn't seem to bad, the 5 Kage Summit arc is just... Well lemme explain.

Once Sasuke is officially labeled a rouge ninja which means he must be eradicated, the majority of the original Genin kids (Sans Naruto and of course Sasuke) decide that'll it'll be up to them to take care of Sasuke. Sakura however decides to fight him on her own. I didn't mind this because it shows a small semblance of character development. However she struggles to do so due to still being in love with him and honestly she is unable to hold a candle to a weaker Sasuke (having just killed a man after all). I find it very disappointing and really dumb of Sakura.

Otherwise, the cast of characters in this series is VERY expansive but good luck seeing them on screen at all. Older characters that could use development or could be used in new arcs end up getting replaced with new characters who serve on simple purpose and then usually get put on a bus and forgotten anyways. Heya Sai, Taka members. The one exception to this is Shikamaru, the only member of the original Konoha 12 that isn't Naruto or Sasuke who continues to develop. He actually gets his own story arc, the first story arc in the anime to actually be above "meh" level. In fact, I'd say it's pretty damn good. Otherwise, the cast of characters is mostly dreadful in this arc. However I will admit: even many months later Shippuden has some great villains. Wasn't big on Orochimaru in the original series, so the amount of good villains actually surprised me. Whether they be mini-bosses like Hidan, Kakazu, that one guy who flies on a clay bird and uses explosives (forgot his name my bad) or Itachi. The bigger bads are definitely some of the best though. Pain and Obito are still my two favorite anime antagonists. Kinda surprising considering my thoughts on the rest of the series so far...

Though to be honest I still don't like Madara. He's not really bad, just very basic imo.

That being said, what about the story.
*Large exhale*

The story isn't bad when it starts off if I'm gonna be honest, but they aren't really all that great either. I felt very little reason to care about the story, a thing which I blame on it's characters. It's not until a major character dies around 70 episodes in where I actually found myself getting invested in the series. Episode 81 (The Episode titled "Team 10" is one of the most well directed anime episodes I believe. From there on the series begins to start getting back to original Naruto levels of decent. Sasuke's fight with Itachi, the reveal of Pain, many major plot events all culminating in "The Pain Invasion" as Naruto becomes the last objective of the Akatsuki's hit list. While overall the arc tends to become quite frustrating (One notable thing being that Naruto isn't around for most of the invasion, training in another dimension, which is something that could actually work in the other characters advantage as Naruto's capture would mean the end of the world. However Tsunade objects, wanting Naruto to be apart of the fight which is a bad idea in every way knowing how more experienced fighters lost to Pain and Naruto is a 16 year old). However the fight between Naruto and Pain makes up for it. A battle between two different ideas of peace with some amazing animation and Naruto's subsequent breakdown towards the end I'd quite heartbreaking. However, at the very end Naruto simply talks Pain out of his evil ways turning him good. While this is a fairly common Naruto story element and on that I defend in fact, it was poorly implimented and was the beginning of the final downfall of Shippuden. I could go on about the Fourth Great Ninja War arc but it's fairly lengthy (About 2/3's of the whole anime) and so a rant would probably be quite long. Overall the plot sets itself up as interesting but nothing interesting actually happens. I found more often the not I'd either be anticipating a singular event that was to take place in the story, or just straight up anticipating the arcs ending.

Can I also talk about the series' animation? The art design becomes a lot softer and more exaggerated as the series continues, which I appreciate. However for the most part the characters look and move stiffly no matter where the series is. Every now and then the series gets its best animators on a single episode (mostly fights with spectacular results see Sakura vs Sasori, Sasuke vs Deidara and Naruto vs Sasuke) but this is only 5% of a 500 episode anime. The show looks DREADFUL through and throughout

I can say though: Its soundtrack is phenomenal. Probably my favorite or second favorite soundtrack. It's a little weak at the start but by the end of the ninja world war it really hits its peak.

Honestly what can I say about Shippuden. It really hurt to get through and unless there's some sort of Shippuden Kai, I'm never watching this series again.

Oh, but one thing before I finish this review. Don't forget how the series tore down it's whole heartwarming idea that hard work will pay off. Naruto, who was always played up as the underdog who came from nothing, turned out to be not only the chosen one, but was also related the VARIOUS strong individuals from the past (1st Hokages wife is his ancestor. Son of the 4th Hokage. Reincarnation of ninja Jesus etc).

*Sigh*

Why Kishimoto... Why...

Tl;dr: This title is a masterpiece, but with the excessive volume and poor quality of the filler episodes, watching the filler destroys any prolonged enjoyment.

This show starts out delivering a 10/10 experience right out of the gate. Its a more mature Naruto with some great villains and a story that keeps on delivering. The anime however falls into the "we don't have enough content" category and consistently pushes arc after arc of terrible filler that is by far some of the worst of any show. I don't know why the quality drops so much but it just does.

When the show is on manga content ... it delivers superb animation with great character and scene design, top notch voice acting and music, and an excellent plot with character development. Where I am now with watching the show (roughly episode 415) nearly 30-40% of the show has been filler and the current story line shows 1 or 2 episodes from the manga then goes off on a filler flashback tangent for 10-20 episodes, then back to 1 episode of actual story, then back to another 10 episodes of filler garbage. Specifically right now, we're on our 3rd (maybe 4th) flashback on the same character. I can't stress that enough, we're on the 4th filler line for one specific character and they don't even try to hide that they have 1) no more ideas for original story, and 2) they've transplanted Naruto's character and personality into the other character's past.

So basically we're watching Naruto, if Naruto was another character, in the same village. It is a complete degradation of the story back to the original Naruto series before this title grew out of the childish plots and ploys that made that show work, but also makes me never want to return to it again. Awful.

I don't have much hope for this pulling any higher than a 6/10 for me at this point. If you had asked me 100 episodes ago if I thought that I would rate this show any less than a 10, I'd tell you that you were out of your mind... I haven't seen a show tank this hard since Bleach.

Note: Review has been suitably edited to match my views on the anime as of present time. Will have spoilers. You've been warned.
-I'm not a native english speaker, there may be some errors. Please accept my apology.-

Naruto or Naruto Shippuuden?
If I were to compare naruto and naruto shippuuden, somewhere down the line I would still prefer the former. Although I accept naruto shippuden has better fight scenes, the disappointing twists and turns have multiplied considerably too.

Characters:
Naruto shippuuden has an army of fans for a reason, and one of the biggest reason is this - the characters. Almost all types of people will find atleast ... one lovable character in this series, not to mention there are so many! In naruto there are no outright good or bad guys. Almost every character is very believable although sometimes they tend to get repetitive (spoiler >> all those "healed" by naruto pretty much have the same sob history as him. Gaara, pein..why?)

Character development:
The leads:
The thing I find irritating about the series is that sasuke is hyped too much. (haven't we had enough of mourning for sasuke while the characters grew up?) ..and yet he is nowhere to be seen. I'd prefer if the entire series stops going hush hush about him and actually have him take up proper screen space for once. The "mystery" charm is not working anymore, in fact its getting irritating.
In the recent episodes, naruto's significance has considerably increased which makes me happy because to me it somewhat always felt like naruto as the lead was being sidelined a bit. A character's importance is not entirely calculated by his screen space. He has grown up wonderfully after his recent encounters with akatsuki, and for once something in naruto made me feel all happy like the good ol' naruto series.
Sasuke, he seems to be really strong now after training for years under Orochimaru but much can't be said as the anime hasn't progressed so far. The manga is another ball, ofcourse. Although on personal or emotional level (whatever way you like to see it) he still remains the b@st@rd who will not even twitch for a split second before tossing naruto's feelings aside; who along with sakura is still ever so determined to bring him back home. Such level of coldness for someone who loves and cares for you so much is not "cool", its outright irritating.
The third and probably the most criticised one, sakura, is a complete contrast from her old days now. While the heartache of losing sasuke is still there, she's become a gem of a medical ninja AND has the much in/famous montrous strength inherited from Tsunade; which is impressive. I don't mind if she's not in the war zone fighting, as long as she is good in what she's doing which she is, so even though I didn't like sakura initially; I do not completely agree to her being criticized now. I just hope they give her more significant role to play. Also, her relation with naruto has developed considerably and in a good way.

The side sicks:
spoiler >>One thing I find really irritating with this series is that every character you start liking meets an unexpected end, and not in a good way. Sasuke is TEH GOD, naruto is the broken hearted kid in distress and sakura..well she still exists. Not that I have any grudge against sasuke, infact he used to be one of my favourites in naruto series; but I think there are far too many good characters with great potential in the series that are majorly sidelined while sasuke is being hyped to the level that it left some fans irritated. (Again I must go back to the point that if he is so important then don't have almost 100 episodes with pretty much no screen presence of him at all! Talk less and show more is what I want to say, and minus the army of fangirls if at all possible.)

Akatsuki: SPOILERZZZZZZ!!
What excited me most about naruto shippuudin is akatsuki. What excited me most about the entire naruto universe ever since I came to know something like akatsuki existed is AKATSUKI. When they were finally introduced, I was nearly ready to shed tears of joy. I guess that was one of the very rare fangirlish moment I had in my life as an otaku. But the way it happened made my jaw fall on the floor. With disappointment, that is. They make an awesome character like hidan, and he pretty much (almost) dies with not even one "proper" fight. It left me utterly frustated. And I just couldn't understand someone like kakuzu who survived a fight the great you-know-who got his ass handed to him just like that by naruto. Okay, naruto got stronger and all that but still, the transition was a bit too sudden for me to believe. As for sasori I really can't complain because what happened was no surprise (and one thing .. please he did not get owned by sakura. I find it so hard to believe why people keep forgetting that someone who actually knew so much about him was there too!! Defeat was only natural).. but I'd have been really happy if he had made a come back or something. Whatever, illogical demands.. heh.

Anime progress:
Another blooper is the progress of anime. With animes where anime and manga have become quite close, frequent fillers are acceptable and NEEDED. But naruto manga is like..zillion light years away from the anime then what is the need of such slow progress? I dropped naruto at ep 100 due to its slow progress and temporarily switched to other animes. Once it gains its pace, being a narutard I'm; I'll most likely be lured into watching naruto again.


Animation:
Something is wrong with naruto's quality, its not just the same anymore. The anatomy sometimes is horribly wrong .. to the point that you're able to notice it even when something really interesting is going on. The jumping from trees to trees scenes almost always look like people are flying, and some things just don't make sense anymore. Considering that the anime takes its own sweet time in progressing compared to manga, this type of quality is a major setback to fans but if you're a narutard fear not. You'll pretty much still be glued to this anime no matter how bad it gets.

Sound:
I'm one of those people who don't get bothered a lot by sound unless its so off to the point that its ruining the scene so I pretty much find the sounds okay. The openings and ending except one or two aren't all that great compared to other animes but still fine.

The biggest setback.. fansub: This is not important and perhaps not related.. but while I'm at it why not cover this too?
We all know dattebayo, if you don't then you probably don't watch naruto and shouldn't be reading this review because its full of spoilers. Anyway, the biggest setback came to me when crunchyroll took up naruto leading dattebayo to drop it. My source of watching HQ naruto was lost because DB won't sub it, crunchyroll won't air it for our country because its licensed here and I won't get to see it because for whatever xyz reasons CR doesn't know, NARUTO IS NOT ON SALE HERE! Shipping from abroad costs more than the actual anime, which is obviously not an option. And its not just me, a huge chuck of anime fans in my country stopped watching naruto for the same reason after DB dropped it.



In a nutshell, I think naruto shippuuden is a good anime with outstanding characters, but not-so-good priorities and balance between characters. Neverthless, it still deserves at least one time watch. Its one of the most popular anime of today's time, reviews only matter upto a limit.. don't they?

Alright, Naruto Shippuuden itself is badass. You just can't help but to love certain characters, the action is great and the emotion is there but most of the times you either won't care or you won't even notice. The music in the anime is fantastic and really gives that ninja/shinobi feel, especially due to iconic Japanese instruments such as the shamisen. Some tracks may be overused a bit, but it's not bothering in general. It just makes certain moments predictable.

Although I love the story, I can't stand the fillers and flashbacks. They use flashbacks and fillers on the most inappropriate moments.
Let me give you ... an example: In the middle of the final battle they will throw 12 fillers in your face. After that they continue with the final battle for one episode, and while a character's performing a major act for the story.. he decides to have a flashback, continued with another flashback episode. Seriously, it's ridiculous. It totally ruins the atmosphere, excitement and enjoyment. They also repeat a lot of scenes from flashbacks, heck I wouldn't be surprised if some episodes are the exact same, but with the scenes in another order.

This is why I rate Naruto Shippuuden a 6 overall. I find myself saying "AH NO" way too often on the first frame of the "Next time on Naruto Shippuuden!" at the end of every episode, which isn't a good sign. Will they make it better with the episodes to come? Time will tell.

I really, really, REALLY tried to like this show. I was a fan of Naruto (the prequel to Shippuden) and I really enjoyed it.... but trying to finish this show was as fun as watching seniors play checkers. SERIOUSLY.

Story: Ehhh it was same old Naruto plots and stories. Easily predictable and boring. Some friend is in a pickle and Naruto goes all emotional to save him even if he met that that guy 2 minutes ago, because he wants to be hokage. Yawn. I saw enough of that in Naruto. Basically, if you watched Naruto and liked it, think of it as the same ... thing... minus the excitement.

Art: It was no eye popper, but it surely was no total trash. The action and fighting scenes are still eye candy for actionholics, but other than that, it pretty much is what you'd call standard Naruto animation.

Sound: The sound is possibly the best part of Naruto Shippuden. The OPs are still great, expected from Naruto, and the endings weren't that shabby either... Shooting Star (the first ending) grew to be one of my most favorite endings of all time.

Character: All the characters show some development... but in an easily predictable way. Naruto ends up a BIT mature, Sakura grows ladylike... at least for her, and Sasuke grows to be more of a bastard than in Naruto. Some new faces pop up now and then... but they are as memorable as the dust in your belly button.

Enjoyment: Now this is where the opinions get diverse. Some Narutoholics will say this is that best thing since Spam and some will say that they watch this show at night just to go to sleep. I'm no Narutoholic so I'd say that the enjoyment for this show is just horrible, but it will be a way for you to waste time if you can get through all the predictable plotlines.

Overall: Naruto Shippuden could be, should be, and WILL BE a huge disappointment for Naruto fans who enjoyed the show out of pure action enjoyment. But of course they say that 60% of Naruto watchers end up dying their hair yellow out of love for this show, so it all depends on how you look at Naruto. But overall, Naruto Shippuden isn't something you'd go crazy for. Take my word for it.
Overall:

Well I dropped this a while back, but I figure I leave a little something regarding it. Naruto was one of the first anime that I did pick up when I was actually getting serious about watching. I watched the original series, OVAs, and movies. It was ok overall, but I felt it could do something with that story. Then comes along Shippuuden, which I thought it would do expand the story and make naruto seriously epic. I was wrong. I don't even know how I managed to get to episode 255 including all those countless filler. I mean sure Bleach and One Piece have ... fillers, but Naruto takes it to a whole different level. I really can barely recall at least 5 episodes for Naruto that were seriously epic. So on that note, no more naruto for me. I may peep the manga from time to time, but its not a priority.

Naruto Shippuuden seriously started off very strong for me. After that preview episode with Naruto and Sasuke facing off again I got so much hype. I got so excited as I thought this was gonna be so awesome. Like the be all to end all clash of epicness. The first two arcs were pretty damn good I'll give that. There were some tearful moments when a few of you're favorite characters were seen dying. I thought that was a good way to really get you hooked. But by the end of it Naruto Shippuuden felt like such an after thought.

Now for me the original ... anime got so many things right. The character development was big for some of the characters, The action was enjoyable and of course it really kept you excited for things. My only real complaints were that the filler lasted forever sometimes and it felt like it was taking too much inspiration from a lot of anime. As they were targeting the right audience for both kids and adults. It had just enough humor and serious action for all the fans.

But let me get to why Shippuden basically fails on some degree. The first point is that Naruto himself seriously lacks character development. I mean sure he does learn a new jutsu here and there. But he lacks his own sense of humor compared to the original series. It's also very hard to feel for him most of the time. The only time I ever really felt any sympathy for Naruto was when someone special to him died. I'm not going to spoil any of the big moments as if you are curious you can check it out for yourself. The rest of the other character development is take it or leave it. You'll have to decide for yourself which characters you love the most.

The storyline this time around is nothing to write home about. While I will give it something for trying to connect everything more. Also the fact that it tries to be very mature in some parts. Though its something I can't get into in general. The fights are also really awesome to some degree. It has a lot of amazing moments and it was really good. But I seriously began to lose interest after some filler arcs and when I was two or three arcs into Shippuuden. The artwork however is very good in general. I think the anime looks very sharp overall and the presentation is quite good to me. The music is great once again. With traditional Japanese music and some epic orchestra music thrown in. The presentation might be one of Shipuuden's strong points.

Overall Naruto Shippuden is something that has dissapointed me. I did really enjoy the fights to some degree. The music and artwork is also quite good as well. But to a degree this has dissapointed me so much. The emotion also feels very lacking and you could really careless about the story. But I find it very difficult to really enjoy Naruto Shippuuden in general.

The show gave me much enjoyment for many years with the amazing fight scenes and great story.

However the animation has gone down the toilet amazingly fast. There are very select fight scenes that occur every year or so that are well done, but the corners they've been cutting to keep animation budgets at a minimum is not well hidden. Half of the episodes are now filler that are completely intrusive and have no place in the show. The episodes are now long and drawn out with flash backs or long pauses.

I absolutely love the manga and it tears me apart to see how ... they've animated it. The animations are now just borderline stillframes.

ROAD BLOCKS IN PLOT WRITING AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM: SPECIAL ABRIDGED KISHIMOTO EDITION

1) I created a unique main character with a great ambition, how do I make this character instantly likable?

Kishi says: I’ll let you in on a trade secret: “Tragic motherfuckin’ back-story.” You want your character’s childhood to be filled with angst, bullying, depression, thoughts of suicide, and maybe molestation (save this one for an easy shock reveal later on!). Remember, your character in present-day needs to be NOTHING like his childhood self for he will have overcome that shitty past with the almighty “STRONG RESOLUTION”. It’s all about the compare and contrast. ... “Good people deserve good futures”, readers love this.

2) Every protagonist needs an antagonist. What should a good antagonist be like?

Kishi says: Polar opposite. A perfect antithesis of the main character. Have him bent onto a totally evil goal, like say... oh I donno... revenge? Also, make him sexy and make him mysterious. Chicks love that shit. And don’t you fucking forget about that tragic back-story!

3) Should my female characters be important and useful?

Kishi says: No.

--- Many pages of wisdom later ---

56) I have followed your sage advice. My protagonist has forgotten his original ambition and is now stricken with intense homolust for the antagonist. As per your suggestions, I have also went through many INTENSE training arcs: a new ability training arc, a training arc to prepare for a training arc, another new ability training arc, a timeskip training arc, a training arc after a training arc to control the new power gained from a previous training arc, and finally, super saiyan training on Namek.

Kishi says: *wipes tear* This is beautiful. I couldn’t have done better myself.

---A few pages of growing regret later---

72) Since that timeskip you recommended, I feel my protagonist has become severely overpowered, rendering everyone, but his lover, primitive in comparison. It seems that he has already long surpassed his original goal and achieving it now won’t amount to any sort of satisfaction. What hurts the most however, is seeing my fans clinging onto the hope that the plot would carry on, only to be repeatedly swindled with more pointless drivel. Should I bring my manga to a quick close with an epic fight against a greater evil?

Kishi mutters: Don’t be asinine. Now is the perfect time for another flashback.


[After many complaints, the book has now been renamed to “WORDS OF ADVICE FROM MASASHI KISHIMOTO: EXPERT TROLL AND MILKER OF DRIED TITS.”]

Well .. so as One Piece and Bleach .. this anime is one of the most known animes around the western world.. well there are a lot of theories about it but let me notice you .. POPULARITY DOES NOT MEAN IT IS GOOD !


This anime started extremely well, with epic scenes and epic battles plus a nice pace on the development and a good work on exploring the main characters.. combined with a nice sound track and a fair art, it could be a 9/10 .. BUT .. it makes the same mistake as one piece .. IT'S TOO DAMN LOOOOOOOONG so it ... gets repetitive and meaningless .. plus the action gets worst so as the pace and the character development is always the same. I mean for more than 200 eps i'm hearing this :" I'm not alone, i have friends, so i'm strong and i won´t lose ! Oh and i want to be Hokage by the way" .. just makes no sense ..

Talking about this anime makes me sad because i always think how much potential was wasted here ..

Story : 9/10 . Well i will have to talk about the first season, "Naruto". Here the plot was a 10/10. Just perfect. The plot is interesting, creative and original at astonishing levels and it just looks extremely great. Since the first episodes they give us some mysteries and throughout the show they will reveal them and adding another misteries related to the plot .. which make us throughout the first season of Naruto (taking out the last 2 arcs which are fillers) and the first part of Naruto Shipudden hooked to the plot because we always have something to figure out.

BUT .. now they at the current time of the anime, they already explored everything, and the anime is just boring.. there are no secrets anymore, i already know the entire history since the beginning of the world it self ! Now we are just seeing extended crappy fights with shit talks about friendship for like 15 min of each episode .. i'm done with that ! Plus they always are showing the same thing over and over again .. why? Because they don´t have anything else to show.

An example is like how Garen became one of the Naruto's closest friend .. i've seen that memory so many times throughout the fights which is just stupid .. the same thing happens with all of the other characters.. so every episode we have 3-4 min of crappy fights, the rest is just the characters talking to themselves the same thing over and over again.

Plus .. the piece of art that they had was just amazing .. and they were able to blow it up to what we have now .. a silly ninja story which only focuses the importance of friends .. it's so disappointing .. For the first part of the show, we can see some maturity in the anime, which is pretty rare for a shonen. It talks about interesting themes and have some nice conversations .. now ? It looks like they copied One Piece .. It really makes me mad. The plot used to look mature, now it looks so childish..

The action reached ridiculous levels .. at the begining of Naruto Shippuden, some fights were beyond epic. Each fight had a "mini twist" when it comes to the actual power of the characters .. so when we think he is using his best skill, we get to know that he has more powerfull skills to show, which make the action so good. Plus, each character has a lot of special skills, different from each other, so we can´t never predict what he is going to do. Now ? Basically they do a contest about who can make the biggest explosion. So naruto trhowing Rasengans all over the place, and the openents doing the same thing with some kind of "energy ball".. how cool is that? (it really sucks)

Art: 6/10. The detail is almost none because to "hide" the detail they make some huge explosions and everything gets covered by dust, and the characters don´t look great. The background is also weak, so nothing here excels.

Sound: 9/10. Every single opening is pretty damn good (check on the web and see how many openings are only for naruto shipudden), the OST are memorable ! I mean i loved the entire OST related to Akatsuki and the Bijus. Just incredible damn good. It fits nice with the action, give us a nice mood and ultimately, some epic scenes.

Character: 8/10. Another failure .. did you ever heard about Itachi? Or Nagato? Or Madara? You probably heard about them all .. they are just astonishing characters with a excelent background story .. meanwhile .. the FUCKING 5 HOKAGES ARE THE SAME SHIT . Yes .. the same shit. "I will protect my village" it's basically all they have to say. Plus every other characters (like Naruto's friends) are just there to be there. They have no development at all, they are just there to fill in. And then we have characters like Sakura. Well she says "i won´t be dependent on Naruto anymore" like 5 times, after each times she ends up depending on him for everything. Naruto carries his village and it's the only "OP" character at the moment, which is a shame. In Naruto and even in the first part of shippuden, we do have some nice characters getting development and being part of some excelent fights.
Now? It's basically waiting naruto using Rasengan 1000 times and defeat the enemies.

All the characters can be resumed with this sentence: I have friends, so i will always win.

The villians: I'm alone, because that's how we can get true power. Friends are nothing.

It really works like that, each character has the same motivations, if it is a villian, probably he had some dark past and now he belives he is better alone. Is it is a good guy, he belives in friends and that kind of stuff. Really there is 0 variety when it comes to characters. (of course taking out those 3 that i talked about)

About Naruto it self .. well the typical shonen main character.. about his rival, Sasuke.. he had his highlight on Naruto and Naruto Shippuden first part .. well now it's just a pussy and no one cares about him.

Enjoyment: 6/10. It's just boring, meaningless .. for an action anime, there is no action. That's all i have to say.

Overall: 6/10. As you were able to see, we can divide Naruto Shippuden into 2 parts. The first part (9/10) and the second part (4/10) .. which only makes a 6/10. If the show is going to get better? Well i don´t know, hopefully it will, but i doubt .. for who likes shonens, there are betters out there, even though this anime has the best plot i've ever seen, it does not worth the 100 fillers plus the crappy low anime that is being now .. if i advise this one? Well at least the first part is great, the second one? Don´t touch it. I consider the first part everything except the fillers from the first episode of shippuden until the beggining of the 4th ninja war.