And my mentality rings true with Naruto. While I’m still not a huge fan or anything like that, I think I had fun for the most part. And since I like to compare this show to Harry Potter, I think they both share similar pros and cons. And one more thing before I start to get deep into this review, for people who didn’t read my review for classic Naruto, I never grew up watching this show, and I don’t have any nostalgia for it like most people do, so that’s probably why I don’t have the strongest feelings for this series in general. So to start, I’m gonna be a butt head again and tell you what’s wrong with Shippuden to get out of the way. But don’t freak out because I’m gonna talk about the things I liked right after, so buckle up and be patient.
First of all, in the spirit of its predecessor this show has god awful filler episodes. To the point where I didn’t even watch all of them, by the 200 episode mark I just started skipping them entirely. But even without the filler episodes the narrative could still get kind of messy and some of the main storylines were just not that interesting to me. It also goes to show that this series is just way too long and bloated. To further emphasize my point of how long this show is, when Naruto defeated Pain and got respect from everyone in the Hidden Leaf Village, I honestly thought this was leading to the climax of the series where Naruto and Sasuke would finally have their long awaited fight with one another. I mean yeah Sasuke and his group were going after Killer Bee but I kind of forgot that even happened until many episodes later. I just thought that was some weird side quest and not an actual important story beat. What I’m trying to say is that I thought the show was heading into its climax and then it would wrap up and end. But then I realized that there were approximately 335 episodes left! And knowing that I was like: “What could possibly happen next for this show to have that many episodes?”
Well what follows is the ninja war arc that takes up a 3rd of the show, and it just went on and on and on. Don’t get me wrong there were some great moments during it, like the part where Madara started tearing assholes and going ham on all the shinobi soldiers for the first time. Or the part where Sasuke got bittersweet closure with Itachi in those caves. But even though those moments were very satisfying to see unfold, in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but keep thinking: “Shouldn’t this story be long over by now?” I get that they’re trying to raise the stakes and make the story more epic, but I felt like it kind of lost what the core of the show was all about: character building and grounded ninja battles with some jutsu involved. Because I felt like the fights became less about ninjutsu and more about mecha battles and magic. There also became a lot of overcomplicated lore and characters not named Naruto and Saskue were not given enough focus as much as they used to have which was pretty disappointing to me. But there were still some moments that I maybe couldn’t have lived without, so you can kind of see my dilemma here.
I also really didn’t like the plot point of there being more beasts than the nine-tails. I also didn’t like this plot point in the classic series either, because explaining that Naruto is not the only one with beasts inside of him kinda makes him seem less important. If they had just said all the other beasts died and he was only one with a tailed beast inside of him, I think that would’ve really solidified him as the Chosen One. But it doesn’t matter anymore because there’s more tailed beasts out there.
Another thing is that the humor was still not for me and I didn’t find it funny. And I know that’s a subjective thing to say, but it’s probably because I’m too much of a grumpy old man for me to laugh at this over exaggerated kind of humor. Like when American cartoons use exaggerated humor like this, it’s charming and it feels more genuine because it’s made for a more kid-friendly audience. However, when anime tries to emulate that, it’s just lame to me. Because most shounen are targeted toward young adults right? I guess the whole gag humor schtick just doesn’t really work for me.
Also just like the OG series the animation is very hit or miss. Sometimes it looks really impressive, and sometimes it just looks lazy. This probably comes with the territory of having too many episodes. And this show still had a bad habit of spoon feeding you information and over explaining things. I feel like the creators still didn’t understand that ambiguity can be a good thing. I’m not saying you need to ALWAYS be ambiguous because that will just lead to unnecessary plot holes. I’m just saying that I personally do not need to have everything explained to me in a way that treats me like an idiot.
But even though I do have my complaints, this show is nowhere near as bad as haters say it is. Yes, this show does have some poorly developed character arcs and a badly paced story and misplaced, inappropriate humor at times, but it also has aspects that I think are handled really well.
For one, I think the emotional moments are handled way better than in the OG series. Unlike in the original show where some of the emotional moments were sometimes unintentionally hilarious to me, in this one I didn’t get that vibe at all for the most part. They’re handled with a little more care this time around. The one thing that I really respect about Naruto is how they’re willing to kill off important characters and do it in a way that’s satisfying for that character instead of for dumbass shock value, which is a problem that Harry Potter can really have a problem with at times.
While I was never really fond of Naruto in the previous show, I do like that he very gradually grows from an annoying brat to a mature man throughout the show’s progression. He’s way less antsy than he was before which is a good thing for me at least. It’s a slow process but I did begin to notice a few positive changes from him as I trudged through the episodes. I also like how all the villains in Naruto aren’t really bad people, they’re all just misguided or have bad luck. And I guess I kinda liked some of the new characters they introduced like Sai.
The Naruto and Pain fight was pretty badass, definitely one of the best fights in the whole series. The Sasuke and Itachi fight was kinda awesome as well. And what is it with Naruto and Sasuke getting the best fights in this show? Why can’t every fight in this show be as cool and smoothly animated as that final battle? Probably because there’s too many episodes but fights like that were so good to me to the point where I actually considered giving this show a higher rating. And this is where I’m left divided because I don’t think this is a bad show, it’s just a very confused mess of a show that has some really good stuff in it. I just wish they had streamlined a lot of it. And lastly the ending definitely dragged a lot for me but I think it still paid off anyway.
So while Shippuuden does have the highest highs in the entire series, it also has the lowest lows. Can’t say it blew me away but by the end I was not at all disappointed. At this point I do not want to watch or read anything Naruto related for a very long time. (And no I’m not watching Boruto because I’ve heard nothing but bad things about it and most Naruto fans seem to hate it so I’m not gonna waste my time with that). Maybe in like 30 years I’ll go back and rewatch it to see if it holds up, but as of now, I want to separate myself from this series. Sorry but I need my rest ok? Because like I said in the beginning of this review, I am very exhausted. So I guess I’d give this show like the lightest, featherist, softest 7/10. I don’t know these shows are pretty hard to rate for me. Anyway I’m done, moving on.
ORIGINALLY REVIEWED ON 10/11/2023
