Naruto Shippuden - What I Think

Written by: Shiggins

So we all know about Naruto. It’s why you come to this blog and it’s constantly talked about in half our lists and stuff. In fact, Naruto is the reason I got into anime and manga in the first place. Maybe one day I’ll tell that tale but for now, I’m going to talk about the anime itself. Or more specifically, I’m going to talk about the Naruto Shippuden anime.

Actually, I’m going to answer the big question right now. The anime is quite bad. There, I said it and you already know it. However, I notice people never really look at the anime subjectively and instead just hate everything about it. It’s why I’m here. To put it simply, I’m going to look at each main category of anime (animation, music, story, openings and endings and the others), and see how Naruto Shippuden holds up.

Note: Some spoilers for Naruto. Duh.

"Shippuden" actually means "Hurricane Chronicles". That is actually very awesome.

Animation

This one is obvious. Naruto Shippuden does not have good animation. In fact, I would go so far as to say it’s the worst animation I’ve ever seen in a modern anime. Now, the first thing people will think of when they ask the question “why is it so bad?” is that the budget is the reason. I’m here to tell you right now that that is definitely not the case for 2 reasons.

1. Naruto is literally one of the biggest franchises in anime history. It’s anime is not going to have a tiny budget and even if it did suffer from budget problems, it doesn't fully explain why so many other anime look a million miles better than it. 

2. Not every episode is actually that bad. I can think of a few good examples, especially in earlier episodes. During the Kazekage arc and the Sai arc, the animation was as good as the entire series should be.

An actual screenshot from Madara's first full episode. SOMEBODY DREW MADARA LIKE THIS!

The only logic for this shockingly pathetic display of animation is that the animators just don’t care enough to put in effort. It’s like when you watch a film by those assholes Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Google them. You know you hate them already). You can tell they don’t care about their audience that much and cut corners in every possible way. When watching Shippuden, I can’t help but feel that it should look a million times better, like in the Fairy Tail or Fullmetal Alchemist anime.

*crying, screaming, vomiting and committing seppuku all at once*

If I’ve not managed to make you realise that the animators aren’t trying yet, then check out the biggest battles. That’s right; the anime actually fucks up when we want it to do its very best. In normal episodes, the anime is sub-par providing some awkward movements, extremely dull colours and the characters don’t seem to actually be solid people and instead move all weirdly and like play-dough. I guess that’s normal in anime but then when you see fights like Naruto vs Pain or Sasuke vs Danzo, the characters transform into disgusting liquids that feel nothing and it’s pathetic. It hurts me how bad the animation is! Tom and Jerry has better animation than this!

Music

Ah now here is a difficult one! The music of the Naruto Shippuden anime is definitely memorable. In fact, I have so many of the tracks of Naruto on my phone, including the Akatsuki theme and Heaven-Shaking Event theme. When I finally started watching the Naruto Shippuden anime, I was racing to YouTube to listen to each soundtrack again and again because it was so good! Unlike the first anime of Naruto, which is great for its oriental-like music, the music this time was a lot more fast-paced and action-themed, as well as darker at times.

I would say buy this soundtrack but you've probably heard it in the anime a billion times already.

Then Naruto Shippuden cut more corners. This situation reminds me of those Cadbury Crème Eggs. I used to love those things but one summer when I was a kid, I had one or two too many and just ended up feeling sick. After that incident, I’m no longer a big fan of them and I keep questioning the white stuff inside them. This is a bit like my experience with Shippuden’s music because although I loved it at first, the anime refused to keep making new tracks and instead just played the same sounds over and over to me. That “Departure to the Front Lines” track must be in almost every episode now and that should be great, but it’s not anymore.

Can't blame them for dancing to good music.

So what’s my overall opinion of the music? I love it but damn, I’m just bored of it now. I’ve heard it a million times and because the anime keeps reusing the great tracks and making me sigh along with it, half the scenes don’t feel right. The music is forced in scenes they don’t belong and we’re just meant to feel happy about it. Well, sorry Shippuden but you gave us too much of a good thing and we’re just not that interested anymore.

Story

I love Naruto’s storyline and I think I’m in a minority because rarely do you hear people express deep love for it anymore. Then again, we can’t blame them. Half the fun of reading Naruto is hating some of the scenes, because I’m a reviewer and a fan of reviews and I love hearing things other than “let’s all suck Kishimoto’s dick!” That being said, let’s actually give the anime credit here. When it gets down to it, it does follow the manga storyline to a T (whatever that actually means). You can see that some of the panels of the manga have been directly copied into the anime and when it’s an adaptation like this, that’s very good.

....Meh. Close enough.

Then you fuck me over. The Shippuden anime has a huge problem of coming out (almost) every week and therefore, it catches up to the manga at an alarmingly fast rate since every episode is maybe 2 chapters long. So of course, the animators and companies and such have a big decision to make. “What do we do to make sure we don’t overtake the anime?” they ask. Well, a good person would say “just take a break. Get your animation skills improved and wait a while, then give us a big fancy new anime like Fairy Tail did”. Sadly, the animators don’t listen and instead give us filler. Fucking filler. Fuck that filler!

I... I... I have no words.

Naruto Shippuden is great with story when it follows the manga like it’s meant to but sadly, the second they “try” something else, they fuck it up. We get countless arcs and episodes of badly imagined plots that nobody actually likes. I know there are probably some people who like the Three-Tails arc but even if we include that, we get fucking chaos like in the Shinobi War when we spent three episodes focused on a filler kid that they acted was some sort of “great friend” or something. My least favourite memory of filler was the Chikara arc where they kept telling me Hidan would return so I watched that, and when we only got like three lines from Hidan and Kabuto looking like a granny, I flipped my lid.

I think someone needs a hard candy.

So in short, anime is good when it follows the story but don’t hold your breath. Chances are you’re just going to pick an episode and get some random bullshit characters or plots that make no sense and are just irritatingly pathetic!

Openings and Endings

I like these. There, I said it. I love the openings of Naruto Shippuden. One or two of them aren’t great but then you get to the really good openings like “Sign by Flow” or “Closer by Joe Inoue” and suddenly everything in the world is great. The songs aren’t created for Naruto but the fact that the franchise manages to keep finding so many songs and making the opening animation fit them perfectly is one of my favourite things about the anime. (Huh. Maybe that is where the budget keeps going then?)

I even have a soft spot for the harsh treatment of the corpses of great characters.

The endings however… They’re a different story. Don’t get me wrong, at times the endings of Shippuden follow the same logic as the openings. Get a good song, then good-ish animation to fit it for a while. However, the thing that bugs me the most about the endings is that very rarely do they fit with the moments happening in the anime. For example, ending 26 is a bright and cheery song called “Carry Your Dreams” and has a horribly drawn Naruto skipping on a beach and stars and shit. This was shown when MADARA UCHIHA APPEARED IN THE ANIME! Imagine that for one moment. You see the epicness of Madara Uchiha appear before your very eyes for the first time, then suddenly we see Naruto skipping while his eyes twinkle. That’s just poorly done.

Ending 21: Easily my favourite of them all

That being said, some endings are great. Especially the more recent ones that show glimpses of Obito’s past or the original Team 7 and how they've grown. I’d be lying if I said that all endings suck. Just a few of them are actually bad and a few others are forgettable, but the ones that are good are really good and it would be a mistake to not check them all out to see what your favourite one is.

Other

So what else can really be talked about in the anime series? Well, here are some quick opinions on the other things in it.

The voice acting is mostly good. In the English dub, you no longer hear the words “Believe It” or shit like that, and most voices work perfectly well with their characters. It can actually be jarring at times when a voice actor is too good for the animation. One or two voices don’t fit right with me but that is easily a personal thing. For example, the Tsuchikage sounds nowhere near as wise or respectful as I would have liked. He’s more… Gollum-like sometimes.

A voice actress I would gladly cuddle in gratitude.

The choreography is done well too. The movements are fast and if the anime actually kept up with it, the battles would easily be some of the best I've ever seen. Even then, they are still enjoyable when they are fast and strong, like Madara’s first full episode or when Itachi and Sasuke had their battle. So that’s good.

The omakes at the end of episodes were actually pretty good too. Not all of them were perfect but whenever they broke the 4th wall, I did have a giggle or two. One particular one I loved was when Sakura said "Naruto-kun" in different ways to try to steal Hinata's fans. I miss them.

Final Verdict

The anime is lacking when it needs to be great. Its animation is nowhere near as good as it should be and the music is constantly repeated which ruins some scenes. The opening songs and animations are fun and definitely memorable, while the endings can be a bit disappointing at times but brilliant at other times.

Honestly, I recommend watching it. Avoid ALL filler episodes and stick to what you've got for now, because hopefully we’ll be seeing a reboot of the entire Naruto Shippuden anime in a few years’ time. It worked for Hunter X Hunter, and I think it would work for Naruto. 

Of course, the manga is where the best parts of this are at. You don't get the thrill of movement of course, but it looks so much better and obvious things such as censorship and filler don't exist in here. So if I had to tell you to make the choice between manga or anime, then go for manga. That is where the real feelings are. Masashi Kishimoto is a great and talented writer, despite his flaws, and he deserves to have that portrayed properly in his anime.

Imagine Naruto getting an upgrade like these guys did.

Shiggins:[Admin]
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Shiggins enjoys many strange forms of communication, especially those including cosplayers or presents or videos. However, until that wonderful day comes when people care enough to give him things for being him, you can contact him on his Skype; shigginsishere. He can also respond to you if you contact him through GMails at shigginsishere@gmail.com, and you can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere.