The story starts to get really good when the focus shifts away from just Naruto and his team and allows us to see other Ninja, from Naruto's village and other villages as well, each using their own unique skills and facing their own unique - and often tragic - struggles. While I don't find the three main characters Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all that interesting I absolutely love the side characters like Rock Lee, Shikamaru, Hinata, and so on.
When Naruto gets good it gets really good. The gripping Chunin exam arc is followed by the Konoha Crush arc and the Sasuke retrieval mission with only a tiny bit of filler in between and all of these arcs are very, very strong.
Naruto isn't all good, after these arcs there's a big section of filler stretching over almost a hundred episodes and while some of the filler was great it gets tiring when new characters and situations keep introduced episode after episode only to never be heard from again when that particular mission is over and it gets a little annoying that none of these episodes have any developments that impact on the main plots at all. I did like seeing some of the other characters fighting in the fillers, any Shikamaru or Rock Lee screen-time is welcome here, but it would have been better if this filler was shorter and interspersed with more meaningful story lines.
Another thing I really didn't like about the show was Jiraya. I knew I would hate him the moment he appeared on that stupid toad of his and acted like a moron and I will continue to hate him until the end of time. Seriously, what kind of Ninja is he? They expect me to believe that this clown is a very powerful respected Ninja? They seriously offered this guy the job of Hokage? What?
This brings me to some questions I had while watching the show, things that seemed a bit sketchy or things I really just wanted to ask the writers. BEWARE THE SPOILERS BELOW,
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
1) What was the third Hokage smoking when he trained the Sannin? No, seriously, there has to be something wrong with you when your three students are a psychopath, a pervert and a gambling addict.
2) What is so special about the 'legendary' Sannin. I didn't find their fight at all impressive and while there's obviously strength there I didn't find it worthy of all the big fuss. Especially with the way they chose to use (read: not use) these supposedly legendary powers.
3) How and when did Naruto and Sasuke become best friends? I mean seriously, there was that one moment in the song when Sasuke gave him a hand up after a fight, but none of these tantalizing scenes ever happened in the actual story. This whole friendship thing was retconned in when they faced each other in the end of the Sasuke retrieval arc and they just didn't fit with what seen previously. From what I saw, and I watched every single episode carefully, Naruto and Sasuke never had a good relationship. They were only just starting to accept each other as teammates, slowly and gradually, when the whole Gara facedown thing happened at the end of the Konoha crush arc. It was good character development, and then suddenly the Sasuke retrieval thing happened and they're supposed to be best friends? No.
4) Who directed that Orochimaru vs. Third Hokage battle? Seriously, they were stuck there with Orochimaru's soul being pulled back and forth by one single millimeter for about five episodes so that other stuff could happen... other more interesting stuff. Let's be frank here, it wouldn't have mattered if the Third Hokage died earlier on and the others continued fighting their own battles and found out about it later... or, if they didn't want to do that, why not just work on going back and forth between different battles from the start instead of just focusing on and ending the Hokage's battle and then putting it on pause for 5 episodes.
5) If you weren't going to give Sakura anything useful to do, why did you have to go and make up her character? Why even put her on Naruto and Sasuke's squad? Why did she have to be a Ninja? Seriously, just saying that she's smart and good at Chakra control every once in a while isn't character development. Make her do something Ninja-ish. One of the best things about the filler episodes is that they had some Sakura growth. Not much, but just enough to give me hope again.
6) How do they get EXACTLY two male ninja to every female ninja in every squad in what seems like every single ninja village. Seriously, that is one crazy freak-of-nature coincidence. I'm ok with there being less females than males, especially if the females are going to be like Sakura. I would even be ok with them having some squads with only males or only females, as long as there's some variety. It just isn't believable that the numbers ALWAYS work out that way for every squad we know of!
7) What kind of messed up psychopath gives Orochimaru a student? I mean, seriously, there is no way they did not realize that he was trouble from the start. Poor Anko.
Overall, though, I'm very pleased with my experience with Naruto and I really hope that Naruto Shippuden is good. What did you think? Let me know your thoughts on this series if you've seen it!
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