Naruto: Shippuuden

It has been two and a half years since Naruto Uzumaki left Konohagakure, the Hidden Leaf Village, for intense training following events which fueled his desire to be stronger. Now Akatsuki, the mysterious organization of elite rogue ninja, is closing in on their grand plan which may threaten the safety of the entire shinobi world.

Although Naruto is older and sinister events loom on the horizon, he has changed little in personality—still rambunctious and childish—though he is now far more confident and possesses an even greater determination to protect his friends and home. Come whatever may, Naruto will carry on with the fight for what is important to him, even at the expense of his own body, in the continuation of the saga about the boy who wishes to become Hokage.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Uzumaki, Naruto Main

Takeuchi, Junko Japanese

Hatake, Kakashi Main

Inoue, Kazuhiko Japanese

Uchiha, Sasuke Main

Sugiyama, Noriaki Japanese

Haruno, Sakura Main

Nakamura, Chie Japanese

Uchiha, Itachi Supporting

Ishikawa, Hideo Japanese

Nara, Shikamaru Supporting

Morikubo, Shoutarou Japanese

Jiraiya Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Uchiha, Madara Supporting

Uchida, Naoya Japanese

Gaara Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Hyuuga, Hinata Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Simone, Jamie Producer, Casting Director, ADR Director

Hijikata, Makoto Producer

Azuma, Fukashi Producer

Hagino, Ken Producer

Reviews

Mar 6, 2025

Merunyaa

Recommended

If you're looking for an anime that teaches the value of never giving up on a friend, this is a must-see!

There's a reason the Naruto series is so popular: ninjas. ✔️ Superpowers? ✔️ Action-packed adventures? ✔️✔️
Shippuden may appear to be just another shonen, but it is far more complex than that. You can learn a lot of life lessons from it. For example, it emphasizes hard work and coping with loss, among other important themes. Sure, the flashy action and cool ninjutsu are visually appealing, but what really drew me in was the story behind the characters' motivations. The lines between good and ... evil are blurred; it's clear why each side believes what they do and do what they do. It's refreshing! A nice change from the typical 2D shonen, where one side is purely evil and the other is completely good.

However....it is not without flaws. The filler episodes can be dull, but they do not detract from the main plot and can be skipped without missing anything important....unlike Boruto. There is also room for improvement, particularly in character development. Out of the vast number of ninjas, some of the main characters' backstories appear rushed or even nonexistent! But.. I'm not going to spoil anything for you! Even if shonen isn't your thing, this is an anime you should not miss!

Believe me, you're in for a real treat!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 18, 2025

AngeVNs

Mixed Feelings

With how much love Naruto Shippuden gets—aside from maybe its final arc—I'm personally surprised the time skip (or Shippuden, as the anime calls it) isn’t criticized more for its actual issues. I’m not talking about the anime’s slow pacing and filler—that’s been talked about to death. I mean problems that were in the manga itself and just carried over into the anime.

That said, I should be fair and explain my perspective—why I was disappointed, but also what I did like about Shippuden.

In general, I prefer pre-time skip Naruto. Not only was the cast decently sized without feeling bloated, but the tone had a good mix ... of lightheartedness, magic, and actual strategy. However, due to the events of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, it’s understandable that Shippuden lost much of its whimsical charm. Even the soundtrack feels more serious and somber. That’s one thing Shippuden does well—consistently emphasizing tragedy. And, oh boy, there’s a lot of it.

While pre-time skip Naruto fumbled with who the real villains were from arc to arc, Shippuden at least has solid villain buildup. Almost every major conflict connects to a larger antagonist, which helps the story feel more cohesive.

I also think Naruto (the character) himself improved. Pre-time skip Naruto had some nice moments but was generally a bit too annoying for me. Post-time skip, he’s more tolerable and has more memorable moments, though he can still be frustrating and occasionally bland.

And while there aren’t as many as I’d like, Shippuden does have some great emotional moments. Some are tied to backstories, but a few present-day scenes stand out and keep things memorable.

Unfortunately, that’s about where my positives end.

One of my favorite things about pre-time skip Naruto was its balance of magic (ninjutsu) and strategy. Unfortunately, Shippuden gradually reduces the importance of ninja tactics, making fights feel like they’re decided purely by who has the strongest jutsu. Strategy occasionally appears, but it’s subtle—sometimes too subtle. This made many action scenes duller than they should have been. Sure, there are some cool set pieces and hard-hitting moments, but when everyone is just spamming super-powerful ninjutsu, and things like shuriken, bombs, and taijutsu barely matter (outside of that one insane Might Guy moment), it really shows how much power creep affected the fights.

Even in pre-time skip Naruto, some characters were already being pushed to the background despite having cool designs or moments. Shippuden takes this issue and dials it up to 100.

So many characters we got to emotionally connect with—or at least see do something cool—get shafted. Asuma, Kurenai, Choji, Shino, Anko, Rock Lee, Neji, Tenten—the list goes on. These were characters we got to know as early as the second arc, yet in Shippuden, they barely do anything.

The only exceptions are a few obvious fan favorites like Shikamaru, Gaara, and I guess Hinata—but that’s about it. You’d think the Fourth Great Ninja War Arc would be the perfect time to make all these characters relevant again, and the series tried, but in my opinion, it fumbled hard.

Why? Because there were too many characters introduced on top of an already large cast. Not only do we still have all the Leaf Village ninjas, but now we also have other village ninja, Kages, Tailed Beast hosts, Sasuke’s new Hebi allies, and temporary replacements for Sasuke and Kakashi in Team 7. With so many characters, most of them don’t get enough development to make us care about them beyond their base personality and powers. And sadly, that applies to the villains too.

I do appreciate that the Akatsuki serve as Shippuden’s main antagonists. There was strong buildup for who should have been the final villain.

But then there’s Kaguya.

Without getting into spoilers, the lack of buildup for her is one of the most universally criticized aspects of Shippuden. There’s a bunch of nonsense about fate and reincarnation, and at this point, the ninja world’s reliance on magic becomes obnoxious. But honestly, Kaguya is just a symptom of a larger problem—Shippuden’s escalating power creep, which had been growing worse long before she even appeared.

What’s probably the most disappointing for me is how Shippuden handled Team 7—the core reason the time skip even happened.

By the end of pre-time skip Naruto, Sasuke’s character was already heading down a dark path. And let’s just say he becomes a lot more unlikable post-time skip. While there are good reasons for his descent, and some of it is due to certain characters withholding information from him, he still comes across as a moody, irrational mess. He constantly shifts his motives, becomes increasingly cruel, and gets way too much forgiveness for the terrible things he does.

Then there’s Naruto and Sakura. They make so many dumb choices in their quest to “bring back" Sasuke. I get that this is the heart of the story, but the way it plays out is exhausting. Watching Naruto and Sakura regress personality-wise just to make this happen was frustrating, and by the end, I didn’t even find their resolution satisfying. Their dynamic, which should have been a highlight of Shippuden, ended up being one of its biggest headaches.

I honestly feel bad for Kakashi—he had to deal with a bunch of emotionally unstable teenagers who eventually gained god-like powers and affected the world because of some melodramatic love-friendship nonsense.

Shippuden has its moments—a stronger, more somber tone, some cool fights, and a handful of emotional scenes. But the things it focused on just weren’t for me. The bloated cast, the increasingly dull fights, and the Team 7 drama made it a slog. And the slow pacing certainly didn’t help.

I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but we got what we got.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 15, 2024

ObsceneCatGravy

Not Recommended

Funny

I downloaded a special version of this anime that had the filler cut out and even that was still filled with flashbacks. Why? Because every other scene relies on it. Some of the scenes would not have made sense without the flashback. That said, I skipped most of them anyway. Honestly, the pacing can be so slow that I just completely lose interest and find myself not paying attention.

I'll just sum up my feelings here:

- The soundtracks are really good, especially some of the villains like Nagato and Madara.
- Animations are typically lackluster and dull
- There's little to no real character development
- A lot of ... characters are very forced and just cringe

I have to rant about two characters that I really disliked: Sakura and Shikamaru.

Sakura is a one dimensional character who's only reason for existing is her insane, unjustified love for Sasuke. She's actually crazy in that regard. Sasuke couldn't care less for her and yet she doesn't take no for an answer. Also, she's mostly useless. Sure, at the end she gets some offensive 'power' but literally doesn't use it except for one time. But for the most part, she's unnecessary. The entire show could have gone on without her and it would have been the same, nay, better.

Shikamaru is literally one of the dumbest, weakest, and most plot-armored character in the show. I don't know what the author's obsession with him is but he's really cringe. He's given way too much attention. For one thing, he's supposed to be one of the smartest characters, coming up with "brilliant" strategies and yet his strategies are always simple. Not to mention it takes him a long time to even come up with them in the first place. Even Naruto has better strategies. There's one scene where he and his master are battling a villain, and the villain takes his time to draw a circle on the ground afterwhich he gains a power. Anyone with half a brain can see the circle is giving him his power and yet Shikamaru had to think about it before reaching that conclusion.

Another thing I hate about Shikamaru is that he's so arrogant. He self-appointed himself as Naruto's strategist, just lol.

Sasuke also becomes a really cringy character in the second half of the anime. His story was interesting prior to the reveal.

The story in general was good until the Pain Arc ended then it went downhill quickly.

Also, good god are there so many forced emotional scenes. Putting on sad music and having flashback after flashback isn't going to make anyone with half a brain get emotional, it's just dumb.

Moreover, the dialog is predictable and the justifications of most the character's actions is downright stupid. I hate the whole "friends" justification. That's Naruto's entire reasoning behind everything he does. "I won't let my friends die", "I'm going to save my friends". Just stop with this dumb friend thing, every other anime has stupid trope and I absolutely hate it.

Lastly, in every fight, Naruto's main strategy is: Shadow Clone Jutsu. This is literally the only thing he can do, aside from his beast power and that move he learned from his master. He can also use a summon jutsu but I think he only used it twice in the entire run of the anime and the first time being him learning it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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