I'm not using that sectioned up rating system because that's bullshit. I'm also not gonna follow all those rules on the right either so there will probably be spoilers in here. I'll write my review my way thanks guys. This is going in my blogs as well. Something's gotta go there!
But oh god, where to begin? I guess with a bit of background. I started watching Shippuden back in the early years of high school when my then friends introduced me to it. The original Naruto was my first ever anime and I watched it in english dub. Naturally I wanted to keep it consistent
...
when I moved onto Shippuden. As the years went on and I carried on keeping up with it, the dub suddenly stopped, but the story hadn't finished. I realised I had to wait. But I didn't want to watch it as it was airing, there were huge gaps between episode releases and even without them I'd struggle to keep track of the entire story for that long. So I gave up. And now, years after the fact, I finished high school, I've just finished college and I notice by chance that Naruto Shippuden's english dub is also finished. So I buckled down and decided to watch in full the thing that has haunted me for 5 years. And hoo boy, that was a journey.
Overall, upon reflection the show feels like 480 episodes of meh with some great bits sprinkled in, followed by a final 20 episodes that might as well be a completely different show, they're so good. My biggest problem with the show is, you guessed it, filler. I must've skipped over 100 episodes worth of stuff, from whole episodes I didn't care about, like all those undead dudes we've never seen before but we get a full episode long flashback about them, or the never ending reuse of old scenes to fill space in an episode. When an episode didn't feature a single flashback, it was a mercy.
There is one exception though. Paradise Life on a Boat. The arc is entirely filler, but it's also the best arc in the whole show, besides the epilogues. It finally lets up the dull seriousness for a while and let's us have some fun. Naruto's shadow clones staging a revolt, mushrooms of death, these are some of the best episodes of the entire show, and they have nothing to do with the story whatsoever. I don't really have a good segway into this next bit, but let's talk about the characters.
I... don't hate Sakura... or Sasuke or Naruto or anyone really. Kaguya's a bit one-note, but gods usually are. I feel sorry for Sakura in particular. She's a great character but she's never allowed to do anything. She keeps saying to herself that she's gonna stand toe to toe with Naruto and Sasuke, but she never does. In the final boss, she does brief support for Obito and then gets one punch in right at the end. Poor girl. And Sasuke oooo, he pissed me off for a good while but, after seeing his final battle with Naruto, I kind of get it. He's been so wrapped up in hate and revenge his whole life he can't comprehend forgiveness even when it's right in front of him, and it takes Naruto literally beating some sense into him that he's finally able to admit to himself that he doesn't want to sever his ties. That's some damn good character writing and I praise Kishimoto for creating an arc this complex for a character he didn't even want to make originally.
I was never fully sold on the relationships though. Most of the time I felt that Sakura could do so much better than Sasuke, and I didn't really believe the love between Naruto and Hinata, because they hardly ever interacted in the show. They needed to add in another movie right after the ending but before the epilogues to add some much needed depth to their relationship before dropping the wedding on us. Same problem with Ino and Sai too, but those two were more in the background so I don't really mind that they only interacted once in the entire show (that I watched) before that point. Besides, Ino is like the personification of sex appeal to me (remember, I first watched this show when I was going though puberty) so I'm automatically on board with anything she does (or anyone). Feel bad for Tenten though. I really like her and she even admits in the epilogues that she's spent so much time training and never takes time for herself. I wonder who'd be a good match for her. Maybe Omoi? He was fun. Also, the Akatsuki. In particular, Pain and Konan, because I love Pain's character design so much, and Konan because she's an underappreciated badass. Also Deidara because of his fun personality, and the fact that's he's voiced by Sonic the Hedgehog.
I'm glad I waited for the dub. I tend to get really anal when I have to switch between dub and sub, especially when it's a show I care about, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Maile Flanagan will always be Naruto to me, as will everyone else. Dave Wittenberg is inseparable from Kakashi in my head and Neil Kaplan was a brilliantly threatening Madara/Tobi, just to name a few.
In the end, Shippuden kinda feels like a series of peaks and valleys. The highs are super high, the lows are scarily low and there's basically nothing in between. I hate parts of it and I love other parts, especially the well animated parts. Naruto vs Sasuke is one of the most brilliant and emotional fight scenes I've ever had the pleasure of witnessing, and I'm glad I waited till I was 19 so I can fully appreciate it. There were only four moments in this show that made me cry. One was, what you just read, Naruto vs Sasuke when Sasuke is finally able to admit to himself that he wants friends. The other was near the beginning where Gaara is brought back to life and he's surrounded by the comrades he thought hated him, and the third and fourth were Naruto saying goodbye to his parents. Those were some of my favourite moments of the story, and I will never forget them.
Aaaaannnnd, I think that's about it. I've gotten my thoughts out, something that's been 5 years in the making. I love this show, and I hate it at the same time. I'm probably not gonna watch Boruto until the dub finishes, so get back to me in 2029. Maybe I'll have gotten over my joint crush on Ino and Tenten by then. Going through it, I figured I'd end up disappointed, like, 5 years of waiting for a 4/10, but thank god they saved it. If you want to watch Shippuden, watch it with a guide. This show is notorious for taking way too long to say not very much, so chop it down wherever you can. I skipped as much as possible but it still took me two months to finish. Or, if you watch nothing else of Shippuden, watch the epilogues, they're like Shippuden god mode and are better than all 480 episodes before them put together.
The only question left is, after all that, what the fuck am I gonna do now? It's all over, I can move on with my life.
fuck
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Aug 4, 2019
Naruto: Shippuuden
(Anime)
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I'm not using that sectioned up rating system because that's bullshit. I'm also not gonna follow all those rules on the right either so there will probably be spoilers in here. I'll write my review my way thanks guys. This is going in my blogs as well. Something's gotta go there!
But oh god, where to begin? I guess with a bit of background. I started watching Shippuden back in the early years of high school when my then friends introduced me to it. The original Naruto was my first ever anime and I watched it in english dub. Naturally I wanted to keep it consistent ... |
