Naruto: Awesome or Opossum?

[Cloudane]

I'm one of the select few who actually quite liked the filler seasons. They fleshed out some of the characters a bit more, and had some quite nice stories. But I watched them back-to-back... if I'd been sitting around for 2 years waiting for the actual story to continue, I'd have been annoyed.

[Mercen-X]

Now that I think about it, that is pretty true. I did enjoy learning more about the characters once I stopped thinking too much on the main story.

[blackmage_nuke]

I'm one of the select few who actually quite liked the filler seasons. They fleshed out some of the characters a bit more, and had some quite nice stories. But I watched them back-to-back... if I'd been sitting around for 2 years waiting for the actual story to continue, I'd have been annoyed.

Now that I think about it, that is pretty true. I did enjoy learning more about the characters once I stopped thinking too much on the main story.

Thats actually one of the reason i dislike shippuden. The wasy they add characterisation means that at the begining of Shippuden they dont leave the same impression as they would in the original manga or if there werent any fillers.

And example is Hinata, she shouldnt have appeared again after the chunnin exams and we keep that impression of the emotonally and physically weak girl. But the fillers show her as growing stronger and such. Then when she appears in Shippuden she's back to her old self. I try to just forget what happened in the fillers but after 2 years of it its hard to push away.

[Wolf Kanno]

I like Naruto but I can't say I'm a fanboy. Of anything, I still read up on the series only cause I invested too much time to just leave it and not know what happened to the many loose ends in the series. For most, I would say its a well written show and has a wonderfully diverse cast of characters at its disposal.

I feel the first part (Beginning to Rescue Sasuke Mission) was actually quite amazing and beautifully told. Not many series touch upon death, sacrifice and "tools of the government" like Naruto did. Of the three main Fighting animes currently airing (Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece) I feel Naruto was the only one to bring a strong emotional relevance to itself from the beginning. The series has always been slightly more mature than the others. Though Bleach and One Piece did eventually catch up (and lately I would even say surpassed) as their series went on; Naruto kinda started off heavy and worked towards a level of balance. Naruto's tale of isolation and wishing to prove himself is a common theme in shonen anime, but rarely is it told well like it was in Naruto.

Naruto introduces us to a wonderfully diverse cast of characters and the first part really gives many of them a moment to shine. Neji fighting against his fate, Hinata learning to be confident in herself, Shikamaru learning to be responsible, Rock Lee fighting to prove himself, Jiraya trying to stop history repeating itself, The Third Hokage's death, Gaara's struggle to find humanity, Tsunade learning to let go, Kakashi trying to redeem himself through Sasuke and Naruto, and even Sasuke's personal battle between revenge and learning to open up to others. All these characters

Now the fillers I can do without. I feel the manga is canon so the fillers never happened and since I don't watch Shippuden I doubt they will affect me.

Shippuden (the manga) on the other hand, I have mixed feelings. The characterization is heavy in the beginning but the series quickly devolves into battle after battle after battle. Major characters are killed left and right, huge secrets are finally revealed and basically, it just feels to me like the author is finally done with everything and just trying to wrap it all up. The time jump quickly feels like we're progressing towards an eventual end. Now its great to have alot of plot threads finally wrapped up ((SPOILER)Like Itachi ans Sasuke's showdown) but the strong characters and interactions are sacrificed to do it. Outside of Shikamaru, Gaara, and Jiraya; all the other character get slight cameos and nothing else. The story revolves completely around Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Sure a few new characters are introduced but they are either quickly dispatched or fall into the background with all the other characters. Its a shame too...

Overall, I feel its a pretty good series.

[Jessweeee♪]

I actually just skipped all of the fillers xD

I started Shippuden, and never got around to finishing

[Mercen-X]

When I got my hands on Volume 28 of the Naruto manga, for some reason, I just skipped right to the end. In it I found Kakashi's head-trip and I was just like, "wow".