Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto is one of the most iconic anime and manga series of all time. The series is globally recognized for its incredible story, emotional depth, and captivating characters. The manga began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999 and was adapted into an anime by Studio Pierrot in 2002. The series concluded in 2017, releasing over 700 episodes, including the first part, Naruto, and the second part, Naruto: Shippuuden. Long-running series were all the rage during the 1990s and 2000s, including some of the Shonen classics such as One Piece and Dragon Ball. Naruto also followed the same trend, while the manga was also ongoing.
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On the other hand, almost all the anime series that have debuted in recent years follow a seasonal format to keep a steady pace while also allowing more time for production and thus, enhancing the quality of the animation. Despite the production restraints faced as a long-running series, Naruto is still considered among one of the best anime when it comes to fight choreography. That is especially the case when the art style and animation quality are considerably different compared to the new series. However, one of the series’ most renowned animators recently voiced his criticisms of the anime.
Naruto Animator Criticized the Animation and Fillers
Henry Thurlow is a renowned animator best known for his work in iconic shows such as Naruto, One Piece, Tokyo Ghoul, Yona of the Dawn, and many more. In the years 2014 and 2015, Thurlow participated as a key animator in several Naruto: Shippuuden episodes. He also contributed to The Last: Naruto the Movie and Episode 204 of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
While rewatching the anime, Thurlow shared on his X account, “As I rewatch Naruto, I do have this critique: While the big-fight animations reach INCREDIBLE heights. Other moments almost never do. Naruto & Sasuke fighting these guys? Very ‘normal.’ I wish they used the mentality of ELEVATE EVERYTHING. Even this scene could’ve been *crazy*!”
In another post, he also criticized the number of filler episodes in the anime: “Looking at it now, the way they handled fillers was downright cruel towards the end of Naruto Shippuden. Right when you think they’re coming back to canon material, they show 5 minutes of plot advancement before jumping into more filler episodes. (Episode 451 I’m looking at you!)”
The series released episodes every week along with the manga, and it was almost impossible to have a steady pacing in anime while keeping up with the manga. Hence, in order to allow buffer time during the anime’s production, the studio had to release a lot of filler episodes. Those resulted in entire story arcs, sometimes, being anime-only and often lasting for months, but despite not being from the source material, they followed the main characters with new challenges for entertaining interludes.
Finally, another constraint the studio faced as a long-running studio was having a limited budget for a weekly series that released new episodes every week for 15 years. As such, it wouldn’t be feasible for the studio to have each and every episode have the same level of quality, so hype episodes were given more priority since they would include intense fight scenes. With Pierrot’s new production philosophy in place, including the fresh coat of paint for Bleach, Kingdom, and even Black Clover with its recent confirmed return, a full-scale Naruto production to Thurlow’s liking would be more feasible today. However, it’d also be on the air for a great many years, which is also not the end of the world.
H/T: Henry Thurlow on X
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