Review: Art/Animation: This is where the Shippuuden descent begins. In terms of new characters and their new character designs, I love them. But Naruto isn't as animated as it used to be. Shippuuden has a lot of repeated animations. This ranges from the horribly animated tree jumping scenes (it actually looks like they're flying instead of jumping half the time, lazy much?) to the staring faces and overused flashbacks. I can understand the need to repeat frames from things like the dialogue-filled tree jumping scene, or the occasional flashback to remind us what happened in the original Naruto or a few episodes ago. But its scope is teetering on the cliff side. The quality is just going downhill. For example, Kakashi's new Sharingan attack was horribly done in my opinion. I could do that effect in Photoshop. To make it worse, they draw it out for a few minutes towards the end... completely destroying the 'cool factor'. There are also several still scenes that consist of pure eye-to-eye combat with the wind in the background. Cool? I don't think so, when pointless staring takes up about 15% of the episode's air time. In addition to this, the shading and such characters' colors and details seem to be lacking unlike the original Naruto. Looking at the two, they are no longer on the same level. Maybe it's because I'm used to the series, or I've watched more series since the original Naruto, but the quality has definitely gotten worse. Of course, some of the bigger fights are still quite nicely animated: 7/10
Word: Things get worse from here. Although I liked the new opening and ending songs, the episode BGM just isn't the same. The upbeat action music heard in the original Naruto is replaced with lame 'let's make this fight feel really exciting and epic' music that fails horribly. I want the old soundtrack back! Granted, the series is a lot more serious now, but the background soundtracks don't really move the excitement meter where it used to be: 6/10
Ok, so it's the same story, continued. The same characters are there, with some nice new additions. The animators are getting a little lazy, and the soundtracks don't make me chew my nails anymore. Does it really confirm a 6?
Pacing: This is what killed Naruto. Not Akatasuki, not Orochimaru, not Sasuke, not Sakura's pounding - pacing killed our beloved hero Naruto. This is the only reason why plot development seems slow and non-existent, this is why character development is hard to notice unless you really love the series, this is why the animation is being reused, repeated or not done at all, this is why I am the same as before. Can't enjoy Naruto anymore. So much time is deliberately wasted on mundane scenes such as staring, or camera panning that there are often many awkward pauses that leave you wondering, 'Is my computer frozen?'. This should not happen in an anime! The amount of static and overused camera panning should not be excessive and obvious enough to spoil the quality of a show! There are many episodes that had amazing potential to be jaw-droppers, but weren't. Intense fights like episodes 41-43 are completely ruined by the horribly slow pacing!
| Download | Quality | Language | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mega Drive | 720p | English+Hindi | 88.8 |