Naruto episodeS...

[[Mike of the Desert]]

I always thought, from the beginning of this anime, that all was to slow and now we all have the proof, seeing how much episodes the anime is starting to have, we reached also more than 140 episdoes. I sincerely think that (even if it was inevitable for merchandising) the anime would have been really better with a more rational "compression" of the anime. Like 26 manga -> 50 to 70 episodes. And not 26 -> 150. What do you think about it?

[killerwog corp]

I always thought, from the beginning of this anime, that all was to slow and now we all have the proof, seeing how much episodes the anime is starting to have, we reached also more than 140 episdoes. I sincerely think that (even if it was inevitable for merchandising) the anime would have been really better with a more rational "compression" of the anime. Like 26 manga -> 50 to 70 episodes. And not 26 -> 150. What do you think about it?

i love the anime its got nice twist and has very cool fight scenes

btw did anny one her cry when sasuke left konohoa and joined the bad guys and sakura poured her poor heart out oly to be rejected i cryed me eyes out
(btw michele i loved ur AMV called the other side of me it really kicked ass )

[Digitalex]

I personally like it lengthy for this one. There are so many likeable characters and each one can branch out with a mini-story. I'm up to ep. 129 and I think there was a good breakpoint after the middle ninja exams. The little "disturbance" during the exams is another good section. I think if the series keeps breaking it down to chunks like this, I could watch it for a long long time. I can rewatch parts of it.

It reminds me of Rurouni Kenshin where it broke down to different segments (Kyoto Arc, Tokyo Arc, etc...). Each could basically be watched on it's own (assuming the initial background info has already been established).

[A2L]

At first I thought it was good because you can see how the charactes grow as well as they're development and personality... yet the more I watch it the more I realize how annoying the three main characters are...

I still like the series (not as much as the bridge arc w/ zabuza and haku) but I think they should spend the filler times on the secondary characters growth.

I'm tired of seeing kage bushins and rasengans with sakura whining how she'll try harder next time... i want to see the other genins or jounins, or even the sand nin train or go on missions... or even the kakashi gaiden.

[Trunks_Blade]

I have to agree, if they compressed it more it would have been more better, well maybe not even compressed but more consistant.

While anime as long as this has the opportunity to have greater character and story development, i notice that it will often lose the majority of its once enthusiastic followers before its completion.

i mean its quite obvious they are trying to drag it out as long as they can. but what gets to me is the usless filler eps that really have nothing to do with the storyline (e.g. that race saga before Sasuke's departure). If they followed the manga more they'd do away with those and have more secondary character growth as mention by A2L.

[EmilLang1000]

The problem is that the comic is so long and popular. They aren't trying to drag the show out, but when they make filer episodes, it's so the author has more time to develop the story more. What happens usually is that the anime comes out once a week, every week, and encompasses about 2 or 3 chapters of the original comic; in other words, a single weekly 30-minute-long episode can have as much story in it as three 20-page weekly comics. What eventually happens is that the anime catches up to the comic, and problems arise because they then have nothing to base the show on - Ranma 1/2, Kenshin, and Inu-Yasha are prime examples. Naruto will probably last for about 36 volumes; that's no where NEAR little enough for a 26 episode long series - without, of course, completely annihilating the story. Take, for example, Ah! My Goddess and Video Girl Ai: amazing comics, but the stories are shoved down into tiny little 5 or 6 episode OVAs; most of the character development is lost, major plot points in the story are omitted, and the story as a whole suffers. Admitadely, if they'd waited for Naruto to conclude, or at least have just STARTED the series now, after giving the comic a few years to advance, they could have stuck directly with the comic, and it could have been maybe 100 to 120 episodes long.
If you really believe that making a comic that long into a show that short, look at Love Hina: the comic was amazing, and by how Ken Akamatsu wrote it, could have been anywhere between 75 and 100 episodes long, omitting some of the worse stories, of course; yet they tried to shove it down into a 26-episode series, 32 episodes after the OVAs, and what happened? A tragedy to say the least.
Rule of thumb - when you have a story that lasts for longer than a year (3 to 4 years in Love Hina's case, 4 years + in Naruto's case) you CAN'T tell the story in 26 episodes... it just doesn't work, and screws the entire story up.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Another point that dosn't seem to get that much attention is "why can't the anime take a break for x amount of weeks like TV shows in the U.S. and elsewere do, so that the manga can catch up some more?" Personally, I think it has to do with the fear that the market will change if a constant stream of product is not constantly produced. I know the music industry in Japan is like that. Don't release 2 CDs a year and you risk becoming last week's news (as opposed to the 2-3 year wait for new CDs in the U.S.). Is this an acurate assumption? Do the creators of Naruto (or any other series for that matter) fear that if they take a break the fans will just migrate away overnight?

[Unlimited Rice]

yeah, naruto's fanbase is definitely a downer, cause they actually want to put in filler episodes to keep the audience busy in trying to give kishimoto some push...

another downer is that since it's so long.. the animation is very inconsistent.. it started out very good.. and then it has it's crappy moments.(mostly noticeable in fillers.. but those aren't just it.)

that last "very big" fight they had inly the anime so far.... the animation seemed good.. but a lotta the facial expressions seemed ugly...

basharoftheages's posts makes sense.