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[Pein]

About to marathon 10 episodes. I much prefer a whole bunch at once rather than the week by week schedule.

It also reminds me of how I used to marathon naruto part 1 years ago.

Can someone explain why long running anime don't go on breaks like Gintama did? That way there wouldn't be any need for filler.

schedule, can't give up that time slot.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Can someone explain why long running anime don't go on breaks like Gintama did? That way there wouldn't be any need for filler.

Because then you get stuff like Naruto SD...id take filler over SD anime anytime...

There really is no need for Naruto Shippuden filler at this point in time, unless they are somehow needing a week more to animate some episode or something, I guess that could be an excuse studios use...

 

[Kokonoe]

Naruto SD is better than all the Naruto filler combined.

 

[GlassBox]

This is the first episode of Naruto I haven't watched in years.

From what I've read about it though, it involves random circus Sumo wrestlers being beaten up by the mom's are tough brigade with pots and pans and cooking utensils.

Talk about insulting.

 

[abstract alien]

Is this going to be a stretch filler, or just a one ep thing?

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Is this going to be a stretch filler, or just a one ep thing?

The upcoming episode is not filler.

 

[abstract alien]

The upcoming episode is not filler.

This makes me happy.

 

[Conrad Link]

That last Ninja Mums episode was so lame lol, I thought the highlight was gonna be the Nine-Tailed Bear attacking the village shot but just then, when I thought the episode was finished..... SUMO ATTACK!

:lol

Oh man, soooo random. I'm just sitting thinking "WHAT is going on??" lol.

But then the preview of the next episode made me happy again.

 

[Kokonoe]

There's an english version of Give Lee Give Lee Rock Lee

Give Lee Give Lee Rock Lee Animetal USA Version

Also, had to screenshot this.

 

[Majine]

I wish they would turn the filler episodes over to the Rock Lee spinoff guys. That stuff is 400% better.

 

[Kokonoe]

I wish they would turn the filler episodes over to the Rock Lee spinoff guys. That stuff is 400% better.

Yeah! They totally should.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Ep 282

New OP is good, though kind of spoils the contents of this episode, when you think back to it over the course of the episode. New ED is great simply for Naruto/Sasuke stuff.

Episode was pretty alright, loved seeing (end ep spoiler)

Spoiler

Minato and Bee has it out there with their mutual respect for each other

.

 

[Kokonoe]

Yeah, it was an alright episode. I would prefer more progress, but knowing more about the characters is fun too.

 

[metsallica]

There's an english version of Give Lee Give Lee Rock Lee

Give Lee Give Lee Rock Lee Animetal USA Version

Also, had to screenshot this.

Never heard of Animetal... it's cheesy as all get-out, but I kind of dig it! Awesome musicians at the very least, kind of crazy! Freakin' CD was arranged by Marty Friedman! I just wish they covered songs I was more familiar with... Maybe next album.

Ep 282

New OP is good, though kind of spoils the contents of this episode, when you think back to it over the course of the episode. New ED is great simply for Naruto/Sasuke stuff.

Episode was pretty alright, loved seeing (end ep spoiler)

Spoiler

Minato and Bee has it out there with their mutual respect for each other

.

Oh boy, new OP and ED? Always gets me excited...

 

[Dedication Through Light]

There's an english version of Give Lee Give Lee Rock Lee

Give Lee Give Lee Rock Lee Animetal USA Version

I hated the song for the OP but after 25 episodes it grew on me, I was sad to see it go for the New OP (too slow for an OP)

 

[metsallica]

Yeah, definitely don't like the new Rock Lee OP, it's quite boring. Also I feel foolish for not realizing ANIMETAL USA is the actual band performing GIVE LEE! I thought they were a cover group and simply made an English-language version. Derp.

 

[SykoTech]

Nice to have a new opening that doesn't suck. It's been awhile since the Kage Summit opening, which was the last good one.

I really hope they do some of these upcoming fights justice. I was underwhelmed with Naruto vs Nine Tails, so here's hoping that they put more effort into the big fights here.

 

[Kokonoe]

Whoa, this new Naruto SD opening song isn't really good... I share you sentiments. At least it has some funny animation in it. First one was really good and goofy, just the way it should be.

 

[GlassBox]

Unfortunately it looks like the filler train is going to continue steaming on in for the first half of November.

November 1: 286-287. Naruto Shippuuden Special - Hidden Story: Tsunade & Raikage ~What They Gambled~ (yay for filler flashbacks!)

November 8: 288. Threat, Jinpachi and Kushimaru's Combo!! (More Seven Swordsmen filler. This is thanks to all you "Kishi didn't draw Kakashi's Rampage! I'm mad!@#!!" people)

 

[abstract alien]

Unfortunately it looks like the filler train is going to continue steaming on in for the first half of November.

November 1: 286-287. Naruto Shippuuden Special - Hidden Story: Tsunade & Raikage ~What They Gambled~ (yay for filler flashbacks!)

November 8: 288. Threat, Jinpachi and Kushimaru's Combo!! (More Seven Swordsmen filler. This is thanks to all you "Kishi didn't draw Kakashi's Rampage! I'm mad!@#!!" people)

And the wait for the Wii U became at least 42 minutes longer.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Unfortunately it looks like the filler train is going to continue steaming on in for the first half of November.

November 1: 286-287.

Double episode is good though, makes up for no more sket dance on my thursday mornings, at least that week.

 

[Kokonoe]

Unfortunately it looks like the filler train is going to continue steaming on in for the first half of November.

November 1: 286-287. Naruto Shippuuden Special - Hidden Story: Tsunade & Raikage ~What They Gambled~ (yay for filler flashbacks!)

November 8: 288. Threat, Jinpachi and Kushimaru's Combo!! (More Seven Swordsmen filler. This is thanks to all you "Kishi didn't draw Kakashi's Rampage! I'm mad!@#!!" people)

I think in November I'm going to start reading the manga.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

ep 283

Naruto always gives the best speeches in this anime. Liked it.

Preview:

Spoiler

Finally getting Sai into more action!

 

[Conrad Link]

New opening is awesome! Has me really excited, haven't had one that got me pumped since the Kage Summit one.

Naruto speeches are cool, his thing is making people/doubters believe in him, always convinces them he's got this, gonna pwn lol.

Now he's even got parental confidence to help drive him!

 

[GlassBox]

Guess what folks. That filler train ain't stopping in November, it's steamrolling straight into 2013!

Get a load of this, in celebration of the 500th Naruto episode (as if Pierrot needs an excuse to do filler), a filler arc of six episodes is going to begin on November 22 until the new year. All we have to go by is the promo poster, and what do we see, Hidan, Deidara, Kabuto (looking weird) and random filler characters:

 

[abstract alien]

Man, Raikage is on some other shit. The fact he could even stand there with those two coming at him was pretty cool. That said, we are all doomed. Those eyes bro...

Those eyes...

 

[Dedication Through Light]

284

Good Sai episode and experience.

Preview for next episode is so unexciting and looks like it will be uninteresting content

 

[abstract alien]

Is this one filler, or are the rest legit until November?

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Is this one filler, or are the rest legit until November?

It was filler.

 

[abstract alien]

It was filler.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks.

 

[SykoTech]

Sai is boring, but nice to get more Lee. Still mad that he and his dream got shafted since the timeskip along with Neji.

Next episode looks like it could be alright, but I think I'll skip that "celebration" arc altogether.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

285

Its hard to care much for filler when it involves characters one just doesnt carry about and even more unappealing backstory. Explosion and the scorch kekkai genkai was at least interesting in combat.

 

[SupraDarky]

Pretty dull episode, especially considering Pakura and the explosion guy didn't even end up getting sealed. I did like the earth wall + explosion move the captain used, pretty badass.

 

[Desmond]

Decent filler opposite. Next week looks like shite though.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Naruto Shippuden Movie 3: The Will of Fire

So far of the Naruto Shippuden movies I've owned (only the movies dubbed), Id rank it as Will of Fire > Bonds > first one. Mainly, although Bonds had some Sasuke, he wasn't really in a main role, but it was Sasuke, but it was lacking in the action department. So it is my second favorite.

Will of Fire is easily the best of the bunch overall, though it may lack Sasuke, at least having litrally every main squad member get into a fight and have plenty of screentime really worked wonders. Even TenTen finally had some sort of relevance and an attack, and the best one was

Spoiler

Primary Lotus x 8 Trigrams Palm Rotation

for Lee's team.

The whole movie looked great too. Was in tears at how much of a step up this is in HD and animation quality in terms of what we get weekly.

Spoiler

Rasenshurkin looked fantastic even

. All the fights were great.

Like part 1 the best fight here was still Naruto v

Spoiler

Gaara

. Just something about characters fighting and how it appeared. Much aerial combat even.

So a 9 I guess, if it had some Sasuke, an OP song maybe, then it'd easily be a 10 or so. Now to wait for Naruto Shippuden Lost Tower is it?

 

[GlassBox]

^^^Naruto Shippuden Movie 3 is probably the best of the Naruto movies (don't know about Road to Ninja since we can't see it yet, though review from Japan have been very positive). Movie 3 definitely contains the best animation that I've seen of the films. It's also got the best soundtrack.

Naruto Movie 4 I've heard is very bad, so I've avoided it.

Naruto Movie 5 Blood Prison is pretty good as well. Has the best filler character in it.

 

[Relix]

What filler episodes are there after 280? Obviously the mom thing but what else?

 

[GlassBox]

Yeah, skip 281, worst filler ep ever.

282-283 are likely the only cannon episodes that are going to be left for the remainder of the year, everything else is war filler or special filler. The war filler at least has been entertaining so far. (Tomorrow's one hour special flashback filler on Tsunade and Raikage is likely to be boring though)

Speaking of which, here is the story summary for the "Chikara" special filler arc starting November 22. Looks like it takes place after the Kage Summit and before Naruto goes to Sea:

After the discussion among the five Kages, each village is busy preparing for the war. One day, Hokage receives a report saying that all villagers of some village were massacred. Tsunade sends away Yamato, Sakura, Sai and Naruto to investigate the massacre and find out the murderer. The village is located in a small country bordering the Land of Fire called “Hall”. The village is brutally devastated and suddenly Kabuto shows up before the team. Using Edo Tensei (Impure World Reincarnation), Kabuto summons several deceased ninjas including Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, and even Konoha’s ninjas—Asuma and Hayate! How will Naruto and his friends deal with such a severe situation? What is hidden in “Hall”? And what does Kabuto’s appearance have to do with the ancient mysterious “Chikara”?

 

[Dedication Through Light]

286 and 287

Though there were a few flashbacks, probably my favorite ones with Lady Tsunade and Naruto, Dan, Nuwaki, I thought both were good together. The spider chakra in chest exploding was an interesting jutsu.

For plot I did wish that

Spoiler

they at least showed how the ninja spies were defeated, I dont believe they just "gave up and left". And Shizune got all serious defending and believing in her Lady Hokage.

 

[GlassBox]

Trailer for the "Chikara" arc

Ok, so it looks like this is where Pierrot spent all their animation budget. Hirofumi Suzuki and Toshiyuki Tsuru seem to be directing the animation (neither of which did any real work for even the Road to Ninja film, which also featured a lot of outsourced animation compared to Blood Prison). Also explains why the show's animation in general has been lackluster lately even after the film was finished.

Kabuto looks like he's inherited Orochimaru's pedophile tendencies and is going after children. Will be interesting if he actually uses all his Akatsuki edo tensei in this arc like the trailer hints, or if that's just a placeholder tease (still no sign of Hidan like the poster teased, after all). I like the idea that this arc may be about Kabuto searching for "the sixth coffin"

 

[Majine]

No manga chapter and filler anime episodes.

This week sucks.

 

[Relix]

Trailer for the "Chikara" arc

Ok, so it looks like this is where Pierrot spent all their animation budget. Hirofumi Suzuki and Toshiyuki Tsuru seem to be directing the animation (neither of which did any real work for even the Road to Ninja film, which also featured a lot of outsourced animation compared to Blood Prison). Also explains why the show's animation in general has been lackluster lately even after the film was finished.

Kabuto looks like he's inherited Orochimaru's pedophile tendencies and is going after children. Will be interesting if he actually uses all his Akatsuki edo tensei in this arc like the trailer hints, or if that's just a placeholder tease (still no sign of Hidan like the poster teased, after all). I like the idea that this arc may be about Kabuto searching for "the sixth coffin"

Damn that looks amazingly decent o.0. Won't be a long arc right?

 

[GlassBox]

Damn that looks amazingly decent o.0. Won't be a long arc right?

This filler arc is only going to be six episodes long. So that will take it to the end of the year, and then cannon episodes will likely/hopefully resume at the start of 2013. I certainly prefer short contained filler arcs like this as opposed to seemingly never-ending boring ones like the Three-tail, Konoha History or Adventures at Sea fillers. And in this case, no filler villains, though we'll have filler sidekicks.

A lot of people will probably be real pissed though. No doubt they'd wish that they could trade these six filler episodes and the animation talent behind them for the six cannon episodes, and the likely manga content they cover, that will follow them.

 

[kingdaddy157]

I'm not a big fan of these fillers what so ever. I prefer to watch cannon episodes because from now up until where the manga is currently at there is a lot of material they have to work with. Even if they stretch out fights between the characters and create that filler I would prefer to watch it over these fillers now.

 

[Macka]

I haven't watched an episode since 275, so it's time to marathon and catch up. Although from the looks of it there's been a few fillers? Ugh.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I haven't watched an episode since 275, so it's time to marathon and catch up. Although from the looks of it there's been a few fillers? Ugh.

I think half of the episode since then have been fillers.

 

[Pein]

wish they kept that budget for an upcoming fight. The one with 2 badass dudes vs 2 badass dudes.

 

[GlassBox]

For those who've forgotten, Toshiyuki Tsuru has been responsible for these episodes (usually paired with Hirofumi Suzuki) in Shippuuden:

Episode 1 - Intro (Storyboard)
Episode 82 - Angsty Shikamaru (Storyboard/Director/Screenplay)
Episode 85 - Hidan and Kakuzu brawl (Storyboard/Director/Screenplay)
Episode 123 - Sasuke vs. Deidara (Storyboard/Director/Screenplay)
Episode 166 - Hinata vs. Pain (Storyboard/Director/Screenplay)

So yeah, it has been a while since he's done anything on the show. Having him supervise all six episodes of the "Chikara" arc is quite something.

 

[Relix]

For those who've forgotten, Toshiyuki Tsuru has been responsible for these episodes (usually paired with Hirofumi Suzuki) in Shippuuden:

Episode 1 - Intro (Storyboard)
Episode 82 - Angsty Shikamaru (Storyboard/Director/Screenplay)
Episode 85 - Hidan and Kakuzu brawl (Storyboard/Director/Screenplay)
Episode 123 - Sasuke vs. Deidara (Storyboard/Director/Screenplay)
Episode 166 - Hinata vs. Pain (Storyboard/Director/Screenplay)

So yeah, it has been a while since he's done anything on the show. Having him supervise all six episodes of the "Chikara" arc is quite something.

Damn those episodes were fantastic. Especially Angsty Shikamaru.

 

[GlassBox]

We have the official November schedule:

November 8 – Episode 288 – Threat, Jinpachi and Kushimaru’s Combo!!
Animation Director: Ik-Hyun Eum

November 15 – Episode 289 - Lightning Sword!! Ringo Ameyuri
Animation Director: Hiroki Abe

November 22 – Episode 290 - Chikara episode 1
Animation Director: Hirofumi Suzuki
Episode Director/Storyboard/Screenplay: Toshiyuki Tsuru

November 29 – Episode 291 - Chikara episode 2
Animation Director: Takahiro Chiba
Episode Director: Chikara Sakurai
Storyboard: Masato Suma
Screenplay: Toshiyuki Tsuru

December 6 - Episode 292 - Chikara episode 3
Animation Director: Yasuhiko Kanezuka
Episode Director/Storyboard: Yuu Yamashita
Screenplay: Toshiyuki Tsuru

Looks like no actual episode titles for the Chikara eps. This is looking more like an OVA. The animation talent is pretty good. Takahiro Chiba is a somewhat new AD (he was AD on original Naruto ep 19 (Zabuza's death) and has mostly worked on Naruto OP/ED's. Kanezuka's last official AD role was on ep 133 (Jiraiya's death).

Damn those episodes were fantastic. Especially Angsty Shikamaru.

Yes, the point is that Tsuru is great when it comes to actually making and writing out decent filler. So the fact that he's scripted the entire Chikara arc should ensure that its an enjoyable and entertaining arc.