The 15th had the most action so far imo, liked it best too, though I didn't get why the fake Itachi smiled after being hit with the rasengan

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The Fire Demon was here

Suppose Maybe because on how much naruto has grown? and that now he can fight a clone of Itachi


-UsiiF

Well I don't think it would be because of Naruto's growth - I doubt Itachi has any interest or care in Naruto other than the fact that he holds the Kyubi inside of him.

I really didn't understand the grin either. Maybe Itachi just got a kick out of how the team had to put forth their all to defeat a 30% clone.. Or, hey, maybe he was impressed at how well they fought against him. (I still don't think he was impressed at Naruto's growth, but more impressed that they were able to work so well as a team to defeat him. Remember, Itachi's all about being able to "test the size of his container", so being defeated - Even only at 30% strength - May have given him the idea that there are ninja out there that he may be able to truly test the size of his "container" on one day.)

This is pure speculation though - Nobody's really sure of anything when it comes to Itachi. We don't even know his motives, and why he joined Akatsuki.

(But with the way things are in the Manga right now, I have a feeling that we'll be finding out more of Itachi and his motives here soon. Maybe then there may be some understanding to why he grinned during the Team 7 vs 30% Itachi fight. The grin was in the manga too, so it wasn't just added into the anime for whatever reason - Kishi was sure to show it for a reason. Be it to help show that it wasn't the real Itachi, or if there's something deeper to it than that.. Well.. I guess we can only hope to find out. )

Nobody's posted on this thread in months, and I was the last post, so I just deleted my last post (what's above) to make a new post.

Shippuden's a huge disappointment. After seeing the episode 29-30 special.. I'm officially disgusted. I'll continue watching, just for the simple sake of seeing my favorite manga animated.. but honestly, I have no idea what the hell Studio Parrot is doing.

The animation thus far has been.. not the best. Not a big deal, I can live with that - Well, I could have lived with that until they butchered some favorite moments of Naruto II. I could describe how horrible the animation and art is in comparison to the manga, but I think it'd be so much easier to give a couple visuals - These are a couple parts of the 29-30 special, with three frames. The first frame is the original manga artwork, the second frame is the 'expected' artwork (What it SHOULD have looked like, or at least looked close to), and then the actual animated scenes from Shippuden.







(These images were taken from the Narutofan.com forums, for reference - The "What we expected" edits were done by members of the Narutofan forums)

So.. yeah. When I saw these images, I just had to post, because Shippuden's seriously lacking.

Yer well, what can you do honestly,lately I've just been fast forwading every shippuden episode cause of it's lack of enjoyment... seriously, and One piece just hit the new Saga, so I'm most likely going to skip 327- 400 lol...

-UsiiF

Holy crap those edited ones look really real.

I KNOW, and it's sad because they were made by just your casual artists on a Naruto forum! They're 10x better than what the so called professionals are putting out - and it's not like they have a reason for the poor animation. Naruto's one of the most popular anime series, so the issue can't be money related.

It's depressing.

I don't mind very much, I'm in it for the story

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The Fire Demon was here

Ok... Not that Naruto should have crappy animation or anything, but if the entire entertainment value of an anime series depends on the amount of shine in a characters eyes... Doesn't that kind of mean that the show sucks? I know it can be irritating that it could've looked cooler, but I mean the same "good" story from the manga is still unchanged in the anime right?

Like if you take Death Note or Code Geass or Haruhi for example, the anime's could've been animated worse, or some scenes could've been changed, and I wouldn't care. I read the Death Note manga and personally thought the ending was a bit better visually (less corny), but it still barely changed my view of the anime because the focus was the story... Not the amount of sun rays or the body position of a dead character...

It's not just minor details.

When entire character designs of plot-dependent attributes of characters (Naruto's 2+ tail forms and such) are COMPLETELY OFF, it just wrecks the story for me.

If the animation's not that great, no big deal, I can live with it. When they LOOP THE SAME FIGHTING SCENE 3+ TIMES WITHIN A FEW MINUTES (See the Team Guy's[Spelt the stupid english way because the RV censor is noob ] battles ), it gets to be too much.

If the art's not all that great, not that big of a deal. A lazy eye every once in a while, or disproportioned faces.. I can live with that, when they're not too noticeable or in any "important" scenes. But when nearly every image of the characters are drawn poorly, and the "important" scenes look like the crap shown above, it's just disappointing.

Yes, the plot is what's important in an anime. But at the same time, the whole point of an animated manga series is to SEE IT ANIMATED. When next to none of the art is identical to the manga scenes, and the animation is just as terrible as it's been, there's honestly no reason to watch it when the manga offers the same story with better artwork.

Edit: Okay, they've redeemed themselves with the new opening. Assuming some of those clips were taken from the episodes of the next ark, it looks like the animation quality of the Rescue Sasuke ark will be better than what we've seen so far. (Which could actually be more than just wishful thinking - The sneak peek they included with the first episode of Shippuden had amazing animation, so they could have possibly wanted this next ark to amazing due to the reappearance of Sasuke.)

i believe that their idea of having two long years of filler was only to make it super cool that everyone in the storyline is 2 years older.

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Is it me, or did the animators add in many more scenes of characters stand around doing nothing and many more scenes of characters walking for a long time? The pace of Naruto shippuden has gotten really slow. For example, episode 40-41, covered 3 chapters of the manga....

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I was thinking the same thing while I watched 40-41 one
I hoped I could see an awesome battle, but instead I got a staring contest between Naruto and Orochimaru

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The Fire Demon was here

Exactly my thoughts of this past episode! I was getting really excited because I knew this fight was coming up, and I thought for sure it would be completed in a ONE HOUR SPECIAL. But half of it turned out to be "buildup". I am going to smack the producers. Well, at least I can look forward to the manga, although it's doing about the same thing to me

Is it me or does Naruto's eyebrows look like they weigh 3tons?

Yeah they're kinda big.

And the pacing of Shippuden is killing me. Maybe if the art was better I could stand it, but.. poor art coupled with nothing happening just doesn't do anything for me. I basically just watch for the sake of the occasional well-animated scene these days.

Episode 42 went from Chapter 294 to 296.

What I can't stand at all is the background music. The old background music fit perfectly with the anime. The old background music was fast paced unlike this new background music. Besides that, the animators added random moments of silence.

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I liked the old music a lot better

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The Fire Demon was here

Well I was completely addicted to the first Naruto and early Shippuden, but I just cant get back into it now =/

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Currently Listening to: Distant by VNV Nation

The solitude and anger
that do battle inside me
will always guide me to the answers
that I know I may not see.
They are the bonds that hold me tighter.
They are the chains that weigh on me.

One day I know they will be gone.

Episode 43 lasted only from chapter 296 to 297; one chapter.

Well, at least the manga is getting really good right now.

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Personally, I'm holding a strong dislike for the manga at the moment. Sasuke seems to be in god mode. Not that I dislike Sasuke's character, it's just that it seems Kishimoto's playing favorites. I won't say anything else though seeing as this is the topic for Shippuuden, and I don't want to spoil anything.

As for the anime, over a year in and we're inching towards the events of the sneak peak in the first episode. I loved the KN4 vs. Orochimaru fight animated - They really surprised me in the quality. With as crappy as things have been looking in Shippuuden, they obviously wanted to make at least one of the best fights (in my opinion) of the series look good. The reunion of Team 7 should be interesting, just as long as they don't draw out the events leading to it any longer than they already have.