Season 21 – Naruto: Shippuden

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05/29/2022 Shippuden is much more intense and big than the first season. Strictly speaking, Shippuden is Naruto. The more I watched it, the more I became convinced that the first season can not be watched at all - all the key points from there are repeated more than once, or at least mentioned in the second, so there will be no loss of plot. The first season is okay to watch, except for the atmosphere, the immersion, and just to say that you've watched all of Naruto. In Shippuden, the lore has noticeably expanded, the shinobi universe itself has deepened, which can be seen from the very first episodes. Added a bunch of backstories, legends, explanations and other things that make the narrative clearer. But at the same time, there is an overwhelming feeling that much of this was invented after the fact. In principle, the creator himself admitted that he did not initially count on such a volume of history, and that he invented a lot on the go. There is nothing wrong with this, but he did it rather pale - at many points it became obvious that some plot twists were added at the last moment and the story did not lead to them from the very beginning. This gives rise to a lot of blunders and questions that I won't even undertake to list here, otherwise the review will turn out to be endless, and even full of spoilers. However, at the same time, Shippuden, along with his characters, became much more mature and serious. Here the game is already on a grand scale: drama and tragedy are included to the fullest, there are practically no one-sided characters, gray morality is everywhere and each hero is adequately motivated. However, the main disadvantages from the first season migrated to the second: the pianos in the bushes became even bigger and louder, violations of their own rules did not decrease, the abilities and strengths of the characters jump in a way that suits the plot, illogicalities and absurdity have increased, like everything else, and the same type of characters and scenario techniques are still the same. And with the latter there was a clear inflection. Not only are all the fights built on the same principle (first, the heroes fight in their normal state, then in an enhanced state, then in an even more enhanced one, and end up with some incredible final form that should amaze the imagination, but because of everything , which has let her down for so long, on the contrary, is tiring), so here the creators were also carried away by the scheme of a secret villain. With the antagonists, it turned out to be just some kind of nesting doll: at first you think that the villain is one character, but then it turns out that he is just a figurehead, and the real villain is someone who was in the shadow all the time (and for the first time this technique works), you are impressed, but then it turns out that he was also a puppet of another, even stronger enemy, and before you have time to get used to him, the plot rolls out of nowhere another villain pulling the strings, and in some then you just get tired of this endless loop! In the end, this twist begins to look even comical because of the constant self-repetition, and I watched the last 100 episodes with difficulty - there was so much confusion and an overabundance of information. And at the expense of self-repetitions: fillers that take up almost half of the episodes, endless flashbacks that sometimes take away the entire timing, endless chatter in the middle of the action and other protractedness have not gone away, but in some places they have multiplied! True, it is worth paying tribute, some fillers (especially the childhood arcs of Kakashi and Itachi) are still good and sometimes not inferior to the story series. But they are still a minority - for the most part, fillers still break the canon and just take time. Next - quality and drawing. In the first season they left a lot to be desired, in this one at the beginning too, but towards the end it got better. Appeared at least hd-quality. Some more computer graphics were brought in, but it's miserable here. But it's sad that during epic battles, the drawing again turns into an incomprehensible caricature, from the stacks of which memes were cut. But not only the minuses from the first season are filled with the second - he also transferred the dignity from there. In particular, the soundtrack, openings, and here even some endings are still pleasing to the ears and eyes. Added new songs to my playlist. Unfortunately, not all of them were found. In the end, of course, as well as from the first season, from the second, and from the whole anime as a whole, a mostly pleasant and warm impression remains. As soon as the last series ended, I almost immediately began to miss this universe. But I won't watch Boruto. At least until a hundred or two episodes are released under the direction of the original author. But Naruto is not ruled out that someday I will reconsider. True, it is worth saying that the ending of the plot itself, if we take the last film and the final OVU as it, is noticeably blurry. It can be seen that they wanted to set the stage for Boruto. In fact, this is not even the ending of Naruto, but the introduction to the next generation, so I recommend that you finish watching on the 500th episode of Shippuden. In general, of course, I am ready to give Naruto the highest score, but only for its plot component, like last time, and taking into account that the rating is extremely high for subjective nostalgialogical reasons, although I hardly watched Shippuden as a child. Still, despite all the shortcomings of this anime, it somehow manages to continue to force itself to watch and feel like itself. This, in my opinion, is the main paradox of Naruto: you can scold him as much as you like, but after finishing the viewing, you still remain satisfied. And for this I am ready to forgive him everything! See more 01/12/2022 Best anime ever, best See more Read all reviews

Naruto: Shippuden — Season 21

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