The anime Naruto is incredibly loved by many people across the world, even by those that do not necessarily watch anime. As popular as it is, however, that does not mean that it's completely flawless. Any show that has gone on as long as Naruto has is going to run into problems somewhere along the way. Many of the flaws in Naruto are well-known by fans, but there are some that are either just not talked about enough or just plainly ignored. Fans that grew up with Naruto love it dearly, so it's understandable that some red flags of the anime are ignored.
When any anime franchise has run for more than 700 episodes, there are going to be divisive opinions about it. That’s especially true for a series like Naruto that originated from a manga and spawned movies as well as a sequel series. Some of the flaws present in the original series are discussed by fans on a regular basis, others are being repeated in the Boruto series, and some get largely overlooked by the audience even years after the show’s completion.
Strange Filler Episodes
The anime community is very vocal when it comes to filler episodes. Manga purists don’t like filler episodes because they want the anime to coincide with the manga they love completely. That’s an old argument that has been around since anime was first developed from manga stories, and certainly one that follows Naruto around to this day.
That being said, some filler episodes work in the show’s favor. They allow the audience to get to know characters that don’t get the spotlight in the manga. They also allow for relationships to be more fleshed out. The real filler episodes that are a problem in Naruto are the ones that lead nowhere, introducing characters that never appear again, or concepts that have nothing to do with the overall arc of the show. There’s no reason to have Naruto and his team follow an ostrich around for several episodes, for example, when fans are much more interested in other aspects of the series.
No Justice From The Naruto Villains
Naruto fans will laud their favorite fight scenes between heroes and villains, and they’ll compliment the decision for a character like Sasuke Uchiha to decide to abandon evil practices to help the good guys. What fans tend to overlook, however, is that in a series about justice and understanding, many of the show’s villains quite literally get away with murder.
Characters like Kabuto and Orochimaru never truly atone for their actions. They spend years experimenting on children, murdering people all across the shinobi nations, and are responsible for whole villages going up in flames, and yet, in the sequel series Boruto, they’re both allowed to live freely in the village, or just outside of it. Kabuto even runs an orphanage despite being personally responsible for luring children and kidnaping them for Orochimaru in the past, That doesn’t seem right.
Ninja War Arc
The "Ninja War Arc" was the final arc of the anime, and to say it was convoluted would be an understatement. It felt drawn out and had many questionable battles. The execution of the overall arc was poor, with only a few bright moments in it.
The war featured a lot of strangely placed flashbacks and didn't showcase all the main characters evenly. While no fan was surprised for Naruto to be the focus, many of his classmates were overlooked. It left a sour taste in the mouths of many anime aficionados.
Naruto's Animation Quality
While certain sequences in the Naruto anime are definitely well done, the same can't be said for the entirety of the series. For the most part, the quality of the animation was rather poor and left the world and characters of Naruto not looking their best.
The scenes of characters interacting with each other and normal life in the village are some examples of when the animation was not at its best. For an anime that is so incredibly long, it's understandable that the animation quality might not be the best at all times, but that can't be an excuse for how poor it was at times.
Lack of Female Character Development
Fans of Naruto have been quite vocal over the years about Sakura Haruno’s arc being largely reduced to following her feelings for Sasuke. While she does grow as both a ninja and an individual, her growth takes a backseat to her obsession with the boy she’s in love with. Sakura, however, isn’t the only female character to be sidelined.
Ino Yamanaka is one of the most powerful female shinobi of her generation thanks to her mind control jutsu and her telepathic abilities. Those are all largely glossed over to present her as shallow and only interested in finding a match who thinks she’s pretty. Kurenai is presented early in the anime as a teacher who champions the students others might overlook, like Hinata, but once she is revealed as Asuma’s love interest and becomes a mother, she’s almost completely dropped from the storylines. Tenten never even gets a last name, or gets to do much in the storylines beyond chastise her teammates for not being practical. These female characters are never given the chance to develop beyond the archetypes they’re presented as.
Power Creep
The escalation of power levels in Naruto is huge and can be seen with how incredibly strong Naruto and Sasuke become. This level of power within the show turns it into a completely different story from the one the viewer begins with; rather than a gripping story about a warrior in training, the series is bogged down with unnecessarily lengthy battle sequences.
The result of this power creep is big, flashy fights instead of what fans got early on which were well-written, strategic battles. There are very few stakes for the viewer when the two central characters have god-like abilities compared to their peers.
Sasuke And Naruto
The relationship between Sasuke and Naruto was developed throughout the anime, but it was toxic at best. Their friendship was solely based on Naruto's jealousy of Sasuke and continuously trying to show he was stronger.
The pair really only had two things in common: their tragic history and being a part of Team 7 under Kakashi. They may have had respect for each other, but they were never really friends. This causes problems for the plot line of Naruto promising to bring Sasuke back because the viewer is left questioning why exactly he is doing this. Naruto references Sasuke as being like his family, but the depth of that bond is never established.
Thematic Shift
The anime begins with a group of children learning to become ninjas, but it then shifts to them as teenage students. Although this was always going to happen, it did take away from what initially made Naruto special.
Themes like growing up, working hard, and mastering their potential fell away in favor of lore, growing the cast, and individual abilities that were either passed down through the clan or the bloodline.
Flashbacks
The use of flashbacks is not a new thing, and, when used correctly, can be great for character development and story progression. Although some of the flashback episodes in Naruto, like the best filler episodes, do help with character development, most of them slow the story down completely.
Not only do the flashbacks slow the anime down, but they are also repeated a lot. Flashbacks are more often than not showing the viewer something they already know, or it doesn't help the progress of the story or character at all. This is best seen in the longer arcs of the anime. Long stretches of episodes are interrupted by flashback episodes. While that might seem to break up the story and make it more palatable, it doesn't work if the flashbacks suddenly occur in the middle of a big fight sequence the viewer is interested in.
Side Cast
The cast was a big and colorful one, with many Naruto characters appearing to have great potential early in the series. As great as these characters were, the spotlight was never on them enough. That's due to their being so many characters. Naruto had eleven classmates who were growing up with him, they all had their respective mentors, and then, there were many antagonists and allies for them to deal with.
Many of them fell to the wayside after extensive character development, and others didn't get the necessary development as a character at all. With such a large cast this was a glaring mistake in Naruto, one that could have been fixed with slightly better writing.
Sasuke
Sasuke was a major character in Naruto, and a lot of the anime revolved around him. After achieving his initial goal of defeating his brother, Sasuke set his sights on "The Hidden Leaf Village." As much as the viewer could try and understand his reasoning behind doing this, it still felt a bit stretched.
By going after his own home, not only did it render everything his brother did meaningless, but it also caused him to commit many crimes—crimes that he would never truly be punished for, which was another often-overlooked flaw. It was hard for the audience to root for Sasuke to return to his allies when he seemed to be evil by choice for such a large chunk of the series.
Naruto
The main character and heart of the anime, Naruto is unbelievably loved, but that shouldn't take away from his flaws—flaws, specifically, with the way he was written. His ninja ideology has many holes in it, however.
There are many times when he pushes them onto others, and they seem to just bend to it, even though they have their own strong ideological principles. Characters will always be flawed, but warping the story to hide these flaws only makes them more obvious.