As a shonen, Naruto is one of the more complex shows, actually, especially Shippuden. Things are thought of way ahead of time... and I mean like, a decade or more ahead of time, and it isn't too long, either, especially without the filler. The action scenes get a good bit of budget, are directed well and have great choreography. The world has great rules regarding the entire chakra system it revolves around, and it rarely ever breaks them, but builds on them over time.

I do have my criticisms.

Kishimoto can't fucking write women. They're either drunken and belligerent or silent, quiet and offscreen. Yeah, we got a few Sakura fights, and Ino helps, occasionally, but really, this is a dude-bro show about dude-bro shit.
Catfishing the final boss. I won't spoil it, but... fucking hell.
I would say some of the horny jokes date it, but, I mean, Fire Force exists, so. I don't even.
The art falls apart occasionally. This is the only show I know of where the art is as good as it is terrible, and it can easily be extremes of both.

Towards the end, without any vague holes to dump plot mysteries into, things start to fall apart a little bit, but with how distant the power ceiling is kept most of the time, this just means that things can go from ~4 to 11 in ramping stages that keep you on your toes throughout the entire final arc. Naruto doesn't get Goku-levels of strength until you're about 7/8 of the way through the series.

A better alternative to Naruto, and also what I'd call the best shonen series ever created is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. It's complex, it's tight, it's compelling, the rules are strict and easy to understand and the dynamics between characters just work. It's also a lot less of a time commitment.

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 day ago

Do you just not like shonen? Naruto, especially Shippuden, is great in my opinion. It has highs and lows and plenty of brutal filler, but also some of the most iconic fights in anime history and was hugely influential on the modern shonen genre.

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I find the Manga to be fairly decent. The anime has way too much filler nonsense. I guess I am not mentally ill enough to enjoy that.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Just delete the fully filler episodes and enjoy

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

But then you'll miss Naruto wearing an Iron Man suit that looks like himself

[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They list nearly the last 80 episodes to be filler. I haven't watched past the first two arcs in Naruto but do those last 80 episodes not contribute to any story or arc at all?

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

Nothing that matters to the Naruto storyline, no. Filler episodes don't impact the overall story, just some character focus bits about who they are.

You can always just read the summary for those episodes too.

What I would say among the fillers worth watching are:

Naruto 101 is fantastic and could be considered canon with what happens later on in the story.
Shippuden 349-361 is the kakashi back story. Its right in the middle of great story, but IMO worth watching. You could even watch this between Naruto and Shippuden.
Shippuden 484-500 is adapted from official novels, so some call it filler, others call it canon. I'd recommend it.

Thats about it though. The rest are more of an "if you feel like it".