Naruto (2002-2007): A Guide to the First Anime Series

220 Episodes, Four and a Half Years on the Air

Naruto starts on October 3, 2002 on TV Tokyo and ends on February 8, 2007, after 220 episodes. Four years and four months on the air, at one episode a week. Production is handled by Studio Pierrot, under the direction of Hayato Date, who stays at the helm until the end of Shippuden. The format never changes: about twenty minutes, opening credits, ending credits, preview of the next episode.

The series adapts Part I of Masashi Kishimoto's manga, that is, chapters 1 to 238. Naruto is twelve there. He leaves the Ninja Academy after getting his hands on the scroll of forbidden seals, learns the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and is assigned to Team 7 alongside Sasuke and Sakura from episode 3 on. Kakashi's bell test takes up episodes 4 and 5.

The weekly pace creates a mechanical problem. The manga comes out one chapter a week, the anime burns through two or three per episode. As the broadcast goes on, the series catches up with its source material. That closing gap alone explains the shape of the entire second half of the 220 episodes.

Three feature films come out in Japan during this period: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow on August 21, 2004, Legend of the Stone of Gelel on August 6, 2005, and Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom on August 5, 2006. In France, the series lands on Game One from 2006 on, more than three years after the Japanese premiere.

The Major Arcs of Part I

The first set covers episodes 1 to 19. After the Ninja Academy and the D-rank missions, Team 7 escorts the bridge builder Tazuna to the Land of Waves. That is where Zabuza Momochi and Haku appear, and where the series sets its tone: an opponent is not a monster, he has his reasons. Sasuke awakens his Sharingan there.

The Chunin Exams are the longest block in the series: 48 episodes, from 20 to 67. Ibiki Morino's written test, the Forest of Death and Orochimaru's bite on Sasuke, preliminaries fought as short duels, then a month of training before the finals. Naruto beats Neji in the tournament, and Jiraiya teaches him toad summoning at the bottom of a ravine.

Episodes 68 to 80 make up the invasion of Konoha, thirteen episodes that tip the series over. Sunagakure and Otogakure attack during the final round. The Third Hokage faces Orochimaru and sacrifices himself with the Reaper Death Seal, robbing his opponent of the use of his arms. Naruto faces Gaara and counters him with their shared loneliness rather than with his power.

Episodes 81 to 100 tell the search for Tsunade: the first appearance of the Akatsuki with Itachi and Kisame, the learning of the Rasengan, the clash of the Legendary Sannin, Tsunade's inauguration as Fifth Hokage. Then comes the Sasuke recovery mission, episodes 107 to 135, twenty-nine episodes of pursuit. The duel at the Valley of the End runs across episodes 128 to 134.

The Filler Block 136-219

The first detours arrive right after Tsunade's inauguration. Episode 101 is devoted to the hunt for Kakashi's hidden face. Episodes 102 to 106 then make up the escort mission in the Land of Tea, a rigged race between two rival families: it is the series' first complete filler arc, with Team 7 still together.

The real break starts at episode 136 and does not stop before 219, that is 84 consecutive episodes written for the anime. The cause is arithmetic: episode 135 closes out chapter 238, meaning the end of Part I of the manga. Kishimoto, for his part, had only just begun Part II, with a two-and-a-half-year time skip impossible to film right away.

This segment works through self-contained missions of three to six episodes, often centered on the supporting characters the manga left aside. They include the investigation in the Land of Rice Fields (136-140), the hunt for Mizuki (143-147), the search for the bikochu (148-151), the Kurosuki family affair (152-157), the Star guard mission (178-183), the Gantetsu escort (209-212) and the support mission to Sunagakure (216-219).

Across the whole series, the filler count comes to around 90 episodes, or about 40% of the 220. The 136-219 block alone already accounts for 84 of them. None of these episodes changes the main storyline: the characters come back to the village in exactly the state they left it, which makes the segment entirely optional for anyone following the story.

Episode 220 and the Move to Shippuden

The series closes on February 8, 2007 with episode 220, titled Tabidachi, literally the departure. After eighty-four episodes of side missions, the story picks up exactly where episode 135 had left it: Sasuke has gone off to Orochimaru, and Naruto has not kept his promise to Sakura.

The episode shows the return of Jiraiya to the village and Naruto's departure for two and a half years of training outside Konoha. Sakura, for her part, turns to Tsunade. It is the end of a chapter, not the end of a story: nothing is resolved, everything is postponed.

Naruto Shippuden takes over on February 15, 2007, only a week later, on the same channel, with the same studio and the same director. The sequel picks up at chapter 245 of the manga and applies the two-and-a-half-year time skip: Naruto comes back at fifteen. Shippuden will run 500 episodes, until March 23, 2017.

To take on the first series today, two readings coexist. The strictly narrative route runs episodes 1 to 100, then 107 to 135, then 220, about 130 episodes. The complete route keeps the filler block, which offers the only animated development of several Konoha genin, but lengthens the series by nearly half.

Summary Table

FAQ

• How many episodes does the first Naruto series have?
  220 episodes, broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 3, 2002 to February 8, 2007. The series therefore spans a little more than four years, at one episode a week.
• Which episodes are filler?
  The big block runs from episode 136 to episode 219, that is 84 episodes in a row. Add to that episode 101 and the Land of Tea arc (102 to 106), plus a few isolated episodes along the way, for a total of about 90 out of 220.
• Where exactly does Part I end?
  The manga closes Part I at chapter 238. On the anime side, the main story stops at episode 135, at the end of the Sasuke recovery mission, then picks the thread back up for the length of episode 220.
• When does Naruto Shippuden start?
  On February 15, 2007, one week after the end of the first series, on TV Tokyo as well. The sequel applies a two-and-a-half-year time skip and picks up at chapter 245 of the manga.
• Do you need to watch the 136-219 block?
  It is never necessary for understanding what follows: none of these episodes has any consequence for the main storyline. It remains the only place where the anime develops certain Konoha genin the manga barely serves.

In summary

The first Naruto series reads as a 220-episode block cut in two: one hundred and thirty episodes that faithfully adapt Part I of the manga, and ninety that fill the wait created by a production faster than its author. This structure is not a design flaw, it is the direct consequence of a weekly broadcast launched in 2002 on a manga that was then only three years old. It also explains why episode 220 sounds less like a conclusion than like an airlock: on February 8, 2007, Naruto leaves Konoha for two and a half years, and seven days later Shippuden brings him back.