Naruto Shippuden: The 500 Episodes of the Second Series

Ten Years on the Air, 500 Episodes

Naruto Shippuden premieres on TV Tokyo on February 15, 2007. The first series had ended seven days earlier, on February 8, 2007, with its episode 220. The handover is therefore immediate: a single week separates the two series, with no break in broadcast and no change of staff. Studio Pierrot stays at the helm, with Hayato Date directing.

The series ends on March 23, 2017 with episode 500. That amounts to ten years and one month on the air, at a rate of one episode per week. Few shonen have kept up that pace for so long without interruption or a change of title, and that is exactly what explains some of the pacing weaknesses detailed below.

In France, the first television broadcast begins on September 5, 2008 on Game One, about a year and a half behind Japan. The two series added together come to 720 episodes: 220 for Naruto, 500 for Naruto Shippuden. That is the volume a viewer has to get through to cover the entire original anime, movies and Boruto excluded.

The Two-and-a-Half-Year Time Skip

The manga clearly separates its two halves. Part I covers chapters 1 to 238, or volumes 1 to 27. Chapters 239 to 244 form a gaiden devoted to Kakashi's past. Part II begins at chapter 245, in volume 28: that is exactly where Shippuden starts.

Between the two, a two-and-a-half-year time skip. Naruto comes back to the village after a long training journey led by Jiraiya outside the walls of Konoha. He has grown, his outfit has changed, but his control over the Nine-Tails (Kyubi) remains shaky. Sakura has become a medical ninja trained by Tsunade, Sasuke is still with Orochimaru: the original trio has never come back together.

The tone shifts right away. The title says as much: "Shippuden" translates as "Hurricane Chronicles". Gone are the D-rank missions and the Chunin Exams formula. The Akatsuki goes on the offensive and sets out to capture the nine Tailed Beasts one by one. Deaths of named characters become frequent, including among Konoha's jonin.

Team 7 itself is reshuffled: Yamato takes over from Kakashi as captain, and Sai replaces Sasuke. That hole in the lineup is the narrative engine of the entire series, right up to the final duel.

The Major Arcs, in Order

The series opens with the Kazekage Rescue Mission, episodes 1 to 32: Gaara is kidnapped by Deidara, which produces the first real fights against the Akatsuki, including Sakura and Chiyo's duel against Sasori. Next comes the Tenchi Bridge reconnaissance mission, episodes 33 to 53, where Naruto loses control up to the fourth tail and injures Sakura.

The heart of the first half comes down to four back-to-back arcs: the hunt for Hidan and Kakuzu, episodes 72 to 88, the pursuit of Itachi, episodes 113 to 126, the story of Jiraiya in Amegakure, episodes 127 to 133, and the fight between the two Uchiha brothers, episodes 134 to 143.Pain's assault on Konoha then takes up episodes 152 to 169, and 172 to 175.

The second half turns openly military. The Five Kage Summit covers episodes 197 to 214. The countdown to the conflict runs across episodes 215 to 222, then 243 to 256. The Fourth Great Ninja War starts at episode 261 and takes up, on the canon side, all the rest of the series, with a climax spread across episodes 322 to 346 and 362 to 375.

The arrival of Kaguya Otsutsuki closes out the war: her episodes run from 458 to 479, in scattered fashion, and contain the final duel between Naruto and Sasuke at the Valley of the End. The series ends, however, on a completely different note: episodes 494 to 500 adapt the novel Konoha Hiden and cover the preparations for Naruto and Hinata's wedding, two years after the war.

The Filler Share: Around 41%

The tally is hard to swallow: around 203 filler episodes out of 500, or nearly 41% of the series. Almost two episodes out of five therefore adapt no page of the manga. That is clearly more than in the first series, and it is the main criticism leveled at Shippuden.

These episodes are not scattered at random, they come in whole blocks. The longest: 57 to 71, 91 to 112, 176 to 196, 223 to 242, 284 to 295, 303 to 320, 394 to 413, and above all 427 to 450, the single biggest block in the series, dropped right in the middle of the war.

The cause is mechanical. A weekly anime burns through material faster than Masashi Kishimoto can draw. The manga ends in November 2014 with chapter 700, while the anime still had two and a half years of broadcast ahead of it: the remaining material had to be stretched.

Not all of it is worthless, though. Episodes 349 to 361 revisit Kakashi's past in the Anbu, and several blocks adapt official novels rather than invent. A strictly canon viewing still brings the series down to a little under 300 episodes, which is still a considerable chunk.

Summary Table

FAQ

• How many episodes does Naruto Shippuden have?
  Exactly 500 episodes, aired from February 15, 2007 to March 23, 2017 on TV Tokyo. Adding the 220 episodes of the first series, the original anime totals 720 episodes.
• How much time passes between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden?
  Two and a half years in the story: that is the length of Naruto's training journey with Jiraiya. On the air, however, only one week passed between episode 220 of the first series, on February 8, 2007, and the first episode of Shippuden, on February 15, 2007.
• What share of the episodes are filler?
  Around 203 episodes out of 500, or nearly 41%. They come in whole blocks, the longest running from episode 427 to 450, twenty-four episodes in a row. A strictly canon viewing brings the series down to a little under 300 episodes.
• Which episode should you start with after the first series?
  With episode 1 of Shippuden, which opens the Kazekage Rescue Mission arc (episodes 1 to 32). No transition episode is needed: the second series picks up directly at chapter 245 of the manga.
• Does Naruto Shippuden adapt the entire manga?
  Yes, the series covers all of Part II up to chapter 700, the last chapter published in November 2014. The final seven episodes, 494 to 500, go even further by adapting the novel Konoha Hiden, devoted to Naruto and Hinata's wedding.

In summary

Naruto Shippuden remains a series of two speeds. On one side, a decade on the air without interruption, a time skip put to perfect use, and a handful of arcs that became shonen benchmarks: the pursuit of Itachi, the story of Jiraiya, Pain's assault, the Fourth Great Ninja War. On the other, nearly 41% filler, the direct consequence of a weekly anime that had caught up with its manga. Knowing the exact boundaries of the arcs and where the big filler blocks sit changes the experience completely: the second series goes down far better when you know what you are walking into.