Few long-running anime have as much respect as Naruto and its sequel, Naruto: Shippuden. Though both the original and its sequel had their share of ups and downs, it’s generally agreed upon that Shippuden’s last fight is a major highlight of the franchise, and one of the best brawls ever put to animation.
Unfortunately, despite the sheer epic scale of Naruto and Sasuke’s last battle, the remainder of the anime series is a mixed bag. Though Naruto: Shippuden doesn’t quite end with filler episodes, it also doesn’t end where fans would expect it to.
In a move that no doubt seems baffling from the outside, Naruto: Shippuden’s final arc isn’t an adaptation of the manga’s ending, but instead depicts the events of a spin-off novel depicting Naruto and Hinata’s wedding. Unfortunately, as a result, fans who only watch Naruto: Shippuden never got to see the title hero reach his dream of becoming Hokage.
Naruto: Shippuden Never Adapted the Manga’s Canon Ending
Though Naruto: Shippuden never brought the manga’s final chapter to life, there are remnants of it in a few Boruto episodes.
This gets to the heart of why Naruto Chapter #700 was never straight-up adapted into the anime.
After the conclusion of Naruto’s manga in 2014, the series’ anime studio, Pierrot, wanted to continue the franchise with Boruto: Naruto the Movie. That movie, released in 2015, served as a sort of epilogue to Shippuden and a soft pilot for what would eventually become the anime and manga series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
Instead of using Naruto’s last episode to tease Boruto, Pierrot decided to use a combination of filler content and material found in the spin-off books to create Naruto’s last season.
While this does function as an ending of sorts, it is pretty far off from the manga’s ending. Unfortunately, though the actual ending of Shippuden certainly has its fans, it was probably the wrong call.
Naruto Shippuden’s Ending Doesn’t Quite Hit the Mark
As it is, Shippuden’s ending is fine, but far from remarkable. The marriage of Naruto and Hinata doesn’t feel like the right place to end the series.
Naruto and Hinata’s relationship is much more of a side element rather than a core piece of the series.
From the beginning, Naruto’s desire to become Hokage was a driving factor for him. While fans might debate whether Naruto should have become Hokage or not, that is where the manga ended.
By not showing Naruto’s ascension to Hokage, Shippuden leaves Naruto’s character arc incomplete. While fans could certainly see Naruto enjoying his status as Hokage in Shippuden’s sequel, Boruto’s poor reputation among fans might be enough to keep many away.
Unfortunately, without seeing Naruto either achieve or outright reject the goal that fans had watched him pursue for over a decade, Naruto: Shippuden’s ending just feels incomplete. If Studio Pierrot’s 4 rumored Naruto episodes ever do come to light, then the title hero becoming Hokage would be a good place to start.
- Release Date
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2007 – 2017-00-00
- Network
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TV Tokyo
- Directors
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Masaaki Kumagai, Naoki Horiuchi, Kazunori Mizuno, Yuki Kinoshita, Kazuya Iwata, Hiroyoshi Kishikawa, Yusuke Onoda, Hisashi Ishii, Yoshihiro Sugai, Shu Watanabe, Akitaro Daichi, Takuma Suzuki, Kiyoshi Murayama, Tsuneo Tominaga, Kunitoshi Okajima, Kenichi Nishida, Hideki Takayama, Masaharu Watanabe, Akira Shimizu, Ayataka Tanemura, Hiroaki Nishimura, Atsushi Nakagawa, Kentaro Fujita, Masayuki Matsumoto
- Writers
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Yasuyuki Suzuki, Shin Yoshida, Junki Takegami, Katsuhiko Chiba, Yuka Miyata, Satoru Nishizono, Kento Shimoyama, Daisuke Watanabe, Hideto Tanaka, Masaya Honda
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Junko Takeuchi
Naruto Uzumaki (voice)
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Noriaki Sugiyama
Sasuke Uchiha (voice)
