Naruto: Shippuden Season 1 (2007)
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Naruto: Shippuden Season 1 Review
Naruto: Shippuden is a new, better series that came after the original Naruto. The first season is so strong and it promises one great show for sure.
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“Art is something that lasts for all posterity.
Art is eternal“
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One thing off the top, Shippuden changes the game for this show. Whereas Naruto had some humor, lightness and childishness, this series has very minimum of that. And both shows have a lot of action and fights, but here fights are so much longer, but also infinitely better crafted and executed. The score is okay, but I preferred the original in that regard. But in every other way, this is the better, darker and more sophisticated show with amazing fights which incorporated tactics into them. Also, the animation is so much better as well with a more polished look to it.
So the first season is basically one big arc of thirty two episodes and no fillers – Naruto and the gang must save Gaara from the organization Akatsuki. He was taken by them so that they could extract the beast from him. Eventually, they get him back, but a series of great fights and one awesome fight ensued before it.
Gaara versus Deidara was a very compelling, well executed battle. And I really liked those desert sequences which were so epic and cinematic. I also liked how the characters here matured both physically and somewhat emotionally. They also grew stronger thanks to training and I liked how we skipped all of that, but we come back to it sometimes through a couple of flashbacks. I liked that choice quite a bit.
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So let’s talk about the major fights. It was so problematic how Deidara basically just wanted to escape and eventually his fight with Kakashi and Naruto proved to be anti-climactic and almost non-existent. And of course Team Guy just wasted everyone’s time by fighting their duplicates. Those two fights were so weak compared to the ultimate battle here which is of course Sakura and Grandma Chiyo versus Sasori.
Yes, this fight was absolutely amazing to the point of becoming my instant favorite from this series and it might as well just stay in the top position when all is said and done. That’s how great it is. It employed so much tactics and whereas Deidara is a long-range attacker, Sasori is a major puppeteer which led to a different fight than usual. Granny’s tactics and Sakura’s brute strength made for one awesome tactical team. This battle was immensely long at over eight episodes I think, but it was so amazing that I still loved every second of it. It employed a lot of twists and turns and many great moves and surprises. It ended epically as well.
So in terms of the characters, Naruto definitely got the backseat during this season which is problematic, but was somewhat necessary. Kakashi also frustrated me with some of his choices. I liked Team Guy and they were a lot of fun, but ultimately unnecessary. Deidara was annoying, but definitely cool at times. And Sasori was obviously a terrific villain.
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Granny Chiyo is such a fantastic, wonderful character that her ultimate sacrifice for uninteresting Gaara really frustrated me. It was so well done, but she was such a badass character and he is so boring to me that it angered me. And Sakura is awesome in this season, there is no denying that. She is powerful, kicks some major ass and got many great scenes. But Gaara isn’t that important and Sakura is also going to take the backseat later on so all of this season felt rather inconsequential and unimportant in the bigger scope of things.
So yes, it’s unimportant in the more epic sense, but individually speaking this first season of Shippuden is thrilling and the best season of Naruto so far. Sakura and Chiyo as well as Sasori stole the show with that amazing, smartly conceived battle which was epic and continually riveting to watch.
Worst Episodes: Beasts: Alive Again and Kakashi Enlightened.
Best Episodes: Puppet Fight: 10 vs. 100 and Impossible Dream.
