As one of the more influential anime of its generation — alongside Bleach and One Piece — Naruto does a lot of things right. It has the best-developed protagonist of the three and showed that you can tackle real-world and complex issues within a shonen. The villains are all given a great degree of depth as well.
However, it's not without faults. It stumbles rather noticeably as it's reaching its conclusion, something even the biggest fans of Naruto could agree with.
10 The Amount Of Fillers The Anime Has is outrageous & most of it is meaningless trash
The gold standard of having too much filler in an anime is sadly Naruto. For as great as the series was, it's hard to shake the fact that the amount of filler it has often dwarfed other long-running shonen in episodes.
No show should ever have hundreds of filler episodes in each of their adaptations. Worse than that, most of it is god awful. There are a few bright spots here and there (Chikara), but for the most part, the episodes are meaningless trash.
9 The Sasuke & Naruto Reincarnations of Indra & Asura had no build-up
The whole revelation had no build-up to it and was pulled out of nowhere to give each of them a powerup, sadly a recurring theme towards the end of the series. It's not so much the power-up that's the issue either, both of them were going to need it to stand a chance against the revolving door of big bads at the end.
The issue is that it ruined the natural rivalry that Naruto and Sasuke had with each other, taking away much of their character development by having it be destiny. Same holding true of Madara and Hashirama too.
8 The Final Bad Guy Changed At The 11th Hour in an anti-climactic way
For the entire length of the series, Madara had been built up as the final boss of the series. He'd been talked about since the very start of the series and didn't disappoint when we got to see him in action.
All of the hype was justified, and he played in perfectly with the overall theme of the series, which was that the new generation was always going to surpass the older one. What's worse is he was betrayed and taken out by Black Zetsu in such an anti-climactic way, especially after the awesome fight with Might Guy.
7 The Otsutsuki Clan's Arrival Into The Story was rushed & messy
Piggybacking off what happened to Madara, the way the Otsutsukis were introduced into the story was rushed, messy, and reeked of them needing something to help set up the spin-off series. Given that the clan is the central focus of that series only lends greater credence to that fact.
There was very little build-up to Kaguya's arrival as the real final boss, and the fact she was as bland as toast didn't help matters at all either. That same blandness is sadly present in many within her clan as well.
6 The Power-Ups In The Final Half Of The War Arc were simply handed to Sasuke & Naruto
One thing Naruto always did fantastically was the way it handled power-ups. Rarely were they handed out without training or a cost. Naruto always worked his butt off for anything he got, and Sasuke gained much of his through great costs, such as the death of his brother or learning beneath someone awful like Orochimaru.
That went out the window at the tail end of the war arc when everything was being handed to both of them. It wasn't just them either, with Kakashi getting much of the same treatment.
5 Madara's Rinnegan were Hot Potatoed between so many people
One of the more illogical and unexplained things in the anime was the fact that eyeballs and the dojutsu they carried were handed out like candy. It seemed like no one was just born with them anymore, always being granted by someone else. Nagato's eyes?
Those were Madara's Rinnegan that he handed off when he knew his death was near. Those same eyes were hot potatoed between so many people that it was unreal. That's not to mention all the eyes both Obito and Danzo were collecting.
4 How Superior The Sharingan Was To The Byakugan
At first, they were at least close in terms of what was better, but as the series went on, the Sharingan became so superior that the Byakugan was nothing more than an afterthought.
Considering they were both meant to be the three great dojutsu, the Byakugan felt worthless in just about every way. The induction of both Izanagi and Izanami made the Sharingan far too overpowered, leading to people like Danzo embedding a bunch of them into his arm.
3 The Effectiveness Of Talk No Jutsu
Naruto's ability to make villains see the error of their ways is a big part of the series, showing why he deserved to be the Hokage and why he was the light in the dark, as Konan said. The first few times he used it was amazingly effective, making Pain/Nagato one of the more sympathetic villains in the series.
The problem is they went to the well a bit too often, and by the time Obito met the same fate, it was met with a resounding meh from the audience.
2 Reducing The Role Of The Secondary Characters
One of Naruto's big strengths in the early going of the series and even near the start of Shippuden was that it wasn't just the Naruto show. He didn't defeat anyone during the retrieval of Sasuke, leaving those fights to the rest of the Konoha 11. In the early stages of Akatsuki, most of them were taken out by other people.
Even Shikamaru was granted a great character arc where he had to avenge his master against Hidan. By the end, the only ones that mattered at all were Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi.
1 Lack Of Tension During War
The war had plenty of issues to it, many of which were listed already, but the one that bothered many people was the lack of stakes or drama. Sure they were racing to save the world from Infinite Tsukuyomi, but there wasn't a moment that made your eyes go wide. There weren't any deaths that made you think the villains had any chance.
Only one name character was taken out, and it was done in such an unfulfilling fashion. At the very least, the older generation of Kages should have met their end to Madara.
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