With how much love Naruto Shippuden gets—aside from maybe its final arc—I'm personally surprised the time skip (or Shippuden, as the anime calls it) isn’t criticized more for its actual issues. I’m not talking about the anime’s slow pacing and filler—that’s been talked about to death. I mean problems that were in the manga itself and just carried over into the anime.

That said, I should be fair and explain my perspective—why I was disappointed, but also what I did like about Shippuden.

In general, I prefer pre-time skip Naruto. Not only was the cast decently sized without feeling bloated, but the tone had a good mix of lightheartedness, magic, and actual strategy. However, due to the events of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, it’s understandable that Shippuden lost much of its whimsical charm. Even the soundtrack feels more serious and somber. That’s one thing Shippuden does well—consistently emphasizing tragedy. And, oh boy, there’s a lot of it.

While pre-time skip Naruto fumbled with who the real villains were from arc to arc, Shippuden at least has solid villain buildup. Almost every major conflict connects to a larger antagonist, which helps the story feel more cohesive.

I also think Naruto (the character) himself improved. Pre-time skip Naruto had some nice moments but was generally a bit too annoying for me. Post-time skip, he’s more tolerable and has more memorable moments, though he can still be frustrating and occasionally bland.

And while there aren’t as many as I’d like, Shippuden does have some great emotional moments. Some are tied to backstories, but a few present-day scenes stand out and keep things memorable.

Unfortunately, that’s about where my positives end.

Power Creep and Dull Fights

One of my favorite things about pre-time skip Naruto was its balance of magic (ninjutsu) and strategy. Unfortunately, Shippuden gradually reduces the importance of ninja tactics, making fights feel like they’re decided purely by who has the strongest jutsu. Strategy occasionally appears, but it’s subtle—sometimes too subtle. This made many action scenes duller than they should have been. Sure, there are some cool set pieces and hard-hitting moments, but when everyone is just spamming super-powerful ninjutsu, and things like shuriken, bombs, and taijutsu barely matter (outside of that one insane Might Guy moment), it really shows how much power creep affected the fights.

The Bloated Cast and Wasted Potential
Even in pre-time skip Naruto, some characters were already being pushed to the background despite having cool designs or moments. Shippuden takes this issue and dials it up to 100.

So many characters we got to emotionally connect with—or at least see do something cool—get shafted. Asuma, Kurenai, Choji, Shino, Anko, Rock Lee, Neji, Tenten—the list goes on. These were characters we got to know as early as the second arc, yet in Shippuden, they barely do anything.

The only exceptions are a few obvious fan favorites like Shikamaru, Gaara, and I guess Hinata—but that’s about it. You’d think the Fourth Great Ninja War Arc would be the perfect time to make all these characters relevant again, and the series tried, but in my opinion, it fumbled hard.

Why? Because there were too many characters introduced on top of an already large cast. Not only do we still have all the Leaf Village ninjas, but now we also have other village ninja, Kages, Tailed Beast hosts, Sasuke’s new Hebi allies, and temporary replacements for Sasuke and Kakashi in Team 7. With so many characters, most of them don’t get enough development to make us care about them beyond their base personality and powers. And sadly, that applies to the villains too.

Villain Overload and the Kaguya Mess
I do appreciate that the Akatsuki serve as Shippuden’s main antagonists. There was strong buildup for who should have been the final villain.

But then there’s Kaguya.

Without getting into spoilers, the lack of buildup for her is one of the most universally criticized aspects of Shippuden. There’s a bunch of nonsense about fate and reincarnation, and at this point, the ninja world’s reliance on magic becomes obnoxious. But honestly, Kaguya is just a symptom of a larger problem—Shippuden’s escalating power creep, which had been growing worse long before she even appeared.

The Team 7 Disaster
What’s probably the most disappointing for me is how Shippuden handled Team 7—the core reason the time skip even happened.

By the end of pre-time skip Naruto, Sasuke’s character was already heading down a dark path. And let’s just say he becomes a lot more unlikable post-time skip. While there are good reasons for his descent, and some of it is due to certain characters withholding information from him, he still comes across as a moody, irrational mess. He constantly shifts his motives, becomes increasingly cruel, and gets way too much forgiveness for the terrible things he does.

Then there’s Naruto and Sakura. They make so many dumb choices in their quest to “bring back" Sasuke. I get that this is the heart of the story, but the way it plays out is exhausting. Watching Naruto and Sakura regress personality-wise just to make this happen was frustrating, and by the end, I didn’t even find their resolution satisfying. Their dynamic, which should have been a highlight of Shippuden, ended up being one of its biggest headaches.

I honestly feel bad for Kakashi—he had to deal with a bunch of emotionally unstable teenagers who eventually gained god-like powers and affected the world because of some melodramatic love-friendship nonsense.

Final Thoughts
Shippuden has its moments—a stronger, more somber tone, some cool fights, and a handful of emotional scenes. But the things it focused on just weren’t for me. The bloated cast, the increasingly dull fights, and the Team 7 drama made it a slog. And the slow pacing certainly didn’t help.

I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but we got what we got.