Ask John: When Will the Naruto Filler Episodes End?

Question:
Is there any hope of the fillers ending for Naruto? It’s been over a year. I’ve been reading the manga and it’s still amazing, but why don’t they just animate it and stop with the useless fillers? Has there been any set date as to when the manga-based anime will return?

Answer:
To ease the minds of devoted Naruto disciples, I’m confident that the Naruto anime TV series will eventually revert from original storylines back to direct adaptation of Masashi Kishimoto’s original manga; however, I can’t foretell when that will happen. I’m aware that hardcore Naruto fans are unsatisfied with the current original storylines in the anime. While I fell behind and stopped watching the Naruto anime several months ago, I’m still very aware that the anime original episodes are not remotely as tense, exciting, or dramatic as the episodes adapted from the original manga. But to provide some perspective, it’s necessary to consider a broader perspective than just the desire of hardcore Naruto fans.

Japan’s anime industry typically doesn’t promote storyline changes within ongoing series, for example, the way American superhero comics often do. The Japanese media will hype a new anime based on an earlier game or manga, but usually storyline changes within ongoing shows don’t merit major media attention. For that reason, when the Naruto anime switches to episodes directly adapted from the original manga, fans will probably have no more than a week’s notice, and the change could come virtually at any time. But there may be little reason for Studio Pierrot artists to rush to conclude original anime storylines.

Naruto is one of the most popular and successful current anime in Japan. Naruto is also a mainstream anime targeted at pre-adolescent Japanese boys. Merely noticing the relative scarcity of coverage Naruto gets in Japanese anime magazines like Newtype and Animage implies that the Naruto anime is not highly popular among Japan’s hardcore otaku community. Naruto is most popular with average, mainstream Japanese viewers who seemingly don’t mind original storylines. If the Naruto television series is still just as popular in Japan while it’s broadcasting anime exclusive storylines, there’s probably little motivation for Studio Pierrot animators to stop producing original storylines. In fact, the longer the anime original episodes continue, the more time Masashi Kishimoto has to author additional chapters of the manga, which in turn will give animators more material to work with in the coming years. Furthermore, Studio Pierrot artists may enjoy exercising their own creativity in creating original Naruto adventures instead of slavishly adapting Kishimoto’s work. So it may actually be in the best interest of Studio Pierrot to delay adapting the Naruto manga for as long as possible.

Primarily because the anime series has introduced plotlines from the manga that have not been resolved, I do expect the anime series to eventually return to those loose ends by once again faithfully adapting the original manga. But there’s no way for me to guess if will be weeks, months, or years before that happens. I understand the frustration international fans feel over the perceived declining quality of the Naruto television series, but the Naruto anime isn’t designed to satisfy international viewers. So international viewers have no actual right to demand anything of the Naruto anime. It’s natural for viewers who invest a lot of interest in the Naruto anime to wish and hope that it develops in a particular way, but first and foremost foreign viewers should be grateful just to be able to watch the Naruto anime at all. After all, anyone that doesn’t like the current episodes can easily not watch them, or watch something else. English speaking viewers who do choose to continue watching current Naruto episodes can expect the series to once again refer to the original manga eventually, but in the meantime just accept that Studio Pierrot’s animators are doing what is apparently most profitable and desirable for the primary intended Naruto viewing audience and the Japanese market.