Do you like Naruto?

But yeah jokes aside, I actually really like the original Naruto. The filler I'm not a fan of, but it had a pretty interesting concept. It took the Ninja idea explored really interesting ideas like spirituality. The way Ninjas in Naruto train to learn different arts and using them into battle for missions is pretty dang interesting. The music by Toshiro Matsuda still amazing to this day. I still listen to the original soundtrack from time to time. And the writing was actually ya know pretty good especially the Chuunin Exams arc. For me that arc is where it really gets excellent writing from a story standpoint. The characters were well written too and memorable even if certain characters didn't get enough screen time. (Yeah Ten Ten, I'm callin you out) People might disagree with me, but Shippudden is where I lost it though and I feel like it lost its charm around that point. It was like a good balance between goofy, action, and drama. Even if you dislike the filler the original Naruto still felt like it had a soul.

The pacing for the fights (and the rest of the ep) in Shippuden was awful. I was so annoyed at one specific fight, which was filled with a ton of flashbacks, that I ended up looking up which chapter it took place in the manga. The flow of the fight was so much better and felt more natural in the manga, basically just put to show on hold after that. Studio Pierrot doesn't do the source any justice by padding fights/episodes with constant flashbacks. One Piece has a similar problem with terrible pacing except without the excessive use of flashbacks. Haven't watched an episode in a few years but I think in their case it was just a lot of running around or dialogue during the fights.

It's not a favorite, but it's my friend's favorite and it did kind of get into the anime medium as a whole, so yes... https://preview.redd.it/wgtgqx2z2d141.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=af4f3eca1003c211a2f31540ae3b1dc71d8cde3b