Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-28869806-20151211232646/@comment-3261234-20151212034130

I agree that the first part of Guy vs. Madara and the fight Naruto & Sasuke vs Madara were not as fast as I expected. However, I disagree that these fights were a major letdown. The part where Guy used Night Guy was, in my opinion, on of the best fighting sequences of the series as of late, and I also really liked the execution during the fight between Madara and Team 7 (althought Sakura didn't count). About the other (sadly only 8) canon episodes of this year, I can't really complain either. I remember the short brawl between Kakashi, Minato & Gaara vs Madara having been pretty cool, and the interaction between Obito and Madara was well done, too (especially when Obito finally realised Madara was always one step ahead of him). So regarding the canon episodes, I would locate them somewhere between "alright" and "good".

The filler episodes however....I have to admit, I have nothing against filler in general. But as with the canon episodes, the execution has to be good for me to like them, as well as the timing they were airing. I don't want to see a Konohamaru special right after something really exiting happened in a canon episode.

That being said, I usually give the filler episodes a chance, and there were, again, "alright" 'till "good" episodes, but the overwhelming part was bland, inconsistent or simply boring as hell. It indeed wasn't a good year for the anime, and it's even more annoying knowing that it could've been. The series is at it's end, now the fillers are nothing more than a cash-grab. According to Shakh's profile, one of the SP guys said the anime will not end after the official end, similar to what happened after Part I. If that's so, then why do they need to stretch it now as long as possible, just to stall things until we get even more fillers? I just don't understand it.