Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-4437326-20140906222825/@comment-25349026-20140907224329

An entire book could be written about all the little flaws, but I'm content to chalk it up to two major things.

Plot holes - This story is rife with them. There are tons of times that events, characters, things are introduced in a way that leads the audience to believe they will play some sort of significance at some point only to never be mentioned again or only as a passing thought some time later.

Supporting characters - In that there are too damn many of them. In part 1 there is the rookie 9 and Gai's team and a couple others like Jiraiya, Tsunade, etc. They each get varying amounts of development and things are moving along ok until. Part 2, everyone and their auntie gets a name and a half assed back story, however Kishimoto dug himself so deep he can't possibly devote time to everyone. This is how you end up with people wanting to know shit about sandaime Mizukage, and Captain Awesome, and the slew of Kumo and Tsuchi ninjas that would have otherwise been better off been unnamed extras.

As for the anime, that can be described in one word. Filler. Plain and simple, it would have been much better if Japanese TV took a lesson from their western counterparts and introduced this little concept called 'seasons' that we have over here. Instead we get shit like ostrich ninjas and kangaroos beating the shit out of Rock Lee. This in turn dilutes the entire mood of the series and can add more continuity problems when the manga decides to do something that the anime did differently earlier on a filler ep. Just like you like your lunchmeat to not be jelly that vaguely smells and tastes like meat, so too would most of us prefer our series we watch.