The rumor mill has been going crazy speculating as to when the ever so popular anime Naruto fillers would end. At some point I didn't think it would end, or was it even possible to save. But as a devoted fan, I stuck to the manga.

And finally it's come, official news that Naruto fillers will end in Early Spring 2007, which predicted to be around February. The new saga is entitled "Naruto Wind Saga" I've seen the manga pages advertising this new saga beginning and if you still don't believe me. Check out the new Naruto website.

http://www.narutofan.com/

 

I used to be interested in the anime, but then the filler season(s?) hit. Now I just read the manga, but with every new concept that the mangaka introduces, I die a little inside.

 

I'm actually just waiting for the fillers to end so that I can see the animated battle between Orochimaru and 4-tailed!Naruto...might still take a while though till it gets there.

 

...since I live in Japan, I'll have a say in this. Weekly Shonen Jump announced in their issue about two or three weeks ago that Naruto: Shippuden (pronounced shipp-oo-den) was to start airing in February. That's all there is to it. They also had a preview to the new Narutimett Hero game that was in developement.

DemonDream: ...and it's not only Kishimoto's decision to do what he wants in the comics. He has to run every idea through his managers and editors before he can plotline it, and then that gets run through as well. So, many of the 'horrible' decisions in plot that he made may not have originated from him in the first place. Just providing a counter-argument here.

 

You know, I might be the only one who hasn't hated the fillers. Some of them were pretty useless, but I liked having some of the more background characters fleshed out a bit through the filler arcs (seeing some of Anko's past through the Sea Country episodes, Kurenai's through the Yakumo arc, et cetera). They at least give me a lot more theoretical scenarios to play with as a fanfic writer.

 

Sera: True, but you have to agree- most of them WERE plain crap, straight up and simple.

 

I'll agree with LT2000. I too enjoyed some of the fillers they were entertaining enough.

 

I was greatly amused by some of the fillers, but I doubt that I was the only person infuriated by the "flying rasengan". I mean . . . can you get any more powerful than a thrown rasengan? Well, clearly, you can, but still. The latest anime episode was kind of ridiculous with the way that Naruto practically polished off an entire clan singlehandedly. The last manga was extremely cool with how to beat the unbeatable, but I'm still worried about the guy who seems to be able to take any amount of damage. I suppose that he'll die if you split his brain up into several parts.

 

Isn't that guy only invincible when the ritual is activated? So therefore, you have to kill him when he's not in that weird skeleton pattern state. But since he's going to be expecting that, his guard's going to be up at all times when the ritual isn't activated.

Except, right after the ritual stage is cancelled/completed. So then, the key is how to get him to go into the ritual stage, and fool him into thinking he's succeeded in killing you so that you can finish him off when he's vulnerable.

I'm betting that that's how he dies- Shikamaru gets Kakashi to collect Kakuzu's blood, as we've seen.

Use that for the ritual instead of his own, and then that's two birds with one stone. Provided that Kakuzu's other two hearts are destroyed.

I haven't read the latest one yet, since it comes out tomorrow here, but I'm thinking that this is how it's gonna go.

 

This is just a complete guess but kazuka is going to die by naruto and the the ink guy (forgot his name) and the wood (damn it, forgot again) is possibly going to go after Hidan.

 

ink guy = sai
wood guy = yamato

Well, I hope shikamaru lives... he's a very important character for me.


And with the 15 Februay... the only question is: Is Kakashis Gaiden coming in the week before? Actually I'm more excited about KG than about part two...

 

Personally, I'd love to see Shikamaru get killed off. He's always kinda annoyed me as a character. Especially recently, as he's getting much more 'screentime' than a background character deserves, and is indeed usurping a lot of the attention from the more prominent characters. Kishimoto won't do it, mind, but I'd be happy to see it nonetheless.

 

Shikamaru is one of the more prominent characters. Besides, the naruto part 2 is just beginning so it might take a little time before the author shows the characters your talking about.