Finally, finally, finally the fillers end and Naruto begins again. After 85~ episodes of filler, Naruto is finally back on track. With this, the trinity of Pirates, Ninja, and Shinigami has returned. That means One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach are all back to their main story arcs. Hallelujah! Back to Naruto though, for those not familiar the events of Naruto Shippuuden happen after a 2 and a half year time jump.
So more or less everything is as it was. Naruto has supposedly been under training, something that would have been cool to see rather than the filler we’ve had. Sakura might not be useless now, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Everyone else in the village is pretty much still just everyone else. Naruto, Sakura, and perhaps a few others have grown a bit, but nothing too dramatic. Naruto’s new style is basically just a slightly different jumpsuit, while Sakura’s new style looks more or less as she did before.
Storywise we get a whole lot of reintroductions, some movement with Akatsuki, and the promise of a dramatic showdown between Naruto and Sakura against Kakashi. It’s almost ashame we’re still dealing with Akatsuki and hunting down Sasuke after all this time. From the brief clip shown of him at the intro, he seems more or less as he was except now he’s wearing a robe. I hear that sequence is quite out of order, so maybe in about 35-50 episodes we’ll see the conclusion of that clip.
