"Naruto: Shippuden" could very well be the worst case in the history of pathetic attempts at anime productions. To comprehend its failure one must surely watch a few episodes, otherwise the depths it sinks into are utterly unimaginable. I'm not even gonna go to the 'inferior to original Naruto' argument. Yes, Naruto was corny at times, sappy, silly and yet touching and entertaining, that is, its missteps were balanced out by its graces and one could even claim they were not missteps at all, but rather flavor inducing key points for plot and atmosphere development.
However, Shippuden's failure does not lie in too high expectations. It simply and bluntly cannot compare to any feature of the original anime since it lacks soul, essence, it shouldn't even be called an anime. To be specific, the show gives the impression that it was made by fans who have watched the original series, memorized some elements and names and decided to imitate it without knowing how the pieces fit and what glue holds them together. The manga part is not all-bad, that is if you have been reading it for years (among other manga) you won't necessarily have the sudden impulse to quit under pain of accidentally putting your head through the television or eating your hat. You might as well keep spending a few minutes every week, if only to satisfy your curiosity. So what I'm saying is that the material the anime is based in, in no way accounts for the mess they did, it was purely a matter of presentation.
For example, one quickly notices that while watching even the most suspenseful(supposedly) battles, one can skip 10-30 seconds every half a minute and lose absolutely nothing of the plot, because there is no action, no dialogue, no development whatsoever. Rather the camera, slowly, very slowly, with no reason whatsoever, suddenly and randomly zooms in on naruto, then slowly, very slowly, zooms in on Kakashi, then again shows Naruto but this time is zooms out, then it shows the clouds and zooms in, then...well you get the picture. This technique in competent anime serves to press a point home, to show a character's reaction to a specific event either in case you missed its significance or nature, or to reinforce your feelings for it. It is one of many rules that as I said make the pieces fit together, the subtleties of which are wasted on the incompetent creators of this show.
Another example is the splitting of scenes, another technique, serving to emphasize an event or presenting it in a different light, by superimposing another, seemingly unrelated event. In this show apparently they employ it to destroy the atmosphere and tension of a scene by superimposing it to really unrelated other scene.
I could go on and on, sadly the fatal flaws are there, the whole structure screams with disharmony. If there is one thing it reminds me of, it is Joey in 'Friends', using the quotation marks out of context in ignorance. Ignorance. (As Ebisu would say, how shameful..)
However, Shippuden's failure does not lie in too high expectations. It simply and bluntly cannot compare to any feature of the original anime since it lacks soul, essence, it shouldn't even be called an anime. To be specific, the show gives the impression that it was made by fans who have watched the original series, memorized some elements and names and decided to imitate it without knowing how the pieces fit and what glue holds them together. The manga part is not all-bad, that is if you have been reading it for years (among other manga) you won't necessarily have the sudden impulse to quit under pain of accidentally putting your head through the television or eating your hat. You might as well keep spending a few minutes every week, if only to satisfy your curiosity. So what I'm saying is that the material the anime is based in, in no way accounts for the mess they did, it was purely a matter of presentation.
For example, one quickly notices that while watching even the most suspenseful(supposedly) battles, one can skip 10-30 seconds every half a minute and lose absolutely nothing of the plot, because there is no action, no dialogue, no development whatsoever. Rather the camera, slowly, very slowly, with no reason whatsoever, suddenly and randomly zooms in on naruto, then slowly, very slowly, zooms in on Kakashi, then again shows Naruto but this time is zooms out, then it shows the clouds and zooms in, then...well you get the picture. This technique in competent anime serves to press a point home, to show a character's reaction to a specific event either in case you missed its significance or nature, or to reinforce your feelings for it. It is one of many rules that as I said make the pieces fit together, the subtleties of which are wasted on the incompetent creators of this show.
Another example is the splitting of scenes, another technique, serving to emphasize an event or presenting it in a different light, by superimposing another, seemingly unrelated event. In this show apparently they employ it to destroy the atmosphere and tension of a scene by superimposing it to really unrelated other scene.
I could go on and on, sadly the fatal flaws are there, the whole structure screams with disharmony. If there is one thing it reminds me of, it is Joey in 'Friends', using the quotation marks out of context in ignorance. Ignorance. (As Ebisu would say, how shameful..)