Naruto

[darkanx]

Perhaps they think the anime is catching up to the manga a bit too quick? Could just be giving it a little time so they don't screw themselves later. Don't read the manga so no idea how far ahead is it/was when fillers started.

Yeah, that is pretty much what is going on, the anime was going faster than the manga, so either they needed to pause the production or make fillers, and they decided on the latter. They have Naruto running around on badly writen, random missions. It wasn't so bad at first, but it has just been dragging on and on (I would say that it feels as tho half a year+ has passed since Sasuke defected).

I think a better way to fill episodes would have been to go back to the early days of the team (the "lost episodes" if you will) and reenforce the relationship between the group members. It seemed as tho Naruto and Sasuke never really even formed a strong bond (even that of rivalry) to warrant Naruto's drastic desire to save his "friend". It would have been a much better use of building up some storyline than to have Naruto being the "third wheel" to other group members.

Forgive me, I tend to rant.