/lit/ - Literature

Even though it debuted some time after the manga, the anime quickly caught up, since one anime episode usually covers one or two manga chapters. To prevent overlapping, the anime's producers tend to organize content from the manga chapters into long, uneventful sections followed by short bursts of action, sometimes adding filler content in between. By the time the Sasuke Retrieval arc ended in the anime (episode 135), the series was at a point where it was quickly gaining on the manga. At the conclusion of this arc, the anime immediately switched to anime-only episodes to allow the manga to broaden the gap once more. Most of these episodes are stand-alone stories, with a few being part of arcs that were several episodes long, and lasted for a total of 85 episodes in the first series.

After the series moved back into manga-adapted episodes, it was renamed Naruto: Shippūden (疾風伝; Hurricane Chronicles). The new series premiered on February 15, 2007.

The anime generally remains true to the manga, usually changing only minor details (causes of death, loss of limbs, and other injuries have been lessened in the anime) or expanding on parts skipped by the manga, such as the fight between Tenten and Temari. The anime-only arcs, though unreferenced in the manga (save for a few scant scenes), deal with the breaks between manga volumes, which covers a short period before the Sasuke Retrieval arc and several months before the time skip. The anime-only arcs tend to cover the supporting characters, occasionally giving insight into an otherwise rarely seen character.