Based on the new opening, I'd say it's safe to say HELLO FILLERS. There's no sign of Hidan and Kakuzu in the opening, meaning it might actually last for the whole fucking season. Then again, manga readers know that next arc focuses on Shikamaru, Asuma and their team so maybe there's hope it won't last the whole season. Maybe the parts with filler villains will be replaced with other scenes, as that wouldn't be anything new in Naruto openings. But still, I have a feeling it's going to last for the whole season since last opening was so spoilery and this one has nothing to do with the canon material. First horrible pacing and then fillers when there's like 100 chapters to cover. Perfect.

I can only hope that the pace will pick up after this because if not, this is the most pointless move ever.

I actually think they're pretty original and look great compared to other shows of the same genre, even if they still have some of that "genericness". This opening doesn't really look as good as the others before it though.

I'm also pissed off at how they're handling the anime. The gap between Bleach anime and manga is way smaller than Naruto's, yet that series starts looking better and better and has great pacing (compared to other 100+ episode anime). I wouldn't even mind fillers if the anime looked as good as the previous series and retained the same pacing.

Actually, the new arc started in this week's episode. There were also some filler scenes but it was mostly canon, and based on the preview, next episode seems to cover at least two chapters so I'm not sure what's going to happen. My bet is that they are going to expand the storyline, maybe adding something about Jashin and Akatsuki hunting other Jinchuurikis, giving some more screentime for Shikamaru's team while proceeding with the story as well, so basically it's going to be canon with filler. I'm still worried that opening had no Hidan or Kakuzu though, so I dunno.

I think this week's double episode was unexpectedly good, even though it wasn't great or anything. 53 had some great animation. There's another break next week though, hooray for shitty schedule.

I watched raw. I think they separated 53 and 54 because 53 had old intro while 54 had the new one, plus 54 was in widescreen and I'm pretty sure 53 wasn't.

DB will probably release it tomorrow.

Wait, so ep 54 is hi-def? 53 was a good episode by the way. I liked how they ended it.

By the way, next week's chapter is going to be fucking awesome. I really can't wait to see what happens in the next following weeks and I like how it's pretty unpredictable.

The manga is so good, yet the anime...

yeah, I gave up on the Naruto anime a while back...at least the manga's good. And Bleach doesn't fill as much so I still watch that too.