Taking place more than two years after the events of the original Naruto series wrapped up, Naruto: Shippuden follows Sakura and Naruto's journey. The main plot of Shippuden is Team 7 trying to seek out Sasuke and bring him back to the Hidden Leaf Village.
The last time the audience saw him, he and Naruto had a massive fight at the Valley of the End, and Sasuke left to Orochimaru and receive more training to learn how to use his curse mark. Even though Naruto: Shippuden is highly praised, even higher than the original Naruto anime run, it isn't without some seriously weak episodes here and there. These are the ten worst-rated episodes of Naruto: Shippuden according to IMDb.
Updated on Januray 2nd, 2023 by Amanda Bruce: The Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden series might have come to an end years ago, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still audience watching the show. Thanks to the popularity of the sequel series Boruto, a whole new generation of anime fans are discovering what Boruto’s parents’ generation was like. With episodes of the show available to stream on so many platforms, the audience continues to grow, and the ratings for the episodes keep coming in on IMDb. That means that with enough ratings from new audience , the ratings can continue to change. One thing is for sure: the worst episodes are all deemed "filler."
Episode 437 - The Sealed Power (5.1)
This is an episode taking place within a dream that Jiraiya wrote within the novel in his dream world. People were not happy about the Jiraiya scroll episodes continuing onwards for such a long stretch of filler. But there are some interesting subtle differences. Sasuke was changed slightly in the opening for this episode, for example.
Plus, for fans of Jiraiya and Naruto's relationship, some people were happy to see the two of them together again even if it was all just inside of a dream. But ultimately, this was a boring episode that offered little interest to fans or the canon universe.
Episode 429 - Killer Bee Rappuden Part 1 (5.1)
The best part about this episode was Itachi showing up, but as one of the most interesting parts of the episode, his character was limited, taking away from most of the enjoyment. Killer B is already a controversial character with many fans finding him more annoying than anything else.
It was difficult for them to watch filler episodes about his dreamworlds, although some fans were pleased by the humorous elements. There was also a strange change to the tailed beasts animation that people weren't thrilled with. To make matters worse, for some reason, the writers decided it was a good idea to stretch the Killer B filler into two full episodes.
Episode 435 - Order of Priority (5.1)
This episode continues the fight between Shikamaru's team and Jiraiya's team that begins in the previous episode. It also offers a somewhat interesting antagonist who has the ability to use Byakugan, and this allows Neji to come into the spotlight more. But ultimately, it's another episode in a stale filler arc that does little to appease fans.
Even the addition to popular secondary characters into more central roles isn't enough to save the episode that is mostly dull. It does set the groundwork for a better follow-up episode that might even contain a more interesting and action-packed battle for the most part, it's worth skipping the episode (and the arc) altogether.
Episode 448 - Comrade (5.1)
In the aftermath of a dangerous battle, everyone is left to pick up the pieces. Sakura helps heal Hinata, Naruto grows frustrated by the lack of power he has been receiving from the nine-tails, and Sasuke still begins to transform into a villain even with his parents still alive.
It appears in the dreamworld, Sasuke is edging towards becoming the Madara character. He still intends to destroy Konoha. First, he wants to kill Orochimaru, but he is unable to due to being poisoned. Naruto cannot control his chakra. Again, another filler episode in a very long filler arc that doesn't seem to improve the longer it goes on.
Episode 430 - Killer Bee Rappuden Part 2 (5.1)
This is the second part of the infamous Killer B dream and filler episode. Still part of the odd dreamworld/Jiraiya's scroll arc, this episode is a direct follow-up to part one of Killer B's story. This episode does feature the return of fan-favorite characters like Itachi, Sasori, and Deidara, but again, they're featured in such limited roles it's hard enough to make up for the weakness of the overall storyline.
This is an episode where you can clearly see how lackluster the filler animation is as well with some awkward choices in depicting certain sequences. This episode ends with the Akatsuki being attacked by the tailed beasts and Killer B happy about it from his dream world.
Episode 226 - Battleship Island (5.0)
Like most of the worst episodes of Naruto: Shippuden, this one is part of a filler arc that everyone in the audience doesn’t love. Anything not needed for the larger story tends to get pushed aside by fans, especially those who wish the anime adhered strictly to the manga canon.
Part of the “Paradise Life On A Boat” arc in the anime, the episode sees Naruto, Yamato, and the rest of the people on their ship narrowly avoid an attack by pirates. They end up docked in a cavern and finding a journal from the native inhabitants of the area that detail their horrible historic treatment. While it would be a great world-building episode if this particular region was utilized more in the anime, it’s not, so the filler episode really feels unnecessary.
Episode 185 - Animal District (5.0)
After strings of big fighting episodes or very long arcs, the Naruto franchise tends to give its audience some breathing room in the anime. It does that by sometimes filling in gaps with flashback episodes. This is one of those episodes, but it fills in gaps the audience isn’t interested in.
In this case, the episode details an ostrich that Naruto once had to catch learning ninjutsu. The episodes in which Naruto and his teammates have to wrangle episodes tend to be the ones the fandom enjoys least, so it’s no surprise to see one that flashes back to more of those adventures landing in the worst rated.
Episode 434 - Team Jiraiya (4.9)
This is one of the early episodes in the much-reviled Jiraiya scrolls filler arc so it's not at all surprising that it would rank as one of the worst episodes of Naruto: Shippuden. Tsunade continues to read from his novel and in doing so the audience slips again inside the dream world being manifested by her reading.
The audience watches Naruto defeat Hidan in this episode, and then a massive sinkhole opens up that threatens to take hold of the village children. Jiraiya goes after the children and down into the sinkhole to save them. Ino and Choji try to jump in after him, but Shikamaru prevents them from doing so. It's an unneeded diversion from the main storyline.
Episode 313 - Rain Followed By Snow, With Some Lightning (4.9)
The anime introduces a lot of characters that don’t appear in the manga. One of those characters is Yota, a child with skills to manipulate the weather. He meets Naruto and many of his classmates when they’re young children in a filler arc of flashbacks.
In this episode, Yota is a slightly more sinister figure since it lands in the middle of Naruto and his allies on the battlefield. Yota appears to three different groups of Naruto’s friends, manipulating the weather differently in each place, while they all wonder how to fight him. It’s a strange adversary and mystery to add into the middle of a larger battle, and Yota isn’t a character that anyone in the audience would have been interested in seeing again.
Episode 449 - The Shinobi Unite (4.8)
The worst episode of Naruto: Shippuden is yet another episode from Jiraiya's scroll filler arc. It's actually a little surprising this episode ranked so low compared to the rest because it is full of exciting battle sequences. The shinobi of Hidden Leaf band together to bring Sasuke back to Konoha now that he has killed Orochimaru and is working with the Akatsuki.
They want to deal with him themselves before anyone else can. But it won't be easy. They are forced to fight against Sasori and other powerful Akatsuki . The reason this episode is probably ranked so low is that almost all the battle sequences are rehashes of the canon battles. Nothing new or original is introduced in this episode rendering it mostly pointless.
