Naruto Watch Order

Watch Naruto (220 episodes), then Naruto: Shippuden (500 episodes). That is the entire order, and it hides the real question, which is not what to watch but what to skip, and the filler list is the companion page this one cannot do without.

The shape of the thing

The original series ran from 2002 to 2007 and covers the cast as children. Shippuden picks up after an in-story time skip of roughly two and a half years and runs to 500 episodes, finishing in 2017. There is no film, special or OVA you need between them; the time skip is the bridge, and the story explains itself on the far side.

Boruto, the sequel about the next generation, is a separate decision for another day. Nothing in the two main series depends on it.

Why the episode counts overstate the commitment

Seven hundred and twenty episodes is the number that scares people off, and it is misleading in a merciful direction. Much of it is anime-original filler, produced because the adaptation kept catching up to the manga and had to mark time.

Most of the original series after episode 135 is anime-original, but it is not one uninterrupted block that can all be discarded. Siliconera identifies transition material in episodes 141 and 220: Sakura's training decision and Naruto's departure. The official finale synopsis confirms Naruto leaves with Jiraiya. Keep those scenes before starting Shippuden; the filler guide explains the limits of this shortcut.

Where to continue in the manga

After the original anime, volume 27 is the starting point for continuing in manga order. Naruto's departure appears in chapter 238, as shown in the official retrospective. The volume then turns to Kakashi's earlier team in chapters 239–244; the official Obito retrospective identifies all six chronicle chapters.

Read that interlude before moving to volume 28, chapter 245, where Naruto returns after training with Jiraiya. The official Kakashi retrospective identifies chapter 245 as Homecoming. Starting directly at volume 28 reaches the post-training return sooner, but skips the intervening Kakashi chapters. Volume 27 also overlaps material from the original anime; it is a reading recommendation, not a claim that its first page begins exactly where episode 220 ends.

VIZ's publisher listings for Naruto volume 27 and volume 28 identify the English editions and describe those two stages of the story.

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English paperbacks on Amazon US: Naruto volume 27: Departure and Naruto volume 28: Homecoming. These are the individual VIZ volumes, not chapter purchases.

The films

There are eleven, and they are almost all standalone stories that touch nothing. The one exception worth knowing about is The Last: Naruto the Movie, which is canon, sits between the final two chapters of the manga, and settles a relationship the series proper leaves as subtext. If you watch one film, that is the one, and it belongs after Shippuden episode 493 or simply after finishing the series.

Sub or dub

Both are complete and both are defensible, which is not true of every long series. Worth knowing: some of the franchise's most quoted English lines are dub choices rather than translations, and a few are genuinely better than the literal alternative, an argument our Shikamaru page makes about his catchphrase, "What a drag."

Where to start if 720 episodes is a hard no

Start anyway, at episode one, and give it to the end of the Wave arc, roughly nineteen episodes. That arc is a complete argument in miniature: what the ninja system does to children, asked by a child inside it. If it does not land, the remaining seven hundred episodes are more of that question at higher stakes, and you can quit knowing you sampled the real thing rather than the throat-clearing.

The Volume 2 opening analysis reads Kakashi’s teamwork instructions and the lunch scene through printed page 19. It stops before the result of the test and distinguishes the single from 3-in-1 book 1.