Naruto Watch Order and Filler Guide for New Fans

Naruto is 720 episodes long across two series, and roughly 40 percent of that is filler. You can absolutely watch it all, but you do not have to. Here is the order and the skips.

Part one: Naruto (220 episodes)

The original series covers Naruto’s academy days through the Sasuke Retrieval arc. The canon material runs through episode 135. Episodes 136 to 220 are almost entirely filler produced while the manga got ahead, and you can skip straight to Shippuden after 135 without missing a single plot point. If you want a taste, the Land of Rice Fields arc is the least painful.

Part two: Naruto Shippuden (500 episodes)

Shippuden picks up two and a half years later and contains the series best material: Pain’s assault, the Five Kage Summit, the Fourth Shinobi World War and the final fight. The major filler blocks to skip are episodes 57 to 71, 91 to 112, 144 to 151, 170 to 171, 176 to 196, 223 to 242, 257 to 260, 271, 279 to 281, 284 to 295, 303 to 320, 347 to 361, 376 to 377, 388 to 390, 394 to 413, 416 to 417, 422 to 423, 427 to 450, and 464 to 469. That sounds like a lot because it is. The canon episodes number about 290.

The movies

None of the eleven films are canon except The Last, which sits between episodes 493 and 494 and resolves Naruto and Hinata, and Boruto: Naruto the Movie, which serves as an epilogue. Road to Ninja is the best of the rest.

Then what

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations continues the story with the next generation. Its early episodes are slow, so many fans start at episode 51 or read the manga instead.

My take: Skip the filler, watch The Last, and treat the war arc as the reward for the journey. Done right, Naruto is about 425 episodes, and every one earns its place.