Naruto Watch Order: Naruto, Shippuden and Boruto

Three television series, eleven films and 1,013 episodes, four in ten of them anime-original filler once you are inside Naruto and Shippuden: that is the wall most viewers hit somewhere in the middle of Naruto: Shippuden. This guide gives you the running order, the exact episode ranges you can skip in each series, the one film that genuinely affects the plot, and where Naruto Uzumaki's story stands as of September 2026.

The watch order at a glance

#	What to watch	Episodes	Aired	Filler load
1	Naruto (original series)	1-220	2002-2007	41%, 90 episodes
2	Naruto: Shippuden	1-493	2007-2017	41%, 203 of 500
3	The Last: Naruto the Movie	Film	2014	Canon, not optional
4	Naruto: Shippuden, wedding arc	494-500	2017	Canon
5	Boruto: Naruto Next Generations	1-293	2017-2023	10%, 28 episodes
6	Boruto: Two Blue Vortex	Announced	No date yet	In production at Pierrot

Why release order beats chronological order here

Naruto has no timeline puzzle to solve. The manga ran straight from 1999 to 2014 and the anime followed it in sequence, so release order and story order are the same thing with one exception: The Last: Naruto the Movie is set after the war but before Shippuden's final seven episodes, so it belongs between 493 and 494 rather than at the very end.

Your real decision is how much filler you tolerate. Studio Pierrot caught up with the manga repeatedly across fifteen years of weekly broadcast and plugged the gaps with anime-original stories, so both series sit at 41% filler. Cutting all of it takes a 720-episode commitment down to 427.

Step 1: Naruto, episodes 1-220 (2002-2007)

Pierrot's original run aired on TV Tokyo from 3 October 2002 to 8 February 2007. The split is unusually clean: the first 135 episodes adapt Part I of the manga, and the remaining 85 are anime-original, assembled from plot ideas the manga left on the floor.

Five arcs carry the canon. Land of Waves (1-19) is the audition, turning a low-stakes escort job into the show's first serious argument about what shinobi are for. The Chunin Exams (20-67) is the strongest stretch of Part I, with the Forest of Death, Rock Lee against Gaara, and Orochimaru's first move on Sasuke Uchiha. Konoha Crush (68-80) cashes that in with the invasion. Search for Tsunade (81-100) puts Naruto on the road with Jiraiya for the Rasengan training that defines his fighting style for the next decade, and for his first brush with Itachi. Sasuke Recovery Mission (107-135) closes Part I at the Valley of the End.

Naruto filler list: the exact episodes to skip

Anime Filler List logs 90 of the 220 episodes as filler. The skippable numbers are 26, 97, 101-106, 136-140 and 143-219.

Almost all of that is one unbroken block. Once episode 135 finishes Part I the show has no manga left, so it spends 84 episodes on anime-original missions with no lasting consequences. Episodes 141 and 142 are logged as mixed canon/filler rather than pure filler, so completionists dip back for those two; everyone else can leave at 135 and jump to Shippuden. Do watch the closing minutes of episode 220, which sets up the time skip.

One caution that costs people plot later: mixed canon/filler is not the same as filler. Episodes such as 7, 9, 14-16, 18-21, 23-24, 27-30, 37-41, 43-47, 49, 52-60, 63, 66, 69-72, 74, 83, 98-100, 112-114, 126-127 and 130-131 carry genuine manga content padded out with anime-only scenes. Skip those and you lose story, not time.

Step 2: Naruto: Shippuden, episodes 1-500 (2007-2017)

Spoiler warning: the rest of this section names arcs and character turns from Part II.

Shippuden ran from 15 February 2007 to 23 March 2017, 500 episodes across 22 broadcast seasons, and it is where the franchise stops being a school story. Kazekage Rescue (1-32) announces the new tone by killing a major character in the opening arc. The Hidan and Kakuzu arc (72-88) gives Asuma the send-off that drives Shikamaru for the rest of the series. Episodes 119-120, Kakashi Gaiden, rewind to the Third Shinobi World War to explain Kakashi Hatake's borrowed eye, his dead teammates and the rule he breaks in every fight afterwards; they are manga canon and not optional. Pain's Assault (152-175) is the high point of the whole franchise, and the Five Kage Summit (197-214) plus the Fourth Shinobi World War from episode 261 take it home. Episode 479 adapts the manga's penultimate chapter and closes the story; the final chapter is a fifteen-year time skip that the franchise picks up again in Boruto.

Naruto Shippuden filler list: every episode you can skip

Shippuden matches the original at 41% filler, which works out to 203 episodes. The skippable blocks are 57-71, 91-112, 144-151, 170-171, 176-196, 223-242, 257-260, 271, 279-281, 284-295, 303-320, 347-361, 376-377, 388-390, 394-413, 416-417, 422-423, 427-450, 464-468 and 480-483.

The worst offenders are clustered late. Episodes 427-450 are 24 consecutive anime-original episodes and 394-413 another 20, both dropped into the middle of a war the manga was still writing, which is why so many viewers stall there. Earlier on, the Three-Tailed Demon Turtle arc (91-112) and Paradise Life on a Boat (223-242) are the two that rewatchers cut first.

Treat this second list as required viewing: 1-19, 24-25, 45, 49-50, 54, 56, 89-90, 113, 115, 127-128, 213, 254, 296, 324, 327-328, 330-331, 338, 346, 362, 385-386, 415, 419, 426, 451-458, 460-462, 469, 471-472 and 478-479 are logged as mixed canon/filler. Episode 28 is the single entry flagged as anime canon, meaning original material the creators signed off as part of the story rather than padding.

The filler that is actually worth watching

Three blocks earn their keep. Episodes 451-458, the Itachi Shinden arc, follow Itachi Uchiha from childhood through the Uchiha clan's downfall and sit immediately before the Kaguya arc; they are logged as mixed rather than pure filler, so cutting them is a mistake. Episodes 347-361, Kakashi: Shadow of the ANBU Black Ops, cover the years Kakashi spent behind the mask and pair naturally with Kakashi Gaiden. Episodes 176-196, Past Arc: The Locus of Konoha, fill in the childhoods of the wider cast, which pays off if you have grown attached to the supporting roster. Our Naruto characters guide is a useful companion through that stretch.

Step 3: where the eleven films fit

Nine of the eleven films are self-contained side stories: nothing in them is referenced by the series and nobody keeps a new power. The placements below are the ones guides generally use, based on which version of the cast appears, rather than official canon.

Film	Year	Where it fits
Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow	2004	Team 7 intact, around episode 101
Legend of the Stone of Gelel	2005	After Sasuke leaves, around episode 160
Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom	2006	Late Part I, after episode 135
Naruto Shippuden the Movie	2007	Early Shippuden, once Sai joins
Bonds	2008	Mid-Shippuden side story
The Will of Fire	2009	Mid-Shippuden side story
The Lost Tower	2010	Mid-Shippuden side story
Blood Prison	2011	After Shippuden episode 220
Road to Ninja	2012	Alternate universe, around episode 250
The Last: Naruto the Movie	2014	Canon: after Shippuden 493
Boruto: Naruto the Movie	2015	Canon: or watch Boruto 51-66 instead

The Last is the one to prioritise. Masashi Kishimoto supervised and wrote it, it slots between the manga's last two chapters, two years after the war, and it does the work of turning Naruto and Hinata Hyuuga into a couple. Watch it before the wedding arc at 494-500 or that arc reads as though it skipped a chapter. Boruto: Naruto the Movie is the other one Kishimoto wrote, but the anime retells it across episodes 51-66, reusing some of the film's animation and restoring material cut from his draft, so take the arc rather than the film.

Step 4: Boruto, and what comes next

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations premiered on TV Tokyo on 5 April 2017 and closed its first part with episode 293, "Farewell", on 26 March 2023. It is optional in the sense that Shippuden ends properly without it, and its reputation for endless filler is not supported by the numbers: only 28 of 293 episodes are filler, about 10%.

The confusion comes from how the show is built. Most of Boruto is logged as anime canon rather than manga canon, meaning original stories developed with the franchise's blessing rather than padding. The manga-adapting episodes are 19-23, 39, 53-58, 61-66, 106-111, 148-151, 181-189, 193-208, 212-220 and 282-293, so if you only want the manga's spine, those are your episodes. The genuine filler is 16-17, 40-41, 48-50, 67-69, 96-97, 112-119, 138-140, 152-154, 156 and 256.

Give it at least to episode 66. The early school-life episodes are slow and Boruto Uzumaki is written to be irritating at first, but the Versus Momoshiki arc at 51-66 is where the series states its actual argument about inheriting a legend.

As of September 2026 the sequel anime, Boruto: Two Blue Vortex, is in production at Studio Pierrot with no premiere date. Pierrot president Michiyuki Honma confirmed in January 2026 that it will air in seasons rather than as a continuous weekly show, a first for the franchise, and a 10th-anniversary video linking the two series went up on 9 May 2026. Separately, the four new episodes of the original Naruto made for its 20th anniversary, announced in March 2023 and postponed days before their September 2023 premiere, are reported to be finished and aimed at late 2026, with no date confirmed.

Five mistakes that derail a Naruto watch

• Starting at Shippuden. It opens two and a half years on and expects you to already care about who left Konoha and why.
• Treating mixed episodes as filler. They contain manga material. Filler lists keep the two categories apart for exactly this reason.
• Saving The Last for after episode 500. The wedding arc happens after the film, so watching it late spoils the payoff.
• Quitting inside Naruto 136-219. That is not a slow patch in the story, it is 84 anime-original episodes the story does not need, bar 141-142. Skip the rest.
• Writing Boruto off unseen. At 10% filler with its manga-canon episodes clearly marked, it costs less to try than its reputation suggests.

For the mechanics behind the fights, our chakra natures and jutsu explainer covers the system the show never sits you down to teach. When you reach the end, the strongest Naruto characters ranking and our list of anime like Naruto are the obvious next stops.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the correct order to watch Naruto?

Watch Naruto episodes 1-220, then Naruto: Shippuden episodes 1-493, then The Last: Naruto the Movie, then Shippuden episodes 494-500, then Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. Release order matches story order throughout, apart from The Last, which is set before Shippuden's closing wedding arc.

Can I skip the original Naruto and start with Shippuden?

You can, but you lose the payoff. Shippuden opens two and a half years after the original ends and assumes you watched Sasuke leave Konoha, Jiraiya train Naruto, and the Chunin Exams introduce half the supporting cast. If you are short on time, watch the original's 135 manga-canon episodes rather than skipping the series entirely.

What episodes of Naruto Shippuden are filler?

203 of Shippuden's 500 episodes are filler: 57-71, 91-112, 144-151, 170-171, 176-196, 223-242, 257-260, 271, 279-281, 284-295, 303-320, 347-361, 376-377, 388-390, 394-413, 416-417, 422-423, 427-450, 464-468 and 480-483. Episodes labelled mixed canon/filler are not on that list and should be watched.

Which Naruto filler episodes are worth watching?

Three are worth the detour: Itachi Shinden at 451-458, which covers Itachi's life up to the Uchiha clan's downfall and is logged as mixed rather than pure filler; Kakashi: Shadow of the ANBU Black Ops at 347-361; and Past Arc: The Locus of Konoha at 176-196, which fills in the supporting cast's childhoods.

Do I need to watch the Naruto movies?

Only The Last: Naruto the Movie, which is canon, was written under Masashi Kishimoto's supervision and belongs between Shippuden episodes 493 and 494. Boruto: Naruto the Movie is retold in the Boruto anime across episodes 51-66, so the arc replaces it. The other nine films are standalone side stories with no effect on the main plot.

Is there a Boruto: Two Blue Vortex anime?

It is in production at Studio Pierrot but has no premiere date as of September 2026. Pierrot confirmed in January 2026 that it will run as a seasonal series rather than a weekly one, and a 10th-anniversary video appeared on 9 May 2026. Until it airs, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations ends at episode 293.

How long does it take to watch all of Naruto?

All 1,013 episodes across the three series run to roughly 390 hours at about 23 minutes each. A canon-only route through Naruto and Shippuden is closer to 165 hours, across 427 episodes.