Man the Naruto Power System Drives Me Mad Sometimes

Article at a glance:

• I love Naruto—grew up with it, lived through the hype—but rewatching Shippuden really made it clear just how messy the power system gets after the Pain arc.
• This isn’t a “Naruto bad” rant, it’s more like “Naruto deserved better,” especially when it comes to how chakra limits, jutsu balance, and power scaling got completely tossed aside.
• The Pain arc was peak Naruto because every power felt earned and had consequences—after that? We just get Rasenshuriken spam, Sharingan hacks, and Madara rewriting the rules of reality.

I’m not even going to hide it; this article is going to be a rant. And a fair disclaimer: I don’t hate Naruto, I love Naruto. Despite all the criticisms I may throw at it, Naruto is an anime I grew up watching, just like Dragon Ball, so it holds a special place in my heart. And no, having issues doesn’t make an anime bad, messing up the power system towards the end is not an issue exclusive to Naruto. But I still want to talk about it because I recently rewatched Shippuden, and the difference after the Pain arc is just crazy.

This article is going to be long. If you are a Naruto diehard, please read the disclaimer again, and please remember that my pointing out these issues doesn’t make Naruto bad in any way. We all are grown-ups here, and we can love something even after acknowledging its flaws.

I’ll try my best to break things up into sections, but please forgive me if I just break into rants at some point. So yeah, let’s talk about how the power system in Naruto is completely destroyed by the end of Shippuden.

Remember when Rasenshuriken had a cost???

Let’s start with one of the best examples. Rasenshuriken consumed so much chakra that, despite mastering Sage mode and having naturally VERY high chakra, Naruto could only manage like 4 or 5 of them. Of course, the limit should go up after mastering Nine-Tails Chakra Mod, but after a certain point, the whole conversation of chakra costs goes out the window. By the end, Naruto is spamming Rasenshurikens like they’re just normal Shurikens lol.

To me, this kind of undermines the importance of Rasenshuriken. Naruto is not like Ichigo. Ichigo only has a single technique, Getsuga Tenshou, and that’s all he uses. Compared to that, Naruto has a rather diverse arsenal, so in my opinion, Rasenshuriken should have been saved for nukes. Yes, I know Naruto has near-infinite chakra by the end of Shippuden, but come on, man, Rasenshuriken still should feel like a big deal.

As I’ll go on to discuss this, to me, Pain arc is peak Naruto because every power, no matter how OP up until that point, had a trade-off and compromise that made fights more tactical than just throwing everything you have at the wall.

Remember when Sharingan/Rinnegan were balanced powers and not plot convenience devices???

To bring up the Pain arc again, despite how OP Pain was, his powers felt balanced because all of his different abilities were spread among 6 bodies, and Naruto had to be very careful and selective in how he eliminated what Path. That is one of the reasons why Naruto vs. Pain is one of the best fights in the series. Naruto eliminated all Paths with careful planning, and he had to exploit the cooldown times of Pain’s abilities to win. Sure, Nagato bringing back everyone he killed was kinda lazy, but at least that sacrifice fit his character.

It was the same with the Magekyou when that was introduced. Sure, Kamui, Amaterasu, and Tsukuyomi are cool, but they have the drawback of permanently making you blind if you use them too much. As I said, a trade-off for a very strong power. But then, out of absolutely nowhere, we are introduced to the Eternal Magekyou. Yes, Sasuke taking Itachi’s eyes is a very important character moment for him. BUT, EMS had no build-up; it was introduced because they couldn’t have Sasuke going blind, so now he’s free to spam Susanoo and Amaterasu as much as he likes.

And then Izanagi/Izanami are just a joke. I don’t even need to tell you how they ruin the Naruto power system. Izanami is literally used as a contrivance to bring Kabuto to Sasuke’s side and bring back Orochimaru; it is so dumb.

Madara

Yeah, that one man broke so many rules that I have to make a whole section about him alone. I love Madara, and I think he should’ve been the final boss of the anime. But instead, we got snubbed. And had to deal with a bunny goddess with no connection to any of the established characters.

How was Madara able to perform a Susano’o without eyes after being resurrected? Why didn’t Obito take both of his eyes instead of just 1? If Rinne Tensei is the perfect reincarnation jutsu, how come he didn’t already have his eyes? What are the Limbo shadows? How did he get them? According to the established canon, the Rinnegan doesn’t give individual abilities like the Magekyou. So why didn’t Obito, Sasuke, or Nagato have access to the Limbo shadows?

The War arc is filled with quite a few questionable writing decisions, but man, two of the biggest contrivances have to be Obito not taking the 2nd Rinnegan because it’s “too much power” and Madara getting snubbed for Kaguya. You really mean to tell me that someone as power-hungry as Obito didn’t want a 2nd Rinnegan? What are you smoking, bro? But can’t have both eyes on Obito because Zetsu needs to give one of them to Madara immediately.

Similarly, Kaguya, a villain with no prior build-up outside of the flashback, is added in at the last moment. Even though Madara is the literal representation of everything Naruto and Sasuke want to change.

That is all for now

Crazy thing is, I haven’t even covered everything yet. I could go on for another hour about how the War arc completely messed up the power system in Naruto. Massive power boosts in Naruto used to feel earned and have consequences. But all of that is shoved out the door in favor of just pure spectacle. This is one of the reasons why the Pain arc is and will remain my favorite Naruto arc. Getting one of the best Naruto openings, Sign right before it is just another positive lol.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments. I know some people will disagree with me, and that’s fine. Let’s just act like grown-ups and have healthy discussions, yeah? With that said, I will take my leave here. See ya!

Also, check out my thoughts on Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive Episode 9 here!