Naruto has now finally aired in widescreen format. The one hour special of Naruto Shippuuden (episodes 53-54), marks the end of the “Sasuke Retrieval Arc“, and the beginning of the widescreen format for Naruto. For those of you who have been keeping up with the series, it has finally reached the part which was shown in the first episode of Naruto Shippuuden.

The first half (episode 53) was shown in their regular full screen format and wasn’t switched over to the widescreen format until the beginning of the second half (episode 54). There was also a new opening shown in episode 54, with the song BLUE BIRD by Ikimono-gakari.

The good news is, it looks like they upped the animation quality with switching over to the new widescreen format. The bad news is, judging by the scenes shown in the new opening sequence, it looks like we are headed into filler mode.

Team Kakashi finally reunited. Sasuke, still a douchebag.

I liked that they switched to the widescreen format. It already seemed like every other anime except Bleach and Naruto was in widescreen. Now Bleach has to shape up and jump on the widescreen bandwagon. Next step up? Follow in One Piece’s footsteps and air in High-Def. Now THAT looks amazing.

If you have been keeping up with the Naruto Manga, you will spot some evidence of upcoming filler episodes.

Although there seems to be some filler episodes coming our way, it doesn’t look like it will stray too far from the manga… well at least I hope so. It looks like they are adding in an extra arc like Bleach did with the Bounto Arc, instead of doing random stupid episodes like they did pre-Shippuuden (eg. racing, eating curry, making ramen). According to the previews for the next episode, Naruto will be going through some training next with Kakashi, so for now, no fillers yet.

Naruto fillers make Sakura “something something”…