Naruto is one of the greatest anime franchises. But few people know that an unpopular Naruto filler has an unwanted connection to Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. Masashi Kishimoto created Naruto in 1999, and the manga was adapted into an anime in 2002. Since then, it has become one of the Big Three anime. There is hardly anyone who has not heard of Naruto.
The tale of the brave ninja has inspired us all with his never-give-up mentality and working hard for our dreams. When Naruto Uzumaki became the Hokage, it was a joyous moment for both the ninja world and the real world. But people sometimes get annoyed with the number of filler episodes that the show has. One of the unwanted fillers even has a connection to Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man.
Mecha-Naruto Gives Iron Man Vibes
Even though Naruto is loved all over the world, it is infamous for the number of fillers that are in the anime. While a few of them are worth watching, most of them are not. One such infamous filler arc was Mecha-Naruto. The arc surrounding Mecha-Naruto took place during episodes 376 and 377 in Naruto Shippuden. Orochimaru created the robot for the Nine Tails (Kurama).
Mecha-Naruto, low-key, resembles Marvel’s Iron Man. In other words, it is Ninja World’s Iron Man. Many aspects of the robotic version of Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki were similar to Tony Stark’s creation. The artificial intelligence present inside the robot matched Iron Man’s Jarvis. The particular way that the robotic suit got itself attached to Naruto reminded us of every suit-up scene in Iron Man.
Even if it was based on Iron Man, the filler arc reached nowhere near the popularity of the superhero. The Mecha-Naruto is a flashback filler. The incidents happened when Naruto was training to master Rasen-Shuriken.
What Do Fans Feel About Mecha-Naruto Arc?
Even though filler arcs should be watched just for the fun of it, many fans thought that the Mecha-Naruto arc was unnecessary. Ninja and mechs are one of the worst combinations. Many said that it was one of the worst filler arcs and held no meaning to the story. A Reddit channel named r/Naruto has had several comments pinned down on its page mentioning how bad it was.
One of the posts on Reddit said,
“A giant robot nine tails with fire tails shooting lasers and attacking the village. It is seriously like they found a 12 year old Naruto fan and said “here! you decide what happens for the next 40 minutes” This is the first time I’ve ever felt cringey about watching Naruto.”
Others have said that it was just crappy filler. While a few tried to justify it by saying that it was for entertainment, most were not ready to hear anything since Naruto Shippuden was getting near the Fourth Great Ninja War at the time. It also changed the timeline of the anime. Mecha-Naruto was later adapted into the Naruto video games.
Naruto Shippuden has more fillers than any of the Big Three of anime, so naturally, after a point, fans get upset and just want to see the climax. Mecha-Naruto was one such filler that was made to be enjoyed, but it backfired. Even an Iron Man rip-off was not enough to make it popular.
