Jan 3, 2009
Well, let the awesome news begin. The first eight episodes of Naruto Shippuden are up at three different sites, www.vizmedia.com, www.hulu.com, and www.crunchyroll.com. It's completely free and legal to watch them. I have to admit, I'm not fully caught up on the anime (I'm only just now finishing the fourth uncut box set), but I am guilty of reading up to volume 41 or 42 of the manga, the only time I've ever sought out scans on the internet. So, suffice it to say, I am fully aware of what is going on in the story without having watched all the anime episodes and I am really excited. I just watched the first episode at Viz, and just to where you know, I think you can only watch subtitled episodes at this point. And the Viz feed is coming from Hulu.com. You can watch the episodes in better resolution at Hulu (480p), but I experienced a bit of lag with my DSL, so I had to go to standard resolution and the problem was solved. I have never watched anything on Crunchyroll so I can't comment on their quality at the moment. 8 new episodes will be posted each Friday until they catch up with the Japanese run.
Here is the trailer (which is dubbed):