Pain was the last good Naruto arc, according to Shonen Jump & DBZ Editor

Kazuhiko Torishima is the legendary Weekly Shonen Jump editor who discovered Akira Toriayma. Dragon Ball is very much Toriyama's baby, but Torishima played a big role in shaping the manga's popularity. Torishima served as Toriyama's editor from the beginning Dragon Ball to the beginning of the Saiyan Saga. Without Torishima, Dragon Ball as we know it would not exist. That said, Torishima has a sharp tongue and isn't afraid to criticize the manga industry.

In a Napoli Comicon interview attended by X-user @XMathemagicianX, Torishima recently shared some harsh words about the mother One Piecedespite respecting Eiichiro Oda's work in previous arcs. Similarly, Torishima praised Naruto as “very good at the beginning”, but was seemingly unimpressed by the rest of the manga. According to the legendary Shonen Jump editor, the Pain Arc was Narutos last good saga before Masashi Kishimoto's series dropped.

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Pain was the beginning of the end for Naruto

Torishima didn't elaborate on why he thought the pain arc was the last good story arc in Narutobut anyone who has read or seen the series can understand why anyone would feel that way. The arc of pain was the culmination of everything that had happened in it Naruto Shippuden up to that point, bringing the overall Akatsuki story to an epic conclusion with Naruto finally meeting his leader, Pain.

Pain is a fantastic villain who directly challenges Naruto's ideals, so much so that Naruto has no real way to counter him philosophically. The destruction of the Hidden Leaf Village feels painfully deserved and Jiraiya's death is one of the most emotional moments in the entire series. The Pain Arc is rightly considered one of the greatest shonen sagas of all time, featuring the absolute best battles in the entire series. Later arcs just don't reach the heights of the pain arc, especially as Naruto slowly loses itself with aliens and drags the plot out far too long.

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Torishima wanted Kakashi to stay dead and Sasuke to die

Torishima also mentioned that he wanted Kishimoto to make Kakashi's death permanent. During the arc of pain, Kakashi drains all of his chakra fighting pain to protect Choji, dying in the process. This is one of the most emotional moments in the series, comparable to Jiraiya's death – or it would have been if Kakashi had actually remained dead. Kakashi dying raised the stakes unlike anything else in the story up to that point, showing that anyone could die.

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Until Kakashi came back and proved it Narutos main characters have the thickest plot armor around. Interestingly, Torishima also said that he wanted Sasuke to die. Given how important Naruto's delivery of Sasuke is to the overall themes of the manga, killing him off would have been a huge tonal shift, but it provides a powerful moment that shows that Naruto's ideology won't always have a clean answer or happy ending for him, just like in the Pain Arc.