According to Shonen Jump and DBZ editor, Pain was the Last Good Naruto Arc

Kazuhiko Torishima is the legendary Weekly Shonen Jump editor who discovered Akira Toriayama. Dragon Ball is very much Toriyama's child, but Torishima played a huge role in shaping the manga's popularity. Torishima served as Toriyama's editor from the very 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 an interview at Napoli Comicon attended by X user @XMathemagicianX, Torishima recently shared some sharp words about modern One piecealthough he respects Eiichiro Oda's work in earlier arcs. He similarly praised Torishima Naruto as “very good in the beginning” but seemingly unimpressed by the rest of the manga. According to Shonen Jump's legendary editor, Pain Arc was Narutothe last good saga before the fall of Masashi Kishimoto's series.

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Pain was the beginning of the end for Naruto

Torishima did not explain why he thought the Pain Arc was the last good story arc Narutobut anyone who has read or watched the series can understand why someone would feel that way. The arc of pain was the culmination of everything that had happened Naruto Shippuden up to this point, bringing the overarching Akatsuki story to an epic conclusion with Naruto finally facing off against their leader, Pain.

Pain is an awesome 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 is painfully deserved, and Jiraiya's death is one of the most emotional moments in the entire series. The Pain Arc is rightfully considered one of the greatest shonen sagas of all time, containing the absolute best battles of the entire series. The later arcs just don't reach the heights of the Pain Arc, especially as Naruto is slowly lost with the aliens and the plot drags on for 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 Pain Arc, Kakashi drains all of his chakra fighting Pain to protect Choji and dies in the process. This is one of the most emotional moments in the series, on par with Jiraiya's death – or it would have been if Kakashi had actually stayed dead. Kakashi dying raised the stakes unlike anything else in the story up to that point and showed that anyone can die.

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Until Kakashi came back and he couldn't NarutoThe main characters have the thickest plot armor around, around. Interestingly, Torishima also said that he wanted Sasuke to die. Given how important naruto's redemption of sasuke is to the overall themes of the manga, killing him would be a big tonal shift, but it created a powerful moment that shows that naruto's ideology won't always have a clear answer or happy ending for him, just like in the arc of pain.