You say the manga could've done better and this may be true but I still maintain that manga is generally a shit medium compared to other literary types. 20 or so dull, colorless, lifeless pages can't really compare to a TV show or movie or novel.
Naruto action scenes work better in comic form because its based on the idea of characters moving a incredible speeds that they look like teleports. When you transfer this idea to animation, you get awkward moments where what was supposed to look like a moment in a split second is extended for too long.
What is this? It made sense in the manga because it was a mid air body shift. In the anime, they're floating, frozen in that pose for two seconds.
There are other things that don't make the transition well to the anime. Like tree hopping, or the naruto style running. Naruto running works in stills but in animation it's people teeter tottering with their arms flailing around like balloons. Tree hopping, instead of a feat of acrobats, looks like their levitating.
Additionally, it's pretty laughable to hate on colorless manga, since it's apparent that Kishimoto doesn't base any of his character designs on having a color scheme in mind. You can tell because of things like Gaara having white hair in the manga, while Karin having black hair...but they're both supposed to be red headed. Jiroubou has black hair and Juugo has white hair, but they're both carrot tops. It's because Kishimoto's original designs are based on contrast of black and white as opposed to this sloppy-represent every-color-of-the-rainbow-in-everyone's-hair-color design that comes with the anime.
I'll end by saying, anyone who has any understanding of Kishimoto as a writer, knows that he structures Naruto based on being a
page turner. The common way he does this, is the scene where someone attempts to stab another character, the camera shows only the blood splatter, and then the camera switches back to the characters and shows that that wasn't what happened. The blood splatter panel, is always the last panel you would read in a Naruto manga page spread, because Kishimoto wants you to turn the page in anticipation and excitement. That kind of direction loses its effect in the anime, which not only deemphasizes the impact of each individual panel but also shows you the scenes automatically, instead of going at your own pace. The power of a comic format is that, it has more control over what scenes are emphasized over others. By page design, by the size of each still panel. This isn't something just for suspense purposes, but for dropping one-liners, which Naruto and a bunch of characters do out of resolution. I notice anime people tend to gloss over moments like that, because they think every line is created equal. They don't understand that moments like those exist to punctuate the main idea of the chapter. You had that last week with Naruto saying to Sarada that her bond still is important.
tl;dr naruto anime sucks
