Naruto
| Naruto | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Original Manga | Masashi Kishimoto |
| Director/Artist | Hayato Date |
| Format | Anime (TV) |
| Made By | Studio Pierrot |
| # of Episodes | 220 |
| # of Manga Volumes | 54 |
Contents
Genre
Sum it up in a Sentence
Believe it!
Main Description
Twelve years ago the Village Hidden in the Leaves was assaulted by the powerful Nine Tail Fox; a nearly invincible demon bent on destruction. Seeing the best warriors of the village fall the Fourth Hokage saw fit to banish the Fox into the body of a newborn boy named Naruto Uzumaki. In doing so the Fourth Hokage lost his own life, but his dying wish was that Naruto should not be mistreated for the demon living inside of him, and should instead be regarded as a hero. It was further decreed that the events should be kept secret, and all villagers were forbidden to ever again speak of the demon living within Naruto. While they have managed to keep his secret few have obied by the command; forcing Naruto to grow up in a world where he's constantly led to feel like an outcast.
Naruto
Growing up in a village where he is treated as an outsider, Naruto acts as a pest. He plays pranks on unsuspecting people, vandalizes property, and acts as a clown in his classes. To Naruto this is merely a way to get noticed, which is something he strives for a child who had no family growing up. Unfortunately for Naruto his goofing around doesn't get him far along in class. He is behind most of his classmates; most of whom resent him simply because their parents also resent Naruto. Iruka Umino, Naruto's teacher and seemingly father-like figure, challenges each member of the class to perform a duplication jutsu (essentially creating a clone of yourself) to pass. Naruto cannot do this, but is offered help by Mizuki. Mizuki, a long time friend of Iruka's, asks Naruto to obtain a scroll containing a forbidden ninjutsu; in return he will help Naruto pass. In reality Mizuki plans on going rogue, and only wishes to use the unsuspecting Naruto as a scape goat.
Iruka becomes aware of Mizuki's intentions, and comes to help Naruto. During this time a conversation between the two alerts Naruto the demon secretly living inside of him. This same demon was responsible for the deaths of Iruka's parents, however Iruka expresses that he doesn't blame Naruto, and instead thinks of him as family. Naruto, newly inspired, uses the forbidden jutsu. This creates hundreds of Shadow Clones, which all beat on Mizuki at the same time. For perfecting a technique far more powerful than the duplication jutsu Naruto is allowed to pass.
After graduation Naruto is placed into a three man squad consisting of himself, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno. Sasuke has been a lifelong rival of Naruto's, as he sees Sasuke as overconfident and arrogant. In reality Sasuke is simply mature beyond his years over seeing the massacre of his friends and family as a child. In this way he understands Naruto better than most, also growing up alone, but he views Naruto as merely a pest. Sakura, much to the dismay of Naruto, is madly in love with Sasuke. Unfortunately Sasuke has no feelings for Sakura, who he sees as even worse than Naruto. The team is led by Kakashi Hatake; the famed Copy-Cat ninja of the village. Kakashi was trained directly under the Fourth Hokage. As a young man Kakashi was reckless, which caused him his two team makes. One of his teammates, Obito Uchiha, gave Kakashi his Sharingan eye to replace one Kakashi had lost. This eye allows Kakashi to break and and imitate the attacks of anyone.
Along with his new teammates, Naruto goes on several missions. These missions have varying difficulty levels, and are the way the village of ninjas manages a profit. On one mission he may catch a lost pet; on another he may need to defeat a powerful foe to protect someone. Each mission brings the team closer, and because of their hard work Kakashi allows his team to join the Chunin Exams. These tests chose who amongst the young ninja are ready for advancement, and allows the different hidden villages to essentially strut their stuff. If a village has weak students then they'll predictably be weak in the future, so naturally each village seeks to put out only their best. During these exams many new important characters and teams are introduced. Some of the main allies that appear include; Rock Lee, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Choji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Rock Lee, Tenten, Neji Hyuga, and Might Guy.
Powerful new enemies also make their way onto the scene. Orochimaru, once a citizen of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, proves that he's out to destroy the village. He also shows desire to attain Sasuke's power for himself. Orochimaru, along with Jiraiya and Tsunade, were once a group known as Legendary Sannin; trained directly under the Third Hokage.
After passing the first portion of the Chunin Exams, Naruto trains with Jiraiya to become strong enough to endure the next rounds. Jiraiya helps Naruto to focus his chakra, which is out of balance due to the presence of the Nine Tailed Fox living within the boy. By learning to control his energy Naruto is able to summon a massive frog Gamabunta into battle; although to gain Gamabunta's respect poor Naruto must endure a hard exam. With these new powers in hand Naruto goes to face the final rounds of the Chunin Exams, which begin with him facing off against the cocky Neji. The highlight of these battles includes one against the legendary Sharingan of the Uchiha clan (Sasuke) facing off against the strange Gaara of the sands. Gaara has the ability to control sand, and is possessed by another tailed beast (similar to Naruto) named Shukaku. This has made him terribly feared by those of his village, and has made him hate all other at large.
The exams are disrupted by the plans of Orochimaru, who attacks the Third Hokage, and reveals that the Village Hidden in the Sands is working with him. Members of the two villages face off against each other, while Naruto and his friends go to face off against the increasingly unstable Gaara. Gaara releases the full power of Shukaku with the intention of destroying everyone, but Naruto is able to summon Gamabunta to fight against the giant creature. After a fierce battle Naruto is able to convey to Gaara why he fights so hard for the people he loves; seemingly changing Gaara's character. The sand village is disgraced to learn that they were used by Orochimaru, and peace is restored.
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Personal Opinions
Zorak
Not the best shounen by any means. Better as of late, though.
Godsavethefritos
Naruto was one of the first shounen series I watched after I stopped watching Toonami. It's a good series that deals with issues of quality, pacing, and filler while having a cast of interesting characters who you will either love or hate. I have my own set of person issues with the show as well, but I also still have a special place in my chest cavity for it.
Up through the 80s the animation was really good but then I found it took a dip in quality. I assume the series was doing well enough to be farmed out to a Korean studio and the episodes were being hurredly pumped out to satisfy demand. Every once in a while there would be a very well done episode though so the series would have ups and downs when it came to quality. The pacing issues may be a personal problem but I think the show jumped the shark sometime between episode 50 and episode 80. I just didn't enjoy the later episodes as much as I enjoyed the series up through that point. Oh, and the filler for this series is painfully bad.
The strength of the series has to be the fact that all of the characters force you to either love them or hate them. This includes the titular character for whome there is no middle ground, you will either love him or hate him. The secondary characters are all interesting and have stories of their own which are also interesting any time the show decides to examine them. Overall I think the greatest strength of this show has to be its character design. But hey, this is all just my opinion.
Willsun
This series isn't so much about ninja action as it is about ninja magic. The art gets a lot better from the timeskip on (manga anyway) and as a whole has interesting battles about whose ninja magic tricked whose, but this is also where you might hate how some abilities are total deus ex machina (see also: anyone who has bullshit eye techniques). The anime is also fun to watch for the fight scenes if you ask around for which episodes they blow their budgets on.
Feel free to watch the movies too for action. Just skip to about 1/3 of the way through where side characters fight the new lackeys and to the final battles where Naruto wins with Rasengan (shiny ball punch). This works for every fucking Naruto movie because they are all the same. I'm not kidding. --Willsun 23:37, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
Links
- TV Tokyo's Naruto page (Japanese)
- VIZ Media's Naruto site (North America)
- Shonen Jump's Naruto page (North America)
