NARUTO
STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
72
RELEASE
November 10, 2014
CHAPTERS
700
DESCRIPTION
Before Naruto's birth, a great demon fox had attacked the Hidden Leaf Village. A man known as the 4th Hokage sealed the demon inside the newly born Naruto, causing him to unknowingly grow up detested by his fellow villagers. Despite his lack of talent in many areas of ninjutsu, Naruto strives for only one goal: to gain the title of Hokage, the strongest ninja in his village. Desiring the respect he never received, Naruto works towards his dream with fellow friends Sasuke and Sakura and mentor Kakashi as they go through many trials and battles that come with being a ninja.
CAST
Kakashi Hatake
Naruto Uzumaki
Sasuke Uchiha
Sakura Haruno
Itachi Uchiha
Shikamaru Nara
Gaara
Jiraiya
Minato Namikaze
Hinata Hyuuga
Pain
Rock Lee
Madara Uchiha
Neji Hyuuga
Might Guy
Tsunade Senju
Tobi
Orochimaru
Temari
Deidara
Zabuza Momochi
Kurama
Sasori
Konan
Boruto Uzumaki
CHAPTERS
RELATED TO NARUTO
ANIME ActionNARUTO: Shippuuden
ONE SHOT ActionJump Super Stars
NOVEL ActionNARUTO Hiden Series
NOVEL ActionNARUTO Retsuden Series
NOVEL AdventureNARUTO Ninden Series
NOVEL AdventureNARUTO Jinraiden: Okami no Naku Hi
SPECIAL ActionROAD OF NARUTO
REVIEWS
Risottoro
Perfect gateway into manga/anime. It excels as a conventional battle shonen but is also highly flawed.Continue on AniListLike most manga, Naruto is overrated by its fans. At the same time it is criminally underrated by its "haters" It absolutely isn't a bad or average manga. This is my thoughts soon after finishing it and I don't want to write too much so the structure of this review won't be good and it won't be articulated that well
Naruto part 1:
Really good beginning. The formation of team 7 with each member showing potential, even Sakura. The mc naruto is quite interesting, he doesn't feel generic or overly cliche and his dream is supported by his loneliness and alienation. He is also very lively but in a endearing way which makes him engaging. Sasuke gets better as we learn more about him, Sakura shows promise in her potential ability to go from a superficial, weak and shallow little girl to a more mature, capable and independent individual, obviously this doesn't happen but she was promising at this point.
First arc is good, putting the team into a real dangerous situation in a fish out of water scenario. Showing the harsh realities of shinobi ways vastly different to the romanticised fantasy that team 7 grew up with (except for sasuke I guess) Zabuza is a decent villain who brings forth one of the series biggest themes 'What is a shinobi' We see this through his dynamic with Haku. Then we get then the Chunin exam, the best arc in the series. It's too long to summarise effectively so I'll just summarise the first phase and mention some other things. The written test is exciting and suspenseful, you can feel the psychological torture. I also like how it's purpose was so the candidates would cheat, they all find their own ways of doing it and it fits into the theme of ninja which Kakashi mentioned earlier, which I forgot. Something about deception.
Forest of death I didn't like, it was more generic and lacked the subtlety and finesse of the test. I wanted a brutal survival game with clever twists. Sasuke curse mark stuff also wasn't good, felt too shonen cliche in a series that had been avoiding them or making them feel fresh. In general series had been smarter in its conflict resolution. The fights were good but I can't be bothered making this too long. Simply put, sasuke had good character development in how the story was setting up his decision to join the dark side. Sakura was terrible, like the moment she cuts her hair is just superficial as she still needed to be saved and did nothing. What's funny is that Sakura herself later (in the final arc) acknowledges that this moment was worthless, this is funny because this type of moment is to show how Sakura back then was all talk whereas now she is the real deal, but the truth is she's just as pathetic when she admits this.
Just to touch on Naruto, his final fight vs Neji sucked. One hit being enough to take out Neji was so dumb. Also bad for other reasons but I'm too lazy to explain. Will just skip to the tsunade arc. Good arc but had a underwhelming climax. The main thing is sasukes character development. He gets a reality check vs itachi which acts as a catalyst for his character arc. We saw how sasuke reacted to Naruto defeating Gaara and this sense of inferiority further deepens when itachi is more interested in Naruto than sasuke. This insecurity combined with sasuke needing more hate sets the foundation for his char development.
Sasuke recovery mission is the 2nd best arc in the series. You have some good writing character writing for sasuke and Lee. Sasukes jealousy and bitterness towards Naruto leading to a fight, further heightened when he sees how powerful Narutos attack was. Then his fight vs the sound ninja and their attempt at persuading him to join them. Sasukes turn to the dark side is all executed pretty well, it's believable and a change which has been gradually built up. Chapter 180 with rock lee is a pretty emotional chapter, you can feel lees helplessness. Whereby usually hard work is his way of persevering, this time he's faced with a situation where hard work cannot help him. Sakura being a terrible character part 100:
She states that (even though she has family and friends), if sasuke leaves she will be "very lonely" Beyond this being pathetic and stupid, it's also a complete mockery of what loneliness is, when you compare it to how sasuke, naruto and gaara were lonely. Even someone like rock lee, he lacked the same talent that everyone else had and so he was ostracised, he felt like an outsider. In comparison, Sakura has a completely normal life with no real tragedy, handicap or events invoking great sadness. She has family and friends BUT she will be very lonely if her superficial crush leaves her. Beyond this, wanting to abandon everything for sasuke...she has no self respect for herself.
Some solid character development for Choji. He's generally been one of those side characters who are just there lingering in the background but here Kishimoto fleshes him out quite a bit. Choji is that fat comedic character who people see as a joke, not only is he perceived this way by readers but also the characters in the series. Kishimoto does a good job of actually building that up throughout the series and especially in this arc as we see both naruto and Kiba look down on him. So it's not just sudden character development, the seeds had already been planted. I also like that Naruto thought very little of Choji as that is uncharacteristic of a shonen mc, usually they are the ones who have faith in a character others look down on but here it's shikamaru who takes that role. Considering his relationship to Choji its make far more sense.
His power up however was a bit of an asspull. I mean these pills he's using have just conveniently introduced now and I don't mind them being used to make Choji more powerful but to make him that much more powerful? He states he's 100 times stronger and he manages to defeat a sound 4 in second state with one blow. Its a bit too much, there's need to be dire consequences like with Rock lee.
Speaking of rock lee, didn't like his fight. Now you have naruto fighting kimimaro and he can't win so rock lee comes to save the day. Now this is a great moment because last we saw him he was about to undertake a Shinobi career ending surgery. After he lost to gaara which is the reason he needed the surgery, this is rock Lees redemption moment. It should have been his moment of victory and gratification but instead we get this comedic drunk punching and then gaara comes to save him. Really disappointing and you begin to doubt the direction of rock Lees character arc.. well considering he doesn't win a single fight in part 2 and gets pushed to the sidelines the doubt is correct. Also a point about Naruto, more of a general thing and not just specific to this arc but Naruto has the worst skillset I have seen of any shonen main character. He's so one dimensional, it's shadow clones and rasengan. That's literally all he can do without the nine tail fox. For the main character of the manga that is shockingly limited.
I find it weird that the sand have become allies of Konoha this quickly considering they attacked their village and were involved in the death of their leader. Moreover I find it too convenient they appeared in the nick of time like that when they didn't know exactly where the leaf ninja were. It was just too sudden I feel. No build up or even any hints. Perfect ending to the arc. Naruto vs Sasuke was one of the best fights I have read and sasuke successfully leaving the village was great too. The reason is because its an ambitious writing move, in most manga sasuke would have lost the fight or he would have been persuaded to return but here Kishimoto has the balls to actually go through with this storyline. Having one of your main characters go on his own path and separate himself from the rest of main cast is quite unique and creates a more interesting and unpredictable story. Great character development for Shikamaru, a convo between Naruto and jiraiya where I thought Naruto was annoying and dumb and that's part 1
For part 2 (after the timeskip)I'm just going to mention some good and bad aspects. It's not as good as part 1, it doesn't have a single 9/10 arc for me. But overall it's still pretty good and it isn't significantly worse than part 1.
Naruto: I thought Naruto was a decent mc before the timeskip, but now? One of the worst main characters in Shonen jump. Firstly his combat abilities. This guy trained with Jiraiya for over 2 years, yet when he returns he's basically the same. He doesn't have any new abilities, he has better clone timing and usage apparently, he does a single maneuver which is something he could have done pre timeskip. Nothing special, marginal improvement at best, if at all. Then you have his personality. He's so immature, even after all this time Kakashi still has to lecture him on basic things that any shinobi should know. He's impatient, loud and obnoxious, he can never keep calm and be rational. He has a hero complex, his obsessive one sided need to "save" Sasuke even though Sasuke made his own decision and is walking his own path. He's in love with Sasuke whilst Sasuke is only focused on his own goals. A good example of Naruto being annoying regarding sasuke is his interactions with Sai.
Naruto talks about how Sai can never replace Sasuke even calling him a Sasuke Wannabe. Sai's response is perfect, Naruto forgets that Sasuke is a traitor to his village who abandoned his friends for an evil ninja in search of power. Sasuke is not a good guy and he's not someone that Naruto should be glorifying. Of course we know why Sasuke did it but it doesn't justify his actions.
Although Sai was unnecessarily antagonistic his words are minor at best. Naruto on the other hand is throwing a temper tantrum, refusing to work with a teammate his hokage has commanded him to work with. Not only that but is even willing to attack Sai because he spoke the truth about Sasuke. Naruto might still see Sasuke as a friend but he's incredibly narrow minded and naive if he thinks or expects everyone else to view him in a positive light. Sasuke is a traitor who joined the guy who attacked the village and killed the third hokage. Orochimarus attack led to the death of some Shinobi, so if a relative of those Shinobi spoke badly about sasuke, how would Naruto react? Naruto doesn't have the right to get angry about Konoha ninja who badmouth Sasuke.Narutos entire issue with Sai is clearly centered about Sasuke, thats how obsessed Naruto is with him. Sai has done nothing wrong but tease Naruto a bit and Narutos insecurity about Sai replacing his boyfriend has him throwing a hissy fit
Lastly of all the stuff about Narutos destiny and being the child of prophecy, contradicts his original character. Naruto works hard, he saves the world, becomes Hokage and changes history. Rock Lee works hard...but rock lee doesn't have a grand prophecy so he doesn't get to achieve big things. This manga promotes hard work yet simultaneously makes everything about bloodlines and destiny.Sakura: Sakura shows an insane level of raw strength, a vast improvement over her former self. She's useful, strong and seems to have moved on from Sasuke. However a few arcs later she regresses back to her usual lame self. Sakura suffers from the same one sided obsession Naruto has with Sasuke. The difference is Sakura has never had a special relationship with Sasuke. Literally in the final arc, both Naruto and Sasuke acknowledge that Sasukes only friend is Naruto. When Sasuke is about to kill Naruto, he mentions how he is finally going to be alone, just showing how unimportant his bond with Sakura is. There's plenty of Lame moments Sakura has which I won't go through, I'll just mention her final scene in chapter 699, when she asks if she can come with sasuke. Sasuke is travelling to discover himself and his place in the world, it's a journey of reflection for him and something he must do alone. But sakura yet again is only thinking about her own selfish desires. There's a parallel to when Sakura asked sasuke if she can come with him at the end of part 1. It would have been better if Sakura simply saw sasuke off with a smile and wished him good luck 1) It would show her growth from part 1. Back then she was just a naive deluded little girl, it would show how she's matured and better understands sasuke. She understands he must do this alone
2) It would show she doesn't NEED to be with sasuke, she has a life outside sasuke and she has no issue waiting for him to return.Sasuke: Best character in team 7 by far. One reason why is that whilst Naruto and Sakura obsess over him and chase after him, he continues on his own path.Not bothered to type any more so I'll end the review here.
inductionstove
Naruto's broken structure. Spoiler Alert.Continue on AniListFirstly, I have a problem with the antagonist. The story does not focus on one antagonist for more than some time, meaning that no body gets development. I am not talking about the minor antagonists like Zabuza, but the major antagonist of the show. I will not consider the first part of the manga (before the time-skip) because all the antagonists there are either minor or are only introduced, the antagonists were fine there. The problem starts with after the timeskip. We start with the Akatsuki, move on to Sasuke, and then Itachi specifically, the Pain specifically, Then Danzo and Sasuke for a while, then Kabuto and Obito, and then Obito specifically after revived Itachi finishes Kabuto off, while parallely Madara picks up too. We also see the Juubi ad a minor antagonist, up until Obito becomes its Jinchuuriki, when he becomes the main antagonist, but when Naruto and Sasuke defeat him, this title goes back to Madara. After this, Zetsu stabs Madara and revives Kaguya, who is then sealed by Naruto and Sasuke using a Six-Paths Chibaku Tensei, after which Sasuke temporarily becomes the main antagonist until Naruto uses Talk-no-Jutsu and Sasuke joins him again for good. I do not have a problem with constantly changing antagonists. This is something that can be pulled off very well. I admire this inn the Shiva Trilogy stories. But Naruto did not pull it off well. The problem was with the fact that Naruto was trying to bring too many villains at the same time. This resulted in neither of the villains getting good development. The show was constantly juggling between villains, even in the final arc. Madara had moderate development, not a very good villain but a passable antagonist, serving as the villain Naruto and Sasuke will kill together after Sasuke joins Naruto. But then Zetsu stabs him out of nowhere and brings Kaguya back, a villain with no prior development. She comes out of nowhere as the new challenge for Naruto and Sasuke. And Sasuke himself was switching too frequently between the hero and the villain, so fast that his character became utter confusion, not getting good development. What could have worked was Sasuke killing Itachi much sooner, shifting his target to Konoha, killing Danzo, and then seeing that the other villages have contributed in his family massacre and his brother’s tragedy (I know that this did not happen, but I would have it that way for Sasuke to be able to target the whole world) seeking revenge from the whole world, being the final villain himself, fighting the war as an antagonist, and then, at the end, Naruto and Sasuke are left in a similar state to how they were after the battle in the final valley, and Naruto performing Talk-no-Jutsu on Sasuke, and Sasuke ending the war and exiling himself from the five great nations and defending them from outside forever as his punishment and atonement, or anything of that sort. His marriage to Sakura was quiet off, given that their romance had no development except Sakura desperately simping for him. This would have been much less confusing. Sasuke was frequently switching from a hero and a villain. Had Sasuke been the antagonist all along (or ever since the time skip), with equal focus on him and Naruto, the show would have had much less confusion. We also have to talk about the injustice to Obito. What really happened, was Obito being depressed when he lost a loved one, exaggerated by the fact that he did not have many friends. Madara then convinced him that the world is hell (he was not really wrong there) and then convinced him to follow the eye of the moon plan. Again, all of this only worked because Obito was depressed by the loss of a dear one, his feeling of betrayal because Kakashi involuntarily broke the promise he made to Obito that would not let Rin die, and the fact that Obito was only a teenager. What this came off as was Obito waging war on the whole world because he was depressed with the death of his love. Obito was pretty much the same as Pain, except he was not pulled off well at all, and made worse by the fact that he was the major antagonist for a part of the final arc of the manga.
Secondly, the protagonists themselves had problems. Firstly, we have Naruto himself. He was fine. Next comes Sasuke, who I have already spoken about. Then we have the most powerful character in the whole series, Sakura. Sakura neither had the power nor the virtues of a protagonist, yet she had a place so high. Her main thing was her healing powers and the Strength of a Hundred Seals, but that is no match with the powers of Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, or even Pain. It is clear that Kishimoto has added that just so that Sakura does not look that bad. Her virtue does not get any development. There was not one arc where Sakura was asked to sacrifice anything dear to her (well, except her hair in the Chuunin exams), or just tested in any way, or even explain her virtues like Naruto does to pretty much every villain. Because of all of this, she has become nothing more than a meme in the Naruto community. I myself have already made two sarcastic sentences about Sakura already. Now, you could argue that that is her point, that her very stupidity and flawed character is intended. But still the very fact very fact that she was pretty high in the hierarchy of importance in the show, means that she had too much significance and focus. Ino is a similar character, but I do not complain about her. This is because the manga was not forced to give unnecessary attention to her, but Sakura was different. After her we have Kakashi, who is also fine. But these are the only two protagonists who receive good development, because of the sheer number of protagonists (I will get into that in the next paragraph). We do have Jiraiya too, but he was killed too soon. What would have been better was him getting killed in the final war, which would have meant that he could have developed a little more as a mature and likeable character alongside his perverted nature for humor, making his death more tragic. I will take the example of the Shiva Trilogy again. In three novels we have only one death. But the focus was on much lesser characters, and the death was so well done that it was sound in terms of both structure and enjoyability. Jiraiya could have been such a death. Pretty much all the other protagonists became side characters with almost no contribution to the victory or significant parts of Naruto’s journey (main plot parts).
Then there is the fact that Naruto was focusing on too many characters. This is why most of them became insignificant by the end. A smaller collection of more significant characters would have been much better. The Konoha 11 became redundant, with only Hinata having importance as Naruto’s lover, future girlfriend and eventually his wife, and Neji being her brother and being a death in the war, alongside Obito, a broken character and the return of already dead characters. The teachers also became redundant, with only Kakashi and Might Guy contributing on the war. Might Guy, too, only became relevant in the war, where too his contribution was not too fruitful. The only significant contribution was his opening of the eighth gate, in effect a sacrifice of his life, only for Madara to heal a second later as though nothing happened. My problem is not that there are many side characters, or that characters who were once relevant are not at the end. my problem is that Kishimoto took up too many side plots, which involved too many characters into the story, but most of them became irrelevant in the main plot of the story. Too many side plots created confusion, therefore, many protagonists who were relevant at the end did not get sufficient development, and many characters who were relevant in different points of the series became irrelevant with the main plot. Different characters can come and go, like Akemi Miyano in Meitantei Conan, who was once relevant and the focus of an arc of the show but faded away due to her death, but neither the arc nor the character is pointless because it contributed towards the main plot, or like Anandmayi from the Shiva Trilogy who was ever a side character, with her only role being to serve as the foil to a side character himself, Parvateshwar. Now, you may argue that Naruto is episodic, but that is not the case. Every arc of the show was supposed to progress towards the main plot of the show, however, as more and more was revealed, the arcs and characters became irrelevant. There are exceptions like Zabuza whose arc was meant to be episodic, but this was mostly not the case.
All of that said, Naruto was very enjoyable, and my intro anime. A very good one at that because an intro anime requires enjoyability much more than structure. I would still recommend it as an intro anime. Being my first anime, and having the impact on my twelve year old self that it had, Naruto will hold some amount of special value for me.
Jshuam
Naruto is.....simple and ok.Continue on AniListMinor spoilers Tl;dr below
Naruto is bogged down by lack of character depth, and a tediously long final arc. On reflection, there really is not much complexity in many of these characters. Most are one note, and you understand their motivations from the get go. The exception to this perhaps is Itachi, with the only real example of character growth being in one of the better characters in the series, Gaara (who does not get enough time to shine and develop in this series). Even the final reveal, although perhaps unpredictable, is nonsensical and reads like a fever dream (and not in a good way). Naruto is a classic, perhaps a must-read for one trying to understand shonen, but is definitely far from great.
Naruto is a typical nobody loves me kind of character, and you empathize with him early. However, the character grows worn out and he shows no real emotional growth through the series. At a certain point, Naruto himself as a person begins to feel like an arduous and tiresome hike you weren't expecting, rather than a person with intriguing depth, and he never ends up becoming someone Id consider 'mature' throughout the series. Sasuke is dull, and the 'bad boy' attitude really doesn't hit right - he just comes across as arrogant.
This was my introduction into anime, and manga at large. However, the story is rather simple in retrospect, and does not get into the depth or quality of story or characters as many titles such as One Piece, AOT, Berserk, and Vinland, which remain at the top for character design and motivation.
The redeeming qualities of Naruto remain in the fights, with such enthralling fights as Gaara vs Lee, and Neji vs Naruto, even the hidden mist fight at the start remained more gripping than most. Ultimately, for many, Naruto is about the fights and if you enjoy those then you will enjoy Naruto until the final arc. Post-timeskip, some of the great fights remain all of Deidara's fights, Sasuke vs Itachi, Pain vs Naruto, and Guy vs Madara; the genjutsu (illusion ninjutsu) fights are usually pretty bad, and the physical fights are much cooler to me and more suspenseful. The Akatsuki (the main villains of the second half) are cool, but the fight scenes take tremendously long with each of them to the point of being drawn out. The final arc for the most part falls flat on its face in terms of fight suspense and quality.
There is no real message to gain from Naruto other than the one talked about from the very first chapter of the series: "Don't give up on your dreams no matter how many doubt you". That is a worthy message, but that's all Naruto has to say. A grandiose take on the unnecessary acts of war is presented somewhat but is undercut by a return to the status-quo; nothing changed from episode 1 except Naruto is now Hokage. There was no real development in Naruto, he was right from the start about alot of things, but the same annoying immaturity remained.
They couldn't escape the box of tropes they established for themselves in this story, and it ultimately led to their downfall.
Tl;dr
Cool fights, good to later really bad story.
Its fun at times, feels like a slug at other times, then becomes a huge slugfest at the end. Want some cool fights though and epic one liners? You got it (sometimes). Good beats but the end can feel a bit ridiculous.
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SCORE
- (3.95/5)
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Ended inNovember 10, 2014
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