Naruto

Naruto has undoubtedly left its mark on anime history, boasting numerous iconic moments, immersive world-building, diverse characters, and a unique art style. However, it is not flawless. While the series shines with its varied cast, each with distinct abilities and personalities enriching the narrative, it also faces criticism. Some character motivations are questionable, and inconsistencies plague the series, from character designs to animation quality. Flashbacks disrupt the narrative flow, and with its 220 episodes, Naruto feels excessively long, its pacing sometimes faltering between engaging and sluggish. The inclusion of filler towards the end further dampens the momentum. Despite these drawbacks, Naruto's iconic moments have cemented ... its place in anime culture, making it a series worth experiencing.

When people look at Naruto, they tend to look at it through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia. And while that's fine, unfortunately, for someone who did not grow up with it, for someone whose major piece of media consumed was not Naruto, it mostly turns out to be just fine.

The show starts off well - all the characters are shown to work towards a common goal, the goal of being a great shinobi. There are some pervy jokes thrown around here and there, but the story is mostly made to appeal to those who can relate to the childish aspect of the characters, the ... humour and the story. Many of the characters are likeable - Jiraiya and Kakashi are good mentors, Rock, Neji and Gaara are interesting characters, and Sasuke provides appeal in the form of a rival.

The first arc is pretty good, though Naruto's declaration of becoming Hokage becomes really annoying and out of place real quick. The story of Zabuza and Haku, as well as their fight with Team 7, is pretty nice to watch. The Chunin Exam Arc, arguably, is the peak of the original Naruto anime : the arc is long, but each stage of the selection is fun to watch, as it provides compelling stories for each character involved, and the villain is interesting.

Here is where the show starts cracking - fillers start to take over and backstories get repetitively shown. Naruto sitting on the swing with the sad music in the background became a meme for a reason after all. The Tsunade Arc is where this is seen a lot - many scenes are repeated constantly across the semi-long arc (and beware, these arcs get LONG). Many scenes are pretty imaginative, but, sadly, not all are interesting and add up to an uninspired child's imaginative stories. The same goes for the Sasuke Arc, which, while it had its moments with Itachi and the Uchiha Clan, was still pretty repetitive in its storytelling.

Past that, everything till the end was filler, adding nothing to the story other than stretching it out for increased runtime and being almost unbearable. Characters like Sakura and Hinata were underused and poorly written, always relying on Naruto, Sasuke, among others, for help, but going back to acting rude to them or being absolutely detached. The art and animation was good, and while some of the fights were visually appealing, many early scenes were still shots. The music was treated much better, both in quality and usage. At the end of the day, Naruto is just a show made for children (put the pitchforks down fellas). Yes, some level of maturity is required to digest some of the plot points, but most of the show is made to appeal to predominantly younger audiences.

Uh what a bad anime.

STORY
Classic zero to hero story. But it's a very lazy story and full of bullshit.
The power balance of the characters is ridiculous. Very weak characters can suddenly get power-ups and be victorious. The relationship between Sasuke and Naruto makes me to my stomach. It seems so fake that people who hate each other so much have weird love.

ART
The visuals are very bad as they have to shoot so many episodes. There is almost no fighting animation. Have silly word duels.

SOUND
... Naruto's voice is incredibly annoying. Other than that no problem.

CHARACTER
Oh man... I hate Naruto,Sasuke and Sakura really bad. All of them are incredibly frustrating. I love Kakashi. But I hate most characters of Naruto. Cringy.

ENJOYMENT
There are many flashbacks. Characters are looking each other lmao. Saying same things again and again. Most of episodes are soooo boring.

Oh man. What a garbage.