Naruto

Moments before Naruto Uzumaki's birth, a huge demon known as the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked Konohagakure, the Hidden Leaf Village, and wreaked havoc. In order to put an end to the demon's rampage, the leader of the village, the Fourth Hokage, sacrificed his life and sealed the monstrous beast inside the newborn Naruto.

In the present, Naruto is a hyperactive and knuckle-headed ninja growing up within Konohagakure. Shunned because of the demon inside him, Naruto struggles to find his place in the village. His one burning desire to become the Hokage and be acknowledged by the villagers who despite him. However, while his goal leads him to unbreakable bonds with lifelong friends, it also lands him in the crosshairs of many deadly foes.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Uzumaki, Naruto Main

Takeuchi, Junko Japanese

Hatake, Kakashi Main

Inoue, Kazuhiko Japanese

Uchiha, Sasuke Main

Sugiyama, Noriaki Japanese

Haruno, Sakura Main

Nakamura, Chie Japanese

Uchiha, Itachi Supporting

Ishikawa, Hideo Japanese

Nara, Shikamaru Supporting

Canna, Nobutoshi Japanese

Jiraiya Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Gaara Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Hyuuga, Hinata Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Namikaze, Minato Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Kobayashi, Noriko Producer

Simone, Jamie Producer, ADR Director

Hagino, Ken Producer

Date, Hayato Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Nov 9, 2024

orihihc

Recommended

So. Naruto is a great show. I think a lot of people get too comfortable being so critical of this show when they forget this series debuted in 2002, over twenty years ago. Look at the other shows from this year, none of their names are particularly famous. So now when people watch this show with the expectation that it is the best thing out there, (when they became anime fans later on and watched a plethora of other shows beforehand) they forget that this show is a product of its time.

When I watched Naruto, there was the "big three of Shonen" One Piece, ... Naruto, and Bleach (Dragon Ball, Evangelion, Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho were a bit earlier). It's hard to speak about Naruto and ignore the impact the show had on the anime industry as a whole. Naruto brought a lot of international anime fans, and there's a reason; not only are the story and characters compelling but the animation is good. I won't lie, there is a lot of "filler," but if you look at the bigger picture the filler adds important characterization to the story.

Naruto is one of my favorite shows, so much so that I wrote about it in my diary when I was younger. The soundtrack also SLAPS. Since this review is only for the original and not for Shippuden, I will give it a higher score. While yes, Shippuden shares qualities with the original, there were some misses in its execution.

ANYWAYS, I think critique is good, but people need to realize this is a 20+ year-old show, from a different time, when there were fewer international anime fans, and when anime wasn't as mass-produced as it is now. I digress.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 3, 2024

elthreedotcomma

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 15, 2022

AmadeusCho2021

Not Recommended

Funny

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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