Naruto

Story: Naruto is a fairly decent anime that made quite a bit of mistakes, such as turning over half of the show into fillers, and taking the show into "god" level Dragon Ball Z style of fighting. Naruto starts out as a extremly good Ninja anime during its first season where everything you see is unexpected and the story is rather fresh and interesting, the first season including Zabuza had a perfect pace and the fight scenes felt truly of what ninjas should be.

After the first season however we are left with a quickly declining anime, soon the fights becomes my "special ... move is better then yours" and it doesnt really feel like its a ninja show anymore with everyone pretty much using random attacks, which essentially turns this show into another beat em up. After a couple of seasons they start to follow in the footsteps of Dragon Ball Z.

Art: The characters are well drawn, and the moves are flashy and nicely animated fight sequences.

Sound: While many of the music and songs of the anime are amazing, this show became plagued with... DATTEBAYO! ('Believe it' in english)

Character: A large array of characters with each a rather decent background, however because they wanted each character to have such a rich and fulfilling history, we became flooded with flashbacks. Also only a few characters truly stand out in terms of growth and development such as Gaara, Neji, Shikamaru and a few others.

Enjoyment: I decided to rate the seasons individually and then average them, with Season 1 and 5 recieving highest marks.

I believe that Naruto is in fact, if not the most, one of the most overrated and overestimated animes I have seen.
First of all, most characters seem very generic, and the some chracters (ESPECIALLY female) lack usefulness. Before you tell me I'm wrong, think about this: If YOU were to be watching a fight where your comrades and close friends may be fighting for their lives and chance to save yours, would YOU be there at the sides shouting their names and probably just distracting them, or would you stand up and fight along? Of course, at some point these certain characters did change. But ... it would have been much better to make them at least a little more gutsy now, and have them progress later. Actually I would've rated their character even lower if it weren't for their development.

Then, we have the endless supply of fillers. (And so I pray, Unlimited Naruto filler works.) These fillers are episodes which have no real relation to the plot and are created for the sole reason of making the episode longer. Honestly, I think having some fillers are good, because if all episodes were following a plot, the series would go very fast. The fact that they introduce us to new characters doesn't change anything except if that character has a relation to the plot.

So, at first glance based on people saying how great this is, you may be thinking 'Ah, this is a pretty good series!' But you then start watching it, then you get bored of the fillers and sick of the useless characters that don't seem to die.

Personally, I actually would have continued with the next season if it wasn't for the fear of having to go through a whole bunch of fillers again.

Overview:

Naruto has been going strong for 15 years now and is one of the most popular anime in the world. What exactly does this series do so well to gain such a massive fandom? Let's jump through some poorly animated trees and into a world where stealth assassins wear bright orange jump suits! This is Naruto!

Story: 6/10

Naruto takes place in a world where ninjas are extremely common and perform many tasks: messengers, body guards, assassins, scientists, and even national leaders. The ninjas in this show don't actually conform to the stereotypes portrayed in cinema. In fact, they are often so far removed from everything ... associated with ninja that they may as well just be called mutants or super heroes. What the hell does telepathically controlling sand have to do with being a ninja? I played Tenchu on the PS1 and I sure as hell wasn't killing people with fucking sand! Anyways, the plot follows the hyperactive, rambunctious, yet highly ambitious Naruto Uzumaki and his goal to become leader of his ninja village. Naruto has lived as an outcast his entire life because he has a demonic 9 tailed fox sealed inside him by his father. His father did this in order to stop the rampaging 9 tails from destroying the village and it ended up costing him his life. Naruto must use his powers to slowly win the trust and respect of his village and his fellow ninja team mates. The beginning of the series features a lot of training and tedious explanation of "chakra" and other concepts of the Naruto world. The story actually starts getting interesting when Naruto must take a special test called the Chuunin exam in order to gain a higher rank and go on more dangerous missions. I won't attempt to explain 15 years of plot in this small review, but trust me that the plot goes on FAR longer than necessary. Kishimoto keeps creating new enemies in order to drag it on longer and longer. Just when the latest big bad is defeated, we get to hear a sob story and learn that big bad #120 was actually being controlled by big bad #121, who it will turn out is merely a puppet in the schemes of #122. The plot is also bogged down by god awful filler that ranks among the worst shonen filler EVER! Ok, well not as bad as Inuyasha's filler, but still bad.

Character: 6/10

Naruto has a LOT of characters, some of whom are interesting and fun to watch and some of whom are an absolute pain in the ass. Unfortunately, Naruto is one of least interesting characters in the whole series. He redefines what it means to be a generic shonen hero cliche'. Sasuke spends the vast majority of the series being a whiny little twat that you just want to bitch slap. Sakura's affection for Sasuke seems extremely misplaced and she doesn't do anything useful until Shippuden starts...after episode 220. Hinata is actually one of the interesting characters. Like Shinji from Evangelion, she is the socially awkward, overwhelmed, nervous wreck that the otaku at home will probably most identify with. I'm certainly a LOT more Hinata than I am Naruto and I am willing to wager that so is nearly everyone else. Her struggles aren't so much about taking down impossibly strong villains, but learning how to express her feelings and get over her introversion and social anxiety. The real world nature of these problems make them infinitely more identifiable for the viewer. One of my other favorites is Gaara, who starts out as a lonely yet psychopathic ninja that brutally murders everyone that crosses his path. However, the show actually tries to make him sympathetic and largely succeeds. We get to see him slowly redeem himself and even become his country's leader. Apparently if you are strong in this world, your countless murders of innocent people are simply waved away and you can get selected to lead a nation. Hell yeah! Lucy/Gaara 2016! My other favorite characters include the absolute badass Itachi and pretentious artist Deidara.

Sound: 8/10

The soundtrack features many memorable openings and closings along with kickass instrumentals to pump up the fight scenes. Naruto also has just the right music to make tragic scenes moving and happy scenes more fun. It isn't the perfect anime soundtrack, but it is solid throughout.

Art: 6/10

The art isn't the greatest ever, but it isn't bad. You also have to consider the budgetary constraints of having a 500+ episode series when you groan at the use of poorly animated 3 second loops of characters jumping through trees. God damn Sasuke retrieval arc!

Enjoyment: 3/10

In Heart of Darkness we are left with the famous last utterance of Kurtz, "the horror, the horror!" In Naruto this would be "The filler...the filler!" Seriously, the awful filler content along with the tedious explanations whenever anyone uses any technique, make this series often painful to watch. I recommend the far superior manga.

Overall: 6/10

Naruto has some things that it admittedly does quite well, along with a substantial list of flaws. I would ultimately say that it is a very average series. It is a good introduction to anime for the uninitiated, but there are honestly far better anime out there. There is also far, far worse. I'm not going to be the anime snob that tells young teens that Naruto is the single worst anime ever created. That would be a complete lie. I've sat through Ikki Tousen, Najika Blitz Tactics and Seikon no Qwasar, so I know what I'm fucking talking about.

Premise:
Fictional feudal-style Japan, where the Ninjas roam wearing cool SWAT costumes. Besides that, they also have Dragon Ball style "chi".

Character:
There's only 3 characters you need to know:
Naruto - The main character (hence the anime title) who is a mediocre ninja if not for the hidden demon inside him.
Sakura - A useless girl who serves no purpose in this anime, a liability who always got in the way of other people.
Sasuke - An emo boy who thinks he's the center of the world.

Relationships:
... Naruto has a crush on Sakura because he thinks she's cute, even though she's a b*tch to him.
Sakura is obsessed on Sasuke because she likes the typical bad boy type.
Sasuke thinks Naruto is his rival and get pissed when Naruto is stronger than him. But actually Sasuke is just confused by his love for Naruto.

Plot:
Fight, fight, fight, training. Fight, fight fight, training. Fight, fight, fight.
Oh, the bad guys can also just teleport when they want to retreat after they were defeated, while the good guys are SOL when they are out powered by the bad guys.

Well the more experienced anime viewers are going to give reviews of probly 5 and lower while the beginers are going to say it was outstanding and naruto is just one of those animes where you hate it or love it. Naruto is a big anime for kids and alot of anime biginers watch this anime because its so huge in the anime world that they think why not? so i am going to give this review all ive got.
~Story~
Well what can you say The plot is accually pretty fair and original on the basis of ninjas hokage ect. but i think it dragged ... on far too long with hundreds of episodes and its still not over its alot like one piece and bleach in that it just wont seem to end the start of naruto is great untill you get about half through the original series and it just gets boring and pointless and then with shippuden it goes good and then bad again but we will stick to the original naruto. I found that the series is alot of fillers and no real plot line other than alot of ahem sakura screaming sasuke but thats not really the point lol.
~Characters~
One word: Dull.....The characters grow sure but they dont really seem to well its hard to explain ill say it an easier way. The characters are idiots because all they focase on is find sasuke oh he killed aton of people oh well lets find him anyway its like a huge game of tag in this anime they chase sasuke he chases them over and over again its dull and boring.
~Overall~
To new people to anime watch this but to experienced people in the anime community dont bother you wont be missing much other than alot of screaming. =\ 5/10

Story:The first main story arc is one of the best through the series and the rest until the last real story arc are decent. But then probably one of the stupidest thing happened in history. Instead of continuing the real story for a year and half they made filler. Bad filler, filler that makes you question wither your time should be waisted with this. And a lot of people though that it was a waist of there time and stopped watching. That is why I gave it a 5. If they didnt give it the most amount of filler ever it would have been ... a 8.

Animation: pretty good, nothing note worthy.

Sound: enjoyable nothing special.

Character: Well lets just say this. Naruto is a pretty lame character. He is lame and will always be lame. (he is super lame in the fillers, I think I saw him use one move in all the episodes I saw) But the saving grace is the side characters. Great I wish that some of the side characters were the main hero instead of Naruto.

Enjoyment: Up the the part where the real last story arc ends, pretty good 8
but then the filler hits that got it a 5.

Overall: I would have given this a 8 but that filler is a real problem

I have to say this anime was a huge disappointment. I used to be the biggest naruto fan, I mean ninjas whats not to like right? Watching it as it came out a few years back, I can see why this anime has the ratings it does. So I am trying to be as unbiased as possible. First those who haven't seen should be aware of is that this anime has a LARGE amount of filler and by LARGE amount I mean a LARGE amount. It felt like the author stopped caring half way through.The story starts off awesome, however becomes very very weak the ... only reason I'm giving it a 5 is for the action and a few touching moments. This anime by no means deserves anything above a 6-7 IF that. If you are looking for great story and action I would highly recommend One Piece. On a lighter note If you still think you're interested you should defiantly watch naruto for those few moments and amazing action.

**Has Been Re-Edited, Watched as of Episode 62**

Story - 5.6/10 (F+)
What story? Oh the Ninja boy wants to be the best. Where have i heard this from before? Like countless other shounen shows. But only Naruto has the balls to actually bore us with pointless slapstick comedy and 3-4 episode long fights that hardly resolve anything except more questions. Naruto is like a trainwreck, it's so bad yet you still watch it to laugh at it.

Animation - 5.0/10 (F)
Aside from the whole "Sexy Ninjitsu" thing, all of it rarely ever changes. It feels so old and worn out, nothing else catches my eyes.

Sound: - ... 7.8/10 (C+)
This is where i change my tone for the most part. I can honestly say i like every single opening of Naruto, it fits the mood for the first 1:30 of the show, then the other 21 minutes is just horrible. The soundtrack is alright, but just that.

Character: - 4.8/10 (F)
We have: Naruto, our favorite ramen-loving, orange jumpsuit ninja. Ok? We mostly have the same old characters until we get Jiraya and Orochimaru and Itachi. Even with them, it still feels so old and dead by now, that's where i stopped watching it.

Enjoyment: - 8.0/10 (B)
So why the hell did i enjoy it? Well, it seems that EVERY SINGLE EPISODE, Naruto screws up. That there is enjoyment. Whether it's an assault by Sakura, or just plain screw up, i love it (it's supposed to be a bad thing, by the way.). I can watch the filler episodes and just laugh so damn hard at Naruto failing.

Overall (Averaged, thank the Enjoyment rating.. :) ): - 5.8/10 (F)
If you're a basement-dwelling, friendless moron than this show is for you! If you love anime, has tons of friends, and does well in school, THIS SHOW IS NOT FOR YOU.


The Good: Some OP/ED themes

The Bad: About everything else

Well, you've got to admit Naruto is one of the most popular anime in the world, also because it's also aired in the US. However, popularity does not represent everything. Naruto, definitely was very ideal and imaginative with these super ninjas.
The three main characters, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, all had a close relationship for they have been in a team for most of their time. Naruto and Sasuke, who were supposedly natural rivals, fought their best to compete each other and tease about the others' loss. By the time this arch enemy Orochimaru comes, this anime changes its ... environment.
For the whole entire time, Sasuke leaves with Orochimaru, and therefore Naruto and Sakura tries their best to regain their lost friend. They all realize missing a friend could be fairly drastic towards everyday life. They tend to become stronger and fight with devilish opponents to move on and retrieve Sasuke. However, on the other hand, Sasuke refuses and once tried to kill Naruto because he had another objective in mind. Then, what kind of anime is this? Naruto and Sakura wants Sasuke back; they need him to be happy and believe that would do best for him. On the other hand, Sasuke refuses and fights back because he doesn't feel happiness in between their friendship. He wants to kill his brother who destroyed his clan. In the future, "if" Naruto ever caught Sasuke, what would they even do? Put him in a cage and lock him so that he won't escape? That's totally ironic! They want him back, but they know he's become all crazy, so they don't know what to do, but to seriously injure him so that he won't go back to his evil scheme. Is that even true friendship?
The music is definitely great, for it gives different types of ideas. The music provides the thought of living in a peaceful village and swaying through history. One certain types of music from Naruto, it gives the idea of exciting actions full of thrill. The sound produced in Naruto is indubitably original and unique.
The part where I enjoyed Naruto the most would be the beginning, where all of the story tends to make sense. Yet, in the later episodes, the author seems to push on forcefully to draw random frustrating plots.

Many people out there love Naruto and I can see why. The characters are compelling, varied and interesting and the storytelling has many parts that are likable. But there are three big problems that drags everything down. Here they are.

1: No-one ever changes
This is mostly true for Naruto, but also for other characters and situations. It seems that the more important the character is, the less the character develops. The only development you see is an increase in abilities and power, but with such a cast of characters so much more could have been done. Thusly, Naruto is a show of wasted opportunities and weak ... character development.

2: Very slow pace
There are large parts of the show where the last part of the previous episode makes up the first part of the following! Seriously! This means that during that time you will LITERALLY not miss a single frame of animation if you skip every second episode. Also, some battles are so drawn out that you almost expect the participants to drop dead from old age, or at least hunger. Picking up the pace at most places would have helped the show immensely.

3: Fillers
The dreaded fillers, episodes that do not follow the main storyline but show adventures apart from it. They have been handled well in many shows, but in Naruto it seems that almost every filler was written by someone who doesn't like writing stories. There are a few gems to be had, but for the most part they're boring and irrelevant. Fillers can help develop the characters, but this just doesn't happen in Naruto.

In conclusion, Naruto can be very good and very enjoyable at times, but finding those gems means watching a whole lot of boring and repetitive stuff. A shortened version with only the good parts included would make it a much better series.

When this show started off I loved it. I loved every episode, the action was great, and it had some interesting story development. But then the show went on and as it went I spiraled down fast. Naruto himself got annoying, Sakura got frustratingly moany about Sauske, and Sauske turned out to be an arse. But the thing that really turned me off to the show fastest was the story line and how they were trying to get that laugh, and mostly just pandering to the age group that finds fart jokes funny. It got really irksome when an entire mission/story ark gets completely destroyed ... when Naruto rips one (I'm looking at you Bikochu Beetle). The show still has some amazing fight sequences, and the overall concept shows that it could have been an amazing anime, if it had only decided to step out of the kiddy grades and not try to make us laugh at lame humor.

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.

This is my first review. I hope I don't come off as too much of a jerk.

I watched quite a bit of anime before I watched Naruto. I have had some beautiful high points while watching (FMA Brotherhood) and some disappointing lows (SAO). Sadly Naruto was one of those lows.

Story: 4
Repeat after me: FILLER EPISODES!
This was the worst for me. I usually binge watch anime, so sometimes watching 3+ episodes in a row where the plot made next to no progress became a little mind numbing. Not only that, but the main story line was just kind of boring. I never felt entertained by it. ... Most of the entertainment I got was either unintentional or just basic slapstick humor.

Art: 5
I've seen better and I've seen worse.

Sound:7

The sound is great. The themes set the scene well, and the Japanese voice acting is great. I don't have any experience with the dubbed version however.

Character: 5

I hate Sakura and Sauske. They are crappy, underdeveloped characters that are whiny and annoying. It's a shame that they are main characters. Naruto is okay. The only characters I liked were Shikamaru and Rock Lee. To directly quote my friend Matt, "Rock Lee is a badass. Everybody wishes they were Rock Lee." The only reason he watched Naruto was to cheer on his boy Lee.

Enjoyment: 4

Wow. When it comes down to it, I only finished the series to put it on My Animelist. There, I said it. Even Rock Lee wasn't enough to save this show. I honestly didn't enjoy it too much.

Overall: 4

Needs moar Rock Lee.

Naruto was the first anime that I've watched that drew me in of which I was aware of it being an anime. Due to that, I tend to consider Naruto the first anime I've watched, despite this not being true due to the fact that I've watched a bunch of other anime before it, but rather, because due to it I've gotten interested in the medium of anime as a whole.

I've never really considered Naruto to be incredibly good, but I remember REALLY enjoying it and being into it. I really enjoyed the powers of the characters and the diversity and just the plain ... multitude of possibility of powers that can be used, as well as for once that a cartoon is trying to present some tragic stories/backstories to their characters. It was, ironic to a lot of the traits Naruto has, is because of the fact it was a serious story. The first of its kind I've ever had experienced. But as Naruto went on and as I got older, Naruto (the franchise) became an obvious botch, where only about 50% of the content moved the story forward due to fillers.

But what is Naruto at its core?

Well, Naruto, at its highest points, is a story where the world presents some characters of whose motivations and capabilities are explained quite well, where you can have a character wanting to seek a high political position because they want to be accepted by all the people that have ostracized him through his entire life, or a character that is incapable of learning any sort of special power and decided to train himself physically to a ridiculous extent, just to prove that they can be as strong as everyone else, or a character that decided to become someone's tool for war, simply because said someone were the only parental figure willing to raise them. A lot of the characters have very strong motivations for what they are doing, and that makes them noteworthy and memorable, despite all their annoying/artificial personality traits, the things they've been through and their motivation for the direction they're moving towards is engaging and makes their personality mishaps pretty easy to ignore.

Naruto at the core of what it tried to be is a meaningful story about people trying to get somewhere in life and how they've suffered. Which is a hard thing to execute, presenting a lot of characters, with different motivations, goals and stories. With all the shortcomings Naruto has, it is hard not to admit that its story was ambitious in the beginning, where a lot of the backstories the characters have been presented with would be enough to create an entire story arc or series just for that specific archetype. This ambition is what made it noteworthy in the beginning. Naruto tried to present a lot of stories at the same time, present a lot of ideas, without really focusing on a singular entity too much which worked both in its favor and in its detriment. What was in its favor was what I've already praised it for, the story at the highest point.

And the detrimental part was the fact that it has no idea where to go and it tried to present too many characters and ideas. It kept creating powers, characters, motivations and other such things, but as the series progresses, especially in the sequel, the powers simply don't matter and the strategy behind the fights simply starts fading, because of the sheer multitude of powers, and the characters also start taking the back seat and being irrelevant, due to how many of them are currently. In this series however, the effect of this isn't really felt, but it is true that for the most part, the main characters don't and really, can't drive the story forward. This part of Naruto ends with both characters being just one step closer towards their goal, but still pretty far from it since its merely their first. That's very slow for 135 episodes of mostly non-filler.

Naruto suffers from the fact that it has no idea where to go and what to do after this series. It presents interesting powers, it creates interesting fights the more limitations it has, but the more tools it creates for itself, the less unique it becomes. Naruto wants to present interesting character stories, but it really starts forgetting on the way which characters caught the interest of the fans, and fails to deliver on them and thus manages to drag on, and just present a lot of new characters who don't really drag the story forward since their motivations are now singular or shallow. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't present this at all, but I want you to be aware of this, if you are a completitionist watcher, that Naruto's sequel will downgrade and why it downgrades.

So I won't drag on just like the Naruto franchise, the story of Naruto tries to present a lot of characters and their motivations and does a fairly good job at it, but in this process the main characters don't get a lot of progression towards the goal they've set up to be. The characters have interesting motivations, backstories and abilities, but their personality outside of all these things is often jarring. The main character is a rambunxious cunt who screams and rants about how much he wants to make his village great again every chance he gets and the other protagonist is an emo kid with a hate filled boner. The action in the series is mostly comprised of presenting a variety of powers and before there aren't a multitude of abilities presenting, also using them in an effective way in order to make up for your gap in your knowledge gap. The comedy in the series is pretty much ranch, with the main character transforming into a naked girl for people to laugh, I guess, or characters acting in really over the top manners such as crying or being overly violent because they were slightly critical of them.

In terms of production values, Naruto has a good soundtrack but some occasionally poor animation. The soundtrack is memorable because the composer used traditional japanese instruments while combining those with the sounds of more modern instruments, like guitars and drums. This made Naruto sound unique and innovative. And while Naruto's animation can be decent, it occasionally has some random dips in quality, where characters aren't drawn with a consistent level of detail to other points in the series or just because the series doesn't know how to color balance, partly because the series is also old.

To conclude, Naruto did plenty of things poorly and plenty of things that are worthy of praise. But ultimately would I recommend it? Yes and no. I think it is a good watch if you're intrigued to analyze the series and see what drew interest to it, and why it even started being successful. It has some interesting story arcs and characters because of their motivations and goals. If you're looking for something you want to watch past that, avoid Naruto because it just doesn't know where to go and it is pretty much the definition of a series dragging on. Naruto didn't know where to go and just aimed to present as much content as possible. Naruto was made to sell, not made to please. Which isn't something anybody can deny, with its high amount of fillers or its just general lack of progression for its main characters. But while Naruto was made to sell, it also sold because of some qualities that it indeed did have. It built interesting characters, it created some interesting powers. And it kept doing that, without ever realizing, that series sometimes, also need an overarching plot. Which Naruto while it may not lack, it does not focus on. And while I don't think that I will ever forget Naruto, because you never forget your first time, I don't see how a longwinded story which doesn't have a point and drags on, will keep dragging in new people.

I watched Naruto when I was a kid, because there was nothing else on TV. So I had to basically do with what I had. I didn't particulary enjoy it at the time either because there were more interesting shows on air like the hilarious dub for Duel Masters which is one of my all-time favorites.

Naruto? Pfft, sure, the first, like 30 episodes are alright, up until the genin exam is over or whatever that shit was. And then Sasuke turns up the edge levels so high you could cut yourself if you touched the screen. The character development is an absolute joke and if ... you actually have some taste you'd know that someone who spouts nonsense about growing stronger and whatever the fuck else while managing to be so incredibly annoying and without any redeeming values whatsoever except the fact that they are vaguely fascinating to look at when genderbent, cannot be a good lead character.

And you'd be right! Naruto is one of the, if not THE worst lead characters of all fucking time. A harem protagonist is more entertaining to watch than this bloke. It's obvious he's going to win every fight, it's obvious he's gonna train hard and get better every time. It's painfully obvious whenever someone smiles off-cam that something evil and spooky is gonna happen.
Now I know the general consensus about this load of trash, it got most people into anime(unfortunately) and also unfortunate is the fact that they didn't stop after Naruto, they went after other edgy shows like Tokyo Ghoul and whatever other miraculous trainwreck and made the scores skyrocket. The fandom is garbage for this show but that's not related to it's show itself, just tangentially.
You see, this show gathers all your pains and hardships from when you were an oppressed Eastern European infant with a fox in your guts and turns it into the most disgusting power trip you'll ever see, it's delusional, and suspension of disbelief only goes so far. Perhaps the delusional premise is what is most attractive when it comes to Naruto. Cause that shit just doesn't happen, ever, and if you're gonna be a smartass and tell me it's fiction, then tell the genius behind this series to make fiction credible within it's own described limits and not just plop a twist and jump the powerlevels by a googol every time he feels like it.

It's strangely entertaining to watch things fly on the screen but at that point you're basically okay with just about anything ranging from flies circling your lightbulb or Michael Bay. Naruto is basically the B-Movie of anime.
The budget for this is trash so the show looks as you might expect, the sound is, like, something to write home about in the sense that it's so boring you have to tell someone how boring it is. Terrible in fact, the music is trash too. Didn't have to be anything high-brow but damn they could've hired some better bands to perform instead of those garage party trash lid bangers that worked on this.
If you want a power-level heavy show that really does take its time to tell you how people got those powers, in detail, bit by bit. Wasting a good two episodes or three to show you how people die. Then go for DBZ.

If you just want a good shounen, a story about growing up and becoming stronger, with some real actual emotion. A Sasuke archetype that isn't completely shit. A god damn banging OP that will stay with you till your very last day. Then go with the king. YuYu Hakusho. That's my baby, that's my secret ingredient. If you feel the strange necessity to call this a good anime because you get nostalgic when you watch it, then do take in consideration the fact that you're basing it off the fact that you get nostalgic when you watch it, not because it's good. And it's true. Naruto is fucking garbage.

So.... Naruto. I don't really know why I'm writing this review as my first review, there are plenty already, and I don't particularly care about the series... I guess it's one of those whims. Let's move on to the review then, I'll try to keep it short. And btw, I'm writing the review for the whole Naruto series, including Shippuden and the rest.

Naruto is without any shred of doubt, the most popular anime outside Japan today. Completely surpassed any high Pokemon, Dragon Ball or Yu-gi-oh ever achieved, the whole world all of a sudden just can't have enough ninjas. These are all for a ... good reason, the anime completely blew most American cartoon in term of maturity, art quality, story and bgm, yet somehow keep it simple enough for kids to love. It didn't deliberately dumb itself down as if mocking 12+ years old kids brain size, yet not twisted enough to ruin an 8 years old fantasies and innocence. Suddenly kids are treated to a cartoon that not only gets you laughing but also complex and heart rending.

Now the question is, why did I only gave the anime a 6 if it is that good? Because ultimately, this anime is a kids stories disguised as something mature. And as a mid-20s seasoned anime enthusiast (read: otaku), it's just hard for me to find this engaging. Here's the complete breakdown:

Plot (5) - Debatable: Why debatable? Because maybe for younger audience, this was a masterpiece, who knows? But for me, the protracted episodes length, the out of place fillers that keeps contradicting the canon, the almost stale twists in every corner of the plot only to be replaced by yet another twists. 5 is generous.

Art (5): Completely mediocre, barely average (thus the 5). Understandable since the anime is made to be long running, but it doesn't erase the fact that the art quality is lacking compared to other shorter series from the same time.

Sound (7.5): As with other popular JUMP's anime such as One Piece, Bleach, Beelzebub, etc. the op and ed were typically beautiful, picked from various famous contemporary j-pop/rock. The in-anime BGM was nothing special.

Chara (6) - Debatable: Nothing special, typical of shonen series. Sasuke's breakthrough as one of the most likeable antagonist is pretty notable, as his duality existence with Naruto had been the driving force of this series since the time skip.

Enjoyment/Overall (6) - Debatable: It was pretty enjoyable at first, especially back at the time when I still don't mind watching anime with more than 50 episodes. But after 100+ episodes, with each episodes so protracted, with not much happening, I decided to drop the anime and just read the manga. This is not isolated to only Naruto, but I always find that anime adaptation of the manga tend to move really slowly and less enjoyable than the manga, especially if it's JUMP's.


So that's my review and I just want to leave a few words, for all of you so called 'Narutards', Naruto is not the best anime ever, it was not even close and never will be. It was good, and that's it. For trolls and haters, No, the anime is not as bad as you make it to be.

** I dropped the show at Episode 148 (13 episodes into the fillers)

+ A vast and interesting ninja world
- Terrible pacing (too slow) exploring the world and characters

+ Likeable characters with different personalities
- Sakura

+ Few characters are developed quite well (Sasuke, Gaara, Neji)
- Most characters remain one dimensional
... - Naruto is the typical bratty shounen MC with exemplary morals

+ A unique soundtrack that felt perfect
- Meh animation, though it is an old show

+ Chakra, element, jutsu system is interesting and creative.
- Most fight scenes are too long, filled with bad dialogue and flashbacks.
- Naruto may be weak, he may be a kid but he WILL yell at you and he WILL change your entire mindset.

+ Chuunin Exam Preliminaries
- Fillers

I watched 148 episodes in a week so despite its flaws I found Naruto enjoyable. It's a fine show but I'm starting to think shounen is maybe not my cup of tea.

Now, first off, I am not going to claim that Naruto is bad. I know a lot of people who would, but I won't. I also will not explain the plot, because once I start it gets hard to stop. What I am going to talk about is how Naruto lost me. It used to hold a very special place in my heart, because it was the anime that got me to look it up on the web, and finally discover what anime was and where to find it. I don't know how long it would have taken ... for that to happen otherwise, but it was the catalyst. Back in the day I was a diehard Naruto fan. Now, I'm going to start with what is good about the anime.

The action is very good, and while I generally prefer One Piece and a couple other anime in that department, it's still well done. The music is very good, and gets you ready for a good time. The best thing, easily, are the characters. The cast is large and there are quite a few stand outs. Rock Lee is a personal favorite, but almost all of the main cast are very well done. Naruto himself is a great protagonist. When they delve into his childhood, it really works. The Zabuza storyline is probably the peak in quality, but the Chunin Exams/Gaara arc is my favorite. The ending fight works very well, though I've seen the same idea done better elsewhere. (Keep that in mind, I'll bring it up again in a couple of days.)

Now for the bad. To start off, the problem with the great cast is that the writer has no clue how to focus. As time goes on, he spends less and less time with the initial cast that drew us in, and keeps throwing in new characters, only about one in ten of which are a fifth as good as the original characters. I don't want to spend more time with Sai, I want Hinata! For the anime the filler is atrocious, between Naruto and Shippuden literally a year and a half of filler. Some of it was good, but most was really bad, and because it was filler it was a year and a half where nothing of real importance could happen. Then there's the Sasuke problem. I didn't like Sasuke at first, but by the end of the Zabuza arc he had grown on me. But then the Sasuke retrieval arc reared it's ugly head, and now I can't stand the guy. And it got worse! Every time he's shown up since then he's made me more and more pissed. At one point it started to feel like Sasuke was supposed to be the protagonist, but luckily it switched perspectives again soon after. Plus, after the initial success of Zabuza and Gaara, I haven't liked the villains much. Orochimaru started off cool, but degraded fast. The Akatsuki didn't really impress me.

The thing that gets me the worst though is the story. Over time, the plot has become more and more sidetracked and convoluted. It keeps going off-course, and not resolving what it's set up. Off everything that has happened so far, I think only the tailed beasts and Naruto's parents were things the writer knew when he started. Like I said earlier, the Gaara fight felt satisfying because it felt like it was built up to, and everything fit just right. I haven't felt that since, and that is a shame. Let me compare this with the anime I talked about yesterday, One Piece. One Piece set up huge plot points years in advance, in one case decades, and did so where it usually wasn't obvious that Oda was leading us there.

First of all, why did most people here think that naruto was a good enough show to get at least a 7? Sorry if I am going against your opinion but I personally found this show alright.

1.) The story.
At the start, naruto started off slow and I found it boring for a while until it got into it more. For that reason, I am rating the story a 6/10.

2.) Art
The art style doesn't really matter to me in an anime but I will rate it anyway. Considering that naruto was first aired in 2002, it was expected that the art style wouldn't be as beautiful ... as some other anime's today. Knowing that I rate the art style a 6/10

3.sound
The sound in the anime was good enough for me to at least enjoy it slightly. I will rate the sound 5/10

4.) Character.
Now, this is the best thing about naruto, the characters. I found out that in the end, I got attached to some characters and wanted to see more. My favourite character would most likely be Kakashi for no reason whatsoever. I will rate the characters a 7/10.

5.) Enjoyment
This anime was enough to make me watch all of it without sleeping my way through it. It may be slow but some scenes were enough to make me hype for the next one. I rate the enjoyment a 5/10

6.)Overall
I rate this show a 5/10 overall.

To be honest, I used to be obsessed with this anime. Literally. I would never watch any other AMVs besides the ones that included Naruto; I thought everyone who hated Naruto were idiots; I thought Sasuke was so hot, etc...
But the thing is, I only enjoyed it up until a certain number of episodes. The reason for this is, it got boring. In my opinion, anyway.
I think that they should've ended the anime at a certain spot. They shouldn't have put so many filler episodes, and Kishimoto shouldn't have made Naruto: Shippuden.
But, I do think the plot is great. It had a lot of potentional. ... The characters were a bit cliche, but still enjoyable. The art could've been better, but it wasn't horrible.
I think the thing that ruined it for me, is that the story dragged on and on until finally they ended it to make a Naruto:Shippuden. Also, I was soooo into it that I guess I finally got sick of it.

Overall, this anime isn't horrible, but it's far from great. I do think that if you haven't seen it, you should still give it a try.