Back to JiroUmezu's Profile JiroUmezu's Profile

*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

It's hard writing this review straight after finishing the manga but I wanted to do it when It's all fresh in my mind. Naruto is a story manga and anime fans over the world know, hate or love, It is easily the most detested manga of all time but yet one of the most popular. The story is about a young boy called Naruto Uzumaki, with his entire village despising and fearing him he is practically alone in the village and because of that he as a character values friendship more than the comman man and that leads to him going above ... and beyond to bring his best friend Sasuke back. With many arcs and a monumental timeskip Naruto is a long story and not for people who don't have any patience, the land of waves arc, the chunin exams arc, the invasion of konoha arc, the search for tsunade arc and the sasuke retrieval arc comprised was part 1 and the flow of the arcs was great, it had practically no slow points and the emotion is high.

With the land of the waves being the arc that fans usually remember as the arc that hooked them to Naruto with the crazy techiques and really showed of what a ninja is. The chunin exams is a favorite to many and is my favorite arc with crazy battles and learning about many tragic past to characters it is easily the arc that develops more characters than any. The Invasion of konoha arc is something that could of waited till a certain part in the story was concluded but as it was it was an amazing part in the manga and it did bring tears and epic fighting, still could of been handled differently. The search for Tsunade arc is simply the calm before the storm arc, Naruto gets training from Jiraiya and learns the infamous Rasengan while looking for the next Hokage, the dynamics between Naruto, Jiraiya and Tsunade is very well done and the ending of the arc is a pinnacle point in the series. The final arc of part 1 is outstanding to say the least, the battles in this arc are probably the biggest in part 1 and in the series and the final fight is full of emotion which Kishi is well at, overall the arc changed the story but opened up the story for different possibilities.

Each arc focuses on something new and trhat's what I liked about part 1 and how it was starting to build upon the ninja world. Then in part 2 the focus of the story shifted a bit from being a boy who wants to become Hokage to a boy who wants to bring his friend back before he becomes Hokage. Now the idea of that seems great but it did bring allot of complications to the story. In part 2 the arcs were structured not as well but the character dynamic was excellent but did seem more slow at times. The kazekage rescue arc was a good opening as I expected te be fair but then it went downhill with the sai and sasuke arc which is easily the worst arc in the series, the only good thing about it really was Naruto Vs Orochimaru. Moving on the Kakuzu and Hidan arc was an arc which used different characters like ino, shikamaru and Choji, the depth and the meaning of that arc was very well written. The Itachi pursuit arc is possibly the arc with the most emotion, Kishimoto sensei may of changed the story to more character focused than story building focus but that didn't change him still being able to deliver and with 3 huge deaths, 2 massive ones this arc stands out very much so. The nest arc is the Invasion of pain arc which to me is one of the best. I would prefer for certain things to of changed but as Kishimoto sensei did it, I couldn't call it bad writing. The atmosphere in this arc is very dark, it's the most suspenseful in the story so far and the fear of death looms over every character and I like it and the ending was a real changing point in the series and very much developed Naruto's character.

Moving to the more recent arcs the Five Kage summit was something that was needed, we needed for the kages to interact and to show that the shinobi world wasn't perfect and the dynamic between them all proved that the world still needed to change. Events happened in the arc which led to a big change, something that would start a beggining of a new era, overall a great arc. The confining the jinchuriki arc was an interesting one which focused on characters we don't get to see much and going more in depth with them as well as learning more about the past. The 4th shinobi world war arc was slow and the fighting wasn't that good but the ending proved it not to be the worst in the story. The ten tails revival arc was much better as we learn a truth about a certain person and the stakes really are higher, this is one of the best arcs and especially when read in a sitting instead of once a week for 3 years like some. Next is the final arc which could be seen as the best arc in the series as it focused on a select number of characters and it had very shocking moments and overall it concluded the story well and I didn't know if Kishimoto sensei could do it but he did, he concluded it perfectly.

I'll say some points about the art, characters, my enjoyment and why I gave the manga a 9/10 overall. Well the art I rate an 8/10, for a weekly manga it is rare to find one with superb art every chapter and the Naruto series has allot of great art but then it can be very shabby as well. Characters I would rate them as 9/10, in part 1 it would be 10/10 but because of shippuden and less characters got development I think a 9 is suitable becuase still characters like Naruto, Gaara, Sasuke, Itachi and Shikamaru etc have great development. My enjoyment wise a 10/10, no less, I love Naruto the series, It's my favorite manga and i can look pass the not so good bits because it has everything I look for in a shounen manga. Overall I give it a 9/10, in reality it's something between an 8.5-9/10 but I think I will just give it a 9 instead of an 8. The story is really an amazing jouney and I always wanted my first review to be Naruto when it finished and here it is ... the story of a boy and his dream!