First the negatives, the end of the first Naruto series are all fillers and honestly unnecessary to watch (they are ok, however not necessary to understand the larger story). There are also a few fillers within the other episodes, however none of them are as bad as the end of the series. These fillers begin when Naruto leaves to train. This series has a tendency to waste time by telling, retelling, flashback and all sorts of tricks to go over the same plot point over and over again. At one point an event happened, moments later they talked about that event, then they had a flashback to that event, then the talked about it again. Later on in the same episode, they had a full recap of that event and flashed back to it again. The sad thing is that event wasn't even that big of a deal. This was the worse case I came across, however it still demonstrates the point that this show likes to waste time. The characters are often hit or miss depending on the viewer, I personally could not stand Sasuke (the second main character). I have heard a lot of people hate the main character, however the upside is there is a wide variety of characters and Im sure you will like somebody.
The positive, the story is full of interesting characters that are intertwined with one another. Unfortunately the majority of these relationships are not fully explained until the sequel of this series. Even though most of these relationships are not fully explored, this series still does a great job of introducing you to the characters, their background and who they are in the larger scheme of things. The action is creative and fun to watch. One of the best parts is when a new character is introduced, they almost always have some sort of "speciality" or ability that makes them uniquely different from the rest of the cast. Watching them fight and seeing their different abilities is always entertaining, especially when their ability somehow correlates with their story. This series has some great villains and a well developed story for most of them. There is a high degree of lineage to the story as a whole, and that just continues to grow as the show progress. This is a great quality because almost everything that happens during the present, has some roots to the pass and in some cases, directly affect the near future.
As a whole this story has great characters, a well developed storyline and entertaining action sequences that ultimately exemplify the key characteristics of the individuals within that fight. However for all of the great qualities this show has, it also has the tendency of watering down the experience by revisiting the exact same scene over and over again.
I recommend this to anyone who has the ability to put up with fillers in the form of episodes, as well as constant time wasters such as flashbacks. To anyone who can put up with the insane amount of fillers, they will get to experience a fun and vast storyline filled with a great cast of characters.
