“Those that break the rules and regulations are scum. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. If I'm going to be called scum either way, I'd rather break the rules! And if that's not being a proper shinobi, then I'll destroy that idea!”
Most people who have watched anime have seen Naruto at one point, the same goes for One Piece. For me, the face that i've been watching the show for so long kept me pulled in to keep watching when i started the series beginning to end for the first time. For other people who didn't grow up with the show this same "pull" may not apply, especially for the first couple of episodes the show starts off rather slow just as most other anime or shows. Nevertheless i'd still recommend Naruto to anyone especially as a starter anime.
Story (7/10)
The story is quite unique in a way – it was set in an entirely different world which, at the same time, resembles real life situations such as wars, laws, conflicts, vengeance, hatred, loyalty, patriotism, and friendship. Although some may say it may resemble other anime, but the setting and the situation of this one is quite different, being in a world of ninjas and all. As mentioned earlier, they ingeniously designed each episode to make your mind wonder what will happen next whereas in psychology, they will feed you what you desire and before you become fully satisfied, they will take it away from you so that you will want to see what will happen in the next episode. Yet, there are too many fillers and for a while all they do is go on mission after mission. There doesn’t seem to be progress at times.
Art (8/10)
The art is about average, but depends on when you are watching it. If you were watching in 2014/2015 you would probably rate the art lower as to someone who watched it in 2004. The original run started in September 21, 1999, so to take it in consideration the art is fairly well down for it’s time compared to many other shows out there.
Sound (8/10)
The soundtrack is really good. Soundtrack is good and very diverse, and there are certainly a few very awesome tracks, but I like the original better than Shippuuden because it suffers from poor timing and poor track placement, and the OST overall lacks the same sense of character that united all of the tracks. Great soundtracks would be Loneliness, The Rising Fighting Spirit and Sadness and Sorrow. Now overall, if you watch dubbed, in my opinion it’s horrible, but in Japanese it’s not bad.
Character (9/10)
The character development is great. It takes a lot of time to get to know each character but in about 220 eps you pretty much get to know a little bit about everyone. They take 2-3 eps just to introduce a person or they add that person to the mission, so we get to know more about them. For example, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are the characters you learn the most about in the original series, but say they add Neji to the team mission. During that mission which is usually about 2-3 eps you learn a lot about him. Another example would be during the exam, Rock Lee fights Gaara and it take 5+ eps but you learn so much about them. Now, I personally don’t like all the flashbacks but I do think they are valuable to learn about a character.
Enjoy (7/10)
The enjoyment was average for me. Usually, I find myself skipping parts after a while because sometimes it would be boring. There would be a fight but that fight takes like 5 eps because of flashbacks, which is valuable sometimes, but not when it’s a character who will only be there for those episodes. Take Sasuke’s arc for example when everyone is chasing him, the fights were awesome back there was a flashback every fight they got into. It personally takes the enjoyment away for me at times. .
Overall (8/10)
Overall, Naruto has its ups and downs. The storyline is deep, with a plot that follows the manga. Naruto also has several filler arcs which lead away from the main plot. The music is great, and matches up with scenes well. The characters of Naruto, are well thought out.. they all have details about them and are interesting to watch. Animation is excellent. Fights are very detailed, you know how far away the characters are, and there are great camera angles.
