I bring this up because I’ve been put off of Naruto for years. In fact I think I stopped caring about Naruto up when Shippuden came out. But yet my mind has been wanting me to re-watch it again after all these years. It’s something that’s been taunting me for a while now so I guess you could say it was curiosity. And you know what they say about curiosity. So how is 23 year old Stan with Naruto compared to 11 year old Stan? Well let’s get started.
Story: As the title of the anime suggests, the story is centered around a hot headed young ninja named Naruto Uzumaki who is widely known for being despised by everyone around the world because of being sealed with the Nine Tail Fox inside of him after the Fox was sealed away by the Fourth Hokage. This gets dropped shortly after though as now all of a sudden people start to get used to him, even if they call him out on his stunts. The series does tend to have its own arcs. It starts with Naruto becoming a ninja, to him joining his teammates and master on a mission to escort a bridge builder while taking out rogue ninjas, to taking the Chunin exam (that also sort of went nowhere later down the road), to the invasion of the Leaf Village, to finding the fifth hokage, and finally getting his old teammate back. The anime does have its own arc too, but they’re practically filler. It’s something many people have been pointing out, and if you’ve read the mangas, then you might understand why. In fact they were just created so the manga can continue with its own story. Regardless, the story at it’s best isn’t that good. Even if you do take out the filler aspect, the anime just tends to loses its momentum as the show goes on. As I brought up before, the Chunin exam arc. The anime just hypes it up as it focuses and wonders whether or not the Genins will progress to be Chunin level. But it gets tossed aside for a completely different story arc out of nowhere with the main villain attacking the Leaf Village. It feels so out of place and it has the anime run itself off the tracks in terms of story. There are some positives to the story though. It does do a good job at explaining the backstory of the characters so it does that correctly, but it only goes so far when your main story just ends up being a jumbled mess in terms of plot points.
4/10
Characters: The characters are also regarded to be the major drawback for the anime. Especially the main character. The first thing we see with Naruto is him vandalizing the four hokage’s statue faces. Why? Because he wants to prove to everyone that he is better than how people are treating him. He tends to be really unlikeable at the beginning. As the show goes on, he sort of gets better but not by much. While he tends to be more caring with his friends, he still comes off as a jerk and his personality just comes off as typical for him. As for everyone else, there is no room for character development. You’d figured with 220 episodes under the belt that there COULD be some room, but I guess not. I’d be here all day if I explained it, but the only character that gets some room for development is Naruto, and even then it’s very little. It’s a shame really because some of the characters had that potential. Characters like Sakura, Sasuke, and many more had it but they never did anything with it, making it a let down. The other character I can think of that did sort of get some development is Shikamaru when he becomes a Chunin, but that’s really about it. Even with the characters backstories, it’s really hard to consider them passable.
4/10
Art: Though the art does tend to get a bit rough around the earlier episodes, the animation and art improves greatly as the show goes on. And even for the standards of the time, it definitely holds up well, though some shots can be kind of funny. Shoutout to the scene where they zoom out of Rock Lee in the hospital with Lady Tsunade and Might Guy talking. But back to what I was saying, the fight scenes are also good too. They’re fluid and nice to look at. Especially with the environments around it.
7/10
Sound: The music is good too. It definitely fits with the show with its Japanese ninja culture. And the OP’s are a rocker to listen to. The dub is fine, except for the title character. No disrespect to the actress who is playing as Naruto, but I couldn’t pick the right voice for him because holy hell his voice totally does not obnoxious in the slightest. Sorry, I forgot to turn off sarcasm mode. And the sound effects is fine too. Really nothing interesting to talk about.
6/10
Enjoyment and Verdict: I wasn’t fully enjoying my time watching Naruto again. I thought my opinions on the anime would remain the same, but sadly that isn’t the case. It isn’t bad. Far from it. But I also wondered why I decided to watch this over other animes at the time. True, the audio and animation are passable, but not enough to save itself from a mediocre story and poor character development, if there is any. I wouldn’t recommend this anime to everyone out there, but I guess if you don’t have anything else to watch then go ahead. But I would not go crazy about it.
5/10
