so.. I finally watched Naruto, dubbed as one of the three great big shounen, and I have so many mixed feelings about it.. so let's start!
Story 7/10: the story... was not one of its strongest points. It's good, but does it drag on unnecessarily with plot Twists that make no sense at times? 100%. A prime example of this is orochimaru switching sides randomly and with no real explanation other than 'the wind'. This is a character who's literally committed genocide. That said, I do think the mangaka does an insanely well done job with highlighting certain themes from beginning to end, such as perseverance and friendship. The repetitiveness of the constant love/hate between sasuke/naruto, the idea of the 3 in a team representing history & idea of hate and love itself throughout history is what truly brought forward emotions for myself and really carried the plot. That said, pain arc was a masterpiece, and all the other arcs in shippuden pale in comparison. Furthermore, it concluded the huge series really nicely with the wedding... makes me wonder if boruto was needed...
Art 4/10: disgusting, and the reason is in this section im including the outright bad fillers and flashbacks. Okay some fillers mightve been good , but when you're in the middle of a war and suddenly have a filler of happy konohamaru..no, just no. People use the excuse of 'were binge watching it now but at the time fillers were good' - let me tell you, no they weren't. Why? Because one piece has less fillers than naruto, running since 1997+ and being double the length . There's other ways to go around lengthening/ delaying the show, and having 20 episode arc long fillers in the middle of scene is a no no. And the flashbacks... you get flashbacks from the episode before. I truly wonder how much better naruto would've been without the fillers and unnecessary flashbacks.
Sound 9/10: beautiful, the themes that play during a certain group, truly resonates their character. Openings and endings were solid. No complaints at all.
Character 10/10: This is what carried the show. This. When you talk to someone about naruto, they don't say I wanna be naruto, the say I wanna be madara, or itachi or daedara. The villains were so well designed and have so much personality it truly is what made naruto into a masterpiece in my opinion. Naruto didn't carry the show, the villains did. The character development was top notch, seeing narutos growth throughout the entire anime was really solid to watch as well, same with sasuke. Even sakura to a certain extent. Also special shootout to kakashi, easily one of the most liked characters in the entire show, tbh all the characters were above average with design. Then there's the most significant characters, naruto and sasuke. The love/hate between them is so beautiful and eloquent, that it draws out a multitude of emotions from the watcher, who's awaiting them to meet. I've never seen such love portrayed as the way naruto did for sasuke in any anime really.
Enjoyment 8/10: Naruto is truly unique. It's an anime I can see why so many people admire it. But let's be honest here, if the villains weren't as cool as they are , I don't think it would've been a show to remember.
