Once, a nine-tailed demon fox attacked Konoha, the Hidden Village of the Leaf. Many brave ninjas lost their lives defending their home. Finally, the demon was sealed by the Fourth Hokage into the body of a human boy. Several years later, that boy, Naruto Uzumaki, struggles to gain the acceptance and acknowledgement of the villagers, many of whom still hate him because of the demon inside him. So, Naruto strives to become the Hokage, the strongest ninja in the village, so that the villagers will acknowledge him. Along the way, he gains many new friends, and faces many life-threatening situations.

Synopsis: destati

Story & Playability

Story: - 6[\b]

A show that had so much potential when it started out, but got lost in the numerous unimportant side characters and abysmal plot twist, so much that I think it lost track of where it wants to go.

The concept was interesting, starting out as a simple show about ninja, with a few supernatural trends introduced here and there (mainly the tailed beast and Sharingan), and a few cool ninja techniques, which turned way too fast from "I think I can buy that" to a "There's no way in hell I'll believe that thing is possible", which is kind of the problem that most shonen shows have. Meaning a character strives to outdo the other by some forbidden technique or another that seams just way too ridiculous at times.

The story arcs are somewhat annoying, mostly because, most of the interesting characters that Kishimoto introduces are either killed off before we even get to see enough of them (e.g.: Zabuza, Pain, Deidara, Orochimaru, etc), or are completely forgotten in favor of some other minor characters which I for one couldn't care less for (e.g.: Shikamaru, Hinata, Tenten, Neji, Kiba, Temari and all the rest).

Now, let's review the arcs a little:

Introduction Arc – pretty basic, and rather interesting. Here's were our three main characters are introduced (Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura), and a few other characters that look interesting, but we never get to see enough of.

Land of Waves Arc – Team 7's first real mission (they spent the rest of the time catching dogs or taking care of cattle. Boring!) Most of this arc was boring as well, unless you count the fight scenes, where Naturo first proved its potential as a shonen show. But it was the characters, humanity, and extremely well built personality that actually got me in this arc. The fact that they seemed so humane, and flawed was what made me distinguish Naruto from the other shonen shows of the time, and it was refreshing to see that the creator actually cared and tried to make the drama believable, and not just some half-though plot device thrown in to further the plot or "try" to explain the character's resolution. It felt real, and I honestly appreciated it for that.

Chunin Exam Arc – This is the arc that really got me into the show. The fights in this arc were some of the best I've seem in Anime, or Manga in a long time. It was back in the days when the show was still believable, and the characters were not extremely overpowered, and what I really liked about this arc was the fact that it didn't feel much like some random fight sequence just thrown in there for no apparent reason other than the to enjoy a few scenes of violence, but it felt more like a coming of age story, where the children who had already walked some of life's steps were now trying to prove themselves worthy of being treated like adults. This was of course made apparent by the fact that their tutelage under Kakashi would end if they passed the exam, and therefore, I got truly invested in the characters and hoped to see them triumph on this journey of theirs.

Invasion of Konoha Arc – this was a true disappointment after the wonderful first round of the Chunin exams. The fighting scenes here dragged on for hundreds of useless pages, and unlike the previous arc, they were extremely predictable. This is also where the show proves that it was never intended to be anything more than a generic action show. Because, whereas in previous arcs, the kids fought as a team and managed to get pass some difficult obstacles by working together, here Sakura and Sasuke are completely discarded as possible aids, and are given the trivial roll of being Naruto's drive, people who just sit to the side and watch the hero handle things. It was truly annoying, especially when Naruto started pulling power levels out of his ass like they were candy.

Search for Tsunade Arc – I didn't care much for this arc, mostly cause I never saw Tsunade's character as anything other than a plot device, and Kishimoto has by no means tried to prove me wrong so far. It was slightly enjoyable, but when the Rasengan thing came along, I was just disappointed into finding out that Naruto was, again, taking the generic action show root, rather than trying to make something original.

Sasuke Retrieval Arc – this dragged. Mostly cause, except for the Naruto vs Sasuke fight, I was not at all impressed with the new villains, and while the fights were still enjoyable, I preferred watching the Anime over the Manag. The Sasuke vs Naruto fight, however did not disappoint, but it kind of took a turn for the worse when Sasuke turned into this hideous mutant creature.

And now, my friends, is where the real disappointment starts.

Kazekage Rescue Arc – I face-palmed myself when I saw someone as overpowered as Gaara being so easily taken down by CLAY of all things! And the fights that followed were atrocious to say the least. Every single fight in which Deidara takes part is horrible to the extreme! I just can't get into his style, and I never will. The only enjoyable thing about this arc was Sakura and Chio's fight against Sasory, which the Anime completely ruined with its horrible animation and repetitive scenes. Thank GOD Kishimoto spared us the Team Gai vs. Team Gai fight in the Managa, because the Anime's take on it was horrendous.

Sasuke and Sai Arc – this arc looked somewhat promising. While I will admit that I hated Sai the first time I saw him, thinking he was a back-stabbing psychopath, his inappropriate humor, and calculating personality grew on me. And everyone knows this is the last arc were people actually consider Sasuke a cool character, because it will only be down hill from here for the abandoner of the golden trio.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc – this is an arc I mostly enjoyed, partly because it centered around some of the few characters I still appreciate, and because Shikamaru's story was extremely well elaborated, and the end was truly touching.

Itachi Pursuit Arc – and this is where the Manga just lost every piece of respect I might have had for it. Itachi vs Sasuke was horrible! It dragged for god knows how many chapters and the end result just made me want to scream. This is were the manga proved to me that, what I considered a community of strong individuals united under a common goal was just a farce that masked the selfish desires of some old coats entrapped by the idea of world domination. It felt hypocritical that these individuals would dare to call themselves a society. I completely sympathized with Sasuke and wanted the Konoha bastards dead just as much as he did.

Invasion of Pain Arc – frankly, I was truly disappointed when Pain failed to destroy Konoha. At this moment in time I had lost respect for most of the characters, and the thought of some idealist like Pain, who was after world peace, taking over didn't sound all that bad.

Five Kage Summit Arc – I was bored. I usually like the politic discussions in Naruto, which are extremely well though out, but the characters were anything but interesting, and not to mention the fact that I didn't believe any of them to be fitting for the position they held. None of the Kages really proved themselves to me intellectually speaking, so it was mostly like watching a pair of brutes trying to play politics.

Confining the Jinchuriki Arc – and here is another arc where Kishimoto failed to develop some interesting characters (like Kisame and Gai) but concentrated on some useless side characters that I'll forget about by tomorrow.

Three-Tails Arc – this is the arc that made me drop the Manga. The forth Hokage, the one person in Naruto I still looked up to and respected, turned out to be one of the dumbest and irresponsible parents to have ever lived. I was right beside his wife when she scolded him for his cowardice to take care of Naruto on his own, like a baby boy doesn't need ANY of his parents! Horrible way to ruin a great character Kishimoto!

Characters: 5[\b]

One thing I will say about the characters is that, Kishimoto likes to introduce a whole bunch of them who either refuse to evolve in any way and are basically just time-killers, or that give the impression of evolving only so that you'd later discover that they actually have failed to move on from what they once were. I will only talk about the main three, since all other characters are either irrelevant, or not nearly as important to the overall series, or I just couldn't care enough for them.

Naruto – this is the prime example of generic action hero syndrome. While Naruto does not fall into any of the categories mentioned above, his evolution is a rather disappointing one. In the beginning of the show, we see Naruto portrait as your average twelve year old, full of dreams and fantasies, but most importantly flaws! Naruto was not perfect in the first show. He hated, he envied, he made mistakes, he got scared and cried, heck, he even loved. But Shippuden made him out to be the perfect superhero type, and had him discard all the negative qualities that made him so human in the first place. He's lost his selfishness in his love for Sakura, he refuses to hate the person who nearly destroys his village (going as far as to forgive him), his mistakes now are just stupid stunts that the author introduces just for comic relief, he's overconfident in his abilities and has suddenly started spurring out inspirational speeches. Is this even the same character? I was frankly disappointed by the fact that Kishimoto decided to take the generic supper hero rout for Naruto's character, and I'm not fond of this illusion of grandeur that he's presented us.

Sakura – This is the prime example of a character that fooled us into believing that she'd evolved somehow only to disappoint us in the end by proving that she's no different that a few years back. Now, I and the vast majority of the Internet can agree that Kishimoto is sexist towards women. All his female characters are practically useless, and I can't see one of them that particularly stands out as a role model. But the way Sakura's character was portrait at the start of Shippuden made me hope somehow that we'd finally have an improvement. She started out rather good, showing us that she'd grown up from the spoiled and overprotected brat into a teenager who could stand her ground and not rely on someone else to carry her on their back, she even seamed more calm and collected than Naruto with regards to Sasuke, which was a definite improvement from the first season. Then suddenly Naruto is back to protecting Sakura, Sasuke still brings her to tears, and the village's honor still doesn't mean a rat's ass to her. Wonderful job Kishimoto!

Sasuke – while Sakura is the prime example for a false progressive character, Sasuke definitely takes the cake for digressing back to what he was at the start of the show. He had friends at the end of the first season, his life didn't look like it revolved solely around Itachi anymore, he was even starting to be less of an ass. Then the second season came around, and we were introduced to the new Sasuke, a brother-obsessed, vengeful spirit, who doesn't care about the who, what or how so long as he gets his way. He lost all his childish charm as well.

Rating: 5

Graphics

The art of the manga had always been simple, with not too many shades, or shadows or extremely detailed backgrounds, but it always seemed to work for me.

The first anime however was impressively well animated. The consistent facial expressions and the fluidity with which the characters moved was magnificent. I don't know much about the fillers, because I refused to continue to watch the anime after Sasuke's departure, but from what I saw, the anime looked good (bare those scenes from the Naruto/Sasuke fight, where they concentrated more on fluidity rather then consistence).

Shippuden, however, wasn't so well animated. They started drawing the characters in that annoyingly modern way, with bright pallets of color, and while that didn't mean more detailed backgrounds, it meant less constant facial expressions, less fluid animation and cheaper, if not horrendous action scenes.

Rating: 7

Sound

The music of Naruto always got to me, but in a bad way. There was that annoying sound with the voices buzzing in the background accompanied by an irritating drum-roll that kept repeating in moments of tension, which really ruined the whole mood for me. Frankly, the only song from the soundtrack which I liked was Sadness, the rest were annoying.

The openings and Endings were split into good, great and truly awful, but except for Shippuden's "Hero's Comeback", nothing really impressed me all that much.

The voices were great for the most part, fitting to the characters and their personality, even the English voices weren't that bad.

Rating: 5

Fun

Overall, for me, Naruto was extremely enjoyable when it started out, the first season was gripping, original exciting. But as the story pressed on, it drifted way to close to the generic shonen show territory, which irked me more than any, because the show really had potential to be something great and instead it chose the safe rout: something that will guarantee to keep it running for quite some time, but it won't turn out to be anything spectacular.

Rating: 7

Final Verdict

6.0000 (average)

Reviewed by kamuinoyume, Nov 16, 2010

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