Running time: 23 minutes
Number of episodes: 220
Vintage: 2002-10-03 to 2007-02-08 (Japanese)
Age rating: Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Shounen
Animation Production: Studio Pierrot
Broadcaster: TV Tokyo
Music Production: Aniplex, SME Visual Works
Production: Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo
Source: Anime News Network
For most anime fans out there the shounen genre is probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of anime that they can associate with. Many of us grew up with some kind of highly successful and grossly commercialized anime that we just couldn’t get enough of. There was the Dragonball series, Hunter X Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin and many others, but now there’s Naruto.
Naruto, brought to life by Masashi Kishimoto, assimilates all that is good about its largest inspiration, the Dragonball series, and takes it to a new level. Like all good things, it builds upon its main inspiration while injecting its own flavor. Take everything you know about ninjas and throw it away because Naruto changes ninjas forever. From design to application, Naruto is a full-on recreation of ninjas and really pulls it off with its own style and flavor.
The story, for the two of you who don’t watch Naruto — shame on you, is incidentally about a young boy named Naruto. He lives in Konoha Village, a ninja village that forms part of the five great ninja villages. In the world of Naruto peace is upheld by the five great nations with their military power that is manifested in the form of ninjas and consequently their ninja villages that train them. Naruto is scorned by others in the village for reasons unknown to him so most of his childhood was rough. He doesn’t let it get him down, however, because his personality is more explosive and energetic than anyone else’s. He’s determined to become a real ninja and protect the village of Konoha some day, thus becoming acknowledged by the village and be allowed to hold the position of the village’s Hokage. A Hokage is the leader of the village upheld for his strength, wisdom, and protection that he or she must bestow upon the people of Konoha. Naruto dreams to take that very spot in order to fill the void in his heart and to give back to the village even after his wretched experience as a young orphan child.
Of course, things aren’t that easy and you’ll quickly be taken through a wild ride where many other characters have their own objectives and motives to do better and become stronger. Joining Naruto early on are Sasuke and Sakura, two other ninja candidates that form part of Naruto’s team in the academy. Sakura is a lively girl with a crush on Sasuke while Sasuke is the number one student with more than a conceited genius. While rivaling Naruto, Sasuke hides a dark past that becomes more evident in later episodes.
Naruto may be the main character, but there’s a large amount of characters in the story that makes everything much more interesting. The diversity of characters goes beyond different faces and sizes thanks to the divisions of power and strength in the show which are essential to the drama. All the ninja are divided in classes, and starting from the bottom are the kids in the academy. Graduating from there will make them a Genin which is the rank Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and others, attain early on in the story. Beyond that is the Chuunin, Jounin, ANBU (comprised of both Chuunin and Jounin ninjas), and the Hokage. It can get even more complex when you consider the divisions of power outside of the village.
Aiding the story is Naruto’s soundtrack which is a crucial piece of the experience and really helps immerse viewers into the show. The upbeat remixed Japanese music sticks in your head and fits the theme of the anime perfectly. Every character’s individual theme is memorable and communicates who they are. The music helps transcend beyond words and delivers meaningful aural information about the personality of the characters. In addition, the high points in the story really shine when every major fight or event is scored by a truly complementing melody or riff that will keep your blood boiling.
Naruto’s first arc is a little slow but it does well to teach the nuances of ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu — the three basic ninja techniques. The highs and lows of the action are all excellent and give way to a good array of episodes. The show becomes increasingly dark and convoluted as the characters become stronger and attain more skills. From individual skills to ninja military tactics, there’s a certain level of intelligence that really pleases the mind when you’re sailing through watching it. At times it will get a bit too sensational with little return, but when it’s good, it’s really good. If you’re not quite sure why people watch Naruto I would point you towards Naruto’s second arc. It’s one of my favorites and it really pulls off what the show is all about.
Naruto isn’t without major faults, as any self-respecting person who enjoyed the show would have to admit to. Naruto was plagued with the very disease that a lot of shounen anime face at some point in their lifetime — catching up to the manga. Once Naruto caught up its source material, Studio Perriot was faced with very few choices. They could have stopped airing Naruto, but that would of slowed down the momentum the show had and could have destroyed the marketability of the show later on. So instead we endured the pain and suffering of the studio diverging from the main story and inserting “filler” that is irrelevant to the greater story by mangaka Matashi Kishimoto. To be honest not all of the filler is terrible, a few episodes were good enough to watch, but a year of filler is hard to digest regardless. I skipped over a lot of it since it was, for the most part, pretty forgettable. This review only covers from the first episode to episode 135. Episodes 136 to 220 are a bunch of nonsense that ends with a remixed version of episode 135.
We should be thankful, however, because it could have been worse. Whether this was planned or not, I don’t know, but the filler came in at just the right spot with just the right twist to make it negligible. Dragonball Z also faced the same problem by catching up to its manga but not only did they employ filler (that thankfully wasn’t as bad as Naruto’s) they purposely made an arc longer than it needed to be just because they needed more time to get more story out of the manga. For those of you who’ve seen Dragonball Z, those 5 minutes on Planet Namek were the longest 5 minutes ever for a reason.
Ignoring the downhill catastrophe of filler episodes, for all the good stuff Naruto has brought to us in bountiful doses I can’t complain overall. The show was fun and entertaining with a good mix of action, suspense, and cool new ninja antics. Let’s hope Naruto Shippuuden, the sequel, is every bit as good and more in the vein of Dragonball to Dragonball Z.
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