(May contain Spoilers) ----- IF Review is too long, skip to 'TLDR' at the bottom.



Naruto one of the legendary BIG 3 of it's era ( one piece, bleach, naruto), obviously with better shounens such as kuroko no basuke, magi, jojo's bizzare adventures , attack on titan, akame ga kill etc;

The KINGS of shounen weekly were soon to be surpassed with really 'One Piece' posing any real competition within the market. However, Naruto has definitely influenced millions of people globally and is arguably one of if not the most popular western shounen anime/manga in the history of it's conception. Which opened large windows of exposure for the anime/manga industry in general.

Regardless of this fact, my criteria for what is good and bad follows the CORE PHILOSOPHY that must always be pursued when undergoing any objective analysis of any form of media as a GOLDEN RULE. This is:

Popularity != Quality

If this rule did not apply, than by any logical standard Justin bieber would be considered one of the best artist's in the world. This obviously will never be true to anyone with ears but the example is there to establish my point as a CORE foundation within my criteria for analysis over any form media.

With that said, Naruto stems from the world of shounen orchestrated by the era of >>Yu Yu Hakusho >> hxh >>DBZ >> Naruto. (Big 3 ).

The predefined parameters that exist within each of these manga are ;

Protagonist has goal ( hokage) >>> meets motivator ( rivalry) >>>(sasuke )>>> ( sole purpose of this device is to establish power levels and strength disparity) >>> meets antagonist ( OP ) >>> Protagonist gets the dog shit beaten out of him with the first couple of confrontations>>> enters 'tsuyoku naritai' phase ( I want to get stronger) >>>> Gains new ability ( usually out of the ass i.e deus ex machina) >>> Protagonist beats antagonist >>> end of arc.

This is essentially the bread and butter of naruto except with a lot more plot holes, poor character development and execution.

Now because I do not want this review to exceed more than 500,000 words listing and going in depth about each contradiction within this series, I'll instead underline the major flaws within this manga.

1: Power levels within relation to context and timing
2: Lack of character development
3: And poor plot


Eg; This example ties in to both the 1st and 3rd flaw and we don't have to look too far for one, THE FIRST CHAPTER! Here the plot establishes Naruto as kid that isn't all that bright seeing as he has failed his graduation from the ninja academy due to not being able to perform the -- (bunshin no jutsu /clone technique) accurately as a final test , thus not able to receive the head band which signifies that 'x' student has finally become a shinobi .

He has also experienced large psychological and emotional scars from the village due to the obvious reason of a 9 tailed demon fox sealed within him. He is so psychologically fuked, that he hungers for attention and acknowledgement for his abilities that he's taken a habit of pranking the entire village to satisfy his craving.

After failing the graduation a 3rd time in a row, he is confronted with a known 'sensei' who asks him to steal a forbidden scroll in compensation for a graduation head band (obvious lie as he plans to take the scroll and kill naruto) . BUT
NOT ONLY does Naruto steal the scroll, he self teaches himself an advanced version of the technique he repetitively failed at executing >>> (kage-bunshin no jutsu / shadow clone jutsu) >>> due to the vast amount of 'chakra' ( energy) consumption this technique utilises it was written of as forbidden. However this kid not only manages to SELF TEACH himself the technique, he is able to replicate at least 50 within his first execution. ( I assume due to Naruto having an innate amount of chakra + Kyuubi (nine tails).

Now 2 things can be derived from this, either the teachers at the academy were dog shit and naruto is a ninja genius god OR Kishimotto is shit at constructing proper power levels. I'll side with the latter.

As we progress throughout the series, there is further evidence to suggest that I'm right! Why? Naruto wants to learn new techniques !? So instead of going back and self teaching himself 30 other techniques >> the story follows 100+ ch of him finding a perverted sage ( jiriya) who teaches him 2 techniques i.e(summoning tech and resengan)...


THIS example should spell that this series isn't built to last plot-wise . >> ( 1,3 flaw)


Now another eg of poor plot and character development is well... the main antagonist, ok so this character makes literally 0 sense and due to the nature of this character and how integral he is to the overall plot... saying one thing would essentially spoil the uhh....'story'....

but ye... to summarise, the main antagonist was pull right out of kishi's ass! PURE BULLSHIT!

To conclude, THIS SERIES IS BAD terrible cliche' plot, a lot of inconsistencies in power levels, death doesn't really mean shit in this universe and relationships between characters are transparent and redundant. I appreciate it's impact on the industry and that it's has made a lot of emotional ties between a large base BUT as a series... it is HORSE SHIT !

3/10



Tldr; Naruto is an overrated piece of garbage due to mediocre characters, terrible plot and inconsistency in character power levels . Unless you know that this manga is really just a makeshift dbz with ninjas DONT READ/WATCH IT!