Despite the international hype that Naruto received, it is NOT the best Shounen manga and is actually VERY POORLY written. Naruto gained enormous popularity only due to its strong opening chapters. At the beginning readers were introduced to a unique shinobi life and interesting characters, but then the publisher, blinded by the need to desperately extend the manga's fame for as long as possible, filled the series with endless fillers, repetitive flashbacks, numerous plot holes and ridiculous deus ex machina events, that ultimately ruined the series and turned away more than half its fanbase. To give the series some credit, Naruto was REALLY GOOD up until the Pain Arc and then the plot just took a turn for the worst. By the 400th chapter its main characters were unable to achieve any further character development and by the 600th chapter, characters suddenly ended up with abilities that were never introduced before. Having completed the manga all I recall is a naive & stubborn Naruto, a selfish Sasuke, and a pathetic Sakura. Seriously, for having managed to endlessly stretch out the series, I don't know how the writers weren't able to come up with better story lines. It's such a shame because Naruto started as an epic Shounen series and had SO MUCH POTENTIAL but ended up being one that readers were barely able to read, let alone enjoy. Luckily I am one of the late readers of Naruto so I was I was able to quickly browse through chapters and skip the unnecessary and repetitive details. I honestly don't know how its dedicated fans stuck with this series for over 10 years. Only novice manga readers and teenagers would claim Naruto to be the best manga.