Realizing that reading 15 years of Naruto doesn't really make one a ninja, I decided I wanted to make a review of Naruto, but ended up just discussing the impression it left on me.I picked up Naruto in probably, oh fuck, mid 2000s?, and pretty much got hooked from the start of the series. The whole beginning arc resonated well with me, as I could really relate with Naruto with the feelings of pain, loneliness, and wanting to be accepted by others, plus I was still in high school at the time and who didn't go through that, ya know? Plus there was this whole pregnancy thing that happened and trying to figure out who the baby daddy was and just lot of other shit happened, but I'm getting off topic. So yeah, I really like the opening arc to the story as I could relate to the main character and plus the side characters were interesting; by the side the characters I mean of course the rest of team 7, Kakashi, the only ninja in the entire series that conceals his fucking identity, Sakura, the bipolar ninja, and Sasuke, the heart-throb and the cause of lady (and mine) boners everywhere. I kept up with the series up to the point of the final stages of the chunin entrance exams and then sorta of fell out of it for awhile, idk, I guess i kinda lost interest. It stayed that way for awhile until I heard that it was ending, back when it was in the mid-600 chapters and I marathoned my way through until I had finally caught up with the most current chapter, the beginning of the fourth great ninja war; after that it was same thing, wait for it to continue, rinse, repeat, yadda, yadda. Having finally finished it though, and looking back on it, it's definitely a good shounen adventure, would I go back read it again? Probably not. I like Naruto, just not a super die-hard fan of it, but then again I would rather spend my time finding something new to read. It's not just Naruto though, a lot of manga I'm the same with, I just do not have the desire to go back and read through them, unless your Claymore, and Claymore is just fucking cool, but that is beside the point. The story to Naruto, while entertaining (this is where the good part comes in) does have its moments of being just down right goddamn boring ( I'm looking at you chunin exams, pre-shippudden arc, and fourth great ninja war). The beginning of the series start off dark and depressing as your first introduced to Naruto and his story of how he is an orphan and has this monster living inside of him that causes the whole village to straight up treat him like shit, but gives him the drive to become great and have the people one day respect him, that's a good beginning. The whole Zabuza arc was really good as well as it introduced that first real major threat, and one the cooler bad guys for the series, for the team to come together and defeat, plus it has the touching ending of redemption and forgiveness at the end between Zabuza and Haku. The chunin exams is really where there story takes a nose dive for me; not only does it introduce a lot of new characters into the story, but the whole arc moves at such a slow fucking pace that it is painstaking to get through. The worst part of this arc, to me, is that it introduces one of the most down right evil villains to come from manga, and that is Orochimaru. Many of the villains in Naruto have some tragic back story and which sets them down the wrong path in order to achieve their goals, Gaara ( more on him later), Madara ( who had the same vision as his old rival the first hokage, but due to prejudice against his (Madara) clan, the uchiha, made him set out to acquire power to make everyone equal in his mind), and Pain ( who through a childhood riddled with war, strife, and the lost of a dear friend made him resent the world and set out correcting through force). Orochimaru had none of those qualities of the other villains, he was just evil. The boogeyman of the ninja world who studied black magic to prolong his life and seek out even more powerful jutsu. Throughout the story, just the mere mention of his name made the other ninjas of Konoha be one their guard for they never knew when he would strike at the village. This is where my problem comes into play for the introduction of him though, the slow ass forest death portion of the chunin selection exams. Do not misunderstand, it was awesome how he infiltrated the village, but my beef with it is that main focus of it is focused on the kids, who just have boring fucking powers and really have no fucking clue what is going on besides just trying to survive and make it to the next part of the exam; it would have been cooler to me, to have this part of the story more heavily fixed on the jonin of Konoha, and the other villages, just to see the whole political aspect of the Naruto universe. That is what the chunin election exams were mainly for, yes, it was a rite of passage for the children of each village to prove their worth of becoming a ninja, but it used by the adults to gauge each nations military strength. The presence of Orochimaru completely threw the chunin exam in chaos and it would have been cool to just all the jonin sitting around discussing their next move and planning how to counter Orochimaru and also know more about the dark dealings between the villages of sand and sound. One of the arrangements that was between the villages of sand and sound in the plans to overthrow Konoha, was the sand's secret weapon, Gaara. Gaara was played, the same way as Orochimaru, as being very mysterious and threatening, but came off as being emotionless; though later, the story shows that is not the case as he gives his back story explaining that he is also a vessel for one of the tailed beasts, but unlike Naruto, he never had anyone that could comfort him and his life was in constant jeopardy. Through this harsh reality, he came to conclusion that he would only love himself and care only for himself. Now, the problem I have with this is that all this done through a super long flash back, but, hell, all this could have been done with a discussion between Orochimaru and the Sand Jonin, that went with Gaara and sibilings, instead of all this flash back bullshit from both the genin and jonin. Okay, I hate to do this with my so called "first review" of a manga, but at the time of me writing this I'm legitimately, like wrecking my brain, trying to being all analytically correct with the series, so if it becomes shit while reading, I'm sorry. So, yeah, after all that bullshit, Sasuke ends becoming cursed by Orochimaru and ends up down for the count until like the final part of the chunin exams, so its pretty much let's get rid of him for now and not really explain what is going on with him until much later on, Jiriaya is introduced and it is less than stellar, Naruto is learning how to control the nine-tails chakra without being devoured by it and also learning the power of summoning jutsu, and then there is a break thrown into the exam for the contestants to catch a break and to get ready for the final part of the exam, with, keep in mind, the konoha jonin looking for Orochimaru and turning up nothing; plus, flash backs and back story. Are fed up you with needless exposition, yet? No? Good, because here comes some more. So, like after the whole exam bullshit and the defeat of Gaara and the saving of Konoha, which barely makes it, Sasuke becomes all emo from realizing that Naruto has actually surpassed him and he has a total bitch fit and runs away to find Orochimaru to become stronger, plus that lost to Itachi only added fuel to the fire. Oh yeah, Itachi is in this as well. Now when I said Konoha barely survived, I meant it as the third Hokage gets killed from the battle with Orochimaru, and Konoha needs to find a new leader quickly, so Jiriaya takes Naruto to train with him (more training, awesome!) and also look for Tsunade, the third Sannin, to convince her to become the fifth hokage. Naturally, of course, she does not want to become Hokage as (get ready for it) another flash back shows that both her lover and younger brother both wanted the same goal and ended up getting killed for the same dream. Now, Orochimaru did not walk away from the battle with Third unscathed, as his arms were basically sealed away, which lead to constant pain and being unable to use jutsu, so he to is looking for Tsunade, as well, to get her to heal his arms, so that he can once again be able to use jutsu and destroy Konoha. This, however, leads to conflict between him and Tsunade, as she has had a change of heart because of ( you guessed it ) Naruto ( praise the Sage of the Six Paths for Naruto). Jiriaya and Naruto arrive on the battle scene and even with their efforts combined with Tsunade's they barely manage to fend off Orochimaru; with another pull-out-the-ass victory, they return to Konoha to have Tsunade become the Hokage and then Jiraiya and Naruto leave to venture around and train, which leads to the Shippuden arc. This is where the story actually picks up again for me, as before this, it just feels like needless filler. The slow pace and introduction of so many new characters just really bogs down the advancement of the plot and, truthfully, it could have probably been done in a much better way. It's like Kishimoto has all these cool ideas and characters to introduce, but decided to just throw all of that fucking shit into your face at one time. Shippuden is, thankfully, not like that; to me, this is where the story actually picks up again and is just one big fun ride after another, until the end that is, with the fourth great ninja war. That ending arc is just one big massive shounen power-up and de-power-up fest that drags way to long. The only way I could possibly compare it to anything is by using Gurren Laggan as an example, where I just found the power-ups in that show to be show over the top goofy that I just could not help, but to be entertained by it. Anyway, I think I have been harping on this for way too long, negatively at least. The main thing is Naruto is good, with really great characters, awesome fight scenes (watch Orochimaru vs. the Third Hokage and Naruto vs. Pain, just to get started) and there many feels to be had with the series. I know it seems like I just down right hate the show, but I don't, there was just a lot about it that I felt like needed calling out. Before I keep repeating myself, it's Naruto, I enjoyed it all the way through and that is basically it. BELIEVE IT!