*mild spoilers*
After rereading Naruto, I've come to realise that the series is nowhere near as bad as I remember it to be. At least for the first 450ish chapters. Naruto is a series, much like Bleach, where it would have benefited ending a lot sooner than it did.

Naruto is the story about a boy who is shunned by his village due to having the Nine Tailed Demon Fox sealed inside of him. The fox attacked the village twelve years prior to the stories start and many people, for some reason, seem to blame Naruto and treat him differently because of this. The premise of Naruto is cool, it's all about ninja's and their respective villages. Along the way we see all types of cool jutsus, techniques and characters that really add to the extended world of Naruto. The main problem for me is, after the Pain arc, the series takes a serious nose-dive in quality and becomes less about ninja's, and more about god like entities destroying/protecting the world.

Before I get ahead of myself, the first part of Naruto (the first 27 volumes) are truly amazing, and if the series had maintained the quality throughout I'm sure it would be regarded as one of the best Shonen manga. Within the first part of Naruto, you have the Zabuza Arc - which is one of the best in the series. It perfectly encapsulates everything the world of ninja should be about. Teamwork, training and protecting those that mean the most to you. After this is the Chunin Exams, which while many like to compare to Hunter x Hunter's own Hunter Exam arc, the two arcs are different enough to differentiate them. We have some of the best fights in the series in this arc, such as Rock Lee vs Gaara and Neji vs Naruto. The attack on the Hidden Leaf comes after this, where we learn that nobody is safe in this world, not even those who are thought to be the strongest. Reanimating the dead and Kohai betrayal are two things this arc sets up that are constantly used again. We meet The Three Legendary Sannin after this, and Naruto gets a new mentor. The introduction of the Akatsuki in this arc foreshadows events that will happen in part two of Naruto. After a grand fight involving the three Sannin, we finally get the Sasuke retrieval arc, in which Konoha side characters get their chance to shine. The first part of Naruto is honestly near perfect in my opinion and it is sad how the series blunders.

The second part of Naruto is really hit or miss as it becomes less about ninja and more about epic, Dragon Ball styled fights. Absurd power leveling among the cast leads to fights where literal mountains are destroyed, canyons are created and villages are wiped out in a flash. To be honest, I didn't have a problem with it up until the end of the Pain arc. It was cool to see how strong the characters we've grown to love have become, and how big of a threat their opponents are. Some of the most iconic fights and characters are in the second part of Naruto, so I would recommend reading it anyway to see what it's all about.
However, the Fourth Great Ninja War arc is something I cannot excuse. This arc takes up nearly 1/3 of Naruto as a whole, which is really stupid as it only lasts two days.

The War arc itself is split into five smaller arcs, with the first two being okay and the last three being god awful. The arcs are filled with some of the series' most epic, grandiose moments, but they are also filled with the series lowest of the lows. Things don't make sense, plot holes are written, lore is thrown out the window, power scaling to ridiculous levels (becoming literal Gods), filler fights, pacing is god awful, and for some reason, nobody seems to run out of Chakra even though they've been fighting for two days (don't get me started on Kakashi's Kamui spam). The final villain, also sucks and is a boring, shell of a character. Naruto takes the Harry Potter approach to it's conclusion, which really throws away the theme of not being tied down to fate, as was mentioned in the Neji vs Naruto fight in part one. Also, for a war, only four characters that you know truly die, the rest of the people that die are fodder shinobi. It's weird how for a war, no one important seems to die, even when going with the series' established lore, everyone should be dying left and right. The whole 180+ chapters are stupid, everyone seems to have an infinite amount of Chakra and health that it takes away the threat of death. It's almost as bad as Fairy Tail.


It's clear that Kishimoto was running on fumes during the last arc and had nothing else to write. He was grasping for straws coming up with ideas and constantly written himself into a corner. He made Madara too overpowered and had to come up with a stupid excuse to change villains. Adding unnecessary flashbacks and backstories to characters, and bringing back too many characters that had died through the use of edo tensei.
Besides the abysmal last arc, Naruto is worth a read. Kishimoto's artwork isn't the best and doesn't really improve, but I can look past that because the story and moments (at parts) are good. But really, how can you draw for nearly everyday for 15 years and not have your artwork improve? I mean, look at One Piece. Oda's art is godlike, but in the first chapter it's just average. Compare the artwork from Naruto chapter 1 and Naruto chapter 700, it's completely identical.

If I was rating this series based on quality, it would probably score a 4/5. Amazing first part brought down by a lackluster second part. But I'm going to rate on enjoyment, and I can look past some of the series lower moments because its highs are that good.

Story - 5
Art - 5
Character - 5
Enjoyment - 7
Overall - 6.5

First Part of Naruto - 8/10
Second Part of Naruto - 5/10
Overall - 6/10