Отзывы о книге

xenoglossy14
Apr 09, 2021
Naruto review
This pilot gave me a whole new appreciation for Naruto. Why? Because, I still dislike it, but it could have been so much worse. I thought Naruto had too much immature comedy, but in this pilot there are two instances of scatological humor within the first two pages.The art is just awful and the character designs are absolutely butchered. Naruto is not only annoying, as he was in the eventual main series, but he is also a complete dickbag. The "power of friendship" is promoted from one of the main themes to being the entire freakin point. All of the characters are idiots. They're also one-dimensional, but I guess that goes without saying. Anyway, the Hokage (NINJA MASTER BELIEVE IT) spares a clear homicidal threat, police officers assume that a murderer would take a nap at a crime scene, they let criminals switch-out who's going to jail, and some dude trusts a weird fox-boy's sense of smell enough to try to kill him. To make matters worse, the redeeming world-building in Naruto is absent here and Ninja shit is clumsily mixed with a more modern setting. Needless to say, it was not enjoyable for me, and it would be even less enjoyable or productive for actual fans of the series.


Do you want to see Naruto chase art thieves and pee on people instead of have a crush on his creepy emo friend? Then this one-shot is for you, I guess. Weirdo... It was horrible, though, to the extent where even Naruto fanboys hate it and I, the biggest hater ever, was forced to raise my score of Naruto by two points.
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DesolatePsyche14
Apr 09, 2021
Naruto review
Alright, this also my first review so yeah... here I GO! I see not many people actually like this one-shot, haha I enjoyed very much!

Story 6/10

The story is meh, him being the child of the Demon fox makes sense but it just doesn't sit right with me.

I like friendship lesson and how it got trust involved.

Also HOLY S*** THERE ARE GUNS IN THIS THING?!

Art 6/10

I can't be too harsh on Kishi... He was only starting out so of course so his character designs and backgrounds will not be clear.

He knew how to do perspective which was great but there is too much white going on and his lines are not crisp... not sure if it was done due to the age of the one-shot or the scan I have here but the backgrounds look rushed.

Character design is till a little bit sloppy, Naruto the main character looked out of place compared to the rest of the characters in the mountain (Konoha/ MT. Onari) and the city... Yeah, I don't like the city concept either I prefer the village for sure.

Character 9/10

It may be because I love asshole characters BUT! If Naruto was going to be a rebel... why not go full out on it? His swearing and making chaos in the village because of his mischief tendencies, I would love for shonen to somewhat unlikeable at the beginning but also seeing their point of view on the world.

Him effortlessly shapeshifting also makes sense, since he was in this Pilot a Kitsune and used his shapeshifting for evil deeds.

Him learning about friend-ship... in my opinion, it could be better done but it's a good concept instead of him to have this natural ability of making friends naturally.

Enjoyment 8/10

I like immature jokes what can I say? it fit his character in the one-shot and the underage drinking? Hell, why not?! Maybe not the greatest example but he wasn't a great example in the first place so pushing these boundaries was a good idea in my opinion... (This version of the manga would not have survived in the modern-day but it sure would be f****** fun hue hue maybe it would have been more of a Seinen then a Shōnen)

I guess it's my guilty pleasure? I love asshole characters and this Naruto was just great and as you know the jokes but then it comes the one 'so bad is so good' aspect. The art is kinda iffy to the point it's actually funny to look at because of how the anatomy is WACK and this sorta invested me in the story which the middle part was kinda boring its self and the ending serves as a wake-up call.

Overall 7/10

There are some amazing concepts and I especially like his character but as I said he would only work for a different manga with the immature jokes, definitely not Shonen.

But I liked it, I loved seeing one of favourite mangaka's work and how he started.
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Zanboba12
Apr 09, 2021
Naruto review
Story:
Naruto's prototype is very barren but still quite enjoyable. It's a stand-alone work with no credence to the actual narrative of Naruto but it's a fun way to see what could have been. What if Naruto was more modern? What if not everyone was a ninja? What if demons and humans lived together? There's definitely some tropes here that could have gone into detail that aren't primarily used in Naruto's standard narrative, and that's okay. This work is it's own body, and it's actually pretty decent.

The pacing of each page and the paneling of everything is pretty solid, but the narrative itself is just a simple mystery story that doesn't get into very much detail. There isn't anything big about the end 'surprise,' and the characters themselves are just enough to help do the job needed. 'Sufficient' is a great word to describe how this prototype functions. It did its job in giving the mangaka somewhere to start, and I'd argue that this is a really great start.


Art:
I'm a sucker for hand-drawn work, and as a one-shot prototype, this looks pretty great. I was impressed by some of the landscape panels and disappointed when the manga become mostly indoors. I understand it takes a lot of time to draw out certain aspects of a world and setting, but it doesn't mean it can't be done. Some panels don't even have backgrounds, reserving themselves to cross-hatched shading. There are a lot of manga that forsake backgrounds to certain panels but when things are indoors, I don't see why a simple table and chair in the background couldn't have been implemented.

The characters look pretty good and their expressions look believable. There isn't any uncanny valley junk going on, but you can tell there wasn't much done when it came to editing. Some lines looked a little off here and there and it made some scenes look bulbous for a few characters, to say the least.


Character:
I think I mentioned this briefly in the story section but I'll say it again: The characters are the bare minimum. They do their job, and I felt they did it well. I was connected in so far as I needed to be to get the point across, and I think that made things pretty fun. It's very short so that in itself meant it had to do just enough to make it worth your time, and I feel it did just that.


Enjoyment:
Actually, really quite enjoyable. I didn't realize I was at the end when I got to the last page. Not out of surprise, but because time went by so fast. I was pretty focused on the story as it were, and that made things go by very swiftly. I also find it super fun to see where a mangaka was when things first started out. I'm a huge fan of the cutting-room floor, and seeing what gets in and gets out when a work is complete is very exciting to me. It's like opening a time-capsule for a story except this capsule is from an alternate, unfinished dimension. Pretty neat.


((If you liked this review, check out my other reviews by going to my profile and clicking the 'reviews' tab. I review virtually all anime and manga I find!))
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Dantalian20201
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
This was a great experience, after hearing about this "Naruto" ever since I got into the Anime community I have read it (Part 1 for now).
I really really hate the fandom... I believe there are mainly three things that make a Naruto fan- (MINOR SPOILERS IN 2ND POINT)
1. HATE SAKURA TO HELL AND BACK
2. Madara best villain in the universe (yes, I've been thoroughly spoiled about who that is)
3. Kakashi is Daddy (over obsession x100)
But now I experienced it myself-

Part 1:-
The artistic evolution in this part is so damn satisfying, there is just something about the art towards the end of Part 1 that hard to describe. The facial expressions look realistic but yet they look comical.
The story had me hooked since the first arc with a very memorable pair of "villains". I would argue that the first arc of Naruto is way more catchy than OP or BL(even though I like those a lot more).
The build-up of the villains is just great. It has you hyped in the reveals and fight choreography is great as well.
But where this lacks very badly is the female cast, especially Sakura, I really detested this hate towards her before reading Naruto, but after reading it ill say that... I get why people would dislike her, but making hating her 24/7 the face of the Naruto fandom is a bit too much. Then there are a few that absolutely love her.
One side ignores her positives, and the other ignores her negatives. I really hope she gets better and a deserving and equal member of Team 7 after what happened in the last few chapters.
I certainly did notice this infamous "Talk-no-Jutsu" but was not really bothered by it. It was not repeated to an irritatingly extend.
I look forward to the second part after the 3 year time skip.
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DanoTheFano6
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
This is a manga that extended over 15 years, and ended as a very different animal of how it began.

A very worse animal.

You can see how Kishimoto's art evolved. At first, the art was crude, but full of life. After it became refined without losing in quality. Then, Kishimoto's drawings began to resemble the pitiful animated adaptation. It's final artstyle isn't bad per se, but it pales in comparison with, let's say, end of Part I.

The story? Well, the story began well. Naruto isn't exactly the most interest...No, write it off, he's not interesting. The supporting cast makes Naruto. Or break it.

And god, it broke. Hard.

Mind you, the first two third of the series were good, sometimes excellent, sometimes mediocre, sometimes so bad you wanted to hit your head in the wall. But then, after 95% of antagonists are killed, we spend the rest of the series fighting two,three guys, with an army of mooks who can't even compare to the other guys, even with the other guys being part of it!

It is a long, endless conflict, that keeps dragging on, and on, and on, with "twists" that barely will make raise your eyebrow, our heroes don't even blinking at a suggestion of brainwashing, and the most stupid Deus and Diabolus Ex Machinas so our heroes and villains can keep fighting and feeding Kishimoto and Shueisha money.

Also, gotta sell that Naruto/Sasuke rivalry. Because that's what I came for in Naruto: Naruto and his Bishonen Rival. And not only that, oh no! If you didnt like that only Naruto/Sasuke exist, we have made xerox copies of their rivalry all around! Hell, let's finish this manga with Naruto fighting one Evil Counterpart after another! And by finishing, I mean one third of it!

My god, someone knows nothing.

I'm not exaggerating. This series would deserve a 1 for the Final Third, we should rename "The Thing That Never Ends when it could". I saw bad mangas before, but I never saw the same writer go from somewhat good like Kishimoto to utterly catastrophic.

And the end? The end don't matters really. It just a poorly disguised pilot for a Naruto GT. It's not even a real conclusion. Hell, they already released the sequel, why care about a well-made ending? Hell, why we should expect it after such a poorly made final arc?




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AudioTuned13
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
This is probably the best manga ever, with the best character development ever and best storyline ever but why would you just THROW EVERYTHING WITH SUCH A BAD END??

That's why I give it the 9. Because Masashi Kishimoto just seemed to feel like he was doing it too much like a masterpiece and said "I should probably ruin this now, so it isnt as good" why? I don't know.. or maybe he just wanted some way to continue it somehow, maybe he thought it'd be a good idea but it's just the worst idea ever.

Leaving those awful points behind, unlike the anime adaptation whose art sucks, this art does complement the amazing storyline it has in a pretty decent way, I'm giving it a "very good" 8/10 because it lacks the abnormality of the anime.

Character I give it a 10/10 being really honest, I do believe this one has the best character development ever and due to its length this goes even beyond what you usually expect from a good anime. I'd say characters are the best part from the whole series. Naruto has just too many characters and their storylines are never poor (except by sakura, this character I do feel lacks a lot, specially for being considered as a "main character", I'd even say she MUST be considered a "filler character" as she does have a role in the manga but it's a role others assign to her, her personality is nothing special and anything that can be important about her isnt really hers, won't get too much into it in order not to spoil)

Enjoyment is a 9 out of 10 only because of the disappointment you feel when you get to the last chapter because apart from that I read first 400 chapters in like a couple of weeks out of nothing but excitement. It's a really long manga but that makes it even better. I hate anime/manga when they are too long and I'm not fond of manga, I'm more an anime person but this manga was amazing to me. I bought 56 out of their 70 volumes in real life paper and treasure them all. 100% recommend reading, maybe you even do like the ending I hated so much.
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ReaderElaine5
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
This is my first review on MAL. Hope it helps!(As you can see, I am not very "majestic" with words)
Story:6.5
It's one of those typical "I want to become stronger to prove my worth" stories with a bunch of other familiar ones like "growing apart from childhood friends and eventually going against each other". But it was executed okay. In my opinion, the earlier chapters were pretty good. And although it was nice to see Naruto and everyone grow up and develop, I was sort of bored of it at most bits after that. Occasionally there was a really good event in the story, and then it was "meh" again. The pacing is bad at some places and good at others. Some bits(like the big battle with obito, madara etc) just dragged on and on but I still read it because I've already come this far into the series. Overall it was okay: some bits were really good and others were really boring or dragged. It was also very detailed. Naruto, the series, has a lot of background history. You can basically write 10 essays on the history of Naruto.(just look at the wiki!)

Art:8
The art is nothing special but it's still fairly good. Sometimes you can't see what's going on but it's better than some of the busy manga out there.

Characters:9
I think the characters are Naruto's strongest point. All of them are unique and awesome in their own way and I always enjoy their interactions. There were a couple that annoyed me but the rest of the characters made up for it. It's a shame that some of the characters don't get as much screen time or get none at all(like what happened to yamato?!?) and the only problem I have is that some characters should get more screen time when it's APPROPRIATE. I kind of found in the chapters of the big battle with obito and madara, a page was taken up with just a flash of the other characters saying a bit of what they thought. That was pointless really. They didn't really contribute after that.

Enjoyment: 6
Although I pretty much rushed the start because it was so interesting, as the chapters went on I slowly became uninterested in the world of Naruto and reading each chapter became a chore. But of course there were some bits where it picked up again.

Overall:7

The story starts to lose it's charm after so many chapters. The strongest part of the manga are the characters. You'll find at least one character to like in Naruto.
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elchibi10
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
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!
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Narudatsu15
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
Oh how do I post a fair review of this thing? This was the first manga I ever read, years before ever watching a single anime. So, I probably have some residual nostalgia leftover. But after looking back on it I think I have a better clue of what to make of it.

So, Naruto has a pretty simple premise. Uzumaki Naruto is a trouble-maker who wants to become the Hokage, but he can’t because spoiler reasons! I mean, you’ve heard this story before, most likely.

The best strength is the characters, no doubt. Naruto himself is likeable, but almost [key word “almost”] every supporting protagonist is memorable and all have distinct moves (something that Dragon Ball failed in). A lot of the battles are about planning and strategy, although that would slowly get kiboshed by more traditional Shounen stuff later on. The villains are pretty okay, at least some of the early ones.

Now there are some things about it that, even back when I had “first manga ever fanboy filter” turned on, seemed strange. The most notable thing is the secondary male protagonist, Uchiha Sasuke. He’s a solid character (arguably). There were some early lines that genuinely made me want to know more about him, and he has some of the best fights and character interactions. However...

I guess this is a spoiler, but a vast majority of plot developments can be traced to Sasuke and his clan. A lot of Naruto and Sakura’s character arcs involve not being able to last five seconds without knowing exactly what Sasuke’s status is at any given time. This gets annoying to say the least.

Overall, I recommend you at least read the early parts of Naruto, and only press onward through if you like the characters enough from the early parts.
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Aschleeep3
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
Naruto is one of the longest-running series of all time, yet it has finally come to an end. If you're reading this, it's likely because you want to know if this manga is even worth your time. Unfortunately, that's not a simple or easy question to answer. However, I have ventured to attempt such an explanation!

(If you're just curious about what happens at the end of the story, I’ll include a link to a “spoilers” version at the end of the review)

Alright, let’s get something out of the way right off the bat: this thing is LONG! Weighing in at 700 chapters, starting this manga is no simple task, nor a small commitment. You could read a chapter of this series every single day, and it would STILL take you over two years to finish! If that idea scares you, you might as well stop reading right now and give up on Naruto. Trust me, it’s good, but it’s not THAT good.

Naruto is so long and so complex, that summarizing the story is virtually impossible. To make it as simple as I can, I’ll begin by explaining the setting of the story. Naruto is the name of the titular character, a young, mischievous boy who lives in a village populated almost exclusively by ninjas, but not the sort of ninjas you might expect. A “ninja” in this series could basically be interchanged with “warrior”. Masashi Kishimoto’s version of a ninja is heavily stylized, having more to do with supernatural abilities and imaginative costumes than anything grounded in reality.

Naruto aspires to become a ninja himself, and has the lofty dream of one day becoming “hokage” (the leader of the village). Naruto learns early on that he is different, and that part of the reason he is estranged by many of the villagers is because of events that took place in the village when he was born. Naruto really isn’t very good at ninja-ing at the outset, perhaps making his eventual rise to prominence all the more interesting, but also subjecting us to his childish and irritating sense of humor. Is it entertaining? Perhaps, but definitely not something that’s going to tickle everyone’s funny bone.

It turns out that this “curse” Naruto has been afflicted with is more complex than he realizes, and Naruto spends much of his journey learning to control the ailment that he suffers from. This series essentially just follows Naruto over the course of several years as he learns more about how to become a ninja, and control the many unique, seemingly magical abilities that ninjas have access to. Seeing as we have seven hundred chapters to work with, we see a LOT of Naruto’s story as he grows more and more powerful over the course of time.

A series this long could have the potential to drag, but I really never felt that way in this case. I almost felt the opposite—that there was so much story packed into those chapters that I almost had to pause and take a break once in a while. Again, this sort of pacing is not for everyone, as some people prefer a slower pace or perhaps a plot that it less action-driven (which this series most certainly IS).

As for the action-driven nature of the show, well, it’s actually quite good. Normally a story with too much action simply feels cheap and shallow, but “Naruto” knows how to toe the line to avoid this feeling. Being exclusively about ninjas, we were bound to get a lot of action. In fact, this series focuses so heavily on combat, that there’s really no reason to pick up the series if it’s not something you enjoy.

Combat in this series is very well depicted, if perhaps drawn out a bit much at times. Usually, a fight is resolved when a character manages to outsmart or trap his or her opponent, rather than one character simply breaking out his super-special-secret attack. This makes for a much more cerebral and calculated experience than one might expect from a shounen, which is something I found to be very refreshing. It’s somewhat ironic that Naruto himself is such a knucklehead in a world where brain usually beats brawn, but through sheer willpower and determination, Naruto manages to keep moving forward and winning one hard-fought battle after another.

Now, seeing as ninjas in this series basically have magical powers, it would be very easy for this show to succumb to what I like to call “Dragonball Z Syndrome”. What is DBZ syndrome? Well, to put it simply, in the tenth episode of the show, a villain blows up an entire planet using only one finger. Needless to say, this leads to other combat sequences in the show feeling pretty pointless and the sense of scale is lost very early on. Thankfully, “Naruto” displays a lot of restraint in this area, and the godlike abilities are reserved for the very end of the series, where that sort of thing feels more appropriate.

Fight scenes, although well-choreographed, were sometimes difficult to follow. When all you have to work with is black and white lines, it can be difficult to tell what’s going on sometimes, and I think this is perhaps one of the biggest stumbling blocks for this series. I sometimes found myself staring at a frame for a minute or more before I could actually tell what it was depicting. I know that due to the nature of manga, using color is just too expensive and impractical, but I certainly found myself wishing for it a few times, if for no other reason than to distinguish the blurry characters from the exploding rock they were leaping from.

Speaking of characters, the cast is certainly worth a mention. The cast of “Naruto” is well…staggeringly large. I honestly don’t even know how many characters one could consider “significant” in this series. There are, of course, characters who see more development than others, but Kishimoto attempts to develop SO many characters that it can be difficult to keep track of everyone. The initial cast of thirty-something characters consists of a number of recruits similar to Naruto, each of which gets some measure of time devoted to learning who they are and why they want to be a ninja.

As refreshing as it is to have an action-focused series spend time on character development, it’s not always handled in the smoothest fashion. Kishimoto usually chooses to teach the reader about a character through the use of flashbacks. This wouldn’t always be a problem if there weren’t SO many flashbacks! With most other series, character development is done through the use of dialogue, or perhaps a character being placed in a situation where their reaction tells us about their past. However, Kishimoto’s attempts come across as rather ham-fisted. The series will introduce a new character, and as we get to know them, the default method is “let’s have a flashback about something sad that happened to them as a child”. While this information is useful, and at times necessary for the plot, there’s virtually no subtlety to it at all. While “Naruto” was never intended to be the most “subtle” of stories to begin with, the flashbacks to start to get annoying after a while, especially when the series flashes back to something that happened just a few chapters ago.

Ultimately, when the cast is so massive, it certainly does give a lot of life and depth to the series, but also can be rather daunting to keep track of. Many characters are related to others, and other have ancestors who feature prominently in the series, meaning it’s actually quite important to keep tabs on everyone. This is fairly easy for the main cast, but remembering some of the more obscure characters can be rather difficult. This is perhaps one of the advantages the anime has, as seeing a character move and hearing their voice can make it easier to remember them.

The core group of characters mostly focuses on Naruto and his two friends, Sasuke and Sakura, plus their teacher/mentor, Kakashi. This group’s relationship remains a central theme throughout the entire series, and is fraught with plenty of drama and love triangles. “Friendship” is a theme so oft repeated that it may feel like you’re being bashed over the head with it, especially since Naruto has a tendency to attempt to “friendship speech” a lot of the villains he meets. At times, it’s pretty interesting, and Naruto manages to redeem a character thought to be rotten to the core. Other times, it just gets annoying. However, the idea of redemption is revisited rather often, and it’s worth dedicating some time to discussion.

“Naruto” could have simply been a story about a ninja fighting his way to the top, defeating opponent after opponent as he does so. However, the series eventually starts to tackle some surprisingly deep and philosophical questions that are rather uncommon in a shounen. Naruto is faced with questions like “How can you justify killing an enemy when it will only stir more hatred in the hearts of his loved ones?” or “what does it mean to be a ninja?”. Naruto is faced with an identity crisis at a crucial point in the series that added some very powerful depth to the series.

Overall, the plot is incredibly engaging, and is likely the strongest part of the entire series. As Naruto grows in strength, he starts meeting enemies with bigger and bigger plans, until he starts to unravel a plot that is more dangerous than anything he’d ever imagined. With a series that goes on as long as this one, the stakes are pretty high by the time we reach the climax of the series. I think that’s why I grew to love this story so much over the years. There’s much more to it than punches and testosterone, and the series takes time to ask and answer some important questions about the world of ninjas along the way.

Now, having said all of this, is the series really worth it in the end? Well, that’s hard to answer. The series does lose a bit of steam at the end, and I wasn’t particularly happy with the way the climax was handled. Everything is wrapped up story-wise, but I felt as though there were a few too many “fake out” moments. I lost track of how many times there was a series of events that went something like “Oh, you thought this guy was the villain? Well…it turns out this OTHER guy was behind it the whole time!”

It’s not uncommon for fans to feel a bit of dissatisfaction at the way a lengthy series ends, but I think this one had perhaps a few more unhappy fans than usual. Some of the character romances are handled a bit awkwardly, and the series started to get into some strange questions that never even needed answers. For example, Kishimoto attempts to explain where ninjas got their supernatural powers from in a rather convoluted series of flashbacks and long conversations between Naruto and others. Personally, I never really cared. I was just satisfied that ninja’s simply had magical powers in this world, and I never really questioned why.

From my conversations with other fans, it sounds like everyone has at least SOME problems with the ending. That’s not to say it was utterly terrible, but it did seem like it lost sight of what actually made the series good for so many years. For many people, that sort of thing is a deal-breaker, and considering how long this series is, I honestly can’t blame them for feeling that way.

For me, however, it was still worth the journey. I started my journey with this series watching reruns of the anime on Cartoon Network, and after catching up to that, I started watching it online in Japanese. Then, after catching up to the Japanese subs, I started reading the manga. Then after THAT, I had to wait, week-to-week, for the next chapter to come out. There were spells where I didn’t read for a few months, but I always picked it back up again. If a series can hold my interest for that many episodes/ chapters (and even some filler in the anime), then there’s got to be something to it. No, I didn’t love the ending, but for me, the journey there was so enjoyable that I really don’t feel like I wasted my time.

Really the best metric of whether or not you’ll enjoy this series is to simply read through the first arc of it. The first real arc of the series is 33 chapters long, which shouldn’t take all that long to read. This small chunk of the series is a pretty good representation of what the rest of the series is like, so if you get through it and STILL don’t enjoy it, then this series isn’t for you.

I suppose that’s what you have to decide when you look at starting this series. Will I enjoy the journey enough to overlook its flaws and appreciate it for what it is? For many of you, that answer will be a definitive “no”. But for others, I really do think you’ll enjoy this series as much as I did. Is it a masterpiece? Certainly not, but if you like shounens, you should at least consider giving this one a shot!
Now, for those of you who are curious about the ending—whether you just want to know to sate your own curiosity OR because you want to know if the end makes the rest of the series not worthwhile—I’m including a “spoilers” section below, where I will discuss my thoughts on the ending. Read on if you wish, otherwise, thanks for taking the time to hear my thoughts!

If you’d like to read my analysis on the ending, you can follow this link (BE WARNED, THE LINK CONTAINS SEVERE SPOILERS):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IYAm2X2XRZ33LV1NKJesgWWFq1o3BYFEa9-UsI7zzPk
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lolerica7
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
Naruto's success comes as no real surprise; the manga found many fans with its interesting characters, complex (but initially well presented) themes and a cliche but overall decent storyline, with many viewers and readers alike using it as their gateway to the greater world of anime and manga. This certainly doesn't come as a shock, since there's something in Naruto for readers from all ages; the cool techniques to captivate the kids and teenagers, the various aspects and popular elements mixed together in the manga, from romance to the cold war struggle throughout the manga between the villages to the morally ambiguous villains as well as discussing what brings people to hating one another for so long.

The manga's popularity isn't exactly a secret or something that's difficult to understand. What is difficult for many to understand, however, is the religious like following it has gained from fans around. I'm not talking about popularity here, I'm talking how whenever you find a Naruto fan, they legitimately tell you about how the manga is so perfect and how the anime ruined the manga, seemingly unaware of the manga's flaws or problems.

The problems start with the story; it's nothing we haven't particularly seen before (person wanting to become a leader), only here we have the themes of wanted to be accepted and acknowledged by society and fight discrimination both on a local and eventually on a more worldwide scale, which is pretty epic in scale once you think about it.

The themes aren't bad in themselves, but they dominate the manga and make the characters so defined by those themes that all their other, more interesting personality traits are completely shoved into the background or ignored. This is particularly shown in how the show sets up rivals to Naruto who always have some kind of contrast to Team 7, which gets incredibly repetitive and overblown after a while and takes away from whatever merits the story has.

This is problematic the closer the manga edges to its conclusion, since it then becomes clear that the writer had no idea what to do with the themes present in the story and ends up contradicting each and every single one of them. What we're instead left with is a broken mess narratively speaking, since the manga up until the early post-timeskip arcs feels nothing like how it becomes later on.

The power-levels are also broken to hell and back, since the show is willing to contradict its own logic and add aspects or themes that simply didn't exist earlier on in the show. This is especially grating near the end of the manga, where many plot elements that were unique and only slightly relevant completely take control of the show (the Sharingan being an excellent example of this).

Character dynamics largely revolve around Naruto, who admittedly is a well-developed and increasingly more mature character the longer the manga progresses. The problem is that literally every character in the show is some kind of contrast to him, and they're so defined by him that later on in the manga, you have a better chance of seeing a character mentioning Naruto than you do of them mentioning themselves. Everyone compares themselves to Naruto, even earlier on in the manga. This becomes incredibly problematic when the themes start contradicting themselves later on in the manga, since so many of the characters are defined by the themes yet none of them ever point out Naruto's hypocrisy in believing in what he did at that point.

Speaking of Naruto's cast, this brings us to yet another problem that plagues almost aspect of this manga; balance.
Naruto is easily one of the most unbalanced manga series I've ever read (especially as far as characters are concerned), with certain characters receiving a ridiculous amount of attention (Shikamaru and Kakashi stand out as particularly well-developed characters until the final arc) while others receive next to no attention outside of the arcs where they're introduced or focused on.

Others are clearly only present as a contrast of Naruto or Team 7, leaving us with them suffering as well when Naruto changes focus and contradicts himself; nobody points out the contradictions, everyone keeps hailing him as a savior, and the dynamics are completely ruined.

The artwork is generally pleasant but also has a nasty habit of ink being sprawled all over the place when their are action scenes, making it hard to follow up (especially near the end of the manga, probably due to the artist being tired or drawing so many continuous action scenes again and again).

The character designs have clear distinctions and identities of their own, which is a massive positive and makes it easier to remember the manga's enormous cast of characters.

Naruto is a manga that ultimately is carried simply by nostalgia alone and becomes increasingly inconsistent as it progresses.
This isn't a bad thing, but the flaws become larger and more difficult to swallow the longer it lasts, leaving a bad taste in most readers' who have read the manga to the end.

It has some exceptional qualities, but those are hampered by the contradictory development that takes place later in the manga, meaning that an otherwise decent manga slides into being below average and increasingly forgettable.

In other words, it's a complete disappointment that leaves a bad taste in the average reader's mouth and is ultimately a product of a bygone era of anime and manga that simply didn't stand the test of time as far as quality is concerned.
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Maayu15
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
Naruto is an amazing manga and many people, like me, have mostly continued on reading after watching the anime, which if you haven't it is definitely worth it to do both. As for my review:

Story (9):
There were a few inconsistencies after a while, but that's to be expected in such a long story. What I like about this story is that underneath the whole ninja stuff, its really just about obtaining peace and for everyone to understand each other.

Art (8):
The art isn't the most impressive thing in the world but its definitely worthy of such a great manga.

Character (10):
The Characters are probably the best thing in this manga, especially Naruto himself. You see his growth and how he deals with villains along the way is really unique. Because this story is about everyone understanding each other, that's exactly what Naruto tries to do, understand his opponent, not just defeat them. Not to mention all of the protagonists are unique in their own way. Although if there's one thing Naruto definitely gets my praise for, its the villains. Most of them aren't just mindlessly killing because its fun. And they aren't "evil". They're doing what they believe is right for their own peace.

Enjoyment (10):
Having said all that, the interesting story and characters along with the intense fights makes this a very enjoyable manga. There are very few times when I don't enjoy whats going on.

Overall (9):
Even though this is my favorite manga of all time I can't give it a perfect score if I try being really unbiased, plus nothing is perfect. Also the ending could have been a tad more detailed but all things considered its very fulfilling, you won't regret it.
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WuxianXiaozu3
Apr 02, 2021
Naruto review
Naruto is a very divisive shonen, to say the least. Whilst many 2000s kids enjoy it and have nostalgia for Naruto, it doesn't tend to go past that. I will be reviewing both halves of Naruto, even though the first half on its own would score around a 9 in each category, the second half will also be counted with it (as an average between the two).

Story - 9
The story of Naruto starts very simple, but gradually builds up as it goes on. It sets a stable foundation and continues to build it safely, to a point at least. I would say the story and it's pacing goes at an absolute low in the last third of Naruto (The 4th Ninja War Arc). This means it can't reach a perfect score of 10, that it definitely had potential for, but couldn't live up to it.

Art - 7
I have to preface by saying, Naruto's art is in no ways bad, but it's lacking compared to the other big three. It doesn't have the natural quality of Bleach's art or the energy and style of One Piece, but it has something. The first half of Naruto did have both these things and had something Bleach and One Piece didn't have, characterization solely based on design. After the time-skip, the character designs became extremely simplistic and lost its quality.

Character - 8
Naruto has a very diverse cast from the gentle but awesome Hinata to the tactical genius Shikamaru. The problem isn't the lack of good characters but their lack of screentime, or in this case panel-time.

Enjoyment - 8
I enjoyed Naruto a lot when the pacing wasn't absolute crap. This mainly speaks for the last 1/3 where everything went downhill.

Overall - 8
I recommend reading Naruto, if you have time to do so, but save your sanity and don't read it all at once.
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Naruto
Naruto
Автор Kishimoto, Masashi
Художник --