Naruto

It's hard to review this manga precisely since, in my opinion, it's full of ups and downs.

Since I am reviewing the manga, I will not get into the terrible anime issues (mostly it's pacing problems with long staring scenes mid-fight and tons of flashbacks).

SPOILER ALERT: Tons of spoiler ahead, don't read it if you have not finished, except if you don't mind spoilers.

Naruto starts as a very good and promising story, with potentially interesting and likable characters, and also with lots of potential for good action scenes. However, over time, most of it (if not all) fall to pieces.

Before the time-skip it actually manages to keep quite a high quality in general. The best arcs are for sure in this first part of the story with the Chunin exam, the badass introduction of Orochimaru, the introduction of Itachi, the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke (that at this point it was actually appealing), and even some nice lessons it was trying to teach, such as the value of effort - with even a quite remarkable scene between Naruto and Neiji at the end of the Chunin exam.

It was also in the first part that some of the most interesting, fantastic and skilled side characters are presented, such as Rock Lee, Gaara, Kakashi and Jiraya.

The biggest problem with the 1st part is, probably, how Sakura is constantly portrayed as weak, with a very boring and embarrassing unrequited romance with Sasuke, and with an equally embarrassing rivalry with Ino. It was a wasted potential of what could have been a great female lead.

However, I could for sure say that the first part of Naruto manga is solid, good, and held great potential.

It falls apart however in the second part, after the time-skip (Naruto Shippuden in the anime).

The second part of Naruto starts pretty bad already, showing a "grown" Naruto. Grown only in size however, since you immedialty notice that he still maintains the exact same attitude and immature behavior as he was a kid.

It then introduces a new plot which Gaara is quite easily captured by some of the weakest Akatsuki members (Deidara) and is held captive until they extract from him his Biju, Shukaku. It then explains that the Akatsuki wants to extract all Biju to hold an ultimate weapon. What for? Well, I don't remember it ever being given a clear explanation, but it seems basically that they wanted "peace" through keeping the villages at war.

Actually, the whole Akatsuki premise falls apart pretty fast, when you realize that apparently most of it's own members doesn't have a clue of what they're fighting for.

When the Akatsuki members fail to capture the Eight Tails (Killer B) and the Nine Tails (Naruto), Tobi (one of it's members) reveals himself as Madara and declares to the leaders of the Ninja Villages he wants to put everyone under an eternal state of sleep in which they would be living happy dreams, if they hand him, deliberately, the remaining Jinchuriki. Since the leaders, obviously, deny it, Tobi / Madara declares a Ninja War (basically a War with all the Ninjas in the world against a few remaining super overpowered akatsuki members).

At this point you realize that the plot is losing all its substance, and getting into a unnecessarily complex chain of events that hardly makes any sense.

Also at this point Naruto is fast evolving from a pretty ordinary (although pretty strong too) shinobi to a one of the strongest beings in the lore after undergoing multiple transformations and overpowering his basically only two ever learned skills: rasengan and shadow clone jutsu. This progress, however, happens way too fast, as it's easily noticiable that his skills are, apparently, surpassing the ones we saw in the first part by some of the strongest characters such as Orochimaru, Jiraya and even the 3rd Hokage Sarutobi.

This is when you realize that the series has gone to a DBZ route of power progression, where each new enemy appears to be the new strongest being ever using skills that are far superior than pretty much anything shown before, making Gaara and Rock Lee, for example, look like a joke.

When the Ninja War starts Kabuto appears with a snake-like skin, helping the Akatsuki and using an improved Edo Tensei, the same skill Orochimaru used to fight against Sarutobi in the 1st part, except that here it used to ressurrect, with no costs at all, pretty much every single legendary ninja that ever existed in the lore. It's also said that his now enslaved ressurrected ninjas have infinity chakra, can't die again (recquiring to be sealed instead), and feels no pain - they can, however, think, strategize and fight coordinately as a group.

Kishimoto (Naruto's author) obviously couldn't come with any other solution to defeat such a threat, other than shieldening the "good" characters with plot nonsenses and making many of them suddenly overpowered too.

After some events that reveals that Tobi is actually an old Kakashi friend that has been actually sided to Madara, the real Madara is revealed as an Edo Tensei brought back to life by Kabuto. Also, out of thin air plot wise, Madara reveals he can actually free himself of the Edo Tensei spell, and become an completely autonomous being that can't die, feel pain or lose chakra. At this point I really wasn't being able to take the plot seriously anymore.

Madara and Tobi releases the Ten Tails Biju, which attacks everyone with HUGE blasts of very destructive powers, but Naruto, suddenly, realizes he can shield everyone transfering as a body armor his own chakra to EVERY SINGLE ninja in the battlefield borrowing an almost infinity amount of it from Kurama (Nine Tails). This is just one more example that Naruto powers has already gone through the roof - and unbelievably, it gets much worse.

At some point, after taking a detour to know himself (usuless by the way, cause it changes absolutely nothing about him) Sasuke comes to the battlefield to help Naruto. And after tons of panels of stupidly huge powers here and there and tons of drama regarding Tobi, Madara becomes the Ten Tail Jinchuriki acquiring god-like powers.

Once more, since there was absolutely no chance for Naruto and Sasuke to be this strong yet (if ever), Kushimoto comes with a great idea: they're both basically summoned by the Sage of Six Paths, that reveals them they're LITERALLY the descendants of the Gods Asura and Indra, giving them the power of Ying Yang. Yeah, for real!!!

Here is when the basic premise of the whole 1st part falls apart. Neiji was right all along when he confronted Naruto in the Chunin exam saying that talent and abilities were pre-determined at birth, and that the destiny was basically set from the time someone is born. Indeed, that's EXACTLY what the end of the series teaches: Naruto only ever gets so strong because 1) he was Nine Tails Jinchuriki and 2) he was a descendant of a God. Poor Neiji... had his mind changed by Naruto and gets killed before realizing how right he was.

Madara, then, gets betrayed by the Black Zetsu (one of the Akatsuki members) which stabs him in the back basically killing him and bringing a being called Kaguya back to life. Black Zetsu is revealed to be some sort of Kaguya's evil will. And is also revealed that Kaguya was the Sage of Six Path mother and basically the creator of all Chakra. None of this was ever hinted before!

So in order to defeat such a powerful being, Naruto and Sasuke fight alongside and uses their Ying-Yang power to save the world. Yeah, Naruto and Sasuke ended up literally surpassing a Goddess.

After all this, Sasuke reveals he hasn't changed his mind at all up until this point, and is ready to kill Naruto so then he could kill every single village leader with and accomplish some nonsense about "bearing all the pain in the world". They fight, they almost die, and Sasuke finally comes back to his senses and becomes "good" again, recognizing Naruto as friend, and gets forgiven by everyone.

That being said, the main thing the 2nd part of Naruto manages is to ignore EVERYTHING was built in the 1st part. Interesting and skilled characters simply had no room to shiny anymore. The whole effort premise was thrown in the trash. Everything was about Naruto becoming extremely overpowered after each training section and receiving an exceedingly amount of powers from Kurama and Hagoromo.

Also, the three main characters ended up such a disappointment: Naruto talks gets really tiresome after a while with that whole "I will become a Hokage" and "that's my Ninja Way". Equally tiresome was Sasuke's stubbornness about a supposedly "revolution" in which he intended to "bear all the pain" by himself intending to kill every village leader. And Sakura only ever shines once, in her fight against Sasori - and even then, I particularly think that fight was quite boring anyway.

That being said, Naruto had tons of potential and actually managed to deliver lots of good moments before the time-skip. After it though it just keeps getting worse and worse, with the whole Ninja War arc being everything it should have NOT.

First of all I would like to say that this is my favorite manga of all time. There are so many things that I like about this manga that I wouldn't be able to fit it all. However, if I had to choose, the two things that make this an award winning manga would be the art and the characters. The art is very artistic which brings out the charm of the manga. The art allowed you to see what the characters were actually feeling which made it funny and enjoyable at the same time. There were also some serious moments which brought out the action portion of the manga. The characters were also very well done. They were able to react to real life situations in a realistic way but also react to them in a comical way. Throughout the manga the characters showed real growth and development. Between the first and last chapter you could see that the characters changed from snot nosed kids to full grown adults. Overall this is the greatest manga that I have ever read and I believe that others would like it too, even those who have never read a manga before.

Summary (TL;DR Version):

Naruto is a manga that showed great promise in the beginning with engaging story, smart and inventive battles that developed characters in the process. However, as the manga got lengthier, the battles became “who has the strongest superpowered attack” rather than skills/tactics, some characters became one note and boring and the same flashback scenes that gave context to fights turned into Naruto’s own downfall by repeating several of them ad nauseum (too many times). It has memorable, yet hit or miss characters that, like everything else, start out interesting and varied but soon become infuriating/one dimensional and quantity soon overpowered quality. The art is good, but doesn’t really improve much after time has gone on. Naruto is a good example of a shounen overstaying it’s welcome and a display of all that genre’s best and worst aspects.

Pros:

+ Initial great combination of characters, narrative and fights to make readers emotionally invested

+ Solid fights in the first half that were exciting and thrilling

+ Respected some characters (Choji) who would otherwise be used to laugh at

Cons:

- Fights drag on FOREVER in the second half and become exponentially tedious and boring

- Flashbacks also become boring and downright repetitive

- Too many characters to care about equally, so many end up forgotten or their development entirely skippable

- Protagonists who become deplorable and unredeemable due to their actions (*cough* Sasuke *cough*)

- Skill is no longer a factor in fights and quickly becomes a showcase of who has the most OP jutsu

- Too many chapters and could have easily be edited down severely to increase enjoyment


Overall: 6/10


Naruto started out with a very strong cohesion between narrative, action and characters. What I mean is that its own narrative enriched fight scenes. The Chunin exams are a great example of this. Tournament events are commonplace in shounen manga and many in it’s genre decided to develop the characters first and then put them through extreme circumstances. Naruto took a unique and strong approach by either introducing characters in said fights and laying foundation to develop them or using effective flashbacks as a method to tie the current and previous narratives of characters. Such techniques were used before and especially after Naruto was being made, but this was a real strong point for the series as it made me care more about the narrative and characters.

This didn’t just give us great fight scenes, it also gave some initial great character development. One concrete example I always use is a fight between a certain mist ninja and the trio of Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura (plus Kakashi). I won’t spoil what happens in the end, but not only did the fight display a good use of tactics, skills and intelligence to fight a stronger enemy, it also made our characters mature and even the enemy in this part became more sympathetic and likeable. It had a big emotional impact on me too, even prompting some tears to be shed. After reading this part, I saw what so many Naruto fans did and started enjoying it a lot more.

The characters are something of a mixed bag, especially as the manga gets longer. I won’t discuss all of them, as there are so many (too many) characters in the manga. I will mainly be discussing the main three and some other notable side characters.

Naruto himself grew on me after an initial bad impression and became a likable and strong point of the manga itself. The main problem I had with his character is that his own message to the reader is slightly contradictory. It’s clear that he is an inspiration to those who feel overwhelmed by their own shortcomings or feelings of incompetence, yet have great potential underneath. The issue here is that his own resource of power/gimmick of a ninetails puts him so far above others that it undercuts the morale his character is trying to convey. He fails tests miserably and rushes head on into fights, yet appears head and shoulders above the rest in pure power so that the exams/battle tactics eventually become meaningless because of how overpowered he is. Which means it might be harder for others to look up to him when Naruto himself has an unrealistic advantage that makes him so powerful.

Sasuke is much less likable. He started out as a good foil and great example of how Naruto could have ended up after his own traumatic past. The problem is that in terms of character, Sasuke became as interesting as beige paint drying on a wall after the first half due to being so one dimensional. Past chapter 400, his character got increasingly onenote, unsympathetic and detestable. More than ever before, Sasuke was being defined by his past and his detestable actions later in the manga don’t help.

Sakura is a character who I liked for her tsundere attitude, but increasingly was shoved to the back multiple times, even when she became useful later on in future arcs. This frustrated me a bit, because I feel like her character could add a lot to the story and events. But she is put on the sidelines and rarely show off her strengths and continue to make her cry in a corner until Naruto or someone else can fix things.

The other side characters are also mixed with some being good (Shikamaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya) and some not so much (Tenten, Killer Bee, Kabuto). I did appreciate and respect how characters like Choji weren’t just comedic foil because of their body size and were given ample respect.

As for antagonists, they were alright but got worse progressively. Orochimaru was a serviceable and interesting villain, having clear motivations and fleshed out characterization. However, future villains like Madara became like those ridiculous final bosses with several health bars and powerful attacks that are downright absurd.

The art is generally good, though nothing groundbreaking. It’s consistent and unlike other mangaka with longer running series, the art never takes serious nosedives and continues to be steady, even when other elements aren’t.

Naruto is a clear example of how more is not always better. The same flashbacks and fights that were so effective early on became tedious and boring, as we get fed the same information multiple times. These 700 chapters could have easily been narrowed down to 500 refined ones without losing that much in the process.

Additionally, some later plot twists and developments seem incredibly forced in order for the current character motivations or plot to make sense, sometimes taking giant leaps of logic that create plotholes.

So how does this all end after 699 chapters of inconsistency? Badly. Again, no spoilers but everything is so hastily rushed that it's clear that they wanted it to end, even at the great expense of more plotholes. It is especially shocking because Naruto took a great length of time developing characters who will and won’t have serious consequences on the plot. This ending felt like a slap in the face to anyone who wanted to see what happened to their favourite characters by dumping a sudden timeskip with little or often no explanation of characters at all. It leaves a really sour taste in my mouth and made me feel dissapointed.

As for recommendations, if you are already a fan of the Shounen genre, you have likely already read this manga. But to those who are newcomers, I would probably just skip it as the hype from fans is mostly undeserved and there are better manga like this nowadays (Boku No Hero Academia is probably the best alternative I can give here).

The legendary Naruto. Naruto is the famous manga (including the anime adaption), probably the most famous on in the world at the moment. I heard aobut Naruto from my friend, and I first started watching anime. When I catched up with anime (that was about 60th episode of Shippuuden at that moment), I've read all of the manga in just few days, and now I'm up to date with manga wince chapter 400 or something.

--- Story --- 7 ---
The main story, all the thing about Jinchuuriki, Bijus, Akatuski, is pretty decent story itself. However, looks like Kishimoto (the writer of the Naruto manga) felt the glory of hving the most popular manga in the world, and now he doesn't want to end the story, he keeps more and more complicated things coming, more enemies, more plot twists... Which isn't the best idea. 460+ chapters is way too much for anybody. To be honest, I'm not really fan of Naruto anymore, but I'd simply feel bad dropping Naruto because I've watched and read so much that if I dropped it, then my effort to read so much would be meaningless. Naruto is dragging away from the story and I don't like it. But, as I said, it's good concept, so I'm giving it seven outta ten.

--- Art --- 10 ---
Kishimoto's done some pretty good job with art, I must tell that. Though it was kinda crappy at some chapters, it's pretty good. Though I'd give him advice to draw fighing scenes and action scenes a bit better, too much actionish likes all arond the frame and all over the characters are making it be kinda fussy, and, to be honest, I never really understand the fighting scenes all that well, but it's not much to pay attention, right?

--- Character --- 7 ---
Too. Much. Charactes. I guess Characters and Story are pretty linked with each other and I can't separate them. Longer story is, more characters there are and it's hard to pay attention to each character separatelly, which means very weak character development. However, I enjoyed looking and comparing characters before and after the time skip. (Anime production screwed up with anime, separating it into two animes, "Naruto" and "Naruto Shippuuden" - it's all freakin' one anime).

-- Enjoyment --- 6 ---
If Kishi could put the story in 300 chapters, I would adore the manga. 460+ chapters is a killer. How can I enjoy the manga which I m going to read as 80-year-old geezer with stick, running around the hose with Naruto's cosplay and doing Rasengans at neighbour's dog?

--- Overall --- 6 ---
Even if the Art was awesome, that's not increasing my opinion about the manga at all. Manga is overrated, that's for sure. The fact it's incrediblly long doesn't mean the story is awesome at all. I feel bad for telling this about pretty good manga, but if there was an end for the manga, I would adore it.

Kishimoto, end the manga already before it becoms too late.

Warning: Contains Spoilers from the end of the series

Story: 9/10
The overall plot of naruto is amazing and it is one the factor that motivated me to keep watching the series and later reading the manga. Some parts of the story are so rich that they could create another anime entirely on its own and still be great, even tough they would be detached from the main plot. Even so, the ending of the manga made it impossible for me to give it a 10/10, mainly due to the fact that many thing were left unanswered. It was predictable that sasuke was going to be forgiven and allowed back into the village, but this part felt very rushed, i think that after all this time we should have been allowed to see his forgiveness and return to his home in much more detail that what was shown to us. Chapter 700 is completely unessesary, everything in it seems utopic and covinient.

Art: 8/10
While the art improved greatly from naruto to shippuden, it still lacks in many aspects, so much that sometimes it looks like fanart (excluding all the great fanarts out there), intead of something made in a professional studio. While it does have great art at times i always felt like it needed more detail, mainly in scenes that were crucial to the plot.

Character: 10/10
The characters from Naruto are amazing, they all have their own reasons and motives for doing what they do, even those who are considered villans have a great backstory that explains their actions in the present. Most of the character development comes, obviously, from Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, all three of them have come a long way and changed a lot since they were kids in the beginning of the story. Sometimes their developed into something better and sometimes into something worse, but never without reason, which greatly contributes to the realism aspect of the story. The great diversity of characters in naruto also allows the viewer to fell more attached to the story, as there will certainly be a character that you will fell conected to in some way.

Enjoyment: 10/10
Once you start watching it there is no way to get out of it, even tough there are some annoying plot aspects and the famous never ending fillers, this show kept me clicking next episode over and over until i could not watch anymore. Naruto has been a part of my life since i was a kid and i will surely miss watching it.

Naruto is a very solid series, with good characters, well diverse and interesting background motivations. Overall to me this is a story of friendship, and the main friendship is that of Naruto and Sasuke, and of the trials in life that bring change and growth, and how that effects these characters. All the characters in this manga go through an evolution either reflected in the past or shown through the events in the story. The art is good with some amazing fight sequences throughout, and well thought out strategies. Sakura may be more of a plot device then a useful character and some of the side characters are a little shy on a character arc, but overall it is a good series and an engaging story. I would highly recommended this over the anime, specifically the mid to later parts of shippuden, which becomes awful, with lame filler episodes. 72 volumes is a lot but worth the read.

*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

I remember first getting into Naruto, after a friend recommended it to me. I'm not going to deny I did enjoy the first, let's say half of the story, but then I just could not be bothered. I did enjoy Naruto's story overall, and how he finally got accepted by everyone, but considering that I watched the whole anime first, I did not see the point anymore. I tried getting back to it a few times, but it didn't work. Yes the anime has fillers, that are not included in the manga, and yes anime does drag out more than the manga, but I guess it just wasn't for me. Overall, I think it's ok but it's just not for me.

I made an account just to write about this manga. I'm not an expert on this particular type of literature in general, or even anime if that has a whole lot to do with it, but I'll try anyway since the hours I've sunk into this one should mean something. The Naruto series, in all of its forms, seems like a daunting experience to most newcomers due to how much content it offers. My decision to read through the events of Shippuden specifically was made on the basis of my impatience towards having to watch hundreds of episodes of it otherwise; a choice that, while beneficial in regards to my time and attention span, ultimately showed me how lucky this series is with its nostalgia shield and hype culture.

Of the little I know about anime/manga and their popular aspects of appeal, the shonen genre is one such idea I'm most familiar with, like everyone else. Naruto primarily tackles the idea of self-betterment for the sake of the greater good, with characters that are defined by the inadequacies, their realizations of them, and their efforts to overcome them. The first part of Naruto does a nice job with this, presenting a premise that is scaled to a reasonable degree and gives the audience reasons to care for certain characters and things. In fact, it's the difference in quality between parts 1 and 2 that largely contribute to my feelings towards this entire story. It's relatively easy to see past the tropes of part 1, like how backstories are as sad as can be or the prominent tournament arc that takes the place of creative characterization, since nothing is overly complicated in concept.

But then, the Shippuden stuff becomes the main story focus. They extend on everything part 1 has set up, and introduces to the audience even more things to learn about in this ninja world. I was particularly anxious to read this second part, since I'd become invested in the things that preceded it, but ultimately felt disappointed with the direction Naruto eventually goes in. Almost all aspects of the overarching story become overstuffed with characters whose names I still don't know and interactions I didn't care for. Trust me when I say that this claim still holds true (at least for me) despite the fact that this is literature, something that doesn't have to be experienced all at once like a binge session for a TV series. Exposition and flashbacks occur all too often, making me wonder about the viewing experiences of all those hardcore Naruto anime fans out there during the later arcs. Many of the interesting ideas set in place by part 1 are never fully realized, since there's no more room for them. Characters I grew fond of and wanted to see more of were pushed to the side. This is especially noticeable in what might be the longest climax to anything that I've ever experienced. The incredibly lopsided approach to this whole story's end exemplifies all the other problems I mentioned, yet somewhat worsen the experience as a whole. This is how things end up? This is how the potential is fulfilled? To the more impressionable audience, Naruto and its deceptive grandness may be a worthwhile experience, but to the people who want an inventive ninja story or to just see why everyone seems to love this series, it's practically everything but that. Unless you completely skip part 2.

Naruto started out extremely well. I had everything: great world, fantastic characters, an amazing story and a powerful message that hard work beats out destiny i.e. if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything.

And Naruto (the character) embodied this message, at the beginning atleast.
Spoiler alert from this point.

But at the halfway mark Naruto stopped being this show about how hard work beats destiny. Naruto who has upto this point been screaming that he is goona be the hokage through hard work is suddenly revealed to be the child of the prophecy or something. The only fucking jutsu he learns in the entire series is Rasengan, Shadow clone jutsu and the summoning jutsu. The entirety of Naruto's power increase in the series comes from him being the host of the kyuubi and the prophecised child. The series abandons its message halfway through and makes Naruto look like a hypocrite.

Another thing that pisses me off is how at the ending part, the ninjas stop being ninjas essentially. Every character we meet is a fucking god or has a sharingaan. Hand signs which were pretty cool in my opinion are nearly dropped in the later half. Most of the characters stop being important except Naruto and Sasuke and other characters are put in the background.

Despite these shortcomings, there are many things to like here. The action scenes are always pretty cool. Most of the villains are good except the last one. Overall ok series but definitely downgraded in the second half.
6/10

Being emo is genetically related to characters within the story.

That's it, that's my review. I don't really need to write anything more because it speaks for itself. That is the extent of how awful the writing in Naruto has gotten. Kishimoto has completely given up in making any kind of sense in terms of characters and story. If he's too lazy to write proper motivations and story points, then why should I waste my time doing a proper review on the plot itself.

The art is still very good for what is a weekly manga and the enjoyment factor is still very high as well because of how bat shit insane the story has gotten. We just have to keep reading it to see what insane terrible idea's Kishimoto is going to end the story on. We got to see it through till the end, right everyone? :P LMAO!

How to like Naruto:

- Ignore plot holes (There are many, so you should really try to ignore them)
- NEVER question things
- Overlook cheesy melodramatic scenes and conversations
- Ignore recurring phrases like "Seems like I have to use THAT Jutsu/Don't use THAT Jutsu/I can finally show my NEW Jutsu
- Realize that this is a by the book Shounen Manga


- This are just some tipps you should follow to get the most of Naruto. Whatever it lacks in story, believable characters, good conversations, believable fights (I mean, in one moment they are so strong and in the other they are terribly weak...And I'm not just talking about main characters, I thought Anbu or Jounin are some of the strongest Ninjas lol) in makes good in great art and just the usual shonen feel which somehow manages to suck you in so that you start to read chapter after chapter. Sure, the story is pretty cheesy and conventional, but that doesn't change the fact that it's pretty good delivered.

Naruto was a manga that started with the potential to be one or even THE best shonen ever made. It had everything that it takes for a success: a vast quantity of well-made characters, an interesting setting (the shinobi world Kishimoto designed is awesome), interesting villains (for me Orochimaru is a copy of Voldemort, but it was still good) and a solid premise.

Even though the series is named after the main character, it is the supporting characters that really give life to "Naruto": Kakashi, Rock Lee, Gaara, Shikamaru, Hinata, Itachi, Minato, Tsunade, just to name a few. They are all interesting characters. Some of them even got their own "fan-clubs" during the serialization of "Naruto".

But at some point around volume 45~50, the story quality just started to decay greatly. I think Kishimoto didn't know exactly how to tie off the knots he himself created in the plot (similar to the way GRR Martin doesn't know how to wrap up A Song of Ice and Fire, but that's another story). The plot became too big, and apparently Kishimoto wasn't able to deal with it.

I still give it a 9, given the great quality of the first 2/3.

I started watching Naruto in 2006, when I was 11 years old, and I started reading the manga in 2009. "Naruto" was a part of my teenage years. Maybe that's why I still give it a good grade despite its unsatisfying ending.

''Yep I'm such an idiot. Believe it''

I suggest you read before looking at the score and clicking not helpful. knowing that this is not a well rounded franchise and I'll explain why.

So here is the thing you see, I used to love ninjas that I've seen in some anime and video games such as mortal kombat, shinobi, ninja gaiden and so on.
but ever since I started reading this manga that fans claimed it was about ninjas, my love for ninjas as a whole after reading this started to turn to hate right away.
You see this manga pulled me in like a moron only to be slapped in the face by these damaged controlled wannabe childlike ninjas.

I just marathon the entire manga last year and needless to say I am an idiot
''believe it'' there was zero sense to be made with each chapter, every character trait, every character interaction, almost every battle felt like the same rinse and repeat method we heard all before since the very beginning of the naruto manga itself and I could not be any more happier finishing this before life starts to derail around me into another great ninja war joke with a lot of plot holes around its surface.

Call me crazy but the reason I started reading shippuden was to see how far in terms of maturity the characters became. I was thinking something along the lines of being a true ninja but all i got was a parody.

This manga is like a parady now when it shouldn't have been.
its kinda like how korra is compared with the original last airbender series except both of these are way better than shippuden and they are not even Japanese animes.

story - 3 (Like the WWE wrestler john cena, Same old shit!)

First off the original story premise of kishimoto's naruto is dashed out the window by the moment naruto comes back to the village with his sensei jaraiya after 2 years of doing absolutely zero training gaining zero development. So now the story has to force you in watching every inch of progression that naruto makes and to force characters around this moron like he is a messiah?,
The point is kishimoto's writing had changed drastically towards naruto being blessed like this saviour crap which gives the story no real meaning behind the actions of characters aka Ninjas in this story.
The only thing that is demonstrated here is severing bonds and repairing bonds again and again and again and again and again with many characters and not just the main and supporting characters but also villains too featuring a entire army of flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks and so forth.

Art - 7
pretty good, its the only saving grace. fights look good but at times it looks too much like a Michael Bay movie. Flashy explosions here and there For fuck sake they are ninjas not fucking fireworks!!

Characters - 3
Stereotypical for the most part, Apart from mainly a noteworthy few like Pain, Gaara and Jaraiya are the only really good ones in the entirety of the story and the others are just stereotypical and predictable not to mention lazily written most of the time.
many new characters get introduce later on but are hardly noteworthy or memorable in any way.

Now for the main characters brief description
Naruto was written well at first glance despite him being irritating at times
and became more of a hypocrite of a character instead of having this so called hard working young ninja resented by his own village to strive up the ninja rankings to becoming Hokage (the village's top ninja which hilariously is still a genin up until the very last chapter)
but then again at the same time I can't say he is a hard working ninja considering his power mostly comes from the nine-tail fox beast that gives him 80% of his chakra and not to mention at the very beginning he cheated on learning his most well known jutsu the shadow clone jutsu which he learn by reading a forbidden scroll ask yourself this whoever is reading is that really the essence of hard work?
then when things couldn't get more dumber Naruto then turned into NARUJESUS the saviour from a long line of boy love and hate Bullshit
Huh????........Is this writing for real????.

Sasuke is a typical tragic anti hero with a confused ambition most of the time that gets power ups every time up the wazoo did I mention that he also wanted to be hokage at one point? ummm....... Naay?.

Sakura is Sakura. (LAMEST FEMALE CHARACTER IN SHOUNEN PERIOD.)
and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Kakashi was cool at first but then sucked big time as the story went on.

Now there are quite a lot of female characters (kunoichi) in the series but kishimoto's writing shows very little respect for them in the way they are presented as there own person in their own progression since kishi cannot write female characters to save his life and unfortunately a lot can be said with loads of the other characters in his story who suddenly just fade into the background.

So I'm wondering to myself should I care now up to this point when reading the story with this amount of lazy half ass writing??

Enjoyment - 1
Just peachy :)
Yaaayyy!! cannot wait for more milk products on offer.


Overall / Final Rating - 2.5
If i were to review this any further there would be a lot of people crying and also feeling dishearten for what I've mentioned and I do not want that because I know many people will think my review of is just a rant/outburst or just some personal hate speech lol, which I can honestly assure you it isn't.

why did I drop something I didn't like to the end?
well my friends because Idiocy is who I am and idiocy can lead to
some really cool conclusions along the journey am i wrong?
But unfortunately I've explained why in this review that it isn't the case. that doesn't mean this franchise as a whole is bad, I'm saying it lacked a lot of quality in terms of an objective writing standpoint and characterisation.
So if you think I'm trolling or hating your sadly mistaken if you feel that way about my review and opinion.

Final thought

Well there you go, I've pretty much summarised the Naruto manga for what it is and If you still like it more power to you, but to me its wasted too much of my time, joy, patience and can thankfully be laid to rest
so more power to me,

and for others more milk to you.

This is the very first manga I read. I mean, I started reading this when I was in 1st grade (yes, first as in one in grade school) and the manga started before I was even born.

I think Naruto is very original and make ninja looked more bright than how it used to looked.

At first, I bought the manga only for fun because my some boys in my class and my cousins love to talk about naruto and I got curious. I bought volume 1 -3 and really loving it.

I think its really cool on how the ninjas complete their missions and become stronger but with mysteries and hidden plots at the same time. This manga is really enjoyable and funny, but also have many touching an sad moments with a lot of ups and downs.

The main characters (Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke) are really amazing and unique for each other. The supporting characters also completes the story even more.

This manga is a true legend.

I could try to give an "objective" review of Naruto based on the carefully analyzed qualities of story, art, characters, and overall enjoyment, but no, I really can't. I didn't read Naruto. A generation of weebs didn't read Naruto. We LIVED Naruto, through its highs and its lows, from the greatness of the Chunin Exams to the bloat of the Great Ninja War. Naruto isn't a manga. Naruto is puberty.

It started out all fun and games. I was in middle school, and this cartoon about super ninjas debuted on Cartoon Network. It had a guy who could use his hidden, red eye to copy his opponents. There was a mercenary who could make clones of himself out of water. The hero sometimes transformed into a naked lady. This show was everything you liked about anything when you were twelve years old. So when it took a two-week hiatus on Cartoon Network, I couldn't just be patient and and wait that short amount of time to pick up on the story. I had to beg my mom to take me to our local Borders(R.I.P.), so I could pick up those backwards books and see just what happened when Naruto and friends jumped across trees in that scary forest. From that point on, I stuck with the manga. I took a brief hiatus, but reading the Sound Five arc during a family trip to one of those boring-ass outlet malls reminded me that "yes. These cartoon ninjas are pretty great."

Let's fast-forward to the present. It's been two years since blondie finally became Hokage. Everyone agrees that the series should have ended sooner. Anime reviewers talk about "their Naruto phase" with total distain. Someone posts their 3x3 onto a forum, and Naruto is in the center. Then, they shout "JOKE! I AINT SUM NOOB!" They post their actual 3x3, and 5 of the slots are Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

Are our cynical, twenty-something-year-old selves correct? Or is Jaden Smith correct? If babies could talk, would they be the smartest people on Earth?

I don't believe that Naruto's mid-2000s popularity was undeserved. Sure, there are Shonen out there that didn't piss otaku off at the end of 15 years. A story called "the Great Ninja War" has no right to be as lame as it was, but the Chunin Exams? The Sound Five? Pain? This series had some exciting storylines. Some exciting battles. Memorable side characters who probably deserved more time, while Sasuke deserved less, but I think Naruto became a phenomenon for more reasons than just "kids are dumb."

And, this isn't just nostalgia speaking. I don't have much nostalgia for the last 15 or so volumes of the story, but even that pile of dung had some diamonds in it. Gaara talking to his father again was a nice way to wrap up one of the series's more emotional subplots. We get to meet the 1st Hokage, and there's more to his character than just "I was really good at fighting." A villain's backstory is told beautifully in a chapter without text. And, that final battle between Naruto and Sasuke: sure, the build-up was convoluted, but in the last volume, Kishimoto shows us that he can craft a tense battle in the comics medium: one that emphasizes harsh physical impact over dialogue and super magic. That last fight felt like the final ten minutes of a great wrestling match, and it reminded me that behind the editorial meddling and over-reliance on drawing assistants, Kishimoto does know how to work his medium.

Should a newbie jump into Naruto right now? Well, I'd certainly tell you to give the early volumes a try. You can tell that Kishimoto was losing his creative energy as the series dragged on. What the artwork gained in clarity, it lost in dynamicism. I really wish there was less Sasuke, and I would have love if Kishimoto settled on one primary antagonist. But, for everyone who is ashamed of their Naruto phase: please, don't be.

A good manga for those who like action, at least. I enjoyed it greatly until the SasuDei fight. That was just plain stupid.*topic change* Characters are okay, but typical Gary Lous abound. As do fangirls. And annoyances. Love the biju, though. And the Akatsuki.

Naruto, one of the big three ended in november 2014. It was a long journey but I was quite satisfied with the manga, I also bought already 56 volumes and I´m definitely buying all of them. (SPOILERS)

Story: [7]
The main plot of the story is the relationship of Naruto and Sasuke, and the main character Naruto. It is a typcial shounen manga, young *weak* boy trying to become strong, sad background story, creating all of sorts of friendships with "bad" and "good" guys. The whole story is very interesting, the tailed beasts, Akatsuki, Uchiha-Clan... I enjoyed it most of the time. But 700 chapters to get Sasuke back to the village is exaggerating. There were some times where I thought....wow thats boring. Plot twists were pretty weak. The biggest problem is that Kishimoto should have made it shorter, so that it would become more intense,exciting. Because towards the end it gets really messy, Akatsuki, Tobi, Madara, Kaguya.... too many power-ups and oponents in the end. But most of the arcs/story were/was still satisfying.

Art: [8]
I really like Kishimotos art, he even gets better and better, just compare vol 1 to vol 50. His style is unique and also has an emotional touch. I sometimes felt the sadness, rage, sorrow...in his art. The battle scenes are intense and exciting (Gaara:Lee / Naruto:Pain...), the sad scenes (Itachi saying to Sasuke: I will always love you)...damn that feels...

Character: [8]
I really like how he created the characters, it´s easy to remember them and to build a relationship to them. Kakashi the copy ninja, who the hell doesn´t like this badass. Naruto gets a little bit annoying with his attitude that he can protect the whole world, well the main charaacter has to be the dreamer, who never gives up. But to read every 10 chapter: I will be Hokage!....that´s also the reason why he isn´t my favorite person in the manga. Sasuke, the genius, the badass, the rival of Naruto also got some real problems... vengeance, vengeance, vengeance, oh my god 700 chapters for his damn revenge.... grow up! Besides Naruto and Sasuke, I never had a complain about the other characters. The problem is just that the growth of Sasuke and Naruto isn´t really existing. Yes, they get stronger, but there was no real depth in 700 chapters of the manga.

Enjoyment/Overall: [8]
Naruto is still one of my favorite mangas of all time. Kishimoto made a manga popular all around the world. Yes, Naruto and Sasuke are some kind of weak characters, the story got pretty messy towards the end, but all in all it´s still a wonderful journey of 700 chapters. If you like shonen, intense battle scenes, background stories, fascinating characters, a friendship of two ninjas who follow different paths of love and hate. Read it!

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.

This story has been a very long ride and it has had its ups and downs. I had to put the rating somewhere in the middle because of that. The story generally starts out pretty good and the characters, while a tad bit bland, had a lot of interesting concepts and had the potential to grow and become more, which was even sort of the point of the story.
Somewhere between a third and halfway through the story, it started going down. Far down.
Somewhere between halfway and two-thirds of the way through the story, it genuinely seemed like the author was just making things up as he went along. Every new plot twist and revelation felt worse than the last and every one of them felt like the writing was dropping off a cliff in terms of quality.
Somewhere very quickly into the story, those lessons about functioning as a team and leaning how to be a ninja stopped mattering, because now everybody was just generic shounen fighting characters that you could see in most any story of the genre.

But where the story really seemed to come off the rails was in relation to Sasuke and his family. Their entire existence seemed like an enormous anchor that did nothing but drag the story down and force everybody to talk about how amazing they are/were no matter what they've done, without giving the audience any reason to actually think they are. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that their constant influence ended up ruining the story in the second half, because it seemed like nothing mattered unless they were involved.

I loved the story toward the beginning, and it was sad to see how far it sank after that, but I still can't give this manga too terrible a rating based on that early run.