What is Naruto? Why should I watch it?

[Desert Hare]

Just noticed Naruto over at amazon.com. I've never even heard of it before today. Whats it about? Any good stuff from it that a gamer can yank for game?

The Uncut Vol. 1 is only $30 and thats an easy drop in the bucket for me. But before I make the purchase (which will have to wait till 3/4 anyway) I'd like some input on the series.

[Felon]

I've watched it myself a few times. Seems like kid stuff with little to appeal to adults, even adult geeks.

[Relique du Madde]

Here is the premise of Naruto: A annoying kid ninja with a gruffy voice joins a ninja guild. No one takes him seriously then over time he becomes bad ass and everyone wants to fight him and his friends or send them on missions to get McGruffens. They end up kicking all sorts of butt while doing some tournament to see who is the strongest ninja, or something (I'm not sure but there is always some sort of competition in most anime martial arts based anime), and spew out insipid catch phrases and have long conversations during the middle of battles. All the characters wearing bananas, eye patches, gloves, and other things which are easily marketable to otakus and children.

Then when you are finished wearing Naruto gear you get to buy the video game which are all basically the same except they have several more characters and different special attacks.

Should you watch it? Probably not.

[Villano]

Originally Posted by Relique du Madde

All the characters wearing bananas, eye patches, gloves, and other things which are easily marketable to otakus and children.

Great! Now I have the image of a ninja wearing two eye patches and covered in bananas stuck in my head!

[DonTadow]

Originally Posted by Villano

Great! Now I have the image of a ninja wearing two eye patches and covered in bananas stuck in my head!

Narutos a nice little animation, particuarlly the first few seasons until saske leaves, then it becomes full of filler episodes until you get ot Shibodun.

In any case, Naruto has little to do with Naruto's fun factor. It's a show about a bunch of junion ninja coming of age, and the other junior ninja are what are facinating. I find my favorite episodes being those that don't even have naruto in it.

Funny story, but i discovered naruto at gencon a few years ago. My wife was in the anime room and i went looking for her and found her in there. There was this bruce lee kid and this sand kid having an amazing battle. We watched 6 episodes of it, never seeing the intro, so we had no idea what the name of this anime was, just that it was really engaging. So we got home and tried to figure out what it was. A year later, we stumble upon naruto on cartoon network and realize it was the same cartoon, and wondered who the annoying kid in the orange jumpsuit was.

Luckily the show learns early on that its true star is telling really good stories with its fight sequences, which is what it does well. In my small group of anime fans, I don't know a single one who doesnt enjoy the show. (and we're all in our 30s).

The real premise of naruto is that naruto is cursed with a dangerous demon. The first few seasons, the demon is dormant, but after some time Naruto learns how to use its chakra. In the mean time you have several other young ninja also special in their own way or another. One is the last of his village with the ability to copy any ninja style of fighting, another is cursed by a "just as dangerous" demon that controls sand. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, and its that loosing I enjoy. At one season in Naruto, the bigg battle takes place between Naruto and his bestfriend/nemisis. This had been building up for 5 or 6 years since hte beginning of the show. And when you think that a tile character should win the battle, he actually looses, and that loss drives the later seasons.

I suggest giving it a try, watching a few episodes in a story arch and see if you enjoy it.


Yes there is a couple of grand tournaments in the early seasons, but for the most part they go on missions to earn coin for their village. Naruto often teams with different arrays of ninjas, allowing you to experience a multitude of different fights.

[Desert Hare]

I'd like to state for the record, that thanks to Relique's description that I have no desire to watch this program now.

[DonTadow]

Originally Posted by Desert Hare

I'd like to state for the record, that thanks to Relique's description that I have no desire to watch this program now.

I hope you reconsider. I can attest that Reliq's description is completely wrong. I've been watching the show and its future incarnation for six years, and there's been two tournaments, both of which take up a quarter of its respective season. Until you reach the non-canon episodes (i nthe eight or ninth season) Naruto takes a backseat to the other ninjas stories. YOu ask a dozen fans of the show who their fave character is and you'll get a dozen answers. Naruto is an a-hole until things are down, and then that character shines.

As far as gear, again, Reliqs far off. All of the ninja wear headbands as a symbol of their clan, like a tatoo. Most have no other identifiers. One senior ninja wears an eye patch (because, its been replaced with an eye that can steal other ninjitsus).

Reliqs opinion sounds based off of watching two episodes in season 2 (the big tournament they had to pass to become ninjas). He's missed a lot of character development and story movement in his opinion.

I can assure you, there are no long conversations in the middle of combat. There are episode long combats that span two or three episodes with inner monologue and limiteddialogue between combat. Such as when they think a character is down, when a character disappears from sight or when a character appears to be trapped.

I hope you check it out for youself, I"m sure if you like martial arts anime you'll enjoy it.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Originally Posted by Desert Hare

I'd like to state for the record, that thanks to Relique's description that I have no desire to watch this program now.

Based on his description i'd say he probably didn't watch more then the first episode or two. It's actually a pretty good show, and Naruto sees a LOT of character development as the series goes. It might not be for you, but i would say that you shouldn't let Relique's description put you off at least giving it a shot.

[Felon]

Well, meow, girls!

Desert Hare, the proof's in the pudding. Seems like Hulu has three seasons of Naruto episodes (don't ask me if that's all of them):

Hulu - Naruto

On a side note, I feel the need to comment that while I love the idea behind Hulu, it is on the whole a very poorly organized and laid-out website. Kept trying to find a way to sort the episodes from first to last. No go.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Originally Posted by Felon

Well, meow, girls!

Desert Hare, the proof's in the pudding. Seems like Hulu has three seasons of Naruto episodes (don't ask me if that's all of them):

Hulu - Naruto

On a side note, I feel the need to comment that while I love the idea behind Hulu, it is on the whole a very poorly organized and laid-out website. Kept trying to find a way to sort the episodes from first to last. No go.

I've had only so so luck with that site, Joost seems to function much better, for me anyway.

[Desert Hare]

Originally Posted by Felon

Well, meow, girls!

I am a girl woman. And I'm totally straight.

[Shalimar]

Naruto is based on the Manga Naruto, and that has shaped it a bit.

Naruto 1-133 are straight from the Manga
Naruto 134-300+ are fillers that gave the Manga time to get ahead of the anime since the anime tends to cover 1-2 manga chapters per episode. Except for the very last episode of the fillers which shows Naruto leaving the villiage with his master the fillers are unimportant and generally poorly done given that the guy who wrote the manga wasn't the guy who wrote those episodes.

Naruto Shippuden takes the story up again at the Manga after a 2.5 year time skip where Naruto and his master left the villiage to train. At this point the junior shinobi who are now 15 years old and experienced start to shoulder more responsibilites for the villiage. The Shippuden series tells more mature stories that deal with the death of mentor's and standing on your own two feet.

[Dog Moon]

How does Naruto have a gruffy voice? The voice of Naruto is played by a girl...

ANYWAY, IMO, what I would do is find the episodes that deal with the tournament that has been mentioned, watch those, and ignore everything else. Well, there is an awesome fight later on with Lee versus a Bone Dude where Lee is drunk [someone mixed his cider with ale! or something like that]. Might want to check that out as well.

Honestly though, as someone who has only just recently stopped watching, too much of Naruto is overextended fight scenes, too many flashbacks, and basically filled with side quests that are almost all exactly the same with very slight differences [Someone is in trouble and only Naruto can save them because they are treated very much Naruto as they are outcastes of their society or w/e].

But I still recommend watching the tournament. Was AWESOME.

[DonTadow]

Originally Posted by Dog Moon

How does Naruto have a gruffy voice? The voice of Naruto is played by a girl...

ANYWAY, IMO, what I would do is find the episodes that deal with the tournament that has been mentioned, watch those, and ignore everything else. Well, there is an awesome fight later on with Lee versus a Bone Dude where Lee is drunk [someone mixed his cider with ale! or something like that]. Might want to check that out as well.

Honestly though, as someone who has only just recently stopped watching, too much of Naruto is overextended fight scenes, too many flashbacks, and basically filled with side quests that are almost all exactly the same with very slight differences [Someone is in trouble and only Naruto can save them because they are treated very much Naruto as they are outcastes of their society or w/e].

But I still recommend watching the tournament. Was AWESOME.

Several of the best fights happen well after the tournament, particuarlly the fights between naruto and his rival saske and anything involving sand coffins. Again, Naruto more than often takes a back seat in many episodes to the other characters. The shows a martial arts show, so yeah you will have episode long fights. And because.. i'm betting you stpped after the first 2 or 3 seasons... their still developing the backstory of the characters, so thus the flashbacks (there were particuarlly a lot of flashbacks during thetournament because they were introducing about 14 new characters. That said the backstories often made the fights far more interesting than just throwing two people up there whom you do not know.

That said, after the show hits the filler episodes, some episodes are somewhat entertaining, just to see how ceratin characters are mastering their ninja skills. But when you tire of that its time to move on to Shippuden. LIke someone said, theres a time jump that continues the canon story.

[Dog Moon]

Originally Posted by DonTadow

Several of the best fights happen well after the tournament, particuarlly the fights between naruto and his rival saske and anything involving sand coffins. Again, Naruto more than often takes a back seat in many episodes to the other characters. The shows a martial arts show, so yeah you will have episode long fights. And because.. i'm betting you stpped after the first 2 or 3 seasons... their still developing the backstory of the characters, so thus the flashbacks (there were particuarlly a lot of flashbacks during thetournament because they were introducing about 14 new characters. That said the backstories often made the fights far more interesting than just throwing two people up there whom you do not know.

That said, after the show hits the filler episodes, some episodes are somewhat entertaining, just to see how ceratin characters are mastering their ninja skills. But when you tire of that its time to move on to Shippuden. LIke someone said, theres a time jump that continues the canon story.

I don't recall what the last thing I saw was. I know Naruto was training again, it was after the fight with two more Akatsuki members where the immortal guy was trapped underground and Naruto finished off the other guy with cords in his body.

Now granted a couple of the fights against the Akatsuki members were interesting, and I did like the fight against the guy who was partnered with the Immortal dude who had four face masks with different elements, but overall, while so many of the characters are cool, the story seems somewhat bland to me. I feel that after the tournament, what I should have just done was skip to the episodes with cool fight scenes and ignore everything else.

And I agree that the backstories during the tournament were excellent and enjoyed them greatly, but that level of detail and story, imo, has been lacking recently.