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.
