Seven
Things About:
NARUTO
By
Paul Adams
Works of fiction can often be difficult to get into, and
latecomers to the game can often be confused by the sheer amount of lore and
plot built into something ongoing. So, I’m here to break down what one needs to
know into seven easy-to-understand plot points, followed by what, in my
opinion, are the seven strongest points of the work as well as the seven
weakest. That way, a new reader or viewer has some sense of what they are about
to get themselves into. What are we covering today? The Naruto manga and anime series by Masashi Kishimoto
1. This is Uzumaki Naruto: He’s a spirited
young boy with blonde hair, whiskers, and an orange vest that doesn’t do him
much good as a ninja, but has a certain amount of sentimental value attached to
it. He grew up an orphan, with everyone he knows hating him for unknown
reasons. Through this rough treatment, Naruto becomes determined to prove
himself as the greatest ninja of all and to never back down.
2. He lives in a world of ninjas: Naruto’s
world is made up of five major nations, and these nations conduct their wars
not by standard military combat, but by secret villages that carry out covert
ninja operations against the others. They’re more than just standard sneaky
ninjas like you’d see in real life though. These ninjas have magic *cough* excuse
me, chakra, with which they can perform spells and cast illusions. Naruto lives
in one of these secret villages.
3. At age twelve, young ninjas are sorted into
teams of three: These secret villages train their children from a very
young age to hone their ninja abilities and magic *cough* chakra. At age twelve,
they graduate from their academy and are sorted into teams of three under a
mentor. Naruto’s teammates are Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Their mentor is
Hatake Kakashi.
4. This is Uchiha Sasuke: Sasuke is Naruto’s
teammate, best friend, and worst enemy. He is a serious, brooding character
that all the girls fawn over, including Sakura. When he was young, his older
brother Itachi slaughtered their entire family, leaving only Sasuke alive. Ever
since, Sasuke has thought of nothing but getting strong enough to seek revenge
on Itachi. Sasuke’s drive for revenge and his budding friendship with Naruto
are two of the most important driving factors of the story.
5. Naruto’s body acts as a prison for a
powerful demon: We eventually come to learn the reason that Naruto is
treated so poorly by his village. When he was born, a nine-tailed fox demon
named Kurama attacked the village. In order to save everyone, the demon was
sealed inside Naruto’s newborn body as a sort of living prison. Many, not
understanding this, took it to mean that Naruto was the fox demon and treated
his thusly.
6. Many friends and enemies abound: As
ninjas tasked to carry out war operations against other countries without the
countries themselves going to war, many allies and enemies from all nations
appear throughout the series. Naruto’s team are quite friendly with their peer
teams from their own village, as well as a trio of siblings from a neighboring
country’s village. They have also had to contend with a duo of assassins, a
rogue master seeking eternal life, Sasuke’s brother Itachi, and a band of rogue
ninjas who call themselves the Akatsuki.
7. It is a seven-hundred-chapter manga: This
is not a light read or viewing for anyone. The original manga series went on
for a full seven hundred chapters. The anime on the other hand has nearly
thirty seasons, adapting the entire manga and filling up the rest with possibly
the most filler material of any anime. There are also several movies (note:
these are anime movies, so they’re more like extended filler episodes than actual
movies), and a sequel series about Naruto’s son Boruto. It’s also worth noting
the anime is divided into Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden.
And now, here’s just a few of the things I like most
about the series:
1. Many Characters: Much like Harry Potter, where this series really
shines is in their well-developed characters. Naruto, Sasuke, and Itachi are
just the tip of the iceberg here. Their trainer Kakashi is a strong and complex
character, as are many of their peers, such as lazy genius Shikamaru, shy
Hinata, flamboyant Rock Lee, and self-assured Neji. We also have Gaara of the neighboring
Sand Village, many of our villains, and a number of other characters and allies.
While some may not get as much focus as they probably should, what we do get is
pretty spectacular.
2. Strong Character Development: Another
thing this series has going for it is the strong character arcs presented here.
Naruto starts the series as a loud, obnoxious brat who causes trouble just to
get attention and gets confrontational with everyone, but by the end of the
story, he is still energetic, but now kind, understanding, and determined to
never give up on anyone, best known for his ability to defeat almost any enemy
just by having a real conversation with them. Sasuke, on the other hand, we get
to see start as closed off and aloof, start to open up to Naruto, then pull
back hard and abandon the village and his friend plunging even deeper into his
cause for revenge until Naruto manages to finally pull him back out. Then we
have Gaara who goes from being a psychopathic murderer to a wise and benevolent
leader, Shikamaru who starts out lazy and indifferent to the world around him
and becomes the most focused and hard-working ninja in the village, and so many
others.
3. Great Fight Scenes: Ask anybody. They
will tell you. The thing they remember most are the excellent fight scenes.
With so many characters, so many unique *cough* magical *cough* abilities, most
of the fight scenes are a wonder to behold on spectacle alone, though many do
contain strong moments of character worked in. The Chunin Exam arc alone
contains some of the most memorable fight scenes of the series, including Rock
Lee’s unbeatable super speed vs. Gaara’s impenetrable sand shield, Hinata and
Neji going at each other with their family’s special brand of chakra-blocking
techniques, and Shikamaru’s brilliantly laid-out long game against Gaara’s
sister Temari.
4. The Chunin Exam Arc: While we’re on the
subject of the Chunin Exam arc, I consider this arc to be easily the best in
the series and the strongest cross-section of what this series is all about.
While we get an initial arc to establish our main team and their dynamic with
one another, this is the arc that established what Naruto was. First, it expanded the cast almost quintuple-fold with
characters most of whom quickly became beloved in their own right. We truly got
to see them as “ninjas in training” as their abilities were put to the test,
physically and mentally. We start with a written exam that requires them to
cheat without getting caught, emphasizing the information-gathering aspect of
their position. Then they have to survive against other teams and other hazards
in the aptly named “Forest of Death,” before topping it off with two rounds of
one-on-one personal battles. Throughout these tests, one was not only given a
sense of what it means to be a real ninja in their world, but every one of
these new characters got a chance to truly shine and demonstrate what they were
made of. If you watch nothing else of this series, watch this.
5. Strong Recurring Themes: Throughout the
series, there are quite a few recurring themes that resonate strongly. The push
and pull of friendship and forgiveness vs. hate and revenge plays out not only
in the character of Sasuke, but also in nearly every other villain redemption
that occurs through Naruto. Naruto manages to befriend and redeem Gaara, a
psychotic killer; Zabuza, a ruthless assassin; Pain, a self-proclaimed god who
had nearly killed everyone Naruto cared about; Neji, an arrogant elitist who
beat his cousin into submission just because he could; and several others just
by taking the time to understand and care about what had brought them to this point
and offering them a hand of friendship. Other themes, such as never giving in
and never surrendering no matter how bad it looks, plays into the personal
character development of both Naruto and Hinata, who adopted it from him. This
theme then becomes a strong point of connection between these two as their
relationship grows.
6. A Few Good Romances: I will talk about
this further in my negatives, but for what it’s worth, the brief focus on romantic
relationships we did get were pretty special. Though they don’t get much screen
time together, Naruto’s relationship with Hinata, as a boy who felt hated and
rejected by everyone around him, but through his courage and determination,
earning the love and admiration of a shy girl who had never had any courage of
her own, and that girl then using him as inspiration for developing her own courage
and drive, until finally they stand together side by side, both determined to
never give up, is pretty darn strong for what it is. Outside of this, Shikamaru’s
romance with Gaara’s sister Temari can be pretty cute here and there, his
mentor Asuma’s relationship with fellow mentor Kurenai is also heartwarming,
and . . . um, I think that’s about it.
7. Creativity and Imagination: For
whatever flaws it may have, this series is brimming with imagination. While I
joke about their chakra being magic, the chakra is a lot more personalized to
each character than, say, the magic in Harry Potter. Every character has their
own unique ninja techniques, either inherited from their family, self-taught, or
taught by a mentor, making for a wide mix of people who each have a seemingly
endless list of special powers and abilities. Even a character like Rock Lee, who
can’t use chakra (the ninja equivalent of a squib), has trained his body to the
point that he is often the most impressive ninja on the field. And most of these
characters come with their own unique personalities on top of those abilities. If
anything, some of the story’s problems may spring from the creator having a few
too many ideas and just having to squeeze them all in.
Now, all that said, here’s seven things I don’t care
for.
1. Ridiculous Levels of Filler: As
mentioned before, the anime is full of an exorbitant amount of filler material nonexistent
in the manga, and generally having little to do with the plot at all (though
they can include some solid character moments), and can even throw off the
pacing from what it had been in the manga. That said, the manga’s seven hundred
chapters aren’t exactly without their pointless plot threads that go nowhere. In
the series’ final arc (The War Arc, as it’s known), we spend over two hundred
chapters giving many of our characters satisfying conclusions mixed in with A)
the right hand man of the brother of a guy we met a hundred chapters back
fighting two guys who have a loose connection to the demon inside Naruto, B)
the leader of an army of samurai, who we had also been introduced to a hundred
chapters back, having a personal battle with a guy who played a part in Pain’s
backstory, flashbacks included, and C) Gaara and his sister fighting four
resurrected guys who were apparently important historical figures in their
world but are mostly just “three random guys and Gaara’s dad.” It can be
tedious to get through.
2. Poorly Written Romance: As much as I
praised the romance between Naruto and Hinata for what it was on a basic level,
I am under no delusions that it was written well. Apparently, the author Kishimoto
wasn’t very good at writing romantic scenes and got embarrassed anytime he
tried, so there are very few scenes between Naruto and Hinata, and while those
scenes are strong, the long space in between them all tends to hamper the
experience a bit. He also tends to downplay the romantic aspect, probably for
the same reason above, but he couldn’t quite commit to the series being a
romantic series or not, leaving it in a weird kind of half-way state. It doesn’t
help that most of the couples we got at the end had had barely more than a scene
or two of dialogue with each other at all.
3. Haruno Sakura: I have avoided talking
about this character up until now. Time to bite the bullet. Sakura is the third
member of Naruto and Sasuke’s team, and I despise her. She is introduced as one
of the many girls fawning over Sasuke, while also being one of the smartest girls
in class. Naruto has a crush on her, partially driven by, partially inspiring
his rivalry with Sasuke, but she treats him like dirt. Every once in a while,
the series will make a big show about her growing as a character and coming to
care for Naruto, possibly even harboring feelings for him, only for her to beat
him over the head five chapters later and drool over Sasuke despite him having
tried to kill her two chapters ago. Just when you think that maybe she is about
to have some real character development, she turns around and does something
more childish than you would have expected of early-series Sakura. Sakura is
what you might call a façade. She looked good, she sounded good, but at the end
of the day, she really wasn’t. She had her good moments every now and then, but
most of the time, she was just a drag.
4. The Drawbacks of Writing a Weekly Series:
Something I learned while writing my fanfiction “The Smash Freshmen” is that
keeping a weekly series consistent is next-to-impossible. You may have set up
an idea in one week among others, only for that idea to get forgotten in the
shuffle. You may have been planning to go one direction with a character, only
for the plot you’ve created to prevent you from ever pursuing that character
arc, and it ends up just falling flat. It’s understandable. I get it. Kishimoto
did the best he could under the circumstances. But that doesn’t mean those
flaws aren’t there, and you as the reader or viewer should be aware of them.
5. Characters and Plot Threads that go nowhere:
Pretty much what I said above. Although a lot of the characters introduced in the
Chunin Exam arc get their time to shine in that arc, after that arc, many of
them might as well be extras. One could argue that Shikamaru, Hinata, Neji, and
Lee are the only members of their peers that maintain any sort of relevance in
the story. Hinata’s companions Kiba and Shino are mostly just in the background
most of the time, Neji and Lee’s companion Tenten didn’t even get any relevance
during her introduction, and Gaara and Temari’s brother Kankuro might as well
not exist for all he contributes. Not to mention that once the war arc starts,
the cast is nearly doubled with a bunch of characters you’ll be lucky to
remember, though you’ll be expected to. Again, could be a side effect of the
previous point, but it’s still there.
6. Sheer Length: Again, this is not a
series for light viewing. It is a seven-hundred-chapter manga, with about thirty
seasons of anime, movies, and a sequel series. It will require a lot of
patience and those fillers are really good at chipping away that patience. Be
prepared.
7. Similarities to other Shonen Manga:
Yes, as many point out, Naruto has
many, many, many similarities to other manga and anime in the Shonen genre. Like
Dragon Ball, our main character is an excitable kid who learns better through
fighting than anything else and always has a positive demeanor. There’s a lot
of really long fight scenes and filler. We have a revenge-driven rival with a
moody, antihero vibe, a trope so common in anime, it might as well be its own
genre. People shoot enormous blasts of energy at each other, and the main
character doesn’t seem to know when to stop when it comes to getting more and
more powerful, so that by the end of the series, they might as well be a god (also
see: Dragon Ball . . . and Bleach). As long as you’re okay with that, please
enjoy.
Thanks for reading. Please comment below and follow me for more.
No comments:
Post a Comment