Naruto

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Naruto is my favorite manga and I believe it is massively underrated and treated unfairly in the anime/manga community. Here is my attempt at a review:

Story: Naruto is an epic story that covers a wide variety of themes including war, camaraderie, friendship, death, political tension, the ethics of genocide (I haven’t read or watched anything that actually gives such a neutral and unbiased exploration of this controversial topic), love, conspiracy, existentialism, the nature of identity and reality, etc. The battles in Naruto are some
of the most iconic in the genre, with a wide variety of techniques, tactics and weapons being used in well drawn and ... choreographed fights that get increasingly more intense as the series goes on. Naruto never feels slow, every arc and battle undertaken feels important to the plot and necessary. Everything culminates in an epic climax reminiscent of Revelations, and even when the manga reaches the final chapter you can rest assured your questions will be answered in the sequel to this manga titled Boruto which is also extremely underrated.

Art: Kishimoto’s artstyle is one of the best in the game. Even the most complicated battles are easy to follow and comprehend. He balances backgrounds and characters flawlessly without pages looking too cluttered (One Piece) or too simple (Bleach). It might not be on par with something like Berserk but it gets the job done with cool character designs and easy to follow action scenes.

Characters: The characters in Naruto are some of the most iconic and memorable characters in all of fiction. You have the titular Naruto, who is instantly relatable from chapter one struggling to find his place in the world but overcoming his situation as an outcast with sheer confidence and optimism. But where Naruto really shines in the character department is in the supporting cast. The world history in this manga is fascinating and dark, and we learn more about it through the countless tormented characters we meet as the plot thickens. Sasuke for example had his entire clan slaughtered by his own brother, and there is more to that story I won’t spoil but the darkness of that event haunts many of the characters in the story and realistically shapes events and the actions of the characters. Itachi, Sasuke’s brother, Jiraiya, another teacher of Naruto, Orochimaru, a weird Michael Jackson look alike that is a demonic snake man and is scary, the Akatsuki and their leader Pain, a man called Madara, Gaara, Rock Lee, Shikimaru, the list goes on, there are COUNTLESS characters in this manga that are unforgettable and iconic to this day.

Enjoyment: Obviously I enjoyed this manga and I am obsessed with it. I love Naruto and also Boruto, together they weave an epic, complex fantasy saga with amazing characters and deep themes. Compared to other Shonen I believe Naruto goes the deepest and weaves the most intricate, thought provoking story.

All in all Naruto is the greatest achievement in Japanese manga imo. It is a franchise that has a bright future still and it is not too late to get on the hype train. This manga and its sequel Boruto are underrated masterpieces that will give you something to think about and to get excited about. Out of all the popular manga this one is by far the most underrated and perhaps misunderstood. If you haven’t finished reading or watching Naruto please pick it back up and get to the end, it is a masterpiece of a fantasy epic even if it’s hardly about ninjas toward the end.

naruto was interesting to say the least. the start is ok then it gets boring and literally feels like filler for a majority of the manga until the Pain's Assult arc, which is where it finally picks up. to be honest i expected a lot more from one of the original great 3. story was okay but what really carried this manga was the characters and the cool concepts that Masashi Kishimoto came up with. but yeah thats naruto. i need keywords to post this review so ignore the big wall of text coming up...

(Is the story unique? If it was predictable, did you enjoy ... it anyway because you like this genre/set-up? Do you think the art style is fitting for the story? Were the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were they unusually strong/smart/stupid? Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way? Do you think others will enjoy/dislike this series, even if you didn't? Why?)

Despite this series being popular as f*ck I Still don't get the hype around it.
Let's review it
TL: DR at the bottom
Plot: Naruto's plot started off great and simple, and just got too complicated with Kishimoto trying too hard to be unpredictable with so much stuff going on at the same time, result: Lazy and rushed with predictable twists.

Characters: Again, The first half of the series before the time-skip used its characters great but got turned to shit in Shippuden, with most of them doing nothing to the plot and just purely there for comedic relief, doesn't work for a series like naruto. ...
The villains are a copy and paste all the time "I lost my best friend/family member so I hate the whole world now".

Art: extremely generic and uninspired for the most part, with all of the characters looking the same.

Fights: Despite being a battle shonen, the fights are not that great either after part 1. with lazy powerups and no purpose for the most part.

Overall: Not worth your time unless you only want to read the first half of the series.