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I'll be honest, I'm a total sucker for romances, so all my scores for romance anime/manga are massively inflated. Keep that in mind. If I don't talk about some elements of the manga here, then that means they aren't relevant to a discussion of the main reasons why I think its a good read.

With that out of the way, let's get to it! Bonnouji!

There isn't really much to talk about, to be honest. It's a package we've all seen before (Two people fall in love! What happens?!™) wrapped in simple, pleasant art, and incredibly straightforward execution. This is a slice-of-life romance.

Instead of what ... you might call the usual drama (Will they won't they, jealousy, love triangles, dark pasts, etc.), Bonnouji uses its happy-go-lucky, relaxing pace to explore some common questions involved in romantic (and some platonic!) relationships in a very stress-free environment.

Every chapter is, after a fashion, very much like the boxes Zenji, Michiyo, and Shimapon receive in the mail: eclectic, colorful, and always fun. Try it at your own pace. I can guarantee you'll find something to like here.

What I would imagine to be a prototypical shounen romance. Complete with over-the-top drama, wacky characters, and breakneck pacing, GE is a ride. Not sure if I would have kept following it if I had been reading while it was publishing though; these cliffhangers were Geass-level bullshit.

I'm a sucker for romances though, so if your tolerance for a choo-choo train full of all the shounen tropes combined with romance seems low, be forewarned.

It's done! The end of Naruto marks the end of an 15-year period, about half of which I spent waiting for weekly updates for the manga that was my very first.

Was it worth it? Maybe. I have a gut feeling that Naruto is going to be one of those manga that took great benefit from having a long-ass run time, and that a lot of the attraction towards Naruto was the fact that, well, "everyone else was reading it too." Reading Naruto was as much of a social exercise as it was a reading one, since it's mega popularity ensured that there would always ... be one or two people that you know that would be following it as well.

As far as the actual writing is concerned, I'd have to liken it to Harry Potter: ultimately flawed, but relatable. The themes of believing in yourself and the Power of Friendship™ have been explored numerous times before (and in a much better fashion by other manga/anime), and Naruto itself is a manga that I'm pretty sure could have been written in 200-300 chapters as opposed to the monstrous 700 that have presented over its 15 year run. Many, many, many characters are introduced, given their time in the limelight, and then thrown away because ultimately, it's all about Naruto. Kishimoto doesn't understand how to use scale to properly create climactic moments, and by the end, Naruto's supreme dominance over any of the other characters makes their attempts to seem relevant laughable and almost pitiable. The fact of the matter is, there are so many "oh, but this isn't my final form!" moments in the manga that reading the damn thing became a chore near the end due to the fact that Kishimoto isn't a very creative writer.

So why did I read all 700 chapters of what seems to be a quite mediocre effort? Well, Naruto was my first manga. Arguably, this fact combined with its existence as a social phenomenon made Naruto quite enjoyable to read (see my enjoyment score) despite its glaring flaws. It was fun to discuss the manga's weekly happenings with other people through its ups and downs--the experience was similar to that of following a sports team with other fans.

So, should you read Naruto? Probably not, unless you really, really like shounen's. It's a stunningly middle-of-the-road affair with little original thematic content that was made enjoyable to read due to the fact that it was mega-popular.

Story 4, Art 5, Character 2, Enjoyment 8, Overall: 5 (4.75).