Jan 26, 2012
One of the best manga out there, and getting deserved praise and attention!!!
Many people somewhat consider it overrated or point out flaws which basically, aren't flaws in my opinion, so let's get it to pieces (Review by the way follows up to chapter 571)
Story (9/10) | Characters (10/10) from me:
Okay naruto is a shounen manga, with basic shounen ideas, but the world naruto himself lives in, is thought out pretty well, very interesting, with it's own history and culture, political affairs etc.
Naruto starts off about a seemingly annoying little brat who has this need to do bad stuff to get attention and honestly I didn't
...
like him at first, but as the manga goes on, his past is explained, his courage and bravery is shown you start to fall in love with this character... Naruto is not a fairy tale (not a manga lol, just expression) either, it tells a story about a harsh, ignorant society, which hates something it created itself... it's a story about two lonely guys, who are complete opposites but become friends afterwords, only to turn into each others enemies due to many factors...
but this is not Manga just about Naruto and Sasuke, it has a lot of characters in Part I who develop and have their own stories, very interesting ones as well, so here comes the first flaw everybody is talking about - the fact that they're ignored in Part II...
now let's take One Piece for example (love that one as well for the record) when in One Piece they move from one island to another, they leave crap load of characters behind, who rarely appear afterwords, but nobody complains because it's an adventure... something like that happens in Naruto as well, you should consider that author has told everything he wanted about the characters in Part I, that's why he's not using them in Part II, but many people have hard time dealing with this... this after all, doesn't mean Naruto has no more good characters, but rather Kishimoto moves to another group of new complex and interesting characters, a group named Akatsuki and tells about them for a long time in Part II... for me these new characters are way more interesting... and some old ones are involved too, but not everyone, you could say by this point only 2 or 3 out of Konoha 11 have actual development and screen time... and just like that, when Kishimoto is done with most of the Akatsuki, he moves to another group of new characters (to other Kage's and his guardians, to their history and tales)... so story is progressing and offering many new characters, I think author is doing right not to stick with ones he introduced in first part.
Apart from characters, story is getting more and more complex, and darker as well, not many PG-13 shounen mangas, would dare to give one of the side-characters chance for revenge, which he will take without any kind of hesitation and destroy his enemy completely without "Revenge is a bad thing" type of talk (Reference to Shikamaru vs Hidan), or rarely you would see that one of the main characters (Uchiha Sasuke) which you're driven to like for first 200 chapters, turns into a villain and enemy of Naruto... in this sense Naruto is very good...
Now the reason story doesn't get 10 is because this manga had it's own downfalls, one of them being first part of ongoing war, but apparently it's getting better with every chapter!
Art (9/10)
Now one thing everybody has to give Naruto credit for, is it's art and style, everything is detailed and very believable, I love Kshimoto's drawing and the reason why it gets 9 is well because there are other mangas out there with way better art, and it's the most original one as well, good, but nothing phenomenal
Enjoyment 10/10 for me, even with it's flaws in story telling sometimes, for me - it's always about the message author is trying to give us, and it's pretty much always smart enough... I love Naruto, it has a nice balance of humor, action, smartness or philosophy in it... you can just sit and enjoy Reading/ Watching it (though if you're gonna watch, find out about fillers first, you'll need to skip all of them, their number is too damn high)
Overall, as one of my favorite manga alongside One Piece, it gets 10 from me, because even though it has flows, you can't expect it to be Perfect since it's way too big and long to not mistakes... it's about idea and interesting world, tactics and characters depth... Naruto is truly a titan in this industry and it deserves fanbase it has... :)
P.S: if you're gonna read/watch it, know, you should only if you're ready for a LONG, very LONG ride...
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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