What do you still like about Naruto?

[Kaiten]

With all of the discussion about retoconned characters, the series going done hill, a main character in decline, if he is still the main character, etc. it begs the question: what is everyone still reading Naruto for? Are there positive points left? Does everyone still look forward to new chapters?

Personally I still find Naruto very entertaining. While it is not one of my favorite series I've always looked forward to new chapters (still do). For all of the silliness, especially since the immortals arc ended, Naruto is still a good action shonen. The Pain Invasion arc was magnificent, one of the Jumps highlights last year. While I like Sasuke the character I don't like that every arcs he has been in starting with Itachi has been a multi chapter battle, with the exception of the Kage summit. But when Kishi shifts the focus to other characters I fully expect more plot oriented, less jutsu obsessed chapters. As the Pain arc demonstrated, Kishi is willing to focus on plot and dialog driven chapters when the focus is on any other character.

[Exodi]

I still like it for pretty much the same reasons you do, although I don't mind "jutsu obsessed chapters," because unlike Bleach, Naruto has a lot more plot development.

The thing about Naruto action that I find entertaining is that there's always some sort of thinking involved. Techniques exists on deeper levels than just "it does this cool thing!". From the beginning there was an interesting mix of cool, supernatural ability and (pseudo) science.

[Kaiten]

I agree, the fights involve more strategy and dialog than a lot of other action series. Some fights more than others. I personally don't love (but don't always hate) mult - chapter fights, that wasn't a knock against Naruto specifically. Kishi's writing is definitely underrated. He has had his weak moments but over all Naruto is a pretty sharp manga.

[Darth Executor]

I love multi-chapter fights. The only thing that ruins them for me is coming here and reading all the complaining about the fights being boring. The recent sasuke/danzou fight was incredible and I can't wait to see it animated.

The only fight I kinda got bored/annoyed with was the pain invasion arc. not only was it way too long and filled up with useless crap like the hunt for the real pain, but almost as if to apologize for the non-existent naruto development, kishimoto had naruto destroy pain's bodies way too quickly and easily to be believable. He made Jiraiya look like konohamaru.

[maaghms]

what is everyone still reading Naruto for?

I’m still reading Naruto for the following reasons:

1. It takes only 3 minutes each week. (Every week I spend about 3 minutes for OP, Bleach and Naruto respectively). So, I sort of give myself a total of around 15 minutes each week for the big three in addition to some other weekly manga.
2. It is free.
3. For general entertainment purposes.

Does everyone still look forward to new chapters?

I don’t think I actively look forward to new chapters for Naruto (since the beginning of Part II). As I said before, I have a set of “manga to read” every week. And Naruto happens to be one of them. But there are some mangas such as OP which I might want to know what happens in the next chapter. So you can call it “looking forward to”. But no, not for Naruto.

Are there positive points left?

May be a few such as the interaction of other side characters (e.g. Kakashi, Sai, Bee, etc) and battles for other Kages. But when it comes to Naruto, I don’t even want to look at him since he obsesses about Sasuke 24 hrs/day.. Furthermore, when it comes to Sasuke, I just cannot stand his attitude. So, I like most other characters except those two worthless and overly emotional main characters.

[M3J]

what is everyone still reading Naruto for? Are there positive points left? Does everyone still look forward to new chapters?

I'm loyal to the manga and it still does tend to interest me. I mostly am reading to see what happens and how it finishes. Naruto's fate is what interests me. Does he become a hokage? Does he die? Does he create peace? Did he save Sasuke? How awesome has he gotten?

To be honest, I don't see much positive points. Naruto fainting made me lose respect I had for him. Despite being hated so much, treated so badly, he still kept on fighting and being his awesome self. But mention Sakura attempting to kill Sasuke, or Sasuke not being spared, he passes out (allegedly). While the result of his battle against Pain may not have helped his image as much, the way he reacted when Cloud nins attacked was just pure awesome. One of my favorites.
Sasuke lost his coolness when he started charging in and not thinking and when he used Mangekyou Sharingan a lot. What made him awesome was that smart, emotionless kid that proved how intelligent he was. Now we see revenge-driven Sasuke doing lot of stupid things.
Sakura ended Rescue Gaara arc with so much potential, but she got somewhat shoved aside then she deteriorated during Pain arc, where she was crying for Naruto to come back. Though, she did show herself pretty well, trying to save the village and saving the little girl. Who knows? It's too early to write her off.

I look forward to new chapters because I am curious to see what happens. Naruto hasn't degraded in quality that much.
I hope that new techniques aren't made that gets uber and uber. I liked jutsu from Part I as it was simple enough and still pretty cool.

[KnuckleheadedNinja]

Nothing.

Edit: Maybe the occasional appearance of Kakashi.

[ashher]

i am a rather rare case here it seems;i like shippuden so much more than 1st part.the first while being a good one as a shonen,it wasn't very exceptional anything.among usual shonens my favorite is hunter x hunter.

so the things i like about Naruto are prolly the ones that usually ppl don't like.

i like the way sasuke has been developed very much.these days villains like joker has become more and more common,while they have style,they kinda makes us forget that villains come from normal ppl who gets screwed themselves too many a time.

i like the way naruto has been developed.normally in shonens everything revolves around the hero,here it feels like naruto is really one among many sixteen year olds fighting to find right place for him.at present the characteristics he show are very common among shonen heros,like pacifism and fighting for nakama and all,but unlike other heros he had none of them built-in,each step of him towards these attributes have been enjoyable.....and now that he doubts all of them,it makes me more interested.

i always thought sakura should've been developed.kishi said that he didn't concentrate on sakura or her family because she is a normal girl,but it was imo necessary to portray what was really normal,because both sasuke and naruto has been developed in such way so that they can be like extraordinary from ordinary,so the chance of depicting normal/ordinary was in sakura.i am glad that recently kishi concentrated on sakura and let her make normally acceptable reasonable decisions.

supporting characters have been good as well,konoha rookies played their part,then akatsuki villains and kages and sai and 8tails.......they haven't played big roles but kept things going.however i am very glad that kishi didn't make it like normal shonens where all the nakamas have some problems and hero goes and solves all through some fights,(one arc for byakugan, one for gates, one for dogs.....u get what i mean) .......supporting characters stayed in their place.

the plot has also been good,with twist, background infos,good jutsus and fights.however i am particularly disappointed with 2 recent events that is the kage meeting resulting in union already........there should've been a war among nations which should've been solved by naruto as a hokage.however i am hoping sasuke will cause a break in the union when his time comes as the chief villain,it would be great if naruto solves it then.the second is the apparent death of kisame and danzo,which killed of 2 relevant plot-lines about madara's connection with mist and more internal politics and may be a civil war.in a nutshell,i expect more delicate things in a war than just a group of terrorist.

[Sachsenhesse]

because i play in a onlinenarutorpg for years and must be up to date xD

according to that my maininterest lies in the jutsus that are shown... unfortunatly the most useful jutsus are shown by useless characters they got pwning from sasuke or pain

[Shisu]

What l do like about Naruto?

Of course the badass main character Sasuke.
And the Akatsuki cloak's

Mainly it's because of the wicked story. l don't know any other Manga with such a well done and complex story.

[Askia32]

I guess I like the idea of the manga. I still read cuz part of me is still hoping for a turnaround.

[3c]

Great topic Kaiten! We surely need a topic like this to reduce the negative comments on the series and Naruto the character.

I guess I still read it because of the plot as I'm interested in seeing where this is going. And despite myself being annoyed by certain aspects of the series, those same aspects actually make me want to keep reading the series. Like for example, Naruto's endless quest for saving Sasuke annoys the hell out of me, but because I want to know when this takes a turning point/reaches it's climax it keeps me interested despite my heavy negativity towards that said plot.

Other than that I guess it's because despite Naruto's many weak moments, annoying beliefs and ugly jumpsuit I still love the character, and want to cheer him on in the future. So yeah Naruto still has a hold on me.

Addionally I think the fights in Naruto are spectacular. Better than any other fights I've read in any other manga. The reason for this is that fights in Naruto are so much more complicated. It's not like "Lulz I'm 10000 and you 8000. You stand no chance as I have moar powah!". It's strategy, and the many weaknesses vs strengths. Like the nature wheel. Elements come into play, strategy comes into play. Things like this is what make the fights for me. This is the reason why I didn't enjoy the Kage Summit to much, as I hated the non-thinking action. However the recent Danzou vs Sasuke has been spectacular and is one of my favorite fights in Naruto in general. It was simply awesome to the core, and a big reason for this is the strategies and thinking involved in this fight, Sasuke rocked. I also agree with you Darth, that the negativity sometimes ruin the fights. Although it's mostly directed towards Sasuke, some people just can't hold in the hate. Though I think it's rather comic that this always happens with the spoilers. People go like "OMGz0r this sucks!". Then the chapter comes out and the same people say "OMGz0r this chapter owns!".

All in all I still like Naruto, despite it's negative sides. It is my favorite manga after all.

[juUnior]

Everything: it's my top favourite fighting shonen after all <3 <even if sometimes I'm annoyed of Kishi's love for Sasuke ^^'>.

I'm not going into details because it would be too long <and I don't have time xd>, but from the very first moment I loved that Kishi puts an awesome idea to combine the cool ideas from mythology, other cultures, fighting styles and such and incorporate it into his own manga. It's a cool "japanese" feel to it <I don't know how to call it>. I find such stuff very, very cool <I don't know why, seriously, but it makes me feel that it's more than just yet another 'simple' manga >.

The rest is simple: awesome characters <you like them or don't like them, you love them, hate them, everything is here>, designs <usually pro, and even if in the beginning I bash sth, later on I find it very cool>, art <fantastic panels, constantly more "natural, realistic" approach to drawing - it reminds me <in some way of course> of American comic book artists like Tom Lyle, Mark Bagley and Todd McFarlane which I respect; drawing characters and backgrounds>, fights <like it was said: one of the coolest thing>, interactions between characters <the only fighting shonen manga where I consider this aspect very good, not even Dragonball was so good in that aspect, sorry xd>, and so on. If someone considers OP/Bleach a masterpiece <ok, maybe Bleach not, but who knows >, I consider Naruto a masterpiece ^^

btw. ahh, I forgot.. SABAKU NO GAARA! xDXDXD

[Delbi]

Personally, I have a love hate relationship with many of the characters, and the overall plot interests me greatly as I want to see how Naruto is going to solve the problems at hand in his world.

Also, some of Kishi's characters like Kakashi and Shikamaru, are to me, some of the greatest characters in manga today. They are my favorite characters and I just think anything with them in it is great so I'll keep reading to see what they will do. And Kakashi as Hokage is full of win, so I need to see how that'll turn out haha.

[Drmke]

I keep reading because, overall, the story is still very pleasing. It has its weak moment, more recently, but its a solid shonen manga with a original plot and unique characters.

I do look forward to new chapters each because some are really plot driven, and some actually contain very interesting and unforeseen plot twists.

The most positive points left I guess would be the main characters (mostly Sasuke and Naruto) are getting a lot more character development than they use too. By character development, I'm not talking about getting more screen time or new techniques, but more layers to their personalities are being shown. Naruto is losing his innocence about the world and Sasuke is showing his real self. I prefer Kishimoto changing how each character acts over the course of the story as opposed to many series where the main characters are the same at the end as they were at the beginning.