Shounen Naruto

[Nantalith]

One of the things I enjoy about Naruto is the simplicity of the story, the way it does hint at darker things but you have to imagine them yourself. The artwork does have good moments and bad moments but I would say they hinder the manga in any way. The clans, systems and ranks are enjoyable; the humour can be silly at times. I like that some characters may not be strong but are clever (sometimes both); also that not everyone has some badass jutsu. They are good at what they do, even if they are 'weak'.

I am a bit biased as I enjoy ninja the most. So for me, all the jutsu elements are great.

 

[Mooncrow]

I've said it before, but I'll spell it out a little more this time; I really think a lot of the reviews are missing the boat here when it comes to the theme category. One of the excellent things about Naruto is that it's main theme is actually quite subtle, yet it remains central to every character and encounter in the entire series. Things like "friendship" and "protecting those important to you" are secondary themes at best. The main theme is "causality". What makes a person behave the way they do? What actions can change the course of a person's life? If you read the series with that in mind, you can see the skillful way Kishimoto weaves that theme into practically everything.

Just something to keep in mind.

 

[OhDearMoshe]

I've said it before, but I'll spell it out a little more this time; I really think a lot of the reviews are missing the boat here when it comes to the theme category. One of the excellent things about Naruto is that it's main theme is actually quite subtle, yet it remains central to every character and encounter in the entire series. Things like "friendship" and "protecting those important to you" are secondary themes at best. The main theme is "causality". What makes a person behave the way they do? What actions can change the course of a person's life? If you read the series with that in mind, you can see the skillful way Kishimoto weaves that theme into practically everything.

Just something to keep in mind.

I sort of picked up on that as well. I'm a sucker for stuff with hidden philosophy woven in which I think is why I enjoy Naruto. Naruto has quite a number of themes listing through it. Not all are boisterous like you mentioned.

 

[Jammin]

None of the current reviews really reflect my views so I'll add my own.

Title:Naruto
Genres:Shonen
Author:Masashi Kishimoto
Artist:Masashi Kishimoto
Publication:Shonen Jump
Start Date:November 1999
End Date:ongoing
Number of chapters at review:391
Number of chapters read by reviewer:391

General Overview: A story about the life and adventures of a loud and fiery young ninja named Uzumaki Naruto.

Category Ratings: (1-10 scale)

Art:9
Naruto is a manga in which allows you to truly watch Masashi Kishimoto evolve as an artist. In the first chapters the art is average at best but he steadily improves as the series goes on. In the more recent chapters he even incorporates some more classical art styles for things like fire almost giving you the feeling that your looking at classical Japanese art. Throughout this manga the characters are expressive and his backgrounds are as creative as they are vibrant and alive. Subtracting one point for the early artwork hurts me, but its unavoidable.

Plot:8
You just never can tell where the story will go next. Twists and turns litter Naruto's life. You also never get the feeling that the characters in Naruto are drifting along, there is always a goal that they are rushing toward with everything they have. If i had to pick a flaw it would be that the rules of the world seem to stretch sometimes to provide a happy ending to events.

Characters:10
I give Naruto a full ten here because i can't think of another cast of characters that is as fascinating as the ones in Naruto. Every character you meet, friend or enemy, is deep and compelling. Which almost becomes a problem because so many of them are so interesting that they feel like they deserve their own manga.

Themes:8
So many; the will to never give up, vengeance, loyalty, friendship, loneliness, betrayal, bravery, guilt, and greed to name just a few. Every character seems to have their own underlying theme and thats part of what makes them so great. This manga uses the way in which all these different characters, each representing their own theme, interact with each other as the primary theme. For example Naruto represents "Friendship and the desire to protect friends" while Sasuke represents "Revenge and the inability to heal old emotional scars". It falls short of ten because a few of the themes are a bit simplistic.

Originality:10
I've certainly never read anything quite like it. Kishimoto created an incredible world with its own rules and history all of which is so well done it almost feels real. It's almost comparable to Harry Potter in terms of world depth and originality. I can't score it below a 10 in this area.

Overall:9.5
I've read more manga than i like to admit, but Naruto is in a class all it's own. The characters are deep and the art is beautiful. Both of which come together in intricately woven story. If you are going to read one manga make it Naruto. You'll be glad you did.

 

[wrstljr]

There are a couple things I'd like to say about the Naruto reviews so I'm going to get them off my chest haha..

First and foremost!

If I was evaluating Naruto on a weekly basis I would give it a 5/10...there just isnt much going on every week and it takes a long time to get any payoff. However, Naruto is simply an amazing read when you can dive into it about 30-40 chapters at a time. It's one of the few shonen where every chapter is meticulously plotted out as part of the whole rather than a week by week cliffhanger.

For comparisons sake, Naruto and One Piece are both terrific if you have the time and can sit down and read an arc...there is almost always emotional payoff and great fight scenes. On the other hand...many other popular shonen titles will leave you feeling empty after important arcs, and wondering what the hell did I just get all excited for over the last few weeks (Bleach is the absolute champion of this).

Secondly, the series would definitely benefit from only Naruto being the protagonist. There is always a drop off in quality when the story shifts to Sasuke for long periods of time, and no character development occurs. It feels very similar to how Dragonball got worse because Toriyama stopped writing the way he wanted to and started to cater to peoples interests.

If i had to rate Naruto i'd give it a

9/10

Not One Piece, but its still very good

 

[zelllogan]

Naruto. A massive 10/10 before the time skip. A 5/10 after it. Naruto was by far the greatest shounen but the potential was simply ruined. I really don't think that early fans of naruto still enjoy it as much now. I said it many times but the magic is gone. Naruto had that little something but lost it. But it's almost always the case with shounens: at some point, imagination is gone and there we go through the "cosmic power boost" for some characters while neglecting completely early characters

Spoiler

(even for bad guys, how kishi could treat oro like that and itachi actually a good guy ... give me a break).

I'm not expecting anything anymore from that manga but I still enjoy saying bad things about it . It's not even funny or classy anymore (for that, we have bleach).

Kishi lost it. It was a great story about a weak boy struggling to become hokage and now we have some B-scenario about a

Spoiler

destined boy, son of hokage struggling to have another jutsu than the rasengan ...

One piece was weaker in the beginning but now ... it should be a crime to put One piece and Naruto at the same level.

I'm harsh but I'm disappointed.

[Luckas]Added spoiler tags, the review section aims to be spoiler free.[/Luckas]

---

i always forget about spoilers. sorry, unintentionnal

[Luckas][/Luckas]

 

[redcometfm]

Lol Id actually put Naruto above One Piece.

 

[Jammin]

I really think Naruto is one of the most unfairly judged manga's out there. It's a weekly manga but it has artwork and writing of the quality typically only found only in monthly mangas. It also has an rate of production that makes those monthly mangas look pathetically slow. If Naruto was released in a monthly fashion it would be somewhere in the area of 80-90 pages! Considering the quality of the artwork, i find that just stunning.

One of the great things about the review template here on mangahelpers is that it makes you justify and explain your rating. I think too many people are judging Naruto not on it's merits as a manga but on plot points they personally don't like.

Granted a lot of people may think my rating was a bit high, but i don't. I tried to judge it as fairly and unbiased as i could on each merit and 9.5 is what i came up with(as i said in my full review on the previous forum page). If you did the same and you came up with a lower rating then that's fine. Just please try and make sure you aren't letting one judgment area, like plot, color your whole review.

 

[Luckas]

One of the problem when talking about Naruto I think it is the big difference between Part 1 and Part 2 and also the lenght of the manga.

 

[zelllogan]

part 1 and part 2 are not destined to the same public at all.

And I don't think you can judge this manga fairly. Everyone will have a reaction reading the manga because of the change between part 1 and part 2.

Part 2 is exactly like DBZ. I'm just hoping for the manga that we're not going to have a GT finish.

IMO, Part 2 is much more spectacular than Part 1 ... BUT to make that possible, we have cheap tricks ... and even worse, complete plot holes.

 

[Jammin]

One of the problem when talking about Naruto I think it is the big difference between Part 1 and Part 2 and also the lenght of the manga.

Yeah, you're right about that. I guess what is bothering me is that for all the negative things people state about part 2, they never list the positive traits along side them which is in no way fair to the manga.

I have no problems with part 2 at all, in fact i think it has been a huge improvement overall. Art, Characters, Originality, and Plot all get a boost in my opinion. Even if Themes take a bit of a hit.

Part 2 is exactly like DBZ. I'm just hoping for the manga that we're not going to have a GT finish

I would love the hear your reasoning for how you think part 2 is like DBZ but i guess it would be impossible for you to explain in detail in a spoiler free thread.

[Luckas]He could use a very big spoiler and clearly explaining it will spoil half of the manga [/Luckas]

 

[zelllogan]

DBZ - Naruto part 2:

Spoiler

- out of proportion power boost
- early characters almost completely abandonned
- Less talk , les strategy, more action (in fight)

The difference between DB & DBZ is kind of like the difference between part1 and part2.
I stop here because I could really make an awfully long list of everything I didn't like in the second part.

edit: I don't see any real spoiler in this post but if you want it ...

 

[Jammin]

@zelllogan
Please spoiler tag or delete the top of your post.

edit:Thanks. This thread is geared towards those who have never read the manga, so you can't be too careful. I restrict myself to comments only about very very very general traits of the manga and the reviews in these review threads. Which is why i can't discuss it here.

I would very much like to hear your views but lets shift to a non-spoiler free area. *HERE*(warning link is to area containing spoilers) would be appropriate i think. If you want to continue this discussion that is.

 

[redcometfm]

Naruto's art seems a bit flat to me. When Kishi stopped shading like he used to, the art just wasnt as impressive. The only time the art really pops at out me is when Tobi is in the frame (because Kishi makes it so obvious through his art that he loves this character).

 

[GGpX]

Sorry, but those of you who rated Naruto's art higher than a 6 (And even then, that's high for very plain art) need to get your eyes checked. If Naruto is a an 8.5 then what is Berserk? A 17 out of 10? Get real. A manga with such little detail and with such poorly drawn fighting scenes--Fighting scenes that are extremely hard to understand--does not deserve such a high note.

Naruto could potentially get a 10 in originallity if you judged it on the first 2 volumes & a half. After that, though, it morphed into a typical power-up shounen. Pouring with originality indeed.

As for the characters, I give Sasuke a 9 and everyone else a 5. Sasuke is the only character in all of Naruto that's even remotely interesting. Everybody else is vanilla flavored in and out.

"Best shounen ever..." Heh. That's a ludicrous statement if ever I read one.

 

[Jammin]

Berserk is not a weekly manga therefor they should not be judged in the same category. Berserks art is drawn at a snails pace compared to Naruto's

Though i like Naruto's art better anyway. Berserk, though hyper detailed, also has very cluttered looking panels and doesn't often change scenery. If you've seen one dark stone castle and dark creepy forest you've seen them all.

 

[Maxy Barnard]

Then I"S, Rookies, Muhyo, Neuro, some works of Obata and many more all materialise as examples of how a weekly series (weekly jump no less) can turn around and have captivating and detailed art with a unique swing. Something that naruto arguably does not, approaching more of the plain faced unadventurous stylings as more action or story driven series.

But then that's based on my personal tastes in art direction, which tends to fluctuate as i see fit *sweats profusely*

 

[GGpX]

Berserk is not a weekly manga therefor they should not be judged in the same category. Berserks art is drawn at a snails pace compared to Naruto's

Okay, since you put it that way, Death Note & Air Gear were (AG is still on-going) both drawn in weekly magazines. They ended up looking pretty good last I checked. Again, if Naruto is an 8/10 in art, what are these? 15/10?

Though i like Naruto's art better

I stopped after you said liked Naruto's art better. The rest of your post is not worth replying to.

 

[Jammin]

Well, art can be a matter of taste. There are widely varying manga styles and everyone has their own preference.

I personally find that the later volumes of Naruto has just the right level of detail for the series. He draws vibrant, original, and widely varied environments. I'm also a huge fan of his tendency to adopt a more classical Japanese scroll painting look and using that to improve the look of both his environments and characters. Using all this kishimoto makes it so every time you see something new it really looks like something you've never seen before. In some cases never even imagined before.

As for your examples of better detail in a weekly series. I looked through some of the more recent chapters of all of them with the exception of Neuro, that one i couldn't find. I figured you can't mean "Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro", that one has low detail especaily the character's noses for some reason. I's and Rookies both had much better use of shadows than Naruto which fits in with their more realistic style, but in terms of character and environment detail i didn't see anything all that special. All had good art in their own way.

Edit: I suppose i only looked over a few panels of Neuro so maybe i'm not giving it as much credit as it deserves. I'll have to give it another look later.

@GGpx
Airgear has high character detail and super low background detail(some of them are even absent). I would give it a 7, which i think is pretty generous.

Deathnote is a realistic manga and very well drawn i would give it a 9-10 just like Naruto. I wouldn't rate the art as better or worse than Naruto just different.

 

[Maxy Barnard]

I do mean majin tantei nogami neuro. whilst the characters faces do tend to come off quite weakly, the details in their kinetic energy, or even at any point extravagant moments come in, or the true nature of the murderers are revealed, the sheer range of the art can be shown off to an amazing capacity. Something that Naruto can't really do. What you see all the time is generally what you get with the art. not really a bad thing, just really not that interesting