Naruto - A Honest Review

Naruto is breaking popularity records both in Japan and on the other side of the ocean, just as Dragon Ball once did. Why? Because Naruto is very similar to Dragon Ball - we have a not very clever main character with hidden superpowers, a lot of side heroes - also equipped with superpowers, a few heroes who do not know anything and their task is to make a laughingstock of themselves ... Ba! There is even a perverted old man! How much do you know about Naruto?

The plot tells the story of a boy named Naruto, initially ignored by the inhabitants of his native village, and his efforts to make his dream come true - to be accepted by all who paid no attention to him. As you can easily guess, the series is a bit like "from zero to hero". So initially the boy is a student of the Ninja Academy in the village of Konoha, later he becomes a genin (the lowest rank in the ninja hierarchy) and goes to a village terrorized by a certain multi-millionaire. Upon his return, he takes the chuunin exam, during which everything gets complicated. More enemies appear, such as the legendary sennin, as well as members of some organization, apparently wanting something from Naruto.

The main plot is accompanied by additional, focused on the adventures of numerous companions of the title character. On the one hand, it makes it possible for anyone to find a character that they like or identify with. However, as a result, their development is very slow, and more supporting characters often disappear for many episodes. A huge downside is the monstrously long flashbacks - they appear before each fight and usually contain a more or less boring description of the fighters' difficult childhood. Moreover, some of them have a tendency to repeat themselves over and over again in subsequent episodes ... Of course, most of these heroes also used to live alone, so Naruto can stop flashbacks every now and then saying "Hey, they look like me!"

Seems trivial? Maybe… However, it's enough to fill the whole series with lengthy (thankfully not as much as in Dragon Ball) shinobi duels, a few sadder scenes, and humor. Although a few episodes do not fit the plot at all (eg the one telling what Kakashi has under the hood ...), the whole thing is quite consistent. If we add that a few characters contain more than just chakra used for techniques, then we will conclude that the plot is not too bad - it does not offend too shallowness or too much complexity.

Fighting ... Next to characters, the strongest point of Naruto. At first, the heroes don't know many techniques, but as the plot progresses, their skills grow rapidly. The multitude of techniques is stunning - each clan has some specific skills, e.g. sharingan - the ability to predict and even copy enemy movements. The fights themselves are very well directed and although the outcome is usually easy to predict, their course is suspenseful and can sometimes surprise you.

Unfortunately, there are also disadvantages - during the exams, it happened that one of the fighters wanted to kill the opponent and tried his best to do it, while in the later episodes, during the fights "for real", the opponents play with each other and still have silly discussions in the meantime. There are also fights lasting eight episodes and no matter how the creators tried, after such a time they become simply boring. Especially when one of the heroes often falls almost dead, and in the next episode suddenly gets up and performs some super technique to defeat enemies or save allies.

The music is distinctive, full of dynamic pieces that perfectly emphasize the fast pace of the duels. There are quite a few openings and endings, but none of them are remembered - some of them are, at most, annoying and ask to be turned off. The animation is average and does not stand out in any way, although the designers should be praised for matching the characters' appearance to their character.

Naruto is difficult to judge objectively - it is certainly not an outstanding title, it has a lot of flaws and stretches like a soap opera, but it has something that makes me unable to tear myself away from it and nervously scroll through the opening. It is an incredibly optimistic anime - the heroes forever overcome their problems, comfort each other, and even if someone dies, they do it for a long time and heroically like Count Roland.