Naruto

This pilot gave me a whole new appreciation for Naruto. Why? Because, I still dislike it, but it could have been so much worse. I thought Naruto had too much immature comedy, but in this pilot there are two instances of scatological humor within the first two pages.The art is just awful and the character designs are absolutely butchered. Naruto is not only annoying, as he was in the eventual main series, but he is also a complete dickbag. The "power of friendship" is promoted from one of the main themes to being the entire freakin point. All of the characters are idiots. They're also one-dimensional, but I guess that goes without saying. Anyway, the Hokage (NINJA MASTER BELIEVE IT) spares a clear homicidal threat, police officers assume that a murderer would take a nap at a crime scene, they let criminals switch-out who's going to jail, and some dude trusts a weird fox-boy's sense of smell enough to try to kill him. To make matters worse, the redeeming world-building in Naruto is absent here and Ninja shit is clumsily mixed with a more modern setting. Needless to say, it was not enjoyable for me, and it would be even less enjoyable or productive for actual fans of the series.


Do you want to see Naruto chase art thieves and pee on people instead of have a crush on his creepy emo friend? Then this one-shot is for you, I guess. Weirdo... It was horrible, though, to the extent where even Naruto fanboys hate it and I, the biggest hater ever, was forced to raise my score of Naruto by two points.

Alright, this also my first review so yeah... here I GO! I see not many people actually like this one-shot, haha I enjoyed very much!

Story 6/10

The story is meh, him being the child of the Demon fox makes sense but it just doesn't sit right with me.

I like friendship lesson and how it got trust involved.

Also HOLY S*** THERE ARE GUNS IN THIS THING?!

Art 6/10

I can't be too harsh on Kishi... He was only starting out so of course so his character designs and backgrounds will not be clear.

He knew how to do perspective which was great but there is too much white going on and his lines are not crisp... not sure if it was done due to the age of the one-shot or the scan I have here but the backgrounds look rushed.

Character design is till a little bit sloppy, Naruto the main character looked out of place compared to the rest of the characters in the mountain (Konoha/ MT. Onari) and the city... Yeah, I don't like the city concept either I prefer the village for sure.

Character 9/10

It may be because I love asshole characters BUT! If Naruto was going to be a rebel... why not go full out on it? His swearing and making chaos in the village because of his mischief tendencies, I would love for shonen to somewhat unlikeable at the beginning but also seeing their point of view on the world.

Him effortlessly shapeshifting also makes sense, since he was in this Pilot a Kitsune and used his shapeshifting for evil deeds.

Him learning about friend-ship... in my opinion, it could be better done but it's a good concept instead of him to have this natural ability of making friends naturally.

Enjoyment 8/10

I like immature jokes what can I say? it fit his character in the one-shot and the underage drinking? Hell, why not?! Maybe not the greatest example but he wasn't a great example in the first place so pushing these boundaries was a good idea in my opinion... (This version of the manga would not have survived in the modern-day but it sure would be f****** fun hue hue maybe it would have been more of a Seinen then a Shōnen)

I guess it's my guilty pleasure? I love asshole characters and this Naruto was just great and as you know the jokes but then it comes the one 'so bad is so good' aspect. The art is kinda iffy to the point it's actually funny to look at because of how the anatomy is WACK and this sorta invested me in the story which the middle part was kinda boring its self and the ending serves as a wake-up call.

Overall 7/10

There are some amazing concepts and I especially like his character but as I said he would only work for a different manga with the immature jokes, definitely not Shonen.

But I liked it, I loved seeing one of favourite mangaka's work and how he started.

This is a very different story compared to the Naruto we all know and i agree with SaintsKoi, I like the changes in the current one compared to the story this presents. Naruto is the same goofball as ever but he's a demon's child instead of a child with a demon suppressed inside. The Kage is a Chief and his design is terrible compared to the mainstream manga.

Art is visually similar to the mainstream manga and the characters are pretty similar as well so they get an average score from me. If you're a Naruto fan this is one chapter you must read.

Story:
Naruto's prototype is very barren but still quite enjoyable. It's a stand-alone work with no credence to the actual narrative of Naruto but it's a fun way to see what could have been. What if Naruto was more modern? What if not everyone was a ninja? What if demons and humans lived together? There's definitely some tropes here that could have gone into detail that aren't primarily used in Naruto's standard narrative, and that's okay. This work is it's own body, and it's actually pretty decent.

The pacing of each page and the paneling of everything is pretty solid, but the narrative itself is just a simple mystery story that doesn't get into very much detail. There isn't anything big about the end 'surprise,' and the characters themselves are just enough to help do the job needed. 'Sufficient' is a great word to describe how this prototype functions. It did its job in giving the mangaka somewhere to start, and I'd argue that this is a really great start.


Art:
I'm a sucker for hand-drawn work, and as a one-shot prototype, this looks pretty great. I was impressed by some of the landscape panels and disappointed when the manga become mostly indoors. I understand it takes a lot of time to draw out certain aspects of a world and setting, but it doesn't mean it can't be done. Some panels don't even have backgrounds, reserving themselves to cross-hatched shading. There are a lot of manga that forsake backgrounds to certain panels but when things are indoors, I don't see why a simple table and chair in the background couldn't have been implemented.

The characters look pretty good and their expressions look believable. There isn't any uncanny valley junk going on, but you can tell there wasn't much done when it came to editing. Some lines looked a little off here and there and it made some scenes look bulbous for a few characters, to say the least.


Character:
I think I mentioned this briefly in the story section but I'll say it again: The characters are the bare minimum. They do their job, and I felt they did it well. I was connected in so far as I needed to be to get the point across, and I think that made things pretty fun. It's very short so that in itself meant it had to do just enough to make it worth your time, and I feel it did just that.


Enjoyment:
Actually, really quite enjoyable. I didn't realize I was at the end when I got to the last page. Not out of surprise, but because time went by so fast. I was pretty focused on the story as it were, and that made things go by very swiftly. I also find it super fun to see where a mangaka was when things first started out. I'm a huge fan of the cutting-room floor, and seeing what gets in and gets out when a work is complete is very exciting to me. It's like opening a time-capsule for a story except this capsule is from an alternate, unfinished dimension. Pretty neat.


((If you liked this review, check out my other reviews by going to my profile and clicking the 'reviews' tab. I review virtually all anime and manga I find!))

Personally I don't really know why this manga was so popular, like I mean it's half decent, but at a time it was the most famous Manga of all time and I think that's... very odd. The reasons being well... it's not that great. It's not terrible, some of the characters like Sasuke, Rock Lee, Kakashi, Third Hokage, etc, are pretty cool but then... you got the main character... Naruto... a annoying loud mouthed punk. Now I can understand how some people can love him and understand why the way he is, but personally I just find him annoying.
As for the story overall, it's... alright, nothing to outstanding but it's okay. Although one of the things I dislike the most is the fact that almost every single chapter they force Lore down the readers mouth, like I get, you wanna create a interesting and in-depth world for the audience, but when you're just adding on to stuff for no reason besides just to fill pages it really starts to get annoying.
Anyway, altogether I give it a 5/10, some good characters, some bad, too much Lore pushing and not enough enjoyment.

This was a great experience, after hearing about this "Naruto" ever since I got into the Anime community I have read it (Part 1 for now).
I really really hate the fandom... I believe there are mainly three things that make a Naruto fan- (MINOR SPOILERS IN 2ND POINT)
1. HATE SAKURA TO HELL AND BACK
2. Madara best villain in the universe (yes, I've been thoroughly spoiled about who that is)
3. Kakashi is Daddy (over obsession x100)
But now I experienced it myself-

Part 1:-
The artistic evolution in this part is so damn satisfying, there is just something about the art towards the end of Part 1 that hard to describe. The facial expressions look realistic but yet they look comical.
The story had me hooked since the first arc with a very memorable pair of "villains". I would argue that the first arc of Naruto is way more catchy than OP or BL(even though I like those a lot more).
The build-up of the villains is just great. It has you hyped in the reveals and fight choreography is great as well.
But where this lacks very badly is the female cast, especially Sakura, I really detested this hate towards her before reading Naruto, but after reading it ill say that... I get why people would dislike her, but making hating her 24/7 the face of the Naruto fandom is a bit too much. Then there are a few that absolutely love her.
One side ignores her positives, and the other ignores her negatives. I really hope she gets better and a deserving and equal member of Team 7 after what happened in the last few chapters.
I certainly did notice this infamous "Talk-no-Jutsu" but was not really bothered by it. It was not repeated to an irritatingly extend.
I look forward to the second part after the 3 year time skip.

This is a manga that extended over 15 years, and ended as a very different animal of how it began.

A very worse animal.

You can see how Kishimoto's art evolved. At first, the art was crude, but full of life. After it became refined without losing in quality. Then, Kishimoto's drawings began to resemble the pitiful animated adaptation. It's final artstyle isn't bad per se, but it pales in comparison with, let's say, end of Part I.

The story? Well, the story began well. Naruto isn't exactly the most interest...No, write it off, he's not interesting. The supporting cast makes Naruto. Or break it.

And god, it broke. Hard.

Mind you, the first two third of the series were good, sometimes excellent, sometimes mediocre, sometimes so bad you wanted to hit your head in the wall. But then, after 95% of antagonists are killed, we spend the rest of the series fighting two,three guys, with an army of mooks who can't even compare to the other guys, even with the other guys being part of it!

It is a long, endless conflict, that keeps dragging on, and on, and on, with "twists" that barely will make raise your eyebrow, our heroes don't even blinking at a suggestion of brainwashing, and the most stupid Deus and Diabolus Ex Machinas so our heroes and villains can keep fighting and feeding Kishimoto and Shueisha money.

Also, gotta sell that Naruto/Sasuke rivalry. Because that's what I came for in Naruto: Naruto and his Bishonen Rival. And not only that, oh no! If you didnt like that only Naruto/Sasuke exist, we have made xerox copies of their rivalry all around! Hell, let's finish this manga with Naruto fighting one Evil Counterpart after another! And by finishing, I mean one third of it!

My god, someone knows nothing.

I'm not exaggerating. This series would deserve a 1 for the Final Third, we should rename "The Thing That Never Ends when it could". I saw bad mangas before, but I never saw the same writer go from somewhat good like Kishimoto to utterly catastrophic.

And the end? The end don't matters really. It just a poorly disguised pilot for a Naruto GT. It's not even a real conclusion. Hell, they already released the sequel, why care about a well-made ending? Hell, why we should expect it after such a poorly made final arc?

This is probably the best manga ever, with the best character development ever and best storyline ever but why would you just THROW EVERYTHING WITH SUCH A BAD END??

That's why I give it the 9. Because Masashi Kishimoto just seemed to feel like he was doing it too much like a masterpiece and said "I should probably ruin this now, so it isnt as good" why? I don't know.. or maybe he just wanted some way to continue it somehow, maybe he thought it'd be a good idea but it's just the worst idea ever.

Leaving those awful points behind, unlike the anime adaptation whose art sucks, this art does complement the amazing storyline it has in a pretty decent way, I'm giving it a "very good" 8/10 because it lacks the abnormality of the anime.

Character I give it a 10/10 being really honest, I do believe this one has the best character development ever and due to its length this goes even beyond what you usually expect from a good anime. I'd say characters are the best part from the whole series. Naruto has just too many characters and their storylines are never poor (except by sakura, this character I do feel lacks a lot, specially for being considered as a "main character", I'd even say she MUST be considered a "filler character" as she does have a role in the manga but it's a role others assign to her, her personality is nothing special and anything that can be important about her isnt really hers, won't get too much into it in order not to spoil)

Enjoyment is a 9 out of 10 only because of the disappointment you feel when you get to the last chapter because apart from that I read first 400 chapters in like a couple of weeks out of nothing but excitement. It's a really long manga but that makes it even better. I hate anime/manga when they are too long and I'm not fond of manga, I'm more an anime person but this manga was amazing to me. I bought 56 out of their 70 volumes in real life paper and treasure them all. 100% recommend reading, maybe you even do like the ending I hated so much.

Naruto is one of those anime's where...The story is ok. You got your boy hated by everyone trying to 'BECOME HOKAGE!' while constantly trying to be murdered by other people. Now, im going to talk about the Characters. The characters are probably the best part of the show. although, Naruto can be bland, Sasuke is annoying, and Sakura is hated for no reason, its not the main 3 i like- its the side characters.

I found myself wanting to know the Backstory of Shino, Tenten, And more. But they were pushed under the carpet. And what REALLY made me mad was that it wouldn't even explain some of the VILLAINS backstory. Take Hidan for example. he killed without holding back, he's a psychopath. I wanted to know what his backstory was, but nope. (SPOILER'S: he died 4 episode's after he was introduced, and then a filler came.)

I feel like all the interesting fights, Like the Kakuzu and Hidan vs Shikamaru Choji and Ino fight, were cut short to get back to Naruto and Sasuke yelling at each over for 20 minutes.

Overall, its a good anime but i recomend the manga

Everyone is an orphan.

Everyone.

Also, they all have teenage angst...probably from being an orphan.

I would've ended my review here but this site says I need a longer review to allow me to post. What do you want to know? They characters are essentially copy and pasted from each other:

Goofy/doesn't need to try too hard/naturally athletic/blond haired protagonist: Goku...I mean Naruto

Serious/trains super hard/bad-guy-turns-good foil to the protagonist: Vegeta...I mean Piccolo...I mean Sasuke

As far as plot lines go, there's one really good twist/reveal but I won't spoil that for you. Once the cat's out of the bag on that plot arc, the rest is a little weak sauce filled with a bunch of doodad fillers that meander around This-is-going-nowhere Streetsville. Also a trusty tool used by DBZ to line the pockets of these anime writers.

In short, picture DBZ but they're really cool ninjas with cool ninja abilities. Also, a lot less constipation. Yes, Dragon Ball Z Ninjas on laxatives.