Naruto 2002

MY THOUGHTS ON NARUTO:

-WARNING: Spoilers Below-

I honestly believe this is one of the greatest Shounen Anime of all time. The characters all are written amazingly (except the female characters but I'll get to that) and each of the main story lines are all great, filled with action, emotion, betrayal and incredible story telling. Id highly recommend this Anime to absolutely anyone, no matter what your favourite genre is, give it a go & see what you think!

The Characters:

Each character in my opinion is written extremely well (besides a few), each team has at least 2 characters that you get to know well and get to learn so much about. Ill write briefly about each team and what I thought about them:

Team Guy: Possibly one of the better Teams in my eyes. This team consists of Neji, Rock Lee & Tenten. Neji & Rock Lee are both the standouts for this team alongside their Sensei Guy. All 3 characters have incredible character development and also do a lot of work in the main story Arcs. Unfortunately just like the majority of the female characters Tenten falls short.

Team 8: Personally this is my favourite team. This team is Led by Kurenai (one of the best Genjutsu users of her generation), this team consists of Hinata, Kiba & Shino. All 3 characters are written fairly well with Hinata being one of the only female characters with decent character development. Both Shino & Kiba have been my favourite characters ever since I first originally watched the Anime. Kiba & Akamaru are the cutest team in the show and also have incredible Jutsu's. Shino and his bugs are also one of the deadliest and most interesting dynamics in the Anime (I need more Shino!!) and finally, Hinata being one of the Hyuga Clan has her Byakugan, helping make this one of the better scout squads.

Team 10: This team is led by one of my favourite team leaders, Asuma Sarutobi. The team consists of Shikamaru, Ino & Choji. Besides Shikamaru I don't think this team shines bright at all, Neither Choji nor Ino have any decent character development and maybe have one or two episode's where they slightly shine a bit brighter. Shikamaru is a solid character throughout the entire Anime and adds a lot to it but unfortunately his Squad just didn't have the same treatment as him.

Team 7: The main squad, led by Kakashi and consisting of Naruto, Sasuke & Sakura. Everyone knows and loves this team. I'm going to be honest though, I don't care for Kakashi, I don't find him an entertaining character in the slightest... I love Naruto and find his character development throughout the Anime amazing & I feel the exact same way with Sasuke. I can't wait to see what Shippuden has in store between the two of them. The only downfall to this team is Sakura. Unfortunately she, alongside the majority of the female characters, didn't get the same treatment as the male characters in her Squad. Sakura honestly does nothing for the Anime besides irritating me.

Team Sand: Consisting of Gaara, Temari & Kankuro is the team from the Sand. Honestly this team is amazing, Gaara was terrifying when he was first introduced, being the only Shinobi to have never been scratched and he got one of the best redemption arks I have seen. The fact that Gaara also has the one tailed beast inside of him, makes him even more deadly! Plus don't get me started on his fight with Rock Lee, WOW!!! Kankuro is also such an interesting Shinobi, using puppets as his main source of Attack and Defence, I can't wait to see what Shippuden has in store for him. Finally the team has Temari, Temari is the BEST Female character in the Anime. Not only is she deadly and beautiful... She is written incredibly well just like Kankuro & Gaara. I'm glad she got the same treatment.

As I mentioned earlier I don't believe the female characters got the same treatment as the males and unfortunately it shows, with Hinata & Temari being the only 2 female characters that I personally think were written well. This is one of the only few downfalls to the characters but it isn't a major downfall.

In Conclusion:
This is one of my favourite Anime, the story is incredible and the characters all hold up fairly well. Unfortunately this Anime is riddled with pesty, boring fillers that are painful to watch. I'd say watch them on your first run but if you ever plan on rewatching the Anime, skip them all. The only decent fillers are the final ones just before Naruto leaves the village and maybe the Curry of Life but that's more funny than interesting.

Each main story arc was pretty great, seeing Naruto start as the Shinobi that no one believed in and then ending up being one of the better Shinobis and leaving the village to train with one of the greatest Shinobi, Jiraiya. I can't wait to see what happens with Sasuke in Shippuden after his retrieval was a failure.

I also really like how each member of Team 7 gets trained by a member of The Legendary Saanin. Naruto gets the Pervy Sage Jiraiya (Toads!!), Sasuke gets Orochimaru (Snakes!!) And finally Sakura gets Grandma Tsunade (Slugs!!) I dont know why but I really like that.

Another of my favourite aspects of the Anime are the Summons, I find them all so cool and fascinating. Personally my favourite Summons are the Snakes (I have a Manda tattoo) but the Toads are also pretty great. Hopefully Shippuden adds some more Summons & more Summon battles.

Also, what's up with this Akatsuki? Can't wait to see what Shippuden has in store for them, not sure whether to be worried or excited...

This one an amazing Anime and I'd 100% recommend.
Overall Rating: 10/10

(from my old collection of anime reviews circa 2003)

Martial arts comedy drama.

Season 1: Naruto is an unpopular, upstart orphan and ninja student in a secret ninja village. He possesses great unknown strength, and swears he will excel over his colleagues and become his town's ninja leader, the Hokage. The first episode is great, fast and energetic, but the first season overall is quite slow, especially the first two big fights (which take 4-5 episodes each). Character and background designs are quite good, and some thought was put into writing a proper background and physics for all the history and ninja techniques, which makes for a more satisfying experience. The fights are really what this show is about, and it delivers, with action that is inventive, intense, and nicely drawn. The first episode is a must see.

Season 2: The pace picks up considerably in the second season, although still drawn out at times, and the animation gets more funding from then on. While the premise starts off as ninja school, the show does grow from there. Some of the best fights occur in this season as the students match up against each other. Rock Lee's big fight is particularly memorable.

Season 3: The match-ups continue as the adults also get involved in an epic struggle. The animation continues to get even better, but also as always there are some filler episodes that are less than interesting.

Season 4: Things seem to slow down in the fourth season, with a few too many filler episodes and fights that start to drag again, reversing the improvements made in the previous seasons. The story also isn't quite as compelling, and the focus strays from the original lot viewers got to know and like. That epic feeling from the third season has largely disappeared.