Naruto

Thursday, 28 April 2011

Naruto

Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure

 "In a fantasy world of ninjas and supernatural creatures, a wicked demon fox with enormous power and fury wreaked havoc on the ancient Hidden Leaf Village, causing much destruction and taking countless lives. Finally, the strongest ninja in Hidden Leaf, the Fourth Hokage, managed to defeat the fox by sealing its soul inside a human boy. That boy, Naruto Uzumaki, later came to live in Hidden Leaf Village, but was shunned by almost everyone there because they feared the soul of the evil fox within him. Because of the neglect and oppression he faced, Naruto grew up to be an extremely mischievous and attention-craving trouble maker. But there was at least one person who saw that Naruto had a good side to him too, and that was Iruka-sensei, one of the instructors at the ninja school in Hidden Leaf. 

Naruto believes that becoming a great ninja may be the only way to get the people of the village to accept him and acknowledge the fact that he is a human being worthy of love and attention. Naruto makes it his goal to become Hidden Leaf Village's next Hokage(highest ranking ninja and leader of the village.) However, the path to becoming a skilled ninja is not an easy one. After gaining entrance to the ninja school, Naruto is teamed up with Sasuke, an unfriendly but strong and noble boy from the powerful Uchiha clan, and Sakura, a serious but sometimes flustered girl with a major crush on Sasuke. Together with their calm and capable teacher Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, join many other ninja students from all over the land, some good and some bad, some with wicked ulterior motives, others just wanting to prove themselves strong, in the long and difficult path of becoming a powerful ninja. The competition is fierce and many of the tests that the students have to face put their very lives in danger. But in spite of the pain, hardships, and losses that Naruto and the others face, their determination to become strong helps them learn more about themselves and each other, and prepares them for the many more difficult battles that lie ahead on the road to becoming the strongest ninja!" 

The TV series is based on the Manga Naruto by Kishimoto Masashi and is voiced in both Japanese and English. However most people prefer the the Japanese version with English subtitles (sub)  over the English version (dub) as sentences or phrases are not translated well between languages and there is a great difference in how an actor's voice can bring a character to life as well as the emotion and passion. The Japanese version is definitely better than the English version. As Naruto is a long series consisting of over 200 episodes, the viewer is able to witness personal growth each of the characters experience. Naruto is filled with action and consists of a large number of fighting scenes and at the same time filled with lots of humor to keep the viewer entertained. The viewer may find that some of the characters are cliched however still very entertaining to watch.

Another downfall is the fillers that are placed within the series that are not found within the manga. These fillers go over a long period of time and interrupt the main story line. These fillers can get boring at times. Other than this Naruto is an awesome anime that get betters as it progresses. 

Reference List 

Image: http://www.giantbomb.com/naruto/62-499/

Synopsis: http://www.animeyume.com/naruto/narutosynopsis.html

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_3vaSiqdBw