Naruto (2002–2007)

The stories of the struggles of three young ninjas - Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno - as they go through their training.

Creator:

Masashi Kishimoto

Stars:

Junko Takeuchi, Maile Flanagan, Kate Higgins

Cast

Series cast summary:
Junko Takeuchi	...	Naruto Uzumaki (217 episodes, 2002-2007)
Maile Flanagan	...	Naruto Uzumaki (217 episodes, 2002-2007)
Kate Higgins	...	Sakura Haruno (135 episodes, 2002-2007)
Chie Nakamura	...	Sakura Haruno (132 episodes, 2002-2007)
Noriaki Sugiyama	...	Sasuke Uchiha (90 episodes, 2002-2006)
Yuri Lowenthal	...	Sasuke Uchiha (90 episodes, 2002-2006)

Storyline

Many years ago, in the hidden village of Konoha, lived a great demon fox. When it swung one of it's nine tails, a tsunami occurred. The fourth hokage sealed this demon fox inside a boy in exchange for his own life. Naruto was that boy, and he grew up with no family, and the villagers hated him thinking that he himself was the demon fox. Naruto's dream is to become Hokage, and have the villagers acknowledge him.

---

Plot Keywords:

ninja | hero | ninja magic | based on comic book | cartoon violence | 

---

Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Thriller

---

Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

Cartoon Network

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

10 September 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Naruto Shounen-hen

Company Credits

Production Co:

Studio Pierrot Co. Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (220 episodes)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji followed in their fathers' footsteps to become teammates and practice the InoShikaCho formation. The InoShikaCho formation is also a technique from a card game.

---

Goofs

In some episodes of the series, some symbols on the clothes that the characters wear have some mistakes on them. Like sometimes, the Leaf symbol on the Leaf headbands would not have the pointy part of the symbol on it, and sometimes, the Sound symbol would have either a wavy flag or a non-wavy flag on it. And the Mist symbols would sometimes be lines instead of squiggly lines. On one of the early episodes, Sasuke Uchiha had a blue shirt with the Uchiha Clan symbol on the back, but on one shot where he talks to Sakura Haruno, the Clan symbol is not on his back. And some of the characters' faces were drawn badly in the original Japanese film, but were edited in the English version. As well as the symbol on Neji Hyuga's forehead (in the Japanese version, it looked like a Swastika, but was edited in the English version so that it wouldn't represent fascism).

---

Quotes

Hinata Hyuga: [explaining why she refuses to withdraw from her fight with Neji, despite the fact that he is trying to kill her] The boy that I have watched for so long is finally watching me. And in front of him, I can't bear to lose.

---

Connections

Referenced in Troldspejlet: Episode #40.17 (2008)

---

Soundtracks

"Soba ni Iru Kara"
(Ending theme, episodes 154-165)
Performed by Amadori

User Reviews

NOT A DBZ RIPOFF

OK, so I've watched 103 episodes so far of this series, and I have to say it, Naruto is original. Yes Mishimoto was a big follower of Toriyama, and in many ways Naruto is a sort of homage to him. But Naruto has a lot of things that DBZ was missing. First off, when characters die, THEY STAY DEAD!!!!! There is no special way to wish them back. Once they're gone they're gone. Second, music: the music in Naruto is 100X better then anything heard in DBZ. Dbz did have some cool themes, but Naruto is the only series where I have actually imported the soundtrack. There's almost nothing wrong with the soundtrack other then the usual soft theme. Granted it isn't a Yoko Kanno piece, but in essence not everything should be compared to the work she does because it invariably falls short. Thirdly, character development:

The characters develop feelings for each other, and you will find yourself developing feelings for the characters. There are animes that do that, but not to the extent Naruto does. I have cried multiple times while watching Naruto because of the pain that Naruto and Company have to go through. Mostly Naruto in his quest to become Hokage. In DBZ, I couldn't care less about what happened. Fourth, fights: There is nothing wrong with the length of the fights in Naruto. They're not too fast and they're not too unbearably long. The average fight lasts about 4 episodes. There is an exception to this in the 70s, but only because there are two fights going on at the exact same time. In short, download the first 20 episodes, which takes you through the first saga. Yes, 103 episodes is a lot of time, but the story will keep you engrossed. Also of note, Happy Birthday to the anime which turns 2 years old on Sunday Oct. 3rd. I give this a 9/10