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.

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Plot Keywords:

ninja | anime | martial artist | ninja magic | ninja master | 

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Thriller

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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

When Masashi Kishimoto originally was going to write a manga that was longer than a one-shot, he decided to focus on an original one-shot he had written, where Naruto was a demon. Ninjas were brought into the story in his remake.

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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).

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Quotes

Deidara: Art is... with a BANG!

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Connections

Referenced in Jump Super Stars (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Wind"
(Ending theme, episodes 1-25)
Written and Performed by Akeboshi

User Reviews

It can grow on you...

I've seen a lot of anime throughout the years. I've seen what people call the 'good stuff', I've seen the 'bad stuff'. In time, I realized and accepted that not everyone is going to like something, or dislike it. No matter what the anime (or movie, or book, or game, etc.) it boils down to personal preference. So, how do you know if you'd like something you've never seen but heard so much about? When I first started Naruto, I saw the potential in it. From the first episode, they presented a distinct setting with distinct characters. Sure, archetypes were being followed (the boy dreaming of becoming big, the old grandfatherly figure, the teacher, the rival). The first episode showed emotion and depth to its main character and what he will struggle with, along with the dynamics of his interaction with other characters and their quirks.

Cut about ten episodes later, the plot arc currently being followed felt to me like it was not going to matter much to the main story. Some episodes had drawn out battles, and I got that feeling that the anime would be the type where they would go from different area to different area, developing their skills and learning moral lessons and such, but there would be no grand plot, no B story, that tied the series together. I also worried it would fall into mediocrity. Without giving anything away, by the end of that arc (about 19 episodes in), my mind was changed.

Having seen all of the series up to the current episodes, I can say at least for myself that at its best Naruto is a deeper anime than some give credit to, and can be quite addicting. A strong focus is on its characters as they develop throughout the series and there are moments of real emotion, tragedy, intensity and even just amusement. It's not perfect, as there are slow times in the series (and the cartoon suffers from tricks to get as many episodes out of the original story as they can), and I won't say everyone will end up liking it but I can say it had unexpectedly become one of my favorite anime.