"Naruto" (2002) TV series 2002-2007

Creator:

Masashi Kishimoto
(more)

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

10 September 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Thriller

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Ninja | Hero | Ninja Magic | Based On Comic Book | Cartoon Violence

Cast

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)

Series Directed by
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn		(19 episodes, 2002-2006)
Jeff Nimoy		(unknown episodes)

Series Writing credits
Masashi Kishimoto		(58 episodes, 2002-2007)
Steve Blum		(46 episodes, 2002-2007)
Liam O'Brien		(42 episodes, 2004-2007)
Marc Handler		(18 episodes, 2002-2003)
Akatsuki Yamatoya		(2 episodes, 2002-2004)

Series Produced by
Jamie Simone	....	producer (213 episodes, 2002-2007)

Series Original Music by
Toshio Masuda		(unknown episodes)

Series Cinematography by
Atsuho Matsumoto		(unknown episodes)

Series Film Editing by
Seiji Morita		(unknown episodes)

Series Art Direction by
Shigenori Takada		(unknown episodes)

Series Art Department
Takuya Kawami	....	color coordinator (unknown episodes)

Series Sound Department
David W. Barr	....	dialogue recording engineer / adr recordist (220 episodes, 2002-2007)
Eric Lewis	....	adr engineer: Studiopolis, Inc. (63 episodes, 2002-2007)
Yasunori Ebina	....	sound producer (unknown episodes)

Series Animation Department
Atsuho Matsumoto	....	animation director (unknown episodes)
Tetsuya Nishio	....	character designer (unknown episodes)
Hirofumi Suzuki	....	character designer (unknown episodes)

Series Music Department
Jeremy Sweet	....	composer: theme and cues (unknown episodes)

Series Other crew
Yuko Iwaoka	....	original picture (220 episodes, 2002-2007)
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn	....	voice director (193 episodes, 2003-2007)
Jessica Renslow	....	production coordinator / office translator (81 episodes, 2002-2007)
Jeff Nimoy	....	voice director (26 episodes, 2002-2003)
Marc Handler	....	story editor (17 episodes, 2002-2003)
Jamie Simone	....	voice director (6 episodes, 2003)
Liam O'Brien	....	voice director (5 episodes, 2004)
Kirk Thornton	....	voice director (5 episodes, 2004)
Sean Kelley	....	production assistant (unknown episodes)
Lindsey Myers	....	production coordinator (unknown episodes)
Katsuyuki Sumizawa	....	series story editor (unknown episodes)

Production Companies

• Studio Pierrot Co. Ltd.

Distributors

• Cartoon Network (2005) (USA) (TV)
• YTV (2005) (Canada) (TV)
• AT-X (????) (Japan) (TV)
• AXN (2009-2010) (Hungary) (TV) (re-release) (on AXN Sci-Fi)
• Danmarks Radio (DR) (2008) (Denmark) (TV)
• Hollydan Works (2008) (Yugoslavia) (DVD)
• Jetix (2006) (UK) (TV)
• Kids Station (????) (Japan) (TV)
• TV Tokyo (2002-2007) (Japan) (TV)
• Toonami Jetstream (2006) (USA) (all media)
• Viz Media (2005-) (USA) (TV)

Other Companies

• Changzhou New Star Art & Animation  digital coloring
• Studio Cats  digital coloring

Also Known As:

Runtime:

Japan:30 min (220 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Certification:

Singapore:PG | USA:TV-PG | Japan:U | Australia:PG (some episodes) | Australia:M (some episodes) | South Korea:12 | Canada:PG (TV rating) | Germany:12 | Brazil:Livre | UK:12 (most episodes) (uncut) | New Zealand:M | Canada:G (Quebec) (VHS/DVD rating) | New Zealand:PG

Company:

Studio Pierrot Co. Ltd.

Trivia:

The character Sasuke Uchiha is named after The Third Hokage's father, Sasuke Sarutobi who was named after the famous Japanese literary character.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: 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:

Kakashi:[about Sasuke's new technique] You'll wet your pants.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hard Corps: Uprising (2011) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Alive

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.