[TV Series] Naruto

[Rylingo]

Naruto

Type: Anime - 220 episodes.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy.

Plot Synopsis: 12 years ago the ninja village Konoha is attacked by a nine tailed demon fox. The demon was defeated and sealed in the body of a child at the cost of many lives. In the present outcast orphan, Naruto Uzumaki struggles to graduate ninja school. He is unaware of the dangers that lie ahead of him, should he succeed.


Video Review:

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Naruto fans, the video may anger you but trust me, it gets better later on in the review. You just might have to wait a few minutes.


Story: 6/10
Naruto starts off slow showing each of the lead characters abilities. This brings in a few 'villain of the week' episodes all linked to a dangerous character called Orochimaru. Eventually this turns into a few fun story arcs including the chunin exams which I enjoyed quite a bit. Unfortunately after the halfway mark in the show things start slowing down. Battles start lasting too long and they cut between fights too often instead of finishing the one they are on. The show effectively ends around the 140 episode mark leaving 80 episodes of mostly filler with no decent conclusion. I expect filler in a shonen show but not to this degree. 220 episodes with little change to the status quo is not good enough. You cannot base your whole plot around a substandard villain an a single whiny uninteresting character, neither of which do much of interest.

Characters: 6/10
Extremely hit and miss. I despised Naruto for the first few episodes. He outright angered me. Sakura is one of the worst female characters I have ever come across, and I've seen a lot of bad female characters. Sasuke Uchiha is boring. I understand his past sucks but I don't care and I can't help but be distracted as to how useless in battle he is. We are constantly told he is the most talented in his year which he clearly is not. The shows side characters start out as one dimensional clichés but actually manage to overcome this. A lot of them become fun interesting characters and their presence in the show was wonderful. The shows villains are awful Orochimaru has no clear reason for his actions and hence is uninteresting. The Akatsuki seem more threatening but are not fleshed out by the shows end. Naruto makes a major character comeback in my book. I grew to like him eventually. That surprised me quite a bit.

Art/animation: 7/10
The quality is a bit shaky at times particularly near the start of the shows run. Once the animators get in their stride, things clearly get better. Some of the battles look nice.

Voice acting, music rating: 8/10
The soundtrack is fantastic. Great little tunes that work well in the background. This is a very good soundtrack for a shonen show. The voice acting is good in the sub. The dub is also good aside from Naruto's voice actor who sounds like a chain smoking granny.

Overall: 7/10