The Manga > the Anime but still worth watching

Written by bankaiboy89 on July 18, 2010 at 12:27 PM

I've read the manga since the original anime ended, from the Kakashi Gaiden arc until present, and when Shippuden came out, it was horrible. I won't lie. Getting through the rescue gaara arc was kind of like going to work. The story was fine, the animation was fine, even the dialogue was pretty good. But they spent so much time dragging it out that I lost interest and so I gave up on the anime for nearly a year. I didn't care one bit for what happened to the characters. The music was different and noticeably worse than the original. I felt like they were playing catch up for people who hadn't watched the anime since Naruto 135. Even the find Sasuke arc was mind-numbing to get through. There was so much filler, not even filler arcs but just long periods of staring each other down. That never really changes either.


But starting with the Hidan Kakuzu Saga around episode 70, they hit their stride for the show. The emotional music wasn't trying too hard like before and the characters sounded alive and the humor that was in the first show seemed to be coming back. From then on, the show gets good. By all means, skip the fillers. It takes some work, but http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Episodes#Naruto:_Shipp.C5.ABden_Episodes will help. They just side track you and you lose interest. The cast is well-rounded, but it's always focused on Naruto who will be addressed in the next segment. The enemies have compelling personalities where you love to hate them, but the main enemies like Sasuke, itachi and Pain are still likeable. The biggest problem is Juugo, Suigetsu and Karin who are rather annoying the whole time. Juugo isn't so bad, but he's too quiet to have any real personality shine through other than MUST KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that's what his crazy dialogue amounts to).

Naruto is a well-rounded protagonist from the first show who isn't really built upon as much in this series. We already know him, and those characteristics are often reinforced, but until the Pain Saga, we don't see much more to his personality. He's still focused on retrieving sasuke and becoming hokage, and even that last goal is down played. He, like all-anime heroes, will never give up. It's a necessary evil/cliche, people. A hero like Shikamaru and Ussopp (one piece) who are prone to giving up are more realistic, but too annoying. The hero has to be someone who constantly fights or else the story ends when the hero meets his first challenge. But Naruto isn't even a pure-hearted, innocent angel. He has his dark-sides, as seen in the Manga. He threatens to beat Sasuke to within an inch of his life to bring him back at the end of Naruto. He is a twisted hero, who throughout the series is slowly becoming untwisted. He can either turn out like Gaara originally was, or like Pain and Orochimaru, or can turn into Jiraiya and Kakashi-ish.

The show is all around good. It's not always great. There will be some episodes where you're saying "come on already," but a show where the main characters can lose and even die (permanently) is something we don't see too often. Even the less likeable protagonists and the grey-characters are well-developed by the time they die or leave center stage. There is no character, sans VERY temporary villains who ever remain two-dimensional.

People who hate naruto actually hate the hype around it. Maybe it's not as great as I think it is, but it's at least worth watching and if you are without expectations, you'll be pleased. If you expect too much, of course you'll be let down.