Stream Your Heart Out: “Naruto and Naruto Shippuden”

Genre: Anime

26 seasons combined

(720 episode, 30 minutes)

“Naruto,” Shonen Jump’s hit tv series, began humbly like most other animes, as a manga series in the late 90s.

According to IMDB, “Naruto” first aired on Oct. 3 2002. However, I, like most people for some reason, began watching the series when it was officially considered “cool” to watch anime, which was around early 2016.

The “Naruto” saga is comprised of two parts. There’s Shonen Jump and Shippuden. Both parts show the development of Naruto’s shinobi abilities and his dream to one day become the next Hokage, which is the strongest and most well regarded shinobi in the village.

The Shonen Jump series follows a young Naruto, as he gains new experiences, new friends, and discovers the immense power hidden within himself, the power of the nine-tailed fox spirit, Kurama.

Shonen Jump is kind of artistically redundant. Every episode begins where the last one left off and you will see the same seven flashbacks throughout the entirety of Naruto’s childhood. This admittedly is a little nerve racking, however it is one of the many early 2000s nuisances that give the Shonen Jump series its character.

In the latter half of the saga, Shippuden, Naruto is 14 and a half. Shippuden is basically 500 episodes of fight scenes, which is way better than it sounds. The Great Shinobi War encompasses about 375 of the 500 episodes. The remaining 125 episodes is plot and filler, but mostly filler.

One of the best parts about the “Naruto” saga is the fact that Naruto isn’t O.P. (overpowered). So many animes have great story arcs and good dialogue and what have you, but then they have a character who was somehow just born with an innate superiority over all other beings in their universe. And that might sound cool at first but let me tell you it isn’t.

With the “Naruto” storyline it’s different, the audience is able to see true character development, this is because Naruto is a rowdy, rambunctious, unskilled, outcast in the beginning but by the 720th episode he’s essentially the god of the shinobi world.

If you’re not very familiar with the anime genre, “Naruto” is a pretty good starting point. It really encompasses what anime is all about, drama, honor, magic, and friendship. I would give the Naruto saga a 10 out of 10 would recommend. Believe it!