20

Naruto 

Author: Masashi Kishimoto

Volumes: 72 English & Japanese (complete at 700 Chapters)

Publisher: Shonen Jump [click HERE for digital chapters]

Naruto was one of the first ever Shonen Jump series I had the joy of growing up with. It’s the only series I grew up with I still don’t physically own though, and there’s a few reasons for this. Firstly I just haven’t had the time or money set aside for all the box sets I’m after, and secondly whenever I’m after my next purchase it’s not as high on the list as a lot of other series I’m collecting.

I think this is also partly down to a lot of missed potential and a bizarre ending. Don’t take this the wrong way, it wouldn’t be 20th in such a competitive list if it wasn’t worth it, but the aftertaste of the finale definitely is a potent one. Also I think as we get closer to the number 1 spot, we are going to see more passionate likes and dislikes for each entry on the list.

Naruto is a pretty simple story, at least at first. Naruto is an orphan living in the hidden leaf village. A prankster with dreams of becoming the greatest ninja in the village (the Hokage) Naruto lives a lonely life and struggles to do well with his ninja training. The story opens with him learning that the reason he’s so lonely essentially boils down to being the host to a nine tailed demon fox that tore up the village before being sealed away inside of him. Despite this revelation, Naruto makes the choice to stick to his dream of becoming the greatest ninja and protecting the village that shunned him out of fear.

Masashi Kishimoto’s impact on shonen jump can be seen even today with titles such as My Hero Academia and Jiangshi X. In fact, despite the issues I have with Naruto, I should probably address why I think it excels in ways that a series such as My Hero Academia doesn’t.

One of the biggest things about Naruto, is that we get to see a lot more of the world in Naruto than a lot of series that followed its influence, and even though it is weird that ninja skills haven’t had as big of an impact on society as one may expect, it still gets used in various different applications during the series runtime. Also it still makes sense that Naruto’s magic system doesn’t impact the world as much as it does in My Hero Academia, as contrary to popular belief, being a ninja isn’t as common in Naruto’s world.

Not to mention that while still putting them in the background a lot, Naruto still has relatively unproblematic, active, and inspirational female characters throughout. Sakura, Naruto’s team mate even gets a few moments here and there where she’s able to really show off her skills, and though it is a bit annoying that she essentially becomes a spectator for most of the plot, it’s still nice that she has the opportunity to show she’s much more than a pair of eyes, and medical support.

I am aware that I pay attention to female characters a lot when it comes to these stories, but that’s because a running theme in stories that are action packed is to have women in highly repetitive and stereotypical roles such as “wowed spectator”, “wife to be”, and “damsel in distress”. So I like to point out stories that give us more than that. You can have the 3 roles listed above, it just isn’t great when those are the only roles afforded to them.

I also love the fact that the antagonists all have something to them that helps to grow Naruto’s worldview. Whether it be somebody in his exact situation of being a tailed beast host making the darker choice to embrace being feared by all around him, or whether it be facing off against an adult that has grown cynical after experiencing many cycles of war and loss.

Where it falls over is the ending, while I want to avoid major spoilers, there is a part of the ending that comes from out of nowhere and completely interrupts the already exhausted strain the final battle has had on the flow of the story. It strikes me as odd that in a series with such a rich and detailed history, that Kishimoto would decide to derail the plot with a very late entry into the lore that isn't even vaguely mentioned prior to the reveal.

The fact that reading the sequel, Boruto is required to explain the lore behind the final reveal properly, it makes me think the ending was shoehorned in to make way for that sequel series, rather than being planned all along… or at the very least that things were altered somewhat from their intended path in order to make room for a sequel.