This is a terrible series. It is popular, but so was DBZ, and Pokemon.
It has a large target audience (young teens to late teens), which it works well on, and answers the question on where its popularity comes from.

If its action you're after, there are FAR better series to give your attention to.

Anyone with half a brain can see the awful characters designs, and weak story execusion which have been drawn out due to its popularity.

Welcome to marketing 101 kids.

If you enjoy mindless dribble, this manga/anime is for you.
If you prefer to watch/read something that is well done, this is not for you.

People like [edit by mod, please do not single out or flame other users for their opinions] have weak arguments for the manga/anime.
The purpose of RATING anime/manga is to voice your opinion on a series.
Not if action anime is better than drama etc... But if the action in an action anime is good or bad.
I do agree that the plot is NOT weak, its the execusion of that plot which has made this series awful. It has been drawn out into a long endless pile of crap that will continue to form new loop holes untill the series becomes unprofitable.

Although everyone is entitled to their negative opinion, naruto is a good anime with a good plot which is becoming better and developing even more to get you hooked on the story, it can be seen as either you hate it or love it as first, but if you stick with it, it becomes really good, most people who criticize naruto are the type of people who hasn't really watched many of the later episodes and only watched the first season and then criticaze it, without watching it at all... the manga is better than the anime, but the anime does add non needed filler, which isn't great, but is still good

For the people who gave full marks: Although I can't agree with you, I can understand why you like Naruto, to tell the truth, I love it myself (But I can't give it above a 7 since I've seen better)

For the Naruto haters who gave offending comments: This is manga, of course some things don't make sense! Even IF you don't like Naruto, you can just NOT watch it. It's not like you have to watch Naruto or you'll die or something. What I mean here is that if you don't have anything good to say, just don't say anything.

Yeah Naruto isn't that intellectual, sure its plot isn't that good. But to not even give it a passing grade is something only attention seekers would do. It's definitely a good anime. If you noticed, most fighting manga/anime are in a way centered around a few characters, so that you can actually relate to their growth, struggles, feelings etc. It's true that Naruto is somewhat a similar to DBZ (Kishimoto doesn't hide the fact that he's a DBZ fan) but the fights are nowhere near the ridiculous super-long nature of DBZ fights. But then again, Naruto IS about fighting and stuff, so you can also say it's similar to Bleach, Full Metal Panic, Ikkitousen, Kenshin, Gundam Seed, Card Captor Sakura, Cowboy Bebop, Hunter x Hunter, bla bla.

A weak story. <-- If you love deep plots so much you're better off reading novels or shoujo manga, Naruto is a manga about FIGHTING, it thrives on ACTION. That's not to say Naruto has a weak plot, there IS a master plot and it's just unravelling.

The story is only those 4 ninja village fighting each other. <-- Hello? What'd you expect? That's the bloody theme of Naruto. Well, sort of. I can see you're just completely jumping on the I-hate-Naruto-cuz-it's-popular bandwagon without even thinking about your comments.
[edit by mod, please, try not to flame---everyone is entitled to their positive (or negetive) opinion]

plot holes <-- This is one of the funniest [edit by mod, please do not use foul language] Naruto haters say. Tell me, which anime doesn't have this? This is anime, for God's sake, stop trying to sound smart.

Is ninja is superior being? What about samurai? gunner? Knight? [removed by mod, please do not flame!]

why i keep getting annoyed when i read it more?
perhaps because lot useless story , angst problem (Naruto-Sakura-Sasuke)
Naruto like Sakura , but Sakura didn't like Naruto , only like Sasuke , but Sasuke didn't like Sakura.
But Naruto wants to be stronger so Sakura likes him , but Naruto always get his ass kicked by other character.
See my point? Angst Problem.
Just like opera soap drama.(reminded me of gundam seed)
The story is only those 4 ninja village fighting each other.Nothing more.
And revolve around it till i got bored.
This is like dragon ball z wannabe but with more useless talking and babbling.
Don't have moral of the story ,only strong will survive..
Is ninja is superior being? What about samurai? gunner? Knight?
Only ninja vs ninja? be more creative.......
Don't read it if you want a better STORY.
maybe if you are hardcore in fighting babbling types...this manga is for you.

The characters are not as one sided as many of the reviewers would lead you to believe but the plot leaves a lot to be desired. Reading the manga rather than watching the anime will at least filter out a lot of worthless filler and exceedingly long fight sequences.

I rated it an 8 because it has some very redeeming moments, unfortunately the series has a serious consistency problem as the quality is very hit and miss with every chapter.

the story is great. and the fight scenes and each ninja's abilties make this anime one of my favorite

i can say late chapters become quite shallow, both in conversation, character development, and battles. The art is better that average, and the anime's another mediocre anime.

maybe people still getting a little hyped firstly, but the plot dies out near late chapters and as other reviewers have put in, the battles become too DBZ-like and eventually lost interest...

A decent series. Check it out but please don't get it from narutofan. If you want to know why please read the stoptazmo.com forums.

How this trash became so popular is beyond me. Comes complete with: a weak story, one sided characters, plot holes, and ridiculous fights. Do yourself a favour and stear clear.