Naruto suffers in so many ways. Altough it clearly is a shounen it breaks with many of the anticipated elements a shounen "must have" to be good. I'll qoute myself lol



Overrated? No! If it wasn't this popular people would probably call it underrated lol. The real explanation for this is that in the end only YOU know what you like yourself. I like Naruto. Have I failed 'cause of it? Do people who like Pokemon fail? Do people who like My Little Pony fail (lol)? Have they misunderstood reality?

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I watch Naruto like I post in "Word Association". I do prefer the manga over the anime. I really hate the fillers, its like animated.....spam. (And do I know spam....)

Last edited by Nelo_Neko at 5:19 am, Sep 5 2007

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I started reading manga because of Naruto. My little brother watched the anime and would pester me to purchase the manga (along with Hellsing) for him because I had to pass the bookstore on my way to/from work. I couldn't understand why he would spend money on a "comic book" when he could watch it on television. So little brother handed me the first volume and told me I would see the light. I was hooked and soon began to read the scans online, which led to reading other manga.

I took my brother's challenge because I am an avid reader and I know that live action media (movies, tv serials, etc.) never does a written work justice. It is always missing someting or taking a turn that seems to veer greatly from what was originally written in the book. I think I may have sat through 4 whole episodes of Naruto and what I saw had nothing to do with what I read (I was later informed that the episodes were "fillers"). One must remember that in order to make a movie or tv series the orginal work must take on a whole lot of hitchhikers before reaching completion. Writers, directors, editors, producers, animators, voice actors, and others all have a hand in reshaping a story into what they envision it to be. Add to that cost and time restraints and the end product is bearly recognizable when compared to the original written work.

Inyasha was an anime I enjoyed until it seemed to go round in circles with no end in sight and no point to make. I was told that the manga is much better but the anime has put me off so much that I just can't bring myself to re-invest my time into reading it. I think this same fatigue is negatively affecting many Naruto fans to the point of apathy and desertion.

I still read Naruto mainly because I want to see how Masashi Kishimoto will end it. Will he finish it with his own vision or will he let his massive fanbase finish it for him? From what I can tell 40+ volume series are rather rare and having a few that are a bit lackluster is understandable. But one has to wonder if the shaky parts are because the mangaka allowed himself to venture into territory that readers led him to rather than following his own mind toward a different path? J.K Rowling talked about how hard it was at times to shut out fans/critics voices when she was writing the Harry Potter series. People were always writing her requesting that she make the story darker or more romantic even though it was a "childrens" series. In the end I had no doubt that she ended the series on her terms and while I was a bit put off by some events I had to applaud her resolve to stick to her story, her vision.

My focus now with Naruto is on Kishimoto more so than on the characters in the story. How and when will he end this series? When it does end will we be able to see that thread that connects the first chapter to the last? Or will we see a hack job that tries to make everyone happy but makes no sense to the story? I am sure Kishimoto started this venture with the intention of telling a good story that people would like and support. But now that simple intention has morph into this hugh, hungry, multi-headed beast that needs constant care and feeding. Who will win out in the end?

Naruto appeals to a lot of people for many reasons. And therefore, it's popular. And you can't deny its merits. Nothing that is completely "bad" will get licensed and will sell well. People will say it's bad because they personally don't like it.

I do like Naruto personally. Mostly because the characters are deep and human, different from other shounens.

And when you said "anticipated", did you mean people predicting and speculating?

I think Naruto is actually a really good comic, but all the "Narutards" are making it where I dislike Naruto and I am thinking about stop reading it and wait for it to end and search for it on wikipedia to see how it happened. But the people I hate the most are the people who are obsolutely obsessed with Sasuke and Gaara. (No offense to people like Gaara, but the obsessed people made me dislike him) But the worst part of it is that I have a Narutard living in my house who loves Gaara. And what makes it worse is that my dad made me let her read the entire Naruto series I had downloaded, so now I hear her annoying squeeks every time she is on the computer.

Urgh...great god I know how you feel -_-" Thats why I keep my collection where they can't find it, and if they do find it then I'll beat them up

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That's why I don't even show them my collection. Well, I delete everything after I read it, so that they'll never find it. My brother's a Narutotrad who likes Naruto. He's 9, so understandable.

Compared with Pokemon, and other 4 Kids Dubs, Naruto isn't that bad. One Piece is worse, haven't read that manga, but the anime just completely sucked. CN is probably the only commonly received channel in the US that is willing to show Naruto. Anything PG-13 and above is shown on adult swim 11pm - 6am so parents of young children stop yapping, and the adult swim stuff isn't well known. After all, most of us teenagers would rather be sleeping. (I have a feeling that parents have more power here than in Japan.) Anyways, an uncut version will never make it to popularity in the US. You can buy it at stores though.

its kind of stupid to dislike naruto just because some people like it to much, or just because its so well know or anything.
the naruto anime is good, but suffers from comercialization, its way to dragged out to make more money, witch includes the fillers. that aside, its a good anime (sometimes very good) with good animation.
and like someone already said, never judge the manga by the anime. the naruto manga is really really good. people talk about plotholes? its only a plothole if the story ends and theres no explanation. one of narutos greater features is that it has a lot of suspence, it gets people hungry for more, to knows wats coming. its also a series that uses a lot of symbolism from real life, witch work like clues for readers to try to find things out. it has so many characters, almost all of them fully developed and with deep background and motivations.
im not saying is best manga i've read but when it comes to a point of the story where it seems like some characters will meet, where some are allies and others enemies, it just makes you feel so much anticipation for wats going to happen and how the characters will react to the others and how will they team with others or not, like no other shonen. also, just the suspence you get to know wat are some characters abiltys and jutsu is so well done.
the author as put a lot of effort and research into the story-line, and its one of the most complicated, yet well made and surprising, that i've seen. also theres drama to rival some of the best in that genre, be it novels or movies.

i dont know if i really made sense or passed my message like i wanted, but i dont want to read all of this lol
sorry all for the bore

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And also, the author makes many references to Japanese legends and stories and whatnot. I only notice because I read it on a fansite a while back, and because I see similar characters with the same name in other series. Also, there are references to China's Sun Wukong from Journey to the West.

Again, it's all a matter of taste.

Actually mine was somewhere that no one could find it, but I had to talk to my dad to get permission to download them so he was completely aware that I had the series on the computer somewhere. And then since my sister was getting obsessed with it my dad decided to tell her that I have the series downloaded and then he told me to move the Naruto file to the desktop so she can get to it too.

@Xeronia: One Piece's comic is actually realy good, but 4kids dub is what ruins it. I actually enjoy reading One Piece more than Naruto. But I guess I shouldn't get into too much detail since this is about Naruto and not One Piece. But I am not forcing you to read One Piece either, because watching 4Kids first really does give the wrong impression and will probably put you off any show, but Funimation has picked it up so it might get a whee bit better. I better stop now.

It´s just fun.
"búið og basta!" - meaning thats all

For me, I find naruto entertaining and intelectually stimulating. Thus I am always waiting for the next chapter/episope.

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Naruto Shippunden anime is overrated and over-commercialized far more than first Naruto series (before endless fillers started). But I actually like manga after time leap, other than its problem of extending fights too much, its far more complicated and the first part of manga before time leap. Naruto manga was always straightforward no major mysteries but I've got so tired of Orochimaru who never finally dies and Naruto obsession with "saving" Sasuke from Orochimaru. (I've have got no problem with Sasuke vs Itachi though, just Orochimaru)
Second part with all its Akatsuki mysteries is far more interesting to me, Orochimaru gone (at least for 10 or more volumes for now). First part was very obvious except for question how it will end, second part is full of speculations and all threads start finally to unravel.
But anime Shippunden is far worse than Naruto anime (up till ep 136), fights are extended and animators actually managed to put in fillers in fights, which are not good at all.
But if you want to talk about overrated anime/manga series that gone for far too long - try Inuyasha, One Piece and Detective Conan!
Just because Naruto is more popular than those, doesn't mean its worse than those series. It wouldn't be more popular unless the story was more fascinating and better!

I don't think that Naruto is over rated actually. I used to not be interested because everyone talked about it as if it were a gift from God. I think I actually watched the first ep. before I heard of it, and I watched it soley because it was anime and H-A-T-E-D it. I thought it was stupid and I didn't look at it for a year and a half. Then while I was bored at a hotel I watched it on t.v. and it was hilarious. So I dled the manga sometime later and guess what it was good, I mean really good. When something is over rated remember there is a reason for all the hype. Yeah, it does get annoying when some people talk about nothing but Naruto because I'm not too into it. (I have other things I'm obsessed over.) I usually don't tell people I like Naruto actually or if someone asks me do I like it I'll be like yeah and that's it.

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whatphotoshopmypicswhatliesdoyouspeakof?! >D

LOL i did the same thing with Harry Potter books! Thought that it was stupid because a boy is suppose to save everyone from and evil wizard that's older than him?!... well, i still think that... but it's an amusing book and plot!

hmmm about naruto... i just like it.

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