It's about 50-50, the Manga has it's ups and downs, as does the Anime.
As it is, it's very hard to tell which is better, the Anime has the Manga beat in fights and emotional display through Voice Overs, where as the Manga beats the Anime in detail and better telling of the overall story(I think so at least.)

There are more, and if you nitpick you can point out alot of differences.

In the end, the answer to the question, "which is better" will have to stay reserved till the end of the series.

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I just can't see why anyone would say the anime is better than the manga here. I mean I would have said anime before the fillers because they show emotion better and the fight sequences were great and each was original. But after the fillers I've totally flipped. They were so painful to watch it almost ruined the anime totally for me. The fighting became so 7 year old saturday morning cartoonish. In all the fights in the fillers the main character of that episode HAD to use the same 2 moves to beat everyone, even if he didn't need it, and the drawing became very weak and it was just flat out awful. While the manga still keeps its freshness in the fights, storyline, and drawing.

The naruto manga is very good. The anime is only better when it follows the manga 100%, bc its always better to see it moving with color and nice animation. Unfortunetly, the anime is not always like this. Although I like the anime very much (I even watched all the filler..), the manga is just better. The pace is better, the drawings are almost always better, some strong/emotional moments are just made like nothing in the anime.
Having read the manga first, i just dont feel like forgiving the anime for not taking advantage of all the goodness of the manga.

I now the anime not being always good, (like gaara vs lee, sasuke leaving sakura, naruto vs sasuke, etc) and stretching to much is due to budget problems and to make more money.. but such a famous series probably could spend more resources than its currently doing.

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Couldn't agree more..I still marvel at the hatred anime/ manga fans have on Naruto. Naruto is a masterpiece--this latest Snake arc is fantastic and the anime for me while the 1st saga portion was handled well..this one has classed it up a bit and is taking it's time (for necessity's sake) which fits the more mature nature of naruto's character and likewise, prepares the story for some of the innovative plot twists to come.

With most manga's I'd say the Manga > the Anime. Except in one area, and that is the fights. If the fights are exactly like in the manga but are animted the Anime > the Manga but on all other levels it's worse.

I definitely agree with this guy. Fighting just seems so much more real when it is animated, but then again my ability to really get into manga is fairly limited.

My opinion is quite the same as the of Malgus. 50-50

and Sasuke's still cute.maybe in some other way but he still is...they're just older/more mature(besides I don't believe they were 12-13 at the beginning,they didn't act like children at all(Naruto aside).And there are more things about age(like Sasukes auntie age 45 but she looked a lot older then Jiraiya who's supposed to be around 50.Or Itachi 18 and Kabuto 19?oh please!)

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I'll definitely go with the manga. The anime's so dragging, I think their milking Naruto for all it's worth. There ae fight scenes that they did an awesome job on (specially in the Sasuke retrieval arc) but most of the time, it's just mediocre.

well..is it juz me tt i find the anime totally lame and awful...the art is dull and plain and the animation is really bad (compared to other animes) and most of all its realllly slow, i mean it wastes too much time on juz 1 scene eg.in the manga it takes 1 panel to convey the message but in the anime it takes arnd 5-10mins...but if the producers decide to make the anime back to how it used to be eg.chuunin test arc..then i'll hav more interest in the anime...

When there isn't filler, its almost the same. However, the new season has really crap quality fight animations. Watching episodes on Cartoon Network and watching the new ones you can see that they cheaped up alot.

I'm hoping they're saving their cash in anticipation of going all out (ie sasuke vs naruto quality animation) for the biggest fight yet in the manga: Orochimoru vs Naruto. I'm a HUGE fan of Orochi and I can't wait to see that fight in my living room on the TV with the sound loud enough to shake the whole house.

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I don't understand why people prefer the action in the anime. It's so slow and pokemonish lol. In the manga it seems more natural. In the anime it is draged out of place and pace. There are some scenes which are good, but when a character spend 10 seconds to run 20 meters with theier über speed it just gets redicilous.

Well it isn't up to me what other people should like... If you wan't an anime with more realistic feel to a fight, see Cowboy Bebop, Rurouni Kenshin ovas e.g.

Imo the Naruto anime isn't worth watching. 😀

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I like the Manga better because it moves a lot faster than the Anime but i still watch the Anime just to have more visual images of Naruto and to understand it better.. 🙂

Manga rocks and is better in general, but anime fights are the best. There is absolutely no way you can say the manga version of the Rock Lee vs. Gaara fight and the Naruto vs. Sasuke fight is better than the anime version (too bad we see those kind of quality fights so rarely).

I think the MOST hideous fight in the anime was the Naruto vs. Kiba fight. Did all the manga illustrators take a vacation then?? Seriously watch it again, the quality is horrendous 😛

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Manga rocks and is better in general, but anime fights are the best. There is absolutely no way you can say the manga version of the Rock Lee vs. Gaara fight and the Naruto vs. Sasuke fight is better than the anime version (too bad we see those kind of quality fights so rarely).

I think the MOST hideous fight in the anime was the Naruto vs. Kiba fight. Did all the manga illustrators take a vacation then?? Seriously watch it again, the quality is horrendous 😛

I am astounded that people can actually notice differences in quality. But I still say that manga better. I don't need to watch a whole hour of story going nowhere due to a fight.

MANGA FO SHO! So, my belief is that the anime is aimed at 13 and under, which is why a lot of it is dumbed down and more of a comedy. Plus, the anime suggests things that aren't even mentioned in the manga which throws people off. The anime fights, however, are pretty awesome.