Reviewed by: Jacky Poon
Ratings:
Genre(s): Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure, Kids, Ninjas
Year: 2002

A giant nine-tailed demon fox terrorizing the ninja village of Konoha gets sealed within some kid by some uber-ninja. That kid (Naruto) then grows up and, unsurprisingly, wants to be the best ninja EVAR! Unfortunately, he's not very good at it, and people don't like him.

Some people just get all excited when the word "ninja" is mentioned… These people would think Naruto is one of the greatest anime series ever. It has everything: some inventive fight scenes (complete with explanations and excessive voice-overs so you know what is going on, even if you don't care), and some nice comic moments, and along the way looks at all the themes like isolation, loneliness, heroism that appeal to pretty much everyone. This is one of the few anime series where the protagonist starts out as more of a sidekick to archrival and teammate Sasuke, who is much, much better at it than him.

It's thrilling, it has some nice cliffhangers, and you can't really help but to root for the underdog (namely, Naruto).

Other people cringe when the word "ninja" is mentioned. Naruto has more plot holes than Swiss cheese. You see, there's shirukens and daimyos and all that alongside…

and magic: Naruto is wearing a tracksuit with a zipper. You then begin to wonder why they'd want to fight to the death when they have TV.

Sometimes the plots also seems a bit artificial. It starts with some filler episodes with comic moments, then they set off on an adventure, then there's a fight scene spanning about 8 episodes, complete with commentary, and random cutscenes so you know the life-story of everyone, regardless of whether you actually care.

I guess it appeals to some people.

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