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After 15 years of publication the story of Naruto that wanted to be Hokage came to an end. The final volume is released today. The one-shot manga Naruto by Kishimoto that was published in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump. The serialized publications started in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from the 43rd issue of 1999 to the 50th issue of 2014. Al the chapters are collected into seventy-two tankōbon volumes by Shueisha.
The anime adaptation of the manga is produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex.
Now that most of us here already have read it let's get down to it and share our experiences with the manga -
The hits, the misses and all things in between
It's one of the top selling mangas and had earned that spot for good reasons. But exactly what made it so popular?
No matter what happened in Naruto, its fanbase was almost always split in half. One side complaining about the same stuff, the other was obsessively rooting for. Both sides making use of extreme points of view.
Even it's popularity worked against it, at times. People either had unrealistic expectations or dismissed it too quickly one the ground that if it's that popular it cannot be that good. Some picked it to find something they liked in another manga and then were disappointed that it was that story. But hating is easy if you solely focus on bad side of something. And Naruto has them. However, it also has many good things going for it that make it an amazing manga and a cornerstone of the genre and the industry. If people cannot forget Dragon Ball and Son Goku, people will not forget Naruto.
So, what are these good things that made us come back and read it after all these years?"
I have tried to break it down in two segments:
On the positive side:
1- Art- Good, some times excellent, visuals. No excessive detailing to crowd the panels or distract but not so empty that one doesn't get a feel of the atmosphere the writer is trying to create.
Nicely drawn facial expressions, well proportioned characters including animal summons and action sequence of all kinds add to it. Much of the character personalities can be guessed by their body language and stances.
2- Fight sequences- Good, well thought out with many interesting tactics and results.
3- Sometimes creepy but creative and interesting abilities of the both good and evil characters.
4- Great pseudo- scientific explanation for the most part. A couple of abilities (like Susano requirements) had to be retconned but seeing the length of the manga and number of abilities there are few things which writer was not able to make as believable as the rest.
5- A big variety of memorable characters - multidimensional and detailed back grounds. Almost everyone finds someone to relate to.
6- A Multilayered plot planed in quite a detail with multiple foreshadowing and references.
7- Quite a harsh and unforgiving universe, despite the manga averting the tragedy genre completely, giving it a mature feel that increased throughout the years as did the age of its original fanbase.
The back drop of war and suffering it caused to the characters is in extremes and the author lets his popular characters die. Not that common in long running shonnens. There are some examples but usually they were added in a particular arc or two, to be killed off to make the plot more rounded. Such characters rarely have any standalone position.
8- Use of Buddhist symbolism and philosophy taken from traditional mythological tales in Japan all through the manga was another interesting aspect, giving it a different flavour.
9- The philosophy of the villains too is quite developed with definite goals and reasons that at times it almost makes you wonder which side is really right and which one in the wrong. At time it's grey with multiple layers.
10- A happy ending but not without the traces to erase what had occurred. Not only Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Gai all carry war injuries. Jiraiya, Neji, Itachi, Shikaku, Inoichi etc never come back to life. Many other identifiable characters too seem to have aged too fast within short span as a result of chakra sapping.
11-Neat finish. Sasuke and Naruto fight at the climax was only a brawl between two already tired characters. Still the fight and it's result were satisfactory enough. Both paid a price for their personal obsessions. It turns out that peace is a status after all and to maintain it longer honesty, trust, friendly negotiations are the key to it. Everything is answered. The ones still left are the ones that allow the future expansions or little stories if needed.
The final chapters were very close to the fixed last date of the manga. I was quite apprehensive and detested the idea of having to watch a movie for proper ending but the writer managed to give it a final tie in a very condensed form in manga itself. He covered a hell lot in the chapter 699 and 700 and in a style that I liked- who knew Sasuke could say so much!!
12- Successful run for 15 years with a very few breaks on writer's part- we got our weekly fix almost in continuation.( I'm reading some mangas which were either dropped in middle because the author or WSJ gave up on it or takes like forever for a short chapter so I really appreciate the efforts this writer put in. )
Nicely drawn facial expressions, well proportioned characters including animal summons and action sequence of all kinds add to it. Much of the character personalities can be guessed by their body language and stances.
2- Fight sequences- Good, well thought out with many interesting tactics and results.
3- Sometimes creepy but creative and interesting abilities of the both good and evil characters.
4- Great pseudo- scientific explanation for the most part. A couple of abilities (like Susano requirements) had to be retconned but seeing the length of the manga and number of abilities there are few things which writer was not able to make as believable as the rest.
5- A big variety of memorable characters - multidimensional and detailed back grounds. Almost everyone finds someone to relate to.
6- A Multilayered plot planed in quite a detail with multiple foreshadowing and references.
7- Quite a harsh and unforgiving universe, despite the manga averting the tragedy genre completely, giving it a mature feel that increased throughout the years as did the age of its original fanbase.
The back drop of war and suffering it caused to the characters is in extremes and the author lets his popular characters die. Not that common in long running shonnens. There are some examples but usually they were added in a particular arc or two, to be killed off to make the plot more rounded. Such characters rarely have any standalone position.
8- Use of Buddhist symbolism and philosophy taken from traditional mythological tales in Japan all through the manga was another interesting aspect, giving it a different flavour.
9- The philosophy of the villains too is quite developed with definite goals and reasons that at times it almost makes you wonder which side is really right and which one in the wrong. At time it's grey with multiple layers.
10- A happy ending but not without the traces to erase what had occurred. Not only Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Gai all carry war injuries. Jiraiya, Neji, Itachi, Shikaku, Inoichi etc never come back to life. Many other identifiable characters too seem to have aged too fast within short span as a result of chakra sapping.
11-Neat finish. Sasuke and Naruto fight at the climax was only a brawl between two already tired characters. Still the fight and it's result were satisfactory enough. Both paid a price for their personal obsessions. It turns out that peace is a status after all and to maintain it longer honesty, trust, friendly negotiations are the key to it. Everything is answered. The ones still left are the ones that allow the future expansions or little stories if needed.
The final chapters were very close to the fixed last date of the manga. I was quite apprehensive and detested the idea of having to watch a movie for proper ending but the writer managed to give it a final tie in a very condensed form in manga itself. He covered a hell lot in the chapter 699 and 700 and in a style that I liked- who knew Sasuke could say so much!!
12- Successful run for 15 years with a very few breaks on writer's part- we got our weekly fix almost in continuation.( I'm reading some mangas which were either dropped in middle because the author or WSJ gave up on it or takes like forever for a short chapter so I really appreciate the efforts this writer put in. )
On the minus side:
1- Despite writer's attempts to explain and detail everything to make it most believable, in the end the length of the serialization started to take it's toll and the final fights with rapid power ups didn't sit that well with many.
2- The main character don't impress as much as the side ones. It may be a personal peeve but all three members of the main cast had certain irksome traits which stayed in for far too long; Sakura getting the worst of it. Writer seemed to get distracted by side characters too much to notice the main cast was suffering.
3- Kishimoto redefined Ninjas in many ways and they get quite modernized by the end but the outlook of the verse towards female is still conservative. I should have taken the hint that Kishi is going for traditional Kunoichi roles for girls when during Ino/Sakura fight in chunin exams Ino mentioned flower arrangement classes only for female ninjas.
4- The narration of back stories of the characters at the peek of the fight all at once. As much as people liked the back grounds of characters they disliked to get it in single doses when they were eager to see the action instead. It worked on few occasions( e.g. Nagato) but not so much for some others- Kabuto's case being the most notable.
5- Sometimes the moralistic lecture is a bit too long and too loud.
6- The unequal pacing- it's was partially problem of a long serialization still I cannot help and wish that pacing was more balanced out. The whole war arc seemed slower but by the end Kishi had to rush things. The main trios' first real team work didn't make that much impact as it should have despite attempts to highlight that theme back in. The surprise addition of Kaguya while they were still recovering from Madara's sudden end and quick power ups, prove a strong distraction. This brings me to the next point.
7- The final Villain gave a feeling of being one too many.
8- Sometimes it seems the artist was too tired and pressed for time to finish the chapter on schedule resulting in somewhat chaotic pages with background not that clearly defined. But sometimes it's really great so on average I rate the art on positive side but I'm going to cut down the rating because of these problems.
9- It turns out that peace is a status after all and to maintain it longer honesty, trust, negotiations are the key. Yes I'm aware I counted on plus side too.
Thing is it was somewhat expected result but the theme of talk and negotiation is too heavily used in the manga.
2- The main character don't impress as much as the side ones. It may be a personal peeve but all three members of the main cast had certain irksome traits which stayed in for far too long; Sakura getting the worst of it. Writer seemed to get distracted by side characters too much to notice the main cast was suffering.
3- Kishimoto redefined Ninjas in many ways and they get quite modernized by the end but the outlook of the verse towards female is still conservative. I should have taken the hint that Kishi is going for traditional Kunoichi roles for girls when during Ino/Sakura fight in chunin exams Ino mentioned flower arrangement classes only for female ninjas.
4- The narration of back stories of the characters at the peek of the fight all at once. As much as people liked the back grounds of characters they disliked to get it in single doses when they were eager to see the action instead. It worked on few occasions( e.g. Nagato) but not so much for some others- Kabuto's case being the most notable.
5- Sometimes the moralistic lecture is a bit too long and too loud.
6- The unequal pacing- it's was partially problem of a long serialization still I cannot help and wish that pacing was more balanced out. The whole war arc seemed slower but by the end Kishi had to rush things. The main trios' first real team work didn't make that much impact as it should have despite attempts to highlight that theme back in. The surprise addition of Kaguya while they were still recovering from Madara's sudden end and quick power ups, prove a strong distraction. This brings me to the next point.
7- The final Villain gave a feeling of being one too many.
8- Sometimes it seems the artist was too tired and pressed for time to finish the chapter on schedule resulting in somewhat chaotic pages with background not that clearly defined. But sometimes it's really great so on average I rate the art on positive side but I'm going to cut down the rating because of these problems.
9- It turns out that peace is a status after all and to maintain it longer honesty, trust, negotiations are the key. Yes I'm aware I counted on plus side too.
Thing is it was somewhat expected result but the theme of talk and negotiation is too heavily used in the manga.Rating for art- 8
Writing- 7
I rated it 7 finally because the manga was a continuous work in progress published simultaneously. So half a point for the hard work which went into it and another half for creating characters like Itachi, Jiraiya and Neji and having guts to let them die; letting the main characters carry life time injuries and let us feel the miseries of war even happy ending may bring in.
I don't rate it higher considering that after dragging war arc this long, writer had to rush things in the Kaguya arc among other things. And being really bad with female characters.
People forgive lame starts and pointless middles if the third and final parts are well done. Unfortunately writer's fatigue showed up and Naruto falters in these two stages and the slips are showing. So it also gets it's fair share of criticism towards the end.
Over all it's still a good first manga to take a dip in Japanese culture and values, and exciting action sequences and interesting villains and side characters keep you hooked with their stories along with the main plot. But those reading it just to have an opinion on it or to fill the vacuum left by some other manga on eternal hiatus or ending too soon are not going to enjoy it much.
So what do you have to say about your Naruto journey? How long have you been following it and why?
PS: Ideally I shouldn't have to add this but- please remember no bashing the manga, writer or other people. Keep it objective and on topic. If you have nothing worthwhile thing to say then please leave without saying anything, Even if you disagree completely, be polite and courteous.
Thank you.
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