Naruto

Ah yes, the bright orange, hyper active, knuckle-headed ninja of the Hidden Leaf village...Naruto Uzumaki. This show was created by Masashi Kishimoto and is featured in the Shonen Jump magazine.

Naruto is about a young ninja named, what else, Naruto, who is basically the worst ninja in his village. Naruto gets put into a squad with his teammates, the depressed, revenge ridden boy Sasuke Uchiha and flirtatious, super-genius Sakura Haruno. They're squad leader is a mysterious, care-free man named Kakashi Hatake, who always keeps his face covered. Naruto has to prove himself to both his squad and the entire village that he is a worthy shinobi and he's capable of become the Hokage of his village, the top ninja who watches over everything.

I personally love this show. I think it's well written and has plenty of violence and action with many humorous moments brought to use by Naruto himself. Not only is the show itself great, but the comic is also very entertaining and doesn't leave out that censorship we see in the widly televised anime. On the downside, this show is very based along Naruto having to find his lost friend Sasuke, which in turn leads to many, MANY filler episodes. Sure, some of them are pretty good but many of them are just...how to say it...Stupid and meaningless. Back to the positive things, another thing I really like about this show is the fact that everyone has a story behind them. It's very obvious that the writers took a lot of time and effort into creating a background story for even the smallest characters. I also love how all the characters are so different, both personality and appearance wise. Even people like the ramen shop owners or the nurses in the hospitals all have different, distinct personalities which prevents the show, in most cases, from being boring and always keeps you guessing. It's very obvious that everyone who helps create this show takes their job seriously and works hard to give it's viewers the best action/ninja show around, Naruto.

One distinct thing that puts Naruto apart from many other animes is the essential 'second half'. When the series ends there is a three year time jump when the three main characters, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, each train under one of three powerful ninjas known as sanin. Naruto trains under Jiraiya, Sasuke under Orochimaru, and Sakura under Tsunade. Now, you never see what actually happens during these three years, but the show picks up in a new series, Naruto Shippuden. In the first episode of this new series, Naruto is just returning to the leaf village. Everyone is older and stronger, and Naruto re-joins Sakura and Kakashi to make a new team. Naruto is now on a mission to bring back Sasuke, who has abandon the village to get revenge for his family and get the strength he needs to kill his brother. This show takes a new spin onto the show and essentially makes it more interesting since everyone is older, wiser, and significantly stronger. However, this show is ENDLESS. I swear, there has to be a couple hundred episodes in the original series and then a couple hundred more in the Shippuden...and it's still coming out with new episodes every week like clockwork. But it's an excellent show and deserves to be appreciated or watched entirely if you have a good year and a half and sit and watch all of the episodes....

This first video depicts the original Naruto series. The second one depicts the Shipudden episodes.