Go figure, I wrote an overly detailed review of Naruto a few months back. Allow me to drop it here. n_n
[jq]I'll watch it when Naruto or someone beats the ever-loving piss out of Sasuke. ⊂(ﾟヮﾟ)⊃
And in all seriousness, TEE ELL DEE ARR.
Naruto is just bad. Just plain bad. There are very few redeemable qualities and, honestly, it just gives a bad wrap to an otherwise good genre. Because of this and other series being able to be called 'overrated' the Shonen genre has spiraled into a pit of people not caring, thinking they're all childish, stupid insults to your intelligence. I love a good Shonen anime when one comes along but Naruto somehow wrecks my perception and makes me uneasy when I pick one.
For one, let's talk about the characters. Every good story needs some decent characters. And, if you don't know, Naruto's characters are infamous for being annoying, hate-able and completely one-dimensional. If you aren't going to give depth, at least make them somewhat interesting. Not that it mattered, there wasn't a single character I cared enough about to want to know more about. Except for maybe Shikamaru. He's an exception. Another thing, this series suffers from something I call 'Sonic the Hedgehog Character Syndrome (SHDS)'. Basically, this means there are far too many characters and very few of them are interesting. It's not as bad as BLEACH though, that's on a level onto its own. Sure, there's a Blaze or a Kakashi every now and again, but, for the most part, they're all Silvers or Hinata. The author wants you to be interested in them, but, ultimately, he fails.
But characters are useless without a good story and Naruto starts it's run with a few, semi-character developing filler-type episodes but then it pulls up its socks and starts the only part of this entire 200+ episode series I enjoyed, the Zabuza Arc. Zabuza and Haku are one of the few characters I liked and they both died. There are some fillers, but the last few episodes are touching and I honestly enjoyed it as a whole. Then something bad happens. The author ditches the concept of a 'Plot' and relies only on the basic Story skeleton and fights to carry the next 40 or so episodes.
The Chunin Exam saga not only drags to a near Dragon Ball Z caliber, but it actually had some potential to develop the most one-dimensional character. Sakura. Basically, she's that most basic archetype of a female Shonen lead. Basically, Naruto and Sasuke, you know, the guys, are out of comision and Sakura is all alone when she's attacked. After Rock Lee, another character who has one shining moment, but is ultimately uninteresting, fails so save her, even though they're competing against each other. Then Sakura decides it's time to stop hoping someone will save her, pulls up her socks and decides it's time to fight. What should've happened here is that Sakura should've kicked they're collective asses and, like diggers before (or, rather, after) her, made a speech and learned she doesn't need anyone to fend for herself. Even better, is, back in the good arc, this was sort of foreshadowed, so it kind of makes sense. Instead, she makes a near sickening defense is saved by even more people she's supposed to be competing against also save her before Sasuke wakes up. Out of all the moments I hated this series, this moment takes the cake. Missed Moment of Awesome indeed.
After this part of the saga it gets to the BIGGEST MISTAKE ANY SHONEN AUTHOR CAN EVER MAKE.
A tournament. Yes. A freaking tournament. A pointless battle-off with minimal plot and tedious battle after battle. This, is inexcusable. Tournaments can work in anime as long as it's just a facade for the plot. Shaman King does this wonderfully. And if you are, could you at least make the fights aesthetically interesting? I've watched 'The Law of Ueki', all fighting Shonen anime should have fights like that. People with interesting powers and fights that are clever and have something that develop the characters. But no, there's minimal Sakura development that amounts to nothing, but that's it. Only when it ends does the plot show up. And what does the plot lead to? Oh. More meaningless fighting. Sure, it does affect the plot. All of it felt like padding and after it, I skimmed through the rest until the end. Sasuke's brother shows up and his mildly interesting, insane sidekick too, but I never cared much for it.
And then Sasuke decides that he wants to end his brother for the hanus acts he committed against his clan. Genocide. So he leaves and becomes a fugitive. There are so many things wrong with this, I don't even know. For one, they decide to send the children to go after him. They say that they need the older ninjas to help protect the village after it's invasion, but whatever. And apparently the unintersting antagonist of the series as far as I care, has 4 deadly assassins and we get more fighting. Okay, I'm good with fighting, that's kind of mandatory in Shonen anime, but this is excessive. Fighting needs to help the plot. EVERYTHING NEEDS TO HELP THE PLOT AND THE STORY. That's why fiction can be called a STORY. The series wraps with one, well animated but underwhelming fight between Naruto and Sasuke.
Honestly, this whole series is just, plain bad. It's characters are uninteresting, it's plot is non-existant and not even the constant fights are interesting enough to keep me...
Interested. Just skip it. There is FAR worse things you could watch then the amateurish mess that is Naruto.
END TEE ELL DEE ARR.[/jq]
