First off:
People judge this Anime with high regards, especially those new to Anime. Quite overrated. Naruto is about ninjas and beating the bad guys with fancy techniques and an army load of flashbacks. If an Anime has a bad storyline, that Anime ends up a failure. Naruto started out very solidly and enticingly. A boy who has been an outcast of his village because of a demon seal, but yet despise all that, he still wants to become the Hokage. The story is pretty decent and easily likable. But the bad parts about this Anime are the plot holes. You see a lot of meaningless repetitive flashbacks, which causes the solid storyline to be filled with holes everywhere. Flashbacks every other episode and 5 episode long fights.
What makes me look at this Anime in contempt is the characterization development. There are way too many characters, thus the whole plot slows down, and in turn causes more flashbacks to postpone the storyline. Too many characters also lead to the incapability of character growth. And for me personally character development/growth is one of the two most important aspects an Anime should have, with the other being the plot. For example, Naruto seems never to learn from his mistakes. Yes, 2 years later, Shippudden came out, Naruto became 15 years old, and his personality is STILL the same; unable to refrain himself from doing something stupid that would cause his whole team to fall into disaster (And I thought they were suppose to be "Ninjas", refined and stealth). He's kept on turtle island and totally in the dark of everything that's going on outside for fear that he might do something stupid. There's also the reason that he may be caught by Akatsuki, however this is a moot point since.. if Naruto were mature enough to listen and think logically, he'd know he can't just rush into battle. He'd remain back with the generals or some safe location BUT with a constant feed of knowledge of what's going on outside and how the ninja army is doing against the Akatsuki. I digress. This is all opinion and I want to continue stating facts. So I'll move on.
What also irritates me are the techniques. For some reason, everything is an upgraded version of the prior technique, which makes the character seems really banal. Rasengan to Odama Rasengan to Rasenshuriken. 5 Clones to 100 Clones, then went to 1000 Clones. It lacks originality. What exasperates me even more is Naruto for some haxy reason, can never be defeated since he "God-mode"s with the Rasengan jutsu. He's always getting his ass beat at first, then fucks up the bad guy with a Rasengan when that guy didn't even take any crucial damage. Also, less hand motions/seals to do really complicated jutsus, whereas simple jutsus took forever to do with seals before the timeskip. WTF.
Enemies who were super strong before, become disgustingly weak when they turn 'good'. You see this quite clearly with Gaara's character. Its rather sad and kind of annoying. Then there's the vice versa when characters just randomly decide to turn evil and they are horrendously god-moding strong, like Sasuke(aka Faggot).
Anime: 1. Flashbacks - Flashbacks are normal in many animes. However, Naruto is an exemption. The flashback last so long and most of the scenes are being repeated. Flashbacks in Naruto do not bear much significance in the story and yet I do not see the reason in dragging the flashbacks. Flashbacks in Naruto are boring unlike some flashbacks in other anime. Repeated flashbacks in the anime (repeated flashbacks are flashbacks that are shown in one episode and shown again in the other) are present and I find it insignificant in the story.
2. Character development (a.k.a THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY STORY/ANIME/MOVIE/SHOW)- the show provides a very slow character development. Thus, creating long and boring episodes.
Examples of slow character development: - Quote :
- a. After the timeskip of Naruto and Naruto shippuuden, Naruto is still the same aggressive and stupid guy who will destroy the whole team because of his attitude. Why can't he act mature?
b. After the timeskip of Naruto and Naruto shippuuden, Hinata is still the same shy person who faints when seeing Naruto in near distance.
c. After the timeskip of Naruto and Naruto shippuuden, Sakura may have improved. However, after the Sasori arc, she just returned to being useless.
d. After the timeskip of Naruto and Naruto shippuuden, some characters do not even age a little bit.
3. Fight scenes - this show is an example of a 95% talk and 5% battle. The fight scenes bore me.
Examples why the fight scenes are boring: - Quote :
- a. The predictability - fight scenes are very predictable.
b. The all-talk - characters spend most of their time just standing an telling lame stories rather than fighting.
c. The slow fight - if you watched the 4 tail Naruto vs. Orochimaru, you'll know.
d. The repeated fighting scenes - Naruto uses KageBunshin then the enemy beats all of them, then the enemy beats Naruto to a pulp, then Naruto teaches the enemy about life and friendship then Naruto hits the enemy with a rasengan and the fight is finished.
e. The techniques - the techniques looks like an upgraded version of their past technique. Example of this is Rasengan to Oodama Rasengan, Sharingan to Mangekyou Sharingan.
4. Drag - the show drags too much that the character spends the whole episode jumping over trees.
No, srsly.
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Manga:1. Naruto used to inspire without trying. Now it seems like it tries too hard "to inspire" out of something that is not inspiring at all, like begging Raikage to stop hunting for Sasuke because "he is my best 'BFF' friend".
2. Naruto used to have very strong side story that backs up every fight scene. This story, which usually synced together with corresponding fight scenes, usually is told as the fight itself goes on, and both ends together in a dramatic way that touches our heart, like Gaara/Naruto fight, Gaara/Lee fight, Sakura/Chiyo/Sasori fight. It can be said that almost all fights that took place in the manga were backed up with strong side story. This is not the case now. Everyone just goes on and fights, Kisame/Hachibi, Sasuke/Hachibi for instance.
3. Same problems with character development as the anime. 10 years of this shit and Naruto hasn't matured. Characters now introduced are more gimmicky than realistic. When shit becomes totally unrealistic like this, we lose the connection with the whole story. A jutsu that brings people back from the dead? The puppets are believable. The guy that can grow his bones out of his body and use it as a sword? WTF. Could deal with the Sharingan and the Byakugan hax. But now there are zombie ninjas, a plant that can multiply itself an assload of times and jutsu that can bring people back from the dead even though I'm sure they should be decomposed and void of any chakra/sentient thought. That would make it a bit more realistic.
4. Same problems with the fight scenes as the anime.
5. Plot. What the fuck happened to the plot? Its like the writer is just pulling stuff out of his ass and hoping it appeals to the masses. Which it has, unfortunately. Ninja zombies, EVEN MORE CHARACTERS. This show does not need anymore characters. It needs less. Shit lacks tension when its overloaded with characters. I don't even know what to type anymore. Just too much rage. I'll leave it at this.
The flashbacks in the manga are shorter because we're reading them but they are still repeated often. Though, because it's read instead of watched, I decided not to mention it.
TL;DR = THIS NARUTO SHIT SUCKS BALLS.Any rebuttals to this?
I can also give pretty damn good reasons why Bleach sucks, if anyone wants to hear them.