 Hello again friends. So the title is not clickbait. It is not something that I'm lying about I do Genuinely love the anime slash manga series Naruto. I haven't done much with the weeaboo corner lately So I've been planning something kind of like this for a little while and I figured you know, I have an open spot in the schedule Let's just talk about it. This is the introduction song. It's not very good But it's not too long. So Naruto is a very famous anime slash manga series Which even if you're not into anime and manga you have probably heard of it I don't think I need to give too much of an introduction about it, but basically it is very indicative of 2000s anime and manga specifically Shonen now if you're unfamiliar Shonen is just the Japanese word for boy And when we're talking about manga it usually just means manga that's aimed at young boys from the age of like Mmm. I don't know eight to eighteen ish I'm sure someone else has exact numbers out there But you know because of that it's stuff that tends to focus on like action and fighting and boobs and just Being the coolest best coolest guy you can you know that sort of thing And Naruto is very indicative of the way that Shonen was in the 2000s and I'm mainly going to be referring to the manga here because this is a Channel that's about books and talking about the anime would be a little too far off-topic But the anime also far follows the story of the manga and that's what I watched first So I will be using clips from it and stuff, but Whatever not important. They're basically the same thing and specifically Naruto is a story about Magical ninjas doing magical ninja things and Based on that it is pretty much what you would expect at least at first because the series gets kind of weird after a while But you know it's it's what you would expect it has a bad Reputation among both people who are fans of anime and people who are not and for good reason You know there are many many problems here, which I see and I do acknowledge, you know There's stuff like plot holes. There's a bunch of side characters which get pushed to the side after a while and they just become completely static They don't change. There's some interesting themes at the beginning that they get kind of Overruled later on by later events and of course there is the ever-present shonen power creep which Basically just means at the beginning. It's fairly grounded in terms of the powers and abilities people are using You know, they're still fucking running up walls and walking on water and shooting out fire dragon balls and stuff Or not dragon balls fire dragons and stuff, but it by the end They're like summoning meteors to crush entire armies and such and it just It gets a little stupid when you compare it to what was at the beginning It it is a very real problem that a lot of series suffer from and Naruto is no exception So I do acknowledge all these problems exist as for the reasons. I really just love this series though Let's find they get back into that so the first one is probably the simplest and the easiest to understand It's what got me into anime, you know It's the first one I ever really watched and then I read the manga so I could Beyond where it was because it was still ongoing at that point and I just really loved it And then I started getting into other more similar stuff, you know So if it weren't for Naruto, I would never have gotten into series with like just incredible action like Bleach I would never have seen or slash read Other series which just have amazing stories like Berserk or Death Note or Code Geass And I would never have come into contact with the sheer insanity of things like Gurren Lagann and Gamblefish, which I've talked a little bit about Gamblefish before it's like one of the final villains of the story is Barack Obama I mean, it's it's so stupid, but I love it, you know, just things like that I would not have gotten to experience things like that if I hadn't Experienced Naruto first. So for that reason, I'm very grateful for it. And that's pretty simple to understand I think the next reason is just that the action is really really good You know, it is a combination of martial arts and magic, but the magic isn't just basic Okay, we're throwing fireballs or we're summoning lightning or something Which you would expect and there is some of that but some of it also just gets really weird Like people making clones of themselves. That's one of the main things Naruto does when he fights He'll make like eight copies of himself and the copies will disappear if they get a solid hit Or if they get hit solidly, but You know, there's still a huge advantage that he can utilize in combat There's people that have like x-ray vision. There's people that can Create bones Like it's it's very strange like he can grow his own bones make him come out of his skin and make them Ultra hard and sharp and stuff and use them as weapons. It's it's very strange and just things like that You know, they they were more unique than you would expect him to be at first and quite frankly I think a lot of western fantasy writing could use a little more Variety in the types of magic that they use like And if you're looking for inspiration for that then I would suggest checking out some anime and manga because they can get weirdly creative with it The action is really kinetic like even when it's in the manga and it's still images You can just feel how quickly everything's moving around and if you ever watch the anime you can see how quickly Everything's moving around which makes it just a lot of fun to watch See when I was a kid pretty much the only Anime that I ever saw was like the occasional episode of dragon ball z when it was on tv And I straight up do not like dragon ball z like that's a controversial take I know but I just I don't like it because 90 percent of the fighting is just characters standing around screaming While rocks rise up around them and it's just It just never really grabbed me Whereas naruto didn't have that problem and plus it's very tactical You know when when people win fights It's not just because at least early in the series like later on it becomes more about just Creating bigger energy blasts than the other guy But at the beginning of the series at least when you win It's not just because you can punch better than the other guy Although that is a factor and it's not because you can summon more magic energy than the other guy Although again that is a factor. It's because Well, you you can come up with plans on the fly You know like like uh In an early fight where they're fighting uh zabuza, which I'll talk a little bit more about in a minute Uh naruto and sasuke have to work together and like hide and use misdirection and stuff in order to catch him off guard Or at least it's not something I had seen very often at the time And I remember I first really started to get into naruto as a character When I started to see how quickly he could come up with battle plans on the fly like that And I just I really liked it It was something impressive that he could do which endeared me to him And all of the fights again at the beginning of the series are built up to really really well Because at the end of the day Yes, you can entertain your audience a bit just by showing Uh movement on the screen, you know fights where they don't really care about the outcome, but It's still just entertaining because people are fighting you can do that for a little while But you never really really get into them unless you actually care about what's going on like because at the end of the day It is uh just trying to show the characters reaching a goal but you're doing it in a visually interesting way and Most of the fights here are built up to really well And so you actually care about what's going on and that just makes them much more intense You know you have rock lee versus gara, which is a great fight And that's basically all about how okay does hard work actually overcome talent eventually There's sakura when she fights sasuri and that's basically showing off how hey sakura is not useless anymore Like she was near the beginning of the series and Granted she does become useless later on again, but I just I just didn't even care like even looking back. I don't care like it's nice to see her actually be useful and Become a true ninja in her own right. I mentioned this earlier, but there's team seven versus zabuza That's a good way of showcasing Just how far they have to go because you know, they're still in training and this guy is an elite ninja who Actually can very easily kill them if they're not careful And so well one it shows just how far they have to go and two It forces them to actually work together as a team because this is their first real mission as a team And it forces them to Learn how to communicate better with one another and it helps them bond and become friends And of course there is naruto versus sasuke at the valley of the end which Is uh, it's kind of hard to go into a lot of detail about that without just sitting here for 10 minutes explaining all the Context, but basically you are watching friends be torn apart by their different philosophies on life And you really want naruto to defeat sasuke because he Can drag him back home and sasuke doesn't go through this whole very elaborate suicide attempt Which is basically what's going on there and plus I just have personal Attachment to it because the first time I saw it was a friend of mine showing it to me trying to get me into naruto And so we spent like an hour and a half watching it and it was just a lot of fun And then there's naruto himself as the protagonist who is Very relatable at first. You know, he is a lonely outcast and he doesn't really have any friends at the beginning of the story Uh, he is a screw-up. You know, he's not particularly good at Being a ninja at first, but he is good at one or two things like again I mentioned he can make uh shadow clones of himself much better than most other People can't even elite ninja are not as good at doing that as he is when he's just a kid And so it's just really nice to watch him become better at things and uh become stronger and Finally gain some friends and gain a family and he has really big dreams And at first it seems farfetched that he'd be able to uh follow those dreams, but after a while he eventually does and so when the epilogue comes around and He finally has become the leader of their village, which was his dream the whole time and he finally Has friends and he is respected and acknowledged by his peers and uh, he has a wife and children like you're you're happy for him and Granted, uh, he kind of becomes the chosen one after a while, which is lame, but It didn't completely ruin things for me. You know, I just again I mentioned before that when he starts, uh Showing off how quick how much of a quick thinker he is and how talented he is at coming up with plans in battle That also endeared me to him, but even before that he was just relatable. I understood him I understood that sort of loneliness. I understood that desire to prove yourself and It just made him a really great character. So even later on when he becomes less good I still was watching him the series also has a really large cast of unique characters that I just really liked so, you know back when Naruto was big everybody had their own favorite and The thing is the cast does get a little too big later on and it Make it gets to a point where a lot of characters just don't have screen time they aren't able to show off anything and they aren't able to develop beyond uh one or two gimmicks a piece but You know, it's still it's still great. You know, I still remember their personalities I remember their different fighting styles. I remember their very distinct character designs. It was It was it was very good. It was a lot of fun. Like I remember Rock Lee's optimism I remember Sasuke's emo cynicism and I totally understood it too because While yes looking back on it. It was kind of annoying how emo he was He is a literal child whose family was murdered It makes sense why he would have such a bleak outlook on things And I remember the cute crush that Hinata had on Naruto like these characters all stood out And they were all unique in their own ways. I I just liked being able to experience that and as the story goes on we get to watch them grow up We watch we get to watch them become more powerful and eventually we watch them replace the old generation that came before them and The thing is That's just how the real world works. That's uh one of the interesting themes about Naruto is how Eventually yes, uh, even if you are a kid now, eventually you will Grow up and you will be the adult and you will Be the ones in charge of society And then it's up to you to be a caretaker for the next generation and then the cycle repeats like it's very It's very subtle, but or maybe not very subtle, but it is a very interesting part of that series Which I just don't see done very often, you know It uh, I normally don't like it when sequels come out that are just cashing in on the success of an earlier big series but It works in this case, even though I don't watch Boruto because Well, that was just what the original series was about and there are a whole bunch of really really powerful Intimidating villains here now. I've mentioned before that fundamentally a villain has to be an obstacle you know, they have to be something that stops the heroes from reaching their goal and Yes, people like to focus on a okay give your villains personality give them their own unique motivations that sort of thing That's all very important. Yes, but on a fundamental level they do have to function as an obstacle they have to Feel like they can actually stop the heroes from accomplishing their goal And if they don't do that, then they just don't work as villains team seven's first major mission They have to fight Zabuza who as I said was a fucking monster. He is an elite ninja he's legendary even among a more powerful ninja and They have to find a way to somehow defeat him and plus in the english dub He just has a really really cool voice Nice try But i'm not that easy to fool Arochi Maru is also super powerful and he's also just extremely creepy Granted I didn't like when they brought him back for the president trump arc, but you know, it whatever. It's not a big deal and The thing is he's not just a threat because he's super powerful and he can fight better He's a threat because he can Manipulate people and because he's intelligent like he manipulates uh sasuke Naruto's best friend into basically like I said before committing Suicide in a very elaborate way because he plays on his emotions and his desire to get revenge that well And so that's someone that you can't uh, just defeat by punching him really hard Like that's uh, an interesting villain the akatsuki Man everybody Everybody loves the akatsuki, you know, like they're just really cool. I don't have a lot else to add But I mean again in addition to that they're very strong when one of the akatsuki shows up You know shits about to go down and I could sit here and talk about all of them really but i'm just gonna mention sasuri who Sakura got to fight and he was really cool and He was like the first big fight with one of the akatsuki where they finally showed that yes They can be beaten But you're gonna have to sacrifice some stuff along the way and it will be very difficult And if you screw up even once you will die So that still worked really well and then of course there's pain who is the leader of the akatsuki and He is One just super powerful like he manages to destroy an entire village full of ninja by himself when he's looking for naruto And then on top of that he just has a really interesting philosophy towards life So he works really well as a villain too and now This world shall know pain There's the nine-tailed fox which is this Unkillable demon they had to seal away a naruto to make sure that it didn't go crazy and destroy everything and I mean that works as a villain because again, you can't kill it and you can't run away from it It's always going to be with naruto So he has to find a way to control it over the course of the series and It works surprisingly well and hell even the boring villains in this series Still kind of work because they're just really powerful and intimidating like a moderate uchiha Very boring character. He has nothing to a mother than ha ha I am strong and I look down on all of you But he also gets to summon fucking asteroids to come down and destroy entire armies He also gets to summon a weird energy gundam which can slice mountains in half, you know He does things like that and when he first shows up and you see what he can do You're really left wondering how the hell are they going to beat this guy? And that becomes one of the big questions near the end of the series And finally this series has some really smart commentary on the cycle of violence Now I mentioned before that there are some Interesting themes that come up early in this series which are kind of overturned by the end which is unfortunate But that's one that sticks with it like it really shows how If you do something violent to someone then their loved ones will come to get revenge And if they succeed in that then your loved ones will come to get revenge against them And then it goes back and forth and sometimes people get caught up in the crossfire And so it just creates this vicious cycle and eventually you have to nip that in the bud This is done extremely well with the character of sasuke, you know For most of the series he is just trying to get revenge on his brother who killed the rest of their family Which is you know a very understandable motivation But then when he gives up everything in his life to gain more power so that he can do it He risks his own life. He gives up all his friends. He gives up his place in his village He knows he can never go back home and then he kills his brother and then What's left for him and he realizes well there There isn't anything left so he just has to pick a new target to try and single-mindedly go off and kill and It you realize that leaves sasuke just kind of empty as a person and that revenge doesn't solve anything And then of course there is pain the villain I mentioned earlier who He realized that okay people are just going to keep fighting wars forever So what we have to do is we have to make the cost of fighting wars too high So his whole goal was to create really powerful weapons, which will cause mass suffering Whenever they're used and then people will step back and realize okay We cannot fight wars anymore. We're gonna have peace for a while And eventually people would forget and they'd do it again But they would again realize okay this destruction is too much and so He was specifically going out of his way to try and create this cycle so that we could have those periods of peace in the middle And you might have issues with this philosophy, but it is at least a philosophy You know, it is an ethos that a villain has and it I can't really find too many flaws with it like i'm not saying it's like a foolproof plan or anything I'm just saying he kind of does have a point. So that's about everything at least in broad strokes and Yeah, at the end of the day Naruto does have some pretty significant issues and I acknowledge those but I I still love it. You know, I still love it as a series. I both for nostalgic value and for Once in a while going back and like watching one of the fights on youtube or something, you know, it's just a lot of fun so, um If you made it this far, thanks a bunch Subscribe to my channel Follow me on good reads. Follow me on twitter or all that kind of stuff. 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