meeloo

Does a manga as legendary as Naruto even need a review? I suppose I'll write one either way.

I'm sure everyone knows the story of Naruto by now. In a nutshell, a young boy discovers he has the power of a nine-tailed fox, and uses his power to go on various adventures and trials, mostly centered around the themes of friendship and power.

Naruto is a fantastic story, both in manga and anime. I began my journey with Naruto back in 2009, and read the manga online and in print for 6 years before I finally managed to finish. There were many times along the way where I felt like I would never finish such a massive story, and gave up for weeks or months at a time. But the desire to know the ending, and how everything would turn out for Naruto and his friends, was what kept me coming back. I developed a very strong bond with nearly every character that was introduced. I felt that even the villains were in some way lovable and enjoyable, and I never got that feeling of "ugh, great. This guy again. I'm just gonna skip this part because he's too annoying", which I get with a lot of anime nowadays.

I could go on for paragraphs about the ending, but I'm not going to. We all know that the majority of people hated it. I despised it for some reasons, and enjoyed it for others. I didn't believe it was necessary to match up the characters into straight couples - why couldn't some characters just stay single or get with people outside of the main groups? Also, it didn't quite feel like the main conflict of friendship was truly wrapped up. It felt more like Sasuke simply changed his tone out of the blue to match Naruto's.

But despite the underwhelming final ending, I don't believe this manga deserves a bad rap. It was extremely enjoyable the whole way through, and the many mini-endings to conflicts and battles were usually very satisfying and ended in the way you would want or expect, but not without a fair share of twists and unexpected deaths or developments. However, Naruto is a very long manga. If you're starting from the very beginning, expect to settle in for at least a year of frequent reading, or multiple years of one-chapter-or-less-a-week reading. I would recommend this manga to anyone who wants to go on a journey with characters that feel special, or immerse themselves in a world where nearly anything is possible, the challenges are endless, and overall, everything. Is. Just. COOL.