Naruto: Naruto Unleashed 1:1

It’s taken a little under four years to get here, but Naruto has finally reached our funny little island. At its pre-release peak, hundreds of thousands of hungry fans were downloading this show every week, and now with its worldwide following continuing to spiral ever upwards, it would be fair to say that Naruto is by far and away the biggest anime TV series to hit the UK since Dragonball Z and Pokemon. In other words, it is a money mans’ wet dream- manga, anime, games, merchandise and even clothes, the Naruto franchise covers everything and if I didn’t love this show, it would be the bain of my life.

That’s the thing though, I loved watching Naruto. It’s not the greatest anime ever made (far from it) but what it is is relentlessly enjoyable, colourful fun, finished off with a base emotional uppercut capable of melting even the coldest of hearts. These 13 episodes sweep through you so fast and leave you hanging on the very edge of a particularly sharp cliff hanger, grasping for the next lengthy instalment almost as a matter of life or death. Comedy, drama, action, tragedy and of course (the coolest element of all) ninja – what more could an action junkie ask for?

Uzumaki Naruto is the star of the show. By all accounts abandoned at birth, he was cursed with the burden of having a murderous demon fox (or Kyuubi) sealed within his body. The Kyuubi tried to destroy Naruto’s village and as a result, Naruto is hated and shunned by all (parents and their children) for something he never did. Naruto’s dream in life is to be loved or at least acknowledged by others and to this end he intends to become the strongest ninja in his village (the Hokage).

We join the story with Naruto just about to graduate from ninja academy. He obviously has talent, but often goofs off and causes trouble for his teachers and school mates. Naruto is basically that annoying kid at the back of the class room always talking, never doing work and getting up to no good.

His school mates include Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto has a crush on Sakura but she is in love with (Naruto’s arch enemy) Sasuke. To put it bluntly, Sasuke is a pent up, angsty pretty boy with a mysterious past and natural talent for kicking ass (ninja style).
This trio of friends is at the heart of the series; their emotions, ambitions, clashes and relationships drive the story onward and provide us with an emotional lynchpin, neatly weaving everything together with a proper moral backbone.

This is not children’s anime but at the same time, it is not for adults either. Naruto is a purely family-orientated series that can be enjoyed by all. There is a fair amount of violence (after all, Naruto is about warring ninja) but it is neither reckless nor hollow. The regular fights conclude with the kind of realistically painful resolutions you would expect of a bunch of kids and adults fighting each other to the death with knives and swords. Harsh truths and important lessons about life are learnt.

There is a lot to like about Uzumaki Naruto. As annoying and stupid as he can be, the kid has the heart of a true underdog. Through a series of sad flashbacks, we see him not as that stupid loud mouth, but just a lonely boy sitting on a swing. His need to be acknowledged means that being an outstanding ninja is everything to him. To take that away is to extinguish the spark of his life.

Naruto’s world is expansive and colourful, full of lush green trees and endless blue skies. Although not clearly set in any discernable human era, the many villages and towns that make up Naruto’s world echo a kind of idealistic rural Japan, filled with the many traditions and teachings of classic martial arts. Uzumaki Naruto is from Kohoha (hidden leaf village) but there are many other competing ninja countries too, each offering their own unique techniques and skills.

If you have seen many other classic shounen fighting anime (Dragonball Z, Rurouni Kenshin and Yu Yu Hakusho being good examples), you will know that they mostly fall into the same formulaic traps of repetitive flashbacks, extended trash talking during fights and out of place narrative expositions intended to plainly explain exactly how a character managed to pull off somehow transforming into a shuriken. That’s all in Naruto, so if you hate it, then this show isn’t for you.

Both the soundtrack and animation are impressive but occasionally go off the rails. Composer Toshio Masuda (who has since gone on to produce outstanding music for the Mushishi anime series) has contributed an exciting and unique melding of electric guitars and authentic Japanese battling drums and chants. Although sometimes falling into cheesy hair metal territory, the soundtrack is often thrilling and adds a lot of spine tingling feeling to the action.

In Summary

Shut yourself out from the hype and sit down to Naruto with no expectations. It’s a simple anime, fun, exciting and sympathetic. My heart lies with the characters who despite carrying all the emotional baggage in the world come across as likable people striving to do something important with their lives. Watching them bond, form friendships and inevitably protect each other is heart warming and addictive. Then there is the ultra stylized ninja element, with its various larger than life techniques and tactical manoeuvres that make up the nitty gritty of the sometimes earth shattering action. Naruto is recommend to fans of anime young and old who love their action drenched in dark red emotion.