Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-12509038-20140830021423/@comment-1604252-20140831053421

Hiyayaka-kun wrote: For those saying that Naruto is the worst.

Super saiya-nin powers aside I think Naruto made out with some of the best and traditionally though of abilities in Ninja mythos.

Naruto was a MASTER at transformation, to the point of making his clones weapons at times in the FIRST FREAKING ARC! This is the most useful skill a ninja can have as it allows him to deceive his enemy. Of all the Shinobi in the series, Naruto actually more frequently acted like a ninja than others by means of deception. He could make clones which is also big in ninja-mahou-jutsu lore. He also used 'traditional' Doton no jutsu by attacking from underground which he used to beat someone clearly better than him.

All these things happened in the first few arcs when this was a manga about an actual 'shinobi' world before it became some shinto-buddhist-hindi war of ideals between Ashuras and Devas.

Granted as a character in personality, Naruto was the most annoying character I've probably seen in a series. I don't read other shounen titles though, and didn't think this would originally be one when I started back in 2002.

I think I can agree with you there. Back in part 1, and for some of part 2 I guess, I found things more enjoyable as the story revolved around shinobi, and not buddhist deity crap which is really getting on my nerves now. I still think that Naruto falls victim to the same trap that a few main characters in shounen titles fall to as well, which is lack of variety in his abilities.

Yes, like you mentioned he mastered the clone technique, and uses deception quite often, but besides that, what are his other abilities? The rasengan, which is basically an orb of chakra, and many different versions of the rasengan. And then he mastered Sage mode, which simply boosted his powers, and allowed him to use even more versions of the rasengan. And then there's Kurama. So the majority of Naruto's abilities revolve around the rasengan and a bunch of modes to boost his power. Not very original and not a lot of variety.

Ichigo from bleach is basically the same thing though. He just has different forms, and spams Getsuga which is basically an energy slash...