Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-12509038-20141124214040/@comment-7292165-20141202063757

The Naruto Series has ran on for a long time. Its had its good times and bad times and bs times. Overall its been something of an experience.

Characters: There are many characters in the series. That was what I liked about the series. I liked that there were more than a few characters. As @Kirin said you could find yourself relating to at least one of them. I on the other hand related to more than one. However, with many of the characters we didn't even get to see even half of their full potential. I guess it could be because he doesn't have time to give each character a good amount of screentime but that is his fault. He could've been like Soul Eater. You plainly see who's fodder and not. You don't expect them to do anything. However, when you give them a name, they go from fodder to minor character. But they have a specific rank or hype, you expect something good or up to its part yet 90% of that doesn't seem to happen. I also noticed how inferior Kishi made the females to the males which annoyed me. One moment they got it, the next they need saving. It's like he takes one step forward, two steps back with them. I can't say overall that the characters lacked in personality but some of them seemed rather bland or they just were never put in depth but I guess that's how they were made. Each character as far as I'm concerned bared personalities of humans in real life. My fav male character has to be Rock Lee. He had the dedication I couldn't even believe to imagine. He was one of the very few characters that should be considered good overall. My fav female character is Sakura. It's weird cuz at first I never really liked her at first but slowly but surely she found a place in my heart. She started to change and try to become better, something I can respect and she did early in the series. She seen her flaws and was willing to accept it and do better especially with Naruto. Her friendship with Naruto has changed a significant amount. She started giving him more respect, acknowledgment and became more caring. For skills, she did she what she had to do, proven when she was revealed in the beginning of Shippūden until Kishi started playing her, but I still knew her potential prowess. 5/10

Plot: I'd like to point out that the Naruto Series has stopped so far from what ninja are. Moving on, I can't even begin to express how I feel about the plot which is all twisted up. The plot changed somewhat throughout the series little by little. Some easy it changed for the battle, others say for the worst. Lets start off with the original plot. A young teen who wishes to become somebody and to do so work hard and become Hokage some day. That was perfectly fine. Shippūden came and the further it went downhill. Naruto was becoming more pathetic, chasing after someone who didn't want anything to do withhim. He was even willing to give it up being Hokage because if he couldnt save "one" friend, he doesn't deserve to be Hokage. Like really? -_- He was even willing to die with Sasuke. Like Naruto was literally obsessed. That is the truth. The Akatsuki seemed like they would make a great part in the story as the big antagonist group until they started being played by plot no jutsu. Mainly all of them died over bs. The ultimate revelation being that Madara who we thought was big and bad actually wanted peace by giving everyone there dreams. Like it seemed that there was no true villain in the series. Kaguya, well she wanted to turn you into useless zetsu clones who die by two Kunai, so much for their durability. With the plot comes plot holes as well with inconsistencies, flaws and such. I prefer part 1 even though it had its bad moments as well. 3/10

Mythology/World Building: It seemed to always be all about the leaf village and its wear the most part of overall series too place but later the revelation of characters from other villages with specific powers that are custom to their village came through rather smoothly and I can admit that it wasn't half bad of the pace. I noticed though that some of the jutsus were based off Chinese mythology such as the Amaterasu supposedly being as hot as the sun. That is impossible as the flames would incinerate the target in an instant along with the surrounding area because the sun in beyond the jeatbwe feel here on Earth. 4/10

Action: The action people call epic I call decent or possibly good. I have not seen any action through this series that was intense nor great. There is usually so much talking or flashbacks I can sometimes get bored especially when its unnecessary stuff taking the fight, probably because Kishi tries to come up with the fight as he draws through. I can't say the action wasn't entertaining enough. One of pretty good fights were those such as Rock Lee's. His fights don't get enough credit, not at all. When he could get to the fights they played out in what seemed like steady way but what I couldn't stand was how surprised characters in this show seemed to get over little things. I liked the variety of fighting styles there were to blend into fights, and there were the decent strategies. Overall I give it a 5.5/10

Themes: There were many themes in this series. However, its not like you wouldn't know of these things in real life. But none of the other themes had nothing on the "love can conquer anything" theme. It seems like its trying to be too much of a fairytail. Love can be a motivation and make you stronger, however, you can't be foolish to believe that love is the full answer, especially not for ninjas. Ninjas fight for money. They kill for a living. That's that. I'm sure they have a life outside of assassinating but none as such as Naruto stooped to. I never really got into the series for themes, mainly because they are things I already knew and learned. Nothing really pulled me in with them. I give it a 4/10 for effort.

Artwork: The character designs were pretty good. I had no issues with them. They got better too until late Shippūden. It started slacking with graphics department. Overall Kishi's drawing skills are good. Much better than his skill at keeping track of his story without having as many flaws and inconsistencies as he created. 7.5/10

Favorite Arc:
 * Part I: Chūnin Exam Arc
 * Part II: Itachi Pursuit Arc

Favorite Nature(s):
 * First: Water Release
 * Second: Wind Release

Favorite Techniques:
 * First: Dance of the Shikigami
 * Second: Gentle Step Twin Lions Fist

Favorite Battle:
 * Part I: Rock Lee vs Gaara
 * Part II: Hidan and Kakuzu vs Team 10 and Kakashi