Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-4437326-20150209145643/@comment-1018594-20150226153458

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Naruto itself is/was a violent manga. I'm saying it's not suitable for little kids (younger than 13). Animes like Fist of the North Star and Afro Samurai would NEVER be shown on air in their original format today, much like Dragon Ball Z had to be almost completely re-drawn for Kai (I kinda miss seeing Goku and Raditz get blown open by that Special Beam Cannon).

But violence wasn't the only reason I think Naruto wasn't a kids' manga. Like Elve said, there's SO much philosophy going in. I think of the philosophical debate between Naruto and Nagato, or the fact that Madara and Obito were such good villains because they genuinely thought they were doing the right thing: you don't understand concepts like that until you're around 15-16.

FUN FACT: In my Senior Year of high school, my final paper was to pick a character from a non-American work and describe the monomyth/Hero's Journey of one of its characters. I picked Neji: you saw him as complete douche (anti-hero/rival), then we found out why he was a douche (Byronic/tragic hero) and then he came full circle by choosing his own fate and dying to protect his comrades: just like his father.