date created: september 21, 1999

creator: masashi kishimoto

Naruto is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young, socially isolated ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. The story is told in two parts: the first is set in Naruto's pre-teen years (volumes 1–27), and the second in his teens (volumes 28–72). The series is based on two one-shot manga by Kishimoto: Karakuri (1995), which earned Kishimoto an honorable mention in Shueisha's monthly Hop Step Award the following year, and Naruto (1997).-wikipedia

Naruto is one of the best-selling manga series of all time, having 250 million copies in circulation worldwide. It has become one of Viz Media's best-selling manga series; their English translations of the volumes have appeared on USA Today and The New York Times's bestseller list several times, and the seventh volume won a Quill Award in 2006. Naruto has been praised for its character development, storylines, and action sequences, though some felt the latter slowed the story down. Critics noted that the manga, which contains coming-of-age themes, often incorporates cultural references to Japanese mythology and Confucianism.-wikipedia

My thoughts

I love Naruto so much as a series, being literally my first anime I've ever watched(for hours on end every single day) and one of my most cherished animes ever. Specifically, I remember back when I was a lil youngin' watching Naruto for the first time on Netflix, lying down on my couch and picking it out of pure curiosity and with the interest in the older artstyle. From then on, I proceeded to literally grind watching the series, I'm pretty sure completely finishing Naruto within a month and immediately starting Shippuden right after I was done. The moment I began Shippuden I repeated that same grind and ended up watching everything that was avaliable within over a month, however, I unfortuneately didn't have access to all of the episodes on Netflix, so I was left on a MAJOR cliffhanger. Afterwards though, I began getting more into the Naruto media, starting to watch some of the movies(although I don't think I actually finished any), looking at fanart, checking out the fandom and more-and around a few months later, I finally got my own poster of Shippuden and, fun-fact, it was actually my first ever poster I've gotten(which I've directly asked for)!

I think that I've grown to love this franchise so much because of its simple yet impactful world-building and character development. For example, as a kid of course I've heard of ninjas and things of the sort, but I've never actually seen any media of it beforehand! So, when I finally discovered Naruto for the first time, I thought it was pretty awesome since the only actual anime I've seen lots of was Pokemon! I also really love the character development in Naruto because-we see Naruto and the entire cast grow and improve themselves, becoming stronger and more mature throughout the series. To me, I've always loved these characters, especially growing an attachment to Sasuke, Kiba, and Sai. Personally, I've always wanted to know more about every single character, like how Sakura used to live like before becoming a ninja, or how Kakashi used to spend time with his old group(since we dont really see a lot of it) and maybe even what it was like living as a regular person in that world!