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Naruto (NARUTO - ナルト -, Naruto?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto with an anime adaptation. The main character, Naruto Uzumaki, is a loud, hyperactive, unpredictable adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become a Hokage, the ninja in the village acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all.
Kishimoto first authored a one-shot of Naruto in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.[1] The plot differed substantially in that Naruto was the son of the demon fox instead of being the container, and the story was placed in a more modern setting.[2] This early version of Naruto already had the ability to transform into a sexy young woman - but when he did so, a fox tail sprouted. Kishimoto then rewrote the story to its current form, which was first published by Shueisha in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Shonen Jump magazine. As of volume 36, the manga has sold over 71 million copies in Japan.[3] Viz Media publishes a translated version in the American Shonen Jump magazine. Naruto has become Viz's best-selling manga series.[4] To date, the first 27 volumes are available in English.
The first of two anime series, produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex, premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002, and is still being aired. Viz also licensed the anime for North American production. Naruto debuted in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on September 10, 2005, and in Canada on YTV's Bionix on September 16, 2005. Naruto began showing in the UK on Jetix on July 22, 2006. It began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007 in Australia, which features the German dub opening, although it could be watched on Cartoon Network in 2006. The first series lasted nine seasons, while Naruto: Shippūden began its first on February 15, 2007.
Sixteen years before the events at the focus of the series, the nine-tailed demon fox attacked Konohagakure. Powerful enough to raise tsunamis and flatten mountains with a swish of one of its tails, it raised chaos and slaughtered many people, until the leader of the Leaf Village – the Fourth Hokage – sacrificed his own life to seal the demon inside the newborn, Naruto Uzumaki.The Fourth Hokage, who was celebrated as a hero for sealing the demon fox away, wanted Naruto to be respected in a similar light by being the containment vessel for the demon fox.
The Leaf Village, however, shunned him, regarding Naruto as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by the Third Hokage forbade anyone to discuss or mention the attack of the demon fox to anyone, even their own children. However, this did not stop them from treating him like an outcast and as a result he grew up an orphan without friends, family, or acknowledgment. He could not force people to befriend him, so he sought acknowledgment and attention the only way he knew – through pranks and mischief.
However, that soon changed after Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy by using his Shadow Clone Technique, a technique from a forbidden scroll that he was tricked into stealing, to save his teacher, Iruka Umino, from the renegade ninja Mizuki. That encounter gave Naruto two insights: that he was the container of the demon fox, and that there was someone besides the Third Hokage who actually cared for and acknowledged him. His graduation from the academy opened a gateway to the events and people that would change and define his world, including his way of the ninja for the rest of his life.[5]
The main story follows Naruto and his friends' personal growth and development as ninja, and emphasizes their interactions with each other and the influence of their backgrounds on their personalities. Naruto finds two friends and comrades in Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, two fellow young ninja who are assigned with him to form a three-person team under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also confides in other characters that he meets throughout the series as well. They learn new abilities, get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of the Leaf Village.
Throughout all of the Naruto plot, strong emphasis on character development changes the plot, with very few things happening because of chance. At first, emphasis is placed on Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who are the members of Team 7. However, other characters are developed, such as Kakashi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya, as well as Naruto's peers in the other teams and villages. Several major villains come into play as well, the first being Zabuza Momochi, a missing-nin from Kirigakure, and his partner, Haku. Later, in the Chunin Exams arc, Orochimaru is introduced as an S-Class missing-nin at the top of Konoha's most wanted list. Also During this arc three ninjas known as The Sand Siblings are introduced. These siblings are from Sungakure and include Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara. Later still, a mysterious organization called Akatsuki begins to pursue Naruto for the nine-tailed demon fox inside him.
Origins
In the original one shot of "Naruto," Naruto Uzumaki is the son of powerful fox demon, whose spirit was sealed away by nine powerful warriors. Only one, the current chief of the village of the demon fox spirits on Mt. Oinari with a large resemblance to the Third Hokage from the current series, survived, and he took on the duty of raising Naruto. Naruto, however, is mischievous and a trouble maker, pulling multiple pranks on others with each passing day. The village chief, angry, sends Naruto on special training to the human world to find a human friend he can trust, otherwise he will not be welcome to the village any longer.
While in the human world, Naruto meets the artist Kuroda, who trusted no one after his father's death, struggling to finish an important painting. After Kuroda's assistant, Takashi, is killed and the painting is stolen, Naruto is framed and arrested. Kuroda, however, sympathizes Naruto enough to legally take all punishments that would have been given to Naruto. Naruto, attempting to repay Kuroda, searches for Takashi's murderer, eventually finding out that Matsushima, who hired Kuroda to make the painting, and his body guard plotted the whole thing and framed Naruto. Naruto defeats both of them with ease, and the two get arrested, with no one believing their stories about Naruto's abilities. Although Naruto befriends Kuroda, however, Kuroda is too busy to follow Naruto to Mt. Oinari, and thus Naruto leaves to continue his quest.
The original Naruto has a significant theming on friendship and trust. At the beginning of the story, neither Naruto or Kuroda trusted anyone, but by the end both befriend and trust each other. Despite its high results in the reader poll after getting released, Kishimoto currently thinks the "art stinks and the story's a mess!" Kishimoto also revealed that he was originally working on Karakuri for the Hop Step Award when, unsatisfied by the rough drafts, decided to work on something different instead, which later formed into Naruto.
Noticiably, in the original Naruto, scrolls and stickers are used for the lesser jutsu, rather than using hand signs to initiate Jutsu.
Naruto: Shippūden
From volume 28 onward, the series takes a new setting, taking place 2½ years after the previous volume. While simply referred to as Part II in the manga, the anime gave this part of the series the name Naruto: Shippūden (ナルト 疾風伝, Naruto: Shippūden? lit. Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles). Between where volume 27 leaves off and the beginning of volume 28, to distance the gap between the manga and anime, the anime adds a series of filler episodes totalling 85.
Naruto: Shippūden tells the story of a matured and older cast from the original series. After training for 2½ years with Jiraiya, Naruto Uzumaki, now fifteen, returns to Konohagakure, reunites with the friends he left behind, and reforms the original Team 7, excluding Sasuke Uchiha.
Unlike the original series, the organization of Akatsuki, which played a minor role earlier, takes on the main antagonist factor in their attempts of world domination. All of Naruto's classmates have matured and improved in the ranks, some more than others.
Main article: List of Naruto characters
The main characters of Team 7 (counterclockwise, from left): Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki and team leader, Kakashi Hatake
The main characters of Team 7 (counterclockwise, from left): Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki and team leader, Kakashi Hatake
Naruto has a large and colorful cast of characters, running a gamut of detailed histories and complex personalities, and allowing many of them their fair share in the spotlight; they also seem to grow and mature throughout the series, as it spans several years. As fitting for a coming-of-age saga, Naruto's world constantly expands and thickens, and his social relations are no exception – during his introduction he has only his teacher and the village's leader for sympathetic figures, but as the story progresses, more and more people become a part of his story.
The students at the Ninja Academy, where the story begins, are split up into squads of three after their graduation and become Genin, rookie ninja. Each squad is assigned an experienced sensei. These core squads form a basis for the characters' interactions later in the series, where characters are chosen for missions for their team's strength and complementary skills; Naruto's squad 7 becomes the social frame where Naruto is acquainted with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, and their sensei Kakashi Hatake, forming the core of his world-in-the-making. The other three-man teams of his former classmates form another such layer, as Naruto connects with them to various degrees, learning of their motives, vulnerabilities, and aspirations, often relating them to his own. The groups of three are not limited to the comrades Naruto's age – groups in the story in general come in threes and multiples of three with very few exceptions.
Sensei-student relationships play a significant role in the series; Naruto has a number of mentors with whom he trains and learns, most notably Iruka Umino, the first ninja to recognize Naruto's existence, Kakashi Hatake, his team leader, and Jiraiya, and there are often running threads of tradition and tutelage binding together several generations. These role models provide guidance for their students not only in the ninja arts but also in a number of Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideals. Techniques, ideals, and mentalities noticeably run in families, Naruto often being exposed to the abilities and traditions of generation-old clans in his village when friends from his own age group demonstrate them, or even achieve improvements of their own; it is poignantly noted that Naruto's generation is particularly talented.
Character names often borrow from Japanese folklore and literature (such as the names borrowed from the folktale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari), or are otherwise elaborate puns; often there is a noticeable influence of the story behind the name shouldered by the character.[6]
Anime details
See also: List of Naruto episodes, List of Naruto: Shippūden episodes, and List of Naruto media
Even though it debuted some time after the manga, the anime quickly caught up, since one anime episode usually covers one or two manga chapters. To prevent overlapping, the anime's producers tend to organize content from the manga chapters into long, uneventful sections followed by short bursts of action, sometimes adding filler content in between. By the time the last canonical arc of the anime concluded, it was quickly gaining on the manga and consequently switched to anime-only filler episodes to allow the manga to broaden the gap once more. Most of the filler episodes are stand-alone stories, with a few being part of arcs that are several episodes long. The filler episodes lasted for 85 episodes. After the series moved back into manga-adapted episodes, it was renamed Naruto: Shippūden. The new series premiered on February 15, 2007.
The anime generally remains true to the manga, usually changing only minor details (causes of death, loss of limbs, and other injuries have been lessened in the anime) or expanding on parts skipped by the manga. The filler arcs, though unreferenced in the manga (save for a few scant scenes), deal with the breaks between story arcs, most prominently the period between the mission to retrieve Sasuke and Naruto's departure from Leaf Village at the end of the original series. The filler arcs also often shine the spotlight on minor characters that have received little narrative attention otherwise.
New episodes, animated by Studio Pierrot, air weekly on TV Tokyo in Japan during the Golden Time slot (Japan's equivalent of prime time in the US). As of October 5, 2006, it shows on Thursday nights. The series has also spawned four movies, Naruto the Movie, Naruto the Movie 2, Naruto the Movie 3, and Naruto: Shippūden the Movie. The first three are available on DVD, while the fourth one was released in theatres on August 4, 2007. It has also been confirmed by Shonen Jump that there will be a fifth Naruto movie in the summer of 2008.
English-language broadcast
On September 10, 2005, Naruto had its hour-long premiere in the U.S. on Cartoon Network's Toonami. The first episode of Naruto premiered in Canada on YTV on September 16, 2005. In the United Kingdom, Naruto premiered on Jetix on July 22, 2006. In Australia and New Zealand it premiered on Cartoon Network on September 27, 2006. It also began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007, in Australia.
In the US, Naruto maintains a TV-PG rating in every episode. Most usually are rated TV-PG-V for episodes with mild blood/violence, while others (usually associated with Jiraya) are rated TV-PG-D or S.[7] References to alcohol, Japanese cultural differences, mild language, mild sexual situations (which can only be seen in the Naruto: Uncut Box Sets), and even blood and death remain in the English version, though reduced in some instances.[8] Other networks make additional content edits apart from the edits done by Cartoon Network, such as Jetix's more strict censoring of blood, language, smoking and the like. So far, only one episode, the "lost OVA", has received a TV-Y7-FV rating, but this was likely due to Cartoon Network neglecting to update the rating because in the timeslot that this special ran in, TV-Y7-FV programs were typically run. Repeated viewings (such as the on August 8, 2007) have listed the special as TV-PG-V, as did all commercials for the special.
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