Naruto, Great or Terrible?

[Skimoman]

Naruto and Naruto Shipuuden is usually known as the most popular anime, and also the most annoying anime...

I've been a fan for several years now myself first hooked through English dubbed Cartoon Network(oh those were the days, SAMURAI JACK!) 

Anyways I love this series, but even me being hooked I can see how bad it can be, the endless fight scenes, the constant rambling

of hope and believing, and little ninjas using jutsu like Harry Potter Magicians  , but hey if Avatar is justifiable(best series ever.  ) 

And don't even get started on fillers...

But all in all its an epic series that will probably never end  , What do you guys think about it?

I cried once in anime-naruto-jiraiya-feels...

Can I just say THERE IS SO MUCH CORRECTIONS TO THESE WORDS I GET IT ITS NOT ENGLISH!!!

 

[Super Galaxy Convoy]

My honest opinion? I think it is overrated, along with Bleach and One Piece as well. I used to read all three and watch several episodes. Not sure when I stopped watching and reading them, but it was a long time ago, and I moved on to something even better: Tokusatsu like Kamen Riders, Super Sentai, etc.

 

[Zalerinian]

Naruto is just full of fillers, that's why it's so long. Similar to how Dragon Ball Z  was. takes a few episodes for a single 1v1 battle. 

@Convoy: I've never seen bleach, and One Piece is just horrible overall. I never liked it.

 

[Clord]

I recommend not to watch dubs. It just ruins the experience. When Anime gets dubbed, it is not just a voice acting, but also actual plot is changed to be more "kid friendly" by companies like 4Kids.


Now if you actually watched the version which is not dubbed and doing it "right", then I can only say that the series is not for everyone. Naruto universe's Shinobi is about being smart instead of attacking from front like an idiot (until War Arc).

 

[Milennin]

I remember watching it years ago before it got really popular in the West. It was all pretty fun up to the part where Sasuke left the Leaf Village. After that I pretty much stopped watching. Series grew too long and drawn-out, and too many fillers.

Since then I've read the manga a few times, which is just a lot more fun, because it's without all the stupid fillers. Although, even there it likes to make some parts drag out for too long. I guess I prefer series that have an ending to them.

Overall, I find the series pretty fun. I like the theme. There's some really cool stuff in there. I like Kakashi, lol. He's awesome.xD It's just that the fillers and the overall length of the series have ruined it for me. I could care less about its general popularity, or whether it's overrated or not.

 

[seita]

The problem with Naruto is that it's mainstream and everyone watches it. Unfortunately the anime has to slow down so that it won't overtake the manga, causing fillers and slowdowns, flashbacks and side stories. If it didn't, it might go on a hiatus that many good anime can't seem to survive. Hajime no Ippo comes to mind, god I wish they'd bring that back.

Once the anime series is over, I'm hoping (praying) that it gets the DBZ Kai treatment and gets reworked without all the filler in both series and slow dialogue/flashbacks in Shippuuden. All I know is, I stopped watching the anime a few years ago but I've kept reading the manga. It's simply too awesome this way.

 

[West Mains]

My honest opinion? I think it is overrated, along with Bleach and One Piece as well. I used to read all three and watch several episodes. Not sure when I stopped watching and reading them, but it was a long time ago, and I moved on to something even better: Tokusatsu like Kamen Riders, Super Sentai, etc.

In all fairness, Bleach started off great but slowly got worse over time because the guy that wrote the manga was a terrible writer.

All I remember from Naruto was that the ninja fighting bits were cool and everything else was boring because it was just time you could have spent watching ninja fighting.

 

[Milennin]

Bleach was same story as Naruto for me.
It was a lot of fun, until the end of the Soul Society arc. After that it was just filler upon filler. I remember the fillers getting so bad, they had that teddybear maining whole episodes. I tried to watch some of the newer episodes of Bleach, but the battles drag on for so long, with so much useless talk, it's like torture.

 

[EternalShadow]

The manga's good, the anime's got too much filler. I mainly read the manga, though the 9 movies Naruto has are good. I just like Naruto for its themes, art, story and fighting, though the talk chapters can be a little boring if they reveal nothing new. However, reading these chapters amongst others in the printed volumes makes them not so noticable.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

I think its good for what it is, but what it is isn't something I'm interested in.

 

[Ksi]

It's a decent manga with a few lower points (and heads above Bleach, though it can't compare to One Piece). I do like most of the characters and wish they'd actually done more with the other genin teams, but for what it is, it's not bad. Knowing that it's wrapping up soon is a bonus. I think it's actually a good idea for him to get out while he's still got momentum and I can't lie: I am looking forward to seeing how it ends up, though it's not as much a compulsion to see as it is in other mangas.

I don't watch the anime anymore, though - stopped after the big death in Shipuuden - mainly because it started getting packed with filler and Naruto filler is pretty boring, sadly. You'd think they couldn't go wrong with awesome ninja and fights and what-not but they managed it. I do enjoy some fanfiction, though. Guilty pleasure.

Bleach is... well, it was an interesting premise and had promise but the mangaka really dropped the ball and let it fall pretty hard. It's not even in the top ten anymore, let alone the top three, so... I will admit I enjoyed it up until the end of the Soul Society arc. I did end up reading until the end of the Aizen arc but then dropped it. It doesn't really interest me and though some say that the last few chapters have gotten better, I just don't want to bother with it any more.

One Piece... I love. That's all I'll say because I could just go on and on about it and this is a Naruto thread, so I doubt anyone wants to hear about how it's been topping the Top Three manga list for many years at almost triple the amount of the second most or that the characters and story are... I'll just stop now. Needless to say, I think it's one of the best manga out there. Anime-wise, it has slow points and the animation really turns some people off (helps to get into the manga first, btw) but the filler is mostly decent and the art style does grow on you. I do prefer the manga, though, as they tend to cut out some bits and pieces of the anime (though they have been adding things into the anime that are neat too, like interactions between the crew and hidden stuff). Really sad that 4-Kids mangled it's English release so horribly as to turn most people off. You should look up the list of things they did to it, not just including judicious editing - whole sections of story were removed that were necessary for certain parts of the storyline later on.

And I said more than I meant to on OP. Welp.

 

[Fomar0153]

I'm only a manga reader these days, anime is too long and filler filled. I never managed to get into One Piece it just never really hooked me. I enjoy Naruto for what it is though but but I do feel generally less interested in it these days and Deidara is still my favourite manga character.

Bleach is my guilty pleasure if there was any manga I'd like to make a fan game of it would be Bleach. I love the concept. Though from the first time Bankai was uttered it went downhill for me. I still maintain Bleach reads really well in Bulk but when you get 1 chapter a week it feels like nothing happens for weeks.

 

[Jawnsunn]

I liked Naruto when it built up to the big battle between Sasuke and Naruto, but after that I lost interest because awful filler episodes. It's the anime that made me stop liking shonen anime altogether. Bleach was great in the beginning and I managed to read all the way to the final Aizen fight, but after that the story felt pretty **** to me. One Piece is too dayum long, so I don't have an opinion on it except the art is pretty good.

To every loser watching/reading these lame shonen animes/mangas:

Please read Hokuto No Ken and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It'll make you look, sound, and feel cool with your anime friends.

Also:

I recommend not to watch dubs. It just ruins the experience. When Anime gets dubbed, it is not just a voice acting, but also actual plot is changed to be more "kid friendly" by companies like 4Kids.

I'm not sure if you are joking or not, but I'm going to assume you are joking anyway. It's hard to experience something when it's in a language you don't understand and you have to spend the whole time reading subtitles instead of watching animation. Oh well.

 

[Ksi]

Learn to read faster. They aren't joking, subbed versions are so much better than dubbed. The voice actors are always a lot better at portraying emotion, you don't notice the differences in accent as much and hell, it can help you start to learn a new language. I will almost always prefer sub over dub when watching anime.

Granted, at times you get really, really bad subtitles (I'm looking at you, 12 Kingdoms) but most of the time they're pretty well done and they don't end up cutting out half as much content as dubbed versions do.

(orz I got them messed up. That's what I get for posting right after I wake up. >.<; )

 

[Kaelan]

Dubs completely ruin the experience. If you've grown up outside of America and watched dubbed american movies you'd understand, it's exactly the same situation there. You need the original actors with the proper intonation and emotions in their voices. And there's all of the language-specific quirks that get lost in translation during dubbing (but can still be conveyed decently in subtitles - English Naruto's "Believe It" is a pretty good example of the disaster that comes from trying to translate that sort of thing).

In my experience, the better fansubs also tend to be dramatically better translations than official dubs from commercial companies, since the fans understand the importance of preserving all the little cultural details in the original script.

Anyway, regarding the original topic, I think it's actually pretty good. It's definitely much better than most other shonen, and I think they've actually done a pretty good job maintaining an interesting story and not letting the popularity get to them. Fillers are a necessity for any long-running anime, but you can avoid them entirely by just reading the manga instead.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Learn to read faster. They aren't joking, subbed versions are so much better than dubbed. The voice actors are always a lot better at portraying emotion, you don't notice the differences in accent as much and hell, it can help you start to learn a new language.

There are actually some series where I prefer the English dub, but it really is very much more hit or miss than the Japanese audio track. This isn't so much because the Japanese audio track is superior as it is that without speaking Japanese, I couldn't tell you if the voice acting was terrible or not.

A good English dub CAN be as good as the original, anyone who claims otherwise is professing a level of elitist sophistry that is way over the top for anime.

 

[Skimoman]

Yea, I started to watch under English Dub, when I got to Naruto Shipuuden I watch subbed, to me I like sub better, you get a real feel for things, and the

words they say correspond to their names. BUt when I go back to watch some of my favorite original Naruto episodes(ep101, Unmasking Kakashi's face)

I can't watch in sub, it just doesn't work I like English Dub for Naruto, and English Sub for Naruto Shipuuden.

 

[Jawnsunn]

I only made the remark because it just sounded kind of elitist the way Clord "recommended" not to watch dubs because of the assumption that anime becomes "kid-friendly" when it comes to the west. It isn't.

And to clarify, I don't like subs because it detracts from the animation in anime, and that's where the experience is really at. Though I do have to turn to them when a dub isn't available. It results from me rewinding too much.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

I read fast enough that I don't even notice. I forget I'm reading the subs at times and never seem to miss any of the animation.

 

[Super Galaxy Convoy]

I too can read the subs quite quickly and never seem to miss anything. Sometimes, I can read a sub 2-3 times before the the characters even finish speaking. And this don't just apply to anime, but to every other subbed shows that I watch like Kamen Riders and Super Sentai.