Well, it’s over. 700 chapters and its done.
To put that into perspective, the entirety of Dragonball and Dragonball Z combined had a mere 519 chapters. Yes, Naurto makes Dragonball look like a miniseries. Holy fuck.
And now it’s over. It’s been a long, looooooooong time… and it’s over.
Now what?
A retrospective is in order, I guess, although it’s tough to know of where to begin.
I was first exposed to Naruto when it was regularly shown on Cartoon Network on Saturday evenings. That was about ten years ago. I think it was part of their Toonami lineup, though I can’t quite remember.
The first eps I saw were of Rock Lee’s fight with Gaara during the Chunin exams. Seeing that, I was of course hooked instantly. After watching a few more episodes on broadcast TV, I then downloaded via torrent the entire series up to that point and devoured every bit of it.
It was fantastic. Masterful, even. The Zabusa arc by itself was superior to the entirety of most animes. The stories and characters were so well written and the animations were so beautiful… it was a treat to watch.
And the universe the stories were created within was vast and endlessly appealing. The Narutoverse is in and of itself a revelation. It is in my mind as rich as any in pop fiction. It can legitimately be put next to the Star Wars, LOTR, and Star Trek universes without shame.
Yes, I was hooked. Once I had seen everything, including all the available filler, I started the manga from issue one and worked my way up through the beginning of Shippuden, which was everything available at the time. I ask- has there ever been in fiction a better collection of villians than Akatsuki? I’ve seen their equal, yes. But I’ve yet to see anything better.
That Shippuden faltered, especially near the end, is unfortunate but perhaps understandable. Kishimoto is human, after all, and it isn’t possible to maintain such a high level of quality consistently over a fifteen year run. People change and circumstances change too, and in the course of such a long work, the little mistakes that were made here and there in the beginning compound on each other and become bigger mistakes as time goes on. It’s unfortunate, but that might be the curse of all very long stories.
It’s for this reason that I’m not as harsh on manga authors retconning details as others are. Sometimes the story just develops in a certain way, and things just need to be changed to account for the new direction. You can’t plan out a 700 chapter manga in advance to have no plot flaws.
So I’m OK with some stuff being dropped or “rethought”, like some of the early Sharingan powers, the visual appearance of the Rinnegan, the significance of chakra natures, etc. It happens.
It happens in the world outside of manga, too. Superman’s powers today aren’t what they used to be either- he was once able to shape shift, for example. He hasn’t done that in awhile, yes?
Sooo… I’m cool with the manga overall, and am very glad to have read it and seen much of the anime. I’ll probably catch up on the anime later… maybe nearer to its end so I can binge watch. It will be cool to see the last Naruto vs. Sasuke fight in one sitting, I think.
So yeah, Naruto had a big impression on me back then. I still think today that some of my real life powers might have been developed at least in part by what I saw in the Naruto anime. The Sharingan, for example- eyes that hypnotize others and can control their movements. Reminds me of myself. That, and the whole “I have a demon in me” thing, which reminds me now of Naruto’s relationship with Kurama.
Kurama… the demon fox. Has anyone else noticed that Kurama the demon fox of Naruto has the same name as Kurama the demon fox of Yu Yu Hakusho? People tend to link Dragonball and Naruto together, but I’ve always believed that Naruto’s true inspiration was actually Yu Yu Hakusho. This becomes especially evident when watching the last 2 seasons of Hakusho, for example, with the introduction of competing villages, hidden demonic powers, secret royal bloodlines, etc. I think that Kurama’s name is Kishimoto’s way of tacitly acknowledging this.
Of course, son Goku is there, too. So whatever.
It was weird to say my goodbyes to the Narutoverse last night, but I don’t feel bad about it. Kishimoto ended the series as he needed to have ended it, and how everyone knew from the beginning it would end.
The one exception to this point being, arguably, the Naruto-Hinata pairing. I don’t mind either way at this point, to be honest. I’ve long since stopped being concerned with pairings and shippings in this manga, though 10 years ago I was kind of hoping for a Naruto/Sakura pairbond at the end.
That was ten years ago, though.
So Naruto had a fantastic run and will stand the test of time, I’m sure. In the future, I do expect that even the end of Shippuden with Kaguya and the overpowered Madara will be looked at with more fondness than it is today. I think that the final battle will read better being devoured in one sitting than it was being unfolded piece by piece over a span of years. It got tiresome that way, and I’m frankly glad it’s over.
But all in all, it was a blast. Naruto is a work that will be remembered for as long as people read manga. His character was an inspiration to many, including myself, for quite a long time.
Other mangas might be technically better in some ways, with say better character development and better pacing, but there’s something special about Naruto that sticks with you in a way that One Piece or the various Gundams doesn’t. I’m not sure what it is… I’ll just call it charisma. Naruto has charisma to spare.
So farewell, Uzumaki Naruto, and good luck being Hokage. You’ve earned it.