their way towards becoming true shinobis

"Naruto", our beloved favourite series created by Kishimoto Masashi, published chapterwise each week in the Shounen Jump magazine. The famous anime adaption has reached over 200 episodes so far, and the 2nd part has already started - Naruto Shippuden. But what's it about anyway?

Primarly "Naruto" is about the young wannabe ninja Uzumaki Naruto, whose dream is it to become Hokage (the best ninja in his village Konoha) and thus to make the villagers acknowledge him. At the age of 12 he graduates from the academy and gets assigned together with Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and their teacher Hatake Kakashi as Team Seven.
On their way it proves each of them has their own aims and dreams, as well as their own obstacles to overcome. Together they have to learn what's the meaning of a true shinobi, as well as how important things are like team work, friendship and care in their world.

Generally speaking this was the main story line summarized in 2 sentences, but apart from all the different events twisting the plot, Naruto is a series with actual depth and profundity. It has a massive fandom and that's one of the reasons many people might label the series as something it isn't, without any 2nd try. It is normal to have prejudices, since you simply can't ignore the series- there are only a few people out there in the anime/manga fandom who have never heard before of "Naruto" - and those have definitely lived behind the times.

Naruto is a series about young people with dreams and aims as different as they only could be. The series clearly shows how important it is never to lose confidence in yourself and to keep believing in whatever you do, in order to reach your goals. It has so many characters you can relate to and feel along with - before you realise it they have captured you and you can't help but to completely sympathize with them.

What's really amazing, is the fact that each character has his own personal story and growth. They are all very well-thought and written and it's definitely not a series which only concentrates on one or two characters - all of them develop greatly through the story. Alone the fact that there are so many different opinions in the fandom points out how well Kishimoto-sensei's characters click with different people.

If you ask me, Kishimoto-sensei has truly created a masterpiece. One might not always agree with his actions/turns/decicions, but hands down, Naruto is a series which has made all of us smile, laugh and sometimes even cry. I'm sure this special series holds many different emotions for all of us, and this is simply amazing, and something we should keep in mind.

For more information on Kishimoto-sensei, please read on.