Why has Naruto become less interesting?

[February]

The Series Naruto, not the character.

Why has Naruto become less interesting?

Do you remember few years ago when you first started watching/reading this series and you were so excited about it that you stayed up till 5 am to catch up on the rest of the episodes? At that time, I thought, "WOW This is the best anime ever!" Don't get me wrong, Naruto is still a good anime/manga, just not as great as before. In this post, I'll try to list out my view as to why it became less interesting.

Music. Yes, music makes a huge difference. Music alone will stir up a person's emotions if the music is powerful enough. The heavy rock music that came on when characters in Naruto were getting pumped that pumped you up as well; The sad flute/instrumental song that came on when you thought one of the characters almost died; Heck, even the opening/ending song itself was awesome. Naruto used to use great Artists like Asian Kung Fu Generation but the music from Shippudan seems totally different from the music in the original series.

Storyline Progression. People might disagree with me on this part but I feel like the length of this show really killed it. As a manga reader, every week, you wait for new chapters to receive mere 14 pages of Naruto. Some of those chapters hardly developed through the storyline and some were completely waste of pages (everytime I saw Konohamaru's face, I panicked for pages) As an anime viewer, a lot of the fights dragged on. People stood still staring at each other for a while, saying the obvious lines and wasting time. (For example, remember how long it took for Kakashi to use his newly found MS? In the manga, it felt like a 5 second delay. In the anime, the delay was like 20 minutes?) To make things worse for the anime viewers, they got hit with 2 waves of Filler seasons. We all know fillers are bad but some were so bad that you were constantly wondering who the ^%#@$ wrote the fillers. In my opinion, it would have been better to use those filler episodes as Naruto humor episodes where Naruto goes around Konoha and interacts with each character to create humor and character development rather than horrible action scenes and lame bad guys with bad stories.

Repetition. When the show started, I had great expectations. Because a whole new wave of techniques and concepts were introduced to us viewers, we felt like we could take those concepts and expand on them for more unique styles of combat. But what we received was constant repetition of the same stuff. Same fighting style, same fighting techniques. When Naruto first learned how to make a Rasengan, I was thinking, "Wow, I hope he learns some support jutsus with that!" But instead, he makes a bigger rasengan, rainbow rasengan, etc. You know that the writer is getting lazy when you see Kakashi, who is supposed to know 1000 jutsus, only use 1 jutsu (Chidori) over and over again.

When I first watched the Zabuza arc, I was so moved by the anime. It was emotionally and action packed. It made me think that the show had so much potential to expand further. After the Chunnin Exams, the storyline seemed to move into something so predictable and un-unique. Fight that all-powerful evil group with our main character as the hero. The main character must start out weak and then gradually become stronger to beat the evil bad guy, etc story. I felt like Naruto emphasized too much on which characters were good (Konoha, Naruto) and which characters were evil (Akatsuki, Orochimaru) It would have been much more interesting to have the main character do something out of the ordinary.

Character development has been a big issue as well. The character who we all know to be in dire need of major character development, in terms of both power and mentality, is Naruto himself. A main character is a very important character because that character is directly connected to the reader. Throughout the characters in the show, you are initially biased in favor of the main character compared to the other characters because it is the main character. If you have a horrible main character, it makes people not want to watch the show. Naruto is not horrible main character, but in my opinion, he can do much better. After all those years watching this show, Naruto has barely changed in mental attitude. Even my real life little cousin has gotten more character development during the lifetime of the show than we can ever wish Naruto for.

Perhaps the fact that Naruto has been around so long, makes us painfully aware that every jutsu, story, character is something similiar to what we've already seen. I have to admit, Naruto has been going for a very long time. But maybe thats also rewarding because we have a community of readers who can discuss each chapter instead of a finished series and having no person to analyze each event about.

Maybe I wasted 10 minutes of your life but if you spent the past few years watching Naruto, you should really think about how much the show has changed.

[Abdula]

I disagree. Right now, Naruto as a series is far more interesting than it ever was. When I first saw this show I couldn't stand it at all, just the idea of prepubescent ninjas was hard enough to swallow and Naruto's character didn't make it any easier either. The plot while interesting, wasn't unique at all and could have easily been the plot from numerous other shonen series.

When people say stuff like "Wow, this is the best anime ever!" I think one of two things. Either they haven't really seen any great animes before or they were just really looking for something to get into and Naruto is what caught their eye.

Manga: Right now its as good as it has ever been and it has been consistent through out. Sure we like to nit pick it and complain alot but I think thats just because we got used to such high quality action packed chapters then when things slow down we're disappointed.

Music: Now this is legitimate. While I'm not one that really cares about the music in anime I certainly can appreciate what a difference having great music makes and in Shippuden neither the choice or the placement of music is any good. But I don't think the music is really that significant, if its good it'll certainly make the series better but the series isn't going to suffer simply because of a lack of good music.

Storyline Progression: You talk about alot of things here but mainly I think your problem is that things are taking longer to develop than you would have liked. As far as the manga goes I'll ask you to think of a series that is as long as Naruto that hasn't suffered from the same things you talk about here, either the significant drop off in the number of pages per chapter or the slow development. This is to be expected and chances are no matter how good the series is it'll happen, series like Berserk, Gantz, Bleach, HxH they all suffer from this. The only exception I can think of is One Piece.

As for the anime. The long dragged out fights, the long stare downs, even the ridiculous filler episodes and the amount of filler content crammed into even the actual canon episodes is a creative decision on the studio's part, just like they decided to keep Naruto a "kid show"

The rest of the stuff you mentioned, aside from the character development since Naruto is a truly horrible case even by shonen standards, is just your regular shonen stuff and Naruto is your standard mainstream shonen fare.

I think you're just looking at the glass half empty instead of half full. Even though there is a lot that takes away from it the plot itself has improved and plot is the core of every series. Like I said the manga is just as good as it ever was and the anime is still suffering from filler syndrome.

So I don't think the series is any less interesting but overall, quality wise, Naruto just doesn't have the luster it used to have but honestly Naruto was never that great a series in the first place.

[DarthEnderX]

It's certainly not the best anime series, but for a long time I felt it was the best shounen series ever. Although now that title has passed onto One Piece. But even now, Naruto is still a strong second in my mind.

[Abdula]

Shonen are you kidding me, you do know that shows like Rurouni Kenshin, DBZ, Hunter X Hunter, Yu Yu Hakusho, Blood+, Death Note, FMA etc are shonen right. Compared to shows like that Naruto doesn't even register.

[Kagemane_no_Jutsu]

really? death note? im interested as to what your definition of shounen series is abdula...? cause now im confused.

[Abdula]

Its not my definition. Death Note is a shonen series, by no means is it your standard shonen series but it is considered a shonen series and it was published in Weekly Shonen Jump just like Bleach, Hunter X Hunter, One Piece and Naruto.

[XanBcoo]

Death Note was publicized in Shounen Jump, but it's not really classified as a "shounen" series in anyone's mind. Even the creator admits as much:

After publication of the pilot chapter Ohba said that he did not expect for the series to be approved as a serialized comic as he thought it did not "fit with Jump."

Long time ago on the AnimeNewsNetwork forums, one of their old members suggested a litmus test for whether a series was shounen or not, and that was the inclusion of some variation of the phrase: "I want to get stronger."

Also, I agree with February. To me it feels like Naruto has suffered the "drawn out Shounen Syndrome" more than most. I haven't watched the anime in a good while, nor have I read the manga, mostly for the reasons he stated in the OP.

[masamuneehs]

i agree with most of what February said.

the real disappointment was when they came back from fillers to start Shippudden, and we got a show so horrendously paced that it was hard for me to stay awake during episodes. I started reading the manga then, which, because I could do more than a chapter a week, was good, but it made me even less satisfied with the anime as it continued.

then, of course, there's the story. at the beginning Naruto was just about a bunch of young kids trying to make their way in the world they lived in. Then we got a "main story" that was, well, just lame and lazy. "I have to stop the evil family member who betrayed my trust" and "Friends are important!" There are a few wrinkles here and there, and some interesting side characters, but the song remains the same, especially once Akatsuki comes into the picture and we get a standard "evil secret group seeks awesome power, we must stop them!" direction for the story to take.

Naruto, for me, was a excellent anime at first because it was a shounen that did a lot of the shounen things right. Now it's just full of itself. And, really, I don't care if I never watch the rest of it, since I feel fairly confident I'd just be wasting a lot of time if I ever did.

[Kagari]

I agree wholeheartedly.

I jumped into the Japanese series roughly during the chunnin exam 1v1 fights; Rock Lee vs. Gaara was actually the first episode I ever saw. I quickly downloaded the entire series and started watching them as often as possible, blitzing through the first 50 episodes in a few weeks. Since then, every week, religiously, I've set aside my time to watch the episode.

The music, the animation, the emotion, the wide range of unique characters...it all blended together SO well. Remember when Sasuke first fought against "Oro" in the forest? Or when we first saw Gaara attack those rain nins? What about when Kakashi was captured by Zabuza, and Sasuke+Naruto came up with that plan to free him?

Every character had something small, something different, that made them special, and seeing them grow and overcome obstacles was an incredible aspect of the show...

I remember when Naruto beat Neji, how good it made me feel to hear the entire auditorium scream for him when the announcement was made... "Winner: Uzumaki Naruto!"

I remember seeing Sakura resolve to stop "looking at the backs" of naruto and sasuke, right before tricking Zaku and biting down on his arm.

I remember watching Lee unleash his inner power against gaara, fail, and still stand tall while knocked out cold.

I remember episodes that made me sit on the edge of my seat, or jump up with excitement, or pound my fists on the chair along with the music...I even remember shedding a few tears here and there..

I rarely get that anymore. The pacing is off, the emotion is off, the music is off...nothing is working. There have been a few episodes here and there that are giving me "that old feeling" as i like to call it...but it's far less consistent and far less effective than it used to be.

Maybe it's the popularity of the show, 5 years later....maybe they are running out of steam, or maybe it's just done by too many people...but it's just not the same. All the jutsus are so huge, so massive, so out of control...everyone can make huge explosions, they can move mountains, Asplode planets...it doesn't have the same feeling as it did at the start of it all.

I understand that this is a necessary progression, and that as the characters grow and evolve, so does the scope and size of the world they live in. Also, in order to address the overwhelming amount of foreshadowing and groundwork placed in the first part of the series (will Sasuke kill Itachi? Will Naruto become hokage? Who will sakura kiss first? etc.) The show has to continue, and move forward...


But a small part of me wishes that the story ended with Naruto vs. Sasuke. A small part of me wishes that It could go back to the way it used to be.

[tystic]

I think it's finally improving. Sure, when Shippuuden started I was so ecstatic because finally we were promised no more filler. Ha, a likely story. Once the clone fights started I was losing interest; when they ended the way they did I was somewhat angered. Now that we're past the whole Fire temple kid arc and getting back to akatsuki things are looking up.

Still, it lacks the flair it had in the beginning. The first ep I saw was the start of the Naruto v. Neji fight as it was playing on a roommate's pc. He loaned some files, I found a player that worked on my old compy, and voila I could watch them on my own. It wasn't exactly an awesome series but it was well-composed and engaging.

Maybe I went overboard, but I watched the first 54 episodes in 22 hours.

About the only episode that really felt nostalgic was the Shippuuden premiere, and actually this Hidan + stringy fist guy arc we're in is too, barring DB's rather liberal use of Mr Spock's "colorful metaphors." Things are serious again.

If only the filler writers had similar talent to the original author, the series would be much stronger now than it is. Since we withstood what, cumulatively approx. 28 hours of unabridged low-quality filler material, most viewers can instantly spot any filler insertion in a canon ep, and that distraction significantly detracts from the overall experience.

[DarthEnderX]

Shonen are you kidding me, you do know that shows like Rurouni Kenshin, DBZ, Hunter X Hunter, Yu Yu Hakusho, Blood+, Death Note, FMA etc are shonen right. Compared to shows like that Naruto doesn't even register.

If we're judging better as "which would I like to sit down and watch a bunch of" on a given day. I enjoy Naruto way more than DBZ(the classic, but most modern shounen series improve on it in every way), Blood+. I've never seen Hunter or Yu Yu. And while only by a small margin, I'd still rather rewatch a couple Naruto arcs than rewatch Death Note, FMA or Kenshin.

[Dark Dragon]

If we're judging better as "which would I like to sit down and watch a bunch of" on a given day. I enjoy Naruto way more than DBZ(the classic, but most modern shounen series improve on it in every way), Blood+. I've never seen Hunter or Yu Yu. And while only by a small margin, I'd still rather rewatch a couple Naruto arcs than rewatch Death Note, FMA or Kenshin.

What are you doing here posting when you could be watching Hunter X Hunter or Yu Yu Hakusho since those are arguably 2 of the best shounen of all time, both created by the same mangaka i may add. Death Note, FMA and Kenshin are all rather flawed when compared to the source material so i can see why some of the better naruto arc might be more appealing.

I think one of the reason why this show has become less interesting is Naruto himself. Naruto development as a character has been painfully slow, both in ability and personality.

In the old days, Naruto actually use valid strategies to fight his opponent in order to make up for his lack of skills. In Shippuuden so far, most of the fights that Naruto was involve in basically consist of him using the Rasengan or just running head first at the enemy. It's very hard to care about a show when the main character who is on screen 70% of the time had become so uninteresting and stupid. I've began to notice that some of the better episodes/chapters recently are usually focused on someone else like the latest episode with Shikamaru for example.

The second reason is the Studio effort to milk this show for all of its worth. There is a ton of chapters between the anime and the manga, there was no need to stretch out boring chapters so they can fit into one episode or inserting an atrocious filler arc that feature a Sasuke/Gaara clone in the middle of Naruto's training that was suppose to only take a few days. The bad timing of music,pacing and sub par animation only adds to the overall disappointment. Asuma death in the manga was out of no where, it was rather shocking since Kishimoto didn't really kill off anyone at that point, but the studio shitty pacing and needlessly spoilerific preview made it obvious and totally destroyed that scene.

The manga still has it moments, if the studio would wise up and do a proper job animating it then it's possible for the anime to regain some former glory.

[Psyke]

And all this time I thought Naruto became less interesting because I grew older.

Thank God!

[Uchiha Barles]

I've got to agree with most of what's been said on this page. I'd also like to add another thing though. The foundations for the series were fantastic. This was a world where the characters are surrounded by death, a world where anyone could die so quickly, so unexpectedly, so easily. Kagari mentioned that the jutsus now are all too huge and ridiculous. I'll modify that to say that the power levels of the characters in the story are quite insane. Now, I consider (and hope that I'm right) that these characters the story focuses on now are the endgame. They are actually quite fine endgame characters.

The problem here is that, we went almost directly from the foundations, to the endgame. The world was not developed. We got to see generic taijutsu combat and people getting taken out, but it was so poorly done, that no one cared. We barely even noticed. With the number of episodes this series had, there was an opportunity to drive home the points made by the foundation. Here's an example. Somewhere in one of the filler arcs, you could create a set of characters, all of whom get decently developed. They're not all that super powered, but they have their basics down, and they have good strategic and tactical abilities. This being a shonen series, it's necessary to have some of those characters die in an epic way, but that doesn't need to be the case for all of them. You take some of the character that we grew to know, both in personality and ability, and at some point while running through trees, one trips a trap, and BAM! the poor son of a bitch is done, and maybe another killed or injured. You leave the rest to press on, and some may die in some other "bus out of nowhere" way. You use the deaths as a fulcrum to develop remaining characters, kill off some more, and let some remain even through the end.

I think this would've helped to create a compelling world that was consistant with the foundations laid off at the beginning. They actually have been trying that, with Asuma and Chiriku. The arc that preceeded this one was pure filler, but it served the purpose of letting you get to know these two characters. When this part of the manga came, everyone was like "oh, Asuma, that guy who didn't matter is all of a sudden important...he's so dead." The filler served as an attempt to remedy that. We got to know Asuma before the foreshadowing started and he got his epic death. The problem is, at this point in the series, it might be too little too late. The end game characters are already here. We don't take ninja without god powers seriously anymore. What was done with Asuma and Chiriku should've been done a LONG time ago with a moderate frequency.

[DB_Hunter]

And all this time I thought Naruto became less interesting because I grew older.

Thank God!

That makes two of us.

[KitKat]

It would take a very compelling reason to get me into Naruto again. It was a great series for getting me more involved in the anime world, and Naruto is ultimately responsible to bringing me to this forum, where I have made so many good friends, so I am grateful to the series for that. However, now that I have seen a greater variety of anime, Naruto just isn't worth my time anymore. When it was good, it was really good, but frankly I just don't trust the writers anymore because so much of the story has been watered down with fillery crap. Any episode now is a gamble whether you're going to see something actually worth watching, or waste 20 minutes of your life. I'd rather spend my time watching shows that have a higher probability of being enjoyable.

[Uberbaka]

That makes two of us.

Me three.

That and the anime turning into a money grabbing cash cow filled with fillers and lame padding out when they really don't need to. ;]

[Alhuin]

The biggest reason I still watch Naruto is because I want to see it end. Reading the manga is fine and everything, but I like to see things animated. Even if it means sitting through filler and fluff. I've gone on two Naruto manga binges before because I was fed up with the anime, and I'll probably do it again, but I'll still watch the anime. I can't just drop something I've been doing for... how many years has it been now?

Though I do agree with what other people have said about the series and why it has been going downhill (especially the "getting older" part).

[Archangel]

I can't just drop something I've been doing for... how many years has it been now?.

So you consider watching naruto some sort of bad habit?

Doesn't seem like much of reason to keep watching the show, at the very least just ignore it when the filler hell resumes.

[Death BOO Z]

The biggest reason I still watch Naruto is because I want to see it end. Reading the manga is fine and everything, but I like to see things animated. Even if it means sitting through filler and fluff. I've gone on two Naruto manga binges before because I was fed up with the anime, and I'll probably do it again, but I'll still watch the anime. I can't just drop something I've been doing for... how many years has it been now?

Though I do agree with what other people have said about the series and why it has been going downhill (especially the "getting older" part).

Naruto turned crap at 2006
which means that you've been watching it for three years at that time.
you wore diapers for the same amount of time.

you still watch Naruto.
Do you still wear diapers?


Do the right thing, put a stop to the crap.