Why is Naruto so popular?

[Minji20]

It was actually really good in the beginning, but later on, it was just...ugh. One reason might be that kids have never watched anything better. Another could be that kids just want to see their favorite characters become overpowered and easily defeat everyone.

 

[machomuu]

It was actually really good in the beginning, but later on, it was just...ugh. One reason might be that kids have never watched anything better. Another could be that kids just want to see their favorite characters become overpowered and easily defeat everyone.

But it debuted on Toonami when it first debuted in the NA, a major part of its fanbase. Toonami, as in Dragon Ball/Z/GT, Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam, Zatch Bell, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, Big, Yu-Gi-Oh GX Toonami. I doubt it's the former, that said it's not impossible and that probably was the case for many people. Though I really doubt it's the latter.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

I am sorry for sounding like an Ass but can people please clarify whether they are are talking about the Manga or the Anime because the Manga does not have Fillers. Only Bleach has fillers. LONG ONES. I am just asking this because I think that machomuu meant the Naruto Manga turns him off. The Naruto Anime sucking ass is a given.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

The story is not simple at all. Each character with detailed background story, very detailed world, etc etc.

And that's where Naruto suffers. The world is detailed (which was something I loved about it, so you did answer part of my question), which was something I liked about it, but they never revisit those things. It also suffers from Dragon Ball -> Dragon Ball Z syndrome. Basically what that is is when there are characters that are useful for a certain extent of time and then the more main characters become so powerful they are left in the dust, Dragon Ball Z's greatest flaw imo. I don't care about Sage Naruto, despite the fact that they did have a cliche tone to them, I wanted to see Neji! I wanted to see Shikamaru! I wanted to see Rock Lee! But no, they have to make Naruto and certain other characters the power level of what is essentially Goku during the Piccolo Jr. Arc, and that made me sad.

I get what you mean, but no character is left out.
yeah, Neiji and his team didnt really do much in shippuuden, but things are coming up

.

Like I said, no character was left out. Every character grew on their own direction. Shikamaru, being advanced in tactics. Kiba and Hinata, to locate enemy.
and there are those kunoichi.
You get what I mean.

I am a big fan of DBZ and I can see how you can compare those lol.

 

[phantastic91]

Spoiler

I have two very large bones to pick with what you said. First off, what Japanese mythology are you talking about. There is actually very little, the Kyuubi isn't even represented in the way as in any mythology, about the only mythology is the Kitsune, kyuubi, or as you might call him, The Nine Tailed Fox, but even he's not mythological, as all they did was put him in the show, and then put him in Naruto. Also the "friendship" thing...no, that's not what it is. In all seriousness, Naruto is in love with Sasuke, and if you think I'm insulting him or joking, than that only proves that you're homophobic. I never thought this when I liked the show, but I still see it from time to time, and these feelings are very much like love. He loves him, and the fact that they're friends isn't why. It's not because he thinks of him so often that shows off how in love with him he is, but rather how he thinks of him, and he's truly blinded by love to believe that Sasuke might not want to come back. Say what you will, but if they were trying to represent friendship, they WAY overdid it.

Also, I can tell you're a fanboy by a couple of the things you said, but one thing that really stuck out was the very last thing I quoted, what you said about Bleach. It's something I see all the time, Bleach fanboys and Naruto fanboys are always clashing, and it pisses me off. I think they're both mediocre shows and that you should expand your anime horizons more, because what you said about Bleach was exaggerated, and they do the exact same thing in Naruto (especially Shippuden, and I know this because I used to watch both shows).

First, there is Japanese mythology, although it’s subtle and that’s good enough for me. I’m sure the tailed beasts has influences like the sand raccoon dog. Also, the story of jiraiya, tsunade, and orochimaru is influenced by mythology (I don’t know if it’s just Japanese stories or mythology) and their abilities reflect it in certain ways. And a lot of powers like amaterasu, mangekyo, tsukiyomi, and susanno is from mythology as well. Although it’s drastically different, you can tell how it influenced the show like how susanno looks like a tengu and how the power relates to amaterau and tsukyomi. It’s Kishi’s art that shows subtle influences from Japanese mythology like his coloring pages. I’m sure there’s other things as well, but this is the most important I can think of right now (I pulled an all-nighter to study and I just got back from testing zzzzzz). For the friendship part, ok, you can say that they way overdid it. I think Naruto is weird with sasuke too, but I like how sasuke reacts. It makes it interesting. Sasuke is a psychopath and naruto is still acting like that. After everything, Sasuke is just getting worse. I find it interesting. My friends tell me naruto and sasuke gay jokes all the time. I still think it’s more interesting than like fairy tail’s extreme use of “but we’re comrades!!! *cries like onepiece* or we’re friends *and both cries a river*” it’s done so much. Naruto does it too but not as much as that. Naruto is probably not original either, its shonen, but naruto is one of my first animes so I liked it a lot. But I also saw inuyasha before Naruto and I liked it a lot too at first too, but I completely fell out of it; I just enjoy the Naruto storyline more and enough to last this long. Although you might not find this interesting a lot of people do. It makes me look forward to their final fight even more. And because Naruto is so into sasuke (which is funny because sasuke asked the same thing on why naruto is so stalkerish) I’m hoping that he dies, which may happen since Naruto foreshadows it but since it’s a shonen, maybe not >.>. And I will say that Naruto loving Sasuke in the way your thinking is not the author’s intentions and I don't feel it is. Naruto is suppose to have a different fate then orochimaru and jiraiya so maybe it is a little extreme but it makes sense (if we accept that Naruto is such a goody goody and is a nija that never gives up (a super shonen thing)). Plus, we all know naruto likes sakura ;]

for the second point:
What’s the point of calling me a fanboy. >.>. Funny how you left out One Piece. I’m guessing you don’t think it’s mediocre then. Now I wished I kept up with the manga so I can have more credibility to talk about it. I can talk about people I know who genuinely likes the one piece manga the most and are losing interest for a while now, but it wouldn’t be the same. You say that Naruto characters don’t have personality, but I disagree. Itachi is pretty badass and mysterious person and his revelation later on surprised a lot of people including me. Garra was badass too until he is recently ruined by the character development in the war. How can you say they don’t have personalities in a previous comment? I’m pretty sure lots of people like Naruto because of the characters.


Now, the Bleach thing. I didn’t say anything bad about it. I said I liked the cheesiness meaning I like it when they do the exaggerations and drama. it makes it stupidly funny/entertaining. And bleach has way more eye close-ups (in the manga). I keep up with Bleach every week because reading naruto and bleach has been a habit for years. I read other things too so no, I don’t need to broaden what I read and watch.
And it’s not like I read/watch them without realizing when it gets bad. Naruto drags in the manga sometimes too and after having a kick ass setup to the war, most of the war is stupid so far. Naruto also introduces pointless characters that takes up too much time (bleach does too, and fairy tail, I can’t speak for one piece)
Bleach got awful after the aizen fight. And even before, it was a drag. but I still keep reading because it always comes to parts that gets interesting. I didn’t think bleach could recover, but im getting interested with the new chapters even though the arc came out of no where. In Naruto, although it gets lame in the war, there’s the occasional chapters that keeps me interested like Naruto’s fox scenes and madara’s scenes.

Moreover, i think both animes are crap too. Naruto is especially horrible. They ruin the manga by a lot. Here’s an example: when naruto fought orochimaru and they had an epic staring contest. The anime is really slow. And the fillers repeats things which makes the show extremely repetitive. And yet fans still like it. On naruto forums im usually the one dissing the recent episode while someone tries to defend it. i don't get it, it's clearly a a cash cow.

It seems like im just defending why I like naruto (mostly manga), but that’s the point of the topic anyways. Also, I enjoy the show. Simple as that -_-. You remind me of one of those anime fans who hate people who think they know anime because they like Naruto, but don’t watch much of anything else. If you are, who cares. In my experience the amount of enjoyment and excitement I get out of Naruto is about the same as the animes that is much better than it.
I watch and read a lot of stuff too but I won’t go out at my age to try and get more now since I’m pretty busy with my life (me watching anohana and mahou magika is pretty rare for me since im in summer school ^.^) . I know which animes people would think is good and bad too like angel beats (awesome) and gurren lagen (ehhh I stopped at 4). People like clannad but I hate it since I predicted it so much and I hate how it tries to be sad when I think it isn’t so I just stopped watching. Point is, I seen a lot. And yet after all of this, I still like Naruto (manga at least and part one at first). If anything, Naruto got a lot of people into anime so that should be a good thing. One of my roommates is into anime now because of Naruto and now im introducing him to simple animes like gosick. Naruto still interests me and I still keep up with it since its one of the few things I can do with my free time. Heck, every time I’m on gbatemp it affects my life since I neglect my school work—which there is always something to do. plus i rather use my free time to play with the 3ds ;].

Ok, this post has been incredibly long sorry about that. Sorry if I don’t reply back, because this took forever and I don’t really want to sit through this again---especially after pulling an allnighter -_-

 

[machomuu]

I have two very large bones to pick with what you said. First off, what Japanese mythology are you talking about. There is actually very little, the Kyuubi isn't even represented in the way as in any mythology, about the only mythology is the Kitsune, kyuubi, or as you might call him, The Nine Tailed Fox, but even he's not mythological, as all they did was put him in the show, and then put him in Naruto. Also the "friendship" thing...no, that's not what it is. In all seriousness, Naruto is in love with Sasuke, and if you think I'm insulting him or joking, than that only proves that you're homophobic. I never thought this when I liked the show, but I still see it from time to time, and these feelings are very much like love. He loves him, and the fact that they're friends isn't why. It's not because he thinks of him so often that shows off how in love with him he is, but rather how he thinks of him, and he's truly blinded by love to believe that Sasuke might not want to come back. Say what you will, but if they were trying to represent friendship, they WAY overdid it.

Also, I can tell you're a fanboy by a couple of the things you said, but one thing that really stuck out was the very last thing I quoted, what you said about Bleach. It's something I see all the time, Bleach fanboys and Naruto fanboys are always clashing, and it pisses me off. I think they're both mediocre shows and that you should expand your anime horizons more, because what you said about Bleach was exaggerated, and they do the exact same thing in Naruto (especially Shippuden, and I know this because I used to watch both shows).

First, there is Japanese mythology, although it’s subtle and that’s good enough for me. I’m sure the tailed beasts has influences like the sand raccoon dog. Also, the story of jiraiya, tsunade, and orochimaru is influenced by mythology (I don’t know if it’s just Japanese stories or mythology) and their abilities reflect it in certain ways. And a lot of powers like amaterasu, mangekyo, tsukiyomi, and susanno is from mythology as well. Although it’s drastically different, you can tell how it influenced the show like how susanno looks like a tengu and how the power relates to amaterau and tsukyomi. It’s Kishi’s art that shows subtle influences from Japanese mythology like his coloring pages. I’m sure there’s other things as well, but this is the most important I can think of right now (I pulled an all-nighter to study and I just got back from testing zzzzzz). For the friendship part, ok, you can say that they way overdid it. I think Naruto is weird with sasuke too, but I like how sasuke reacts. It makes it interesting. Sasuke is a psychopath and naruto is still acting like that. After everything, Sasuke is just getting worse. I find it interesting. My friends tell me naruto and sasuke gay jokes all the time. I still think it’s more interesting than like fairy tail’s extreme use of “but we’re comrades!!! *cries like onepiece* or we’re friends *and both cries a river*” it’s done so much. Naruto does it too but not as much as that. Naruto is probably not original either, its shonen, but naruto is one of my first animes so I liked it a lot. But I also saw inuyasha before Naruto and I liked it a lot too at first too, but I completely fell out of it; I just enjoy the Naruto storyline more and enough to last this long. Although you might not find this interesting a lot of people do. It makes me look forward to their final fight even more. And because Naruto is so into sasuke (which is funny because sasuke asked the same thing on why naruto is so stalkerish) I’m hoping that he dies, which may happen since Naruto foreshadows it but since it’s a shonen, maybe not >.>. And I will say that Naruto loving Sasuke in the way your thinking is not the author’s intentions and I don't feel it is. Naruto is suppose to have a different fate then orochimaru and jiraiya so maybe it is a little extreme but it makes sense (if we accept that Naruto is such a goody goody and is a nija that never gives up (a super shonen thing)). Plus, we all know naruto likes sakura ;]

for the second point:
What’s the point of calling me a fanboy. >.>. Funny how you left out One Piece. I’m guessing you don’t think it’s mediocre then. Now I wished I kept up with the manga so I can have more credibility to talk about it. I can talk about people I know who genuinely likes the one piece manga the most and are losing interest for a while now, but it wouldn’t be the same. You say that Naruto characters don’t have personality, but I disagree. Itachi is pretty badass and mysterious person and his revelation later on surprised a lot of people including me. Garra was badass too until he is recently ruined by the character development in the war. How can you say they don’t have personalities in a previous comment? I’m pretty sure lots of people like Naruto because of the characters.


Now, the Bleach thing. I didn’t say anything bad about it. I said I liked the cheesiness meaning I like it when they do the exaggerations and drama. it makes it stupidly funny/entertaining. And bleach has way more eye close-ups (in the manga). I keep up with Bleach every week because reading naruto and bleach has been a habit for years. I read other things too so no, I don’t need to broaden what I read and watch.
And it’s not like I read/watch them without realizing when it gets bad. Naruto drags in the manga sometimes too and after having a kick ass setup to the war, most of the war is stupid so far. Naruto also introduces pointless characters that takes up too much time (bleach does too, and fairy tail, I can’t speak for one piece)
Bleach got awful after the aizen fight. And even before, it was a drag. but I still keep reading because it always comes to parts that gets interesting. I didn’t think bleach could recover, but im getting interested with the new chapters even though the arc came out of no where. In Naruto, although it gets lame in the war, there’s the occasional chapters that keeps me interested like Naruto’s fox scenes and madara’s scenes.

Moreover, i think both animes are crap too. Naruto is especially horrible. They ruin the manga by a lot. Here’s an example: when naruto fought orochimaru and they had an epic staring contest. The anime is really slow. And the fillers repeats things which makes the show extremely repetitive. And yet fans still like it. On naruto forums im usually the one dissing the recent episode while someone tries to defend it. i don't get it, it's clearly a a cash cow.

It seems like im just defending why I like naruto (mostly manga), but that’s the point of the topic anyways. Also, I enjoy the show. Simple as that -_-. You remind me of one of those anime fans who hate people who think they know anime because they like Naruto, but don’t watch much of anything else. If you are, who cares. In my experience the amount of enjoyment and excitement I get out of Naruto is about the same as the animes that is much better than it.
I watch and read a lot of stuff too but I won’t go out at my age to try and get more now since I’m pretty busy with my life (me watching anohana and mahou magika is pretty rare for me since im in summer school ^.^) . I know which animes people would think is good and bad too like angel beats (awesome) and gurren lagen (ehhh I stopped at 4). People like clannad but I hate it since I predicted it so much and I hate how it tries to be sad when I think it isn’t so I just stopped watching. Point is, I seen a lot. And yet after all of this, I still like Naruto (manga at least and part one at first). If anything, Naruto got a lot of people into anime so that should be a good thing. One of my roommates is into anime now because of Naruto and now im introducing him to simple animes like gosick. Naruto still interests me and I still keep up with it since its one of the few things I can do with my free time. Heck, every time I’m on gbatemp it affects my life since I neglect my school work—which there is always something to do. plus i rather use my free time to play with the 3ds ;].

Ok, this post has been incredibly long sorry about that. Sorry if I don’t reply back, because this took forever and I don’t really want to sit through this again---especially after pulling an allnighter -_-

I call you a fanboy because of the way you talk and strictly that and how you talk about Naruto and b comparison, other anime as well. It was ignorant of me to say what I said about myth, but that's about it. Also, about useless characters, it's different with Bleach. One very sad thing that happens with Bleach is that they have so many characters that they don't all really have fully developed personalities, with Naruto it's not like that. I don't feel like reading or responding to such a long post, I'll probably get back to it later. But I will say this, I completely disagree with you about Naruto not being original, it is original, but not necessarily for the better.

But I've gotta say, you're probably the most unbiased person I've ever had a debate with, a quality that would be more appreciated around the temp.

 

[raulpica]

Have you seen the guys in Naruto? They can't do that. Heck, their sense of stealth doesn't even make sense (Yeah, an orange jumpsuit, that'll blend in real well)

And if they wore all-black someone would complain with "omg everyone's black!! so generic!".

By the way, seriously, everyone: DROP the anime. It's a serious waste of time. Just go on and read the manga. A lot better paced, and there aren't freaking fillers and flashbacks everywhere.

As for the various "generic" accusations... Naruto is targeted at a Shounen demographic. It MUST appeal and come with things like "superpowers", "complicated childhood" and "friendship". Deal with it

Everything is generic as long as you want to see it that way. Naruto is a good piece of work, has a nice storyline (even if sometimes it just drags on too much, but that's because the author put TOO many things at once, and now they have to be resolved somehow), can't really complain about it.

 

[machomuu]

Have you seen the guys in Naruto? They can't do that. Heck, their sense of stealth doesn't even make sense (Yeah, an orange jumpsuit, that'll blend in real well)

And if they wore all-black someone would complain with "omg everyone's black!! so generic!".

By the way, seriously, everyone: DROP the anime. It's a serious waste of time. Just go on and read the manga. A lot better paced, and there aren't freaking fillers and flashbacks everywhere.

As for the various "generic" accusations... Naruto is targeted at a Shounen demographic. It MUST appeal and come with things like "superpowers", "complicated childhood" and "friendship". Deal with it

Everything is generic as long as you want to see it that way. Naruto is a good piece of work, has a nice storyline (even if sometimes it just drags on too much, but that's because the author put TOO many things at once, and now they have to be resolved somehow), can't really complain about it.

But that's the thing, I when before I started hating it I loved it. Seriously. I loved the show, but then one day I got too impatient to wait until Saturday for the new episode (I think it was the penultimate episode of the Chunin arc) that I spammed episodes of the Japanese show and watched all the way through to the end of Naruto (yes, I watched the filler) and the middle of the "Rescue Gaara" arc of Shippudden, which I then got impatient of waiting for new Japanese episodes and started reading scanlations up until the newest chapter. I was obsessed, and really had no reason to hate it. Thinking back though it may have been a slow process, I don't think I just one day hated it, but as I was reading the scanlations I disliked it more and more, and I would reflect on the original Naruto and noticed how much I didn't like that. That's when I noticed it was generic, at the time I loved its popularity, heck, I thought it deserved more...now...I'm just trying to figure out what I ever liked about it. The only arc I still like is the Sasuke Retrieval arc, I thought it was really well done and still do. The intros and endings to the show were very good, and the music in the show was amazing, I love it to this day. The animation is meh, though in certain cases, such as Naruto vs. Sasuke (that specific fight that I don't want to spoil) I would go as far as to say it rivaled Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli, it was amazing. Thing is, I like shounen and I do not discriminate in any genre, not even Shojo/u (Kare Kano, Furuba, and Ouran High School Host Club are amazing), heck, my favorite anime of all time (in my sig) is a shounen, I enjoy them.

 

[Deleted_11405]

i think because of: tomy ,mostly for why that spread like other t-shirt, in the days that came along/ populair. and the colour orange, and yellow hair, likes sides to roots you can speak more about, what lives and worth to reply for. the serie, games on computers other games and francise. its personal what i have mine things with chose to find about not really yet his story and things so important, mostly there so much around where into/out attraction is.

 

[Twiffles]

It's popular outside of Japan because everyone has had that stupid fantasy of becoming a ninja. Just like how Harry Potter is popular because everyone has wished they could perform magic, at one point, or another.

In Japan, where it counts, Naruto is of the "Big 3" yes, but One Piece's sales are more than triple Naruto's. And Bleach barely makes it into Top 5, because it's shit.

 

[GameWinner]

It's popular outside of Japan because everyone has had that stupid fantasy of becoming a ninja. Just like how Harry Potter is popular because everyone has wished they could perform magic, at one point, or another.

In Japan, where it counts, Naruto is of the "Big 3" yes, but One Piece's sales are more than triple Naruto's. And Bleach barely makes it into Top 5, because it's shit.

I saw a recent graph of the Weeky Jump's popular series, turns out Naruto's in fourth and Bleach is in eighth place.

 

[machomuu]

It's popular outside of Japan because everyone has had that stupid fantasy of becoming a ninja. Just like how Harry Potter is popular because everyone has wished they could perform magic, at one point, or another.

In Japan, where it counts, Naruto is of the "Big 3" yes, but One Piece's sales are more than triple Naruto's. And Bleach barely makes it into Top 5, because it's shit.

I saw a recent graph of the Weeky Jump's popular series, turns out Naruto's in fourth and Bleach is in eighth place.

Wait...where did you see that? I mean, can I find it on the internet, or do I actually have to buy a copy?

 

[Twiffles]

I saw a recent graph of the Weeky Jump's popular series, turns out Naruto's in fourth and Bleach is in eighth place.

Was referencing the year end sales of 2010, because a weekly and/or monthly popularity chart hardly count.

Edit: Gather 'round kids, Japanese sales chart for the 'first half' of 2011. [Oricon]

 

[GameWinner]

It's popular outside of Japan because everyone has had that stupid fantasy of becoming a ninja. Just like how Harry Potter is popular because everyone has wished they could perform magic, at one point, or another.

In Japan, where it counts, Naruto is of the "Big 3" yes, but One Piece's sales are more than triple Naruto's. And Bleach barely makes it into Top 5, because it's shit.
I saw a recent graph of the Weeky Jump's popular series, turns out Naruto's in fourth and Bleach is in eighth place.

Wait...where did you see that? I mean, can I find it on the internet, or do I actually have to buy a copy?

In Japan, every week in the Weekly Jump all the chapters are organized based on which is more appealing.
If a series get printed on the cover of the book that manga will automatically be first but that doesn't follow the appealing scale thingy.
So yeah I read up on the weekly jump appeal record when ever someone scans and translate them online every week.
Like this week, Toriko was on top again.
QUOTE(Twiffles @ Jul 23 2011, 07:08 PM)

Edit: Gather 'round kids, Japanese sales chart for the 'first half' of 2011. [Oricon]

Looks about right.

 

[koimayeul]

hum i watch anime up to episode 150 i think it was, sasuke left to orochimaru in search of power after beating naruto on the cliff with the okage stone heads.. then i had hard time to find them on my regular streaming site in french voice acting so i left it aside.. and left it as it lol

i liked the humor and the ps2 games (last one is AWESOME)

i think it is a real shonen jump manga to the core, using all the strings of the genre (rivals, some romance, quest for power, friends deaths, evil minions etc..) .. so yea cliche very much but thats why its liked, that's my thought on the hype

 

[Hells Malice]

It's popular outside of Japan because everyone has had that stupid fantasy of becoming a ninja. Just like how Harry Potter is popular because everyone has wished they could perform magic, at one point, or another.

In Japan, where it counts, Naruto is of the "Big 3" yes, but One Piece's sales are more than triple Naruto's. And Bleach barely makes it into Top 5, because it's shit.

Speak for yourself, muggle.

 

[Twiffles]

Speak for yourself, muggle.

I'm a Mudblood, get it right.

 

[Nathan Drake]

Speak for yourself, muggle.

I'm a Mudblood, get it right.

Do you enjoy labeling yourself with what is widely considered a derogatory term? I would much rather be an oblivious muggle than a hated mudblood.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Harry Potter. Talk about generic...

 

[_Chaz_]

It's popular because it's cool to be a 7 year old loser now a days.