Naruto

Japanese Title: Naruto
Original Story: Masashi Kishimoto
Episodes: 170+ (Still running...) [+OVAs and movies]
Rating: Teenagers
Release Studio: Viz Media
Main Voice Actors:

Naruto Uzumaki ~ Maile Flanagan
Sasuke Uchiha ~ Yuri Lowenthal
Sakura Haruno ~ Kate Higgins
Iruka ~ Quinton Flynn
Kakashi Hatake ~ Dave Wittenberg
Third Hokage ~ Steve Kramer
Ino Yamanaka ~ Colleen O'Shaughnessey
Shikamaru Naka ~ Tom Gibis
Choji ~ Robbie Rist
Kiba Inuzuka ~ Kyle Hebert
Shino Abarame ~ Sam Regal
Hinata Hyuuga ~ Stephanie Sheh
Neji Hyuuga ~ Steve Staley
Rock Lee ~ Brian Donovan
Tenten ~ Danielle Judovitz
Gaara of the Desert ~ Liam O'Brian
Kankuro ~ Michael Lindsay
Temari ~ Tara Platt

A huge fox demon attacked the ninja village of Konoha. They sacrificed a child and sealed the powerful demon inside it. Now, years later, that boy, Naruto Uzumaki is shunned by the adults who know what is inside him. (The people born since the incident are not told...) Naruto has a big goal. He wants to be the greatest ninja ever, a Hokage! He wants everyone to look up to him and actually give him a glance. How is he supposed to fulfill that goal if he can't even pass the Ninja academy?! When he does pass, he is placed into a squad of three with his classmates, the smart female ninja, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto's rival, Sasuke Uchiha. Each with their own goals, they must work together to reach them. Thus, their journey begins...

In the anime world, if you don't know what "Naruto" is, what have you been doing? Living under a rock for the past couple of years? It's very, very popular. It has videogames, headbands, figurines, keychains, plushies.... he list goes on and on... With all of this merchandise, it has to be good, right? Well it is. The storyline is interesting and the characters are unique. The interesting is while in most shows when the hero comes, everyone is saved. In Naruto, when Naruto comes, all hell breaks loose! I love most of the openings and endings... One falls short of my expectations unfortunately... "Rocks" A popular opening is "Go!" but I also like "Haruka Kanata". As for closings, "Harmonia" is funny with the chibi Sakura and Ino. Orange Range does a great job for doing "Viva Rock". The fighting scenes are exciting but sometimes one fight can last forever and just drag on for like three episodes. One other thing that can get annoying is that at the beginning of each episode (almost every one anyay), they take three minutes to review everything. If you have a bad memory, this is good but after a while it can get really annoying.

Okay, so now we know how good Naruto is. If you're cheap , you'll probably tune in Saturday nights and watch Naruto off Cartoon Network. Importing DVDs can be expensive and downloading 170+ episodes can take a while so not a bad idea, eh? WRONG. Viz horribly screwed up Naruto. They changed the opening and while I didn't care for "Rocks" too much, the new opening looks like crap. It looks like Viz took some scenes out of "Haruka Kanata" and added their own thing to it. Ugh... And the voices.... Not all of them are bad I have to admit. Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Iruka are pretty good. Everyone else is either only okay or they fall short. Naruto sounds like a girl... In Japanese, they have a woman voicing Naruto as well but I thought the voice actor was a young boy. Now that's good voice acting... When the actor sounds like they're supposed to and if they play an opposite gender character, they sound like the opposite gender. All of the Japanese voice actors are great. Now why can't Viz get some good voice actors? You know me... Over half the time I watch dub and I'm almost always satisfied. ADV Films and Funimation can get the job done. They step up to the plate and release good voice actors for anime. Why can't Viz do that? Why are they releasing this anime with such a girly voice for Naruto? It's, it's.... disgusting... Shame on you, Viz. Your manga translations are good but seriously, work on the anime. You released a joke of Naruto.

Watch the Japanese, otherwise you'll claim that you hate Naruto when you've only seen a cheap imitation of it.