Narutois an amazing series, but it isn’t without its fair share of problems.Naruto’s manga debuted in 1999, while its anime premiered in 2002. As time has passed, the expectations of the anime community and the things that shōnen fans want out of franchises and their adaptations have also changed. Somenow even argue thatNarutoneeds a remake.
WhileNarutostands the test of time in many ways,it doesn’t meet contemporary expectations across the board. Across the manga and anime,Narutois occasionally peppered with features that might drive modern readers and viewers away. Innumerable fans will always smile fondly at the adventures of Naruto Uzumaki and faces like Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, but the series undoubtedly has many aspects that don’t stand up so well today.
10Combat Lacking In Diversity
Naruto’s Combat Feels One-Note Compared To Today’s Diverse Systems
One ofNaruto’s biggest overarching problems is that its combat lacks diversity. Many of the most breathtaking jutsu upgrades in the show, like Naruto’s Rasenshuriken, are just augmentations of jutsu that have already been established. Overall, the jutsu tend to bleed together and not be super original compared to one another; occasionally, a jutsu will appear that really breaks the mold, and that just makes the problem seem all the more extreme by comparison.
Naruto’s Live-Action Movie Is Coming At The Perfect Time After The Anime Franchise Changed Its Premise
A Naruto live-action movie is in the works, and it has the chance to course-correct the franchise after the divisive end of Shippuden and Boruto.
ConsiderPain’s partner Konan with her paper jutsu.This super cool concept was never explored or practiced by anybody else. On one hand, that gives it a unique link to Konan’s characterization, but it also shows that jutsu can be deeply personal and individual, which makes the ubiquity of certain techniques like shadow clone jutsu feel arbitrary and lazy.
9Poor Adaptation
Naruto’s Anime Is Infamous For Not Being Faithful To Its Source’s Intentions
Naruto’s adaptation is infamous for, as an example,betraying Sakura’s manga characterization. Far beyond the way its main characters tend to be exaggerated caricatures of their manga counterparts, these changes can absolutely wreckNaruto’s pacing and world. When Kakashi and Naruto chase down Deidara, the manga presents this as relatively short. The chase is extended for several episodes in the anime adaptation, making it an absolute chore to work through.
8Neglecting Its Side Characters
After The Timeskip, Much Of Konoha’s Beloved Cast Disappears
One ofNaruto’s gravest sins is that, in its second part, it starts to undermine the roles of its side characters.The “Sasuke Recovery Mission” arc is one of the last great examplesofNaruto’s side characters coming together under the spotlight. InNaruto Shippuden,the focus shifts hard to a smaller core of ninja, namely Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, and their respective groups and attachments.Narutounfortunately starts to ignore its lesser-known characters as time goes on, leading them to be largely forgotten and feel flat by comparison.
7Disrespectful Female Representation
Characters Like Tsunade And Anko ShowNaruto’s Limitations
Kill la Kill has shown how more sexual presentations of female characters aren’t inherently negative, and can in fact be empowering. The trouble is that there’s a thin line with this representation, ultimately coming down to respect and intention.Tsunade is an exemplary case ofNaruto’s less-than-great relationship with women, with her body and breasts being the subject of a lot of early “comedy”. It’s not a mortal failure, but it’s enough to make potentialNarutofans with more feminine bodies roll their eyes. It would also be harder to get away with today.
6Unhealthy Relationships
Naruto Centers Itself Around Total Devotion That Doesn’t Always Play Well Today
“Relationships” correspond to more than justNaruto’s romances. While its romances can be an excellent example—say, Hinata’s endless fawning over Naruto—the endless devotion that’s always at play envelops the series to even motivate all ofNaruto Shippuden. To modern audiences, the fact that Naruto is so endlessly devoted to the idea of his promise to Sakura and his kinship with Sasuke might not ring true as readily as it would have a few decades ago. In a climate of emotionally complex plots,its earnest simplicity can be refreshing—but also grating.
5Forgotten Plots And Plot Devices
Naruto Frequently Sets Up Concepts That Don’t Go Anywhere
Narutoabounds with half-baked ideas that can be confusing as the series presses on.For the sake of argument, takeNaruto Shippuden’sAkatsuki’s rings. Akatsuki’s rings are apparently essential to the process of sealing the tailed beasts into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, but after a certain point, they’re totally forgotten. WhileNarutois fantastic, it didn’t always hold well to its promises in terms of the plot lines and devices it decides to open up.
4Filler Episodes
Naruto’s Filler Can Be Great, But Doesn’t Resonate In A Filler-Free Era
Narutohas a peculiar relationship with filler.Althoughsome of the filler is fantastic and rounds out foreground characters(like the ANBU arc which fills out Kakashi and Itachi), other filler is underwhelming and forgettable. Filler makes up a huge portion ofNarutoandNaruto Shippuden, and this is partly because of the time when it was released.
For today’s audiences, filler is widely seen as unimportant and unessential.
Prominent shōnen tended to be released on a weekly basis,leading to the need for filler to make up for the gap when the anime eventually caught up to the manga. For today’s audiences, filler is widely seen as unimportant and unessential.
3Lackluster Worldbuilding
NarutoForgets To Build Out Its Own World
Naruto’s worldbuilding leaves a lot to be desired, andit’s a major problem for the series.Naruto Shippudenis oriented around the importance of jinchuriki, for instance, but this importance is hardly established, and few jinchuriki actually take center stage. In general,Narutoopens up a very wide world that it fails to fill out adequately.
One significant instance of this is the apparently longstanding problems between different clans and nations.
The Five Kage Summit shed some light on this, but all it took to overcome them and join forces was a particularly eloquent speech by Gaara.Narutoprioritizes its narrative centers in a weird way that leaves many underdeveloped: the utter emphasis given to the Uchiha clan leaves one wondering why some of that time couldn’t be shared with lesser-developed clans or villages—like the forgotten Hyuga clan.
Naruto Has Some Of Anime’s Worst Power Creep
Naruto’s power scaling is a major problem. It’s often pointed out with respect tocertain villains such as Madara, who become extremely powerful and allow no real opposition. Generally speaking, though,Narutoconcentrates its power on a small handful of individualswho grow much stronger than anybody else.
Part of the reasonNaruto Shippudenunfortunately sidelines so many characters comes down to the fact that they could no longer be useful in combat outside certain specialized contexts.
This largely emerges inNaruto ShippudenafterNaruto’s timeskip.In the original series (or the pre-timeskipNarutouniverse), power is distributed relatively equally, and characters are able to keep pace with one another even when there are essential gulfs between them (as with Rock Lee). Part of the reasonNaruto Shippudenunfortunately sidelines so many characters comes down to the fact that they could no longer be useful in combat outside certain specialized contexts, andNaruto’s overall lens starts to shrink as a result.
1Slow And Inconsistent Pacing
Naruto’s pacing is extremely hit-or-miss. Partly, this is a product of the times, just like its filler. But the problem also extends beyond the regular introduction of filler to bea core issue with howNarutopresents its narrative.Narutotends to present its story in a way that, at times, can slow to a crawl.
There are two main ways that this issue presents itself. The first is the overuse of flashbacks;Narutoloves its flashbacks, and the momentum of fights or climaxes in stories are often undermined by the decision to use a flashback, sometimes showing something that had basically just happened. Another way, though, is the awkward presentation of its backstories.Narutochooses to break up climactic arcs with extensive backstory spiels. Compare this to something likeJujutsu Kaisen’s Geto’s Past arc, which stands on its own and, unlike the majority ofNaruto’s backstory, isn’t extremely disruptive.
Naruto
Naruto is a franchise spawned from the manga series penned by Masashi Kishimoto that began in 1999. Generating several tv series, games, movies, and more, Naruto follows the exploits of a young outcast ninja harboring the spirit of a demon fox who seeks to become the Hokage, the leader of his ninja village, to break the stigma against him. Upon the conclusion of the initial series, Naruto expanded into Boruto, following many series protagonists' children and returning faces.
