A review by semperlunaris
Naruto, Vol. 1: Uzumaki Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto

3.0

WARNING! Nostalgia goggles are on! Also this review is for the entire series including Shippuden!

I do have a fond love for this story, this world, and this cast of characters navigating the world of the ninja.

BUT

it's not without its flaws.

Spoiler

In the later parts, there's talk of the ninja system, politics, how the jinchuriki are basically ninja Trident; and Naruto swears he's going to fix it as Hokage with his Kazekage buddy Gaara and all the other Kage...never happens. The 4th Great Shinobi World War was such a long, drawn out nothingness with stakes that were never stakes; characters die then get resurrected (unless your Neji, he's the only one (?) I remember dying and staying dead out of the main cast?); characters that should die or be imprisoned for their crimes get a slap on the wrist; the final big bad just felt like a left turn into a cop out and jumping not one, but fifty sharks (made by Kisame)! The last chapter was just so disappointing and no I'm not talking about endgame ships that is a whole other discourse I am not getting into here.

Kishimoto just can't write women and yes I know this is Shonen blah blah but honestly that's not a good excuse; there was so much potential for

Spoiler

Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Temari, Kurenai, and TenTen especially, that we just didn't get and I felt they did all that ninja training and for what?! for them to retire and have the next generation of child soldiers or be completely forgotten about?!

This series was one of the big three and maybe it began to peter out towards the end as Kishimoto and his team got fed up of keeping going and just wanted it to all be over, and I get that, but I do think there could have been a better way to resolve the final climax.

Still worth reading!