Naruto Retrospective (Part 1)

The end is near, Believe it!

I've been prolonging talking about this because I have been in denial for a long time, but I still need this to be topical, so let's begin talking about the greatest series ever; Naruto. What!? Not Star Wars!? Blasphemy! I know, and I do not say that lightly. I consider Star Wars and Naruto to be tied in terms of my favorite thing to watch ever. But since I'm talking about Naruto today, I'm gonna nudge it up a little for now. After a run of __ years, it is finally coming to an end. It's taught me a lot and helped me with a bunches of instances of depression. I owe this show a lot. This is going to be a lengthy serenade so I will split this up into parts. But for today, I am going to explain a little bit about what Naruto is. Naruto is an anime written and drawn by [Masashi Kishimoto.] Yes it's an anime, but I'm not a crazy "Otaku" or whatever. Trust me, I make sure to keep it in check. Anyways, Naruto is split into two parts: Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden, which takes place two years after Naruto. Narto takes place in a fictional continent that's very fuzzy about what technologies they have. They don't have phones but they have power lines. They have faucets but need to bathe in hot springs. They have security cameras but not phones or TVs. You get the point. The continent is split up into five or so lands and scattered about are hidden villages, who are in actuality not hidden. There are five main hidden villages, and they house and train ninjas. In Naruto, ninjas are basically Jedi. They learn to manipulate the elements by focusing their energy, or "chakra". Enter Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki is an orphan living in the biggest of the hidden villages, whose only dream is to be the hokage, the most powerful ninja and leader of the village hidden in the leaves. Unbeknownst to him until like, the third episode, Naruto has a huge demon sealed inside him. The demon nearly destroyed the village and killed his parents and the fourth hokage. Everyone in the village hates him and no one talks about it. Naruto is a goofball but is the embodiment of optimistic and persistent. The entire series is his journey into adulthood. I think I grew up at the ideal age for this show, as I literally grew up with him. Though our struggles were vastly different, our goals were the same. We never give up. We strive to be acknowledged. We grow stronger than we were yesterday. We never give up on our friends. We absorb hate and never spread it. I can say without a doubt that I would not be who I am without Naruto. Believe it!