Episode 34: Shonen September Part 3
Disclaimer: The following consists of copy written material owned by Viz Media, Studio Pierrot, Weekly Shonen Jump, and Masashi Kishimoto this review is of my property and for satirical purposes only.
Airnaruto45 aka The Classic Critic sat at his desk once more this time with his baseball hat off his head and only his headband on it. "Hello I'm the Classic Critic; I remember it so you're not required to and welcome to week 3 of Shonen September." He said as this time on the title card he got pelted with kunai, shuriken, and paper bombs the latter of which blew up on him as he held up the banner.
"Well folks here it is my own personal review of Naruto on the whole." Airnaruto said as the opening scenes of the show started playing. "Everyone knows about this loudmouth knucklehead of a ninja I might as well get the historical stuff out of the way." Airnaruto said as the facts box appeared.
Facts:
"Naruto is an ongoing action, adventure anime series based on the manga of the same name written by Masashi Kishimoto which started publication back in 1999. The first anime series which covers the first 27 volumes of the manga was put together by Studio Pierrot back in 2002 before finishing in 2007 with 220 episodes. The second series entitled Naruto Shippuden was also released by Pierrot and debuted back in February of 2007 and is still going as of today and covers the events from volume 28 to the current point of the manga, though granted the western world wouldn't see either of these series until 2005 and 2009 respectively." Airnaruto said grumbling out the last part.
Plot (Warning the following segment contains spoilers to both the manga and the anime if you don't wish to be spoiled skip this part):
"The plot of this show revolves around Naruto Uzumaki, a young orphan who is treated like the plague in his home village of Konoha or the hidden leaf." Airnaruto said before the camera cut back to him. "Why is he treated like crap when we first meet the kid you ask? Simple, he was forced to carry the burden of being the vessel of a nine-tailed demon fox on the night he was born and while the Fourth Hokage wanted him to be seen as a hero, the majority of the village saw him as the beast in human form, so in an act of desperation he boldly proclaims…"Airnaruto said as he got cut off by a 5 year old Naruto.
Naruto: One of these days I'm gonna become Hokage!
"Yeah that's his goal, initially it was to be recognized by the villagers but over time it changes to where he wants to become Hokage to protect everyone he cares about." Airnaruto said before continuing on with Naruto's teammates. "Naruto soon is put into a team consisting of himself, his crush Sakura Haruno who initially finds him annoying and has a monster sized crush on who in my opinion is the biggest asshole in the series Sasuke Uchiha who for lack of a better term to me is an absolute spoiled brat with a cock's ass haircut who then ditches the village all for the power to slay his brother and quench his thirst for vengeance against him for killing off every other member of their clan, only to kill him later and find out that Itachi wanted to die by his hand so he could redeem the clan name but only for the main villain Madara; Sasuke and Itachi's forefather to manipulate him into joining him so he can wipe out his home. Sasuke you are a grade A imbecile!" Airnaruto snapped before calming down.
"Sorry anyway under the tutelage of Kakashi Hatake and the help of his friends, Naruto pushes forward to become the greatest Hokage the hidden leaf has ever known while having to fight hundreds of enemy ninja, traitors, and a criminal organization known as the Akatsuki led by the insidious Madara who wants to; collect all nine tailed beasts, combine them into the their original form, absorb them into his own body, cast an eternal illusion over the planet and ultimately you guessed it take over the world." Airnaruto said before getting cut off by a familiar joke.
Bison: Of Course!
"I've really got to fix that joke timer." Airnaruto said frustrated with the interruptions before moving on to the art and animation.
Technical aspects
"As I previously mentioned this is Studio Pierrot at work, and while the art style incredibly realistic, the background elements and locales being very detailed, the animation is slick and stylish, and the fight scenes vary from fast pace and pulse pound to methodical and slow, and the music is pretty well balanced with bits of electric guitar, flute, drum, xylophone, piano, violin, and other instruments, there are points in the series where some of the tracks get a little repetitive and it can be a bit annoying at times, in addition to the mountains of filler arcs that they use to try and develop the side characters in the first series that I like to call the horrible hundred since it took nearly 100 episodes to move on to the time skip and second series which like it's predecessor is also guilty of having filler arcs, thankfully it's more spread out in between the main arcs of the story, and over blown amounts of J-pop band played openings, but other than that, each of the aspects for the show are fine." Airnaruto said.
Voice Acting
"My opinion on the voice acting is that basically it will come down to personal preference if you ask me. Some people will prefer watching the shows in the Japanese dubs while others will prefer watching the English dubs but you could go either way. Personally I prefer the Japanese dub for three reasons; 1. The cast actually gives it their all to bring the characters to life, 2. while some performances are over the top they do fit the characters personalities, and 3. Naruto's seiyu actually sounds like a young man even though he's being played by a woman." Airnaruto said which lead to a new cutscene joke involving Sheila Broslofski from South Park.
Shelia: WHAT WHAT WHAT? (A/N: Is it me or does Mona Marshall sound like a chicken when she does that?)
"Shocking but true but let me explain." Airnaruto said. "In Japanese Naruto is voiced by Junko Takeshi, and while she's not perfect she does a good job at making Naruto sound equal parts rambunctious troublemaker, and slowly but maturing young adult and I commend her for that. Which is more than I can say for Naruto's dub voice actress Malie Flannigan." Airnaruto said before getting to the point; "My point is that while Malie tries to make Naruto sound unique, she tries a little too hard and she makes the character come off with a very nasally high pitched and semi-raspy voice that in the first series made him sound older than he was supposed to be and made him sound more like he was scrapping his nails over a chalkboard in the second series, but that's just me." Airnaruto said. "Bottom line Malie Flannigan is the absolute last person I would want voicing the title character of the show; personally I would have chosen guys like; Greg Ayres, Todd Haberkorn, Johnny Yong Bosch, Chris Patton, Yuri Lowenthal if he wasn't already voicing Sasuke, a prepubescent Aaron Dimuske or Vic Mignogna, but then again this is a Viz Media dub and they're often hit and miss with their casting choices, but don't get me wrong I'm not saying the rest of the dub cast is bad, it's pretty good I even have the cast list right here." Airnaruto said as he pulled out a long scroll of paper containing the names of the dub cast on it.
"I mean you have the likes of; Kate Higgins, Stephanie Sheh, Coleen O'Shaughnessey, as previously mentioned Yuri Lowenthal, Kyle Hebert, Derek Stephen Prince, Liam O' Brien, Quinton Flynn, William Fredrick Knight, Troy Baker, Johnny Yong Bosch, Crispin Freeman, J.B. Blanc, Roger Craig Smith, Steve Blum, Kirk Thorton, Dorothy Elias-Fahn, Vic Mignogna, Paul St. Peter, Dave Wittenburg, Henry Dittman, Tony Oliver, Cindy Robinson, Ali Hillis, Mary Elizabeth McGylnn , Doug Erholtz, and many others that it would take another three or four chapters to put it them all in." Airnaruto said before wrapping it up.
Verdict:
"Overall, Naruto is basic just your basic Shonen Jump series, but with a little more to offer behind it; some moderately likeable characters, fights that will satisfy any kind of fight viewer, a realistic art style, and pretty versatile music behind it with a dub that both sides will enjoy. However I do have some complaints, three to be exact; first the over indulging amounts of filler that plague the first series I mean I understand that they were trying to develop the other characters but in some cases less is more." Airnaruto said before moving on to complaint number two.
"My next complaint is the mismatching dub cast, for example; Travis Willingham as Juugo a character that joins Sasuke later on in the second series, now that just seems like trouble I mean my friend the Nostalgia Kid went over in his review of D Gray man why you don't put Travis in a teenage role he's too old for the part, the poor choice for the title characters voice in English; I mean seriously I would have found it better if he was only given Zetsu's role in the show and Juugo's role was given to someone like Eric Vale or Chris Patton at least they know how to play characters that are certified screwballs." Airnaruto said before reaching his final complaint.
My final is the misconception as to what the moral of the series is." Airnaruto said which resulted in his audience looking at him blankly."Okay in this scenario my buddy the Nostalgia Kid assumed the moral of the show was this;" Airnaruto said as a certain text appeared above his head that read:
"Will the Ninja world ever unify and create peace?"
"In my opinion I think the theme is this…" Airnaruto said as a different text appeared over his head that read; "When does personal responsibility begin and end?"
"In my opinion the theme is Naruto needs to understand that although he made a promise to Sakura to bring Sasuke back that is of great personal importance to him, he needs to understand that Sasuke left of his own free will and it's Naruto's duty to bring Sasuke back dead or alive though at this point everyone, myself included wants that little duck assed haired brat dead by now. My point is that there are times when loyalty to a friend is admirable but then there are times you have to forsake that friendship and do what's right for the sake of those around you or at least that's the best way I can think of putting it." Airnaruto said before revealing his final score.
"Regardless if you just started watching anime for the first time, give this title a watch. I give the anime series on a whole 3 and ½ stars out of 5." Airnaruto said before concluding. "Well that's it for now be sure to come back next time when we wrap up Shonen September with an instant classic anime series so until then…" He said before getting cut off an angry mob of over zealous Naruto fans who wanted his head on a pike in the same manner they wanted the Nostalgia Kid's head. "I'm the Classic Critic; I remember it so you're not required to." He said before vanishing into thin air.
Naruto final analysis:
Pros: Slick animation
Fight scenes that are both fast paced, and deliberate
Massive cast of likeable and decently developed characters
Decent classic underdog hero's journey story
Diverse soundtrack
Both dubs are pretty good though not great.
Cons: Massive amounts of filler episodes near the end of the first series
Mismatching English dub cast
Misconception by fans over the theme of the series.
Final rating: ***1/2 out of 5
A/N: Well that's about as objective of a review for Naruto as I can give tell me what you guys think and until then read and review folks.