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Long before Naruto emerged as an anime, it had been written in the form of a manga, and had achieved great success in Japan. Though the storyline in the manga was far ahead of the anime, it didn't take long for the anime to catch up. One anime episode of Naruto will generally comprise at least one chapters from the manga, if not two chapters. The producers of Naruto have gone to great lengths to make sure no overlapping occured. They will generally achieve this by taking the information from the manga and putting it into longer section which appeared to be uneventful, while throwing in action at the same time.
For a time, the Naruto anime was comprised largely as filler episodes, and approximately 85 of the episodes fall under this category. Once the new series started in February of 2007, this process largely ended, and the series returned to following the flow of the manga series. To demonstrate this change, the producers called the new series Naruto: Shippuden, and "Shippuden" translates into "Hurricane Chronicles." One thing which many fans enjoy about Naruto is that the anime remains closely tied to the manga. Many animated shows deviate greatly from their manga or comic book formats, but this process was not done with Naruto. There are a few details which separate the anime from the manga, and some of these are the loss of limbs, the things which cause death, and various injuries. While these were quite pronounced in the manga, they have been reduced in the anime. Many of these believe that this is because of the tight censorship laws the United States has for young children, especially when compared to Japan. It should also be noted that the success of Naruto has led to the release of a number of movies, including Naruto: Shippuden the Movie, as well as Naruto the Movie 1, 2, and 3. With the exception of Shippuden, all three of the other movies can currently be purchased on DVD. Shippuden was released in movie theaters in August 2007. News has also been released saying that a fifth Naruto movie will be showcased in 2008. While instances of death and blood still exist in the American anime, they have been reduced to levels which are much lower than the Japanese version. Naruto has become huge in the United States, so big in fact that like Pokemon, it even has a card game named after it. Many fan sub versions of the anime have been distributed across the Internet where many people view and download them. While Naruto does have a great deal of violence, it is also known for its humor and somewhat goofy plot twists, which are appropriate for the age group for which it was intended. However, some have criticized the anime for the fight scenes, which they describe as being formulaic. However, this has not diminished Naruto's success, and the series continues to become more popular as time goes on. |
