Why is Naruto so popular?

[Animizzle]

I have intensively been watching Anime for quite some years now.
I'v seen shit and I'v seen stuff that moved me alot(im an insenstive cock so that's quite something)
Then right out of the blue comes the story about a little ninja boy and his little friends who can spit fire and the world is hooked.

WHY? why in the hell are we enjoying Naruto so much? What does Naruto have that makes us watch it over and over again and discus countless trivial subjects?

For the hell of it?
I guess not, just downright genuine interest in this thing. Most of the forum users are over 16 is my guess..The anime is about 12 year olds. Can we identify ourselves with them? I once read this article that the majority of Anime/Manga fans enjoy it somuch because they see themselves in her/his favorite character in some way.

Im 20...how COULD I indentify myself with Naruto..But the strange thing is, when it comes to Naruto we tend to throw our maturity to the side for a minute and talk about these things..During my social life I would never dare to speak such matters, then why is is just with Naruto that my interest is aroused to the point to actually participate in debates as these?

The Ninja genre is overall accepted as "cool" that's one point for sure..
And as all anime's they do shit we could never do, like summoning a 50 feet talking frog. The fact that everything is possible always hit's a right note in my brain..
Or maybe Naruto just has a perfect mix of immature style/action/drama/humor
that's absent in other anime's.

Enough with my story, spit your thoughts, what's the true reason Naruto appeals so much to you?

[quikimpulse]

I have been asking myself the same question. Why is everyone so hyped about naruto. Well i have only seen 11ep of it and all i can say is that there is nothing spectacular about it. But i do say it is a good anime worth watching. If you can get past how long the series is. 100+ episode is alot and you have to be really dedicated if you watch this series. But I cannot say this series is groundbreaking in any way, shape or form.

[salamando]

Right Place, Right Time, Right People? Just coincidents that made this series so popular. I cannot speak on behalf of other people, but im gonna list the things that make me watch the series.

The main character, Naruto.
The Dragged out figthing. Tricking eachother and faking it to gain the upper hand, instead of just "OMG I PWNED U! lololaf!!1one!1"

++

[hitokirigirl]

i enjoy naruto mainly for the "cool effect", i mean the hand seals, summons, the various jutsus that exist...oh yes, and also the jounins' clothes
i still remeber when i saw 1st time the fight zabuza/kakashi, it was the best one i've ever seen (dbz appears just like shit)
personnally, i always enjoyed samurai/historical shows, so as naruto is about ninjas and stuff, i just hooked.
BTW, i'm a non-manga reader, i saw the 1st ep 2 years ago (i think), i'd like to thank Toriyama World for that

[Naruto4Lifer]

I have to agree with you. I'm 22 and I love Naruto. I think a reason is because we can identify with the story line and how we all have to overcome the social stigma's pressed upon us everyday. Everyone of us has some sort of ability or feature that we are not proud of, and yet we move on in life. By watching Naruto we see that passion to overcome these obstacles through his story. It's inspiring even for an animation to have such emotion, love and fear. Even through the other characters such as Rock, we see him chase his dreams no matter what barrier is placed before him, no matter what inability he has, he would stop at nothing and work harder and harder to strive to those goals. We see how Naruto is left in the dark by Sakura, and we have ALL been through that a few times in our lives. What I'm trying to say is, we can relate to the events these characters go through, not identify ourselves with the characters per se, but how they deal with it and move on. And for that reason alone, I love Naruto and it's inspirational message.

[Sabaku no Gaara]

Because it's a good story that stirs my emotions...that's why I love it.

[BANTF*]

I like naruto because it give me goosbumps when, Naruto freaks out and really gets mad, RED ZONE!, I freakin love it when kyubi comes out, its the best part.
and when secondary characters becomes strong.
I hate two things with naruto
1. Sakura, 2 words "die bitch"
2. Saskue, always feeling sorry for himself, ass.......
otherwise Naruto is the only seriers I watch now

[MidoriShinobi]

I watch it for the cute guys, of course.
ah, just kidding. sorta. I like the story, ect..
Also, I like Kishimoto's style of drawing..

[AngelKyo]

because we're all skool rejects...for all of you who are out of skool, ur work rejects, for all of u who don't do shite ur still rejects...LOL

[aph]

Originally Posted by BANTF*

I like naruto because it give me goosbumps when, Naruto freaks out and really gets mad, RED ZONE!, I freakin love it when kyubi comes out, its the best part.
and when secondary characters becomes strong.
I hate two things with naruto
1. Sakura, 2 words "die bitch"
2. Saskue, always feeling sorry for himself, ass.......
otherwise Naruto is the only seriers I watch now

this is something that i think makes naruto stick, sometimes people in real life are annoying or self-obssessed/weak etc..

it creates interest for me personally, ive gone from hating sasuke to liking him and back again, he can be an arse and he can be good too -_-.. it makes it more fun and realistic as a story imo..

besides that, who doesnt want to be a ninja? :x

[krem]

it's dbz for a new generation. as an overall series, there are significantly better ones out there. naruto is brainless throw away stuff, watch it, enjoy it, forget about it.

i prefer many other enw series to Naruto, such as FMA or Monster, but Naruto still entertains every few episodes. The manga is significantly better, but different strokes for different folks. Popularity of a series means noting. The spice girls being number one doesn't mean they're good, and Naruto being the number one anime doesn't it's good either.

[aph]

its as you said different strokes for different folks... dont contradict urself by saying it doesnt mean its not good cause its popular, good is a matter of opinion and perspective. [;

[Animizzle]

Originally Posted by krem

it's dbz for a new generation. as an overall series, there are significantly better ones out there. naruto is brainless throw away stuff, watch it, enjoy it, forget about it.

i prefer many other enw series to Naruto, such as FMA or Monster, but Naruto still entertains every few episodes. The manga is significantly better, but different strokes for different folks. Popularity of a series means noting. The spice girls being number one doesn't mean they're good, and Naruto being the number one anime doesn't it's good either.

Yeah, I agree for a big part. I don't agree that Naruto is brainless throw away stuff alltogether, but let's say it ridiculous good fun for a kids show.

Actually your post should have been a part of my thread but I could't quite put it in words, thnx for that :x

[Kidd]

There's tons of emotions and different characters with realistic personalities in there. That's what makes it all good to me. Of course, some sweet fights also helps keep the interest up at times, and I know many people who watch Naruto mostly for the fights even though I don't. It contains so much stuff that it's bound that many people will love it. Not that many people (afaik) like it as their best anime, including myself, but many put it in the top 5 or at least top 10, which averages it out as one of the best series ever since almost everyone likes it.

My first encounter with Naruto wasn't the prettiest one. I saw a screamy kid and some old geezer with robes on in front of a magical ball on someone else's screen. And it didn't really help that this person who wanted to show me how awesome this show was showed me the oiroke no jutsu. I was like "like, this is a comedy show that sometimes gives out partial nudity for no reason? since the main comedy also seems to be from a screamy kid *thinks Rizelmine* I think I'll pass". He bashed me to death but it's not like I listened, it didn't help that I saw Naruto stuff all over the net about it either, I've always had a hate for stuff that is mainstream for the sole reason it's mainstream, for some reason...

Then one day I was bored and the same person came up to me all "hey, you wanna check out a naruto episode?". Bored as I was I agreed to it, expecting not to see anything spectacular and be generally bored. He showed me episode 8, and man I loved it. I didn't understand everything that was going on, but he had given me a quick review. At first it didn't seem all that great, but I didn't die from it to say the least. Then after Zabuza had captured Kakashi and he pulled off a Mizu Bunshin and started a very disturbing situation for the team, I had my eyes glued. Naruto and Sakura were shaking like leaves, Sasuke pulled off a futile effort to save the team, the music started... yeah, quite a disturbing situation. Naruto realized he had a Jounin in front of him and that there was no way out of this situation but to hope his best by running, or he'd die for sure. Then he puts his hand down on the ground and it hurts. He stares at his wounded hand and has this beautiful flashback. I'm serious when I say I almost cried at this part, it was just 10 minutes into an episode of a show I had never seen before, but it just struck me so much... I decided that this series was one I'd want to see, but I would want to wait until it was licensed and all the dvds were out so I could watch it all in one go like I did with Kenshin.

Though... that plan didn't work, obviously. A year later I was home from school, sick. I started downloading a few episodes of Naruto just to have something to watch, and when I went to sleep that night I was already 40 episodes into the thing, and brought myself up to the current episode of 63 the next day. Weeks after that I decided to start a fansub group together with my friends and we'd show the world our love for Naruto, and this is where me and Shin-Otaku are today.

But heck, I'm getting sidetracked like nothing else. Like I said in the beginning of my post and also in the beginning of my rant, it has several realistic characters with unique goals and dreams. These people collide in different ways just like in real life and different situations appear from that. Sometimes disturbing, scary, romantic, morale boosting, filling with happiness, goosebump-rising... it contains everything real life has to offer, but in an exaggarated scale. And that just makes it all the better imho. Naruto is one of my top 5 animes and I'll be damned if the upcoming fillers ruin it like they did to Kenshin.

EDIT: Oh and I can't agree with krem who said you could just forget about Naruto when you've finished watching it. I've learned many things from it and seen things from angles I wouldn't have thought of them before. Kishimoto is a true genius, and I wish that some day I'll get to meet him so I can thank him for this great story. Heck, I'll challenge him to a shinobi fight and then we'll see who remembers the most jutsu's handseals ;P

[realdeal]

I think it appears to alot of fans because of the characters and fights. Its kinda like wrestling which was big once, theres lots of different characters and your interested in seing them fight each other to see who will win. Thats why most of the threads are VS or lead to that somehow.

If you look at another type however such as FMA, they have a different type of appeal which relies more on plot rather than fighting. I dont think Ive ever seen a post/thread in FMA forum asking, who would beat who. Its popularity relies on the plot, Naruto relies on the fighting/power of interesting characters.

A very good example of this is how in Naruto you will get alot of people who are die hard fans of characters such as Lee, Sasuke, Itachi etc. Alot of fanboys basically. In a show like FMA you very rarely see someone rave on about a character and how that character will kick another characters ass.

[Zaken]

Originally Posted by Sabaku no Gaara

Because it's a good story that stirs my emotions...that's why I love it.

yup... every Naruto fight scenes either brings anger or saddness or tears. some other animes are repetitive, therefore, easily get bored of it, Naruto keeps you emotionally high (on crack), so it's additive.

[Kidd]

Originally Posted by Zaken

yup... every Naruto fight scenes either brings anger or saddness or tears (ok, maybe not tears). some other animes are repetitive, therefore, easily get bored of it, Naruto keeps you emotionally high (on crack), so it's additive.

It doesn't bring tears? How wude of you to say such a thing, I cry often in this show, heh heh. Last time was 84 though, so it's been a while.

[Zaken]

ok fine! it does bring tears (i edited my post) ^.^

another good thing about Naruto is the episode musics (not the openings and endings, but the music during the episodes) most of them are made by Toshiro Masuda, and damn! they stir up emotions just by listening to them on the mp3! they complete the awesome package of this great anime.

No comments on the opening and ending musics... well, except for Harmonia and Ryuusei, these are going to be on my next mp3 burned CDs.

[Voltage]

I watch it because the storyline pulled me in, and the Characters beat me up and told me to stay. Humor wouldn't let me escape, and crying didn't help. Also...... and recently I've taken a liking to Tsunade and Shizune, so this series will stick with me for a while.



Oh, and Jiraiya sealed the deal!

[Kidd]

Yeah with a character like Tsunade a show can't go wrong; THAT'S girlpower folks ^_^x