"Naruto average at best", say disgruntled reviewers

[raikage]

Well, if she hates the show, why tell her to watch more of it?

Her first impressions are set; she's not going to change her mind. Since the series is still going (and doesn't look to end anytime soon) it could be YEARS before anyone gives a review of it; whether good or bad.

I didn't like the 1st ending theme at all.

To expand on what Hisoka44 said about the recaps in the Water Country arc, what about the double ep # 25-26 or something around that time? The first ep=recap.

The Chuunin Exam arc is frighteningly sloooooow...50+eps later (a year? more) and we're still here...
...the show isn't even close to perfect by any means.

To Final; I believe (though I'm not sure) that Japanese mangakas have assistants who help out with artistic duties.

Also check out the back of Love Hina vol 14 (Tokyopop) where Akamatsu says that some of the backgrounds have been drawn as templates and are often reused in scenes again and again throughout the manga. This probably isn't as prevalent in Naruto, though.

And just look at how many lines Jim Lee draws in his artwork! If you want a better example of an American artist who works on a monthly basis, I believe George Perez did a lot of consecutive Avengers monthly books.

Originally Posted by Maxter

I know that I love the anime, that's enough for me to keep watching.

And isn't that all that matters?

[Riese]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinoins, and we can also chose whether or not to listen to them.

Naruto is just quintessential shonen stuff. If you look at a lot of shonen series, it is possible to boil them down to common essences. And face it, around your early teenage years, most people come to realize that they're insignificant compared to the rest of the world but they want to feel like they can make a difference or have an impact or what have you in the world.
This is the *main* audience that shonen artists are considering. I've been having a lot of frustrating throwbacks in my life now that are imitating my irritating early teens and so Naruto and other shonen stuff is quite nice to watch.

Kishimoto's art style is simple and very adaptable to cel-style artwork. I wouldn't rate him very high as far as ability to use colors in a sublte manner like, oh, Yoshitaka Amano, but it has a very solid, honest feel to it.

Ah well, given Japan's nasty economic times, it seems like a lot of adults are having similar feelings of frustration and marginality. Maybe that's why there are a lot more adult open fans of this series, who knows. Ah well, one of the best Naruto cosplayers I've ever seen is a woman who appears to be in her late 20s/early 30s, her (possibly) twin sister and son.

Again, these are all theories. And yes, I have done sociological research surrounding anime before.

[cdkobasiuk]

I don't think this thread is a waste of anyones time. Actually, it illustrates, for all of us, here the faults and failings of reviews in general, for any media. I'm a geezer so I've been around enough to know that 999/1000 times when I see a review it will not tell me anything I need to know and that I should ignore it. A very general description of an anime or movie (or manga or comic) is all I need to decide if I want to give something my time or not. If I decide that something may be of interest to me then I watch or read it. Then I form my own opinion.

Then the fun starts. After seeing a show/movie/manga I read reviews about it. Has anyone here ever done that with a lot of things (books even)? Well, I am always amazed at how people totally either 1. miss the point of a story completely or 2. force thier own mesage into a story. And when it comes to anything vaguely artistic I very often wonder if the reviewer watched/read the same thing I did.

What I thing 'reviewers' should do is stop offering us their opinions and tell us something useful.

Example:

Naruto, shonen-ai, lots of fight action, slow character development. Music ranges from rock to balads with some asian inspired BGM. Mostly male characters as ninjas in a fantastical setting. May be slow to start and has run 77 anime episodes so far with a much longer run in manga. A mixture of martial arts with mystical qualities, adolecent potty and sexual humor.

And that is my opinion.

cdk

[nh1]

Originally Posted by Kisame Hoshigaki

if you want to hear itachis voice go back to ep 30 in the beginning. i wonder if they will change the VA right now im not so sure if he fits the voice.

They will have to change it, he sounds like he's 20-30, and at that time he was, 13-15?

[Maxter]

Originally Posted by raikage

And isn't that all that matters?

Very true indeed.

[nh1]

Originally Posted by cdkobasiuk

What I thing 'reviewers' should do is stop offering us their opinions and tell us something useful.

Example:

Naruto, shonen-ai, lots of fight action, slow character development. Music ranges from rock to balads with some asian inspired BGM. Mostly male characters as ninjas in a fantastical setting. May be slow to start and has run 77 anime episodes so far with a much longer run in manga. A mixture of martial arts with mystical qualities, adolecent potty and sexual humor.
cdk

Good idea! Seriously, that's the best review I've ever seen

[epyon96]

You realized that you summarized Naruto as opposed to reviewed it. If you want that, click on the summaries instead of the reviews if you are looking into that. The reviewers job is to critique it. The reviewer brought up very valid points. Naruto is just a thing that is IN now. Really, the greatness of an anime cannot be appreciated at its peak. It's when most fans are simply fanboys/fangirls who are simply obsessed with the plot. We are hardly having a right to judge it.

However, the reviewer gave his/her opinion of it and he/she is entitled to it. Technically speaking, none of this revew was outright deniable. It's simply a matter that he did not watch enough. But let's be honest, why should the reviewer be obligated to watch the entire series when he/she never got hooked? That's asking to torture someone. It's like 40 hours for godsakes. It seemed that he/she watched roughly 20 episodes or so and that is quite reasonable to write a review.

Let the reviewer be.

EPYON

[DreamcastSi]

Technically... that is a review in its purest sense. It may be the cliff notes, but it tells basically what happens without revealing plot. If more reviews followed this path, there might be more people finding various series they like. I realize this probably wouldnt work well for series like Initial D (opinions are required to get the point across on this one.)... but still...

[nh1]

Originally Posted by epyon96

The reviewers job is to critique it.

Then don't review it... It's the same as saying "Don't flame, help out instead"...

Originally Posted by epyon96

It seemed that he/she watched roughly 20 episodes or so and that is quite reasonable to write a review.

20 Episodes!? How did you get that impression? Surely she (yeah, it's Christina Ross) would have understood that Kage Bunshin is not an ultimate technique not performed in centuries, if she had watched the whole Zabuza arc...

[Maxter]

Originally Posted by nh1

Then don't review it... It's the same as saying "Don't flame, help out instead"...

20 Episodes!? How did you get that impression? Surely she (yeah, it's Christina Ross) would have understood that Kage Bunshin is not an ultimate technique not performed in centuries, if she had watched the whole Zabuza arc...

What do you mean, don't review it? As he said, when you review an anime, movie or whatever, it's your job to find bad spots (good spots aswell, of course). And she did. ANd she isn't totally wrong.

Also, he said "roughly 20 episodes". If she saw 18 episodes, which is "roughly 20", maybe she wouldn't know that it's a quite common technique for higher-ranked ninja.

[Joe Dalton]

ermmm for the most part shes completely right though.... Who is letting their bias clouding their judgement here?
The reviewer or the harcore fans that will hear no evil?
Everything said in the review is true its verry mediocre but its something 2 do and not completely boring .... cept the part about the first end song..... I think the english in that actualy makes it better

[raikage]

Originally Posted by nh1

Then don't review it... It's the same as saying "Don't flame, help out instead"...

20 Episodes!? How did you get that impression? Surely she (yeah, it's Christina Ross) would have understood that Kage Bunshin is not an ultimate technique not performed in centuries, if she had watched the whole Zabuza arc...

I actually like reviews bashing stuff - it lets me know both the good (which I'm sure plenty of people have written) along with the bad. If she watched it and didn't like it, then why shouldn't she say she watched it and didn't like it?

About the Kagebunshin and its being an "ultimate technique" and "not performed in centuries", well...

Until near the end of the Zabuza arc, Naruto is the only one to ever use Kagebunshin.

At the end of the arc, Kakashi uses it once (and may very well have copied it from Naruto).

In a filler episode (for however much it counts) Ebisu uses it.

The Sandaime uses it.

That's....4 people....3 if you discount the filler....2 who knew it if you believe Kakashi copied the technique - Naruo and the village all-knowing elder...
out of a whole village of ninjas and villains from other villages.

[Nine Devil]

why in the hell do we talk here? We register there and bash that stupid

Spoiler:

bitch

edit:B*tch locked the thread.

[Merco]

Yeah, the Kage Bushin being the 'ultimate' technique is obviously a bit unrealistic. Even by paying attention to the whole Kakashi fight right before the whole Zabuza arc, she would figure out that Kakashi was hardly surprised that Naruto figured out the Kage bushin (he was a bit impressed though). Moreover, he was able to neutralize the tactic, easily.

Kakashi's famous quote: "Think before using a jutsu, or it will be used against you.... and never fall for such obvious traps, idiot"

[Unidentified]

That person obviously didn't pay attention to it much and hasn't watched most if. But the reviewer suprisingly hit some of the points head on, like the predictibility and the average shounen manga. It's a little above average but not much.

[EbonySeraphim]

Why hate such a review? She has a ton of fallacies in her arguments. First reviews are supposed to judge anime on a scale compared to others. If she flames Naruto for being like X Y Z in some predictable aspects, then she really should hold the same opinion about the others - but no, she flames Naruto. Granted, a "first" should be given credit for doing something spectacular. But honest, the apsects of Naruto that she called "predicable" serve purposes in all of the anime they appear in. Another thing about reviews is that they should be at least somewhat impartial. You should realize that if you don't like aspects A and B but they largely show up in popular anime, that crowds like it, and that even though you may hate it to the bone, your review is for others to read.

Arguments also have to be backed, she says that she was suprised that Naruto was being "fueled" by anime noobs, but long time watchers and regulars too. Yet at the end she says if you are a long time anime fan looking for something new, look elsewhere? That doesn't make sense, if so many longtime anime fans are watching it, there is a reason, why tell others not to watch it? I'm not saying that popular is good, but realize that if masses of people like something, there is a reason for it.

One last thing about this review that makes it flawed. Good reviews of bad products should always be written in a "redeeming" POV. Basically, always trying to find an aspect of whatever is being reviewed that is good and telling the readers about it. Even the crappiest of things that are reviewed have something that is at least on par with the rest. You can tell when a reviewer is really biased (and stupid) when they get in such a negative mindset that they feel that have to insult everything about it just so no one will buy or watch it. Why should a review be written in such a way? Think about it, if someone is reading it, they probably want to watch it or buy it - some people are very hardcore in a genre and know of certain thing that a reviewer would call crappy, but they want to know about other aspects than the obvious things to look at. Like me, I like fighting anime, and am very familiar with some of the things she complained about, I still like the series for other things. Some of which she also thought sucked, but in a very biased manner. If this reviewer was forced to give a final pro and con, she probably would be too stupid to think of a pro that 100,000 fans a week could easily tell you.

Bad reviews exist despite the fact that they are opinion.

[Joe Dalton]

its really not above avrg though...... not even close

[nh1]

So basically you're saying Naruto sucks? Why?

[OutPhase]

Originally Posted by Unidentified

That person obviously didn't pay attention to it much and hasn't watched most if. But the reviewer suprisingly hit some of the points head on, like the predictibility and the average shounen manga. It's a little above average but not much.

Well it kind of difficult to pay attention to most of the series if you live in Arizona. (Also she hates, like evey other reviewer buying fansubs.)

I'm not sure her opinions on the manga but it's okay.

Als why did she review it? Because she had basically no choice to review it because no one else would. (Along wit a dibs. THhere's a second review but it has the same rating.)

Originally Posted by nh1

So basically you're saying Naruto sucks? Why?

Not everyone loves Naruto, but not everyone hates it. It differs from person to person. (Some don't like the anime genre it tries to be, some don't like the "ninjas = cool" thing, eventhough it's probably true. Some just plainly hate action.) But still he is entitled to his own opinion about Naruto.

Note: He never said "Naruto sucks" off the bat. He just doesn't enjoy it. ^_^;

Originally Posted by Nine Devil

why in the hell do we talk here? We register there and bash that stupid [spoilier and strong explisive deleted.]

Be civil. This is a family message board, and that's just rude.

Appears a common opinion board has become violent. Don't forget. Things like that will get this thread locked in a heartbeat if they wanted to.

[nh1]

Originally Posted by Razer_2mb

Not everyone loves Naruto, but not everyone hates it. It differs from person to person. (Some don't like the anime genre it tries to be, some don't like the "ninjas = cool" thing, eventhough it's probably true. Some just plainly hate action.) But still he is entitled to his own opinion about Naruto.

That's why I asked him "Why?" which would mean "What is it about Naruto that you don't like?"...