Naruto

[Xanthippe]

At my kids' school, I'm beginning to see children wearing these headbands with metal bands.  It's got something to do with a TV show called Naruto.  Apparently some 5th graders are really into it.

Anyone familiar with this show?  Is it good, is it dreck, what age is it aimed at?  I've never heard of it before.

Opinions appreciated, thanks.

[Signe]

It's Anime stuff.  I googled it and found this:

Age rating: Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Supernatural

Here's a website that seems sort of informative.

[Sairon]

It's a really good show up to about episode 60 or so, from that point onwards it's down hill. After episode 60 it gets preachy and very clearly aimed at younger kids.

[Nebu]

My daughter loves Naruto... so I sat down with her one night and watched a bunch of it with her.  It's a pretty benign story about some teen/pre-teen kids training to be ninjas.  It seems no worse than american cartoons.

[Strazos]

My hat off to you, because I can't sit through half an episode.

[Nebu]

I didn't like it either.  I just figure that the best way to watch tv with my daughter is interactively.  We watch and I let her tell me about it.  I also am doing my best to not impose my tastes on her... whether I can keep that up into the teen years is another issue.

[schild]

As said above, the first 60 episodes were more than tolerable. In fact, entertaining. Since around there, I've only seen one episode. #148 or something. It was an homage to Yakitate Japan but it was about Ichiriku Ramen and was pretty goddamned funny.

as for Signe's post, there's no lanauge or nudity through the entire run afaik.

[Kail]

I haven't seen much of the show (aside from clips, which look pretty amazing but might not be representative), but I love the comic (which runs monthly in Shounen Jump, as well as a number of websites which do fan translations).  It's aimed pretty squarely at the young boys audience.  It's about kids training to be ninjas, so there's a pretty even spread between "OMG Sakura has a crush on Sasuke!" school drama stuff, and ninjas stabbing each other.  It's got a fair amount of violence and (in the comic, at least) blood and death, so not something you'd really want to feed to the young 'uns.

The thing that grabs me about the comic is that the main character (and the supporting cast, as well) seems to have some more depth to him than a lot of manga characters.  The kids who are fighting each other in these stories are all classmates, so you get to see more of them than just how they punch.

The combat I also like, because it's fairly clever stuff (at least as far as I've gotten).  You don't get a whole lot of the Dragonball Z kind of "My power level is one billion!"  "Oh yeah, well, I was only holding back before, my real power level is ten billion!"  "Huh, you have forced me to transform and reveal my true true TRUE power level of a hundred billion" etc etc.  Instead, the characters have fairly well explained abilities, and the fights tend to revolve around fairly creative applications of those abilities, rather than just "Quick, punch him until he dies" stuff.  I find it interesting, anyway.

[Fabricated]

It's pretty typical shoujou stuff, and some of the battles drag out, but Naruto is pretty good. It looks like it has the most amazingly erratic animation budget ever though.

I don't know how much of it is for YOUNG kids though. To give you an idea, one of the badguys early on has a change of heart right at the end of a fight after getting both of his arms broken, and takes on a bunch of yakuza thugs with a dagger held in his mouth. He gets a half dozen swords stuck into his back and dies after hacking a certain character into pieces.

[Kail]

It's pretty typical shoujou stuff

You mean shounen, right?  RIGHT?

[Margalis]

It's also really slow moving. Some part of it are really cool, like when Kakashi-sensei first imitated his opponents Justsu with all the wacky hand-movements and stuff. But it's a realyl slow moving series a lot of the time. (Common anime complaint really)

It does get violent, people break limbs and get killed and stuff.

[Fabricated]

It's pretty typical shoujou stuff

You mean shounen, right?  RIGHT?

Hey, it's been 5 years at this point since I took Japanese. They sound the same.

[Xanthippe]

I don't know how much of it is for YOUNG kids though. To give you an idea, one of the badguys early on has a change of heart right at the end of a fight after getting both of his arms broken, and takes on a bunch of yakuza thugs with a dagger held in his mouth. He gets a half dozen swords stuck into his back and dies after hacking a certain character into pieces.

When you say young, how young?  My kids are elementary school aged, not preschool.

My son is almost 10 (in fourth grade).  He rediscovered Pokemon, but is outgrowing it.  He liked Yugioh (far more than me, it had none of the charm Pokemon had for me), but is done with that now.  I don't allow him to play M games, but he can play T games.  I am not adverse to violence, provided it's in context and the Good Guys usually win or justice is served.  I don't like gratuitous or out of context or excessive violence, however (I do not like Sam Peckinpah movies).

His current favorite movie right now is Last Action Hero. A year ago, I would not have allowed him to watch it.

[Fabricated]

I don't know how much of it is for YOUNG kids though. To give you an idea, one of the badguys early on has a change of heart right at the end of a fight after getting both of his arms broken, and takes on a bunch of yakuza thugs with a dagger held in his mouth. He gets a half dozen swords stuck into his back and dies after hacking a certain character into pieces.

When you say young, how young?  My kids are elementary school aged, not preschool.

My son is almost 10 (in fourth grade).  He rediscovered Pokemon, but is outgrowing it.  He liked Yugioh (far more than me, it had none of the charm Pokemon had for me), but is done with that now.  I don't allow him to play M games, but he can play T games.  I am not adverse to violence, provided it's in context and the Good Guys usually win or justice is served.  I don't like gratuitous or out of context or excessive violence, however (I do not like Sam Peckinpah movies).

His current favorite movie right now is Last Action Hero. A year ago, I would not have allowed him to watch it.

I'd say early grade-school would be pushing it a bit on some parts of Naruto. I'd track down some episodes and check them out to see for yourself. I wasn't sheltered really at all as a kid and I think I turned out alright, but I'd feel weird about letting a kid that age watch some of it.

If you want to see the most violent episodes aired in English so far, go track down episodes 18 and 19.

[Xanthippe]

Thanks, I will.

It sounds like something that can wait for a couple of years.  I notice that the kids who are into it all have older siblings, which makes a big difference in what they're exposed to.

Waiting for Avatar to return with new episodes.  I'm hoping it didn't get cancelled; I enjoyed that world.

[Signe]

Some time ago, I read about some fad which spawned from a film hitting the elementary schools in a big way.  Kids as young as six or seven were collecting all sorts of fashion items, posters, book covers and notebooks, etc. from the film, even though it was R rated and most of these kids had never seen it.  I wish I could remember the name of it!

[SurfD]

I wouldnt worry too much about any major Blood / Violence and /or nudity in the North American release.  The origional Japanese version did have "minor suggestive nudity" in a few scenes where Naruto uses his ninja skills to disguise himself as a Sexy Naked Chick mainly cause he thought it funny and for shock value (important bits hidden by artfully aranged ninja smoke cloud).

I imagine a good bit of the violence was probably toned down as well.

All in all, a fairly good series, which sometimes suffered from needlessly extended flashbacks (Damnit, the shit you just did a half episode flashback to only happened 10 eps ago, my memory is not THAT fucking short) and the occasional lack of real plot progression.  Character development is very well done however, and the story does deal with some sometimes heavy subjects.  The fighting is also much more realistic then DBZ type crap, as was pointed out.  Most characters have well defined power limits, and dont stray too far past them unless through cleaver application of their personal skills, or very unique circumstances.

My only major complaint (which your kids may never run into) has to do with the later story arcs.  I reached a point (somewhere near ep 150 or so i think) where the Anime had caught up with the manga, and the anime devolved into completely and utterly useless filler story, which ruined it for me.

I would like to reccoend you try to get your kid hooked on One Piece if they Naruto, but I would never wish the travesty that is the North American Dub of One Piece on anyone.  Pitty, I find One Piece to be a superior show to Naruto, but the Dub just butchered too much of the origional feel of the show.

[Murgos]

All in all, a fairly good series, which sometimes suffered from needlessly extended flashbacks (Damnit, the shit you just did a half episode flashback to only happened 10 eps ago, my memory is not THAT fucking short) and the occasional lack of real plot progression.

Im wondering if this huge need the Japanese seem to have for rehashing the plot and recent events every thirty seconds or so might stem from a larger cultural problem.  Maybe they just have no attention span at all and unless they are reminded what the hell is going on perpetually they just kind of drift off?

If this holds true for some of the other oriental cultures it would explain the Korean desire of n^th degree repetitiveness in their MMOG's.  They simply don't remember the grind.

[angry.bob]

Eh, if your kids are okay for Harry Potter, they're fine with anything Naruto. Because really, Naruto is Harry Potter with Ninjas. The main bad guy is even Voldemort, just a ninja Voldemort. That being said, I enjoyed it quite a bit up until the Anime diverged from the manga becuase the Anime caught all the way up.

Plus, Gara is pretty cool.

[Margalis]

I think the rehashing is mostly to deal with budget limitations. Rehash episodes = re-use animation = stay on schedule and budget.

[schild]

I think the rehashing is mostly to deal with budget limitations. Rehash episodes = re-use animation = stay on schedule and budget.

I believed that until I started watching live action japanese TV. They do it more there. It's a terrible phenomenon.

[Xanthippe]

Can I please get some definitions? 

Anime

Manga

The differences.  The similarities.  Any other words I should know.

My exposure is pretty limited.  Where does Pokemon fit in?  Yugioh?  Spirited Away?  My Neighbor Totoro?

[schild]

Anime is the cartoon variant of manga.

Manga is the paper variant of anime.

Manga usually comes first. But it can be a chicken and egg thing.

Pokemon, Yugioh and Spirited Away all exist in manga and anime form. Totoro probably has a manga by now. Or did. Or whatever. But it and spirited away are huge because they are Ghibli movies that happen to be anime - like all the Studio Ghibli stuff.

I aim to confuse.

[Signe]

And they're mostly horrible.  Don't forget to tell her that!  HORRIBLE!

[Raguel]

the characters have fairly well explained abilities, and the fights tend to revolve around fairly creative applications of those abilities, rather than just "Quick, punch him until he dies" stuff.

This is what I like most about Naruto. The only comparison I can think of is Byrne's FF (mainly involving Invisible Girl/Woman).

What I find odd is that, even though Naruto is for a much younger audience, I care more about the characters in this anime than in most tv shows I watch.

[Kitsune]

I'd be leery of letting kids watch Naruto.  It starts fluffy and happy, but it gets pretty damn grim later on.  People die in some pretty bad ways, other people go batshitzania evil, and things basically go to hell.  The anime is on a half-season filler arc to give the manga time to get some breathing room, but in another month or two it should get back on the main storyline.  And having read the manga and knowing what's coming up, it's looking a lot like main characters might start dying soon.  The ninjas are taking on adult responsibilities (there's a three-year fast-forward, so they're all more grown than before) and that's the time when Japanese writers like to drive home the 'childhood is over' thing by having people drop.

[schild]

Though, if you're just starting watching it, be warned, the animation takes a fucking dive in quality 3 or 4 times. The last couple clips of episodes I've seen have been absolute shit for quality. There's no goddamn excuse.

[Sairon]

I agree that the fights were creative in the begining, but I'm fucking tired of kage no bunshin and rasengan already, it got really lame when I stoped watching. About characters dying, I see it the other way around. They abuse it like crazy, dude x uses ultimate godzilla technique 2000 which is a sure suicide technique. He saves the day and goes down for a count, just to miracously stand up a few minutes later in the episode. After they had "killed of" a couple of characters and them still surviving a couple of times it just got crazy silly.

I see no problem with kids watching this show. There's only a handful of grim moments and none of them are really that bad. The problems I've mentioned before are nothing that should concern youngsters so I would in fact rate this as top quality kids entertainment.

[Llava]

Kids can handle some people dying.  It's okay.

Bambi's mom died, that didn't mean the movie was too intense for children.

But understand that you're basically having your kid watch a slightly better version of Dragon Ball Z (better dubbing...mostly, more creativity in the fights, and more interesting characters, same lame story progression, same "let's have this guy explain what just happened, and then we'll have this guy explain it again but slightly differently, then we'll have the GIRL explain it, then we'll cut to the enemy's disbelief about what just happened, and then we'll have the guy who actually did it explain out loud to the enemy what he just did."

And just to be sure, we'll start the next 3 episodes with a 5 minute look back at what happened and how, reusing the exact same animation and slightly different dialogue.

[Hoax]

I really really hate that, in fact it has become a general rule that I try to not watch any anime where people announce the name of the "move" they are going to do.

Its a damn hard thing to avoid though, I still ended up watching Scry-ed as well as some others where I'm sure they did that.

[Margalis]

That's a pretty common thing in anime. Try watching Japanese versions of the transformers - they are awful. They barely even punch or shoot; it's just one guy announces his special move then the next guy does.

[Register]

Naruto does have several interesting parts (chonin exams, fight with gara, fight with Sasuke), but the series have went seriously downhill since it caught up with the manga.
The filler episodes are poorer in quality, and really a waste of time in my opinion.

I have since switched to watching Bleach... its more bloody and grim, but there's some nifty sword abilities in that anime.

[Simond]

And they're mostly horrible.  Don't forget to tell her that!  HORRIBLE!

Sturgeon's Law at work.

[Signe]

And they're mostly horrible.  Don't forget to tell her that!  HORRIBLE!

Sturgeon's Law at work.

That's true and anime is absolutely included in that 90%.  All of it.  Right down to their big, sad eyes.