Watching the First Part of Naruto

All 220 episodes... yes, including the damned filler. Thankfully I have it dubbed. I'll give my opinion as the story goes along and if there's any real things I thought were funny/cool.

You were supposed to watch Buffy!!!!

I DUNNO WHAT TO DO MAN, I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF ON MY COMPUTER...

TOO MUCH.

BUT BUFFY IS BASED ON KITTY PRYDE

Masochist.

Episode 1
-Nice start to the series. Gives it a light-hearted vibe while still being able to take itself seriously and not be unrealistic.
-The voice acting feels... weird. Like, none of it's particularly bad, but listening to anything dubbed recently compared to early episodes is staggering. The audio quality is not only better in later episodes but so is the quality of the voice actors, mainly because at that point they've gotten a hold on their characters and know how they should sound.
-The series has a problem later with making characters and leaving them around to do nothing, thankfully Mizuki did not become one of those... oh wait, he has that filler thing doesn't he?
-I cannot get over how stereotypically NINJA the music is, I mean seriously listen to this.



This soundtrack is so cheesy I can't hate it.

-The first opening theme is something straight out of the opening of a damn 80s flick but with Japanese vocals. Especially when you begin the first episode and it plays during Naruto's hijinks.



-The first ending theme is pretty damn good if you remove the vocals.

The dub is a lot better than the sub on most accounts. Good job for watching it dubbed. First two seasons are the best, even though it has the most flashbacks.

You forgot the hokage seeing all and not telling anyone or doing a damned thing. That jerk

Elvis Presley wrote:

You forgot the hokage seeing all and not telling anyone or doing a damned thing. That jerk

There are two incidents that come to mind when you say that. Both of which have reasons which are explained.

Spoiler:

I'm up to Episode 6 and god dammit, the first three episodes were hard to watch. Episode 1 would've been a lot better if Naruto didn't come off as such an annoying shit. I understand he's supposed to act annoying to get attention, but it doesn't make you like him anymore. Episode 2 is bad, pretty much the only good thing about Episode 2 is Crispin Freeman voicing Ebisu. It's basically just Naruto teaching Konohamaru to be as dumb as he is and it really doesn't make Naruto's character look much better. Episode is the introduction of Team 7 as a group and god dammit, Sasuke was the only one I liked coming out of this episode. Sakura is as obnoxious as shit and I completely forgot that Inner Sakura was a thing and forgot how obnoxious it was. I mean I can sort of see why fans didn't like Sakura at the start of the series, because she really is so god damn annoying. She treats Naruto like absolute shit when he does nothing to her, but be friendly and then fawns over Sasuke without seeing any irony in the situation. It basically takes Sasuke telling her to fuck off for her to understand that she's being an ass to Naruto and even then, that doesn't ultimately resolve anything. Episode 3 also featured the joke that never gets funny, expired milk giving you the shits. ...God damn, the beginning of this was draining.

The few episodes had noteworthy characters spread throughout them, even Team 8 showed Kiba, Hinata, and Shino, although that was the anime only as the manga didn't show these characters existed before the Chunin Exams. Ino is also really obnoxious at the start too, she treats Shikamaru and Choji like absolute crap for no reason, it's hard to see how any of the pre-teen girls of Konoha aren't annoying. Can't say much about Iruka, he's alright while he lasts because he will not be seen for another millennia in a significant role until I get to that Mizuki filler. Also, god damn is Maile Flannigan's early Naruto really god damned annoying. Beyond her voice being ridiculously obnoxious, she also isn't a great actor at the start, thankfully as it has been shown in future material, she does actually grow into the role and does a fantastic job, but for early episodes it's really bad.

Alright, enough whining about how the first three episodes are bad, let's get on to Episode 4 when the series finally starts getting good because things begin to happen and the teacher who beats some sense into the kids shows up, Kakashi. Kakashi really is great, I keep forgetting what a fantastic character is because his first line to the group is literally "From my first impressions I can say... you're a bunch of idiots." Dave Wittenburg's deadpan delivery makes it that much better. So begins the training where the group is absolutely disassociated from one another and they proceed to get their asses handed to them 10 times over and it's all fantastic. It's kind of cathartic seeing a bunch of dumb ass kids get shown that they know absolutely nothing by someone who does.

Episode 6 roles around and Naruto spends half of the episode bitching about how he hates being given shit missions when he's a little shit rank. Naruto is still ridiculously obnoxious, Sakura's Inner Sakura is still awful and I'm indifferent to Sasuke because it's not like he has much to say beyond "You're idiots" and "I'll kill my brother!" He hasn't given me much reason to hate him, YET. Then rolls in Tazuna and he's... god dammit Kirk Thornton, I know Tazuna's a drunk, but does everything you voice him like have to be a drunken slur? I know it's the ADR Director's fault, but holy shit, who seriously thought that was a good idea? Okay, halfway into Episode 6 and we see new ninja that try to kill Kakashi and he beats them by putting them both into headlocks basically, whatever, they had a shitty disguise anyways, I'm sure they sucked that much. Seriously, how the fuck do you just disguise yourself as a puddle out in the middle of a sunny day? That's just stupid. The episode ends revealing to us the best villain of the series, Zabuza. Steve Blum contributes to this role so much with some great voice work and Zabuza basically shitting all over Gato is pretty great.

Hopefully Land of the Waves holds up as well as I remember it did.

The only part about the Land of the Waves that sets people off is the flashback mania that takes place.

In the sub Kakashi's first line is "I hate you"
I think I like it more that way

I'm actually attempting this because what the hey, I am a mad man.

Maybe I'll even try to go through the timeskip stuff as well to recap precisely where it all falls apart(or continues to fall apart considering the breaking point is when all this Sasuke melodrama begins) since I barely ever paid that much attention to that segment other than the usual skimming of manga chapters.

I have to admit, so far Part 1 hasn't been all that bad. The beginning was so-so just as I remembered, but parts of the Chunin Exam stuff had some bite to it. You got some okay character development, some decent fights like Rock Lee against the oh so comically dark Gaara, and the pacing isn't so agonizing(even though I've been pelted with over a dozen flashbacks by now).

When it nears the end of the exams arc, it starts to stumble, though. The pacing began to drag, the Gaara's backstory is so insufferably melodramatic and devoid of subtlety, and the final battle concludes on a somewhat anti-climactic note with the sand team just buggering off quickly after Gaara is defeated by the power of love. Then the arc finally ends with a somewhat cheesy funeral for the 3rd Hokage with the standard hollywood movie rain, people actually outright stating that it's "like the heavens are crying," and corny flashbacks.

Baal wrote:

-I cannot get over how stereotypically NINJA the music is

The cheesy, inappropriate rock early on helps. DIS SHOW IS SO METAL.

Part I was good overall. Part II is where it gradually goes downhill, except the middle of Part II where it gets pretty good up until we have to stomach more of Pain's god complex and then it pretty much stays downhill.

I actually liked everything up to Gaara's defeat. The Neji fight in Sasuke retrieval is one of my favourite moments. Most of the rest I wasn't a fan of.

I tried Naruto once, couldn't get into it at all. Bleh.

You dodged a bullet there's nothing worse than starting a series that plummets and then being stuck with an annoying curiousity of how it might end or if anything intersting might happen.

Hey Baal, any plans of returning?

My hard drive fucking died so I'm going to have to get a new one before I can continue watching the episodes.