Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto is another Shonen Jump manga available as dead treeware from the publisher, Viz Media. There are 24 trade paperback volumes priced at $8 apiece. There are also anime episodes currently showing nightly on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim program. In Japan, this manga is published in 20 page installments weekly in Shonen Jump, a manga serial targeting the “boys” market. There are several places online that carry Naruto as an English-language translation, either as a download or as a streaming manga read via an embedded manga page viewer
Art: Typical Japanese manga style. Okay art but nothing hugely special.
It is interesting to note that the author was motivated to become a manga artist because of inspiration like a promotional poster for Akira, the famous manga-cum-anime movie.
Age Groups: Junior hight school and up. If your kids are reading Natruto online, be aware that some of the translations available use occasional profanity. There is also a small amount of impossible and silly boob art.
Publishing Frequency: the series is a weekly comic book (see venue, above). Some of the translations online are posted as fast as the translators can translate...i. e. weekly. The “official” English language versions of the anime and manga are significantly behind the Japanese originals.
Story: Naruto is a boy in a world where some small nations are controlled by ninjas. At the start of the story, he is a 12 year old ninja student in the village/polity of the “Hidden Leaf.” He has a bit of a problem in that the soul of an evil nine-tailed fox was sealed inside of him when he was an infant. When things get tough, the power of that evil spirit becomes available for Naruto to use. The “plot line” of the manga revolves around Naruto's adventures as he comes of age as a ninja of the Hidden Leaf.
Setting: The setting for Naruto emphasizes the principles of stubborn self-determination in the face of adversity and also of the value of love while growing up. As a kid with no parents growing up in an atmosphere of distrust because of the demon trapped inside him, Naruto is faced with overcoming prejudice on a daily basis. He starts the story arc as a kid acting out and committing acts of vnadalism for attention. He is saved from becoming a juvenile deliquent by the care and attention of his teacher at ninja school – and through his growing love for his very few friends – but it is an effort on everyone's part to keep Naruto on a straight path. Naruto resembles both the Little Train Who Could and The Man From La Mancha: his determination to succeed, to earn the respect of his village and to grow up to become the Hokage (ruler and ninja champion) of his village is what keeps the kid going through thick and thin. His refusal to give up on the seemingly-impossible goal of becoming Hokage invites both ridicule and ultimately admiration from the people in his life. He's not exactly a great brain nor is he a good student initially and his self-assumed role as an irresistable force is one of his few good characteristics.
Other Comments: Given the rather common fantasy setting (for Japan) and theme of coming of age through adversity, there is little that stands out about this manga at first glance. Accordingly, one might be bemused over Naruto's status as Japan's most popular manga of all time - right up to the point of reading it for the first time. My husband and I made the mistake of picking up the first three trade paperbacks issued by Viz Media and now we're stuck... For something that from the outside looks like just another ho-hum manga imported to exploit the growing American manga market, Naruto is addictive. The story is so tight from the get-go and the characters so very well-conceived that it's impossible to put down. Naruto works because its young author can really craft a great story and that's all there is too it. It's a great manga because its delivery is perfect.
It's the characters that make this story. Naruto is populated by believable people with believable lives and believable flaws. There is plenty of hubris driving several of the bad guys and there are lots of ethical potholes to trip up the good guys. The emphasis on affection in families and between friends, even when relationships are flawed, is everything one could ask for in a manga that lots of kids are going to read. There are a lot of life's little lessons in this manga. If you find your kids reading or watching Naruto, don't stop them. It's a great story set with good ethics set in a well-conceived fantasy world.
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