As a shonen, Naruto is one of the more complex shows, actually, especially Shippuden. Things are thought of way ahead of time… and I mean like, a decade or more ahead of time, and it isn’t too long, either, especially without the filler. The action scenes get a good bit of budget, are directed well and have great choreography. The world has great rules regarding the entire chakra system it revolves around, and it rarely ever breaks them, but builds on them over time.
I do have my criticisms.
- Kishimoto can’t fucking write women. They’re either drunken and belligerent or silent, quiet and offscreen. Yeah, we got a few Sakura fights, and Ino helps, occasionally, but really, this is a dude-bro show about dude-bro shit.
- Catfishing the final boss. I won’t spoil it, but… fucking hell.
- I would say some of the horny jokes date it, but, I mean, Fire Force exists, so. I don’t even.
- The art falls apart occasionally. This is the only show I know of where the art is as good as it is terrible, and it can easily be extremes of both.
Towards the end, without any vague holes to dump plot mysteries into, things start to fall apart a little bit, but with how distant the power ceiling is kept most of the time, this just means that things can go from ~4 to 11 in ramping stages that keep you on your toes throughout the entire final arc. Naruto doesn’t get Goku-levels of strength until you’re about 7/8 of the way through the series.
A better alternative to Naruto, and also what I’d call the best shonen series ever created is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. It’s complex, it’s tight, it’s compelling, the rules are strict and easy to understand and the dynamics between characters just work. It’s also a lot less of a time commitment.
LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
Do you just not like shonen? Naruto, especially Shippuden, is great in my opinion. It has highs and lows and plenty of brutal filler, but also some of the most iconic fights in anime history and was hugely influential on the modern shonen genre.