Naruto is a wildly popular anime with teenagers and young adults alike. Many students either grew up watching it, or learned of it from friends or family a bit later in life. Naruto, along with its sequel, Naruto Shippuden, are considered by many to be one of the greatest anime of all time, but there are some who would argue otherwise. 

Naruto has a very generic character development that is used in a lot of other anime. Hisparents died, and he never knew them. He’s a troublemaker, but has a good heart and wants to become the best ninja ever. Black Clover has the exact same set up for their character except that in Black Clover, they are wizards, not ninjas. Obviously as Naruto gets older, he gets stronger as well, and since he is the main character, he gets an unfair power up that only he and eight others have, but of course his is the best. It is the same premise as Attack on Titan, another anime.

Another problem with Naruto is that every fight with a villian goes the exact same way. Naruto tries to fight the hero; Naruto gets absolutely ran through by said villain; Naruto then gives a speech about how he was alone as a young child, and that he will be the best one day. Then Naruto either gets a power up that helps him beat the villain, or he finds enough strength to throw one last punch that catches the villain off guard and prevails. I will admit however that his fight against his rival, Sasuke, did not end how I expected, as Sasuke beat Naruto to an inch of his life.

 I also believe that Naruto is only relevant now because of nostalgia. Most of us grew up with Naruto, or we could relate to him in some way, or it was simply the first anime we watched. So obviously Naruto would hold a special place in people’s hearts. I still personally love the anime, and it is in my top 5 anime, but mostly because of nostalgia.There is a significant gap between it and my top 3.

I believe Naruto is a perfect gate way anime, meaning it should be someone’s first anime, or their introduction to it, but to seasoned anime lovers it will just seem generic. Some Anime that are commonly agreed to be better than Naruto are Attack on Titan, Hunter X Hunter, and Code Geass.