The Tale of Naruto Uzumaki

#ReviewWithoutSpoilers

Genre - Shonen: A manga genre aimed towards a male audience. It usually has a young male hero and has themes focusing on action,fighting and adventure.

Perhaps one of the most famous manga of all time, Naruto is one that deserves all recognition it has received. Written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto, the manga started in 1997 and has over 700 chapters. As one of the longest running manga, it came to its completion in 2014 with a good 15 years under its belt.

Naruto illustrated by M Kishimoto

It explores the life of the young Naruto Uzumaki, a young orphan of 11 years who deliberately makes trouble to receive attention. He stays in the village of Konoha, a shinobi (ninja) village that is part of the five great nations. For some reason, his villagers seemed to despise his presence and everyone shunned him. That didn't stop little Naruto's ambition of becoming Hokage - a title given to the strongest shinobi in the village and is also seen as the village leader. Unknown to Naruto is the fact that he is a Jinchuriki (a vessel that has a beast sealed inside them) of the nine tailed fox beast.

The Manga also introduces Naruto's two team-mates whom he meets in the academy, where young children go to train to be a shinobi. It is here he meets his rival Sasuke Uchiha - a character who is almost as important to the series as its name-holder and Sakura Haruno the only female character with slight relevance to the series throughout. The team is lead by Kakashi Hatake, a genius shinobi known all over the nations for his strength and intellect. There are also other characters like Shikamaru Nara, Hinata Hyuga, Iruka Sensei who were Naruto's friends and mentor as well as Jiraiya, Orichimaru and Tsunade known as the legendary warriors of Konoha. These characters barely touch the tip of the iceberg for the universe that is Naruto.

The Shinobi world of Naruto runs on chakra. Chakra is the basic requirement needed for a shinobi to perform his tasks. It is a form of life energy that exists in all people and when one runs out of chakra, one dies. Chakra can't be seen by the unaided eye unless released in large amounts. There are many clans that reside in the fictional village of Konoha, and some of them have special abilties that give them an edge over other shinobis. Clans are usually a family unit or groups who are related by blood and genetics which helps in the transmission of their special techniques.

The Uchiha clan of Konoha,such as the one Sasuke belongs to are known to wield the Sharingan, a unique eye power that let's them see into people's chakra, give them deep insight and predict people's movement. There is also the Hyuga clan, the one Hinata belongs to, that also has special eye power called the Byakugan. The Byakugan allows its user to see into far distance clearly (upto 20km in Hinata's case) being able to pick out chakra also with a near 360 degree vision. These are just two clans in Konoha alone, there are many clans with unique abilities in all the nations but the eye powers are seen to be the most lethal and most coveted.

The manga was hugely popular with the young kids that it was translated into an anime for television. Naruto even had an age jump where the protagonist grew up and the story-line followed up to his teenage years as well making it still relevant for its growing audience. This series was named Naruto Shippuden.

The series explore multiple story arcs, where one villain after the other shows - each more formidable than its predecessor. It begins with the snake-like rouge shinobi Orichimaru, to more dangerous and deadlier villains whose names would give the plot away. The narrative keeps improving, steadily improving the tempo with each character.

As a girl, I would still call Naruto as my favourite manga even if it wasn't meant to cater to my gender. The story was originally aimed for a male audience, it has received attention from all genders. Why would it not? Naruto's ninja policy, of never going back on his word and his growth as an unwanted orphan is inspiring to anyone who might come across his story. Thus I would say it is definitely worth the read, the manga does not have the unnecessary filler episodes in between like the anime and you can follow the plot without any difficulty.

Naruto gets a rating of 4/5

Naruto Shippuden gets a rating of 4.5/5

P.s: The story still continues in the recent spin-off series Boruto: The Next Generation. Now, if that doesn't convince you of the cult following the series have, I don't know what will.