And of course he wants him some Sasuke which is basically how Sasuke acquires some gravitas, and so different from the contrasting hero of Black Clover who is also overpowered compared to his idiotic friend but not a dick about his friend or being overpowered--what I have read--but as a manga and
Animé that will eventually take viewers away from American superhero cartoons like the Transformers did--see what they did with the name!?!--the simplicity helps not hurts. "No layers" must have been the directive from the top for people plotting things like Aquaman, Wonder Twins, the Justice League
And even Scooby Doo, because the rascally sidekicks that are Shaggy and Scooby allow for everyone else to be Simple American. So along comes #Naruto, a show that believes characterization should be this simple. It has advantages, #Naruto is not going to find a childhood friend or sister-niece as
Some of those shonen hero blanks do, but it does mean characterization even by Kishimoto is often one-note, Pervy-sage always just pervs and sages, Etc. And in a show that goes on so long, it is tiresome. Very quickly you cannot look at it as a monster of the week cozy because often the monsters
Have no reason to be there and have no relevance for the future plot, all the while promising some big reveal. This is far beyond X-Files hocus-pocus where by the third season we knew it was by turns a great anthology series with occasional incursions of ploy development. And when a character got
Another layer it often broadened them in lovely ways even if some plot points would forget that Scully was kind of Christian and Fox was sort of bad at dating, possibly an insufferable nerd who may have been into porn in ways that Dana would not approve of even if she would be the last to judge.
Naruto does not settle into that style because that was what even then meant you were writing a cosy, slice-of-life manga and not one telling the greatest story ever told. And the only manga that would sell like Dragon Ball would tell that kind of story. (Eventually I will explain the genius of One
Piece, but the short story is that is just is not Just One Story, it is a cavalcade. Anyone truly interested in what the blank slate shonen hero Luffy thinks is at the end of the Rainbow is Projecting a Bit Much.) So Naruto takes off shakily but with some genuine highs,
Occasional stumbles in characterization, plot wobbles but the tournament arc is very good and then that becomes a war which is rather soon, why are these Children Having to Fight a War, does the Hidden Leaf Village not have any adult Ninjas making sure the kids survive, and not very good
At being Ninja if they cannot foresee an attack of someone like Pain no matter how good he is at Ninjaing, though that may have something to do with what happened to Sasuke's clan. I realize what is being done is definitely a homage to Hunter x Hunter but the simpler the better ethos of #Naruto
Can make it seem like clan is destiny which is close to racism, at least that of, well Sand Ninjas are sandy people variety, and it eventually feels like yes, this clan good and that clan bad