Someone asked me to explain why I like Naruto. I can't find the post. Our fun convo was placed elsewhere it seems
So… Why I like Naruto so much.
As I explain this, I"m going to be focusing on part 1, because Part 1 and part 2 are insanely different in terms of quality and direction
I love Naruto (remember, part 1) because the series had 'heart'. That's the best way I can explain it. The third Hokage seeing a Young Orochimaru as Orochimaru is screaming at him while he dies. Naruto pouring his heart out to Gaara, telling him he knows how he feels, but there is no way he will let him touch Sakura or Sasuke. Gaara waking up and realizing the error of his ways. Lee fainting while standing up to Gaara. Gai breaking the rules of the tournament and saving his student. Kakashi tying down Sasuke and lecturing him on the error of his ways. The Konoha boys heading out to bring back Sasuke. Naruto pleading with Sasuke to come back to the vilage, telling him about what's happened to Neji and Chouji, and Sasuke passing it off as nothing
There is so much heart and care taken in so many of these interactions in part 1. So much of this is empty in part 2. It's unfortunate. Part 1 was very character driven, while part 2 has been more story driven, and the story has become garbage
Part 2 (for the first few years part wasn't that bad, it was different but still entertaining and had it's moments, but now......) feels like Kishimoto had his soul ripped from him, and now he just goes through the motions week by week. It's like he really doesn't care about Naruto, and now it's just about making that date line, making that dollar, and pleasing that editor. The down fall of Naruto is more disappointing, frustrating, and a greater injustice than the hiatuses that have plagued HXH have been
I honestly don't know what happened, and I wish I could find out (Did Kishi just sincerely run out of ideas?) but part 2 is soooooooo far away from the quality of part 1.
Part 2 has had it's moments: Jiraiya's death, Karin having that flash back of Sasuke as he stabs her (man that would have been epic if she had been seen in part 1, and we didn't realize it was her till that moment), Naruto refusing Sakura's advances (showed that Naruto is done with her petty BS, I liked the scene), Shika owning Hidan.
One of my biggest gripes is that Sai never got a legit fight. The closest thing was this arc's fight against his dead comrade. I want some clever, 3 or 4 chapter long chess game fight like the stuff we saw in the rescue Sasuke arc
I would love if Kishi took a few years off after Naruto, collected his thoughts, and hit back with another fantasy Shonen series. Togashi reallly out did himself with HXH compared to YYH, I'd like to think Kishimoto could do the same with Naruto
I feel like going back and re-reading part 1 again now