Naruto is a long-running shonen action anime starring Naruto Uzumaki himself, who was born with nothing but a nine-tailed fox spirit inside him and the dream to become Hokage someday. Naruto has come a long way since early episodes and time and again, he proved to anime fans why he's one of the best shonen protagonists ever.

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Naruto Uzumaki is beloved not just as a shonen action star but also as a person. He's surprisingly deep and emotionally intelligent, given his wild antics as a juvenile prankster. Naruto does many things right that not even his peers such as One Piece's Monkey D. Luffy and Bleach's Ichigo Kurosaki can do — or he simply does them better than they do.

10 Naruto Reinvented The "Big Eater" Trope

Naruto holds chopsticks

A variety of shonen heroes are known for the silly "big eater" visual gags, such as Dragon Ball's Son Goku devouring an entire restaurant's worth of food or Monkey D. Luffy's famous love of eating meat. Naruto also fits the big eater trope, but he gives it more meaning than Goku and Luffy do.

Naruto's favorite food is ramen, and not just the cheap packaged kind. He often visits the charming Ichiraku Ramen shop for lunch and the owner is like a doting uncle to him. Also, Naruto's name reflects the spiraled fish cake toppings found in ramen bowls.

9 Naruto's Training Sequences Are All Unique

naruto rasengan training

Nearly every shonen series has some training scenes, and for that matter, so do some shojo or seinen series. Ichigo Kurosaki trained with Kisuke and Yoruichi, Jujutsu Kaisen's Yuji Itadori trained with Satoru Gojo, and My Hero Academia's Izuku Midoriya trained with All Might and Gran Torino.

Naruto has undergone many training sequences, but it's never tedious at all. Each training session is creative and unique, meaning the training arcs feel exciting and compelling rather than obligatory. He even trained t0 hold still and absorb natural energy without turning into a toad.

8 Naruto Sees His Mentors As Father Figures

Naruto and Jiraiya posing together happily

Most shonen heroes have a few mentors to guide them and they often befriend their mentors, such as Ichigo and Kisuke, Yuji and Gojo, and Jonathan Joestar and Baron Zeppeli. Naruto Uzumaki takes it a step further and views some of his best teachers as substitute fathers.

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To the young Naruto, Iruka Umino was like a parental figure, even if he wouldn't admit it. Later on, Naruto saw the toad sage Jiraiya as a pervy but beloved teacher and father figure, meaning Jiraiya's eventual death was absolutely devastating to him.

7 Naruto's Talk Jutsu Is Legendary

naruto talking

It's not just a running joke in the anime community to say that Naruto has a way with words. Naruto is hardly an academic, but he does know just what to say to convince his opponents to see things his way after giving a passionate speech.

A good example of this was when Naruto confronted the villainous Nagato in person and used his and Jiraiya's dream of peace to convince Nagato to redeem himself. It worked, and Nagato chose to believe in Naruto's vision of the future rather than inflict any more pain on the world. Ichigo and Luffy never could have pulled that off.

6 Naruto Has Incredible Empathy

6 a battered but determined naruto talks to gaara

Naruto's "talk jutsu" requires more than charisma or carefully-chosen words to work. The most important factor is Naruto's strong empathy since he understands what it's like to grow up alone and in pain as an outcast. It's true that Luffy and Ichigo also experienced pain in childhood, but not like Naruto Uzumaki.

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Naruto's remarkable empathy gives him more emotional intelligence than some characters give him credit for, and it's truly inspiring for Naruto fans. Naruto channels his personal pain in such constructive and generous ways, setting a fine example for shonen heroes everywhere. Even Tanjiro Kamado could learn from him.

5 Naruto's Dream Is Concrete & Meaningful

Naruto Seventh Hokage

Many shonen, seinen, and shojo heroes have a clearly stated goal, from killing Griffith to becoming Pirate King or breaking the Sohma curse, but arguably, Naruto Uzumaki has the best goal of all. He aims to become the next Hokage and he's been pursuing that dream for years.

Naruto's goal is a challenging but realistic one, and becoming Hokage would allow him to both find personal validation and protect the village as its new leader, which is admirable. It also allows Naruto to follow in his father's footsteps, who was once the Fourth Hokage.

4 How Naruto Deals With His Monster Half

naruto and kurama

Many shonen and seinen heroes have a dark side or a monster inside. They are often deeply compelling, from Yuji being Ryomen Sukuna's vessel to Ichigo's inner Hollow or Ken Kaneki being a half-ghoul. Naruto has them all beat, though, with the fox spirit Kurama.

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Naruto's inner monster made him a pariah, and that drove him to channel his pain and fight hard to become a great hero despite his unfavorable circumstances. Naruto and Kurama also learned to cooperate and become partners, and it's gratifying to watch Naruto gain control of Kurama and befriend him bit by bit.

3 Naruto's Humor Is Appropriate For Him

naruto being laughed at

Every shonen hero is going to make jokes or have comic relief moments now and then, from Tanjiro fussing at Zenitsu to Luffy getting figures of speech wrong. Naruto Uzumaki is also clownish and funny but in a thoughtful way. He isn't just a class clown.

Naruto's wild behavior stems from his painful childhood of isolation and fear, so he became a total troublemaker to get some attention and feel included somehow. That's both funny and tragic and it puts One Piece's and Bleach's humor to shame.

2 Naruto Has Good Intuition & Street Smarts

Naruto talking with Iruka about learning the Multi-Shadow Clone Just (Naruto)

Naruto Uzumaki is definitely not as smart as the genius Shikamaru Nara or the brainy Sakura Haruno, and he often gets confused about the simplest things for the sake of humor. Then again, Naruto is smarter than he looks, and his intelligence fits his character well.

Naruto has street smarts and he's surprisingly resourceful and creative. He's a tactile learner who loves to improvise, and this paid off when he used shadow clones to extend his usage of Sage Mode well beyond the normal 5-minute time limit.

1 Naruto's Tragic Backstory Is Fleshed Out Well

naruto with parents

Many shonen heroes are missing one or both parents, or their parents might be deceased. Ichigo Kurosaki dearly misses his mother Masaki, for example, and Tanjiro lost his own mother when Muzan Kibutsuji struck. Naruto, meanwhile, is one of anime's most compelling orphans.

Naruto's parents both died protecting him from the Akatsuki, and their deaths were heroic and tragic. Naruto's orphan status totally shaped his upbringing, with him being a troublemaker who has everything to prove as a future Hokage. As an orphan, Naruto was defined by much more than just missing his parents — it affected his character arc in significant ways.

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