It has been 20 years since the sensational shonen anime Naruto first premiered in 2002, and to celebrate its anniversary, and the official anime has released new visuals and a special illustration.The three newly-drawn visuals are on Shonen Jump News - Unofficial's Twitter as well as the Naruto anime's official website, which just launched. The three visuals highlight the adventures that the iconic trio of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura have embarked on, from the beginning of their ninja journeys to now. The first visual spotlights the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke; the second visual focuses on key scenes from Naruto: Shippuden, highlighting Sasuke's emotionally-fraught reunion with his brother Itachi; and the third visual feature Naruto and Sasuke once more with Naruto in his Six Paths form. Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, also illustrated a new piece of artwork to celebrate the anime's 20th anniversary.
Along with the artwork, Kishimoto wrote a heart-warming message on the official website for the anime's anniversary:
Anime's 20th anniversary!! Sending everyone a "Thank you" through the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!!!
It's the Naruto anime's 20th anniversary! In celebration, the "Naruto official site" is now open not only in Japan, but across the globe for everyone to enjoy! As this is a big anniversary year, a ton of projects are being planned, so please check this website for exciting info! I hope everyone looks forward to it!
Produced by Pierrot, Naruto premiered on Oct. 3, 2002, and aired until 2007. The anime adapted Part 1 of the manga and concluded with 220 episodes. In February 2007, Naruto: Shippuden aired and adapted Part II of Kishimoto's manga series, finishing with a staggering 500 episodes. In addition to the TV anime series, Naruto also had 11 anime films, with Boruto: Naruto the Movie premiering in 2015. Weekly ShÅnen Jump published a manga sequel called Boruto: Naruto Next Generation, which focuses on Naruto's son Boruto, in 2016, with Kishimoto as the editorial supervisor before he took over as the official writer.
Naruto Is One of the Most Popular Manga -- Ever
Naruto was initially a manga short story that Kishimoto wrote in 1997 that featured a fox spirit disguised as a human. After some series failed to reach serialization, he and his editor decided to rework the short story into a longer version. In 1999, Naruto premiered in Weekly ShÅnen Jump and ran until 2014. The story follows a young ninja named Naruto Uzumaki who wants to become the Hokage of his village. The anime has two parts, with the first part focusing on Naruto in his pre-teen years before the second part following the events that occur after a three-year time skip. The series is one of the best-selling manga of all time with over 250 million copies in circulation worldwide.
Naruto will be leaving Netflix after Oct. 31, but the ninja anime series is still available to watch on Crunchyroll.
Source: Twitter