First released in 1999 by Mashashi Kishimoto, Naruto would quickly go on to become a worldwide sensation upon the release of the anime. The series ended its run in 2017 and became notable as one of the best-selling and most popular manga and anime of all time.
The story of Naruto follows the titular protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki, a young boy who is ostracized in his village who dreams of becoming a ninja. Throughout his adventures, he teams up with several other shinobi, fighting some truly incredible battles and learning some important lessons along the way. While the story told within Naruto may not be the most ambitious or innovative, the series has stood out from the rest for its engaging characters, deep lore, and the important lessons it teaches.
10 The Characters Grow Up With the Fans
When the story of Naruto first begins, fans were introduced to the titular brash prankster as a young boy struggling to graduate from the Academy alongside many of the other characters who would grow to become more important as the series continued.
As both the manga and anime progressed, the characters grew older and matured (for the most part), just as the fans watching did. Out of any anime series, Naruto does one of the best jobs of growing alongside the audience, being a true coming of age story that fans can follow.
9 It Focuses On The Way Of The Ninja
While there are plenty of anime that focus on all different parts of Japanese culture such as school life or the samurai, Naruto is unique in its depiction of the ninja, or shinobi, as the main characters. Though there are some pretty significant differences between the ninja of Naruto and those in real life, the series helped bring the term into popular culture. While shinobi do feature in some other stories, Naruto stands out as the most iconic depiction of the ninja of the medium.
8 It Has A Massive International Following
As one of the Big Three, Naruto cannot claim to match the sheer volume of sales of the legendary One Piece due to the latter's immense popularity in Japan. However, it did manage to find huge appeal abroad. While both One Piece and Bleach are fairly well-known to Western audiences, it is Naruto that has become one of the best-recognized anime outside of Japan due to its relatable character struggles and engaging storylines.
7 The Stories Are Inspiring
Though there are plenty of dark moments in the series, many of the stories in Naruto are extremely uplifting, as the characters overcome their struggles, band together, and succeed despite the odds arrayed against them.
What makes Naruto unique in this regard is its ability to balance the aspects of darkness with the more lighthearted and inspiring moments of the story. While other series might focus more on comedy or tragedy, Naruto manages to delve into both and yet somehow come out of it all with a bright grin much like that of the main character.
6 Dedication To Teaching Valuable Lessons
Even from the very first episode, Naruto demonstrates an important focus of the series, showing the young main character struggling with school and feelings of being an outcast. While these may take place over a backdrop of incredibly powerful martial artists, magic, and demons, it has always placed strong importance on telling stories with morals to them, ones which are especially valuable to young people. This is one of the best series to teach kids about the importance of friendship and perseverance, plus it has plenty of action to keep them occupied as well.
5 It Features A Vast Number Of Fighting Styles
It is not uncommon within anime to feature characters with a broad number of unique powers and abilities, but what separates Naruto from the rest is the system it created to tie them all together. Instead of characters being born with or acquiring a particular power such as in MHA or One Piece, the various jutsu in Naruto are typically learned through extensive training, with some exceptions. This system is well-developed and depicts dozens of different combinations, each granting the user some pretty powerful abilities to use against their enemies.
4 The Cast Is Huge And Well Developed
Any long-running manga or anime is bound to develop a fairly large cast after a while, and Naruto is no exception. What it does manage to do is maintain a strong focus on its main characters while also adding plenty of development for its secondary and even tertiary characters.
Characters such as Iruka and Neji might not have received the same amount of screen time as the main cast, but, unlike many anime where such characters might be seen as unimportant or receive little to no character development, Masashi Kishimoto puts a strong emphasis on building up most of the characters who appear throughout the story, including a tragic backstory for most.
3 The Twists Are A Huge Part Of The Story
Twists are not uncommon within anime, but Naruto puts a strong focus on some big reveals that completely change many of the dynamics in the show. Some of these twists had a major impact on the story, such as the reason behind Itachi's betrayal, while others were deep-seated within the lore and recontextualized much of what fans knew about the characters, like when it was revealed that two of the major characters were in fact reincarnations of Kaguya's sons.
2 It Isn't Afraid To Kill Off Important Characters
Anime fans will be no stranger to characters being killed off, but Naruto has a bigger list than most when it comes to characters introduced who would never make it to the end of the series. While many of these were villains or minor characters, there were several fairly big names who lost their lives as well.
There are many fans still shocked by the death of Neji, who was part of Naruto's group and died saving his friends. Of course, one of the most impactful deaths in the entire series was that of Jiraiya, who died fighting Pain in a truly gut-wrenching scene.
1 Romance Was An Important Part Of The Series
While romance plays a part in many shounen series, Naruto was perfectly placed as something of a coming-of-age story to show those romances develop, as many of the fan-favorite characters paired off by the end of the series. Many of these romances played an important part within the story as well, and some are seen to have developed even further in the sequel series, Boruto, which follows some of the children of the characters from the original series.