Since 2019, Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of the still popular Naruto, has worked on a new manga: Samurai 8. Telling the story of a disabled boy who suddenly becomes a powerful cosmic samurai, the premise alone burst not only with similarities to Naruto, but vast potential in its own right. Despite this, the series has so far been a relative dud, especially compared to the mangaka's previous work.
This is due to a variety of reasons, many of which are the exact opposite of what made Naruto so great. Here's a look at how Samurai 8 compares to Naruto, and why fans of the latter would probably be better off avoiding the former.
Pacing/Power Scale
One big issue with the latter chunk of Naruto was the ridiculous power creep of its characters. What was once a story about ninjas had morphed into the protagonists now fighting a literal chakra goddess! Sadly, this type of power level is also present in Samurai 8, and fairly early on. The main character learns his new abilities and is able to win incredible battles pretty easily and it all takes place relatively early on. It doesn't help that the story very quickly takes the stakes to the stars, long before the audience really has a chance to care about any of the characters.
This is all a result of the series' horrific pacing, with the first few chapters being strangely both rushed and decompressed. Explanation and world building for the series are given focus, but not in a particularly interesting way. The story cares more about explaining the rules of the magic system than truly making a world that it's in interesting. Conversely, Hachimaru's struggles aren't given nearly the same amount of depth or development as Naruto's, even though Hachimaru is far more held back by his circumstances than Naruto was. His becoming a samurai is incredibly rushed, to the point where his initially being disabled almost feels like an afterthought.
The Art of the Cards
Another huge complaint with Samurai 8 has been its art. Many of the costumes and especially the infrastructure of the dystopian science fantasy world are actually very eye catching, with the buildings heavily resembling the strange yet unique-looking architecture of Naruto. This is also ruined, however, by how inconsistent and busy the art gets.
Fight scenes are nearly incomprehensible due to how overactive the fight scenes get, while many of the character designs outside of the costumes aren't great, either. Poorly done/incomprehensible fight scenes are a death knell for shonen, which lives and dies based on how exciting its action is. Naruto never really had this problem, and it was known for many of its dramatic fights.
While its art style might not have stood out, it was certainly far more consistent. It's worth noting that Kishimoto himself drew Naruto, while Akira Okubo draws Samurai 8.
No Editorial Oversight
Perhaps due to creating one of Weekly Shonen Jump's biggest franchises ever, Masashi Kishimoto seems to have more leeway to do as he wishes with Samurai 8's story progression. This was the direct opposite of the production of Naruto, which had a pretty firm hand of editorial oversight.
This led to many of the series' most popular concepts and characters ironically not even originally coming from its writer. From the teachers and Hokage being humans instead of dogs, to the inclusion of the character of Sasuke, much of what made the series work simply would never have come to be if Kishimoto was allowed the same level of creative freedom as he has with Samurai 8.
Many of the early arcs that helped flesh out Naruto and his companions were also at the behest of the editor. This shows in how rushed the story progression in Samurai 8 is, as well as how its characters lack any real reason to care about them. This is especially jarring given that Hachimaru's situation at the series' beginning should make it easy to write situations in which he is made sympathetic. Even the most disliked characters in Naruto elicited anger, whereas Samurai 8's characters are too bland and undeveloped to elicit much of anything.
Sense of Community
The best part of following any popular manga is being part of a ginormous, worldwide community of fans from around the world. This makes the anticipation for the newest volume or chapter so exciting, as readers not only consume the stories for themselves, but also discuss them among their friends. Naruto and its sequel Boruto are some of the most popular manga/anime franchises ever, and have a sizable community of fans to match.
Naruto fans hoping to have the same experiences with Samurai 8 are sure to be disappointed, as the series so far hasn't received even a fraction of the reception or notoriety. Heated discussion of new chapters has been null, while sales of the manga volumes have also been decidedly low. This is all reflective of a tepid at best reception for the series, with its general apathy being more damning than outright hatred.
Without an anime adaptation to possibly bolster recognition -- like what's happened with recent shows such as The Promised Neverland -- it's unlikely that this will change anytime soon. In other words, Naruto fans looking for the next best thing should probably stick with Boruto and sit this one out.