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Real ninjas wear orange
Joe Nguyen, editor
Feb. 14, 2007
Editor’s note: This is a rant about the Japanese
animated series “Naruto.” For those unfamiliar
with the show, it focuses around a 12-year-old orange-clad
boy named Uzumaki Naruto and his adventures as a newly
graduated ninja in the Hidden Leaf village. The series
combines humor, action and drama, and is widely considered
as one of the most popular shows in the anime spectrum
today. Those who have not watched or have not gotten far
in the series should be warned that there are spoilers
in this piece.
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| Some of the cast of characters in "Naruto,"
counterclockwise from top left, Hatake Kakashi,
Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura
and Iruka Umino. |
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For 21 months, fans of “Naruto” have been suffering
while the series’ producers release filler episodes.
A filler episode doesn’t follow the main story; rather
it exists in the realm of the series’ world in order
to flesh out characters and plotlines. Unfortunately, these
inane, nonsensical story arcs have done nothing but infuriate
hardcore fans of the series, including me. But now, after
85 episodes, the series returns to the manga’s storyline.
To that, I speak for all fans when I say, “About
freakin’ time.”
Three months after the Naruto/Sasuke story arc, our favorite
ramen-loving ninja was supposed to set off with the perverted
sennin Jiraiya for two-and-one-half years of training.
But since the anime was rapidly catching up to the manga,
the series’ producers decided to throw in a large
number of filler episodes to plug the three-month gap
in order to allow the manga to move ahead.
If the fillers were well written, then there would be
no complaints. But because they were subpar in quality,
there was an outcry of protest in forums across the Internet.
“The reaction, for the large part, has been entirely
negative,” a Leafninja.com’s
site admin, who goes by the moniker Shikamaru, stated
in an e-mail response. “A passable filler arc came
along from time to time, but because the negative so far
outweighed the positive, you hardly heard anyone say anything
good about them.”
Even though it was nice to see the world of “Naruto”
become fleshed out, it was difficult to care. These side
tales had no impact on the main story. No matter how much
peril any of the leaf ninjas fell into, nothing would,
or could, would happen to them. Also new, one-dimensional
characters which were added to create new stories failed
to capture any interest from the viewers.
But alas, the original anime has ended and the second
series, “Naruto: Shippuden,” or “Naruto:
Hurricane Chronicles,” as it’s been dubbed
by fans, is about to begin. Leafninja.com’s
Shikamaru warns that more filler may be in store for the
future.
“I'd just like to warn everyone reading that though
we're back to manga content, this won't last forever,”
he said. “Within 14-16 months, I figure the anime
will need more filler arcs to allow the manga to get further
ahead again. Hopefully not as many as we just did, but
they’ll happen whether we like it or not.”
It’s an ominous prediction, but let’s enjoy
it while we can.
Joe Nguyen is the editor in chief
for AsiaXpress.com. Joe can be reached at joe@asiaxpress.com.
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