Many tears were shed this week when the Naruto Manga Finale came out. After 15 long years, 700 chapters later, the story of Naruto comes to and end – really well in my opinion, and I wasn’t expected it but I’m even a little sad!
Naruto started out as a one-shot story, published in 1997. Many readers wouldn’t know about this, and the short story is very different to the franchise we know and love currently. For instance, in the one-shot Naruto is actually the child of the nine-tails, rather than a child of a human with the nine-tails sealed inside him! There’s also no real mention of ninjas, although he does use his signature sexy-no-jitsu!
If you haven’t read or watched Naruto before, it’s a story about a young ninja orphan boy who is isolated from his village, pulls pranks to get attention and decides that one day he wants to become Hokage – leader of the village. In essence, it’s a story about his journey through the ninja world, which is currently in an era of conflict and turmoil. Summarising 700 chapters is going to be hard, so let’s just say, it’s a story of him getting stronger and saving the world.
Naruto probably gained popularity in the west because of the anime. The manga is now sold in nearly all the comics shops I’ve been to however, so I’m glad it’s gained popularity. A couple of spin-off films were also created, and it’s probably the best selling manga/anime franchise in the west – which is more than One Piece, the King of the Japanese manga scene. Now that Naruto is over though, I think I’ll have to check out One Piece!
So what did I think of the finale chapters? It was sort of expected that neither Sasuke or Naruto would die, but the fact they were able to become true friends gave me warm fuzzy feelings in my tummy. I was also very happy that Kakashi became the 6th Hokage, although Naruto proved to be God-like powerful and gained the trust and respect of everyone, he was still technically a genin and I think he needed to mature more before becoming Hokage.
The 700 chapter, a time skip and epilogue was extremely heart warming. It also felt like a lot of fan service as you see the new generation of school children. It gives you a couple of pages to guess who their parents are, and then you get a mini tour of the village and you find out who ended up with who! I was extremely happy that Naruto and Hinata ended up together, I’ve been rooting for them from the start! I don’t think there was any doubt, but it was cute to see their kids. The best part however was, without a doubt, seeing grown-up Naruto. He seems to have matured so much, he looks great and he seems to be doing a good job! I was sad there wasn’t more of him as an adult, but there are news for a mini spin-off series around their children which will feature our favourites as adults. I think I’m more excited about that than anything else!
Although I was sad to see it end, I think it ended on a high note, and it really has been going on for a while. A lot of people around the net have mixed reviews, but the overall feelings on the Naruto Manga Finale is one of good feelings. How do you think it should have ended though? How do you feel about the final parings? What have been your favourite scenes?Tweet or reply me with your thoughts!