Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto Uzumaki
Naruto character
Naruto Uzumaki by Masashi Kishimoto
First appearance	Naruto manga chapter 1
Voiced by	Japanese Junko Takeuchi[1] English Maile Flanagan[2]
Notable relatives	Minato Namikaze (father, deceased) Kushina Uzumaki (mother, deceased)
Ninja rank	Genin[3]
Ninja team	Team 7

Naruto Uzumaki (うずまき ナルト, Uzumaki Naruto^?) is a fictional character in the anime and manga franchise Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto. The main protagonist and titular character of the series, he is a ninja affiliated with the fictional village of Konohagakure. The villagers ostracize Naruto because the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, a malevolent creature that attacked Konohagakure, is sealed within his body. As a result, Naruto has ambitions of becoming the village's leader, the Hokage, in order to gain recognition amongst his peers. He maintains a cheerful and boisterous personality, allowing him to befriend several other Konoha ninja throughout the series, as well as ninja from other villages. Naruto appears in all of the series' films, as well as in other media related to the franchise, including all video games and original video animations.

When creating Naruto, Kishimoto wished to keep the character "simple and stupid", while giving him many attributes for an ideal hero. However, Kishimoto also added his harsh past to include a dark side of him. Naruto's initial design has been changed several times by Kishimoto, providing the character with different clothes to make him more appealing to Western audiences, in addition to being easier to illustrate. The character has been voiced by Junko Takeuchi in the animated series and Maile Flanagan in the English adaptations.

Several anime and manga publications have expressed acclaim and criticism of Naruto's character. Some view him as a stereotypical manga and anime protagonist comparable to those in many other shōnen manga, while others have praised his personality as well as his development in the series. Nevertheless, Naruto has remained highly popular with the Naruto fan-base, placing high in several popularity polls. Merchandise based on Naruto has also been released, including figurines and plush dolls.

Description

Naruto is despicted as young teenager with blonde spiky hair. He frequently wears an orange jumpsuit and, following his graduation, a headband representing him as a ninja from Konohagakure.^[4] In Part II of the series, Naruto wears a new outfit as a result of his growth. The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox creature sealed within him also influences on Naruto's body, causing it to resemble it as time goes on.^[5] Once Naruto takes control of the fox's power, he is able to maintain his human form while using it.^[6] As a ninja, Naruto carries a large number of weapons, which he uses while fighting.^[7]

Introduced in the series as a childish joker, Naruto wants to receive people's attention as a result of the way villagers set him apart. In order to gain respect, he resolves to become Konohagakure's Hokage and surpass all the previous leaders no matter the difficulties.^[8] While Naruto sometimes finds himself incompetent to accomplish the tasks he proposes to do, many characters reach the conclusion that Naruto will someday be an excellent Hokage thanks to the impact he made on their lives.^[9][10]

Appearances

In Naruto

Shortly after Naruto was born, his father, the Fourth Hokage,^[11] sealed the dangerous Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within Naruto's body at the cost of his own life, leaving Naruto without a family.^[12] As a result of him being the demon fox's host, the villagers of Konoha hold a strong animosity for Naruto. Thus, he lacked a source of love or attention during his early childhood.^[8] Since his childhood, Naruto has commonly made jokes to attract attention.^[8] Desiring what he lacks in his early life, Naruto dreams of becoming Hokage, the village's leader, hoping that it will bring him the villagers' recognition and respect.^[13][14] In an attempt to become a ninja, Naruto is horrified to learn that the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox is sealed inside him, but finds acceptance from his teacher Iruka Umino, whom he views as a father. After learning the powerful move Shadow Clone Technique, which creates physical copies of the user, Naruto becomes a ninja.^[8][15] He joins the ninja group Team 7 under the leadership of Kakashi Hatake, where Naruto gains the friends he lacked during his childhood. He forms bonds with his two teammates: Sasuke Uchiha, who likens his rivalry to brotherhood and Sakura Haruno, who he has a crush on and is commited to anything for her happiness.^[16][17]

While going through an exam to improve his ninja rank, Naruto meets the legendary ninja Jiraiya and learns how to summon toads to aid him in battle as well as control part of the Fox's chakra.^[18] He later learns the Rasengan–a concentrated orb of spiraling chakra capable of grinding into whatever it touches–^[14][19] The exams are interrupted as a result of the invasion of Konohagakure, by the criminal Orochimaru and Sunagakure. Shortly afterward, Naruto discovers Akatsuki, a fictional criminal organization that seeks to extract the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox from his body. Though Jiraiya drives them off during this first meeting, Akatsuki's interactions with Naruto become a central conflict in Part II.^[20] When Sasuke leaves the village to join Orochimaru's forces, Naruto becomes part of a rescue team to retrieve him.^[17] Naruto and Sasuke ultimately have a one-on-one battle, though neither can convince himself to finish off the other.^[21] The two go their separate ways, but Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, leaving Konoha together with Jiraiya for two-and-a-half years of training to prepare himself for the next time he meets Sasuke.^[22]

Upon his return to Konoha in Part II, Naruto begins to deal more actively with the Akatsuki threat. He first saves Gaara, another host of a tailed beast, from Akatsuki's clutches,^[23] and later proves instrumental in the downfall of the Akatsuki member Kakuzu.^[24] In order to fight them, Naruto trains with Kakashi to infuse the Rasengan with his own wind element chakra,^[25] resulting in the creation of a powerful technique named Wind Style: Rasen-Shuriken (風遁・螺旋手裏剣, Fūton: Rasenshuriken^?), which damages anything it impacts on the cellular level.^[26] The Fox's influence over him also expands to the point that he begins to lose his rationality as more chakra in the form of tails appears.^[5] Still, Naruto dedicates himself to find and retrieve Sasuke.^[27] After learning that Jiraiya has been killed by the Akatsuki leader, Pain, Naruto trains to learn Senjutsu, a power-enhancing ability derived from frogs and involving the gathering of natural energy, for a future possible encounter.^[28] When they finally face off, he defeats Pain and convinces him to leave Akatsuki afterwards.^[29] Following a discussion with Pain's superior, Madara Uchiha, about Sasuke's past and role within Akatsuki, Naruto decides to confront Sasuke in battle that may end in both of their deaths if he is unable to save him.^[30] In order to prepare he takes full control of the Fox's powers with help from the soul of his mother Kushina Uzumaki that has been within the seal.^[31] Upon learning that all his comrades are battling Madara's army to protect him, Naruto goes to join them alongside Killer Bee, another host of a tailed beast.^[32]

In other media

As the series' title character, Naruto appears in every movie in the series. He typically appears as the lead character on a mission with Team 7. The first Naruto: Shippūden movie marks the first appearance of Naruto in his Part II appearance.^[33][34] He also appears in all four original video animations produced for the series, helping his friend Konohamaru Sarutobi find a four leaf clover in the first one,^[35] joining his team in escorting a ninja named Shibuki to his village and helping him fight the missing-nin who stole the village's "Hero's Water" in the second one,^[36] and participating in a tournament in the third one.^[37]

Naruto is a playable character in the Naruto video games. In several titles, it is possible to access a special version of him enhanced with the power from the Nine-Tailed Fox. In several games from the Ultimate Ninja series he is playable with his own versions of Rock Lee and Might Guy's techniques while wearing their costume.^[38] Naruto Shippūden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX marks the first appearance of Naruto in his Part II appearance in a video game.^[39] For the series' 10th anniversary, Masashi Kishimoto made an illustration of Naruto as Hokage.^[40] This portrayal of Naruto later appeared as a secret character in the game Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.^[41] He appears in several crossover video games that feature Naruto fighting against characters from other manga; these games include Battle Stadium D.O.N, Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars.^[42][43][44] A Naruto avatar made a guest appearance in the MMORPG Second Life for a Jump Festa promotion titled Jumpland@Second Life.^[45]

Creation and conception

Naruto's growth in Part II brought difficulties for Kishimoto and voice actress Junko Takeuchi as the character became more mature.

In creating Naruto, Kishimoto incorporated traits that he felt made an ideal hero: a straightforward way of thinking, a mischievous side, and attributes possessed by Goku from the Dragon Ball franchise. He also aimed to keep Naruto "simple and stupid". Kishimoto avoided modeling Naruto after anyone in particular, instead conceiving him as childlike with a dark side induced by his harsh past. Despite this, he is always optimistic, a trait Kishimoto says makes him unique.^[46] Naruto's personality is, by and large, childish in nature. The creator frequently tries to show this when illustrating Naruto, such as depicting him mimicking a turtle like a child might do on the manga cover of volume 10.^[47] As Naruto was his first published manga, Kishimoto focused on designing Naruto's facial expressions in a difficult situation and tried to be consistent in each of them.^[48]

Naruto's wardrobe is based on clothing that Kishimoto wore when he was younger; according to Kishimoto, using a pre-existing design would not have made Naruto unique whereas something original would have made him stand out too much.^[49] Because Naruto is associated with spirals, the designer incorporated swirl patterns into the costume.^[50] Initial illustrations depicted Naruto in boots, but Kishimoto replaced these with sandals, because he enjoys drawing toes.^[51] The goggles that Naruto used to wear were also replaced with a hitai-ite, or shinobi headband, because the goggles themselves were too time-consuming to draw.^[52] The colors of his outfit, however, were one of the most difficult to choose by him.^[53] The orange coloring of his costume is used to make Naruto "pop", with blues often being used as a complement.^[4] Kishimoto commented that he wants to apologize to the anime staff for Naruto's design, considering it too difficult to translate it to animation.^[53]

Kishimoto is glad that his character has blond hair and blue eyes; it has become so common worldwide ever since Naruto's debut that it is utterly unquestionable whether or not the main protagonist is purely Japanese due to his appearance, therefore Naruto, along with the immense popularity it has gained, comes naturally to the readers and international audiences with blond hair and blue eyes. Commentators have noted and praised the complexity and diversity of Naruto and his friends. The editor of Shonen Jump in the United States added that he implied that the traits may have led the character to appeal to a Western audience. Kishimoto said that he most identifies with Naruto out of all of the series's characters. When asked why Naruto's favorite food is ramen instead of kitsune udon, Kishimoto said that he personally liked eating ramen.^[54][55] In the Naruto: Clash of Ninja video game series, Naruto is playable in various stages of the demon fox's manifestation characterized by a red-colored chakra. Kishimoto took inspiration from the presentation of these forms, imitating one of them for the manga cover of volume 26.^[56] When designing Naruto for his Part II appearance, Kishimoto drew Naruto's forehead protector wider to make his eyebrows easier to draw, something that had bothered him in his previous design. He also noted that Naruto's pants made the character look childish. To remedy this, Kishimoto designed a portion of Naruto's pants to roll up, giving the character a more mature appearance.^[57]

In the original Japanese versions of Naruto, Naruto often ends his sentences with the addendum "-ttebayo" (which achieves an effect similar to ending a sentence with "you know?" in English). Kishimoto wanted to give Naruto a childlike catchphrase, and "dattebayo" came to mind; the creator believed that the phrase complements Naruto's character, and serves as a verbal tic that portrays him in a brat-ish manner.^[49] Throughout the beginning of the English dub version, "dattebayo" and "-ttebayo" were replaced with the phrase "Believe it!", both to mirror the effect and to match the character's lip movements.^[58]

Voice actors

During the casting for the Japanese version of the animated adaptations, staff sought a male voice actor for Naruto. Junko Takeuchi, a female actress, was instead chosen following a large number of auditions that involved male actors.^[59] Before recording the first episode, Takeuchi noted several lines from the script that ended with exclamations points; this helped her define Naruto's voice. She noted difficulties in voicing the character for the first after the time-skip in the series for the first episode of Naruto: Shippuden as it was recorded one week after recording the last episode from Naruto.^[60] This concerned the character's growth as Naruto started acting more mature in contrast to his childish attitude.^[61] Takeuchi met hardships while voicing Naruto in his Nine-Tailed Demon Fox forms as well his fight against Sasuke due to the suffering the character was going through in the series.^[60] Nine years after first voicing the character, while still finding it tough to voice Naruto, Takeuchi's opinion regarding him changed to "a very reliable young man". She admired how he is able to take important decisions calmly despite the sacrifices he has to go through to the point it would inspire others.^[62]

The producers of the English anime stated that, of all of the characters, Naruto was the most difficult character to cast, adding that Maile Flanagan "has Naruto down, from the mischievous side, that precocious twelve year old we learn to love, to the serious side."^[63] Flanagan commented that she does not listen to Junko Takeuchi's records when performing Naruto, not wanting to imitate her voice, instead wanting a more "original" voice for him.^[64]

Reception

In every official Weekly Shōnen Jump popularity poll of the series, Naruto ranks within the top five characters and has positioned in first place twice.^[65][66] In 2006, however, Naruto lost his top-two status to the characters Deidara, Kakashi and Sasuke in the magazine's sixth poll.^[67] In the last poll, Naruto was once again in first place.^[68] Merchandise has been modeled after his likeness, such as plush,^[69][70] key chains,^[71] and action figures,^[72] of both his Part I and Part II appearance. In the 2009 Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation Awards, Junko Takeuchi won "Best Voice Actress (Japanese)" for her work as Naruto.^[73] Naruto placed sixth in IGN's Top 25 Anime Characters of All Time with writer Chris Mackenzie stating that although "Naruto actually isn't the most popular character in his own series most of the time", he is "the engine that powers the franchise".^[74] In the 2011 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, he was voted as the twenty-ninth best character appearing in video games.^[75]

Naruto's character has received mostly positive critical response in printed and online publications with major praise given by Joseph Szadkowski of The Washington Times who noted that Naruto "has become a pop-culture sensation."^[76] Additionally, Naruto's character was analyzed by GameSpot's Joe Dodson who despite finding life as "ideal", the character still suffered from severe isolation.^[77] Nevertheless, he was praised for his optimistic personality by Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network,^[78] and with writers from Mania Entertainment labeling him as a "good lead character" with an overall development despite certain problems Naruto initially has.^[79][80][81] Writing for Popular Culture in Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Play-Based Interventions, Lawrence Rubin states that while Naruto has an optimistic and hyperactive personality, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within his body symbolizes his negative emotions. Rubin concluded that Naruto's fights to protect the village help him to become a "complete and mature person".^[82] On the other hand, Christina Carpenter of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews disagreed with other writers, noting that, while Naruto is a "likable enough scamp", his type of character has been done before in many anime and manga series.^[83] His relationships with the other characters have been deemed as appealing by IGN,^[84][85] most notably his rivalry Sasuke, as it shows "signs of maturity" in Naruto.^[86] However, his desire to defeat Sasuke following Part I's end received criticism as a result of his subsequent suffering.^[87]

The character's fight have also been commented with Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network noting that while his initial ones were lacking when compared to others in the series,^[88] his encounter with Gaara was one of his best moments in the series because it surpassed most shōnen stereotypes as a result of Naruto's tactics with Mania Entertaiment echoing similar comments.^[89][90] The character's final fight against Sasuke in the end of Part I received similar responses, owing to both of the fighting styles employed as well as the development from their rivalry.^[91][86] The enormous physical changes caused by the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox on Naruto have also been the focus of critics as he loses his control to the point he becomes a bigger threat than the series' antagonists, resulting in entertaining fights.^[92][93] Carlos Santos of Anime News Network commented on the character's growth in Part II, specifically his fight against Pain as Naruto's comments (such as about how peace can be achieved and what methods should be used to achieve his goals) touch philosophical themes never seen in a shōnen series.^[94][95] Additionally, Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment noted a change in Naruto's attitude as he acted more serious and calmer than in previous story arcs. Naruto's new Senjutsu style was praised as how he carefully prepared it for the fight against Pain, resulting in a big display of Naruto's skills.^[94][96]

References

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