What do you think?
Rate this book
Naruto: Omnibus #1
Naruto (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 1
Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences T
Containing volumes 1, 2 and 3 of Naruto! Twelve years ago the Village Hidden in the Leaves was attacked by a fearsome threat. A nine-tailed fox spirit claimed the life of the village leader, the Hokage, and many others. Today, the village is at peace and a troublemaking kid named Naruto is struggling to graduate from Ninja Academy. His goal may be to become the next Hokage, but his true destiny will be much more complicated. The adventure begins now!
600 pages, Paperback
First published May 3, 2011
114 people are currently reading
1479 people want to read
About the author
Masashi Kishimoto
969 books3,993 followersMasashi Kishimoto (岸本斉史 Kishimoto Masashi) is a Japanese manga artist, well known for creating the manga series Naruto. His younger twin brother, Seishi Kishimoto, is also a manga artist and creator of the manga series O-Parts Hunter (666 Satan) and Blazer Drive. Two of his former assistants, Osamu Kajisa (Tattoo Hearts) and Yuuichi Itakura (Hand's), have also gone on to moderate success following their work on Naruto.
Kishimoto's first work as a manga artist was Karakuri (カラクリ?), which he submitted to Shueisha in 1995. This earned him the Weekly Shōnen Jump's monthly "Hop Step Award" in 1996, granted to promising new manga artists. This was followed in 1997 by a pilot version of Naruto (NARUTO－ナルト－), published in Akamaru Jump Summer. In 1998, Kishimoto premiered as a Weekly Shōnen Jump artist with a serialized version of Karakuri in Weekly Shōnen Jump, but it proved unpopular and was canceled soon after. In 1999, a serialized version of Naruto began publication in Weekly Shōnen Jump and quickly became a hit.
Kishimoto's first work as a manga artist was Karakuri (カラクリ?), which he submitted to Shueisha in 1995. This earned him the Weekly Shōnen Jump's monthly "Hop Step Award" in 1996, granted to promising new manga artists. This was followed in 1997 by a pilot version of Naruto (NARUTO－ナルト－), published in Akamaru Jump Summer. In 1998, Kishimoto premiered as a Weekly Shōnen Jump artist with a serialized version of Karakuri in Weekly Shōnen Jump, but it proved unpopular and was canceled soon after. In 1999, a serialized version of Naruto began publication in Weekly Shōnen Jump and quickly became a hit.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
June 28, 2017
Review for Naruto - PART 1 (Vol. #1 to Vol. #27)
Overall rating: 3.0
Before I jump into the dirty list of everything that is wrong with Naruto, I want to make it clear that despite its flaws, Naruto is very close to my heart and I will always go back to reading it. Naruto was a very integral part of my childhood and he helped me cope with bullying as a kid more than any real person ever did. I read Naruto before I even read Harry Potter.
It had a strong influence on my value system. Courage, standing up for what you think is the right thing and giving every person a second chance, the value of family and friendship, hard work, respect for every individual, not judging others by their appearance, general helpfulness; the list is endless. Of course, as I grew up a lot other things also influenced me but Naruto established the basic foundations of what I was to become as a person.
For all its virtues, I still cannot ignore probably the only vice it has. Gender Stereotyping.
Even as a kid I was very sensitive towards the issue of gender discrimination in fiction and real life. I used to hate being thought of as someone less capable just because I was born a girl. As a logical person, the very premise of gender inequality has never made any sense to me. I was not even aware of the word feminism, yet I knew that something was inherently wrong with how the female characters were represented in shounen manga. (I should point out that the very practice of segregating entertainment on the basis of gender,i.e, "for boys", "for girls", "for grown men" and "for grown women" is very ridiculous.)
Throughout Part 1, I kept waiting and waiting for Sakura to break the gender stereotype and do something. Actually do something. Kishimoto-sensei kept raising my hopes by Sakura's internal monologue about she wants to be someone who wants to protect instead of being protected, but she never actually gets down to doing it.
Every 3-man-unit in the Ninja villages has exactly 2 males and 1 female and the female is almost always the weakest. Among the Jounin leaders of the 3-man-units in Konohagakure, again out of 4 only 1 is female (Kurenai) and she too is the weakest among her peers. Temari and Tsunade might be the only females in the entire Naruto universe who were not the weakest in their respective teams; even that I can't say with certainty. In any case, not a single female in the entirety of 27 volumes was the strongest at her peer level. I was somewhat put at ease when Tsunade was named Hokage; but again she is the only female out of the 5 people who have ever held that position. The Smurfette principle is so strong in practice here that after a point it becomes ridiculous.
During fights, most of the times only females fight females. In the rare event that a male and female do face off it is either when the male is a villain/antagonist (Neji vs Hinata; Neji is not an arc villain but he was shown in a negative light during that fight) or because he is forced into it (Shikamaru vs Temari). Shikamaru frequently comments that it is "bothersome" to fight a girl or "I will not be saved by a woman". Such sexist remarks can be ignored in an otherwise feminist-friendly story as just a personality trait of that particular character, however, in Naruto Shikamaru's sentiments are not just a reflection of his own individual personality but of the manga series as a whole.
These were only the outright, blatant examples of gender-stereotyping in Naruto. My review is bound to exceed its word limit if I go on to list the subtle ones. Let's just focus on the main 3 characters. Naruto's dream is to become Hokage and to be acknowledged as an equal by the village. Sasuke's dream is to take revenge on his brother who killed his entire clan and destroyed his life. And guess what is Sakura's dream? To become Sasuke's girlfriend. *face-palm*. I like Sakura as a character. To be more accurate, I liked the potential Sakura had as a character. But she is unfortunately reduced to a mere spectator of the epic power tussles between Naruto and Sasuke. If she would have been replaced with a table lamp, frankly, not much would have changed in the story. And that is really sad.
Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry is based on their need to be a better, stronger ninja than the other. Ino and Sakura's rivalry is based on who is prettier and who will win the heart of the hot guy. *face-wall*
Women are not the only ones subjected to gender-stereotyping. The males in the story are constantly bombarded with other character's expectations to "be a man". There is a scene in which Shikamaru is crying and his father asks him "Are you a woman?", his implication being that men don't cry. Conversely, women always seem to cry. Seriously, I will kill myself if Sakura cries one. More. Time. And don't even get me started on the various instances of female objectification.
I tried to forgive all of this thinking that Naruto has been serializing since the 1997 and yes it is natural for it to not be as broad-minded. But its contemporary, Bleach only started serializing 4 years later in 2001 and was far more inclusive of women as actual full-fledged people with dreams and ambitions that had nothing to do with boys and romance.
Even so, I enjoyed reading it immensely. The art style in Naruto is my absolute favorite of all time in all genres, countries and themes. Its so clean, precise and beautiful. The action scenes are always very easy to read. Kishimoto-sensei is a wiz when it comes to giving still images a sense of motion. Naruto is visually stunning.
And now a character poll by Vishakha!
Characters I absolutely love: Kakashi, Naruto
Characters I like: Itachi, Rock Lee, Shikamaru, Neji, Temari, Gaara, Tayuya, Kimimaro, Zabuza
Characters I have a crush on: Kakashi!! Tsunade, Itachi
Characters I think are overrated: Sasuke, Haku
Characters I think are underrated: Rock Lee, Shizune, Shino
Characters I find irritating: Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Hinata, Chouji, Kabuto
Characters I want to like but can't: Sakura, Hinata
Characters I absolutely loathe: Kabuto
Overall rating: 3.0
Before I jump into the dirty list of everything that is wrong with Naruto, I want to make it clear that despite its flaws, Naruto is very close to my heart and I will always go back to reading it. Naruto was a very integral part of my childhood and he helped me cope with bullying as a kid more than any real person ever did. I read Naruto before I even read Harry Potter.
It had a strong influence on my value system. Courage, standing up for what you think is the right thing and giving every person a second chance, the value of family and friendship, hard work, respect for every individual, not judging others by their appearance, general helpfulness; the list is endless. Of course, as I grew up a lot other things also influenced me but Naruto established the basic foundations of what I was to become as a person.
For all its virtues, I still cannot ignore probably the only vice it has. Gender Stereotyping.
Even as a kid I was very sensitive towards the issue of gender discrimination in fiction and real life. I used to hate being thought of as someone less capable just because I was born a girl. As a logical person, the very premise of gender inequality has never made any sense to me. I was not even aware of the word feminism, yet I knew that something was inherently wrong with how the female characters were represented in shounen manga. (I should point out that the very practice of segregating entertainment on the basis of gender,i.e, "for boys", "for girls", "for grown men" and "for grown women" is very ridiculous.)
Throughout Part 1, I kept waiting and waiting for Sakura to break the gender stereotype and do something. Actually do something. Kishimoto-sensei kept raising my hopes by Sakura's internal monologue about she wants to be someone who wants to protect instead of being protected, but she never actually gets down to doing it.
Every 3-man-unit in the Ninja villages has exactly 2 males and 1 female and the female is almost always the weakest. Among the Jounin leaders of the 3-man-units in Konohagakure, again out of 4 only 1 is female (Kurenai) and she too is the weakest among her peers. Temari and Tsunade might be the only females in the entire Naruto universe who were not the weakest in their respective teams; even that I can't say with certainty. In any case, not a single female in the entirety of 27 volumes was the strongest at her peer level. I was somewhat put at ease when Tsunade was named Hokage; but again she is the only female out of the 5 people who have ever held that position. The Smurfette principle is so strong in practice here that after a point it becomes ridiculous.
During fights, most of the times only females fight females. In the rare event that a male and female do face off it is either when the male is a villain/antagonist (Neji vs Hinata; Neji is not an arc villain but he was shown in a negative light during that fight) or because he is forced into it (Shikamaru vs Temari). Shikamaru frequently comments that it is "bothersome" to fight a girl or "I will not be saved by a woman". Such sexist remarks can be ignored in an otherwise feminist-friendly story as just a personality trait of that particular character, however, in Naruto Shikamaru's sentiments are not just a reflection of his own individual personality but of the manga series as a whole.
These were only the outright, blatant examples of gender-stereotyping in Naruto. My review is bound to exceed its word limit if I go on to list the subtle ones. Let's just focus on the main 3 characters. Naruto's dream is to become Hokage and to be acknowledged as an equal by the village. Sasuke's dream is to take revenge on his brother who killed his entire clan and destroyed his life. And guess what is Sakura's dream? To become Sasuke's girlfriend. *face-palm*. I like Sakura as a character. To be more accurate, I liked the potential Sakura had as a character. But she is unfortunately reduced to a mere spectator of the epic power tussles between Naruto and Sasuke. If she would have been replaced with a table lamp, frankly, not much would have changed in the story. And that is really sad.
Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry is based on their need to be a better, stronger ninja than the other. Ino and Sakura's rivalry is based on who is prettier and who will win the heart of the hot guy. *face-wall*
Women are not the only ones subjected to gender-stereotyping. The males in the story are constantly bombarded with other character's expectations to "be a man". There is a scene in which Shikamaru is crying and his father asks him "Are you a woman?", his implication being that men don't cry. Conversely, women always seem to cry. Seriously, I will kill myself if Sakura cries one. More. Time. And don't even get me started on the various instances of female objectification.
I tried to forgive all of this thinking that Naruto has been serializing since the 1997 and yes it is natural for it to not be as broad-minded. But its contemporary, Bleach only started serializing 4 years later in 2001 and was far more inclusive of women as actual full-fledged people with dreams and ambitions that had nothing to do with boys and romance.
Even so, I enjoyed reading it immensely. The art style in Naruto is my absolute favorite of all time in all genres, countries and themes. Its so clean, precise and beautiful. The action scenes are always very easy to read. Kishimoto-sensei is a wiz when it comes to giving still images a sense of motion. Naruto is visually stunning.
And now a character poll by Vishakha!
Characters I absolutely love: Kakashi, Naruto
Characters I like: Itachi, Rock Lee, Shikamaru, Neji, Temari, Gaara, Tayuya, Kimimaro, Zabuza
Characters I have a crush on: Kakashi!! Tsunade, Itachi
Characters I think are overrated: Sasuke, Haku
Characters I think are underrated: Rock Lee, Shizune, Shino
Characters I find irritating: Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Hinata, Chouji, Kabuto
Characters I want to like but can't: Sakura, Hinata
Characters I absolutely loathe: Kabuto
April 5, 2021
[may have some spoilers] Manga is a genre with which I have had no prior experience, yet with my teenagers, both my boys and my girls, it seems all the rage these days. In taking my youngest, 4 years of age, indeed, I was caught off guard when she asked for a book on Naruto --- so her older siblings have even passed it onto her. So that's how I ended up reading this.
As I learned later from the author's remarks this is not meant for her age level ---- recommended age level for this series is 13 and over. Having said that, most of it seems fairly harmless with the exception of when Naruto exercises his doppelganger power and creates illusions of shapely women whose curves leave to the imagination --- doesn't actually show the private parts --- yet surely driving young male fans' hormones up considerably, no doubt.
Regarding entertainment value, I found some of this book mildly amusing; however, the latter part seemed to consist of the opposing sides engaging in longwinded monologuing about their special powers and/or strategems versus the other.
I did initially find one character worrisome from my point of view as a father --- Haku. This is an androgynous male character who looks very effeminate. That's not necessarily the problem --- since to my occidental, unfamiliar-with-manga eyes --- most male manga characters look that way. ( If some find that remark objectionable or ignorant, too bad --- just calling it as a I see it. Never claimed to be an expert conossieur of manga. ) The problem I found with Haku is that Kishimoto in one of his commentaries in between episodes refers to him as consort of Zabuza, one of the bad guy ninja opposing Naruto and his comrades. Since Zabuza is a full grown man, and Haku looks no more than 12 years old, it raised question in my mind as to whether or not Kishimoto is trying normalize pedophilia in some way. However, in the actual story, there is no evidence of Zabuza acting as any thing other than as a sensei and mentor for his youthful protege. Having said that, I decided to check out some manga sites to see what they had to say about Haku --- and these seem to confirm that he's a student, not an intimate partner of, an adult ninja instructor. So it looks like this was just either a poor choice of words by Kishimoto ---- or, perhaps, this was an unfortunate mistranslation of his words from Japanese into English.
The 2-star rating is not because of that. It's because I found the fight sequences either difficult to follow or boring. In many frames, both adversaries often have similar features, hair, clothing, etc such that it was tough figuring out who was attacking whom. In addition, I found the story line building up to something, yet having long boring interludes, then, after plowing through about 150 pages of this dreck, the story just ends inconclusively with what looked to me like nothing more than Naruto making empty threats and throwing a temper tantrum against a superior opponent --- and that's it. I understand some literary device in the idea with readers of always leaving them on edge to wanting more. But, frankly, my give-a-ding-dang about the story characters done gone off and went after over 600 pages of this business.
I guess hardcore manga fans may like this book. I don't get it. It seems relatively harmless, but I've seen a lot better graphic novels.
As I learned later from the author's remarks this is not meant for her age level ---- recommended age level for this series is 13 and over. Having said that, most of it seems fairly harmless with the exception of when Naruto exercises his doppelganger power and creates illusions of shapely women whose curves leave to the imagination --- doesn't actually show the private parts --- yet surely driving young male fans' hormones up considerably, no doubt.
Regarding entertainment value, I found some of this book mildly amusing; however, the latter part seemed to consist of the opposing sides engaging in longwinded monologuing about their special powers and/or strategems versus the other.
I did initially find one character worrisome from my point of view as a father --- Haku. This is an androgynous male character who looks very effeminate. That's not necessarily the problem --- since to my occidental, unfamiliar-with-manga eyes --- most male manga characters look that way. ( If some find that remark objectionable or ignorant, too bad --- just calling it as a I see it. Never claimed to be an expert conossieur of manga. ) The problem I found with Haku is that Kishimoto in one of his commentaries in between episodes refers to him as consort of Zabuza, one of the bad guy ninja opposing Naruto and his comrades. Since Zabuza is a full grown man, and Haku looks no more than 12 years old, it raised question in my mind as to whether or not Kishimoto is trying normalize pedophilia in some way. However, in the actual story, there is no evidence of Zabuza acting as any thing other than as a sensei and mentor for his youthful protege. Having said that, I decided to check out some manga sites to see what they had to say about Haku --- and these seem to confirm that he's a student, not an intimate partner of, an adult ninja instructor. So it looks like this was just either a poor choice of words by Kishimoto ---- or, perhaps, this was an unfortunate mistranslation of his words from Japanese into English.
The 2-star rating is not because of that. It's because I found the fight sequences either difficult to follow or boring. In many frames, both adversaries often have similar features, hair, clothing, etc such that it was tough figuring out who was attacking whom. In addition, I found the story line building up to something, yet having long boring interludes, then, after plowing through about 150 pages of this dreck, the story just ends inconclusively with what looked to me like nothing more than Naruto making empty threats and throwing a temper tantrum against a superior opponent --- and that's it. I understand some literary device in the idea with readers of always leaving them on edge to wanting more. But, frankly, my give-a-ding-dang about the story characters done gone off and went after over 600 pages of this business.
I guess hardcore manga fans may like this book. I don't get it. It seems relatively harmless, but I've seen a lot better graphic novels.
June 12, 2020
I won’t be writing reviews for all of these bc honey nobody has time for that (plus I’ve already watched the show) but I will say brief shit now:
- Naruto deserves the world and I love him. His backstory is tragic and he’s such a good underdog.
- Sasuke is such an edgy bitch and I love that for him.
- Sakura is the worst written female character I’ve ever read. I hate her (she deadass mocks Naruto for being an orphan to ANOTHER ORPHAN???!! like what the fuck girl) but I try not to hate her too much bc the author is clearly clueless about what girls are actually like — most of us have personalities and goals outside of a boy. Keep up Kishimoto smh
Chapters 1-27
- Naruto deserves the world and I love him. His backstory is tragic and he’s such a good underdog.
- Sasuke is such an edgy bitch and I love that for him.
- Sakura is the worst written female character I’ve ever read. I hate her (she deadass mocks Naruto for being an orphan to ANOTHER ORPHAN???!! like what the fuck girl) but I try not to hate her too much bc the author is clearly clueless about what girls are actually like — most of us have personalities and goals outside of a boy. Keep up Kishimoto smh
Chapters 1-27
September 24, 2022
I just finished reading this book. It only took me a few days to read it (about 5 days). Since I have already seen the series and just began reading the manga, I already know the main storyline. However, reading the book is much more gratifying! There are many details that I missed or overlooked because they weren't included in the anime (or at least not in the same ways). Overall, this book is AMAZING! It is awesome that it is the combination of three volumes of Naruto in one book! It did not take me long to finish this book AT ALL! Exciting and philosophical, this book helps bring classical Japanese folk-lore to modern audiences via tales of love, chivalry, admiration, and competition! This book truly has something for everyone!
I give it 5 stars!
I give it 5 stars!
June 8, 2024
This was the first manga I have read. I really didn't get into the story or characters until the end of vol. 2 but once I did I really enjoyed the story and characters their development and growth through the story. Also once I started really enjoying the story I was also able to start appreciating the art as well. Very glad I read this and looking forward to continuing the story.
August 22, 2025
I'm actually really surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this. I watched the anime when I was younger, but it never pulled me in as much as other popular ones at the time so I was worried that this wasn't going to be a manga for me. But I actually found the story to be quite fun to read. I really enjoy the characters we are following. Naruto is a very funny character and I really enjoy his spunk - it even made me smile sometimes. Obviously I was going to enjoy Sasuke as he is the resident emo nemesis and I will always love that dynamic with our main character. However, I am really disappointed at how useless Sakura was written. Despite ALSO being a ninja like Naruto and Sasuke, she just stands around? And just comments? When she could be helping? I'm hoping she comes more into her power and personality, but from reading reviews on how Kishimoto writes female characters, I am not really holding out hope.
June 30, 2023
Not quite as high up on my ‘love it’ list as Fullmetal, but still one of my favourite manga, simply for being one of the first I ever discovered
Read
November 24, 2019best series of manga ever
May 25, 2018
Finally I have got round to reading this. Mainly because my fiance insisted and promptly brought me the first 20 books!!! What a gamble. Luckily, although a bit slow to start, I am loving Naruto. Who wouldn't enjoy the adventures of a comedy ninja in the making? But it's not all laughs. Cannot wait to pick up the next in my hug pile of manga!
December 1, 2025
Always enjoy this series, truly one of the best manga ever made
January 26, 2019
I gave it a try, but this isn't for me. The extremely slow moving plot and the hysterical over reactions of all the chatacters just grated on my too much.
July 13, 2020
Un poco flojo...
Historia: 3*
Arte: 3*
Yo ya había visto Naruto, así que la historia no me ha tomado por sorpresa, claro que ésta reseña es del manga por lo que me enfocaré en ello. Pero sí es necesario aclararlo.
La historia es interesante pero muy introductoria, básicamente es una presentación de algunos personajes y conceptos del universo de Naruto.
El argumento sobre la primer prueba ninja del equipo 7 es bastante anticlimático, y se centra más en la conversación y en los discursos de Kakashi que en la batalla y la búsqueda de los cascabeles.
Una vez comenzada su verdadera misión y por tanto, el verdadero argumento, las cosas mejoran pero no demasiado. Y es que la cantidad de burbujas de texto es algo abusiva. Y desperdicia espacio en explicaciones que bien podrían ser aclaradas por medio de imágenes. Que para eso es un manga.
La Sakura interna es bastante chistosa, y creo que es buen recurso cómico sin arruinar la historia. Espero que sea más explotado en los volúmenes siguientes.
El estilo de arte es bueno, aunque me parece menos atractivo que otros mangas que leído. No es que sea de mala calidad o que le falte detalle, simplemente es que no tiene un atractivo visual que lo haga resaltar. Naruto no tiene ese algo que dote a sus ilustraciones de encanto.
Las batallas son buenas, pero sin duda pudieron ser más detalladas si no se desperdiciaran tantas viñetas a lo largo de los tres volúmenes. Y es que tiene varios throwbacks ... de páginas que acabamos de leer. Sobra decir que rompe con la poca cadencia del manga.
Lo Mejor: El final del volumen 3 es un buen gancho, y deja con ganas de más.
Lo Peor: En general, fueron tres volúmenes muy anticlimáticos.
Aclaración: Leí los volúmenes por separado, en la edición digital publicada por Panini Manga México.
Estoy reseñando ésta versión 3-en-1 por una cuestión de formato y practicidad.
Historia: 3*
Arte: 3*
Yo ya había visto Naruto, así que la historia no me ha tomado por sorpresa, claro que ésta reseña es del manga por lo que me enfocaré en ello. Pero sí es necesario aclararlo.
La historia es interesante pero muy introductoria, básicamente es una presentación de algunos personajes y conceptos del universo de Naruto.
El argumento sobre la primer prueba ninja del equipo 7 es bastante anticlimático, y se centra más en la conversación y en los discursos de Kakashi que en la batalla y la búsqueda de los cascabeles.
Una vez comenzada su verdadera misión y por tanto, el verdadero argumento, las cosas mejoran pero no demasiado. Y es que la cantidad de burbujas de texto es algo abusiva. Y desperdicia espacio en explicaciones que bien podrían ser aclaradas por medio de imágenes. Que para eso es un manga.
La Sakura interna es bastante chistosa, y creo que es buen recurso cómico sin arruinar la historia. Espero que sea más explotado en los volúmenes siguientes.
El estilo de arte es bueno, aunque me parece menos atractivo que otros mangas que leído. No es que sea de mala calidad o que le falte detalle, simplemente es que no tiene un atractivo visual que lo haga resaltar. Naruto no tiene ese algo que dote a sus ilustraciones de encanto.
Las batallas son buenas, pero sin duda pudieron ser más detalladas si no se desperdiciaran tantas viñetas a lo largo de los tres volúmenes. Y es que tiene varios throwbacks ... de páginas que acabamos de leer. Sobra decir que rompe con la poca cadencia del manga.
Lo Mejor: El final del volumen 3 es un buen gancho, y deja con ganas de más.
Lo Peor: En general, fueron tres volúmenes muy anticlimáticos.
Aclaración: Leí los volúmenes por separado, en la edición digital publicada por Panini Manga México.
Estoy reseñando ésta versión 3-en-1 por una cuestión de formato y practicidad.
December 9, 2025
I think this was an okay starter to the series but I got a little bored especially when they would explain the ninja system. It just felt like we were bombarded with the information. But since this is the first volume and the system seems complicated I'll let it go for now.
As for the characters I do love Naruto. Him being bullied by the whole village including adults is sad and they are very pitiful. I hate Sakura's character right now. She doesn't do anything helpful in this and even during battle scenes she doesn't actually fight. Both times she was protected by one of the guys. I don't understand why Naruto likes her especially with how she acts towards him. I mean she talks trash about him constantly and even made fun of him being an orphan.
I'm glad I read this as an omnibus though the cliffhangers would drive me crazy reading individually
As for the characters I do love Naruto. Him being bullied by the whole village including adults is sad and they are very pitiful. I hate Sakura's character right now. She doesn't do anything helpful in this and even during battle scenes she doesn't actually fight. Both times she was protected by one of the guys. I don't understand why Naruto likes her especially with how she acts towards him. I mean she talks trash about him constantly and even made fun of him being an orphan.
I'm glad I read this as an omnibus though the cliffhangers would drive me crazy reading individually
December 27, 2023
Even though this was the 3rd time I've experienced these beginning arcs, the whole time I felt all the emotions like it was the first. Being where I am in the anime right now, it felt so so SO nostalgic to see the kids at the beginning of a crazy adventure and being reminded of their roots. Doesn't matter if its reading or watching, the Naruto series has made a home in my heart. And I think it'll be a long time before I kick em out. Haha! To anyone that is a Naruto fan, I do recommend reading the manga series: there are so many eastereggs, character notes, sick cover art, and amazing author notes. Love, love, love.
March 26, 2023
Despite being the perfect age to have been into Naruto as it initially aired on western tv, I'm glad I'm only really getting into it now? I would've liked it as a kid, but I'm appreciating it more thematically and emotionally as an adult (even if emo teen sasuke 🤝 emo teen me). These silly tween ninjas can fit so much lonely sadness in them and more importantly so much stubborn hope.
Also, Kakashi is a 20-something (?) dude but also single mom of the century ❤️
Also, Kakashi is a 20-something (?) dude but also single mom of the century ❤️
June 9, 2024
Reread this for class. I miss Naruto a bit now. Maybe I'll watch the Chunin Exam arc again bc it was so slay. But anyway, the first part with Inoka made me tear up and Naruto's backstory always hurts me. The Haku fight is cool and I love Kakashi. I never liked the Sexy Jujutsu and I feel like it's slow the first arc but otherwise, this was nostalgic and fun.
July 27, 2025
"when people are protecting something truly precious to them, they truly can become as strong as they must be"
this moves so fast! I also forgot how funny this is (for now), but it's really cute seeing how little they are and how much they have left to learn
this moves so fast! I also forgot how funny this is (for now), but it's really cute seeing how little they are and how much they have left to learn
December 18, 2023
Holy shit, coming back to this series after claiming to hate it for so long, I can really see why I enjoyed it when I picked up my first copy of the American Shonen Jump. Kishimoto's art was fantastic before he stopped caring when Naruto himself aged a couple years, and the series suffered from everyone looking the same (I think, I didn't really ever read or watch that far, because it looked stale compared to the earlier arcs). God damn, this series had so much promise when it was teen-wizards-rewritten-as-ninja-but-still-trying-to-do-vaguely-ninjaesque-missions-like-with-the-Zabuza-arc, before it became a straight Hunter x Hunter rip, then devolved into generic battle shonen #4325324532
****
Keeping the above review intact for the sake of posterity. It came at a time when I was reading nostalgic Jump manga and rating the 3in1 omnibus releases on Goodreads because work got in the way of my Reading Challenges and I wasn't giving myself enough free-time to read "real" books. By now, I've sunk low enough to just rate and review every manga volume I read, though I guess I do kind of also have more time to read "real" books, so... there's kind of a balance.
Anyway, there was definitely some negativity in the above review, as I still harbored a misaimed animosity toward Naruto as a series. Some context: I really liked the manga and anime when they first started coming stateside; I started getting into doodling at some point in parallel; my brother, cousins, and I started work on an overt Naruto ripoff comic, of which I was principal artist and general creative director (in fact, I did like 99% of the work); to expand on our/my ninja comic, I researched more ninja stuff, eventually coming to a conclusion that Uzumaki Naruto himself is a terrible ninja, in large part due to how loud and colorful he was (What kind of ninja wears a bright orange tracksuit!?). Feeling the manga was betraying its own premise, I started falling off from Naruto. Then I somehow got the idea that I actually "disliked" the series. I got a little back into it with a PSP game borrowed from a friend in eighth grade, then buying a PS2 game (Ultimate Ninja 3) that covered the plot of the whole pre-timeskip story. My interest in the manga was partly rekindled, but there was an inconvenience before me: I didn't know what torrenting was yet, so I couldn't just catch up to where Toonami had gotten; I was severely behind on the manga in US Shōnen Jump, and I guess the local library didn't have the post-timeskip volumes yet (and, for some reason, it never crossed my mind to read online manga I knew had physical English releases...); and I was disappointed to learn the next PS2 installment, Ultimate Ninja 4, would focus more on just the old characters' new designs than get too deep into the new stories (making it almost "useless" for my purposes). Over the years, I'd occasionally pop on the fan wiki to read up on arc synopses, but after a point it felt like the manga had gotten way to long to jump back into. Grabbing this 3in1 in 2016 or whenever, there wasn't, I don't think, a plan to go all the way to the end - at least not in print. Years later, ~2022, I'd grab what I needed to cover the "Part 1" of the manga, and, having finally caught up with One Piece, I feel it's as good a time as any to finally finish Naruto (and Bleach, which I plan to balance as well).
I don't fully disagree with some sentiments in my earlier review. The manga will not take long before it quits the "ninja mission" thing in favor of a copy of the Hunter Exam and Heavens Arena, including having a gay paedophile groomer villain (Hisoka; Orochimaru). The thing is, I don't really know too well what happens next.... Shukaku, Itachi and Kisame, and the Sound quartet with their Curse Marks. There could very well be ninja shit among that, as well as afterward. So I'll see. But... also... it doesn't matter. I like One Piece, and Luffy never plunders or rapes, so his status as a "real" pirate is dubious. Why not have Naruto be a fake ninja?
In fandom, it seems the first chunk of the manga is agreed to be lumped together as the "Intro / Land of Waves" Arc. I don't love this nomenclature. The first eight chapters have nothing to do with the Land of Waves, simple as. Now, so saying, I also don't like when manga fans refer to the first few chapters as just "Intro Arc" because it's kind of lazy, even if it's really the most accurate way to describe it. I prefer at least a little more... creativity (? I guess) in the naming of an arc. I think, for the time being, I might refer to these first chapters as something like "Team 7 Arc." But, even then, it doesn't account for the first two chapters. The existence of Konohamaru, for example, has nothing to do with Sasuke, Sakura, or Kakashi. Perhaps, then, we get even more nitpicky and divide these chapters into micro-arcs? Chapters 1 and 2: Uzumaki Naruto Arc; Chapter 3: a very tiny Sakura and Sasuke Arc; and Chapters 4 through 8: Kakashi Arc. But I'm annoying myself just thinking about arbitrarily breaking it down so much...!
****
Keeping the above review intact for the sake of posterity. It came at a time when I was reading nostalgic Jump manga and rating the 3in1 omnibus releases on Goodreads because work got in the way of my Reading Challenges and I wasn't giving myself enough free-time to read "real" books. By now, I've sunk low enough to just rate and review every manga volume I read, though I guess I do kind of also have more time to read "real" books, so... there's kind of a balance.
Anyway, there was definitely some negativity in the above review, as I still harbored a misaimed animosity toward Naruto as a series. Some context: I really liked the manga and anime when they first started coming stateside; I started getting into doodling at some point in parallel; my brother, cousins, and I started work on an overt Naruto ripoff comic, of which I was principal artist and general creative director (in fact, I did like 99% of the work); to expand on our/my ninja comic, I researched more ninja stuff, eventually coming to a conclusion that Uzumaki Naruto himself is a terrible ninja, in large part due to how loud and colorful he was (What kind of ninja wears a bright orange tracksuit!?). Feeling the manga was betraying its own premise, I started falling off from Naruto. Then I somehow got the idea that I actually "disliked" the series. I got a little back into it with a PSP game borrowed from a friend in eighth grade, then buying a PS2 game (Ultimate Ninja 3) that covered the plot of the whole pre-timeskip story. My interest in the manga was partly rekindled, but there was an inconvenience before me: I didn't know what torrenting was yet, so I couldn't just catch up to where Toonami had gotten; I was severely behind on the manga in US Shōnen Jump, and I guess the local library didn't have the post-timeskip volumes yet (and, for some reason, it never crossed my mind to read online manga I knew had physical English releases...); and I was disappointed to learn the next PS2 installment, Ultimate Ninja 4, would focus more on just the old characters' new designs than get too deep into the new stories (making it almost "useless" for my purposes). Over the years, I'd occasionally pop on the fan wiki to read up on arc synopses, but after a point it felt like the manga had gotten way to long to jump back into. Grabbing this 3in1 in 2016 or whenever, there wasn't, I don't think, a plan to go all the way to the end - at least not in print. Years later, ~2022, I'd grab what I needed to cover the "Part 1" of the manga, and, having finally caught up with One Piece, I feel it's as good a time as any to finally finish Naruto (and Bleach, which I plan to balance as well).
I don't fully disagree with some sentiments in my earlier review. The manga will not take long before it quits the "ninja mission" thing in favor of a copy of the Hunter Exam and Heavens Arena, including having a gay paedophile groomer villain (Hisoka; Orochimaru). The thing is, I don't really know too well what happens next.... Shukaku, Itachi and Kisame, and the Sound quartet with their Curse Marks. There could very well be ninja shit among that, as well as afterward. So I'll see. But... also... it doesn't matter. I like One Piece, and Luffy never plunders or rapes, so his status as a "real" pirate is dubious. Why not have Naruto be a fake ninja?
In fandom, it seems the first chunk of the manga is agreed to be lumped together as the "Intro / Land of Waves" Arc. I don't love this nomenclature. The first eight chapters have nothing to do with the Land of Waves, simple as. Now, so saying, I also don't like when manga fans refer to the first few chapters as just "Intro Arc" because it's kind of lazy, even if it's really the most accurate way to describe it. I prefer at least a little more... creativity (? I guess) in the naming of an arc. I think, for the time being, I might refer to these first chapters as something like "Team 7 Arc." But, even then, it doesn't account for the first two chapters. The existence of Konohamaru, for example, has nothing to do with Sasuke, Sakura, or Kakashi. Perhaps, then, we get even more nitpicky and divide these chapters into micro-arcs? Chapters 1 and 2: Uzumaki Naruto Arc; Chapter 3: a very tiny Sakura and Sasuke Arc; and Chapters 4 through 8: Kakashi Arc. But I'm annoying myself just thinking about arbitrarily breaking it down so much...!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 24, 2017
I really want to read this series all the way through and see what happens since in the past I catch up to the current volume then forget to go back and read the new ones as they came out.
April 2, 2019
This Manga was quite hard to put down when I started nearing the end. The artwork was fantastic and the story line was hard to put down.
April 11, 2019
I absolutely loved this!! It was so fun and I couldn't stop putting it down ❤️ it was funny and had me tear up at one point 😘😭 I love Naruto he's such a spirit animal and I cannot wait to read next one 😭 This is one additive manga ✨
January 5, 2020
Reread as a friend says its his fave manga. Still didnt grab me. I'll give it one more omnibus
February 22, 2021
I like zabpuza
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2024
One of my favorite clasic manga/anime. It grew with me, or rather I grew with it. I experienced many emotions, simple and complex, submerged in Naruto's life and jorney in the path of the ninja.
April 6, 2025
After 6 years of obsessing over the anime I’m finally going to binge the manga. Let’s begin the greatest love story there ever was
December 25, 2023
Jeg gråter av en manga?? FYF jeg elska dette, elsker Naruto. Sasuke??!! Omg jeg er manga-fan nå
February 19, 2024
Naruto is my favourite anime series of all time and reading the manga filled me with all those emotions all over again❣️❣️.
What a great start of the series and i loved each and every panel. The introduction of Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi were so cool and I can't get enough of them. The introduction to this Ninja's World was done so well that you just can't not fall in love❣️❣️.
Team 7's first mission and their fight with Zabuza and Haku is among my favourite fights in the entire series. Reading this fight has been such a rollercoaster ride 😭😭😭.
Can't wait to see Naruto beat the shit out of Haku for hurting sasuke in the next volume 🤪🤪.
What a great start of the series and i loved each and every panel. The introduction of Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi were so cool and I can't get enough of them. The introduction to this Ninja's World was done so well that you just can't not fall in love❣️❣️.
Team 7's first mission and their fight with Zabuza and Haku is among my favourite fights in the entire series. Reading this fight has been such a rollercoaster ride 😭😭😭.
Can't wait to see Naruto beat the shit out of Haku for hurting sasuke in the next volume 🤪🤪.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2023
On a Naruto re-read binge - it is just so good.
May 14, 2017
At first everyone hates Naruto because of his foolishness, and irresponsible being. I learned a lot about Naruto between the first two chapters, and you grasp his personality and the way he lives. What I really like about him, personally, is his attitude towards life and the way he strives to become the best "shinobi", greatest ninja of the village, to get the title "hokage" which is the best of the best. In the same chapters we get introduced to Master Iruka which is Naruto's teacher for his training, who is also someone similar to Naruto. Within the nest chapter we see Iruka's story and how it became to be with his life and relating to Naruto's, which is quite alike, personality wise. Later we get introduced to Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura who are both fellow classmates and ninjas in training. I like Sasuke's character of being that guy that doesn't care, but in the end he has one of the biggest hearts of all time. He honestly is my favorite character besides Hatake Kakashi, who I will talk about later. Sakura is honestly the cutest, but yet I can relate to her in many ways. Especially her love life and inner Sakura. She loves Sasuke with all her guts in her body, but yet doesn't give the guts to tell him how she feels. I'm glad I was able to relate to at least one character in this book or else I would've given it less than four stars. Inner Sakura is like her sub conscious, the thoughts she doesn't share out loud. After meeting these three new characters, it's like a roller coaster. You don't know when it's going to stop but yet you take all these fights, that makes them the best in this book. They get on with training and learning new techniques but yet the first mission is to get two bells from Kakashi while he's reading "Make-Out Paradise". With Naruto and Sasuke trying their hardest, and Sakura barely lifting a finger for not knowing what to do, they fail that first assignment. Kakashi is someone who I thought was going to be an asshole throughout the first three volumes, but in the end I fell for this guy. I can't believe I fell for a fictional character, but it's already happened in other books, not surprised. ... To the last book, volume 03. I really enjoyed the last book because it had the same amount of battles and character development within all of them. We meet little Inari who hates Naruto and his personality about being a hero. Little does Inari know that Naruto is just like him, who grew up with no father figure and did what he could to get the attention he needed. Inari had someone who he called father, but he died by a powerful ninja named Gato, (biggest eye roll). By chapter twenty-three, Inari plucks up the courage and goes for what he loves which is saving his mother Tsunami, and grandfather Tazuna from Gato's men. In the end of vol. 03 Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke are fighting Zabuza and Naku, two of Gato's men along with Kakashi, my love and all. To finish this off I hope that Sasuke doesn't die, because of the last two or three pages from chapter twenty-seven, but I grown to love him as well. He saved Naruto from being plunged with dozens of spikes and oh my gosh, I just can't my heart just grew ten times bigger because of this kid. Like I just can't right now. All in all it was a great read if you're into mangas and anime, like me. I can't wait to read the next three volumes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews