Reviews Manga / Naruto

Too many characters, not enough development

It was exciting because we knew people could really die (for example, how Gaara killed off the entire Rain team). At the beginning, when the main characters are first introduced, they were a fairly diverse bunch. There were dark and brooding characters, there were extrovert and friendly characters, some were proud and arrogant, some were humble and modest.

The Chuunin Exam arc was probably the best because there was a real risk of death for all involved, and each team all its own motives for fighting which were explored and explained. It was interesting to see how the different teams with differing motives interacted with each other, whether they cooperated or fought, and how the characters developed from this.

It was disappointing therefore, when there was little appearance of these characters later on. Little character development took place. Naruto remained lonely and along with Sakura remained attached to Sasuke, Sasuke became even more consumed with hatred and vengeance. Gaara though, turned from a hateful loner into a responsible leader.

Naruto's Kyuubi powerup and Sasuke's Cursed Seal really spoiled some potentially good fights. We could have seen Neji fight Dosu, for example. Instead we got to see Sasuke wipe the floor with Zaku. Naruto should have used his Shadow Clone technique more effectively instead of relying on the Kyuubi powerup (which has recently proved to be unlimited in power).

The Sound ninja suffered a pretty bad deal in comparison to the rest. It wasn't really necessary to kill them off and Orochimaru would have been more interesting had he stuck to being the leader of the Sound rather than trying to steal Sasuke's body and kill the Hokage for the evulz.

The Akatsuki was a refreshing addition to the series however. In particular, Kakuzu was an interesting character who was one of the more mature in the series. However, as the show dragged on, it became less interesting as the Akatsuki and some old Konoha characters were killed off, leaving only Naruto and Sasuke, which made the show boring and predictable.

All in all the wide range of characters was definitely an asset when considering the lack of character development.