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just-jae · 7 months

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Eyo- So this is why I love OG Naruto

CW: Cursing.

Random projectile vomiting what I love about the first part of Naruto. Mostly from memory (so like, a decade+ ago) I decided to play the the Chunin Exams Arc while writing this to refresh my memory bc honestly, even though I dipped after tasting Shippuden and don't even care to aknowledge Boruto (even if it's good, i don't care) the fact that Part 1 is still so enjoyable shows how it's virtues were in that it actually executed, not just in what it promised. I'll probably be editing this as I rewatch-- like, apparently Choji and Neji also have arm wraps :,V

The theme around hard work. It wasn't a "Work hard to earn a comfy life/ those at the top deserve it" theme it was a "Go after what you love, be passionate, be persistent, build upon yourself to overcome obstacles," kind of hard-work theme. It encouraged chasing your passions and applying yourself to challenges. There was value in just doing that, even if you failed. The meaning and value in your life was tied to your own efforts and decisions, not your status or position in a heirarchy or social conscience.

Positive Father Figures: Forget that Naruto punches his dad in Shippuden. In the first episode, Iruka emotionally adopts Naruto after opening up to him and allowing himself to relate to Naruto as a fellow human being who was suffering and responding to that suffering in similar ways to himself. Before, he pretended not to understand Naruto for the sake of "evil demon kid" narratives and ignoring his own grief. Iruka scraggling Naruto's hair like a big bro/dad wasn't just a bonding moment; it was a found family moment. When Naruto hugs Iruka in the Forest of death, you can tell he adores that kid and is ready to sign the adoption papers.

One of Naruto's icon characters is Ichiraku, the ramen guy who basically serves as Naruto's Grandad. He fills this kid with soup ramen near-every damn day. He's probably why Naruto loves ramen so much.

The spooky, nature-y understones and setting: Giant dark forests, thematic, nature-inspired ninja techniques, the spooky music, the semi-traditional japanese instruments in the sound track (flutes, drums, lutes, etc.) It's got electric guitar too but the traditional texture of the music made it earthy and cultrally touching in the same way that Avatar: The last Air Bender's natural and spiritual eastern inspiration colored it's visual and audial aesthetic. The "HUH"s and "HUAH"' in the background music added so much bomastic, earthy energy, I LOVED hearing them. I'm telling you there's a healthy reason why I like screaming/yelling/hollering. I haven't articulated it yet, but Naruto's soundtrack scratch that itch well.

Horror: Naruto is one of the few anime I've seen with undertones of horror, without being a horror genre show especially for an action-oriented shonen inspired by feudal-age folklore hybrid with modern aesthetics like military vests and tvs. The realistic visual tone that Naruto leans toward compared to modern anime only helps this and makes how dark it gets believable when you consider how culturally and morally grey the base populations are. Sometimes the cultural vices are the main drive in a character's backstory, like Gaara, who's village was crumbling after betrayal and unreliable leadership reinforced the trust and connection issues that left him alone on a raft in hostile waters with the boogie man as his raftmate to where he couldn't even fathom caring for someone else. Bc of this, him being fucking insane, while Naruto wasn't made sense. It felt like the worlds they were in naturally led to the horrors.

Smarts and thoughtfulness being used to win battles. Earlier in the show, things weren't so flashy, not even elite ninjas were shown doing anything nearly as wild as what happens in the second and following parts. The limits of these abilities left room for the characters to use their heads to not only work around their limits but use them to their advantage to bamboozle and have some kind of chance even against physically stronger opponents.

The significance of jutsu also felt more thematic and narrative in nature. The First Hokage's super power was growing giant trees with his chakra.

Which not only suggests he created the very forest Konoha resides in, but also pointed to his approach to leadership, which was giving himself and his clan to stegnthen and lift everyone else up, not just through mixing blood with other clans but through building stregnth and resikience through connections and mutual care.

Much better than the brightest, fastest, most destructive energy bomb or powerup.

Look at the reaper death seal justsu and tell me that wasn't more terrifying than the tentails. Imagine how scared someone is using that jutsu. A demon ghost lady is gonna use your soul as a glove to grab someone else's soul, eat it, and then take you with her... him? It/they-- qhost.

Which leads me to another thing- vulnerability coupled with power. The imagery of the reaper death seal, reainforced a sense of vulnerability that is necessary for the power the user gains.

Gaara's insomnia and dangerously narrow buffer between him and Shukaku lead to him spazzing out in pain whenever something triggers an episode of whatever-the-fuck. Leaving him in a a state of disarray and uselessness.

He was supposed to be the nuke that destroyed Konoha but was too busy chasing after anyone who had a chance of beating him up. And then freaking out over hugs. His invulnerable body came with a trade off of a vulnerable and volitile psyche.

Even Zabuza only survived Kakashi because Haku incapacitated him with needles to his neck and then took care of him afterward.

The conversation between the 1st 2nd and 4th Hokage's was like. "Yo it's my bros!" "Hey bro. Sorry bro." "Bro i don't wanna fight you. But this is so cool. I miss you bro." "me too bro."

Now more character-specific stuff:

Rock Lee is my all-time favorite character. Not only is he the embodiment of part 1's major theme, but I just loved his design and voice acting (the green bodysuit could be awkward at times, but everything else is just pure "That's my son look at him go" vibes).

It's a simplistic, agile, adorable character. Pure serotonin. The way his hair flipped around when he fought was great, the (OMO) face, the scrawly, lanky body that moved a little too sharp bc he was legit always ready to explode-- just great. Rock Lee is so pasionate and just loves living. I got the sense that he isn't training just to prove ppl wrong. He loves the ninja arts, and learns to love taijutsu for its own sake not just for the sake of other's approval or besting someone in combat.

Kakashi Hatake was like the reassuring character. His calm and focused approach to conflicts and danger were a nice balance to everyone else's bamboozlement and dramatic/passionate personalities. Kakashi also comes off as a reality check sort of character. He's the one who makes team seven realize the mortality of ninjas via a monument echoing real-life monuments dedicated to fallen soldiers and victims of war/terrorism. You can tell that he cares about ninja as people despite his laid-back demeanor, and expects his team to understand the importance of respect for fellow ninja. His experiance with the inner workings of Konoha also make him more realistic and aware of the world's greyness. He knows how politically corrupt things are and wants his students to hold on to their morality instead of tossing it away to follow orders.

Zabuza- was not just eye candy-- okay Zabuza was 99% eye candy for me (looked a bit starved but-- damn Kishimoto knew what he was doing with that one)

Zabuza's situation of being emotionally dishonest with himself ties back to the whole vulberability associated with power thing. His cold world veiw ablut using and being used made it more obvious that he and Haku genuinely cared for eachother bc they acted in ways that didn't fit that narrative. This big, sharktoothed "Demon of the mist" having a soft spot that also had a soft spot for him was like 🥺

Tenten's affinity for weapon-weilding was legitimately cool and gave me mechanic vibes. They could have been so creative with that. But for now it's just sitting on its hands. I also just love her character design. She got those BUNS.

The Sand Siblings were my favorite team. They were scary as hell. Gaara was just danger personified. He was bloodthisty with a power that enabled it. Carrying around a gourd that reeked of blood-- like-- Garra was one of the horrors of the forest of death and the way he act and the way his siblings talk about him suggested he was chaotic and couldn't nessecarily be trust to keep to the plan. And I loved that he was this tiny scrawny thing with no eyebrows and eyeliner panda/racoon eyes. Some of his expressions were like- EXPRESSIONS dude.

He used have more expressions than 😐 and 😑. He was unintentionally adorable-- you can tell he was meant to look creepy and otherly but came out a little critter. His hair wasn't even meant to be red, that was an animation error. Like, a character even calls him a runt, Kiba's like "Oh no he's too small to be picking fights, run little dude" so he's canonically a little guy. Littler than normal.

Let me tell you, when I was scrubbing through the episodes (bc they spend so much time wasting time on nothing) my eyes would hook on a thumbnail of Gaara, and it'd be 2 seconds of him not reacting to something, and it'd be worth it everytime. Instant serotonin.

Seeing the smallest, most baby-faced member of the group, who looks even tinier with a giant gourd go:

Is just wild. At least for Naruto. And the fear in the other characters is just- a lot. He's not animated in a cuetsey way either. Like, he's not a loli character. He's a little eldritch horror. And I love that he's not infantilized or cutyfied by the creator for being tiny.

Kankuro was also pretty spooky. Not only did his technique look painful as a papercut, but his main puppet (Crow?) somehow managed to give off body-horror vibes.

They really milked it's spookyness by emphasizing the mechanical side of it (the clicking and the way it jerked) and its use of poisoned everything to make even the tiniest nicks a big deal.

Temari was the power house, aesthetically. Like, it's not even a girl-power thing. She just has shoulder-snapper posture. Her eyes , are this dark blue that I've rarely seen in a character design. She's got big sis vibes (bc she IS the big sis). Like, she's gorgeous.

And her explosive hair went well with her chaotic wind specialty. She just fucks the entire landscape up with the goddamned air dude.

The GODDAMNED AIR.

AND THEN LATER WITH THE FERRET-- LIKE DUDE.

Anyways...

Orochimaru as himself is a creep, at least later on-- mostly bc so much of his character is spent obsessing over a little boy's body- obv. this was meant to be creepy, but it's like, pedo creepy, not spider on the wall/ posessed doll creepy. His introduction as the Grass lady, and this slippery immoral scientist who wanted to catalyze a war was a great time He felt like a force of nature.

I dont have Grass Lady photos yet but this is the next best thing lmao. As the mysterious grass village lady, he was HORRIFIC. I really wish she and her team had been real characters instead of just a skin for Orochimaru to hide in. The way she's introduced is exactly the reason why ninja are traditionally thought of as practicing dark, evil arts. Bc they did dark, evil, spooky shit like pulling at their eyelids and being gross with their tongues. The organs and spooky singing in the background, the predator/prey theme, knowing about Naruto's seal when (at this point) so few others did. On top of that, ya'll gotta know that I'm a sucker for those conical sedge/ coolie hats. The fact that Grass LAdy had a long face and droopy eyes made it all the better. Like, how many other feminine characters have those features? All the character designs of the Grass Village team and the relation of grass to snakes and big hats was pretty neat imo.

Kiba Inuzuka honestly seems like he was inspired by Princess Monoke, which is pretty neat on its own, but i honestly don't feel like Kiba really fits into a ninja village. He's loud and bombastic and rarely uses clever or sneaky tricks. It's just brute strength and prey drive. Which isn't to say he shouldn't be in Naruto, but that maybe he could have been from a different village? Or just not necesarily a ninja. Idk. I love that he's this wild-child who's entire theme is dog.

If a dog were a dude.

If only they were good at drawing dogs though.

Hinata was one of those characters I didn't realize I identified with. A LOT. If Rock Lee is who I aspired to be, Hinata was who I actually was. Not just in demeanor (I too skalked around in a jacket no matter the weather) but also in circumstance. Struggling with comparing yourself to others, or others resenting you for the way you're treated (I was the baby of the family) or constantly dealing with people who think they're better or scold you for poor performance, being pushed into something you didn't even really care for. It was all very relatable, and I didn't even realize it at the time.

The fact that they were willing to give her those "ugly" veins left an impression on me too. Bc, that was her kickass look. It wasn't cute, and she didn't have a delicate, pretty style of fighting. Even though she got beat up she really threw hands in a way that felt realistic. Homegirl was just tryna get by despite being surrounded by assholes, and the moment she stood up to Neji, who was in the middle of phsychologically manipulating her into an anxiety attack (not a literal attack but same energy) was like 🥳. I can respect that. Even though she lost, it really felt like Neji learned there'll at least be trouble if he tries that shit again.

Shino was another favorite (I'm gonna end up going through every character at this rate). Especially with his english dub actor. For much the same reasons as Kakashi. Shino was reliable and cool headed. He didn't strut power or look to intimidate anyone, he just paid attention and tended to his bugs-- which, the fact that he cares for and works with a bunch of bugs is oddly endearing. It's like meeting a cat person who's just really good with cats but doesn't gush over them. He comes off as sensitive, but not obsessive.

His angry-neutral design is pretty neat too. Big Soundwave vibes.

Sakura's wake-up call is honestly pretty iconic. She was a bratty character who realized her flaws on her own instead of being told "Hey, be better you goof", She reflected on how she's been up until the moment when it was all on her and she was eating dirt. Sakura getting serious and learning to be proactive, now that she didn't have anyone as a crutch or a scapegoat, was a pretty awesome moment. And even though The show could have done more with her in that regard, I still appreciate that they went there. Watching Sakura with empathy (especially now that we as a society aren't starving for strong female characters like we used to be) makes me notice how realistic her nievety and dependance is. And also how funny she is at times. Even Ino realizing having that wakeup call like "Bro I'm being stupid, I can't let this girl die over a crush". It even feels like their feud isn't just about a crush but just social insecurity. Sakura used to be shy until she met Ino. Ino enouraged her to be proud up until attention started to be drawn away from her toward Sakura. This also suggested that Ino actually did look down on Sakura and was using her to feel better about herself. Sakura outgrowing Ino put her in a position of facing her own flaws or reframing Sakura as an enemy who didn't deserve to be loved.

And when the reason they were enemies (Sasuke) no longer justified being a dickhead (letting Sakura fucking die) Ino not only had to face her own inadequacy but allow herself to care for Sakura again, from a more genuine place.

I wish they had done more with that, but the fact that they did that in the first place was iconic. There's nothing like having to learn that the world you were raised in is not reality. Breaking out of a sheltered and shallow worlveiw is its own struggle. Its a learning curve, and it leaves you emotionally and socially unprepared when you thought you finally had everything figured out. Sometimes people hold on to bratty behavior bc they think their only other option is getting bullied and hating themselves. Sakura's snootiness comes off just makeshift confidence she learned from assholes. She didn't look down on Naruto bc she interacted with Naruto, she looked down on him bc that's what she's been taught to do about people like Naruto. The whole village was like that. Which is realistic. We just aren't told nearly as much of her perspective as other characters, but her learning how her words impact people, and how dishonest she is about her own competence is worth exploring.

The themes in Naruto were pretty nuanced-- even if the character's dialogue was exposition hell (they spend so much time verbally explaining things that dont need to be explained in such a longwinded manner), they were human condition themes, not just a power fantasy or a romance, or a black and white, good and evil conflict. Ninjas are already pretty shady, with Naruto being the most overtly good character in the show. Everyone else's morality (beside's Lee) is questionable at one point or another-- in fact I think even Lee was introduced as an intimidating upperclassmen. It feels true to life that regular people are actually pretty mean and flawed, which makes Naruto's themes hit harder bc you know it's not just one special character going through a special time, making friends with other 100% good people. Its life. Its people dealing with life. Like, these assholes love and hate eachother at the same time all the time. Some of Naruto's friends did some morally questionable shit. Like Shikamaru pretending to be asleep during the attack on Konoha. We still love the guy, but, get the fuck up dude.

Looking back, this just makes me realize that I've always had an interest in thematic/psychological horror and character realism. I can't stand gore/torture, but spooky grass women that infect you with curses, cursed puppets that spazz and split their faces open, and tiny murderous gremlins who nearly give people heart attacks just bc they thought he was gonna do something, being my favorite characters of Naruto is pretty telling.

Add the inky, Hidden Rain water Clones to the list too.

Iruka needs to get a pen. Reaper needs more soul spagetti and Naruto needs to give back SOME of Garra's personality. Just a little. Let him be a little bit of a little bitch.

#naruto part 1 #chunin exams #forest of death #garra #kankuro #Temari #sand siblings #sabaku no gaara #kakashi hatake #rock lee #orochimaru #Grass village lady #horror #hinata hyuga #kiba inuzuka #shino aburame #Zabuza

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