Naruto Anime Manga

Henry Hsieh asked:


Anime is one of the best things that could possibly happen to television. Since its debut outside Japan, anime has reeled in millions and millions of fans. However, there are those that remain skeptical of anime, thinking of it only as a glammed up version of the typical cartoons that we see on TV. They take one look at the too perfect faces, the out of his world costumes, and the quintessential talking animals and they immediately dismiss anime as childish. Well, we as watchers of anime know that there’s much more to anime beneath its cartoonish facade.

There are several hidden messages in anime, messages that speak directly to the soul, messages about life’s lessons and truths. They might be hard to see at face value but if you look past all the humor and all the drama, you’ll see that what the characters are going through, be it a robot invasion or one-on-one battle with a dragon, are essentially the same things that we’re going through… just translated into fantasy. And every obstacle they encounter, every moral dilemma they face, we can relate to in some way or another.

Take Naruto for example. He is a young orphan boy who has been ostracized by his village for having a demon fox sealed inside of him. Now, I doubt that any of you who are reading this have demon foxes sealed inside of you. But I can bet that some of you have felt ostracized, unwanted, underestimated, and utterly alone at some point in your lives. And even when all you want is a bit of acknowledgment, nobody seems to want to give it to you. And here’s where Naruto’s hidden message comes in even in Naruto Shippuden… it’s a challenge to all of us, to do what Naruto is currently doing: never giving up. It’s a challenge for us to take on his nindo and to never back out on our own words.

Almost all of the characters have hidden messages within their own stories and backgrounds. Take Zabuza, he is portrayed as a heartless killer, a villain, someone whom we are programmed to hate. And yet, at the final moments of his life, it is revealed that despite all his brusqueness, he is still human, like all of us. And he knows how to value and be grateful to those he loves. The message in this is clear, those who have done several misdeeds are still human, and we owe it to them and to ourselves to coax the humanity out of them.

And it’s not just the characters that are worth looking into either. The themes and plots of several anime deserve a lot of praise for their insight and ingeniousness. Look at the anime Deathnote, if you take it at face value, it’s nothing more than just a very well-written and well-portrayed thriller, complete with some of the best plot twists ever concocted in anime history. But if you look at its theme, you’ll see that it’s about the classic debate on justice… is it just to kill evil men for the sake of protecting those who are good? Or should we allow evil men to live on the premise that they’re human like all of us? It’s even reminiscent of the age-old debate about the death penalty. Do we really have the right to kill another human being?

Indeed, the hidden messages in anime are very thought provoking and it fosters self analysis at many levels. They might just change the way we view our lives if we take a more serious approach to them and utilize its life provoking lesson to make our society a better place. Yes, all in all it’s just anime but the power that it brings onto the table should never be underestimated.

Henry Hsieh asked:


There is no doubt that Naruto is one of the biggest anime that hit the US market today, but can Naruto be educational? From its origin from a more Eastern background, animation in general has come a long way since its first inception. Starting back in the old days with the original dragon ball series where it was first created all the way to Naruto today, there have definitely been a lot of changes that have been taken place in the animation world.

The population of kids attracted to Naruto is growing by the day and I believe there is a clear reason why it is the most popular anime or cartoon here in the US today besides its artistic values in comparison with numerous cartoons that are shown in our television screen on a day to day basis. Let’s take a look our cartoon Batman for example. The plot or a single episode usually involves with a villain shown in the story and causes trouble with a certain amount of people through their special techniques. However, their evil deeds are eventually squashed toward the end of the episode as Batman saves the day. In the cartoon itself, there’s nothing wrong with it. The good prevails over evil, and the single episode is ended with a happy ending.

What the problem with these cartoons however is that they are very interpersonal and kids and teens cannot relate themselves to them. Kids nowadays are more intrigued with interactions then ever before. This is shown through the popularity of the internet and social sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Blogger. They have grown tremendously due to its fundamental pitch to allow kids to relate and connect with each another.

What has made Naruto so powerful is as an anime is that they have developed their characters so well that their ability to relate to kids is tremendous. Similar to a soap opera, we are able to see each and every single character develop in their own way. We see that the animation characters often time interact with the kids through numerous contests and promotions related to interact with the kids. This type of close and very personalized interaction, you can think of it similar to the strategy that McDonald uses to make kids feel like at home. It is no wonder that kids love McDonalds and the same way goes with Naruto.

The adult humor aside, Naruto is also very educational in my opinion. The focal point of the animation itself remains between the fight of good and evil. However it becomes educational throughout various episodes when we are provided the background of various characters. For example when we examine the life of just the main character Naruto; not only is he a below average kid, he is always the underdog in terms of his studies beside the fact that he’s also unpopular with others. The crucial point that the animators have it a success is how Naruto reacts to these oppositions. He tries even harder! Similar in our society unlike the baby boomers who in majority have worked with the corporate world for many years and an overwhelmingly amount of them have pensions and benefits to assist them after retirement, the people from Generation X are faced with even greater challenges. Besides massive layoffs and work sent overseas, the problems just keep stacking up. Along with kids that grow up nowadays, the piles of stress have pushed them toward the edge in many ways. That’s why we see kids running into the malls and shooting others all the time in our news today.

Not only does Naruto try hard in his daily training to overcome others that are smarter or have talents, the greatest success that animators have by developing Naruto Episode is by depicting how normal he really is. It implies in many ways that hardships will always come in our way and hard work will always payoff in the end. This is something that is lacking in today’s society where the richer gets richer and the poorer gets poorer. Doesn’t matter if you’re poor or rich, one must always work hard to achieve success. Obviously a little bit of luck would always help too. This is one of the only small lessons that I’ve observed in the anime Naruto, if you haven’t watched Naruto yet, you should definitely eitherwatch Naruto by yourself or with others. Who knows, you might learn something from it as well!