When I Heard that legendary manga artist Masashi Kishimoto hinted that he was nearing the end of the road of his long popular, long running and long dominant manga/anime empire Naruto. I took notice. after the better of two decades even the creator of possibly one of the, it not the most successful anime and manga franchises in history finally is ready to move on to a new challenge.
......That said, if it's true I say its about time!
The over the top astronomic conglomeration that is Naruto has been a puzzle to me ever since it hit the States nearly 15 or so years ago, Begun as a one off in Akamaru Jump then matriculating into its own Shonen Jump series , forming a trinity of Shonen Jump Series, (One Piece and Bleach being the other 2) it captivated the hearts and minds of manga and anime fans everywhere. winning peer awards and industry awards alike. consistently topping American manga sales and even at one point general Graphic novel sales charts. From the beginning to Shippouden to the present Readers religiously followed the exploits of Uzumaki as he and his cohorts grew to eventual adulthood, it became their "ninja soap opera" not unlike the old American soap operas of television like General Hospital and Guding Light. It also did wonders for the reputation of the way of the ninja, that is the real way of the ninja In my 25 or so years of objectively observing the anime and manga universe and community (as well as the general animation and comics community) I have never seen a fanbase so religiously, rabidly, faithful as Naruto's its almost a wonder of the world. no fandom has been so in unison, sometimes to the point of the deitization of the title character. in my years of discussing anime and manga with friends and others, if myself or others critically objected the naruto franchise for a flaw in storyline or character development, fillers or running to long there was a ALWAYS a fan defending, maybe two or 3. No show would get such a pass, not one. if someone wanted to trash One Piece, it got trashed without rebuttal, even Bleach, which like Naruto (and has hung on to Naruto's coattails) is another exhaustingly long lived franchise long in the tooth, often was non immune to criticism without defense. Naruto always had strong defenders, most notably in the form of its most rabid fan zealots, the infamous Narutards. In my years of observation no Naruto fan really likes to be known as a Narutard unless they are the arrogant few that wear the title religiously on theur sleeve. However objectively speaking most Naruto fans are comprehensive in the series both manga and anime to be justifiably labeled "Narutard" as their knowledge on Naruto rivals a golf analysts knowledge on Tiger Woods life from cradle to most recent tournament win, not that that's a bad thing. however even the most sincere fans defensive passion of Naruto is indistinguishable from the rabid Narutard, except they are a notch more civil in their defense. saying this, they still deitize Uzumaki and cohorts like Sakura Haruno (who though once hated by some has now received a lot more respct in the fan community as she grew into adulthood) as some sort of gods, though some fringe fans of certain media of numerous kinds be it anime manga video games, comics cartoons, regular scripted TV dramas and comedies traditional motion pictures, music, fashion, sports, talk radio and Blogging, tend anoint certain liked members of said communites to god like status NEVER has it been done to the effect in signifigance as the Naruto community. in some cases with all the hallelujah in majority unison You'd think that Naruto Uzumaki in his spiky haired glory was some biblical figure that lived in Jerusalem and knew Jesus and Moses healed the sick and raised the dead.
In fact No anime has been accepted more by anime and manga fans that are mainstream Christians than Naruto, many Christian Anime fans tend to defend their favorite anime and characters and use biblical scriptures to do so. on one facebook site a Christian Naruto fan used a verse to tell people to "not hate on Sakura Haruno" the biggest example of Naruto' s popularity is in the amount of fanworks I remember the anime fan community before Naruto became popular. really though you had stand out animes that were either really popular, really good or both, DBZ Sailormoon, Pokémon, Cowboy Bebop, the various Gundam series, etc. you never saw one show dominate the numerous fan art and fiction sites like Elfwood, deviantart , Anime Nation, et,al. that all ended with Naruto. you couldn't turn your head without seeing a pic of Naruto or his pals. no anime has fans more devoted religiously than Naruto. It had been partially because of that at the peak of the franchises's international popularity that I lost interest in anime and manga and shyed away from the medium, missing a couple of good series along the way. Sadly as I had returned somewhat to anime fandom I had been shocked to see though the Naruto (and to a lesser extent Bleach) fanbase remained solid and vocal the condition of the bigger fandom was not in the same shape, Distributors went out of business, cons contracted Cartoon Network began re-relegating anime to the late night "ghetto" and desperate fans began Youtube campaigns to "Sustain the Industry" as the industry outside of Funimation and Viz (Naruto's license holder in the US and Canada) was struggling along with the rest of the global economy. and the greater fandom that hadn't dropped out or moved on became increasingly geriatric and cynical. Older anime fans became snobs and began to overdominate anime discussions sometimes in fascistic fashion, however despite their most snobbish elitism, even then they treated the empire of the mighty Uzumaki with kid gloves. this boggled my mind. somehow Anime and manga fandom sometime during the peak of Naruto's popularity and ascent into near religiosity became sour and "not fun anymore" Yes, Naruto has/had been a success that has grown and been very popular with people all over the world both the world of anime fandom and geographically, probably taking its place as the one of the most succsesful anime and manga franchises of all time. however the time has come to end the franchise, the universe has been milked to the nth degree. and the sometimes over passionate fans (Narutards) have ruined the appeal of the franchise, though they keep Kishimoto well fed, but I even think that He's secretly tired and wants to move on I also think that the anime universe in general needs fresh ideas to take the leadership and win new hearts. its nice to grow up with your family as Naruto fans have grown up with the Naruto
dramatis personae but ultimately as you reach adulthood you need to extricate from your family and build your own starting from scratch, something new. same with Tite Kubo and Bleach, and, yes Oda with Onepiece. among others. I repeat the anime and manga fandom outside of Japan nowadays is becoming quite geriatric and crabby once full of cheery young fans and a variety of unique manga,shows and properties. however as some franchises exploded to near religious conglomerations other (and In this humble observers opinion better ) anime and manga have been left biting the dust some never making it out of japan. and anime fandom today outside of Nippon is all about the same 6 or 7 franchises (say DBZ Naruto Onepiece, FMA Bleach maybe Eva or Cowboy Bebop) and it has been contracting. distributors closing, going bankrupt, and anime being re-relegated to the same old late night "ghetto" time slots after a period of getting some kind of respect in the 2000s. Just as the mediums fandom outside of Nippon has stagnated so has Naruto, 14 15,16,17 years is enough. its old, its tired, its worn out its welcome, (sorry religious fans) but IMHO the characters are becoming geriatric and flavorless and its time to move on. I hope Kishimoto finds it in his heart to do whats right for him and for the anime universe. I predict Hopefully he will find somekind of way to end or bring the series story to proper closure or near closure this year . My thought Naruto (and for that matter Bleach) needs to end expediently and PERMANENTLY. all good things must come to an end. Who knows, maybe well have new creators , some new fresh ideas to take the lead and maybe the anime and manga market can get a new generation of fans and reverse the current trend.
