Naruto is one of the biggest anime and manga to ever come out and is applauded widely around the world. Written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto, the series has been appreciated from 1999 to 2014 as manga, and its adaptation came out with an original Naruto series and its sequel Naruto: Shippuden. It is considered the fourth best selling manga in history, with its English Translations appearing on USA Today and The New York Times bestseller list a lot of times. Naruto is known for his strong storylines, impressive character buildups, and perfectly executed fight sequences. All these aspects have made Naruto influence a range of Manga and Anime that are popular today.’
Naruto wrapped up its manga in 2014, with the anime ending in 2017. Now it has been 4 years since the show ended and we are still torn every time we miss the series. But still, keeping our head up high, here we remember some concrete facts about the show and manga. Some are definitely fun-filled, but some also take you to darker places of the series. So with no further adieu, let’s begin.
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20. The Iconic Headbands Were Result Of Laziness
The metal-platted bands that showcased the character’s village was an accessory adored and sported proudly by the ninjas of the show. The bands were one of the most iconic ones to stand out from the show and all across the entertainment media. Every die-hard Naruto fan can be seen sporting it in special events like Comic-con.
What many people don’t know is that these bands were created out of the sheer amount of laziness by the creator of the show Masashi Kishimoto. In the first pilot of Naruto, the writer had given googles to the main character of the series. Soon, he realized that they would cost a lot of time due to the fact that he also had to show the light reflecting on them, he decided to replace them with the headbands. This resulted in all the characters having one, and some believe the writer should have stuck with the goggles only for the main character.
19.Choji’s Dad Was Part Of A Group That Wanted To Kill Naruto
Okay, we all know how much Naruto has been hated for most of his life. Initially, he was alone and rejected and often considered dangerous due to the fact he was the reincarnation of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that terrorized his village. There were a lot of enemies who even wanted him dead. One of the most unlikely ones of them is none other than Choji’s Dad.
In fact, when we met him for the first time, we couldn’t even think that once he wanted to kill an innocent child for sure. But yes, indeed, Choji’s Dad was part of a group that wanted to do so. In the very first chapters, we can see a group of large men who are hunting Naruto who just stole the forbidden scroll. This group was indeed told that the moment they see Naruto, they are supposed to kill him. This is something that won’t come to any fan’s mind as they get to know Choji’s Dad furthermore.
18. The Show Originally Had A Contemporary Setting
Like most of the mangas, Naruto, too, had to go through the process of presenting a pilot first. In 1997, the first pilot of Naruto arrived through Akamaru Jump Magazine and was quite different from the final product we witnessed later on. Originally, the manga was set in a modern world and indeed in a city, not some ancient Japanese village. Naruto is indeed the demon fox and not a human. He was seen mostly solving a crime where theft of painting was involved. Well, the plot is very much different than what we saw later on.
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17. Itachi’s Girlfriend He Killed
Even though Itachi had his times for shining in the series, we still do not know much about his life. We know that he was a top-ranking student who loved his brother; he killed his best friend to attain stronger powers and even his entire clan. That’s the powerful gen Jutsu user’s past. What many don’t know is that when he was younger and had a girlfriend. What makes his past darker is that with his clan, he indeed killed his girlfriend, too, whom he loved.
16. The Writer Of Naruto Waited A Decade For His Honeymoon
The weekly series of Maga requires 18 pages of a comic book, and even though there is staff to work helping around, it’s still difficult for a writer to get a hold of the load. Masashi Kishimoto is one of those writers who has dedicated his life all in love for his writing. He got married in 2003, but it’s said that the writer never went on a honeymoon due to the fact that he had to work on Naruto. But he did only when Naruto ended in 2014, and his Wife indeed waited for him that long.
15. Nine-Tailed Fox Is Inspired From An Actual Demon
Kurama, the nine-tailed fox that rests inside Naruto, is inspired by a creature of Japanese folklore who is much scarier than Kurama himself. He is called Kitsune and is described as the fox spirit. There are a few versions of Kitsune. One of these is “Ninko,” which posses humans and can only be sensed by possessed humans. The Kitsune, much like Kurama, also is noted to have nine tails, and they are pretty much similar if we read about them.
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14. Almost Every Character Went Through A Terrible Childhood
Not all for sure, but we have seen many of the characters going through rough childhood in the world of Naruto. Especially the titular character Naruto and Gaara that makes everyone’s heartbreak. The reason behind this is, they live in a world that has a lot of wars going on. The ninjas are often used to spy on enemy villages and are always open to battle if anything goes wrong. This has resulted in many of the kids from Naruto losing family, kicked out of their villages, rejected by people, or often being experimented with.
13. Naruto Has A Lot of References To Dragon Ball Series
The Dragon Ball series is another big anime that has influenced a range of shows and manga we read and watch today. Much like Naruto dominated the 2000s, the Dragon Ball series did the same in the 80s and 90s. Masahi Kishimoto has admitted several times being inspired by Dragon Ball Z, and why not because? It is indeed one of the biggest entertainment to come out of Japan.
So, even Naruto has referred to the series numerous times and paid homage to it. In Naruto’s world, it is plagued by nine powerful demons who are based on animals and their powers equal to the number of tails they have. There is a way to deal with them, and it is to seal them in human form where they reside until the humans die. One of the people who bared one of the demons is called Roshi, and he had a giant four-tailed monkey who is called Son Goku. If you are Dragon Ball Z fan, this might excite you as Master Roshi is one of the strongest humans in the series and had initially trained the main character of the series Son Goku.
12. The Dark Meaning Behind Itachi’s Name
Naruto has a lot of characters who come with interesting names itself that have meanings in English that represents their character. One character who had a darker take on his name was Itachi himself. Itachi means “Weasel.” We have seen Itachi betray his whole clan, thus taking this name as Weasel is known for trickery. Itachi’s character, which has fooled many people and, despite being presented as good, gives justice to the name.
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11. Naruto Was Almost Cancelled
Initially, there was an organization that wanted to take down the show. The reason behind this was the amount of violence. blood and body count the series portrayed. We can’t deny that, even though being a Shonen Anime, the series does deal with a lot of death sequences and heavy-blooded fights. The organization even tried to get sponsors to back out. But soon the series started rising in viewership, the same organization changed their mind and indeed supported the series. Guess Money Spoke a lot for them.
10. The Original Anime Is Comprised With Fillers
The Mangas, which are often made up of 18 pages, can run for a longer duration, but when they are adapted into anime, they can’t always fulfill the 20-minute spot. Especially when the anime adaptation is greenlit during the manga run. This often results in the series creators making fillers. Well, all anime fans hate fillers as they don’t contribute much to the original story of the series. The result for the original Naruto was full of fillers for sure. Naruto had abundant spoilers. Indeed the latter half of the series only contains spoilers until Naruto Shipudden arrives. It is often considered as the worst series with filler due to the fact the series contains 43% of fillers.
9. The Wars Are Based On Real Life Stories
The writer and author of Naruto, Masahi Kishimoto, grew up in a town near Nagasaki. As a child, he often listened to his grandparent’s stories of people who lost their lives during World War II. Kishimoto has often mentioned in an interview that he was pretty much inspired by these stories of great battles for the series. That’s quite interesting, though, as a matter of fact, Naruto doesn’t have weapons like tanks and bombs. But the writer did give a lot of great stuff from it.
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8. The Characters Are Quite Out Of The World
We mean, look at the villains. Especially the members of Akatsuki. They are quite different and are way out of being humans for sure. Kishimoto indeed admitted that he did that purposely so that they don’t look like humans. They do have human characteristics but often are associated with one or the other characteristic that distributes them away from being a human.
7. The English Dub Had A Really Irritating Catchphrase For Main Character
An annoying one, to be honest. The Japanese to English dubs is one of the horrible ones in the case of anime, sometimes leaving pivotal moments behind. So, if you remember, the Japanese version of Naruto had a catchphrase where he would use it while ending his every sentence. That catchphrase is “Dattebayo,” which indeed doesn’t have an English translation. The dub definitely needed something to fill in, so they went with “Believe It” to end all sentences. We are glad it didn’t live too long.
6. The Show (In Dub) Has Censored Drinking & Cigarettes
The Cartoon Network, especially with their English dub. Of course, the channel is for kids, and it has ruined a lot of animes with their editing. There was a time when Rock Lee runs away from the hospital with a drink in his hand, mistaking it for medicine. He runs away quickly in order to save his friends. He then goes into a battle with a powerful enemy like Kimimaro and often uses the drunk, which makes him the drunken master. In the Cartoon Network Dub, the drink was replaced by an elixir potion, and instead of a drunken master, made him the master of “Loopy Fist.”
Another example is the censorship of Cigarettes, especially with the character of Asuma, who is the Sensei of Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino. The character is often seen with a cigarette in his mouth. But censoring a complete cigarette and replacing it was something that requires more than effort. This resulted in Network only removing the lit part of the cigarette, leaving only a stick looking figure in Asum’s mouth.
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5. The Infamous Kiss Was Censored Too
Well, the chronicles of censorship continue. The series made the introduction scene between the top main tier characters quite an awkward one. They met with an accidental kiss that turned a lot of heads for sure. Even the anime followed the same suit and introduced them in the same way, but the Cartoon Network followed a different suit. The kiss was definitely edited out. The strange part of this mishap is that the scene reappears in the episode “The Broken Seal,” where it is showcased as a flashback, but for some reason, the network didn’t edit it out, making a move completely pointless.
4. The Writer Made-Up The Stories Later
We have to say the life of a Manga Writer or Mangaka is quite difficult. Here because he is not the sole worker of the whole write-ups. His stories and write-ups have to go through an editor and his demands before it is published at all. Something like this took place here too. There have been instances when the writer Masahi Kishimoto didn’t have an idea where to lead the story or was left confused with what to do. We have mentioned them in our following facts.
3. The Writer Didn’t Have An Idea For Madara’s Defeat
Madara was a character Kishimoto created with no idea of how he can be defeated. He basically just created the strongest character in the series with no way to stop. Absolutely no way. Now that’s something to look out for creation. We are glad Madara isn’t real. Although Madara is, of course, defeated, the defeat took a lengthy battle and powers coming from every character we had introduced in the series. Soon, Madara’s body gave out after both the tailed beasts and Demonic Statue were removed from his inside. Thus there is our story.
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2. The Series Intended To End With A Completely Different Hokage
From the very initial start, all we had was Naruto dreaming of becoming Hokage one day. This is something that somehow was a little predictable end for sure if the series ends. But that wasn’t the case originally. Kishimoto had an idea of making Sasuke the Hokage at the end, but that didn’t quite work out in the well leading to the character only saying that he will try someday. After all, he has done, it’s quite unlikely that fans would have wanted this.
1. Naruto Ended With Referencing One Piece
Naruto ended in 2014 but also on a very good note with its competitor for sure, who both paid homages to each other. This ended a long time battle of publication for sure. Naruto ended in 2014 with the final page of it with a huge reference to One Piece. We saw Naruto’s son painting Jolly Roger of the Straw Hat Pirates on one of the monuments that overlook the village. In the same week, One Piece also paid homage by showcasing the main characters of both series having a drink on the cover. Although Naruto’s face is covered, this was the scene a clear indication of the loss of Naruto. Since then, both the authors of Manga had done interviews together talking about each other’s popular Mangas.
