I have never been a particularly huge anime fan. For the most part the things I have seen have been a result of sudden bursts of enjoyment of the genre, this tends to come as a result of something that I have discovered or was recently released that caught my attention. But ultimately, I don't really go out of my way often to watch anime. In the past I have mentioned how I want to enjoy anime more, but often struggle to find things that really suit my interests. This is where that burst of enjoyment comes and goes. I haven't just seen the big shows and films, though. In fact, I've often struggled to get into those as well. Shows like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece, even Gintama, have been shows that I've wanted to get into or have even tried to get into in the past, but really been overwhelmed with how many episodes there are. When these shows span into the hundreds, sometimes thousands, the filler is what gets me. The episodes that flesh out the story to seemingly no end, retelling of prior stories or really focusing on amping up the tension before a big fight.
Sometimes I don't mind this. I think good storytelling comes with the ability to pace things. To not give the audience everything they want, and to give it to them in short moments in which it's almost like teasing. Of course, to do this well is also incredibly difficult. So, while I have struggled with these shows, it isn't that I ever disliked them and that's why I stopped watching, it's more the fact that I've just had such struggles to stick with them for so long. Fortunately, much of these shows now have lists available, ones that tell you which episodes are filler, and which are more essential in regards to the story. With this, I recently decided to give each of these shows a chance again, to go in with a different perspective after a few years since the last attempt. And I think this time away from them worked, I'm starting to see what people enjoy about them so much. Especially in their earlier episodes.
Naruto
I have to admit, one of the things I love about Naruto so far is that 4:3 aspect ratio. The boxed, enclosed perspective that encouraged animators to create with depth of field in mind, utilising backgrounds and characters within them to be immersive. With this, is also the mostly better art. Since the aspect ratio is smaller, there's more room for animators and artists to put effort into those drawings, not bound to the rules of widescreen in which there are just so many more things to consider and draw when it comes to the additional buildings and objects that could fill a space: roads, cars, traffic, people, each of these things being something to consider. And without them, you'd be left with an empty image. This, unfortunately, is the downside of modern animation that utilises widescreen. At 4:3, I very quickly fell in love with the style, the colours and tones of the backgrounds. This makes the show look more gritty, more dark. Less colourful unless something needs colour.
Though, admittedly the show does quickly dive into that typical nature of fleshing out episodes in pursuit of a broader story, events that take multiple episodes and could easily take one or two, sometimes this is a bit annoying, particularly how early on this begins to take place. Though, in one aspect this could be considered introductions to the characters, giving us a little insight into who they are and what they're capable of. For this sort of show, focuses around ninjas, it comes as no surprise that there are a lot of unique characters to introduce and choose from. To no surprise this is where much of the love for Naruto comes from, the multiple unique characters that give the audience diverse personalities and backstories to find themselves attached to.
I started watching this with the dub out of curiosity. I don't usually do this, but with older shows that are quite popular, they end up being quite decent. And once I started with the dub, oddly I almost couldn't back to the subs. As if those characters had been displayed to me in a particular way and couldn't be changed at this point. Here and there I tried to go back to the subtitles, but found myself only really lasting an episode or two.
In regards to the story, I can't really tell what exactly it'll be about. After all, there are a lot of episodes. But the general idea is that Naruto has the spirit of a great evil placed within his body. It grants him unusual abilities, to which he doesn't really use for anything other than light mischief. Those around him tend to look down upon him for this situation he can't control, and isn't even aware of. At the same time, Naruto is destined to become the greatest ninja he possibly can. Where it goes beyond this, yeah, I really don't know. But it's an interesting and simple premise that pulls you in quite quickly. Of course this requires a plethora of training, a lot of challenges, and this is where those lengthy episodes come in.
I'm curious as to where I'll get with the show this time. It definitely has my attention more than it did in the past. Perhaps it's me getting older and becoming more nostalgic for that era, there's a chance it's just nostalgia goggles at play here. But it seems engaging so far. Lighthearted to some degree, though I suspect it'll grow a bit darker as Naruto becomes more powerful and faces stronger challenges. Oh, and I am absolutely avoiding the filler episodes. I don't see the benefit to most of them! But I'll be checking lists online for ones that might actually have some use to the story beyond just filler and retelling stories. I do think that this is ultimately where this bigger, more popular shows fail. In their pursuit to be big franchises. Though, in Naruto's defence, at least this ended around 200 episodes instead of going on for thousands. I'm looking at you, One Piece! I'll challenge you again one day.
Anyway, for a time in which anime wasn't what it now is, this is a pretty good one. I recommend it if you have years to waste catching up!
