naruto resonated with me at such an early age (and i would guess many others as well) and has remained one of my favorite things is due to how well it captured early adolescent attitudes and behaviors (while theres all this fun action and immersive world building going on) for example the whole sakura and ino being enemies because they like the same person (literally verbatim "we like the same person so i guess we're enemies from now on") is like the realest **** when youre eleven years old. looking back on it its hilarious but its super easy to project my childhood self onto this, or rather partially assume that mentality when i read/watch and enjoy. got that naruto bug man.
I always assumed it was like Harry Potter, the characters quite literally grew up with us and we watched them go through some of the same struggles every kid does; heartbreak and finding out who you are and your strengths and weaknesses and losing family and friends. I really dislike how the series ended, but there's an irreplaceable feeling of nostalgia tied to that show.
Technically the "Naruto" series ended, but the whole series itself hasn't officially ended yet, since they are still going to write Boruto.
I wouldn't mind seeing them do Boruto, if not just to see all the characters grown up and showing up their kids. Don't judge it when you haven't even seen anything but a few chapters
none of the boruto generation characters interest me as much as the naruto characters did (except for mitsuki but that's because his origin comes from one of my favorite places in the series and i want moooore), but naruto has always been a generational thing, so i think having it continue on with the kids of the previous generation is very appropriate. i want more. i would love just a full-on manga of the generation before naruto as well. or even before that. the naruto world is so expansive i don't think there's much of a limit to the stories you could tell and the places you could tell them because even with 700 chapters under its belt, the main naruto series didn't do all too much in the way of exploring other villages. the only villages we really now well are leaf and to an extent sand.
I fell out of the Naruto fandom over five years ago at this point, but looking back on it, I absolutely agree with you. Sasuke is that emo kid that everyone knows, who thinks he knows everything and thinks he's hot shit, but is just as much of a nerd as everyone else. Sakura is the boy-crazy girl who likes all the girly things, maybe a bit vapid, but honestly she's a good kid. Naruto is the class clown that your torn between laughing at him and telling him to shut the fuck up, I'm trying to actually listen for once. And then you see them grow up into people who actually think about what they're doing and they look back on their early selves and say 'God I was a fucking idiot when I was twelve why the hell did anyone put up with me', as many of us do. tl;dr, the early Naruto characters are literal personifications of that phase you go through when you're twelve and, retroactively, I think that's pretty brilliant.
right because thinking back to when i was in middle school and my group of male friends was obsessed with naruto, we were just as into the love interest stuff as the badass ninja stuff. it captures that childhood wonder both when you're a child and when you're grown up looking back on it. love it
