naruto

Naruto has a large number of characters, most of whom are ninjas. They initially study at the Ninja Academy, where the story begins, are split up into squads of three after their graduation and become Genin, rookie ninja. Each squad is assigned an experienced sensei. These core squads form a basis for the characters' interactions later in the series, where characters are chosen for missions for their team's strength and complementary skills; Naruto's squad 7 becomes the social frame where Naruto is acquainted with Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and their sensei Kakashi Hatake, forming the core of his world-in-the-making. The other three-man teams of his former classmates form another such layer, as Naruto connects with them to various degrees, learning of their motives, vulnerabilities, and aspirations. The groups of three are not limited to the comrades Naruto's age – groups in the story in general come in threes and multiples of three.

In the Naruto world, countries operate as separate political entities ruled by landlords. Within these countries are hidden villages (隠れ里, kakurezato?), settlements housing ninja, warriors capable of using supernatural abilities in combat. A hidden village maintains the economy of the parent country by training ninja from a young age and using them to perform missions for other countries. The ninja of a hidden village also serve as the military force of their parent country. The leaders of the hidden villages hold equal status with the leaders of their respective countries. Five countries in the Naruto world—the Land of Earth, the Land of Fire, the Land of Lightning, the Land of Water, and the Land of Wind—are known as the "Five Great Shinobi Nations". These countries are the most powerful in the Naruto world. They are ruled by a feudal lord, and the leaders of the hidden villages in these countries hold the title of Kage. Other apparently smaller nations have been named in passing, in either the manga or anime, but are yet to be explored.

naruto

Naruto has a large number of characters, most of whom are ninjas. They initially study at the Ninja Academy, where the story begins, are split up into squads of three after their graduation and become Genin, rookie ninja. Each squad is assigned an experienced sensei.

These core squads form a basis for the characters' interactions later in the series, where characters are chosen for missions for their team's strength and complementary skills; Naruto's squad 7 becomes the social frame where Naruto is acquainted with Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and their sensei Kakashi Hatake, forming the core of his world-in-the-making. The other three-man teams of his former classmates form another such layer, as Naruto connects with them to various degrees, learning of their motives, vulnerabilities, and aspirations. The groups of three are not limited to the comrades Naruto's age – groups in the story in general come in threes and multiples of three.

In the Naruto world, countries operate as separate political entities ruled by landlords. Within these countries are hidden villages settlements housing ninja, warriors capable of using supernatural abilities in combat. A hidden village maintains the economy of the parent country by training ninja from a young age and using them to perform missions for other countries. The ninja of a hidden village also serve as the military force of their parent country.

The leaders of the hidden villages hold equal status with the leaders of their respective countries. Five countries in the Naruto world: the Land of Earth, the Land of Fire, Land of Lightning, the Land of Water, and the Land of Wind are known as the "Five Great Shinobi Nations". These countries are the most powerful in the Naruto world. They are ruled by a feudal lord and the leaders of the hidden villages in these countries hold the title of Kage. Other apparently smaller nations have been named in passing, in either the manga or anime, but are yet to be explored.

Naruto Uzumaki is a young boy who has the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him. Twelve years before the start of the series, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked the ninja village Konohagakure, slaughtering many people. In response, the leader of Konohagakure – the Fourth Hokage – sacrificed his life to seal the demon inside Naruto when he was a newborn. Konohagakure, however, regarded Naruto as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by the Third Hokage forbade anyone mention the attack of the demon fox to anyone. Years later, Naruto was tricked by the renegade ninja Mizuki into stealing a forbidden scroll, but was stopped by his teacher, Iruka Umino. That encounter made Naruto realize he was the container of the demon fox.

The main story follows Naruto and his friends' personal growth. Naruto befriends two comrades, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, who are assigned with him to form a three-person team under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also befriends other characters that he meets throughout the series. They learn new abilities, get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of Konohagakure. At first, emphasis is placed on Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who are the members of Team 7. Later, Orochimaru, a criminal at the top of Konohagakure's most wanted list, attacks Konoha killing the Third Hokage as an act of revenge. This causes one of the three legendary ninja, Jiraiya to search for his partner Tsunade, to become the Fifth Hokage. During that search, it is revealed that Orochimaru also desires to acquire Sasuke Uchiha due to his powerful genetic heritage. Believing Orochimaru will be able to give him the strength needed to kill his brother Itachi, who destroyed all his clan, Sasuke goes to him. Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, leaving Konoha for two-and-a-half years of training to prepare himself for the next time he meets Sasuke.

After the training period, a mysterious organization called Akatsuki attempts to capture the nine powerful tailed beasts including the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed inside of Naruto. Several ninjas from Konohagakure, including Team 7, fight against the Akatsuki members and search for their teammate Sasuke. Sasuke, in the meantime betrays Orochimaru and faces Itachi to take revenge. Although Itachi dies, Sasuke is told by the Akatsuki founder Madara Uchiha that Itachi was ordered by Konohagakure's leadership to destroy his clan. Saddened with the revelation, Sasuke joins forces with Akatsuki to destroy Konohagakure. Meanwhile, as several Akatsuki members are defeated by the Konohagakure ninja, the leader, Pain, invades the village to capture Naruto.

Production

Masashi Kishimoto first created a one-shot of Naruto for August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump. Despite its high positive results in the reader poll, Kishimoto thought "[the] art stinks and the story's a mess!" Kishimoto was originally working on Karakuri for the Hop Step Award when, unsatisfied by the rough drafts, he decided to work on something different, which later formed into the manga series Naruto. Kishimoto has expressed concerns that the use of chakras and hand signs makes Naruto too Japanese, but still believes to be an enjoyable read.

When originally creating the Naruto story, Kishimoto looked to other shōnen manga as influences for his work, although he attempted to make his characters as unique as possible. The separation of the characters into different teams was intended to give each group a specific flavor. Kishimoto wished for each member to be "extreme," having a high amount of aptitude in one given attribute yet be talentless in another." The insertion of villains into the story was largely to have them act as a counterpoint to the characters' moral values. Kishimoto has admitted that this focus on illustrating the difference in values is central to his creation of villains to the point that, "I don't really think about them in combat." When drawing the characters, Kishimoto consistenly follows a five-step process: concept and rough sketch, drafting, inking, shading, and coloring.

These steps are followed when he is drawing the actual manga and making the color illustrations that commonly adorn the cover of tankōbon, the cover of Weekly Shōnen Jump, or other media, but the toolkit he utilizes occasionally changes. For instance, he utilized an airbrush for one illustration for a Weekly Shōnen Jump cover, but decided not to use it for future drawings largely due to the cleanup required.

Kishimoto added that, as Naruto takes place in a "Japanese fantasy world," he has set certain rules, in a systematic way so that he could easily "convey the story." Kishimoto wanted to "draw on" the Chinese zodiac tradition, which had a long-standing presence in Japan; the zodiac hand signs originate from this. When Kishimoto was creating the setting of the Naruto manga, he initially concentrated on the designs for village of Konohagakure, the primary setting of the series. Kishimoto asserts that his design for Konohagakure was created "pretty spontaneously without much thought", but admits that the scenery is based on his home in the Okayama prefecture in Japan.

Without a specific time period, Kishimoto included modern elements in the series such as convenience stores, but specifically excluded projectile weapons and vehicles from the storyline. For reference materials, Kishimoto performs his own research into Japanese culture and alludes to it in his work Regarding technology Kishimoto said that Naruto would not have any firearms. He said he may include automobiles, aircraft, and "low-processing" computers; Kishimoto specified the computers would "maybe" be eight-bit and that they would "definitely not" be sixteen-bit. He has also stated that he has a visual idea of the last chapter of the series, including the text and the story. However, he notes that it may take a long time to end the series since "there are still so many things that need to be resolved".

Mermaid Melody

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch , Māmeido Merodī Pichi Pichi Picchi?) is a shōjo manga and anime series created by Michiko Yokote, with artwork by Pink Hanamori. The manga was originally published in the monthly shōjo manga anthology Nakayoshi. There are 32 chapters published (including two special stories) and are compiled into seven volumes issued by Kodansha.

Pichi Pichi Pitch is loosely based upon the old Hans Christian Andersen version of "The Little Mermaid" tale, which is about the mermaid who falls in love with a human boy, and transforms into a human to win his heart.
The anime series was produced by TV Aichi. The first season of which, composed of 52 episodes, was shown on the TV Tokyo Network from April 05, 2003 to March 27, 2004. A second season, entitled Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure, lasted for 39 episodes and was aired from April 03 to December 25, 2004.
ADV Films acquired the license to the anime on June 2004 for its North American release, but was eventually dropped due to difficulty in finding backers and securing a TV airing deal. Although the anime has not since been re-licensed for an English language distribution, Del Rey Manga acquired the rights to publish the manga for the North American audience. It began releasing the manga on April 2006 under the title Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody.
Lucia, Mermaid Princess of the North Pacific Ocean, sets out to land to find the boy she saved from a shipwreck seven years before the beginning of the story, the boy to whom she entrusted her pink pearl. She eventually found the boy: a surfer named Kaito Dōmoto. But as the human form Lucia assumed, named Lucia Nanami, bears very little resemblance to her mermaid form, Kaito cannot recognize her. She cannot tell Kaito who she really is; otherwise, according to mermaid folklore, she would turn into foam. So she tries to convince Kaito into figuring out who she really is (since the legend does not say anything about the other person discovering a mermaid's true identity by himself).
At the same time, Lucia has been told that a group of water creatures or suiyō have invaded the marine world and she must gather the six other Mermaid Princesses and their pearls to bring back the legendary goddess Aqua Regina to stop them. To fulfill this, she joins forces with Hanon and Rina, Mermaid Princesses who came up to dry land, use their pearls, turn into singing idols, and use their voices as an offensive.

Characters

Wherever possible, the spelling of the names are taken from the English translation of the Pichi Pichi Pitch manga. Otherwise, spellings are based on those used on official merchandise, or commonly-used fan transliterations.


Main Characters
Three DVD covers showing the three forms of the main characters Lucia (blonde hair), Hanon (blue hair), and Rina (seaweed green hair): mermaid (left cover), human (center cover), idol (right cover).
Lucia Nanami (Nanami Ruchia?)
Voiced by: Asumi Nakata
Lucia is the Mermaid Princess of the North Pacific Ocean, keeper of the pink pearl, and the main character of the story. She goes up to land to search for a boy she saved seven years ago. She is unaware of the danger in the marine world and of her real mission until she is told of them by her "older sister", Nikora. She is characterized by her simplicity and naïveté, but with having a strong will, typical traits of shōjo manga heroines. Her idol form is Pink Pearl Voice. Of all the mermaids in the series, Lucia's mermaid form and human form contrast the most (Lucia has dark blonde hair and brown eyes in the surface while having lighter blonde hair and light blue eyes while at sea).


* Some fans in the West still spell her name as "Luchia," due to a misunderstanding of the spelling systems of different languages. The Italian name Lucia follows Italian spelling rules, which say that "c" is pronounced as a post-alveolar affricate (the same sound that is written as "ch" in English) when it appears before a front vowel (in this case, "i"). That pronunciation is correctly represented in Japanese kana as . When attempting to transliterate the kana back into Latin characters, some people, unaware of the Italian spelling of the name, tried using the English "ch" to represent that consonant, resulting in the incorrect spelling "Luchia".

Hanon Hōshō ( Hōshō Hanon?)
Voiced by: Hitomi Terakado
Hanon is the Mermaid Princess of the South Atlantic Ocean and keeper of the aqua mizu-iro "water-color") pearl. Unlike Lucia, Hanon goes up to land to escape water creatures. She is perky and feminine, yet a bit more worldly than her friend Lucia. This worldliness is evidenced by many of her actions—especially by her romantic pursuit of her music teacher, Tarō Mitsuki. Her idol form is Mizuiro (Aqua) Pearl Voice, although the first time that it is named in the manga, she is erroneously called Blue Pearl Voice.

Rina Tōin ( Tōin Rina?)
Voiced by: Mayumi Asano
Rina is the Mermaid Princess of the North Atlantic Ocean and keeper of the green pearl. Initially she is depicted as beautiful but stern and bent on revenge for the capture of her best friend, Noel. Later, however, she evolves into a more mature character, and acts as an older sister figure to Lucia and Hanon. She seems to love plasma TVs and shows this love in many anime episodes. Her idol form is Green Pearl Voice.

* Some fans in the West still spell her name as Lina, because the Japanese language does not distinguish the sounds "r" and "l", treating them as the same. This means that "ri" and "li" are both represented as リ, and it can be difficult to figure out what the intended romanization is until it is established by official sources.

Supporting Characters

Kaito Dōmoto ( Dōmoto Kaito?)
Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio
Kaito, the son of a pair of musicians, is an avid surfer, as well as Lucia's love interest. Though he is popular with girls, he is secretly in love with a beautiful mermaid who saved him from a shipwreck seven years ago, which killed his parents, and has yet to realize that this mermaid is Lucia. Later in the story, it is discovered that beneath Kaito's human exterior lie some distinctively un-human qualities and that he is a prince of an ancient water race and the younger twin brother of Gakuto. Kaito has a hard time when Lucia comes in her human form, because of having feelings for both her human form and her mermaid form. Kaito eventually realizes that the two are one, giving Kaito the ability to love Lucia no matter what form she is in.


Voiced by: Miyako Ito
Lucia's guardian who serves as her guide. Hippo accompanies Lucia in her search for her pink pearl, and is among those who voice disapproval of her relationship with Kaito. He is also polite, always putting , -san after every name, even when angry. In the anime, he is shown as Lucia's pet penguin. Later on, he is able to transform into a very cute human boy, as well as a creature called a Hippocampus.

Nikora Nanami ( Nanami Nikora?)
Voiced by: Eri Saito
Nikora is the virtual manager of the "petit-hotel" Pearl Piari , puchi-hoteru pāru piari?) on land, where Lucia, Hanon, and Rina work (in the manga, she is the owner of a bath house called Pearl Waters). A purple mermaid, she poses as Lucia's older sister in order to inform her of her mission. In the last chapter of the manga, it is discovered that she is seven years older than Lucia.

Madame Taki ( Taki-san?)
Voiced by: Kumi Yamakado
Madame Taki is the owner of the Pearl Piari. A fairly major character in the anime who is a fortune teller and friend to the mermaid princesses.

Tarō Mitsuki ( Mitsuki Tarō?)
Voiced by: Daisuke Kirii
Tarō is Lucia's music teacher and Hanon's love interest (she refers to him as Tarō-chan). He had met a mermaid in the past, and made a piano piece for her, not knowing what happened to her after their last meeting.

Noel (ノエル, Noeru?)
Voiced by: Ryoko Nagata
Noel is the Mermaid Princess of the Arctic Ocean and keeper of the deep blue ( ai-iro) pearl. She helped Rina escape from the sea monsters, which led to her capture. She is calm, gentle, caring, and studious (as she sometimes wears glasses on land later in the second season of the anime). She is Caren's older twin sister by about a minute at the most. Noel cares deeply for Caren, the one that she had always wanted to meet. Her idol form is Ai-iro (Deep Blue) Pearl Voice.

* In the third volume of the English manga, ai-iro was translated as indigo, but deep blue makes more sense regarding the character's colour scheme; the colours may be based on the rainbow, but Lucia is pink, not red. It is yet to be seen whether this will be corrected.

* Some refer to Noel's name as Noelle, because originally Noel is a male name, while Noelle is the female form, but the official English translation as well as the official Japanese romanization uses Noel.

Caren ( Karen?)
Voiced by: Ema Kogure
Caren is the Mermaid Princess of the Antarctic Ocean, keeper of the purple pearl, and twin sister of Noel. In the anime, she first appears as the winner of a beauty contest that the main trio enters; in the manga, she first appears to save them from the Dark Lovers. In the first season, Tarō asks her about his mermaid, and she later blames Rina for Noel's kidnapping. Even after things are straightened out, she chooses to go find Noel alone. She is Noel's polar opposite, having a mysterious personality.

Caren and Noel are twins, born on opposite sides of the Earth. When Caren finally meets Noel, she launches herself at Noel, hugging her and calling her Onee-sama, a respectful term for big sister. Even though the two had not met before, Caren cares most for Noel and would do anything to save her, even if it meant Caren having to find here on her own. While she is cold and distant in the first season, she is found to be wild, humorous, and even a bit strange in the second. Her idol form is Purple Pearl Voice.

Coco ( Koko?)
Voiced by: Satomi Arai
Coco is the Mermaid Princess of the South Pacific Ocean and keeper of the yellow pearl. She is incarcerated by the sea monsters for most of the first season, so not much is known about her. In the manga, however, she is a friend of fellow Mermaid Princess Sara. Later, she found to be playful and gentle in the manga, yet brash and outspoken in the anime. Her idol form is Yellow Pearl Voice.


Aqua Regina , Akua Rejīna-sama?)
Voiced by: Kumi Yamakado
Aqua Regina is the ocean goddess who gives the Mermaid Princesses new songs and upgrades for their gear. However, this is all that she can do alone after expending a great deal of energy thousands of years ago. She is needed to ultimately stop the sea monsters, and the seven pearls have to be gathered to summon her; Gaito/Gakuto seeks to summon her as well, so that he can use her to destroy the world. Aqua Regina later gives bands to the mermaids to upgrade their singing power; as in many magical girl series, this is signified by adding frills and accessories to their dresses. She also upgrades their microphones in the end of season one, before she is finally summoned. At the end of the manga, Aqua Regina reveals that Lucia is to be her successor.

Sara's servant (, Bāya?)
This old woman only appears in the manga. She is Sara's servant and guardian from childhood, and worries about Sara's involvement with Gakuto. However, Sara treats the woman like garbage and refuses to listen to her. The old woman therefore helps the princesses in secret to atone for what her ward has become. She is actually at the root of the incident that caused the events in the story.

Antagonists

Gakuto ( Gakuto?)
Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio
Gakuto is the leader of the sea monsters who is bent on taking over the marine world. He is always depicted drinking wine, and wearing black. His resemblance to Kaito made the latter a subject of initial ire by Rina. He is known in the anime as Gaito (ガイト). (There is no definite reason for the name change, but one obvious reason is to distinguish him from J-Pop star Gackt, whose name is spelled the same way in katakana. In the Del Rey manga translation, his name is spelled Gackto in order to emphasize the comparison between the character and the singer.) He is in one episode turned into Kaito and seems to get feelings for Lucia's human form.

The Dark Lovers (Dāku Rabāzu?)
Gakuto's four female followers who serve him in exchange for his love for them. There are composed of the following:

Izuru (Izūru?)

Voiced by: Sayori Ishizuka
Izuru is the most mature of the four, she has the power to control waves and marine beasts and has the ability to create dragons from water. She is also the most obsessed with winning the heart of Gakuto.


Eriru ( Eriru?)

Voiced by: Yuki Matsuoka
Eriru is the one with the multiple personality disorder. At one phase, she is cute, beady-eyed, and acting as if she were antsy (spinning around and never saying any normal speech). In another phase she can speak correctly and is more observant of her surroundings. In her third phase, when threatened (or when she spins around), she becomes scary, her eyes glow red, and she changes her voice accordingly.

Maria ( Maria?)

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi
Maria is the one closest to Gakuto in terms of love. She is also very cruel at times, and sometimes seems to see Gakuto more as a boy-toy than a love prospect. She has the power to make and/or manipulate ice and snow.

Yūri ( Yūri?)

Voiced by: Chieko Honda
Yūri is the youngest-looking of the four. She has the ability to control people and objects, especially with the use of her music and, if any, a nearby piano. Although Yūri is loyal to Gakuto, his continued treatment of her as a child leads her to a star-crossed relationship with Hippo, i.e. his human form.


The Black Beauty Sisters: Mimi and Sheshe (Screenshot from eyecatch)

Black Beauty Sisters ( Burakku Byūtī Shizutāzu?)
They're composed of the red-wearing older sister Sheshe , Shisutā Sheshe?, Voiced by: Miki Tsuchiya) and the blue-wearing younger sister Mimi ( Shisutā Mimi?, Voiced by: Noriko Shitaya). Gakuto hires them after the Dark Lovers' failed attempts to capture the Mermaid Princesses. These two have the ability to sing tunes more powerful than the songs the Mermaid Princesses themselves sing, although in the anime and the second arc of the manga, the Princesses manage to get strong enough to overpower them. Though Gakuto turned them back to their original forms (two angler fishes), they were brought back in the second season. Their group name is usually shortened by fans to BBS.


Sara ( Sara?)
Voiced by: Kana Ueda
Sara is the Mermaid Princess of the Indian Ocean and keeper of the orange pearl. She joins Gakuto in his quest to take over the marine world after an incident bestowed her a dark power, turning both her orange hair and her orange pearl pitch black (though her eyes stay orange) and destroying her own kingdom.



That incident was a proposed rendezvous with Tarō, her secret human lover, in which he never showed up. (In the manga, he actually arrived before, but Sara's guardian found out about the relationship and insisted that he leave, convincing Sara that he had abandoned her.) In a fury, Sara unleashed a wave of power, destroying her kingdom and causing the wave which killed Kaito's parents and from which Lucia saved Kaito. In the manga, her villain name is Black Pearl Voice and she transforms into an idol in a black dress reminiscent of a diva.


However, in the anime, she does not transform until she turns good, and instead has the power to sing offensively in a humanoid, amphibious form like the villains and mermaid idols, with or without her E-pitch. In the end, she decides to join the other mermaids as is her duty. She, herself, seals the gate to Gakuto's castle in the book because it's her duty and she unsealed the gate after her kingdom was destroyed.
In the TV show, Aqua Regina seals the gate and Sara goes with Gaito because she loves him. The manga shows that she goes with him because she realizes that he is the one that needs her the most and that what he did was partly out of love for her and the want to make her happy. She also appears in the second season as a spirit, informing Lucia of the future Orange Pearl Voice and offering her assistance where she can. Sara is also seen singing with the other mermaid princesses in the very last episode of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure.

Naruto Episodes 1 - 5

Episode 1 "Homecoming"

Naruto Uzumaki returns to Konoha following a two-and-a-half-year training journey with Jiraiya. He is reintroduced to his peers, who have all advanced to Chunin rank and beyond, unlike Naruto who is still a Genin. Elsewhere, two real estate agents of Akatsuki head towards Sunagakure to capture Gaara, who has since become the Kazekage, the village leader.

Episode 2 "Akatsuki makes its move"

Jiraiya tells Kakashi Hatake which Akatsuki's procedures to collect the tailed beasts is underway. Because of the Demon Fox inside him, Naruto is in danger any time he leaves the village, so Jiraiya relinquishes Naruto's training to Kakashi, who can ensure his safety. Kakashi gives Naruto and Sakura Haruno a test to see how far they have mproved. Meanwhile, the Akatsuki members Deidara and Sasori arrive at the access of the Sunagakure. They look at that Yura, their sleeper agent, has right now cleared the guards.

Epsiode 3 "The Results of Training"

Kakashi challenges Naruto and Sakura with the bell test, in which they are required to forcefully take from Kakashi two jingle bells using whatever spells necessary. Sakura and Naruto both prove their newly acquired skills. At Sunagakure, Deidara reveals his ability to manipulate exploding clay. He takes to the skies aboard a giant clay bird and begins his aerial assault by lobbing exploding clay spiders onto the guards, instantly killing them. As fast as he affects it to the Kazekage building, however, he finds Gaara there waiting for him.

Episode 4 "Jinchuriki of the Sand"

Naruto and Sakura both notice the even though properties suffer vastly improved, they are nonetheless no equate for Kakashi's superior techniques, as he too has become stronger, and discover to resort to more non&wshyp;traditional means. They win the challenge by threatening to spoil the ending of Kakashi's new novel, forcing him to cover his ears and shut his eyes because of the Sharingan's ability to read lips. Meanwhile, Deidara and Gaara begin the battle. Deidara finds a formidable challenge in Gaara's abilities to control and manipulate sand.

Episode 5 "As the Kazekage...!"

Deidara sees that subduing the Kazekage is not as easy as he thought. He hurls exploding clay at Gaara to no effect, as Gaara can quickly summon a shield of sand around him investing in relative ease. Gaara then commands his sand to attack Deidara who has no choice but to try to evade. Gaara's sand quickly catches up with Deidara and crushes his arm.

The Start of Uzumaki Naruto
Naruto is a complex and delightful story of a difficult child who wants to
be the greatest Ninja ever. Like many of the anime that got derived from
their manga, it has developed a decent and loyal following, not merely
because of the complexity, but the intense emotions and deep motivations.
Uzumaki Naruto is a child the present many children his age can identify with. It
is a story of heroes and challenges, with only the right span of
silliness, humor, and budding romance.

In the beginning, Naruto is a noisy, arrogant, troublesome child, who
performs disrespectful pranks around his village. He thinks he is going to
be the greatest ninja ever, yet when he is tested, cannot perform a great deal the
simplest of techniques which all the other students have mastered. Alone,
without any parents to look after him, he is referred to as with by his teacher,
Iruka-sensei, who has also been heard alone from the time he was a child. It is known to
everyone in the village, but not to Naruto, that he has a monster
nine-tailed fox sealed inside of him. Twelve decades earlier, the demon fox
had attacked the village, destroying it, and killing Iruka's parents. But
the village recovered, and the demon fox was neutralized by sealing it
inside the newly-born child, Uzumaki Naruto. It was forbidden for anyone in
the village to ever reveal the truth to others, particularly to the child
himself.

Alone, unrecognized and despised by everybody, Naruto does his pranks to
try to gain attention. In the end, when another concluding exam comes by, all
the students are given the chance to confirm such a developing ninja
powers. Everyone passes, not including Naruto, who attempts to create a
replication of himself, but easily succeeds in creating an absurd, weak,
useless replication. Iruka, his teacher, has no choice but to fail him.
Naruto is depressed, seeing any individual else graduate and earn the symbol of
graduation, a metal plate with the village symbol that properties wear as a
forehead protector.

Fate and an evil force conspire to give Naruto a second chance. A sly and
untrustworthy teacher, Mizuki-sensei, befriends Naruto and convinces him
that he can graduate if he steals the Scroll of Sealing and uses its immense
and dangerous powers to learn impressive techniques that will allow him to
pass. Secretly, Mizuki manipulates Naruto for his own mission to steal
the scroll. He is prepared to kill Naruto in the process.

Naruto steals the scroll and learns one number one and powerful technique. The
head of the village, the Hokage-sama is angry by the theft, and sends the
village ninjas out to find the childish thief. They are angry, claiming that
this was no mere prank, but a very dangerous act. Even Hokage-sama
realizes that Naruto can reason happy damage, and may much be able to
unwittingly unseal the demon fox within him.

When Iruka has found Naruto, the boy is confused and exhausted. He has
practised over and over one of the forbidden techniques. The teacher and
student are set upon by Mizuki. The traitorous sensei injures and disables
Iruka, ready to take the next step and steal the scroll and kill both
witnesses. Iruka protects Naruto, who runs away, scampering off on all
fours just like a fox. Mizuki pursues and catches up, but Iruka appears and
is able to protect his student once more. When Naruto finds out the truth
about the demon fox sealed inside of him, he realizes that Iruka is a loyal
teacher and friend, who has sole ever tried to make it easier for him. Mizuki attacks, but
Naruto, significantly just a boy, unleashes his newly-developed technique of
multiple shadow replication. The astonished Mizuki is beaten up by the
hundreds of Naruto duplicates. Iruka is impressed, deciding then to
graduate the boy. He supplies Naruto his metal forehead protector as a symbol,
and the boy is pleased and proud. But the wise Iruka-sensei warns the boy
that the path of the ninja is just beginning and it will be a lot harder
from here-on. Episode one ends on a note overly is upbeat and with the anticipation of
many adventures and lessons to come.


The Japanese Origin of the Kyuubi in Naruto

Few things in the anime, Naruto, can charge the atmosphere with as much as excitement and as much awe as when Kyuubi appears on screen. This rendition of the Japanese mythical creature, the Kitsune, is one of the most mysterious and interesting characters in the anime. The Kyuubi, as I'm sure most Naruto fans know, is the nine-tailed demon fox once ravaged Konoha and was sealed by the fourth Hokage inside the body of Uzumaki Naruto, the series' main character. Naruto, for all his kindness, is often plagued by the Kyuubi's efforts to tempt him with raw power. And, when Naruto is unable to contain his strong emotions, he becomes consumed by the Kyuubi, losing both his sanity and control in a bout of pure and unrestrained rage. Naruto does a 360, changing from the lovable prankster that we all love to a rampaging monster who, if he passes a certain point, can no longer distinguish friend from foe.

Kyuubi's Origins

But where does the Kyuubi's origin lie? Kishimoto-sensei certainly didn't just pull this Kyuubi legend out of his hat. Indeed, the Kyuubi is based on the Japanese mythological creature called the Kitsune. Translated, Kitsune means 'fox'. The fox, as portrayed in Japanese folklore, is a cunning creature, intelligent but mischievous. In fact, the Kitsune is often called a 'trickster' and incidentally, this is how Naruto is portrayed at the beginning of the story. The kitsune can transform into a human being, a skill it learns when it reaches a certain age, usually 100. However, it most commonly transforms into a beautiful woman, a seductress, much like 'Naruko', Naruto's female form when he does his Oiroke no Jutsu.

The kitsune can have several tails, ranging from one to nine. The number of tails the kitsune has indicates its age, its wisdom, and its strength. In the anime, when Naruto succumbs to the Kyuubi's temptation of power, his charka leaks out and forms like 'tails'. The number of tails that grows out of Naruto, the stronger he becomes and the more he loses control of himself. So far, in both the manga and in Naruto Shippuden, we have only seen up to four of Naruto's tails. At that point, he completely loses control of himself and he will begin to attack everyone - friend or foe. If he is not contained, or if the Kyuubi is not resealed and Naruto grows all nine tails of the Kyuubi, he will, in a sense, die, and the Kyuubi will once again be released to wreak havoc on the world.

Nine Tails

Thus, the Kyuubi, a nine-tailed fox, is a creature in its prime. Indeed, in the anime, the Kyuubi is said to be the strongest of the nine Bijuus scattered throughout the five countries. One swipe of its mighty tails can cause whole villages to crumble and tidal waves to form. In fact, it's so powerful that it is regarded as a 'natural disaster' by the villagers and is often believed to be a force that comes when human beings become too evil and therefore need to be 'purged'. The reason why Kishimoto chose the Kyuubi to become the strongest Bijuu is probably based on the Japanese legend of the 9 Bijuu, five of which are elemental Bijuu, one of them is Gaara's Shukaku, the Bijuu of Wind. And of course, another one is the Kyuubi, the Bijuu of Fire, the strongest of all the tailed beasts. So that's pretty much it. Hopefully this will give you some idea of where the Kyuubi comes from as well as some of the applications where the Kyuubi is being applied to inside the world of Naruto.

When Will Naruto End?

Knowing that your favorite anime series is about to end is a lot like graduating from high school. It gives you mixed feelings - relief and despair. Relief because, if the author's nice, all the loose ends will be tied and you'll finally get your resolution and despair because you know that you'll know that, come next week, you'll no longer be sitting giddily in front of the TV waiting for your favorite show to air.

Rumors of the End

Recently, a lot of Naruto fans have been predicting that Naruto would end soon. And of course, it has created quite a racket among the Naruto fans because, really, who wants that anime to end? Sure, we all want to see if Naruto really does become Hokage, we all want to find out if Sasuke and Sakura get married, and we all want to see if Kakashi ever does take off his mask. But then again, Naruto has been with us for such a long time now - since 1999 for the manga and since 2002 for the anime. And Naruto's almost like a friend now - a little brother. And tuning in every week to see what happens to him has become such a familiar routine that it's hard to imagine a month without that knuckleheaded ninja that we all love.

This rumor - that Naruto would end soon - is still circulating even now as you read. The main question is - is it true? Frankly, I doubt it. There are just too many unresolved issues in Naruto right now that it doesn't seem feasible that the anime would end soon. A good indication that the anime's about to end is if the manga is nearing its end. And take it from an avid manga reader, Naruto's just warming up. The first part of Naruto before the time skip was like an introduction of characters compared to the depth of Shippuden right now. All those issues in Naruto - the kyuubi, the Uchiha clan, the Akatsuki - they're all being explored in Shippuden right now. They're being dissected, and each day, we learn something new and the plot only gets deeper and deeper.

Part 1 was barely stroking the surface. There was more to the Kyuubi than met the eye. It wasn't just a rampaging monster - the Kyuubi had ties to the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Madara to be exact. It seems that the Uchiha clan has more secrets that have yet to be revealed. There seems to be more to the Uchiha Clan's massacre than we were led to believe. Also, there's the appearance of the Rinnegan, the strongest doujutsu ever in the Naruto universe, and it is further complicated by the fact that it is the Akatsuki Leader who owns this eye technique. There's also the matter of Kabutomaru - the combination of Orochimaru and Kabuto. Then there's the whole matter of the root ANBU.

So, When Will Naruto End?

If you want an honest answer, then I'd say that I have no idea. Only Kishimoto can tell. It's his story and he could end it tomorrow by killing off the characters with a comet if he so desired and we wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. All we can do is speculate.

Really, there's just too many things going on in Naruto right now that it doesn't seem like it's going to end any time soon - at least, not in the next few years. So, I suggest you start loving that blond-haired ninja right now because it looks like Naruto's here to stay.More naruto wallpapers

Kakashi Gaiden

Since this has been a big hit on youtube, I have also uploaded this to Veoh.com where you can download it. This is six action packed manga chapters that are Kakashi's past. So far the anime hasent sho