Narutois inevitably going to get a remake, but making it good will be easier said than done.For allNaruto’s anime’s problems, it’s come to be synonymous with the identity of the franchise as a whole. When someone says they’re aNarutofan, it’s a simple fact that they neverjustmean the manga—they also mean the anime, and more often than not, they mostly mean the anime. It’s one franchise for which the bar is going to be incredibly high.
Naruto’s manga debuted in 1999, running until 2014.Naruto’s two anime,NarutoandNaruto: Shippuden, debuted in 2002 and ended in 2017. The recent end date might come as a surprise to newer anime fans—Naruto’s influence on shonen is a living reality, and although some of its conventions already seem dated, it’s just because of the sheer magnitude of its impact on shōnen as a genre. It’s now been nearly a decade sinceNaruto: Shippudenwrapped up, and its first anime is showing its warts. Such a legendary series deserves a second chance—and here’s whatNaruto’s reboot could do to make the most of it.
5Use Hindsight To Budget The Animation
Naruto’s First Anime Set A Precedent The Second Can Take Advantage Of
It doesn’t take too much math with the dates above to see that whenNarutopremiered, the manga was still far from complete. Now that the series has wrapped up, whichever studio would be handling a remake could use that in order to make sure legendary scenes get the treatment they deserve—or draw attention to some underrated ones. The hands behindNarutobelonged to Studio Pierrot, also known for their work onBlack Clover,Tokyo Ghoul, andGreat Teacher Onizuka. As seasoned veterans in the anime industry, their resume has been extensive, and for the most part,Naruto’s animation is fairly strong, especially inNaruto: Shippuden.
However, the reality of any animation project, and especially of an undertaking as massive asNaruto,is that studios have limited resources. The same amount of care can’t be put into every single scene, and there’s an argument to be made that it’s the contrast with average or even mediocre animation that can make beautiful animationreallyshine. The way this would work practically is really simple.
Say, for example, that the studio knows Jiraiya’s death will gather a lot of eyes, shares, and comparisons; use that as a chance to really show what the animation team is capable of. Other moments, like the Hokage resurrection, could be given much more fanfare than they initially carried, too. For the first anime, Pierrot was in the unfortunate position of not yet knowing what parts would be impactful down the line, nor did they know how the story would play out (and therefore how their time should be budgeted). A remake would allow this all to be planned around from the get-go.
4Rework Its Fights
Naruto’s Fights Are Great But Don’t Stand Up To Modern Animation
Narutohas some incredibly memorable fights. From Rock Lee vs. Gaara to Kakashi vs. Obito,Naruto’s battles are some of its most emotionally resonant moments. In general,Naruto’s fights aren’t necessarily lackluster on their own. However, in the era ofDemon SlayerandJujutsu Kaisenwith their rich fight choreography and slick battle pacing,Narutocan’t help but feel aged by comparison.
The first point, then, is to improve the fight choreography. At its strongest,Narutohas some incredibly hype battles. Perhaps one of the best examples of how things could be stepped up, though, is Sasuke vs. Deidara. On its own, it’s one ofNaruto’s tensest fights, and it has so much room for aesthetic maneuvering. In its current version, it’s passable, and it deftly depicts what’s supposed to be happening (i.e., what’s written in the manga)—but in a fight filled with misdirections and explosions, surely more can be done to take it further.
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Another great example: Madara vs. the Shinobi Alliance. When Madara is first resurrected, he absolutely decimates thousands of shinobi without breaking a sweat, taunting them the entire time. Madara is one ofNaruto’s best villains, and eye candy à laDemon Slayercould really bring that out.
On the subject of Deidara, too,Narutoreally needs to rework its fight pacing, and a reboot would have to massively prioritize doing so. In one particularly infamous instance early on inShippuden, Deidara faces off with Naruto and Kakashi, and the fight—which is fairly short in the manga—lasts forever in the anime. Part of this is certainly because of the aforementioned limitations of working alongside the manga releases. However, another part is thatNaruto’s anime versions tend to have far too much reflection mid-fight. The adage of “show, don’t tell” applies here in spades.Narutois only barely about its fights to begin with—clean them up, and some of the beautiful dynamics underlying them will begin to shine.
3Patch Up The Love Triangle
Naruto, Sasuke, And Sakura Need To Be Depicted Differently
On the subject of the manga,Naruto’s core love triangle of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura inarguably drives the plot. A reboot could work with this foundation to make something that’s both familiarandtruer to the emotional depth of the source material.NaruHina was a notorious ship, even in Kishimoto’s own household—in the process of adaptation, Naruto’s dynamics with Sakura got overplayed, while Sakura’s actual connection with Sasuke was undervalued.
TV Tropes calls this underlying concept “Flanderization”: when, over time, something becomes a stereotype of itself and its emotional depth is flattened. It’s important to note that in the manga source, the Team 7 love triangle isn’t implemented perfectly. Sakura doesn’t get enough characterization, even in the manga. The goal shouldn’t be to be true to either the manga nor the anime, but to actually work to bring out the things at hand. Part of this will also involve focusing on Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto as individuals, rather than as elements in hypothetical relationships.
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Both versions ofNarutocompletely kill its relationships, and they start to fall flat. It could be said thatNarutosubsists off of “ships” rather than relationships, with the possible exception of Shikamaru x Temari and Tsunade x Jiraiya. A lot ofNaruto’s relationships don’t make sense as things stand, and a reboot could do a lot to make some ofNaruto’s most notorious outcomes work more naturally. Neither the anime nor the manga, for example, provide a lot of ground supporting Sai and Ino’s eventual pairing, but it happens nonetheless.Boruto’s depiction of the future, as well as the stakes that underlieNaruto, could become a lot more tangible just by treating these relationships carefully.
2Clean Up The Backstory
NarutoMust Stop Info-Dumping
Narutoloves to info-dump more than anything, and the TV release schedule possibly exacerbated this problem by encouraging lengthy recaps that aren’t really all that necessary.Naruto’s anime has incredibly heavy-handed exposition. In the manga and the TV format of the early 2000s, this can make sense to an extent. Someone might have missed an important chapter or episode three or four weeks ago, so “nudging their memory” a little can keep them engaged. The landscape has changed altogether though, and it’s now possible forNaruto’s sprawling, interconnected storyline to be depicted in a way that is altogether clean and fluid.
This also extends to the backstory within the anime itself.Naruto’s anime often ruins its own momentum as it stumbles along with the manga, bringing clutch fights or emotional peaks to a screeching halt for an extended lesson in the lore ofNaruto’s world. This can be done much better than it presently is, now that the “canon” lore is completely laid out.
1Keep The Filler (But Make It Better)
Naruto’s Filler Is Part Of Its Identity, But It Can Do More For The Story
That then brings into viewNaruto’s “non-canon” lore. It’s inarguable thatNaruto’s filler is tightly integrated with its identity as a franchise. When aNarutoreboot eventually does happen, the single most important thing it can do is not be a shot-for-shot “faithful” adaptation of the manga.
To give only one example: ninja only make up a fairly small percentage of Konoha, but the lives of ordinary people are never explored. How do ninja conflicts impact the economy, social life, and families of ordinary people?Narutoaddresses this concept slightly, but usually only in the context of establishing either an antagonist or a protagonist.One PieceFan Lettershows howNarutocan use fillerto expand and address these elements, especially.
Naruto’s manga is a very fluid, efficient work—for better and for worse. It’s a masterpiece of effective and compact storytelling on Kishimoto’s end, but on the other hand, it rarely goes into as much detail as it should with its world-building. It’s not as thoughNaruto’s manga is some untouched and virginal canon whose masterful innocence was ruined by the manga. For the better part ofNaruto’s life, its manga and anime ran in tandem, influencing one another inexorably. For the same reason, an anime reboot ofNarutoshouldn’t be afraid of straying from the “canon” manga.
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A lot ofNaruto’s filler would have to go, but that doesn’t mean the concept of filler has to go entirely. It doesn’t even have to be filler per se, in the way filler is typically understood.Attack on Titanis a crash course on how anime adaptations can support their manga; ifNaruto’s reboot were to work similarly with Kishimoto to realize his vision ofNaruto’s world, adding in new scenarios and events and characters,Naruto’s setting could become infinitely more robust. Using non-canon episodes well could also add much-needed character support to underexplored characters like Tenten. A reboot could be precisely whatNarutoneeds to realize its full potential, but it will require thinking outside the box.
Naruto
Naruto is a franchise spawned from the manga series penned by Masashi Kishimoto that began in 1999. Generating several tv series, games, movies, and more, Naruto follows the exploits of a young outcast ninja harboring the spirit of a demon fox who seeks to become the Hokage, the leader of his ninja village, to break the stigma against him. Upon the conclusion of the initial series, Naruto expanded into Boruto, following many series protagonists' children and returning faces.
