Card game

[edit] Card game
Main article: Digimon card game
The Digimon Collectible Card Game is a collectible card game based on Digimon, first introduced in Japan in 1997 and published by Bandai. The card game is also put into games. Digital Card Battle is one of them and it's also featured in Digimon World 3.

Naruto

Naruto
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This article is about the media franchise. For the title character, see Naruto Uzumaki. For other uses, see Naruto (disambiguation).
Naruto

Cover of the first Japanese Naruto manga volume
NARUTO—ナルト—
Genre Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Manga
Naruto (pilot chapter)
Author Masashi Kishimoto
Publisher Shueisha
English publisher Viz Media
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Akamaru Jump
Shonen Jump
Published 1997
Manga
Author Masashi Kishimoto
Publisher Shueisha
English publisher Madman Entertainment
Viz Media
[show]Other publishers:
Larp Editores
Panini Comics

Glénat
Carlsen Comics
Sangatsu Manga
Kana
Anubis Manga
Rightman
Mangafan
Elex Media Komputindo
Comics House, Komik Remaja
Mundo Vid
Schibsted Forlagene
JPF
Tong Li Comics
Chuang Yi (Chinese)
Daiwon C.I.

Comix-art

Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump

Shonen Jump
Banzai!
Weekly Comic
AniWay
Shonen Jump
Comic Champ


Shonen Jump
Original run November 1999 – ongoing
Volumes 47 (List of volumes)
TV anime
Director Hayato Date
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensor Aniplex

Madman Entertainment
Viz Media


Manga Entertainment
Network Animax, TV Tokyo
English network Network Ten, Cartoon Network

YTV
Cartoon Network
Jetix


Cartoon Network
[show]Other networks:
Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network, SBT
Chilevision, Cartoon Network
DR
Telesistema Dominicano, Cartoon Network
GameOne
RTL II
TVB Music, TVB Jade
Jetix, Animax
Cartoon Network (coming soon on Animax in 2009)
Global TV
Children Channel
Italia 1
TV3, Astro Ria
Cartoon Network, America
ABS-CBN, Studio 23, Hero TV, Cartoon Network Philippines
Jetix
Sic Radical
Télétoon
Jetix
Tooniverse
E City
Jetix, Cuatro
ZTV
CTS


Cartoon Network

Original run October 3, 2002 – February 8, 2007
Episodes 220 (List of episodes)
Light novel
Naruto: Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood
Author Masatoshi Kusakabe
Publisher Shueisha
English publisher Viz Media
Published 2002
Original video animation
Naruto: Find the Four-Leaf Red Clover!
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensor Madman Entertainment
Released 2003
Runtime 17 minutes
Episodes 1
Original video animation
Naruto: Mission: Protect the Waterfall Village!
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensor Viz Media
Released 2004
Runtime 40 minutes
Episodes 1
Original video animation
Naruto: Hidden Leaf Village Grand Sports Festival
Director Hayato Date
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensor Viz Media
Released August 21, 2004
Runtime 11 minutes
Episodes 1
Original video animation
Naruto: Finally a clash! Jonin VS Genin!! Indiscriminate grand melee tournament meeting!!
Director Hayato Date
Studio Studio Pierrot
Released December 22, 2005
Runtime 26 minutes
Episodes 1
Original video animation
Naruto: The Cross Roads CGI OVA
Studio Studio Pierrot
Runtime 28 minutes
Episodes 1
TV anime
Naruto: Shippuden
Director Hayato Date
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensor Aniplex
Viz Media
Network Animax, TV Tokyo
English network Disney XD
[show]Other networks:
Game One

Italia 1


ABS-CBN, Hero TV

Original run February 15, 2007 – ongoing
Episodes 138 (List of episodes)
Related works
Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow
Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel
Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom
Naruto: Shippūden the Movie
Naruto Shippūden 2: Bonds
Naruto Shippūden 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire
Naruto video games

Anime and Manga Portal
Naruto (NARUTO—ナルト—?, romanized as NARUTO) is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become a Hokage, the ninja in his village that is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based on a one-shot comic by Kishimoto that was published in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.

The manga was first published by Shueisha in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. Currently, the manga is still being serialized with forty-seven tankōbon volumes released so far. The manga was later adapted into an anime, which was produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted 220 episodes, while Naruto: Shippuden, a sequel to the original series, has been airing since February 15, 2007. In addition to the anime series, Studio Pierrot has developed six movies for the series and several original video animations (OVAs). Other types of merchandise include light novels, video games and trading cards developed by several companies.

Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. Viz has been publishing the series in their Shonen Jump magazine, and as well as the indidividual volumes. The anime series began airing in the United States and Canada in 2005, and later in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The films, as well as most OVAs from the series, have also been released by Viz, with the first film premiering in cinemas. The first DVD volume of Naruto: Shippuden was released by Viz in North America on September 29, 2009, and it started broadcast on Disney XD in October of the same year.

As of volume 44, the manga has sold over 89 million copies in Japan. Serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump magazine, Naruto has become one of the company's best-selling manga series. The English adaptation of the series has also appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 11 won the Quil Award in 2006. Reviewers from the series have praised the balance between fighting and comedy scenes, as well as the characters' personalities, but have criticized it for using standard shōnen plot elements.

Plot

Plot
See also: List of Naruto characters and World of Naruto
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 and its ninja military – 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, who replaced the Fourth Hokage after his death, forbade anyone mention the attack of the demon fox to anyone. Years later, Naruto is tricked by the renegade ninja Mizuki into stealing a forbidden scroll, but is stopped by his teacher, Iruka Umino. When Iruka almost dies while protecting Naruto from Mizuki, Naruto defeats Mizuki using the power from the scroll, which develops the supernatural ability Jutsu Shadow Clone Technique that creates clones from himself. That encounter makes 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 named Team 7 under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Like all the ninja teams from the every village, Team 7 is in charge in completing missions requested by villagers such as being bodyguards. During the course of the missions, 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. After several missions, Kakashi allows Team 7 to participate into a ninja exam in which they can improve their ranks, and thus, be part of harder missions. During the exams, 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. Tsunade sends a group of ninja including Naruto to make Sasuke return to Konoha, but Naruto is unable to defeat him. Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, leaving Konoha for two-and-a-half years of training under Jiraiya's tuition to prepare himself for the next time he encounters 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. Although they manage to save the host from the One-tailed beast, Gaara, Akatsuki is successful in capturing seven from the creatures. Sasuke, in the meantime betrays Orochimaru and faces Itachi to take revenge. Although Itachi dies in battle, Sasuke is later 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. However, Naruto defeats all of Pain's bodies and convinces the real one to leave. While the villagers rebuild Konohagakure Tsunade is dismissed from her position as the Hokage as she ended in coma for using all her energy to protect the villagers from Pain. Therefore, the elder Danzo quickly takes the role.

Production

Production
Masashi Kishimoto first created a one-shot of Naruto for August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.[1] 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 it to be an enjoyable read.[2]

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.[3] 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."[4] 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."[5] 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.[6] 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.[7] For Part II, the part of the manga beginning with volume 28, Kishimoto said that he attempted to not "overdo the typical manga style" by not including "too much deformation" and keeping the panel layouts to make it easy for the reader to follow the plot. Kishomoto said his drawing style changed from "the classic manga look to something a bit more realistic."[8]

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.[9] 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.[10] 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".[11]

When asked about what was Naruto's main theme during Part I, Kishimoto answered that it is how people accept each other citing Naruto's development in such part. Since being unable to focus in the romance during Part I, Kishimoto that during Part II he was to emphasize this theme more, despite finding it difficult.[12]

Media

Media
Manga
Main article: List of Naruto manga volumes
Naruto premiered in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in 1999.[13] The first 238 chapters are known as Part I, and constitute the first part of the Naruto storyline. Manga chapters 239 to 244 comprise a gaiden series focusing on the background of the character Kakashi Hatake. All subsequent chapters belong to Part II, which continues the storyline in Part I after a two and a half year time gap. The Naruto manga is serialized in North America by Viz Media in their manga anthology magazine Shonen Jump, with the first chapter of the English adaptation published in the January 2003 issue.[14] To compensate for the gap between the Japanese and English adaptations of the manga, Viz implemented its "Naruto Nation" campaign, where it released three volumes a month in the last four months of 2007 in order to close said gap.[15] Cammie Allen, Viz's product manager, commented that, their main reason for the schedule was to catch up to the Japanese release schedule to give their readers a similar experience to that of Japanese readers.[15] A similar campaign was planned for 2009, with eleven volumes from Part II of the series being released between February and April in order to catch up to the Japanese serialization. Starting with the release of volume forty-five in July, Viz will begin releasing Naruto on a quarterly basis.[16]

As of August 2009[update], 47 tankōbon have been released by Shueisha in Japan, with the first twenty-seven tankōbon containing Part I, and the remaining nineteen belonging to Part II. The first tankōbon was released on March 3, 2000.[17][18] In addition, several tankōbon, each containing ani-manga based one of the Naruto movies, have been released by Shueisha.[19][20][21][22] In Japanese, Shueisha has also released the series for cell-phone download on their website Shueisha Manga Capsule.[23] Viz has released 45 volumes of the English adaptation of the manga with the first being published on August 16, 2003.[24][25] In addition, Viz Media released all twenty-seven volumes in a boxed set, thus constituting the entirety of the Naruto storyline before Part II on November 13, 2007.[26]

Anime series

Anime series
Naruto
Main article: List of Naruto episodes
Directed by Hayato Date and produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo, the Naruto anime adaptation premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo October 3, 2002, and ran for 220 episodes until its conclusion on February 8, 2007.[27][28] The first 135 episodes are adapted from the first twenty-seven volumes of the manga, while the remaining eighty episodes are original episodes that utilize plot elements not seen in the original manga.[29]

Episodes from the series have been published in DVD. The first DVD series has been the only one to be collected in VHS format.[30] There are a total of five series, with each of the including four episodes per volume.[31] The series has also been collected in a series of three DVD boxes during 2009.[32][33] The newest DVD series is Naruto The Best Scene which collects scenes from the first 135 episodes from the anime.[34]

Viz licensed the anime series for broadcast and distribution in the Region 1 market. The English adaptation of the anime began airing on September 10, 2005 and finished on January 31, 2009, with 209 episodes aired.[35] The episodes have been shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami (United States), YTV's Bionix (Canada) and Jetix's (United Kingdom) programming blocks. YTV still airs the show with newer ones at midnight on Sundays and with reruns at 4am on Tuesdays-Fridays. Beginning on March 28, 2006, Viz released the series on DVD.[36] While the first 26 volumes contain four episodes, since DVD volumes have five episodes.[37] Uncut editions are compiled in DVD Box Sets, each containing 12-15 episodes, with some variation based around story arcs.[38] In the American broadcast, references to alcohol, Japanese culture, sexual innuendo, and the appearance of blood and death were sometimes reduced for the broadcast, but left in the DVD editions.[39] Other networks make additional content edits apart from the edits done by Cartoon Network, such as Jetix's stricter censoring of blood, language, smoking and the like. The series has also been licensed to the websites Hulu, Joost, and Crunchyroll, which air episodes online with the original Japanese audio tracks and English subtitles.[40][41][42]

Naruto: Shippuden

Naruto: Shippuden
Main article: List of Naruto: Shippuden episodes
Naruto: Shippuden (ナルト 疾風伝, Naruto Shippūden?, lit. "Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles") is the ongoing sequel to the original Naruto anime and covers the Naruto manga from volume twenty-eight on. The TV adaptation of Naruto: Shippuden debuted in Japan on February 15, 2007 on TV Tokyo. It is developed by Studio Pierrot and directed by Hayato Date.[29][43] ABS-CBN is the first TV network outside Japan to broadcast Naruto: Shippuden; it aired the first 40 episodes of Naruto: Shippuden, running the show through March 19, 2008. On January 8, 2009, TV Tokyo began broadcasting new episodes via internet streaming directly to monthly subscribers. Each streamed episode is made available online within an hour of its Japanese premiere and includes English subtitles.[44] Viz began streaming English subtitled episodes on January 2, 2009, on its official website for the series. The uploaded episodes include both previously released episodes and the new episodes from Japan.[45] Beginning in October 2009, the English dub of Naruto: Shippuden started airing weekly on Disney XD.[46]

In Late 2009 Disney Channel confirmed Naruto and Naruto Shippuden will come on weekly in March 2010.

The series is being released to Region 2 DVD in Japan with four or five episodes per disc. There are currently four series of DVD releases divided by story arc.[47] There is also a special feature included with the seventh Naruto: Shippuden compilation DVD based on the second ending of the series called Hurricane! "Konoha Academy" Chronicles.[48] Besides the regular DVD series, on December 16, 2009 it will be released one named Kakashi Chronicles: Boys' Life on the Battlefield (カカシ外伝～戦場のボーイズライフ～, Kakashi Gaiden ~Senjō no Bōizu Raifu~?) featuring episodes 119-120 which are set during Kakashi Hatake's childhood.[49] The first North American DVD of the series was released on September 29, 2009.[50]