Anyone takeing the time to read the reviews already knows that Naruto is a great cartoon. That’s why you’re looking it up-either someone told you about it or you’ve actually watched the cartoon and like it enough to want to buy it. I am in the second category. So why did I give Naruto a 3 out 5 star rating? Simple. The english version sucks. Although I have not seen this particular version for sale as it has not yet come out, the product description listed on volume 4 says that the languge is in english and the product description for the previous volume 3 says that the languge is in Japanese(dubbed) So take your chances when it comes out I guess? Anyways. what’s the big deal right? So what if it’s in english? I can understand it better right? Well yes and no. Since I obviously can’t compare both versions at the moment, I am assuming that they may use the Cartoon Network english version. The biggest difference between the 2 versions is that the japanese version is alot funnier, deeper, less corny, and makes more sense, but most importantly doesn’t change anything to make the cartoon more western friendly or easier to understand. For example, in the early episodes, they cut out all the hilarious stuff like when Naruto kisses Sauske. In the english cartoon network version they do some editing to allude to the kiss instead of actually showing it. Of course, most of Naruto’s “Sexy-Jutsu,” gets edited out as well. There’s so many changes and edits to make it western firendly that the enlish version loses a lot of the goof type comedy and way too much of the emotional draw that the japanese version has. One of the best things that the Naruto series does is convey the self-sacrifice type heroisim well. Most japanese cartoons that I’ve seen are not able to bring that feeling over-most of the time it comes across as non-sensical, overly dramatic, and gets lost in translation somehow. The japanses version brings the feeling across better with a combination of better voice acting, dialoge, and visual organization/editing. Take for example the recent episode on Cartoon Network. Naruto is in the second stage of learning the Rasengan attack. He trys to get the perverted hermit to stay and train him, then throws the rubber ball at him in frustration. In the japanese version, the perverted hermit shouts “KA KA KA KA! Strike!” In the english version, they edit out the first “KA KA KA KA!” and just rerun the “STRIKE!” followed by the fakest Naruto laugh. You stay with Naruto and understand why he’s laughing in the Japense version. The english version of this scene is just one of the many examples of bad acting and bad editing that made a funny scene flat.

There are better examples of both the goofy moments and the emotional ones, but I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who haven’t watched them yet. As other people have said, later on around episode 200 or so they start the Hurrican Chronicles and the series starts to get really good. Hopefully they release the Japanese version in the U.S. or you have a friend in Japan that is a fan and will send it to you.

I love the Naruto series but wish these DVDs would come out faster. My nephew watches ‘em online in japanese with english subtitles. He’s up to episode 150 or so and has lost all interest in the disks. Meanwhile, we’re waiting for the next box set that might take us to episode 66 or so. I think they hold ‘em back while cartoon network grinds slowly through the episodes.

On the bright side, the DVDs have english dubbing for those days when you don’t want to read subtitles.

Regardless, I’ll watch the episodes on line, forget cartoon network with those horrible graphics occluding so much of the screen, and probably buy the DVDs after the initial price drop.

this is the set where the series really starts to get intense if you thought that the forest of Death was sweet wait till you see the preliminary rounds the end of Saskue’s battle is nothing compared to what is coming in this set all I have to say is Gaara vs Rock Lee the dubbing on this series is ok i get annoyed with the way they say somethings like paper bomb instead of explosive tag like in the jap version or the way they say chakra but i have got used to that, being a fan of the series and manga since it started in japan I still give these english sets a buy because if you really can’t take the dubbing then these sets come with the subbed versions of the series and they are so close to the fan subs it is really nice. The only thing that bothers me is the lack of special features there are practically none and these sets cost more then say Heroes which has tons of special features or Smallville and all the other tv series we get here tons of special features. So you should still buy these sets they are worth it even without the special features.