Naruto Anime

In TV Asahi's latest top 100 Anime Ranking from October 2006, Naruto ranked 17th on the list. Naruto Shippuden has ranked several times as one of the most watched series in Japan. The Naruto anime adaptation won the Best Full-Length Animation Program Award in the Third UStv Awards held at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines. The first of the DVD compilations containing thirteen episodes, released by Viz was nominated at the American Anime Awards for best package Naruto Costumes design. It also ranked as the third best-selling anime property in 2008. Naruto was named Best Full Animated Program at the USTv Student's Choice Awards 2009 held at the UST Medicine Auditorium on February 19, 2009. In ICv2's Top 10 Anime Properties of the first half of 2009, Naruto ranked as the second best anime franchise. The episodes from Naruto: Shippuden have appeared various times in Japanese Anime TV Rankings. DVD sales of Naruto: Shippuden have been good, appearing several times in the Japanese Animation DVD Ranking list. Free of charge streamed episodes from Naruto: Shippuden have an average of 160,000 viewers a week. Naruto has also been 20th among shows and channels on Hulu in February 2009. In Joost, it was first during the same month. In February, Naruto: Shippuden was first among the animated shows on Joost while Naruto remained in second place.

  The Naruto anime was listed as the 38th best animated show in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series. Reviewers noted that the primary focus of the series was on the fighting since the producers consider the fight scenes more important than "fleshed out" backgrounds. The music has also been noted to be a good match with the fighting scenes though it sometimes interferes with the dialogue. Martin Theron of ANN criticized Naruto Costumes the series for long fights, but he also noted that most of them break the "stereotypical shōnen concepts". The soundtracks have been praised for enhancing the excitement and mood of the storytelling. Although Christina Carpenter of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews considered the series' characters "likeable", she commented that most of them did not surpass the "stereotypics" that appear in shōnen manga. She also considered Kishimoto "an average artist at best" and derided the poor transition of his artistic style into animation. Despite this, the second reviewer from T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, Derrick L. Tucker, admitted that when the animators were at their best, they produced "artistic renderings that leave little to be desired on the part of fans of the manga", but concluded the animation was "a mixed bag". He also added that while fights were entertaining, due to the large number of them, the plot takes time to continue.

  Naruto: Shippuden received a good response from Activeanime's David C. Jones who commented on the new character designs and the improved animation. Jones also felt the series to be more serious and dramatic. The series was noted by ANN to have a more serious tone, and a good balance between comedy and drama in the first Naruto Costumes original episodes made specifically for the TV series. Unlike the panned fillers from Naruto, Naruto: Shippuden's have been praised thanks to its likable storylines and connection with the main plot. While the pacing for the first episodes has been criticized for being slow, the delivery and development of the interactions between the characters has received positive comments.Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Charles Solomon ranked Shippuden the third best anime on his "Top 10".