Naruto

About

Naruto is a Japanese manga and anime series created by Masashi Kishimoto, and published in Shounen Jump. The story follows Naruto Uzumaki, a ninja who searches for recognition, and dreams to become the Hokage, the ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader as well as the strongest of all. The series has garnered a large fan following online, spawning many parodies.

History

Naruto originally started out as a manga series, written by Masashi Kishimoto, and was first published in Shounen Jump magazine in November 1999, lasting until November 10, 2014. An anime adaptation under the same name was also aired on October 3, 2002, and ran until February 8, 2007, with a total of 220 episodes. A second season, titled Naruto: Shippuden, also began airing on February 15, 2007, a week after the original series stopped, and is still ongoing. As well as this, there has been a total of 9 films based on the anime series, as well as a spin-off series titled Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals also began airing on April 3, 2012, based on a spin-off manga of the same name. As well as this, various other Naruto media have also been released, including three Light Novels, Video Games, as well as trading card games.

Online Relevance

The Naruto series has a large online following within the online anime community, often being described as one of the ‘Big 3’, along with fellow Shounen Jump titles One Piece and Bleach. The series has a significant presence on sites such as Tumblr^[1], Reddit^[2], 4chan’s /a/ (Anime and Manga) board^[3], Fanpop^[4], My Anime List^[5] and DeviantART^[6][7]. There are numerous sites holding information of the series, such as the Naruto wiki^[8], TV Tropes^[9] and Anime News Network^[10]. The Naruto Facebook page also has over 6 million likes^[11], and Fanfiction.net also has over 356,000 fanfictions based on the show^[12]. There are also multiple fansites based off the show, most notably Naruto-kun^[13] and Naruto Fever^[14].

Notable Sub-Memes

Balancing Sasuke

“Balancing Sasuke”: is a photo meme based on a McDonald’s Happy Meal action figure released in Taiwan and Japan. The toy is based on the character Sasuke Uchiha, and includes a lever attachment on its back, which allows it to perform single back-flips. Due to the nature of the toy, it gained in popularity, spawning many parodies

Tobi’s A Good Boy

Tobi’s a good boy is a phrase often quoted by fans of the Naruto manga/anime in relation to the character Tobi, a criminal within the show who is shown to have a childish personality, despite his role as a villain within the show.Due to the childishness of the phrase, combined with the fact the he is supposed to be a member of a major criminal organization, have lead the phrase to become popular and humorous among fans.

Madara Uchiha Copypasta

Madara Uchiha Copypasta is copypasta based on the character Madara Uchiha, often used in or to start power level discussions. The copypasta starts with asking is there a character who is stronger or who can defeat Madara, then starts naming off various abilities associated or used by him. There are multiple variations of the copypasta, some include powers used by characters in other franchises.

External References