Firstly, I have a problem with the antagonist. The story does not focus on one antagonist for more than some time, meaning that no body gets development. I am not talking about the minor antagonists like Zabuza, but the major antagonist of the show. I will not consider the first part of the manga (before the time-skip) because all the antagonists there are either minor or are only introduced, the antagonists were fine there. The problem starts with after the timeskip. We start with the Akatsuki, move on to Sasuke, and then Itachi specifically, the Pain specifically, Then Danzo and Sasuke for a while, then Kabuto and Obito, and then Obito specifically after revived Itachi finishes Kabuto off, while parallely Madara picks up too. We also see the Juubi ad a minor antagonist, up until Obito becomes its Jinchuuriki, when he becomes the main antagonist, but when Naruto and Sasuke defeat him, this title goes back to Madara. After this, Zetsu stabs Madara and revives Kaguya, who is then sealed by Naruto and Sasuke using a Six-Paths Chibaku Tensei, after which Sasuke temporarily becomes the main antagonist until Naruto uses Talk-no-Jutsu and Sasuke joins him again for good. I do not have a problem with constantly changing antagonists. This is something that can be pulled off very well. I admire this inn the Shiva Trilogy stories. But Naruto did not pull it off well. The problem was with the fact that Naruto was trying to bring too many villains at the same time. This resulted in neither of the villains getting good development. The show was constantly juggling between villains, even in the final arc. Madara had moderate development, not a very good villain but a passable antagonist, serving as the villain Naruto and Sasuke will kill together after Sasuke joins Naruto. But then Zetsu stabs him out of nowhere and brings Kaguya back, a villain with no prior development. She comes out of nowhere as the new challenge for Naruto and Sasuke. And Sasuke himself was switching too frequently between the hero and the villain, so fast that his character became utter confusion, not getting good development. What could have worked was Sasuke killing Itachi much sooner, shifting his target to Konoha, killing Danzo, and then seeing that the other villages have contributed in his family massacre and his brother’s tragedy (I know that this did not happen, but I would have it that way for Sasuke to be able to target the whole world) seeking revenge from the whole world, being the final villain himself, fighting the war as an antagonist, and then, at the end, Naruto and Sasuke are left in a similar state to how they were after the battle in the final valley, and Naruto performing Talk-no-Jutsu on Sasuke, and Sasuke ending the war and exiling himself from the five great nations and defending them from outside forever as his punishment and atonement, or anything of that sort. His marriage to Sakura was quiet off, given that their romance had no development except Sakura desperately simping for him. This would have been much less confusing. Sasuke was frequently switching from a hero and a villain. Had Sasuke been the antagonist all along (or ever since the time skip), with equal focus on him and Naruto, the show would have had much less confusion. We also have to talk about the injustice to Obito. What really happened, was Obito being depressed when he lost a loved one, exaggerated by the fact that he did not have many friends. Madara then convinced him that the world is hell (he was not really wrong there) and then convinced him to follow the eye of the moon plan. Again, all of this only worked because Obito was depressed by the loss of a dear one, his feeling of betrayal because Kakashi involuntarily broke the promise he made to Obito that would not let Rin die, and the fact that Obito was only a teenager. What this came off as was Obito waging war on the whole world because he was depressed with the death of his love. Obito was pretty much the same as Pain, except he was not pulled off well at all, and made worse by the fact that he was the major antagonist for a part of the final arc of the manga.

Secondly, the protagonists themselves had problems. Firstly, we have Naruto himself. He was fine. Next comes Sasuke, who I have already spoken about. Then we have the most powerful character in the whole series, Sakura. Sakura neither had the power nor the virtues of a protagonist, yet she had a place so high. Her main thing was her healing powers and the Strength of a Hundred Seals, but that is no match with the powers of Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, or even Pain. It is clear that Kishimoto has added that just so that Sakura does not look that bad. Her virtue does not get any development. There was not one arc where Sakura was asked to sacrifice anything dear to her (well, except her hair in the Chuunin exams), or just tested in any way, or even explain her virtues like Naruto does to pretty much every villain. Because of all of this, she has become nothing more than a meme in the Naruto community. I myself have already made two sarcastic sentences about Sakura already. Now, you could argue that that is her point, that her very stupidity and flawed character is intended. But still the very fact very fact that she was pretty high in the hierarchy of importance in the show, means that she had too much significance and focus. Ino is a similar character, but I do not complain about her. This is because the manga was not forced to give unnecessary attention to her, but Sakura was different. After her we have Kakashi, who is also fine. But these are the only two protagonists who receive good development, because of the sheer number of protagonists (I will get into that in the next paragraph). We do have Jiraiya too, but he was killed too soon. What would have been better was him getting killed in the final war, which would have meant that he could have developed a little more as a mature and likeable character alongside his perverted nature for humor, making his death more tragic. I will take the example of the Shiva Trilogy again. In three novels we have only one death. But the focus was on much lesser characters, and the death was so well done that it was sound in terms of both structure and enjoyability. Jiraiya could have been such a death. Pretty much all the other protagonists became side characters with almost no contribution to the victory or significant parts of Naruto’s journey (main plot parts).

Then there is the fact that Naruto was focusing on too many characters. This is why most of them became insignificant by the end. A smaller collection of more significant characters would have been much better. The Konoha 11 became redundant, with only Hinata having importance as Naruto’s lover, future girlfriend and eventually his wife, and Neji being her brother and being a death in the war, alongside Obito, a broken character and the return of already dead characters. The teachers also became redundant, with only Kakashi and Might Guy contributing on the war. Might Guy, too, only became relevant in the war, where too his contribution was not too fruitful. The only significant contribution was his opening of the eighth gate, in effect a sacrifice of his life, only for Madara to heal a second later as though nothing happened. My problem is not that there are many side characters, or that characters who were once relevant are not at the end. my problem is that Kishimoto took up too many side plots, which involved too many characters into the story, but most of them became irrelevant in the main plot of the story. Too many side plots created confusion, therefore, many protagonists who were relevant at the end did not get sufficient development, and many characters who were relevant in different points of the series became irrelevant with the main plot. Different characters can come and go, like Akemi Miyano in Meitantei Conan, who was once relevant and the focus of an arc of the show but faded away due to her death, but neither the arc nor the character is pointless because it contributed towards the main plot, or like Anandmayi from the Shiva Trilogy who was ever a side character, with her only role being to serve as the foil to a side character himself, Parvateshwar. Now, you may argue that Naruto is episodic, but that is not the case. Every arc of the show was supposed to progress towards the main plot of the show, however, as more and more was revealed, the arcs and characters became irrelevant. There are exceptions like Zabuza whose arc was meant to be episodic, but this was mostly not the case.

All of that said, Naruto was very enjoyable, and my intro anime. A very good one at that because an intro anime requires enjoyability much more than structure. I would still recommend it as an intro anime. Being my first anime, and having the impact on my twelve year old self that it had, Naruto will hold some amount of special value for me.