Manga is not just a reading for pleasure, it is a deeply philosophical piece of writing which should be considered in detail. It is impossible to read manga without thinking about its deep meaning.
Each manga is a collection of simple stories about simple people and some magical creations with superpowers, but in most cases these superpowers and simple people are the reflections of the everyday problems people face and have to cope with. Naruto is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. Conducting a review of this manga, it is important to state that not only the heroes but the whole world may be the reflection of the real situation.
Therefore, the main idea of this review is to discuss the plot of the manga and dwell upon the situations considered there. Naruto (2003) by Masashi Kishimoto has a lot of volumes and parts.
We want to consider the first part of the story where the main character is just a boy who wants to reach the main purpose of his life, to become a Hokage, the leader of the village and the strongest man who has the magic powers and is able to use it for protecting the citizens of his village.
However, the situation is not that simple as Naruto Uzumaki, the adolescent who wants to become the Hokage, possesses a great power and he cannot even imagine how strong that power is.
The plot of the situation is as follows, imaginary people live in the imaginary world. The imaginary world is divided into particular villages and which of them is run by a Hokage. People in those villages perform different functions, but it seems that all of the villages are military ones.
People who live in the villages are ninjas and they are trained to conduct different military services, however, they also deal the every day services in the village. The village where the situation takes place is run by a Hokage, who is the main person and possesses some power.
It is important to know that each adolescent who wants to become a powerful ninja should learn and train much to understand which powers are in them. However, Naruto is not that simple as others may think, he possesses the power which is comprised in him. Additionally, he is not aware of that power as well.
The situation occurs in the imaginary world, where the whole world is divided into villages. If one takes a closer look at the situation, he/she may notice that the imaginary world in manga looks like the Japan with its feudalism. Additionally, the social-political structure is really the same as the in Japan. What is the similarity? The country exists, however, it is divided into smaller parts.
The country and its villages seem rater developed from the technical point of view, however, it becomes obvious that their technological development is considered just in several aspects. Thus, having cameras and other innovative items, the military structure is not developed at all. Ninjas use the weapon made with their own hands.
It seems like a great contrast and maybe the author wanted to say that the war with the help of the innovative types of the weapon in the modern world may lead to destroy of the civilization. Why do people who have some innovative items do not use their knowledge in producing other specific subjects. Why do people who possess the superpowers are to live in villages and perform some work which may be done by means of machinery?
However, having weak development of the military sources, the citizens possess some particular powers. Using those they are able to have the domination over the others. Naruto possesses this power due to the circumstances which occurred in his childhood, however, he is not aware f that. He is to study hard to learn the magical powers.
The main idea of the story is to show the long and difficult way of Naruto from the simple students to the powerful ninja who is able to run the nation. The stories perform different difficulties and complicated tasks which were to be completed by Naruto.
The first part of this story dwells upon the situation when Naruto is just a student. Being rejected and believed to possess some evil powers, he had to prove that he deserved to live in the society. Studying he found many friends who were able to notice his good heart and the desire to help people.
Therefore, it may be stated that Naruto is the manga which shows the feudal Japan with its specific social-political structure and tells a story of a boy who being accused unfairly wants to show that he is able to study hard and help others. There are a lot of symbols in the manga as being the reflection of the reality, Naruto wants to show that to achieve something one should study hard.
Reference List
Kishimoto, M. (2003). Naruto: The tests of the Ninja. New York: Viz.