Naruto (Unleashed: Series 1, Volume 1)

Guide to the series:

Twelve years before the start of the story, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked Konoha. With a single swing of its nine tails, it could level mountains and raise tsunamis. On top of that, it possessed an unrivalled amount of chakra, as well as unrivalled healing abilities, making it virtually unstoppable. The Fourth Hokage, the leader of Konoha at the time, sacrificed his life to seal the spirit of the Demon fox inside a newborn baby:

Uzumaki Naruto. The star of the story.

Episode List:

1 - Uzumaki Naruto Arrives
2 - I am Konohamaru
3 - A Rival!? Sasuke and Sakura
4 - The Trail! Survival Training
5 - Failure? Kakashi's Conclusion
6 - Important mission! Heading to the Wave Country
7 - The Assassin of Mist
8 - Decision Sworn on Pain
9 - Kakashi the Sharingan User
10 - The Forest of Chakra
11 - The Country That Had a Hero
12 - Battle at the Bridge! Zabuza Once Again!
13 - Haku's Secret Jutsu: Demonic Ice Mirrors


How does it look? :

The animé’s visual quality is good, there aren't problems with that. The picture quality is a lot clearer than when watching it on television channels. The subtitles featured in Naruto are also very clear, and aren’t impossible to see as so many other animé DVDs are. However, there are times when they are inaccurate inconsistent, e.g. They start off translating "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" (Shadow Replication Technique) as 'Art of Shadow Body Splitting', and thankfully start to call it 'Shadow Clone Technique', which despite being far from perfect, is slightly more accurate.

How does it sound? :

The sound quality of the DVD is amazing, with every word and sound effect clear as day. It’s a shame about the horrific English dub, which can't help but make me cringe. I just can't see why they'd have a decent Japanese dub, then have such a bad English dub. The box set contains a choice of six audios: Jap Stereo, Surround and DTS, and Eng Stereo, Surround and DTS. Take your pick.

Extras:

This truly is one of the biggest disappointments in the DVD set. They throw in text-free opening and closing credits, and a so-called 'manga to anime transition', and attempt to call those extras?? It's just a slideshow of text-free episode title cards for the 13 episodes on the set, and no-one can be satisfied with that.

The Anime:

The first half of season one tops many animé’s full seasons. This is a Shonen animé at it’s best. But that’s not saying much.
My main problem with the show is that about three minutes of each episode is taken up by telling you what happened in the previous episode. This is okay if you are watching it once per week, but annoying as hell if you're watching more than one episode in a sitting.

It starts off well with an introduction to the series, and ends with a surprising cliff-hanger, leaving you wanting to buy the next part of Naruto season one the very second you’ve finished with the first.

-Ride The Walrus


(l to r) Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke, our budding protagonists

Rating: 3.5/4

Note:(The price is good on some websites, so there’s definitely more of an incentive to buy this anime set! … I won’t say anything about normal stores as anyone who has access to the internet would probably order from it.)

Rating Guide:
0.5 (if anyone you know has it, burn their copy)
1 (run far, run fast)
1.5 (if your friend is watching and you can't go home, sure)
2 (borrow from a friend)
2.5 (rent first)
3 (Pick up the first disc and try it)
3.5 (Pick up the first disc, you WILL like it)
4/4 (Mark each release date on your calendar)