Naruto (seasons 1-3)

Naruto is a Shonen anime based on the manga written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto and published by Weekly Shōnen Jump that ran from October 3, 2002 to February 8, 2007.

Why These Seasons Will Believe It

 * 1) Great animation during the most important moments, which includes fight scenes, dramatic scenes and a few other select scenes.
 * 2) A great and varied cast of characters with distinguishable personalities, such as:
 * 3) *mh:greatcharacters:Naruto Uzumaki
 * 4) *mh:greatcharacters:Sasuke Uchiha
 * 5) *mh:greatcharacters:Kakashi Hatake
 * 6) *mh:greatcharacters:Shikamaru Nara
 * 7) *mh:greatcharacters:Neji Hyuuga
 * 8) *mh:greatcharacters:Rock Lee
 * 9) *mh:greatcharacters:Jiraiya
 * 10) *Tsunade
 * 11) *mh:greatcharacters:Minato Namikze
 * 12) *Sai
 * 13) *Yamato
 * 14) *mh:greatcharacters:Itachi Uchiha
 * 15) *Hyuuga Hinata
 * 16) *mh:greatcharacters:Gaara
 * 17) *Orochimaru
 * 18) *mh:greatcharacters:Madara Uchiha
 * 19) *mh:greatcharacters:Maito Gai
 * 20) *mh:greatcharacters:Pain
 * 21) *Konan
 * 22) *Hidan
 * 23) *Deidara
 * 24) *Zetsu
 * 25) *mh:greatcharacters:Momochi Zabuza
 * 26) *Uzumaki Boruto
 * 27) *Senju Hashirama
 * 28) Incredible fight scenes that can be compared to a fighting game. Some of the most notable include Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara of the Desert during the Chunin Exams finals, Zabuza Vs Kakashi during the Land of Waves arc, Naruto vs Gaara during the Konoha Crush, Rock Lee vs. Gaara during the Chunin Exams preliminaries, Naruto vs. Sasuke at the end of the Sasuke Retrieval Mission (or, hell, any of the fights in that arc), along with many, many, many more.
 * 29) Unique character designs in the anime. All the characters outfits are unique Tenten having Chinese-style clothes, the Akatsuki robes and and the headbands.
 * 30) Excellent music in the anime, especially during the most important fight scenes and dramatic scenes. In addition to the insert songs, all of the opening and ending songs are good as well.
 * 31) Naruto has some of the most iconic opening themes in all of anime, probably the best of which being Go! Fighting Dreamers by Flow and Silhouette by Kana-Boon.
 * 32) Good voice acting in both the original Japanese and English dubbed versions.
 * 33) Naruto utilizes lots of Buddhist symbolism in order to help relay its themes.
 * 34) * The most famous are three techniques utilized by Itachi Uchiha: Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu and Susanoo - which are three Gods in Shinto religion, the Gods of the Moon, the Sun, and Storms, respectively.
 * 35) * There's also the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, which is the take on the Kitsune, a mischievous fox-like creature with multiple tails from Japanese mythology.
 * 36) * There's also the heraldic symbol of the Uchiha Clan, which is a type of Japanese fan known as an Uchiwa (which may have also been the inspiration for the name of the Clan, too). These fans are used to exorcise evil spirits by blowing them away. Sasuke discovers late into the series that he has the ability to blow away the influence of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox on Naruto.
 * 37) Also, regarding the themes in Naruto, Christopher A. Born notes that the Naruto storyline contains traditional Confucian values, and suggests that students who analyse manga such as Naruto and Bleach will learn more about Confucianism than they would from studying its abstract ideas.  Norman Melchor Robles Jr. evaluated the portrayal of both positive and negative ideas in Naruto by counting words in the script which were associated with either violence or positive values; he found that a small majority of tagged words were violent, but commented that the portrayal of violence seemed organized to show how positive strategies on the part of the protagonists could overcome the violence. Sheuo Hui Gan considers the series to have a set of "traditional ethical values". She also compares the treatment of alienation in Naruto, which Naruto overcomes by proving his worth to society, to the portrayal of alienation in Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion, where the main characters remain alienated before eventually turning evil and renouncing their humanity.
 * 38) Naruto has some of the best, most interesting and unique villains in all of Shonen anime, with some of the biggest standout villains being Zabuza Momochi, Haku, Orochimaru, The Akatsuki, Madara Uchiha, Kimimaro Kaguya and the Sound Four.
 * 39) The combat system of Naruto is incredibly unique and well fleshed-out. It's split into three fighting styles: Taijutsu (the art of hand-to-hand combat), Ninjutsu (the art of chakra techniques) and Genjutsu (the art of illusionary techniques), with other styles such as Kenjutsu (swordsmanship), Dojutsu (eye techniques) and Kekkei Genkai (bloodline limits) thrown in there to give it even more variety.
 * 40) Tons of really good, inspirational and memorable quotes, including:
 * 41) *“Hard work is worthless for those that don't believe in themselves.” – Uzumaki Naruto.
 * 42) *"Those Who Do Not Understand True Pain Can Never Understand True Peace." - Pein.
 * 43) *" I Shut My Eyes A Long Time Ago... The Things I Seek Now Lie Only In The Darkness." - Uchiha Sasuke
 * 44) *"The True Measure Of A Shinobi Is Not How He Lives, But How He Dies." - Jiraya.
 * 45) *"Wake up to reality!" - Uchiha Madara.
 * 46) *"When a person has something important they want to protect, that's when they can become truly strong." - Yuki Haku
 * 47) *"I've realized recently… that everyone is given life for a reason. Everyone has something important to accomplish." - Kimimaru
 * 48) *"The difference between stupidity and genius, is that genius has its limits." - Hyuuga Neji
 * 49) *"Laziness is the mother of all bad habits, but ultimately she is a mother and we should respect her." - Nara Shikamaru.
 * 50) *"Those Who Break The Rules Are Scum... But, Those Who Abandon Their Friends Are Worse Than Scum." - Hatake Kakashi.
 * 51) *“The moment people come to know love, they run the risk of carrying hate.” – Obito Uchiha.
 * 52) *"Believe It" - Naruto
 * 53) Early on in the series, the fights, despite the characters having tons of abilities that could be considered overpowered, focused mostly on strategy and one character outsmarting the other.
 * 54) There are so many characters in the series that you're almost guaranteed to find one that you like and/or relate to, whether it's one of the heroes or one of the villains.
 * 55) While he can be obnoxious, one of the most relatable points of the series for some people, especially kids and teens, is Naruto Uzumaki's character.
 * 56) Naruto has some of the most creative and cool abilities in all of Shonen anime. Some of the best standout abilities include the Cursed Seal of Heaven, the Sharingan, the Byakugan, the Rinnegan, the Summoning Jutsu, the Rasengan, the Rasenshuriken, the Chidori and the Eight Inner Gates, along with many, many, many others.
 * 57) The series deals with a lot of mature topics, such as death, betrayal, love, immortality and others, which makes it relatable.
 * 58) This show is now considered a cultural icon, as it spawned a huge fanbase, tons of merchandise including action figures and backpacks, several memes, tons of games and even a few events.
 * 59) It spawned tons of hilarious memes, such as "Choking Sasuke", "My Pain Is Far Greater Than Yours!", "Never Pause Naruto" "the Naruto Run", "Storm Area 51", "Madara Uchiha Copypasta" and "Six Paths Ramen Guy"
 * 60) The two sequels, Naruto Shippuden and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, as well as it's comedic spin-off series, Rock Lee and his Ninja Pals, are also really great.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While the animation in the most important fight and drama scenes can be pretty great most of the times, the animation in some other scenes is quite lacking, and is sometimes downright terrible.
 * 2) It went downhill with seasons 4 and 5, since they are very notorious for having a grand chunk of filler after the main storyline concluded, which ended up lowering the overall quality and popularity of the show, and was a contributing factor in the demise of Toonami's first run in 2008.
 * 3) There are some bad characters here and there, including:
 * 4) *Sakura Haruno is often considered to be a weak character overall. Even worse, she sometimes punches Naruto for absolutely no reason whatsoever, ruining the "straight man/girl" joke. What's even worse is that she is tolerable in the manga series in which she didn't hit Naruto often and only does it when it is justified, thus that's the reason why Sakura is weak in this series
 * 5) *Choji Akimichi (depending on your view)
 * 6) *Danzo Shimura
 * 7) *mh:loathsomecharacters:Kabuto Yakushi
 * 8) *mh:loathsomecharacters:Rasa
 * 9) *Otsusuki Kaguya (depending on your view)
 * 10) *Mizuki
 * 11) *Tenten (depending on your view)
 * 12) *Konohamaru (depending on your view)
 * 13) *Orochimaru (depending on your view)
 * 14) *Gato
 * 15) *The Legendary Idiot Brothers
 * 16) *Uchiha Sasuke (depending on your view)
 * 17) *Inuzuka Kiba (depending on your view)
 * 18) *Kin Tsuchi
 * 19) *Sarutobi Hiruzen (depending on your view)
 * 20) *Yato
 * 21) *Uchiha Itachi (depending on your view)
 * 22) *The mask salesman that threw a mask at Naruto
 * 23) *Karin
 * 24) Several characters were poorly underutilized, like Shino Aburame, Tenten and Kankuro.
 * 25) The Cantonese dub of the show is very bad.
 * 26) The infamous German theme song.