Naruto the series is a lot like Naruto the boy. Despite being one of the fabled Big Three of Anime, both the boy and the series itself get off to a rocky start, but the best of the best episodes reach some truly great heights.
Like Zach Snyder, both Narutos have some serious growing up to do. Naruto and Naruto begin as … annoying. And I say that with love. The boy won’t shut up about his “ninja way” being the “greatest hokage” and the series just won’t stop with the annoying flashbacks. IF I HAVE TO SEE THAT $%^&ING SAD BOY SWING THAT NARUTO SITS ON ONE MORE TIME I’M GONNA GO FULL NINE-TAILED FOX ON THESE WRITERS.
Naruto suffers what even the best of shonen anime shows suffer from: poor pacing. Fight scenes are drawn out with endless flashbacks, and episodes are stuffed with filler. Sadly, the faults of Naruto are enough to make many viewers write off the series as nothing more than a nuisance, just like those mean ol’ Hidden Leaf Villagers did to Naruto himself upon first impression. But like a cancer or some kind of brain-hijacking fungus, Naruto can’t help but grow on you the more time you spend with him.
And these episodes make the faults of the series worth it.
10. “Zero Motivation: The Guy With Cloud Envy”
A true Naruto connoisseur knows that the true joy of the series comes not in the appreciation of the main character himself, but the side characters. Arguably the best part of the Naruto series are the friends that the young ninja makes along the way. And there are few ninja who are quite is fun to watch as Shikamaru. While other ninja rely on brute strength or complex jutsu, Shikamaru relies on nothing but the power of his big ol’ brain.
During the churn exams, Shikamaru faces off against the woman that he will later marry: the Hidden Sand’s Temari. “Zero Motivation: The Guy With Cloud Envy” sees Shikamaru use his wits in order to trap Temari in a shadow possession jutsu with nothing but a wall, a kunai, a t-shirt, the sun, and a hole in the ground. His tactical prowess must be seen to be believed.
9. “The Third Hokage, Forever”
“The Third Hokage, Forever” marks a sobering moment in the often goofy and childlike series. Up until this point, the only deaths in Naruto have been deserving bad guys, random side characters, and noble sacrifices for redemption. In short, the deaths in the series have all felt comfortable, predictable, and somewhat warranted. And then the Third Hokage—the most powerful ninja in the series—dies in battle with the depraved Orochimaru. The entire village mourns, attending Hiruzen Sarutobi’s rain-drenched funeral in black attire. A pillar of the village is lost. A warrior. A teacher. A grandfather. There is hardly a dry eye, from the viewers included.
8. “A Failure’s True Power”
The knuckle-headed Naruto has had a few shining moments in combat before (remember when poofed out of a shuriken disguise to get the drop on Zabuza?) but never has Naruto given an opponent the ol’ razzle dazzle quite like this before. Naruto faces off against Neji, the pride of the Hyuga Clan, in the chunin exams. Neji is said to be a prodigy, a genius. Naruto is … Naruto.
Despite Neji’s formidable skills using his all-seeing Byakugan and the devastating Gentle Fist technique, Naruto is able to use shadow clones, trickery, and a hole in the ground to deliver one of the most chin shattering uppercuts to both Neji’s jaw and our expectations in “A Failure’s True Power.” Way to go, Naruto. We didn’t know you had it in you.
7. “Good-Bye Old Friend… I’ll Always Believe in You!”
The Sasuke Retrieval mission arc is when we see boys turn into men. There are too many good episodes to count in, featuring showstopper fights with Neji, Shikamaru, and Kiba. However, the most heart pounding of them all is Choji’s battle with an Earth style user in the Sound Ninja Five in “Good-Bye Old Friend… I’ll Always Believe in You!”
Up until this point, Choji has been nothing more than comic relief. However, we get to see what the kid is really made of when he uses his clan’s forbidden food pills in order to stall the efforts of the Sound Ninja Four. Despite his youth, he is truly ready to die on the battlefield. For a second there, everyone thinks he has.
6. “The Beast Within”
Rock Lee is arguably the best character in the entire Naruto series. The taijutsu master’s episodes are some of the very best in the series, and some of the most featured on this list. While many of Rock Lee’s fights are all thrills, Lee’s battle with the stone-faced Kimimaru in “The Beast Within” is one of the funniest in the series. After catching up with Naruto, Lee comes face to face with Kimimaru of the Sound Ninja Four.
Determined not to lose, Lee drinks some “medicine” that he obtained in the Hidden Leaf, not knowing that it’s actually sake. Lee gets sh*tfaced and baffles Kimimaru with his mastery of drunken boxing. The kid even passes out and fights while he’s ASLEEP. Truly the GOAT.
5. “The Fifth Gate: A Splendid Ninja Is Born”
Zabuza vs. Team 7 and Sasuke vs. Naruto are great fights, sure, but THIS FIGHT RIGHT HERE is the crown jewel of Naruto. Rock Lee faces off against Gaara. Mind you, this isn’t well tempered Kazekage Gaara. This is all killer, no filler, crushing his foes in coffins made of sand for the hell of it COMPLETELY BATSHIT BABY GAARA. The most terrifying character of the series, we’ve seen him already liquify ninja who attempt to stand in his way.
Is Rock Lee daunted? Hell no. After upping his speed by dropping his training weights (don’t worry, we’ll get to that episode), Rock Lee opens the Fifth Gate of his chakra network in order to land a finishing blow on the spooky little sand ginger. The result is a goosebump-raising display of raw power in “The Fifth Gate: A Splendid Ninja Is Born.”
4. “The Demon in the Snow”
Despite Zabuza and Baku’s battle with Team 7 being weighed down with flashbacks, it’s still one of the finest fights of the series. Kakashi shows off his sharingan. Sasuke takes ice needles for Naruto. Naruto pretends to be a shuriken. Sakura … well … does whatever Sakura does. The crown jewel of this arc isn’t the fight with Zabuza, but its aftermath. After Haku sacrifices himself to save Zabuza, we see the swordsman’s tender, human heart for the first time.
In a final act of redemption, the battle-broken Zabuza makes a solo stand against his gangster employer and the guy’s goons. We see him body like … a hundred guys using only a kunai in his mouth before passing peacefully away next to Haku in “The Demon in the Snow.” There is nary a dry eye.
3. “Beyond the Limit of Darkness and Light”
The “Konoha Crush” arc—where Orochimaru and the Hidden Sand launch an all out assault on the Hidden Leaf—is chock full of dope episodes. Orochimaru summons giant snakes! Naruto summons a giant toad! Gaara turns fully into the One Tail Shukaku! After turning his friend Gamabunta into a spitting image of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto is able to deal a finishing blow to Gaara. And after all that, he somehow even manages to befriend the little psychopath using nothing but his words. Through his selfless actions, Naruto is able to turn Gaara from hated villain, to Poor Little Meow Meow, to the Fifth Kazekage, all thanks to the victory he achieves in “Beyond the Limit of Darkness and Light.”
2. “Gaara vs. Rock Lee: The Power of Youth Explodes!”
The stage is set in “Gaara vs. Rock Lee: The Power of Youth Explodes!” Gaara, fresh from his murder rampage in the Forest of Death, and Rock Lee, emboldened with the power of the youth and determination, are set to battle each other for supremacy in the chunin exams. So far, no one, not even professional assassins, have been able to put so much as a scratch on the Hidden Sand’s ginger menace. Is Rock Lee daunted? No. He’s been training all his life for this moment.
He can’t use ninjutsu or genjutsu, so he’s set on becoming the greatest taijutsu user the world has ever seen. The battle begins. Rock Lee’s attacks are fast, but not fast enough. He’s unable to break through Gaara’s Ultimate Defense. He pauses for a moment on top of a statue high above the battlefield, and his teacher tells him to take off the training weights bound to his legs …
Rock Lee drops the weights … and THE GROUND EXPLODES FROM THE WEIGHT OF THE IMPACT.
Suddenly Rock Lee is MOVING FASTER THAN THE EYE CAN SEE. GAARA CAN’T KEEP UP. HE’S DOING IT. ROCK LEE IS PUNCHING THROUGH GAARA’S DEFENSE. THE SHAND SHINOBI IS SHAKEN. IT’S UNTHINKABLE. UNPRECEDENTED. IT’S MY FAVORITE EPISODE IN THE SERIES. UNFORGETTABLE.
1. “A Plea From a Friend”
While the Rock Lee vs. Gaara fight is perhaps the most cleverly paced fight in the series, the battle that occurs between Naruto and Sasuke is by far the most beautifully animated. Meeting together in the Valley of the End, Naruto pleads with Sasuke to return to the Hidden Leaf. Sasuke refuses, and Naruto goes full Nine-Tailed Fox in order to drag Sasuke’s ass back home one way or another.
It’s a brother vs. brother smackdown between two ninja who have both been touched by evil. One has let it corrupt him, while the other stands strong against it. A” Plea From a Friend” serves as a microcosm of Naruto and Naruto Shippuden as series. It’s essentially a show about the two sides of power, how it can be used to oppress or liberate depending on the hand that wields it. We love a good theme. Believe it.
(featured image: Pierrot)
