I bought my first manga(mangas? How do you pluralize that?) this weekend at Anime North. I've had a good time with the ones I've read so far, and intend to read some more, though I think I still prefer novels. Ironically then, reading a manga has been a novel experience: reading text from right to left reminded me somewhat of the Hebrew texts my family reads at Passover, and being used to reading things like Archie comics, seeing the black-and-white anime art style applied on paper seemed unusual and interesting.
The first manga I read was Black Cat vol. 1, but I also decided to pick up the first two volumes of Naruto, and see what the fuss is about. Naruto, if you're not familiar, is the Justin Bieber of anime: extremely popular, very visible within anime culture, with a devoted following and its own legion of hipper-than-thou detractors. I'm not familiar with manga as much as some of my friends are, so though they helped me pick out a few good mangas, I decided to go with a sure thing: either I would be suitably entertained, or at the very least I would be able to understand the phenomenon more. Here are my first impressions. (be aware that there are spoilers ahead.)
Naruto is an orphaned ninja-in-training in a fictional pseudo-medieval, pseudo-Japanese world. He has spiky blond hair, wears a orange jacket, and longs to become his village's "Hokage": a leader coming from a grand tradition of Hokage and is the most elite ninja in the village. What kind of ninja has bright blond spiky hair and an orange jacket?m you might ask, and the answer is what you expect: a ninja with a troublesome attention-seeking problem, who is not very good at being a ninja. He invents spells solely to make pranks, raises mayhem all over the village, and is generally disliked by his fellow villagers.
The story is mostly Naruto's and his loud ways have a Jim Carrey-esque tendency to steal scenes (for better and worse), but there are a number of interesting supporting characters. Sakura is a girl in Naruto's class that he has a crush on, while she has a crush on Sasuke. Sakura is a surprisingly two-dimensional character in this story; at one point, another character asks her to list her hobbies, giving the writer a chance to flesh out her character, but she only goes on to talk about how much she has a crush on Sasuke again. Sasuke himself is a quiet fellow sitting at the top of the class who makes clear his desire to take revenge upon and kill someone...though that person is not made clear yet. Iruka, Naruto's first teacher we see at the academy, takes care of the boy and seems to be the only one who really likes or respects him. There is also Kakashi, the strict instructor for higher-level ninjas-in-training, and the third Hokage, who operates the ninjas' village and is often seen watching story events from a crystal ball of some sort.
Story-wise, the mangas are set up like action movies: there is an amount of drama and exposition followed by an action scene, involving either a fight or some of Naruto's comic mischief. Naruto is urged by another instructor, Mizuki, to take a secret scroll and study it for help passing an important ninja exam--but secretly plots to take the very important document for himself. In Mizuki's attempts to catch Naruto and take the scrolls, he tells the boy that a major nine-tailed fox spirit that took over the village 12 years ago and resulted in many deaths was imprisoned in Naruto's body at birth. Using the scroll's knowledge, which he memorized in part, Naruto is able to defeat Mizuki, save Iruka and earn the next level of ninjaship. (I can't think what it's called offhand, but I think "ninjaship" sounds slick.) The second half of the first volume details training with Sakura and Sasuke in a group (hilarity ensues!) under Kakashi, and the second manga deals with a very special ninja mission the group goes on which goes awry.
If the first two volumes are any indication, there is an enormous amount of backstory and detail to the Naruto universe. If you were wondering what a "pseudo-medieval, pseudo-Japanese world" was like, it's like now but with no guns, ninjas-for-hire instead of armies, real spirits and real magic, and what appears to be a case of Pokemon Syndrome: a number of small to medium-sized villages scattered between lush forests. There is a lot more going on regarding the line of Hokage, the ninja village, and the concepts behind the magic than I have expressed here. That's probably a good thing for long-time fans.
The fight scenes are interesting, but often a little hard to understand. Ninjas in combat use a number of different ninja magics to hide themselves and attack, including throwing stars, manipulation of the elements, and a doppleganger ability to make copies of oneself. The latter has been used liberally in the first two volumes, and it's becoming slightly predictable: if a major character appears to have died, I know now that it is either an illusion or a doppleganger. As well, there are a number of times in combat where the pictures were too close-up to understand, and were confusing for other reasons, but were still entertaining for the number of times a the tables turn in a battle.
But most interesting was the characters and their interactions. Really, Naruto's template is nothing original: on a superficial level, the story execution is rather similar to Dragonball Z, with Sakura replacing Bulma. It made me ask, why would this story become so popular? Aside from what I assume to have been a marketing push from the fine people at Shonen Jump, I thin that the creation of elegant characters with relatable traits is what's responsible for the series' popularity. When a reader finds out that Naruto is not just a troublemaker, but makes trouble because he is alone and craves any type of attention, or sees the way he cries when he overhears Iruka praising him, they begin to see a three-dimensional character. Naruto is a character that a lot of people can relate to: he feels misunderstood and unfairly mistreated, who is much deeper than he seems, both in terms of his apparent abilities and in terms of his character. This would serve as perfect escapism for someone who feels isolated, has trouble at school and with fellow students (or elsewhere), but feels that he/she is an intelligent, interesting character who simply has not had the chance to propertly spread his/her wings.
I think it's probably a "his", though. As I mentioned earlier, Sakura's character is almost comically thin, serving as a love interest--a plot device!--and little more. The emphasis on action in the manga and the general lack of female characters would seem to suggest that this manga is directed at young boys, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised; perhaps Naruto IS really popular, but specifically with young men and few others. However, what depth Sakura does present could hint at the reasons for the existence of a female fanbase, and again, it is the creation of a few simple, yet universally-relatable character traits. Specifically, there is one scene where Sakura, laments her lack of physical beauty. "How can I overwhelm [Sasuke] with sex appeal...when I got short-changed in the T&A department?! The only part of me that's oversized is my stupid forehead!" In addition to these concerns, she dreams that the quiet, good-looking guy will pay some attention to her, and slowly pays more and more attention to the "annoying" Naruto as the story progresses. The former points will be relatable to many teenage girls, and anyone who identifies with Naruto's character will appreciate that he appears to be winning over his girl.
I'll probably pick up some more issues of Black Cat, but not Naruto. I liked the manga, and if it were a brief series, I'd consider getting more. There's like 45 out to date, though, so I think I'll stop before I get too involved. It's a well-written but light series, and some nice writing touches keep its predictability from getting bothersome.
