Kakashi Hatake

Though his name is written in the manga using kana, Japanese syllabic scripts that carry no particular meaning, the family name "Hatake" can be written in kanji (Chinese characters) as 畑 (はたけ, hatake), which means "field" or "farmland". The name "Kakashi" can be written in kanji as 案山子 (かかし, kakashi), which means "scarecrow". Understandably, Naruto uses a scarecrow look-alike of Kakashi to practice on the day before Team 7's first test, since he then considered Kakashi as the main one to defeat. Also, when Sakura spies on Kakashi so he would take off his mask, he replaces himself with a scarecrow to get rid of her.

Kakashi is a popular character, consistently ranking in the Top 5 in Shonen Jump magazine's official polls. He has taken 1st place in these polls twice.

Sakura Haruno

The name "Haruno" means "spring field" and "Sakura" means "cherry blossom," which is cherished in Japan due to its beauty and almost tragically short life span (sakura blossoms have historically been associated with samurai).

In the June 2006 issue of the American version of Shonen Jump, Masashi Kishimoto (in the voice of Kakashi) stated that Sakura would make the best ninja instructor, because "she has flaws in her personality, like stalking Sasuke, but Sakura is the closest to being normal".

In Shonen Jump's character popularity polls, Sakura is frequently in the Top 10, making the Top 5 once.

Sasuke Uchiha

Sasuke's given name comes from the legendary ninja Sarutobi Sasuke. His surname, Uchiha, is another way of pronouncing "uchiwa", or a paper fan, which is actually the Uchiha clan symbol. Uchiwa cannot be folded. In contrast, Ōgi, which Temari uses as her weapon, can be folded. Although both uchiwa and ōgi produce wind by fanning, the former is used in more practical/everyday situation such as cooking or commoners cooling themselves down during a hot summer day. The latter is considered to be more formal. Uchiwa can be used to fan flames, making the flame hotter — referring to the fact that the Uchiha is a clan of fire-jutsu users.

In Shonen Jump's June 2006 edition, Masashi Kishimoto (in Kakashi's voice) remarks that while Sasuke is a genius, he is a little dull to teach because he learns everything easily compared to the less predictable Naruto.

In Shonen Jump's character popularity polls, Sasuke usually ranked the 3rd or 4th spot for the majority of the series. More recently, however, he has been ranked at 1st.

Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto can mean "maelstrom," and is also the name for a sliced stick of Kamaboko with a pink whirlpool design in the middle that is used as a topping for Ramen (Naruto's favorite food). The Japanese sometimes use "Naruto" as a nickname for the commercial at (@).

The surname "Uzumaki" is a pun on "spiral" (渦巻), while "Uzumaki" refers to a three-dimensional spiral, like a whirlpool or vortex. A more accurate translation for spiral would be "Rasen." The Konoha leaf symbol is drawn with an arrow attached to a spiral, part of the seal on his abdomen is a spiral, the symbol on the back of his jacket and shoulders is a spiral, and one of his attacks is Rasengan, which means "Spiraling Sphere." "Uzumaki" can also mean "whirlpool," in reference to the Naruto whirlpool (鳴門の渦潮), named after the city of Naruto.

October 10, Naruto's birthday, was Health and Sports Day ("Taiiku no hi") in Japan when his character was conceived – a holiday full of physical activity fit for a hyperactive kid. The holiday, however, was moved to the second Monday of October in 1999.

Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of the manga series, stated in a recent interview with the U.S. Shonen Jump that his childhood was like that of Naruto's years while he was enrolled in the Academy.

Naruto consistently ranked in the top two (taking first place twice) in the first five official Shonen Jump character popularity polls. However, in the sixth character poll, he ranked fourth.

Characters

Naruto has a large and colorful cast of characters, running a gamut of detailed histories and complex personalities, and allowing many of them their fair share in the spotlight; they are also seen to grow and mature with the series, as it spans several years. As fitting for a coming-of-age saga, Naruto's world constantly expands and thickens, and his social relations are no exception – during his introduction he has only his teacher and the village's leader for sympathetic figures, but as the story progresses, more and more people become a part of his story.

The students at the Ninja Academy, where the story begins, are split up into teams of three after their graduation and become Genin. Each team is assigned an experienced sensei. These core teams form a basis for the characters' interactions later in the series, where characters are chosen for missions for their team's strength and complementary skills; Naruto's Team 7 becomes the social frame where Naruto is acquainted with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, and their sensei Kakashi Hatake, also called the "copy ninja" for copying thousands of ninja techniques with his Sharingan eye, forming the core of his world-in-the-making. The other three-man teams of his former classmates form another such layer, as Naruto connects with them to various degrees, learning of their motives, vulnerabilities, and aspirations, often relating them to his own. The groups of three are not limited to the comrades Naruto's age – groups in the story in general come in threes and multiples of three with very few exceptions.

Sensei-student relationships play a significant role in the series; Naruto has a number of mentors with whom he trains and learns, most notably Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya, and there are often running threads of tradition and tutelage binding together several generations. These role models provide guidance for their students not only in the ninja arts but also in a number of Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideals. Techniques, ideals, and mentalities noticeably run in families, Naruto often being exposed to the abilities and traditions of generation-old clans in his village when friends from his own age group demonstrate them, or even achieve improvements of their own; it is poignantly noted that Naruto's generation is particularly talented.

Many of the greater lingering mysteries of the series are questions of character motives and identity. The legacy of Naruto's parents, the goals that guide Kabuto Yakushi, the identity of the mysterious Akatsuki leader – these are only a few of the fundamental unanswered questions of "who" and, by proxy, "why" currently at the core of the series. The story is remarkably character-driven; the theme of causality runs inherently throughout the series as characters reciprocate for their past actions and relationships. In this respect, characters' respective destinies are very much intertwined, and large emphasis is placed on comradeship and 'bonds' between the community or individual.

Character names often borrow from Japanese mythology, folklore and literature (such as the names borrowed from the folk-tale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari), or are otherwise elaborate puns; often there is a noticeable influence of the story behind the name shouldered by the character.

Main characters
Naruto Uzumaki
Sasuke Uchiha
Sakura Haruno
Kakashi Hatake

Secondary characters
Team 10: Asuma Sarutobi, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Choji Akimichi
Team 8: Kurenai Yuhi, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame
Team Guy: Might Guy, Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee, and Tenten
Team Baki: Baki, Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari
Other: Jiraiya, Third Hokage, Tsunade, Yamato and Sai

History of Naruto

Twelve years before the events at the focus of the series, the nine-tailed demon fox attacked Konohagakure. It was a powerful demon indeed; a single swing of one of its nine tails would raise tsunamis and flatten mountains. It raised chaos and slaughtered many people, until the leader of the Leaf Village – the Fourth Hokage – defeated it by sacrificing his own life to seal the demon inside a newly-born child, whose origins are as yet unknown. That child's name was Naruto Uzumaki.

The Fourth Hokage was celebrated as a hero for sealing the demon fox away. He wanted Naruto to be respected in a similar light by being the containment vessel for the demon fox. The village he grew up in, however, mostly shunned Naruto; they regarded him as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood.

A decree made by the Third Hokage made it so that the other villagers were forbidden to mention the event to anyone, even to their own children. However, this did not stop them from treating Naruto like an outcast. Although their children did not specifically know why their parents treated Naruto the way they did, they learned through example to despise the boy. As a result, Naruto grew up as an orphan in a lonesome atmosphere without friends, family, or acknowledgment. He could not force people to befriend him, so he sought acknowledgment and attention the only way he knew – through pranks and mischief. However, that soon changed after Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy by using his Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to save his teacher, Iruka Umino, from the renegade ninja Mizuki. That encounter gave Naruto two insights: that he was the container of the demon fox, and that there was someone besides the Third Hokage who actually cared for and acknowledged him. His graduation from the academy opened a gateway to the events and people that would change and define his world, including his way of the ninja for the rest of his life.

Naruto maintains a balance between drama and comedy, with plenty of action interspersed. It follows Naruto and his friends' personal growth and development as ninja, and emphasizes their interactions with each other and the influence of their backgrounds on their personalities. Naruto finds two friends and comrades in Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, two fellow young ninja who are assigned with him to form a three-person team under a very experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also confides in other characters as well that he has met through the Chunin Exam. They learn new abilities, get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of the Leaf Village.

Naruto places strong emphasis on character development. Almost all outcomes are a result of decisions, character, and personality; very few things happen just because of chance. At first, emphasis is placed on Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who are the members of Team 7. However, other characters are developed, such as Kakashi, Guy, and Jiraiya, as well as Naruto's peers in the other Genin teams and other villages.

Several major villains came into play as well, the first being Zabuza Momochi, a missing-nin from the Kirigakure, and his partner, Haku. Later, in the Chunin Exam arc, Orochimaru is introduced as an S-Class missing-nin at the top of the Leaf Village's most wanted list. Later, a mysterious organization called Akatsuki begins to pursue Naruto in order to take the demon fox inside him and harness its power.

Anime details

Even though it debuted some time after the manga, the anime quickly caught up, since one anime episode usually covers one or two manga chapters. To prevent overlapping, the anime's producers tend to organize content from the manga chapters into long, uneventful sections followed by short bursts of action, sometimes adding filler content in between. By the time the Sasuke Retrieval arc ended in the anime (episode 135), the series was at a point where it was quickly gaining on the manga. At the conclusion of this arc, the anime immediately switched to anime-only filler episodes to allow the manga to broaden the gap once more. Most of the filler episodes are stand-alone stories, with a few being part of arcs that are several episodes long. The filler episodes lasted for 85 episodes, the duration of the first series.

After the series moved back into manga-adapted episodes, it was renamed Naruto: Shippūden (疾風伝, Naruto: Shippūden? lit. Hurricane Chronicles). The new series premiered on February 15, 2007.

The anime generally remains true to the manga, usually changing only minor details (causes of death, loss of limbs, and other injuries have been lessened in the anime) or expanding on parts skipped by the manga, such as the fight between Tenten and Temari. The filler arcs, though unreferenced in the manga (save for a few scant scenes), deal with the breaks between manga volumes, which covers a short period before the Sasuke Retrieval arc and several months before the time skip. The filler arcs tend to cover the supporting characters, occasionally giving insight into an otherwise rarely seen character.

New episodes, animated by Studio Pierrot, air weekly on TV Tokyo in Japan during the Golden Time slot (Japan's equivalent of prime time in the US). As of October 5, 2006, it shows on Thursday nights. The series has also spawned three movies, Naruto the Movie, Naruto the Movie 2, Naruto the Movie 3, and an as yet unnamed fourth movie scheduled to premiere sometime in 2007. The first two are available on DVD.