If you've been following the monthly anime magazine Shonen Jump then you've probably seen a fair amount of "Naruto." What is Naruto? Naruto's a story about a young boy named "Naruto" raised in a Ninja village who wants to become "Hokage" (strongest ninja and leader of the village) so that others will respect him. The rest- well, there's already a SJ Graphic Novel out, and you can read summaries online. Unlike what some fans have a nasty habit of doing, I'm not going to summarize it and spoil anything, so no worries there.

But anyway, sometime ago I found out that there was an anime being made in Japan that's already up to 50+ episodes (with one new one being made each week.). Course, I don't know Japanese but... The popular website "Toriyama's World" has been fansubbing the series at the rate of about one a week. And these are guys pretty well-known for great Japanese translations. With Shonen Jump becoming popular, naturally many fans have expressed an interest in the anime series of it's Naruto as well.

However, in the past I'd never been into downloading episodes much. "Oh, watching them on my computer screen would never be any fun- it's only fun if I can watch them on my tv screen! Watching DVD's and VHS fansubs on television is always best!" I even came close to buying some DVD's with translations by "Toriyama's World" and other people basically stolen and slapped on them before I realized.... paying $60+ to a bunch of people who basically did jack just so I can watch the exact same episodes on my tv that I could easily see on my computer for free would be absolutely f**cking retarded. So, I decided to download a couple of episodes- and I like what I've seen.

First of all, the quality's VERRRRY good. Unlike DBZ fansubs (which, tragically, are pretty much 99% descended from VHS recordings off of Japanese tv's, since Toei's been greedy about not releasing the original version for consumer purchase until just fairly recently- thus resulting in very mixed quality) Naruto's a fairly new series- so finding good-quality copies to fansub off is very easy for those in the know, and new episodes get fansubbed on a weekly basis.

Second- it's perfectly legal for Toriyama's World to do so, thus they don't need to worry about repurcussions. Why's that? Well, there's a general rule in the "anime community"- it's a-okay to fansub and distribute stuff that hasn't been released in the States yet, but once it has- please stop fansubbers. The "rule" is to help make it profitable for companies to bring over more anime. (of course, for certain shitty companies over the years like Nelvana, 4Kids and FUNimation, the "rule" has been ignored a lot. But mainly it's ignored when companies act too assinine to release dual-version DVD's and/or just f**ck up their animes to high-hell and piss on the fans)

Also, fansubs help establish an already built-in fanbase who can spread positive "word of mouth" about the series, so companies generally don't worry about them and only focus on going after fansubbers of series they own. (for instance, FUNimation's eternal grudge match against full-episode sites. As the GT rap songs puts it, "the battle between good and evil never ends...") Besides that companies CAN'T complain until they have it all completely licensed and are ready to make an announcement that the anime is officially theirs... because if they were to do so and make an announcement earlier, that could get them in trouble.

A good example that exemplifies this perfectly is Gen Fukunaga and "One Piece". Months ago, Gen ran around a bunch of anime conventions bragging and boasting that he had secured all of "One Piece" for FUNimation. And of course, him and his cronies at FUNimation said that they wanted to give One Piece the same "wonderful treatment" that they had delivered unto Dragon Ball. Months later everyone at FUNimation is now simply saying and ONLY saying, "No comment" when asked about One Piece, leading to rumors and the belief that FUNimation only secured PART of "One Piece" (hurray! Though you really don't deserve any of it at all after the shit you've kept idiotically putting "Dragon Ball" and it's fans through throughout the years). After this incident and one company's potential loss of one of the hottest animes in all of Japan right now, it's doubtful anymore companies will ever be in a rush to make any "early" announcements for a long time to come.

Anyway like I was saying, even when Naruto's been licensed it won't be announced for a long while after that. Besides, with Naruto there's still been far too little anime made to really license it, so it'll be a while (at least 2004) before any companies will pick it up or announce that they have.

And finally, the translations for Naruto are very good. Why's that? Well, basically there are 3 kinds of fansubs translations out there- really good, average, and "Chingrish." I've experienced the latter firsthand, and it's not a pretty sight. Yamcha is called "Yincha", Sparking is "soarking," and even Enma-Daiou is "King Kold." (not to mention the horrendous grammatical errors, like in some YYH fansubs where "Heie" and "Kurama" are almost always misplaced) A friend of mine who's been into anime for years explained this to me- beforehand, it was just fans translating it out of love of the series and a desire to spread it to other people. (and, of course, a desire to practice and improve their Japanese skills- and get feedback on them) Naturally, this resulted in mostly good translations by people who care, so not too much need to worry. However, with the dawn of the internet and anime demand signficant up (around the year 2001) there's been a new kind of fansub- the cheapass kind made solely for money.

I'm not sure who these retards are, but for some reason Chinese people in Hong Kong with a mixed knowledge of Japanese and English (this location naturally being understandable, considering that it had been a British colony for 100 years) are translating it- and these guys just suck! Why are people over in China who know neither English or Japanese as a first language or either particularly fluently fansubbing for people 1,000's of miles away? Because bootlegging's big in China, and the fansubs are being mass-produced just to gain profits. These dudes don't care about improving their Japanese and/or English skills or spreading love of a series, they're just people with general-to-vague knowledge of the two languages being paid to quickly fansub as much as possible to flood the market as soon as possible.

After the first half of DBZ came out and the series was remastered by Toei, this is exactly what happened. Now, most fansubs out there for these episodes are basically "Chingrish" ones. There is a silver lining as some fans have discussed professionally fansubbing the series ("Project Dragonbox"?) for this part of DBZ (or, at least, the first 67 episodes) so perhaps they'll come through and put out some real fansub translations that'll bitchslap the hell out of those crappy "Chingrish" ones.

Anway, as for Naruto... it's not a mainstream anime. In fact, there's no general economic demand for it in America at all as it hasn't been imported over. Add that to the fact that most anime fans usually prefer just dubs. (and of those who do, usually they only buy/trade fansubs of Japanese episodes that haven't been released in America yet just so they can see what'll happen later) Thus, the "Chingrish" translators and whoever employs them don't see an economic interest in fansubbing Naruto. And add that to the fact that Toriyama's World (and other fansubbers too. Sorry if if I've missed any of you guys, I know you're out there and I've seen some good-quality translations by a few of you, but TW's the only group doing it that I'm familiar with right now... well, except for that dude going by the name "Saiyaman", heh heh[note- the fansubber "Saiyaman" isn't me]) have done such a good job fansubbing the series, even when Naruto is licensed there won't be any need to cheaply create "Chingrish" subs as it'll simply be easier, faster and cheaper for the bootleggers in Hong Kong to use these and other fansubs. (not that I necessarily condone this, just saying that it's partly a good thing as it'll ensure that no "Chingrish" translations will ever pollute the Naruto fansub market)

And finally, Naruto is an "otaku anime." What's an "otaku anime"? Well, it's just a word I made up for animes that have been fansubbed but unlicensed in America. I call it an "otaku anime" because the only people translating it are hardcore anime fans or otakus (no Hong Konger translaters here!), and the only anime fans out there who'd be watching it are those who prefer or watch some anime subtitled (which is already a minority of all anime fans). And of that later group are a subgroupwho'd actually have an interest in any anime that's not "mainstream" and hasn't even been released in America, thus the main Naruto watchers being would be hardcore anime fans/otakus. Then again, Naruto's easily the most popular (and thus, "mainstream") of all "otaku anime" (or should it be "otaku fansubs"?) and...

Well, you get the picture. Naruto's got great animation, cool fight scenes, is pretty funny and thus far I haven't seen anything too overly "fillerific." It's a pretty cool anime, and it's legal and quite easy to obtain and will be for a long time to come. So, go out and watch it if you want a fun anime to watch. Also only watch one episode a day if you do. Animes are a lot more fun and meaningful and last much longer if you spread them out over time instead of trying to digest them all at once as quickly as possible.

(10/31, 12/14 note- well, just did some more research. Apparently, the Hong Kong bootlegging community is even dumber than I thought. They're actually using their own, very poor "Chingrish" translations intead! And Naruto's not even out in America yet, sheesh.

So, DO NOT BUY ANY NARUTO DVD'S OR YOU'LL BE WASTING YOUR MONEY. It's too excellent of a series to waste by watching in such an inferior format. Toriyama's World can be found at www.toriyamaworld.com/.

As for the "fansubbing Naruto" community, basically it's like this. There are 3 bodies- TW, Anbu and AnimeOne, and "Saiyaman". TW is slowest, but generally agreed upon to be the best. (not just in terms of translations, but sound/video quality and encounding and letter format) AnA is a lot faster and does all the most recent episodes (about a dozen ahead currently) but some fans complain they don't translate as well as TW. I've seen their stuff, and I think they do a really good job, can't really compare the two. (though it is agreed that they've improved a lot from their earlier translations) As for "Saiyaman", he's fastest but I've heard mixed-reactions about his translations from "gay" to "as good as TW's world."

My best advice for watching the series would be to watch all of TW's current episodes that are available then to go for Anbu and/or Saiyaman, whatever you can find. And if you want wait for TW to release more instead, just be patient. As for complaining to TW to "hurry up and go faster"... don't. What they offer is an excellent service and an immense deal of their time. If you do want them to go faster, simply compliment them heavily and say that you look forward very much to their next release. Believe me, complaining to them will just make it less fun and make them do it slower this way.

And that's that. I've enjoyed Naruto more than any other anime since DBZ, and I can't recommend it enough. Only prob is, the number of episodes made in Japan still remains pretty low with a new one being at about the rate of once a week. You can go weekly if you want for new ones, but I prefer waiting a year for another huge batch to come up. If you don't want to wait, keep watching, but if you do, just find a good stopping point and wait it out from there.)

- GreatSaiyaman777