Naruto

I am a huge fan of the Shonen Jump manga series Naruto. Manga, for those unfamiliar with this term, is simply Japanese comics. Certainly American comic series have proven successful with movie adaptations for Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Iron Man, Hulk, X-Men, and the list goes on. I thoroughly enjoy many DC and Marvel comic characters, but as impressive as they are, I have been truly captivated with the story of Naruto.

The series is named after a young ninja who, as a baby, had a terrible nine-tailed demon fox sealed in his body to save his villiage from certain destruction. Because many villagers were killed in the attack of the nine-tails, the boy that housed this creature was ridiculed and shunned. Rather than let the rejection of his fellow villagers get him down, he became determined to prove that he was a great ninja, and set out to become Hokage, the leader of the village.

Throughout the series, Naruto has faced opponents that were much smarter and stronger than he was, but his ethic of hard work and refusal to give up caused him to not only prevail, but to change the hearts of those that are with him. There have been several occaisions, when Naruto has been pushed into a corner with no visible means of escape. His enemies have ridiculed him, and told him to give up his quest to become Hokage. Even in the tremendous pressure of these moments he boldly declares to his opponents: "I will not give up! I will not take back my words! That's my way of the ninja!"

Perhaps this sounds cheesy in my poorly written synopsis, but I assure any who read this, that Naruto is perhaps the best written series with the most enjoyable characters I have ever read. I encourage any and all to visit onemanga.com where they can read the entire series.

Note that manga series are read right to left, otherwise the story may not make as much sense :)