Naruto has really gotten good...(

I'm late, I know... =)

For the longest time though, I discounted and ignored Naruto for the simple reason that I didn't really get into the main character(s) at all that much and most of his co-horts I found lacking any depth outside of Sasuske. I thought it was too childish, until I started looking at it after Sasuke left Konoha village...

It started to really get interesting... sometimes a bit cheezy, but still later interesting =)

"Shippuuden" is really getting fascinating and getting better as it goes on. I think that the creators and writers have gotten better.

I've always been a real, kind of, OVA (Madhouse) type of anime lover, and never really got into the TV series so much, except perhaps Dragon Ball Z years ago (and actually much sooner than the average US fan knew about)...

But reading the Naruto manga online in English.. I've gotten hooked on the series.

I'm sure all of you Naruto fans already know what I'm talking about. But honestly, I didn't really like the series until it started getting more mature and a bit more graphic.

If you're interested in reading the manga and looking at the series far in advance than the TV series in the States go here, but WARNING there are SPOILERS by the TON... So, before you dive into it, you may want to wait.. If you can't wait..

Here is a good site:

http://www.narutocentral.com/?c=1

And again... I know that most of you already know this stuff, but for "newbies" it could never hurt .. (*wink)

I think that the manga is doing much better than the anime lately. Some of the story arcs are just so worthless to watch(i.e. 3 tailed beast arc with Yukimaru,etc.).. and have nowhere to go.

I actually tried to watch a Naruto episode out of context the other day. It was actually kinda fun trying to figure out who new characters were and what on earth they were trying to do.

Naruto needs a digest format. Something longer than a clip show, but maybe 75% shorter than watching the actual show. I would totally be on board with a ~40 hour Naruto epic that spanned the entire series.