Naruto, is a medieval Japan fantasy that places itself in a realm of shonen genre (young reader) from the standpoint of a world of Ninjas. At the top layer of design it seems that world exploration, schools of techniques, family heritage, and extended long narratives. The story looking in begins with the conflict of short mentioned genealogies of friends and quickly moves on to comedy and drama. But, its not to say it lacks world building or epic fight scenes and/or super natural energies that make it more fantasy that are glimpsed over in most cases and showcased for main characters. This sort of summarized world will bring most who see it for their needs of seeing a spectacle, historical meaning, and drama to be quite satisfied in even the most tacky of filler episodes.
For someone just getting into an animanga series the ideas can tell you the story of the characters, villages, and battles just enough to keep you going. However if ever compared to western show creations of making a little bit more of a understanding of the worlds thematic ideas in a calculated system it is lack luster. When something is new it has a factor of "wow i never saw that before", but the novelty is short lived and you can be disenchanted from what originally got a person interested in the series. What happens is a viewer invests solely on the character arcs rather than the world, which means most characters that are not of interest from the creator get thrown to the sidelines as they become irrelevant to the main story line. This is not to say it can't change, since there have been some interesting developments within the series of Boruto, but the Japanese management style of investment on Animanga shows almost forces many titles to turn out this way. In Japan, they want a product that is safe and easy to reproduce more of the same for content cash flow. The people handling the money want the same product for less and quicker each time with each show being handled as a short term investment. With comparative shows being: case closed with endless side stories of cases, dragon ball with all its power up filler, yu-gi-oh with its card collection scheme. This means shows that sell plenty of products right away with collectible value are seen as the industry standard. So for most series to not be a series of the season it would need to take a look at long term investments and long term series development with minimal filler episodes. Naruto was made by Masashi Kishimoto who said he sort of came out as a feeling instead of a cognitive conceptualized design of multiple places. As a upcoming mangaka at the time Kishimoto long enjoyed works that had characters that fight in squads like Dragon Ball or Jin-Roh wolf brigade, so making a world of anime with the title Naruto was something that felt natural in its creation. At the time there was obviously plenty of talent in story telling and drawing. The story would go down on the darker side and take a path of introspective ideas... it seemed on the outside as a seemingly happy, but it was grounded and bleak it how it was set in its world view, and would emphasize conflicted characters that change as warring villages change the way they think based on story outcomes. In the shoes of the creator this a daunting task in a limited time for a manga and many times things don't turn out the best the first time around, so its open to its flaws. The genre it is in with fiction and fantasy both allow for anything from the imagination and it is understood that it is Kishimoto who opened the gates to the Naruto world. So saying what was right or wrong, a mistake or intent, and the mission or vision is up to the way it was made from the creator themselves as well as the interpretation the story tells to the individual by way of interpretation. Ultimately in the end it is up to those in charge of the making the series to say what is canon and fanon which has just as much pull with fans comes at a close second. It was somewhat believable in its first season, but as it went on it was less detailed in how things worked and what was the rules that are followed in using such techniques. So, when those want to think a little more and figure out a system that can make a bit more sense with their curiosity there was not a lot to go off of in the series main story... but all in the filler. There is so much of the world, but there is so much to be desired in the land of action packed Ninja. The result of this is a huge spread out chart of characters and places that connect for the event and then are left for viewers to think about if they would want to further analyze the content of the show. With so much world building inside it would seem there is more, so it keeps the viewer wishing there was more explanation within the show itself to become story lore. World Building in Naruto is about trying to tell an epic tale from the perspective of it being a personal story to the main character squad. But, since the series is so focused on this tale it has plenty of holes in the lore that are yet to be explained and filled by those who work on the series itself. Many fans may gloss over it as filler, but it makes the story have a desire to have more traveling involved to make the plot structure to understand the different government systems, unique techniques, group identities, comparative characters, and scenarios that help make a need for explanation of history. This is especially true of the lands, the hidden villages, time periods of eras, technology similarities and differences, political landscapes, economic structure, civilian life, and global effects of the story itself. Creating Naruto has been quite the collossus of a task for Kishimoto as he slowly has information that is key to the world, but rarely expands on it as it seems there is a higher priority to his intent for the story does its best to focus on the characters internal struggles through the village of Konoha. Konoha Hidden Leaf Village is known for being a place of multiple mixed groups of ninja that come from villages all over the world. So it is like a immigration village that has the leaf village values as its basis to explain the travels of where characters come and how the blood lines within the village have come to reside in the village with the possibility of outer village explanation. It is totally possible for the story of Naruto to take the idea of of each team and explore different village stories as their own arcs. This would quickly bring to mind: Team 7 (Kakashi), Team 8 (Kurenai), Team 9 (Guy), Team 10 (Asuma), however it would open up possibilities of knowing all the Teams (1,2,3,4,5,6) that came prior as well. Ideas like this are just what the community has been discussing online in trying to assist in filling out what gaps are int he story for its world building on the page of the National Otaku Alliance. Exploring the world is not the basis of the story and could be the reason why it wasn't further touched upon with limited funding and ways that Japanese businesses work with finances. For the story of Naruto the world is mostly planned out for its purpose of fulfilling missions of the world that told what was intended by the studio itself by way of story writing, music composition, animation decisions, world designs, and concept creation. Asking about ideas of: are there visitors, if there are hidden villages are there public villages, more on rogue ninjas, establishment information like on inns to hot springs, the rap industry in naturo, religions of the world, jutsu origins, village ninja academy structures, and different seasonal changes are some of the discussed topics of the story. The more information that is brought into the series the richer it is and makes for a piece of fiction to be completely enthralling. Many fans admit that Naruto is quite flawed, has huge potential, and has much more to explain. Some have even started threads and full out analysis on the story to figure out more ways to expand on the world through what already exists, but there are as many who would like a more defined world as those who don't. Arguments stand as purists would like the story to not change in the slightest to Kishimotos initial writing and act as it is off limits to further the discussion as well as the world in hands other than his. Since Naruto has finished and Shippuden finished and went on to the story of Boruto there is much more to follow with the ever expanding world of Naruto with oversight of Kishimoto. It took him close to 15 years to finish what he had in mind for the Naruto storyline, so it was impossible not to have plot contradictions. Due to schedule constraints, unplanned story arcs led to not planning in advanced, and plot holes that left empty parts of the lore. With more help from the fans, creators, and further story discussions will be a next chapter of defining a world of Naruto. Who knows what could be in the future with such things documented... maybe a trio of books for canon lore? maybe more inspiration for the creators? maybe more interest in the series at large!
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