Naruto made it into the Big Three of the Shonen anime. But did you ever wonder what were the contributing factors to make Naruto qualify for the position? Masashi Kishimoto’s dutiful contribution to Naruto made it stand apart.
Apart from the awesome story and iconic villains, Naruto also had something that is rare for Shonen anime. If you are an anime battle junkie then you would be able to identify Naruto‘s unique element right away.
Naruto Battles Have Superior Choreography from Masashi Kishimoto
Any Shonen fan would agree that Naruto’s action choreography is one of a kind. While series like Dragon Ball and One Piece are also battle-oriented anime, they fall behind Naruto due to their choreography.
Naruto is famous for its incorporation of hand-to-hand combat in action scenes. Rather than depending on flashy sounds, lights, and special effects, Naruto was reliant on beautiful and genuine combat choreography.
Some of the best battles in Naruto include Naruto Vs. Sasuke, Obito Vs. Kakashi, Naruto Vs. Pain, Rock Le Vs. Gaara, and many more. What all of these battles have in common are fight scenes where characters are actually fighting like in action movies.
There is no trick of the eye used and definitely no flashy lights have been used to hide the number of strikes or part of the choreography.
Naruto Vs Action Scenes in Other Shonen Anime
Both One Piece and Dragon Ball have accumulated complaints over the fact that they often have subpar animation quality. Yes, they are still dedicatedly made in studios, but they also have a lot of filler content to peel the eyes away from the actual action.
Zoro Vs King battle in One Piece was one of the most epic pieces of action ever made, however, it too had its loopholes. The battle has very less actual choreography involved. The battle was shown in cuts and bits with many light elements involved in it.
Of course, Naruto too has its fair share of such action scenes but most of its well known battles have been well-choreographed and leaves the audience with stunning scenes.
Dragon Ball, too, had an awesome hand-to-hand combat animation in its beginning stages, but once the Frieza Saga hit, it was toned down to involve more and more flashy content rather than choreographed moves.
Dragon Ball slowly moved away from martial arts scenes to incorporate Goku’s new transformations. Suddenly, energy balls, explosions, and beams were the main theme, unlike Goku’s training under Master Roshi.
While Naruto, too, has several jutsu techniques that could prove to be attention-catching, the director and the author never skimped on the hand animation.
Due to Dragon Ball‘s insane powerups it could have become hard to include more hand to hand combat techniques. The flight ability of the Saiyana d villains affect the series a lot.
You can read Naruto on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
