Naruto

Naruto is an anime television series by Pierrot that began in October 2002 on TV Tokyo. The anime draws its narrative from the manga created by Masashi Kishimoto. Director Hayato Date led the series with character designs by Tetsuya Nishio and musical compositions by Toshio Masuda.

Naruto Uzumaki grows up as an ostracized orphan in the ninja settlement of Konohagakure because the fourth village leader sealed a nine-tailed demon fox inside him at birth. Desperate for acknowledgment and aiming to attain the leadership rank of Hokage, Naruto performs disruptive pranks while struggling through academy training. A rogue instructor named Mizuki tricks him into stealing a sacred scroll containing forbidden ninjutsu techniques. Naruto masters the multi shadow clone technique from the scroll, defeats Mizuki to protect instructor Iruka Umino, and enters Team 7 alongside classmates Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno.

Junko Takeuchi and Noriaki Sugiyama provide the Japanese voices for Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. Five broadcast seasons delivered 220 episodes of the anime between October 2002 and February 2007. A sequel series called Naruto: Shippuden continued the story across 500 episodes between 2007 and 2017. Three theatrical films accompanied the original run, starting with Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow in 2004. Legend of the Stone of Gelel followed in Japanese theaters in 2005, and Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom debuted in August 2006.

In North America, the English dub first aired on Cartoon Network in 2005. At the 2007 American Anime Awards, the anime earned nominations for Best Long Series and Best Cast, while voice actor Maile Flanagan received a nomination for Best Actress. Character designer Tetsuya Nishio received the individual Best Character Design Award at the Tokyo Anime Awards in 2009. Video game adaptations including the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series launched on home consoles in 2003, with original video animation episodes packaged into special releases through 2005.