Voucher, transformations and ninjas has continued to exist and are undoubtedly two elements that people remember best from ‘Naruto’. But since today, October 3, we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the anime’s premiere (to be said soon), it’s the perfect time to remember how it almost was ‘Naruto‘.
Before the publication of the manga series in 1999, Masashi Kishimoto published a self-conclusive chapter of ‘Naruto‘ to lay the groundwork for what would later become serialized manga.
And while some of the ideas Kishimoto brought up in his original manga were very interesting, we also have a lot to be happy about how the manga ultimately turned out.
A much lonelier life
When the story starts, we quickly meet Naruto and his life as the “plague” of Konoha, although little by little he makes more friends and has a spectacular evolution until he becomes one of the heroes of the town. Unfortunately, the beginning of the original manga did not improve either because Naruto is still a pretty lonely kid with no friends and no one to care about him.
In addition, much of the story of the manga and anime focuses on the friendship and dynamics of team 7 formed by Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and their teacher Kakashi. Especially, the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke is one of the great threads of many plots, but in this version of the story the rest of the members of team 7 did not exist.
Naruto’s family also had a very different history, as his father was a powerful fox demon. Although the idea of the demon did end up finding its place in the final series, the figure of minato It went through many changes, as it was originally a destructive entity that even went so far as to kill eight of the nine ninjas who tried to contain it.
The transformations keep, more or less
Kishimoto also had several slightly different ideas for how Naruto’s powers worked in the original chapter. Still, the concept of transformations was there from the beginning, but instead of using certain gestures and his chakra, Naruto used special stickers in the shape of a fish cake (Narutomaki).
When he wanted to transform, Naruto would stick one of these stickers on his forehead and could use his transformation techniques. However, for his final transformation he did not need any stickers, because it basically consists of returning to his true form.
Just like his father, in this original manga Naruto is actually a nine-tailed fox.. At the end of the chapter, in fact, he transforms into a little fox and uses his tails to catch his enemy.
The manga went through many changes before going into serialization, such as originally enemies used guns.
Even so, many ideas ended up sneaking into ‘Naruto’such as the protagonist wearing his iconic orange suit or his love for ramen, which seems to not go away no matter how many years go by.
Though the anime series of ‘Naruto‘ It’s been over for quite some time, we can still enjoy it on Prime Video and Crunchyroll, and it’s still very much alive with a new generation of ninjas in ‘Boruto: Naruto Next Generations’, which continues to grow with a new chapter every week.