I think its safe to say Naruto is now at DBZ level in the US

Vekurotto · Post by **Vekurotto** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:23 pm

SSj Kaboom wrote:... Astro Boy?

...is on at 2AM in the morning, on Saturday's. I don't think they actually expect people to watch it if it's on that late/early in the morning. If it came on daily at 4PM or so then it'd be a different story.

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:30 pm

That's why it's on at that time and mainly the reruns at 5. Then again like Gigantor, it's not really adult, but only there because it's old and for adults who watched when they were kids.

Cold Cobra · Post by **Cold Cobra** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:45 pm

I can't say for America, but here in the UK it's popular for an anime, but not on the level of DBZ... at all. As an example, Naruto games get released quietly without fuss here, but only yesterday I got an e-mail from Gameplay entitled "Wars, Fantasies and Dragon Balls!", talking about Budokai Tenkaichi 3's Wii release over here at last. Naruto games on the other hand I only find out by seeing them on the shelf (well, that or in passing of IGN or in Games Master...)

As for my opinion, no... I don't like Naruto. I gave it a good go, but the lead character annoyed the hell out of me. I do however like One Piece and Bleach for my new Shonén anime fix, One Piece for its Dragon Ball-like fun characters, art style and adventuring, and Bleach purely to satisfy my love for straight-up action and transformations.

For that paragraph you can see why Dragon Ball/Z is still my favourite, combining all my favourite aspects in one (bare in mind I'm not that far into One Piece yet...)

PrincessVegeta · Post by **PrincessVegeta** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:26 pm

In my oppinion Naruto can't even hold a candle up to the greatness of DBZ still, mostly because they made the series last longer because of all the filler episodes it contained... not to mention most of the filler episodes seemed to be drawn by 5 year old kids.

And did I forget to mention that Naruto is one of the most lowest budget animes I have ever seen with bad artwork nearly all the time, the Dragonball series had a few ups and downs but lets get serious it didn't have bad animation 24/7 now didn't it :3

Sure Naruto has already surpassed DB's 153 episodes with a whopping 220 episodes so far, and around 267 if you include Shippuuden but after episode 135 they were completely full of fillers.

Even worse the VIZ now decided to air those crappy fillers over here in America on Cartoon Network and we're gonna have to put up with them for another 80 Episodes and 40 weeks to go!

So the bottom line is that Naruto would never become as great as DBZ was, but it may still become popular... that is if our American airings of Naruto can keep their many fans interested or else loose an entire population of them like Japan did :Þ

Vegard Aune · Post by **Vegard Aune** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:03 pm

PrincessVegeta wrote:Even worse the VIZ now decided to air those crappy fillers over here in America on Cartoon Network and we're gonna have to put up with them for another 80 Episodes and 40 weeks to go!

Regardless of wether they air the fillers or not, I'd say the series is doomed to lose a lot of fans now, as even Shippuuden is REALLY poorly executed. They drag out everything for no reason, so the plot is moving at such a slow pace that it's downright boring. (Dragonball suffered from extreme dragging too, but Toei actually had a good reason for that, and the fights were still cool, whereas those too are boring as hell in Naruto Shippuuden.)

So yeah, Naruto is not as popular as DBZ is, and now that they've gotten to the fillers, it never will be. Now, would more people start realising how awesome One Piece is?

Jerseymilk · Post by **Jerseymilk** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:57 pm

PrincessVegeta: Would you mind refraining from editing your past posts and making new ones with your entire opinion over and over? I assuming you think it will somehow give more weight to your opinion, but trust me it doesn't. Or perhaps you just need to have the last word or something? At any rate, you've done it at least twice now and it's really quite annoying and juvenile. -_- Hence why I'm calling you out on it.

Vegard Aune: I actually have liked what I've seen of Shippuuden so far and feel a lot of the complaints are overexagerrations and melodramatics from fussy Naruto fanboys. (Oh and maybe some things are dragged out some because they don't want to get into the mess they did with the original series and have endless weeks of filler? Just a thought.) I swear, there's just no pleasing some people.

NeptuneKai · Post by **NeptuneKai** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:14 pm

Jerseymilk wrote:(Oh and maybe some things are dragged out some because they don't want to get into the mess they did with the original series and have endless weeks of filler? Just a thought.)

While I despise Naruto I think this is exactly what they are doing. I can't see why people don't get this. Of course they're playing it safe after being stuck in filler hell.

Xyex · Post by **Xyex** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:14 pm

They drag out everything for no reason, so the plot is moving at such a slow pace that it's downright boring.

No reason? How about wanting to avoid another 100 episodes of nearly solid filler?

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:09 pm

I don't watch Shippuden, but for the filler hell thing, hasn't Shippuden been on barley a year? If Viz tried it now and skipped the filler arcs they could close in really fast. Even Inuyasha and Yu-Gi-Oh weren't that close to the Japanese airings. Also remember a lot of fans of the Naruto anime here don't read the manga, so for them it might just be more of the show instead of waiting for the time-jump.

On topic, though I know it's not quite as popular as DBZ was, have noticed Naruto's cast is more liked by its fandom than DB's at times.

SaiyaMel · Post by **SaiyaMel** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:48 am

Where i live, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh are by far the most merchandised animes - Yu-Gi-Oh cards available in pretty every store..and it has been that way for years now. very rarely do i see DBZ stuff on the shelves.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:11 am

Super Sonic wrote:On topic, though I know it's not quite as popular as DBZ was, have noticed Naruto's cast is more liked by its fandom than DB's at times.

Probably because way too much of DBZ's plot was based on the heroes being total morons.

SaiyaMel · Post by **SaiyaMel** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:31 am

You're quite the hater Rocket.

Post by **Herms** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:56 am

SaiyaMel wrote:You're quite the hater Rocket.

He's just bitter that Puffing Tom left him uncompleted in that warehouse for so long.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:08 am

Herms wrote: He's just bitter that Puffing Tom left him uncompleted in that warehouse for so long.

... Huh?

Post by **Herms** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:26 am

Rocketman wrote: ... Huh?

Sorry, One Piece reference. Heck, a whole volume of One Piece is named after you!

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:39 am

Herms wrote:Sorry, One Piece reference. Heck, a whole volume of One Piece is named after you!

I'm famous! KNEEL, PEONS! AHAHAHAHAHA

Post by **Herms** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:41 am

Mentioning that might have been a bad idea...Anyway, here's the volume in question.