Naruto (manga, vol. 55) by Masashi Kishimoto, translated by Mari Morimoto

All the hidden villages are united in a war against the Akatsuki, which means people from different villages are teamed up together and need to learn to work with each other. The teams find themselves fighting Kabuto's reanimated puppets, and some of the battles are bitter – for example, Sai must fight his brother, and Kakashi finds himself facing off against Zabuza and Haku. Meanwhile, Naruto is continuing to train with Killer Bee, unaware that all of this is going on.

I have less that 20 volumes to go before I'm done with this series. I've been reading it for so long that it feels like I need to make it to the finish line, but this volume made me wonder if I'm going to be able to manage it.

Part of the problem is that it's been so long since I read the volumes prior to this one. The result was confusion – so many characters I either didn't know or could barely remember. Personally, I think Kishimoto is better at depicting one-on-one battles than large-scale wars. I miss the days of reading extended battles that were really just an excuse to reveal characters' thoughts and emotions and to maybe throw in a flashback or two. It should have been a more emotional experience, seeing characters I knew and loved, like Haku and Zabuza, reanimated and forced against their will to fight. Instead, I had to struggle to feel anything. There was just too much going on.

I continued to dislike Killer Bee's efforts to rap all his lines. I can't wait until Naruto is finally done training with him, because I would like him to go away. Why does such an annoying character have to be so important?

I'll wrap this up with a quickie comment about the jutsu Kabuto used to reanimate people. We're told that it can't be broken, even with the caster's death, and yet Sasori (a master puppet user who was killed a while back) and Sai's brother crumbled to dust after, what, dealing with their unresolved issues? For Sasori the key was his mother and father puppets, and for Sai's brother the key was seeing Sai's drawing of the two of them together. How could Kabuto not know about that little problem with his supposedly unbeatable jutsu?

Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie (anime movie), on DVD

Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie is, obviously, a Naruto movie. Still, I wasn't quite sure what it was going to be like, and the info on the back of the box wasn't very helpful. I vaguely remembered that the production artwork had inspired theories that it was an alternate universe Naruto. Would it be an alternate universe retelling of Naruto's story? The answer turned out to be “yes and no.”

First, a warning: this post contains some spoilers, although I think I managed to avoid the most major ones.

I'm not entirely sure when in the Naruto timeline this movie takes place. Certainly much later than what I've seen of Naruto Shippuden, and I think a bit later than I've read in the manga. Naruto knows who both his parents are, several of the Akatsuki are dead, Sai is there, and Naruto has saved the village from Pain. Naruto demonstrated one ability that I haven't seen yet in the manga: he released Nine Tails' full form and rode on his back during battle.

At the beginning of the movie, Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and several others from the village fight the Akatsuki and are confused, because they know several of their opponents have previously been defeated. The fight ends fairly quickly, which is a relief for everyone, but also somewhat suspicious. That doesn't stop the parents of the various chunin from talking about recommending them for jonin-rank. Naruto is once again reminded that he has no parents who could do such a thing for him. After Iruka refuses to fill out a jonin application for him (because he isn't even a chunin yet – you'd think they'd have made him an honorary chunin by now) and Sakura yells at him for not siding with her after she has a fight with her parents, Naruto storms off.

All fights are forgotten, however, when Madara suddenly appears and tries out an experimental jutsu called Limited Tsukuyomi. When Sakura and Naruto come to, Madara is gone and no one even seems to know who he is. Not only that, but everyone in the village is the opposite of what they normally are: Hinata is aggressive, Shikamaru is dopey, Kakashi is gung-ho and overuses his sharingan, etc. There are story differences, as well. For example, Sakura is now the daughter of heroes – her parents, rather than Naruto's, were the ones that gave their lives for the village.

Naruto (manga, vol. 51-54) by Masashi Kishimoto, translated by Mari Morimoto

I have to admit, I'm basically limping along with Naruto. While it's reassuring that there really is an end in sight, this series has gone on way longer than any other I've ever read, and I'm a little tired of it. I keep going because I've gotten this far, so I might as well see it through to the end. However, I'm to the point where I don't expect most of the volumes to be more than average at best.

I actually had more volumes available during my vacation than just these four, but nearly everything else I had on hand looked more interesting. Which should tell you something.

Okay, now for my reviews. A warning: my volume descriptions include spoilers. Read on at your own risk.

Naruto (manga, vols. 44-50) by Masashi Kishimoto

During my last vacation, I sped through 12 volumes of this series and would have read more if I had had the time. During this vacation, I read all the volumes I had (7) and got through them fairly quickly, but...I think this series had lost its shine for me. I'm tired of battles that last multiple volumes. I'm tired of Naruto having to become more and more powerful so that there can be bigger and bigger battles to hold readers' interests. I'm tired of dealing with a story so huge that I can't remember all the details and what the motivations are of the dozens of characters.

That said, I don't imagine I'll be abandoning the series anytime soon. I won't ever buy it, but I'll keep reading it via the library. If Kishimoto ever ends the series, I want to see that ending. It's just not quite as enjoyable a ride as it used to be.

Read on for spoiler-filled synopses of the volumes, plus a few brief comments.

I'm back!

My vacation was nice, and now I'm trying to get used to being in my own apartment again. I posted absolutely nothing while I was gone (I didn't even check my email!), although I read lots and lots, and even watched a few TV shows with my mom and dad. I figure I'll do something much like the posts I wrote after my last vacation - one post per manga series, rather than per volume, with no promises that I'll write about everything.

Here's what I got through, along with brief comments in case I don't get around to writing posts:

Naruto (manga, vols. 32-43) by Masashi Kishimoto

(Edit: I realized I should start this post off with a GIANT SPOILER ALERT, too, since there are spoilers before I even begin the volume descriptions.)

This was one of my two big vacation winners - I finished 12 volumes and would have read more if my vacation had lasted a little longer.

This series is like popcorn. Once I get started with it, it's hard to stop. That said, I've resisted buying it. The series is currently over 50 volumes long and still growing. No matter how you get your volumes, used or new, on sale or not, omnibus or single volumes, the cost of 50+ volumes really adds up. My vacation reading has gotten me within 10 volumes of being completely caught up.

In one of the volumes, I think Kishimoto made a comment to the effect that he just needed to keep the end in sight, and all I could think was "does that mean he really has an ending in mind?" I have no idea what this series is working towards. An eventual future where Naruto has finally become the Hokage? A renewal of Sasuke and Naruto's friendship? Sasuke's death? The removal of the Nine Tails Fox from Naruto's body? I really couldn't say. Even if Kishimoto ever wrote an ending for Naruto, I could easily see him writing a spin-off series based on a future generation of ninjas.

The possible lack on an ending is daunting, but I enjoy reading this series is great big chunks. There's so much character history and drama, the battles are fun, and it's hard not to have a favorite character (or even just a favorite fighting style or jutsu) when there are so many to choose from.

As I was writing notes about the volumes, it occurred to me that it was getting to the point where I could describe certain volumes with a couple simple sentences: "Character A fights Character B. This is the volume in which Character __ dies." There is a lot of death in these 12 volumes. I don't know if Kishimoto decided the cast was getting too large, or if there's some kind of plan for future volumes, but it seems like hardly anyone is safe from being killed off anymore, except maybe Naruto and Sasuke.

All in all, I enjoyed these volumes, but but there were so many battles that things started to blur together. Also, darn it, Sasuke seems to have become little more than an icy mask. Since I always kind of liked him, that makes me sad. At least he still seems to be reluctant to kill people if he doesn't absolutely have to. I'll cross my fingers and hope he thaws in some future volume (and please let that volume not be something in the hundreds). The revelations about Itachi's reasons for killing his clan and saving Sasuke were heart-breaking, but also kind of messed up. He might've intended to protect Sasuke by not telling him everything and inviting his hatred, but the end result was a Sasuke working to destroy what Itachi had wanted to protect. Again, I'll cross my fingers and hope that bit of drama gets dealt with in a satisfactory way that won't make me bawl my eyes out.

Let's see, what else...? Sai, a new character and new member of Team 7, was introduced in these volumes. I'm not yet sure how I feel about him, but I like his ability to make the things he draws real. I also liked all the various tidbits about Naruto, his past, and the Nine Tails Fox. Kishimoto finally flat-out confirms that the Fourth Hokage was Naruto's father (although I don't think many people, including Naruto, know this) and gives Naruto's mother a name - yay! And Naruto can do at least two things that both make him stronger and risk killing or harming him.

One other thing: I tried watching the Naruto Shippuden anime a while back and stopped at the beginning of the events in volume 34 of the manga (before Team 7 finds Sasuke). While reading the manga, it became clearer and clearer how bad the anime is. The original Naruto anime almost killed itself with too much back-to-back filler, but Naruto Shippuden went too far in the other direction, drawing events from the manga out to such an excruciating degree that the energy and drama of the original story was lost. It's really a shame.

Again, GIANT SPOILER ALERT. Don't read the descriptions below if you want to avoid spoilers.

Naruto (manga, vol. 31) by Masashi Kishimoto

Sakura and Chiyo continue their battle with Sasori. Sakura almost manages to defeat him, but Sasori can easily rebuild his puppet body when it's been damaged. Chiyo and Sasori start launching armies of puppets against each other. For a moment, it looks like Chiyo has won, but Sasori tricks her and attacks her with a sword. Sakura shields Chiyo with her body and is impaled by Sasori's sword. Sasori frees himself and tries to attack Chiyo again, but he's finally pierced through the heart by Chiyo's puppets, the parent puppets that were Sasori's first creations. In this position, Sasori is still alive, but he can no longer move. Chiyo then uses a transference technique to give up some of her own life force in order to heal Sakura. Usually, this technique would kill the user, but Sakura isn't dead yet, so Chiyo survives. Before Sasori dies, he tells Sakura how she can meet one of his spies, who is also one of Orochimaru's henchmen.

The focus of the story now changes to Naruto and Kakashi, who are chasing after Deidara. Kakashi unleashes Mangekyo Sharingan on Deidara, but his control isn't as good as it could be. Rather than killing Deidara, all Kakashi manages to do is teleport his arm away from his body. Kakashi and Naruto team up to try to defeat Deidara, and Naruto does manage to get Gaara's body back from him, but then Naruto's chakra begins to form the nine-tailed fox demon. Kakashi is forced to seal Naruto's chakra so that he can stay in control. Meanwhile, Guy has managed to defeat his lookalike foe, and Sakura and Chiyo have caught up to Naruto and Kakashi. Guy's team tries to fight Deidara, but Deidara uses a special jutsu that apparently causes him to explode. No one has time to get away, but Kakashi is able to avert disaster by using his Mangekyo Sharingan to teleport Deidara someplace else.

Now that the battles have ended, Naruto and the others have to face the fact that Gaara is dead. However, since Naruto has retrieved Gaara's body, Chiyo decides to use her transference technique to bring him back to life. She doesn't have quite enough chakra, so Naruto agrees to give her however much of his own she needs. When Gaara opens his eyes, he sees around him Naruto and all the other people who rushed to save him, as well as all kinds of people from Sunagakure. Rather than fearing him as they used to, people act relieved he's alive and proud of his strength. At this point, Naruto (and anyone who didn't already know) discovers that Chiyo gave her life for Gaara. The volume ends with the revelation that Deidara is still alive (the thing that exploded was a doppelganger he created) and that someone named Tobi is going to replace Sasori in the Akatsuki.

It's a good thing that Kishimoto didn't have Chiyo reveal her transference technique in an earlier volume, or it would've been obvious much sooner how Gaara's death would be dealt with. I'm glad that Gaara is really still alive - he's always been one of my favorite characters. Since the demon inside him has been removed, I wonder what he's capable of now. I had always thought that many of the things he did were due to the power of the demon inside him, but I doubt that Kishimoto will now say that he's not powerful enough to be Kazekage.

One part of this volume that I found particularly touching was Chiyo's hint to Sasori that she had planned to use the transference technique to breathe life into Sasori's parent puppets, thus giving him his parents back. It's a bit freaky (just because the puppets would have life doesn't mean that they'd be his parents, no matter what they look like), but still sweet. I was really surprised that Sasori dies in this volume. I had expected him to live longer, all the better to throw his angst around some more.

Kakashi's Mangekyo Sharingan was a bit of a surprise. I can't remember if it's come up before in the series - it sounds familiar, but I read enough spoilers that it's possible I might've heard about this on the Internet rather than in the manga. It took me a bit to figure out what the Mangekyo Sharingan was actually doing. With all the things that the various Sharingan can do, Byakugan seems pretty limited. I wonder if Kishimoto will be making up new things for Byakugan as well. Anyway, it appears as though Kakashi has also been training hard in the past three years. Besides being able to use a new ocular technique, he's also able to use it for a significant amount of time without passing out. Go, Kakashi!

Overall, I enjoyed this volume. Naruto's come a long way from what it used to be. The art is cleaner, clearer, and easier to follow than the art of the earliest volumes, and the story is definitely moving forward, if slowly. I love Gaara, but I really want to see what Sasuke's been up to. As far as extras go, there's only a thank you from Kishimoto for all the fan mail he's gotten.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Shaman King (manga) by Hiroyuki Takei - Manta, a rich but wimpy kid who can see spirits, meets Yoh Asakura, an apparently lazy shaman. They become friends, and Yoh gains Amidamaru as a spirit partner (spirit partners can lend their skills to shamans, and Amidamaru was a samurai). Gradually, Yoh befriends others, participates in battles against other shamans, and sets out on the path to becoming the Shaman King. Those who'd like another lengthy series featuring intense battles and friends saving one another might like this manga. There is also an anime based on this manga, but I haven't seen it yet and can't say how similar it is to the manga.
  
• Bleach (anime TV series); Bleach (manga) by Tite Kubo - Ichigo Kurosaki has been able to see ghosts for as long as he can remember, but it's not until he meets Rukia, a Soul Reaper, that his life really gets strange (not to mention dangerous). When a battle with a Hollow goes badly, Rukia tries to lend Ichigo some of her Soul Reaper powers but ends up accidentally giving him everything. Now a full-fledged Soul Reaper, Ichigo battles Hollows with Rukia's help and guidance and gradually becomes even more powerful. Those who'd like another long-running action-packed story with lots of battles and well-developed characters with amazing abilities might like this anime/manga.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (manga) by Hiromu Arakawa; Fullmetal Alchemist (anime TV series); Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie (anime movie) - In a world where alchemy is considered science, Ed and Al, two young brothers, have broken the primary rule of alchemy, the law of equivalent exchange, in an attempt to resurrect their mother. As a result, Ed lost an arm and a leg, and Al lost his whole body. Now they're on a journey to find the Philosopher's Stone and use it to restore their bodies. Those who'd like another series with fantasy elements that features humor, drama, and action may enjoy this series. In addition, this series occasionally has messages about peace very similar (in my opinion, anyway) to the one this volume of Naruto ended with. Both the anime and the manga are good, although the anime is very different from the manga after a certain point. Once you finish the anime, there's also a movie that wraps things up in a grand battles and multi-world spanning way - it's not advisable to watch the movie before finishing the anime TV series.
  

Naruto (manga, vol. 30) by Masashi Kishimoto

Pakkun gets everybody as close to Gaara's location as he can, but the entrance is blocked and sealed. Neji uses his Byakugan to find all the talismans that need to be removed in order to unseal the entrance, but it turns out it was all a trap designed to separate Sakura, Chiyo, Kakashi, and Naruto from the rest of the group. Both groups now have their own dangers to deal with - this volume doesn't focus too much on what Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Lee have to do, although readers do get to see a few panels of Guy fighting an opponent who has exactly copied his appearance, jutsu, and power.

Now that they're through the entrance, Kakashi, Naruto, Chiyo, and Sakura discover that Gaara is now dead. While Naruto and Kakashi go after Deidara, who has Gaara's body, Sakura and Chiyo are left to fight a powerful and dangerous puppet. Although Sakura's training has given her great strength and medical skill, she doesn't have the experience to survive this fight, so Chiyo uses her puppetry skills on Sakura just enough to allow her to fight the puppet and avoid being hurt too badly. After Sakura breaks the puppet open, Chiyo discovers Sasori, her grandson, inside, looking just as he did when she last saw him. Sasori begins fighting Chiyo and Sakura again, this time using a human puppet made from the body of the Third Kazekage, which is capable of performing all the Third Kazekage's jutsu.

Chiyo continues to use her puppetry skills to help Sakura fight, but Chiyo switches to actual puppets after Sasori attacks Sakura using poison gas. Chiyo's puppets are the first Sasori ever created, puppets based on his mother and father. They're helpful for a bit, but then Sasori's Kazekage puppet uses Satetsu, the Iron Sand, and manages to not only cripple the mother and father puppets, but also one of Chiyo's arms (her arm is that of a puppet). Sakura has Chiyo use her as a puppet again - Sakura does well and manages to destroy the Kazekage puppet, but, even so, she gets wounded and poisoned. However, Sakura's medical skills keep her in the fight. At the end of the volume, Sasori has revealed what Chiyo and Sakura must now battle: Sasori himself, whose entire body appears to be a puppet. Unfortunately, Sakura's poison antidote won't last much longer.

The Naruto filler episodes currently airing on TV might be boring me to tears, but the Naruto manga is still going strong (I can't wait to see how this is all translated into anime in Naruto Shippuden). Sakura's becoming a force to be reckoned with, although I don't think that this volume showed how much she's grown as well as it could have - basically, all readers see is that Sakura has become a pretty good medical ninja, she's enormously strong, and she learns quickly during battle.

Sasori's pretty interesting as well. I only know what's been revealed about him so far, so I don't know much about him. His puppetry skills made him an interesting fighter, but his mother and father puppets made him an interesting character. The flashbacks show him playing happily with these puppets and having them give him a hug, but they don't show why he made these puppets or where his actual parents are. In the past, the only puppetry jutsu I saw was whatever Kankuro did - I have to admit, it didn't really interest me. However, I really liked what I saw in this volume, although I can't help but wonder if all puppet masters get as deeply into body modifications as Chiyo and Sasori do. I don't think Kankuro has turned part of himself into a puppet yet, but maybe that's what his future holds.

I wonder if the Third Kazekage actually has any kind of consciousness. The little bit about him that is revealed in this volume indicates that he wouldn't have wanted to be controlled by Sasori this way, so he'd resist if he could, but there's no sign of resistance. I'm guessing that Sasori's human puppet technique just turns people into perfectly controlled puppet shells that are capable of using the original person's jutsu, rather than something more like the resurrected dead readers saw earlier with Orochimaru during his fight with the Third Hokage. The resurrected First and Second Hokage had their own minds when they were first brought back and lost their wills after the battle began.

Near the end of the volume, Kankuro and Temari are shown setting off to help the group that's gone after Gaara, so I imagine they'll be showing up to save the day for somebody (considering there's any number of people who could use some saving, I don't have a clue who they'll be helping - but I'm guessing Kankuro won't be joining the puppetry battle, since I'm not sure his skills are up to the challenge). At any rate, Kakashi and Naruto, at least, should be fighting soon. Since Kakashi's come up with a plan (one not yet revealed to readers), it should be good.

As far as extras go, there's even less than usual, just one page of comments by the author (more about his personal history), but this volume is good enough that I don't think that really matters so much.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Bleach (anime TV series); Bleach (manga) by Tite Kubo - Ichigo Kurosaki has been able to see ghosts for as long as he can remember, but it's not until he meets Rukia, a Soul Reaper, that his life really gets strange (not to mention dangerous). When a battle with a Hollow goes badly, Rukia tries to lend Ichigo some of her Soul Reaper powers but ends up accidentally giving him everything. Now a full-fledged Soul Reaper, Ichigo battles Hollows with Rukia's help and guidance and gradually becomes even more powerful. Those who'd like another long-running action-packed story with lots of battles and well-developed characters with amazing abilities might like this anime/manga.
• Ghost in the Shell (anime movie) - This movie takes place in a future where just about everyone has some sort of cybernetic implant, if not entirely cyberized bodies. Unfortunately, this leaves people vulnerable to brain-hacking. Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, is called in to investigate a brain-hacker called The Puppetmaster. Those who were most interested in the idea of "people puppets" and would like another action-packed story might like this. The sound effects and look of this movie are a little dated, in my opinion, but it's still an excellent movie (although it may require more than one viewing in order to figure out what's going on), and it's a great place to begin before trying any of the newer incarnations of this franchise. It should also be noted that this movie is based on the Ghost in the Shell manga.
• Puppetry: A World History (non-fiction book) by Eileen Blumenthal - This book gives an overview of the history of puppetry from prehistoric times to the present, organizing information thematically rather than by time period or region. It's a coffee table book, which makes for some unwieldy reading, but those who found themselves interested in puppetry after reading this volume of Naruto may want to try this book out. At the very least, there are 350 illustrations to look at.

Naruto (manga, vol. 29) by Masashi Kishimoto

Gaara, who is now Kazekage, has been kidnapped by the Akatsuki. Two teams have set out to rescue him: Guy, Lee, Neji, Tenten, and Pakkun in one team, and Naruto, Sakura, Granny Chiyo, and Kakashi in the other. They have to hurry, because apparently the Akatsuki plan on removing the demon inside Gaara (which are apparently called Biju - tailed beast spirits), which would have the unfortunate side-effect of killing him. Guy's team runs into Kisame, and Kakashi's team runs into Itachi - both teams are forced to fight these incredibly powerful opponents, but things are not as they seem.

It wasn't long before this volume that the Naruto timeline jumped ahead two years, and so far I'm enjoying the change. It's difficult to tell, but it seems as though Naruto might've mellowed out during the two years that were skipped. I'm enjoying seeing how everyone has changed and grown. Any growth in fighting ability would likely best be shown in one-on-one battles, which don't happen in this volume, but readers do get to see Naruto and Kakashi working together in battle, which is a treat by itself. I was kind of hoping that Neji, one of my favorite characters, would get more of a chance to do some fighting, but no such luck (whenever I see him in the manga now, all I can think of is the anime AMV I saw in Youtube titled "A Tribute to Neji's Hair").

Some readers may be disappointed that the battles with Itachi and Kisame weren't what they appeared, but I was relieved - if beating those two, especially Itachi, had really been that easy, it would've felt like a letdown. I have to admit that the battle with Kisame didn't interest me nearly as much as the battle with Itachi - I just don't find Kisame to be as interesting as Itachi, and Guy, the one who fights Kisame the most in this volume, is not my favorite ninja to see in battle. However, Guy fans out there may enjoy the battle in this volume, since Guy uses a technique readers have so far only seen Lee use - and, unlike Lee, he uses it without crippling himself.

Itachi's battle was lots of fun for me - how can a battle with a guy who can mess with people's minds not be fun? For reasons that get explained at the end of the volume, Itachi can't use his full abilities against Kakashi's team, but that doesn't stop him from getting into Naruto's head and making him hallucinate. Many of the worries and fears Naruto has about Sasuke and how the people he cares about view him after his failure with Sasuke come out in the form of hallucinations. Sakura and Granny Chiyo help him snap out of it, and then Kakashi pits his Sharingan against Itachi. Once Itachi is distracted, Naruto joins in the fight - it's a great display of teamwork, and it occurs to me that Naruto is often at his coolest when he's teaming up with strong fighters like Kakashi or Sasuke.

Unfortunately, by the end of this volume it appears very likely that Gaara is dead. I can't help it, though - I went and looked up spoilers, and, if the spoilers I read are correct, Gaara is dead, but he'll be resurrected. I can't wait to read about it.

Overall, I enjoyed this volume. This is a series that would probably be on my "to buy" list if I couldn't get it at the public library (and if I could actually afford it). At the beginning of the series, I thought that the artwork was often crowded and confusing. At that point in the series, I preferred the anime, which presented all the action in a much clearer and easier to understand fashion. Now, however, I think that the manga is at least as good as the anime, if not better (anyone wading through the seemingly unending filler episodes in the anime - Naruto, not Naruto Shippuden - would probably say that the manga is better, and I would agree).

As far as extras go, there are the usual "The World of Kishimoto Masashi" pages inserted throughout the volume. In this volume, Kishimoto mostly writes about himself and his assistants, and the weirdness that ensues when they're all particularly sleep-deprived. Even though this makes for fairly pathetic extras, I really enjoyed the writings in this particular volume.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Fullmetal Alchemist (anime TV series); Fullmetal Alchemist (manga) by Hiromu Arakawa; Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie (anime movie) - In a world where alchemy is considered science, Ed and Al, two young brothers, have broken the primary rule of alchemy, the law of equivalent exchange, in an attempt to resurrect their mother. As a result, Ed lost an arm and a leg, and Al lost his whole body. Now they're on a journey to discover the Philosopher's Stone and use it to restore their bodies. Like Naruto, this series features humor, drama, and action. As with this volume of Naruto, the series includes the occasional character who can mess with other characters' heads - one such character, Envy, can look like anyone he/she wants. Both the anime and the manga are good, although the anime is very different from the manga after a certain point. Once you finish the anime, there's also a movie that wraps things up in a grand battles and multi-world spanning way - it's not advisable to watch the movie before finishing the anime TV series.
• Bleach (anime TV series); Bleach (manga) by Tite Kubo - Ichigo Kurosaki has been able to see ghosts for as long as he can remember, but it's not until he meets Rukia, a Soul Reaper, that his life really gets strange (not to mention dangerous). When a battle with a Hollow goes badly, Rukia tries to lend Ichigo some of her Soul Reaper powers but ends up accidentally giving him everything. Now a full-fledged Soul Reaper, Ichigo battles Hollows with Rukia's help and guidance and gradually becomes even more powerful. Like Naruto, this series features battles between characters on different sides. In the later volumes of Bleach, there are, as with Naruto, instances where characters minds get messed with a bit - for example, Ichigo finds himself having to fight against the Hollow part of himself. The anime and manga versions of this series are very similar, although the anime features more filler.
• GetBackers (anime TV series) - Ban Mido and Ginji Amano are the GetBackers, people who will get back for their clients anything that has been lost or stolen from them. Both men have useful powers - Ginji, the cheerful and goofy one of the duo, can generate thousands of volts of electricity from his body, while cool and mysterious Ban has the "Snake Bite" (hands with a gripping power of 200 kg) and the "Evil Eye" (with certain limitations, he can make anyone who looks into his eyes experience powerful hallucinations). Those who found Itachi's abilities particularly interesting may enjoy this series, particularly Ban's abilities. This series, which features action, comedy, and drama, was originally a manga, but I haven't read that yet and can't comment on how similar or different it is from the anime.
• Black Cat (manga) by Kentaro Yabuki - Ex-assassin Train and Sven are a bounty hunting team constantly trying to earn enough money for a decent meal. Their lives are mostly normal until someone who knew Train back when he was an assassin tries to recruit him into a new and dangerous crime ring full of people with amazing abilities. As with Naruto, there are quite a few one-on-one battles and fights between small groups of people. Those who'd like another action-packed story featuring characters with fantastic special abilities might like to try this series. There is also an anime based on this manga series, but I haven't seen it yet and can't comment on how similar or different it is from the manga.