Summary
- The Land of Waves arc is vital for showcasing Naruto's character development and essential bonding with Team 7.
- The mission introduces Naruto to the dangers and high-caliber ninjas like Zabuza and challenges his notions of what a ninja should be.
- Skipping the arc robs the impact of Naruto's growth from a prankster to a determined ninja with his own path.
Naruto anime recently revealed as the most popular series worldwide for children, more people than ever are diving into the series, which both entertains and teaches valuable life lessons to millions of fans. It's a story that deserves to be enjoyed from the very beginning.
Author Masashi Kishimoto created a beloved world filled with colorful ninjas and fascinating abilities. While the series has its share of incredible battles, it is the bond between its cast that helped make the series so impactful. By skipping the first arc of Naruto, fans would fail to see the profound transition the main character goes through and the effective setups the series creates that change how the world views ninjas forever.
The character writing in Naruto's beginning is better than some fans credit it for, primarily due to the brilliant introductions to Naruto's Team 7 and their iconic bell test. However, the most impactful groundwork is more effectively introduced in Naruto and Sasuke's first big mission to The Land of the Waves.
The Land of Waves Mission Would Change The World
Naruto's First Arc Contains Vital Character Developments That Should Not Be Skipped
Throughout the first dozen years of Naruto's life, everyone around him consistently belittled and resented him, and he didn't know why. Throughout the series storyline, readers are reminded at several moments that such loneliness could easily craft an angry and dangerous child, but that's not who Naruto was. Despite no love being shown for the child he was able to develop a sense of humor and used that with his loud personality to get attention. But that all changed when the young ninja received his first perilous mission.
Naruto had finally gained the iration of another through Master Iruka, and the bond had given the young orphan his first relationship with someone who genuinely cared for him. Not long afterward, he was put in a group with Master Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke. Naruto didn't know it, but they would create some of the series' most essential bonds. The characters don't bond effectively until the Land of Waves mission, or, more precisely, it happens not long after Naruto's Team 7 leaves the Village Hidden in the Leaves for the first time.
One Early Naruto Change Wasn't Just Great, it Completely Saved the Series
The beginning of Naruto's story starts with certain shaky aspects, but one key change put it on the path to evolve into such an iconic series.
The loud and juvenile Naruto did not gain many fans during his more selfish and narrow-minded antics, and his first true test alerted him and the audience to the type of dangers that were in store in the ninja world. Team 7's mission to protect bridge builder Tazuna instantly pushed past the confines of a simple escort mission when two deadly assassins ambushed the group.
Fast thinking and clever tactics from Sasuke and Kakashi easily dealt with the foes, but the experience shook Naruto to his core, prompting Sasuke to tease him with the antagonistic but playful "You okay, scardy cat?" line. It was the beginning of the dramatic shift that Naruto and the series would take in the transmorphic arc.
Team 7 Left Konoha As Children, The Land of Waves Returned Them As Ninja
Sasuke and Haku Pushed Naruto To Find His Own Ninja Way
Not long after the first two assassins got the jump on the young Team 7, Naruto's group was ambushed again, this time by a threat that even Kakashi had decided to take seriously. Zabuza, a high-level shinobi formally of the Hidden Mist, made Naruto and Sasuke put aside their differences to use teamwork for the first time, and it also began to teach the inexperienced pair how high-caliber ninjas operate. It would be a lesson that helped establish Naruto's persistent need never to give up.
When Naruto and the rest of Team 7 return to Konoha from the Land of the Waves, they are different than how they left it, thanks in a big part to Zabuza and Haku. The conflicts they presented forced Naruto and Sasuke to grow stronger as shinobi and as a team that would evolve into a genre-defining brotherly bond. Jumping ahead of the story robs the impact of how far the two iconic characters have come.
Zabuza and his young partner Haku represented precisely what most people would assume a ninja to be. They were stealthy, precise, and deadly warriors who had no issues killing others or using them as tools to complete a task. Like Naruto, Haku was an orphan with no one to care for him during his younger years until they encountered Zabuza, someone who made them feel useful. The deadly ninjas worked together for years, and it took the words of the fledgling Konoha shinobi to make them realize that they were more than killing machines.
10 Best Naruto Quotes That Prove Just How Deep the Series is
Naruto is more than its spectacular action and characters, thanks to thought-provoking quotes that elevate the series to stand the test of time.
Naruto Learned What It Means To Be Ninja, and How It Was Wrong
The Definition Of Ninja Is Challenged and Changed
The Land of Waves arc shakes away many preconceived notions of what a ninja should be and, through Naruto, restructures the term to the benefit of the series. After seeing how much Haku valued their usefulness as an effective ninja to Zabuza, Naruto refused to accept that their relationship was so two-dimensional. His desire to be acknowledged as the greatest shinobi of his village was at risk if, to accomplish that, he needed to become a ruthless tool, and it took Zabuza and Haku to show him that he needed to find a better way.
With the anticipated live-action Naruto movie currently in the works, many fans are anxious to see how the beloved story will be adapted. Even though the Land of Waves arc is not the series' most extravagant, it would be a shame for future adaptations to skip the arc because it contains so many rich character moments that begin to build satisfying payoffs in the overarching plot. The first arc sees Naruto grow from an annoying prankster to a young ninja who'd eventually change the world with his own ninja path: never to run away or go back on his word.
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- First Film
- Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow
- Latest Film
- Boruto: Naruto the Movie
- First TV Show
- Naruto
- Latest TV Show
- Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
- First Episode Air Date
- October 3, 2002
- Cast
- Junko Takeuchi, Maile Flanagan, Noriaki Sugiyama, Chie Nakamura, Kazuhiko Inoue, Nana Mizuki, Hideo Ishikawa, Yûko Sanpei
Naruto is a franchise spawned from the manga series penned by Masashi Kishimoto that began in 1999. Generating several tv series, games, movies, and more, Naruto follows the exploits of a young outcast ninja harboring the spirit of a demon fox who seeks to become the Hokage, the leader of his ninja village, to break the stigma against him. Upon the conclusion of the initial series, Naruto expanded into Boruto, following many series protagonists' children and returning faces.
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Naruto is an action-adventure anime series based on the manga series created by Masashi Kishimoto. The titular Naruto Uzumaki is a fearsome Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit sealed inside him, which once wreaked havoc on his village. Shunned by his community yet determined to earn their respect, Naruto dreams of becoming the greatest ninja, the Hokage. This series follows his journey through the Ninja Academy as he continues to train and grow, hoping to prove himself to his peers- and himself.
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