User:ChrisGualtieri/Naruto/Manga

Release

Main article: List of Naruto manga volumes

Naruto premiered in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on September 21, 1999, and ended on November 10, 2014. The first 238 chapters are known as Part I, and constitute the first part of the Naruto storyline. Manga chapters 239 to 244 comprise a gaiden series focusing on the background of the character Kakashi Hatake. The rest of the manga (Chapters 245 to 700) belongs to Part II, which continues the storyline after a two-and-a-half year time gap. 72 tankōbon were released by Shueisha in Japan, with the first twenty-seven tankōbon containing Part I, and every subsequent one belonging to Part II. The first tankōbon was released on March 3, 2000. In addition, several tankōbon, each containing ani-manga based one of the Naruto movies, have been released by Shueisha. In Japanese, Shueisha has also released the series for cell-phone download on their website Shueisha Manga Capsule. A spin-off comedy manga by Kenji Taira, titled Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden (ロック・リーの青春フルパワー忍伝, Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals) and focusing on the character Rock Lee, ran in Shueisha's Saikyō Jump magazine from December 3, 2010 to July 4, 2014. Taira also created Sasuke Uchiha no Sharingan Den (うちはサスケの写輪眼伝, Sasuke Uchiha's Sharingan Legend), which centers on the group Taka and features similar themes to the Rock Lee spin-off.

Naruto is serialized in North America by Viz Media in their manga anthology magazine Shonen Jump, with the first chapter of the English adaptation published in the January 2003 issue. To compensate for the gap between the Japanese and English adaptations of the manga, Viz implemented its "Naruto Nation" campaign, where it released three volumes a month in the last four months of 2007 in order to close said gap. Cammie Allen, Viz's product manager, commented that, their main reason for the schedule was to catch up to the Japanese release schedule to give their readers a similar experience to that of Japanese readers. A similar campaign was planned for 2009, with eleven volumes from Part II of the series being released between February and April in order to catch up to the Japanese serialization. Starting with the release of volume forty-five in July, Viz began releasing Naruto on a quarterly basis. Viz has released the manga in English on 67 volumes as of October 7, 2014. In addition, Viz Media released all twenty-seven volumes of Part I in a boxed set, thus constituting the entirety of the Naruto storyline before Part II on November 13, 2007. On May 3, 2011, Viz started collecting the series in an omnibus format in which each volume contains three from the original format.

Reception

Naruto has been well received in both Japan and the United States. As of 2007, the manga had over 71 million copies in circulation in Japan, while in 2008 this increased to 89 million. In April 2010, Shueisha announced that Naruto had 100.4 million copies in print, becoming the publisher's fifth manga series to have over a 100 million in circulation. In 2011 its sales increased to over 113 million copies, and by 2013 it had sold over 130 million, becoming Shueisha's fourth best-selling manga series. During 2008, volume 43 sold 1.1 million copies becoming the 9th best-selling comic from Japan. Volumes 41, 42 and 44 also ranked within the top 20, but had smaller sold copies. In total, the manga sold 4.2 million copies in Japan during 2008, making it the second best-selling series of the year. In the first half of 2009, it ranked as the third best-selling manga in Japan, having sold 3.4 million copies. That year, volume 45 ranked 5th with 1.1 million sold copies, while volume 46 ranked 9th, having sold 864,708 copies and volume 44 at 40th place.

The Naruto manga series has become one of Viz Media's top properties, accounting for nearly 10% of all manga sales in 2006. Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Viz, noted that the volumes's sales of Naruto astonished him as the attrition on the series is relatively low. ICv2 has listed it as the top manga property in North America several times. The seventh volume of Viz's release became the first manga to win a Quill Award when it claimed the award for "Best Graphic Novel" in 2006. The manga also appeared in the USA Today Booklist with volume 11 holding the title of the highest ranked manga series on the list, until it was surpassed by volume 28, which claimed the 17th rank in its first week of release in March 2008. Volume 28 also had one of the biggest debut weeks of any manga in years, becoming the top selling manga volume of 2008 as well as the second best-selling book in North America. During its release, volume 29 ranked #57, while volume 28 had dropped to #139. In April 2007, volume 14 earned Viz the "Manga Trade Paperback of the Year" Gem Award from Diamond Comic Distributors. The manga series also became the top manga property from 2008 in the United States with 31 volumes having been published during the chart. Searches for the word "Naruto" were #7 on the Yahoo! web search engine's list of the top 10 most popular search terms of 2008, and #4 from 2007. Responding to Naruto's success, Kishimoto said in Naruto Collector Winter 2007/2008 that he was "very glad that the American audience has accepted and understood ninja. It shows that the American audience has good taste... because it means they can accept something previously unfamiliar to them."

The series has received praise and criticism by several reviewers. A. E. Sparrow from IGN noted how some manga volumes focus only in certain characters to the point the number of fans increases. He also praised the way that Kishimoto manages to make a remarkable combination of fighting scenes, comedy and good artwork. The anime and manga magazine Neo described Naruto's character as "irksome", but attributed the series' "almost sickening addictiveness" to its level of characterization. Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network (ANN) praised the designs of the characters, since every one shows their unique way of acting and appearance. He also noted how even the "goofiest looking character" can act "damn cool" when he fights. However, Kimlinger noted that in some volumes there are several fights, so the plot is not able to develop, but he praised how each of the battles were emotional. The series has also been praised for remaining enjoyable after several volumes by Javier Lugo from mangalife, who also praised the antagonists as well as the fights scenes from the manga. Kishimoto's artwork was also commented by Lugo as it makes the story "dramatic, exciting, and just right for the story he’s telling". The start of Part II has been praised in another review by Casey Brienza from ANN. She noted how well the characters were developed as they had new appearances and abilities. Brienza also praised the balance between plot and action scenes allowing the readers the enjoy the volume. However, she noted that it is not frequent that all the volumes have the same quality. Briana Lawrence from Mania Entertainment added that in Part II, the manga feels "adult" due to the growth from various of the characters. However, Viz's translations were criticized for being "inconsistent" due to the change of some Japanese terms to English, while other words were left intact.

The Spanish webcomic author Jesús García Ferrer (JesuLink) created the parody webcomic Raruto, based on Naruto. As of 2008 about 40,000 people in Spain read Raruto.