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| FIRST APPEARANCE:NARUTO MANGA CHAPTER 1-NARUTO ANIME EPISODE 1 |
| VOICED BY:JAPANESE:Junko Takeuchi-ENGLISH:Maile Flanagan |
| AGE:12-13 in Part I-15-16 in Part II |
| DATE OF BIRTH:OCTOBER 10 |
| Notable relatives:Minato Namikaze (father, deceased)-Kushina Uzumaki(mother, presumed deceased) |
| NINJA RANK:GENIN |
| NINJA TEAM:TEAM 7 |
Naruto Uzumaki (うずまき ナルト ,Uzumaki Naruto) is a fictional character in the anime and manga franchise Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto. Naruto is the main protagonist and titular character of the series. In creating Naruto, Kishimoto wished to keep the character "simple and
stupid" while giving him many attributes of Son Goku, the main character from the Dragon Ball franchise. However, Kishimoto also added his dark past to make him look unique. Naruto's initial design has been changed several times by Kishimoto giving him different clothes to make him more appealing to Western audience as well as to be easier to draw.
In the series, Naruto is a ninja affiliated with the fictional village of Konohagakure. The villagers ostracize Naruto because the nine-tailed demon fox, a malevolent creature that attacked Konohagakure, is sealed within his body. As such, Naruto has ambitions of becoming the village's leader, the Hokage in order make everybody respect him. However, Naruto maintains a cheerful and boisterous personality, allowing him to befriend several other Konoha ninja throughout the series, as well as ninja from other villages. He builds an especially close relationship with Team 7, the ninja team where he belongs, treating them as his family. Naruto appears in all of the series' films, as well as in other media related to the franchise, including all video games and OVAs.
Several anime and manga publications have expressed acclaim and criticism of Naruto's character. Some view him as a stereotypical manga and anime protagonist comparable to those in many other shōnen manga, while others have praised his personality as well as his development in the series. Nevertheless, Naruto has remained highly popular with the Naruto reader base, placing high in several popularity polls.Merchandise based on Naruto has also been released, including figurines and plush dolls.
Nine-tailed demon fox
The nine-tailed demon fox (九尾の妖狐 ,Kyūbi no Yōko) is the most powerful of the tailed beasts. It is regarded as an age-old natural disaster, as a single swipe of one of its tails can raise tsunamis and flatten mountains. Twelve years before the start of the series, the fox attacked Konohagakure. Its attack was stopped by the Fourth Hokage, who gave his life to seal the fox into his son, Naruto Uzumaki.Throughout the series, Naruto tries to gain dominance over the fox, as harnessing its great strength allows him to perform jutsu that would normally be impossible for a ninja of his level.At the same time the fox tries to gain control over Naruto, provoking his rage and thus allowing its violent personality to influence and consume him. As Naruto draws upon more of the fox's power the seal keeping it trapped within him weakens, and in the event the seal is broken the fox will be released.In the Japanese anime, its seiyū is Tesshō Genda, and in the English adaption the fox is voiced by Paul St. Peter.
