THE LIBRARY

No: in the 1997 pilot Naruto is the fox himself, the son of the beast that destroyed his village, solving a murder in a modern city.

Kishimoto on record: Dragon Ball, an Akira poster, Blade of the Immortal, Godzilla, and his Okayama hometown.

A planned final battle after 700 chapters, and a sequel that exists only because Kishimoto's assistant agreed to draw it.

Viz in 2003, the Toonami premiere of September 10, 2005, a Quill Award, and 250 million copies in 46 countries and regions.

Naruto ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from September 21, 1999 to November 10, 2014: 700 chapters across just over fifteen years, ending by Kishimoto's choice.

Naruto has 72 tankobon volumes: Part I is volumes 1 to 27, the Kakashi Gaiden sits inside volume 27, and Part II runs from volume 28 to volume 72.

Check the colophon at the back of the book: a first printing of a Japanese Naruto volume shows the original date with no later printing lines beneath it.

For New York Comic Con 2015, Viz sold an exclusive variant of Naruto volume 72 with a new cover drawn by Masashi Kishimoto for the convention.

Naruto Nation was Viz Media's 2007 catch-up campaign: three new Naruto volumes a month from September to December, closing the gap with Japan.

Viz's 3-in-1 editions repackage all 72 Naruto volumes into 24 larger omnibuses, starting in 2011: same chapters, bigger trim, thinner paper.

Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring is Kishimoto's ten-chapter sequel miniseries from 2015, starring Sarada Uchiha.

Before Naruto, Kishimoto's Karakuri won an honorable mention in the 1996 Hop Step Award, and its failed 1998 serialization taught him what Naruto needed.

Kishimoto published three main Naruto art books: Uzumaki in 2004, Paint Jump: Art of Naruto in 2008, and the Naruto Illustration Book in 2009.

There are four main Naruto databooks (Rin, To, Sha and Jin no Sho) plus two fanbooks; the fourth databook, covering volumes 44 to 71, never got an English edition.

The Naruto Hiden novels are six prose books from 2015, written by six different authors with Kishimoto illustrations, filling the gap after chapter 699.

Japanese and English Naruto volumes use the same Kishimoto art but different covers as objects: trade dress, spines, logos and bonus variants all differ.

Naruto and Naruto Shippuden together run 720 episodes: 220 from 2002 to 2007 and 500 from 2007 to 2017, all animated by Studio Pierrot.

By the standard fan episode guides, about 41 percent of both Naruto series is anime-original filler: roughly 90 of 220 episodes and 203 of 500.

There are eleven Naruto theatrical films, three for the original series and eight for Shippuden, released almost every summer from 2004 to 2015.

Yes: The Last is a canon chapter of the manga's story, set between chapters 699 and 700, with Kishimoto providing the story concept and designs.

A live-action Naruto has been in development at Lionsgate since 2015. As of late 2026 it has a director and a casting search, but no release date.

The Cartoon Network broadcast of Naruto trimmed blood, alcohol references and innuendo; Viz's Uncut DVD box sets restored the episodes as animated.

Shippuden episode 167 was animated by a tiny team led by Atsushi Wakabayashi, with Shingo Yamashita drawing minutes of it alone, on purpose off-model.

Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth is Kenji Taira's chibi gag spinoff: a seven-volume manga and a 51-episode anime that took Bleach's TV slot in 2012.

Naruto premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami on September 10, 2005, and within two months every published English volume was in the BookScan top 20.

The first Naruto game was Konoha Ninpouchou, a role-playing game released for Bandai's WonderSwan Color in Japan on March 27, 2003.

Clash of Ninja is the Western name for Gekito Ninja Taisen, Eighting's GameCube fighting series; Japan got four games, the West got two, then a different Wii line.

Gekito Ninja Taisen 4 (2005) is the only main Clash of Ninja game never localized: 36 playable characters and the complete Part I roster, Japan only.

Japan's Narutimate Hero 1 to 3 became Ultimate Ninja 1 to 3, but Accel 1 and 2 were renumbered as Ultimate Ninja 4 and 5 in the West.

Ultimate Ninja 5, Japan's Narutimate Accel 2, is the only main Ultimate Ninja game never released in North America; Europe got it in 2009, in Japanese voices.

The Storm line has eight main entries from 2008 to 2023, plus the Full Burst upgrade, the Trilogy and Legacy collections, and the Connections finale.

Bandai Namco's Naruto games passed 10 million copies in 2012; the Ultimate Ninja series passed 20 million by 2019 and the Storm line alone 30 million by 2024.

Most early Naruto games never left Japan: Gekito Ninja Taisen 3 and 4, the Wii EX line, the WonderSwan original and the Data Carddass arcade games among them.

Ninja Council is Tomy's handheld action series, Japan's Saikyo Ninja Daikesshu: two GBA games, then DS sequels whose numbering does not match Japan's.

Japan's Narutimate Hero 2 shipped with two different covers, a Naruto version and a Sasuke version; the West got one cover and a translated name.

Bandai's Naruto Collectible Card Game ran in North America from April 2006 to 2013 across 28 sets, opening with The Path to Hokage, which sold out at launch.

First edition Naruto CCG cards come from the small first print runs before the unlimited reprints; early rares carry gold foil names, and dots mark the rarity.

Collectors grade the Naruto CCG's 1st Edition super rares from the first three sets, the gold letter foils whose print runs were the smallest the game ever had.

Japan had Naruto card games years before the American CCG: Bandai's 2003 card game, the Data Carddass arcade line, and Miracle Battle Carddass from 2012.

Kayou's licensed Naruto cards are Chinese collectibles, not a game; Bandai announced a new Naruto Card Game in June 2026, launching worldwide in 2027.

Ichiban Kuji is Bandai Spirits' prize lottery: every ticket wins, top letters are MASTERLISE figures, and the final ticket in a set wins the Last One prize.

The main Naruto figure lines divide by job: S.H.Figuarts for action, G.E.M. for 1/8 display, Tsume for statues, Nendoroid for chibi, Figuarts ZERO for effects.

Naruto prize figures are Banpresto items won from arcade crane games, not sold in shops: Grandista, Vibration Stars and Master Stars Piece are the big lines.

Viz made Mattel Naruto's master toy licensee in 2005, so US toys were mass-market Mattel products while Japan's figures came from Bandai's collector lines.

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's own formula: Ideon plus Devilman, divided by two.

Bart Howard's standard in a new arrangement almost every week, more than thirty versions, under Shiro Sagisu's classical threaded score.

Replicant and Gestalt key art, the Western NieR box, and the NieR Automata cover, with both histories and the questions behind them.

Cavia's 2010 original: Yoko Taro, Keiichi Okabe's score, the mixed reviews, the half million sales, and the cult that grew anyway.

PlatinumGames and Yoko Taro, 2017: 2B and 9S, the collaboration that saved a studio, ten million copies, and the scores.

A brother in Japan, a father in the West: one game, split by platform and by audience research.

It is the square root of 1.5: the developers' label for a version upgrade, neither remake nor remaster.

Spoilers: it is the sequel to Drakengard's joke ending, the one with a dragon falling on Tokyo in 2003.

Yoko Taro wanted vocals no player could understand, so Emi Evans built the Chaos Language for Keiichi Okabe's score, one real language per song, drifted a thousand years.