What I Learned From Watching Naruto

Though I am not a hard-core Manga or Anime fan, I’m a big fan of Naruto. When I was a kid, I could only watch a few episodes that were broadcast-ed on TV, and that was one of my favorite shows at the time. Unfortunately, the show was cut off (from Vietnamese TV) after about 200 episodes, so I could not watch the rest of Naruto and the whole Naruto Shippuden. I tried reading some manga online, too, but my English was pretty bad, so I could not understand everything.

A few years ago, I decided to re-watch the whole thing, and so far I have done that a few times. As I re-watched it again and again with my adult mind, I started to notice some of the lessons that the author seems to have put into the story and into the Naruto character, something that I couldn’t see when I watched it the first time as a child.

Here are top three things I have learned from Naruto Uzumaki. By the way, if you have never watched this show, you should. I guarantee that it’ll worth your time.

Your worst weakness maybe your greatest source of strength

What made Naruto so bad as a shinobi when he was a kid? Granted that he was stupid, his physical abilities was great: his father was the Hokage, and his mother was a Jinchuriki; so even if he’s bad, he cannot be the worst.

The biggest problem for Naruto is the nine-tailed fox inside him. It causes him a lot of troubles since he cannot concentrate his chakra like normal: whenever he tries to concentrate his own chakra, the fox’s chakra will be released and intervene the process, which results in Naruto wasting his chakra all the time.

And yet, the same fox later on became not only his good friend Kurama, but also his biggest source of energy and chakra. Of course, to get to that wasn’t an easy journey for both of them. The scene when Naruto opens the cage (in his mind) and releases Kurama, as he consider Kurama his friend and his team mate, was, in my opinion, one of the best scenes of the show. Later on, Kurama proved that Naruto wasn’t wrong to trust him. Without the nine-tailed fox, Naruto may have died repeatedly, and he would never become the god of shinobi he gets to be. Funny how things work out sometimes, eh?

Hard work always wins

Naruto is certainly more stupid than any of his friends: at school he ranked at the bottom, he always said stupid things, and nobody really thought he had any talents. Meanwhile, Sasuke was the best student in the class, a so-called “genius”, who was best in everything he did.

And in the end, Sasuke still couldn’t beat Naruto. Of course, the final battle was a draw, but Sasuke was trying to kill, while Naruto simply wanted to save Sasuke. Anyway, here we are not arguing who is the stronger one between the two of them, the point is: Sasuke is not only a genius, he is also a genius who trains like hell every of his waking minute. For strength, he was even ready to sacrifice his life to Orochimaru, and he later on became stronger than every shinobi alive.

Everyone but Naruto. What does that mean?

A fool who trains like hell is as good as a genius who also trains like hell.

We all know people who did well at school, but were lazy and later failed in life; and people who was not bright as kids, but grow themselves to be talented. Hard work is important!

Never give up

Naruto was an orphan, he was stupid and he was the worst shinobi in his class. For a reason that he doesn’t know, he was hated by everyone in the village, for his entire childhood. He has a beast sealed into his body, which gets in the way every time he tries to do anything.

Yet, when Neji Hyuga, his opponent, said that even a genius like him can’t fight the fate, so Naruto shouldn’t try, Naruto said: “If you are afraid of the fate, then when I become Hokage, I will change Hyuga for you.”

Naruto only has one rule: “I’m not gonna run away, I never go back on my word! That’s my Ninja Way!”.

No matter how many times he got beaten down, he always finds a way to come back. As much as we think how stupid his actions are to throw himself into battles that (seems to be) unwinable, as normal human beings we all respect people like him: who dies for their words. And because Naruto doesn’t have a second thought about his goals, he does everything and takes every responsibility, no matter how difficult and dangerous it is, without a second thought. And with it, he also encourages other people: even people who used to hate him, and even his opponents. He earns their respects.

Of course, in real life things are not that “easy”; I mean, real people don’t have unlimited power that they can summon up like Naruto, but his spirit is what we should follow. When you truly focus on achieving your goal and ignore the “option” to give up, you will have much more chance to get it.

Another thing that we notice about Naruto is that no matter how ridiculously difficult the thing he wants to do, when he said it out (“I will become Hokage”, “I will bring Sasuke back”, “I want to create a world without war”, etc.), Naruto always truly believes he can do it.

A related and less dramatic case for this “rule” we can find in movies is the case of Forest Gump. Forest had an IQ of 75, but he had an ability that most of us don’t have: once he’s set his mind to do something, he solely concentrate on it. And because he was laughed at by people all his life, he doesn’t care if someone tells him his idea is stupid, he just does it, and yet, he always succeeds in everything he does.

If you aim to do something, don’t back down., that’s the lesson.

Am I missing something? I think yes, since it’s kinda hard to sum up every good thing about a character like Naruto in one short article. So, hmm, I may come back to this topic later on. See you later then!