The Master of the Kage Bunshin

Neither more nor less than Naruto uzumakiIf Dragon Ball caused a sensation and was the reference manga in the nineties, Naruto is undoubtedly the one that has set the highest bar in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Naruto is a manga created by Masashi Kishimoto, began to be published in Japan in November 1999, thus far exceeding 350 issues. In Spain we can find it in our specialized bookstores by the hand of the publisher Glenat.

Naruto Uzumaki is a young ninja, joker, clumsy and not exactly the best of his class or the most skilled. In reality Naruto is a Jinchurikki, that is, one who has sealed inside his body when Kyubi (Nine-tailed fox and immense power that destroyed the village of Konoha killing hundreds of its inhabitants). The Kyubi was stopped and sealed inside Naruto by the fourth Hokage (the leader of the village) giving his life in the attempt.

Naruto He has no family, and grows apart from the other inhabitants of the village, because inside he carries that murderous beast. But what Naruto wants most is to one day become a Hokage and show everyone what he is capable of and that he is not a monster.

The ninjas in this series are the defenders of their respective villages, and are hired to carry out missions in exchange for money that serves as a source of income for the country, these missions range from the simplest such as finding someone's lost cat to rescuing the leader of another village who has been kidnapped.

During the series Naruto will strive to learn new techniques and control all the power he has within. At the beginning of the series Naruto is one of the worst students, but with the passage of time and thanks to his rivalry / friendship with the best student of the ninja school (Sasuke Uchiha) he will constantly improve and surpass himself. Naruto is in the ninja team No. 7, under the command of Kakashi Hatake, along with Sasuke and Sakura (with whom he is in love, but that is not reciprocated, since Sakura is in love in turn with Sasuke, who ignores both of them , having there a love triangle that always gives a lot of play).

After some missions with his group, he takes one of the two annual exams to achieve the rank of chunin. Naruto's group and others from Konoha, along with other ninjas from other villages participate in the competition. However, this one is interrupted by a surprise attack that Orochimaru (a renegade ninja from Konoha), in alliance with the Hidden Village of the Sand (deceived by Orochimaru).

In the next part of the story, it is revealed that Sasuke is the last of the Uchiha clan, because his older brother Itachi murdered them all, and he fled the village. Sasuke's main motivation is to be the best so he can kill his brother one day, and make his clan resurface. The appearance of the latter seeking to capture Naruto for the mysterious Akatsuki Organization (to which Itachi Uchiha belongs) accelerates the story, Akatsuki seeks Naruto to extract the power of Kyubi and thus use it for his own purposes. On the other hand, Orochimaru, in his lust for power, fixes on Sasuke, whom he convinces to join him in exchange for strength to kill his brother (with Orochimaru's ultimate goal of appropriating Sasuke's body, which Every three years, like snakes, Orochimaru occupies the body of another person and thus prolong his life). Thus ends what would be the first part of the story.

The story continues two and a half years later, in which we see how Naruto returns from his special training with Jiraya as a somewhat more mature and much stronger young man, willing to face the Akatsuki organization and finally find Sasuke and Orochimaru.

As with Dragon Ball, one of the great attractions of the series are the rest of the supporting characters (not secondary) that Naruto has around him, despite the fact that the main story revolves around Naruto, the large number of characters with such defined personalities make this series never tire of being a story of a single character and that there are even characters that steal prominence. The series has large doses of humor and full action, sharing with Dragon Ball the incredible and magical (as the great Satan would say) combat techniques (that if, original techniques, they are not copies of Dragon Ball). If Gokuh had the Kamehameha, Naruto has the Kage Bunshin (the cloning technique) and the Rasengan.

As you can imagine, more than 350 numbers (and those that are missing) go a long way, but if to say that it is a recommended series even for those who are not very fond of Japanese comics in general.