What it is about

Naruto Uzumaki is a loud orphan boy from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The villagers avoid him without telling him why, and he answers with pranks and by telling anyone who will listen that he is going to be Hokage, the strongest and most respected ninja in the village.

The story begins when he leaves the Academy and ends up on a team with Sasuke, a quiet prodigy, and Sakura, a diligent student who admires Sasuke. From there it grows into a world of ninja villages with their own politics, clan rivalries and wars that left scars.

Why it is worth it

• The characters change. Almost nobody ends the way they started, and the changes are earned over time.
• The rivals have reasons. Many enemies have a story that explains how they got there, without fully excusing them.
• The world grows with the story. What starts as one village ends up as a whole map with its own past.
• The fights matter. They are won with wit and teamwork, not just raw power.

How long it is

The full anime is long, but part of it can be skipped: filler is the anime's own stories that do not adapt the manga.

Hours count about 23 minutes per episode, without skipping openings or endings. In Boruto only the standalone stories are marked as filler: the anime's own arcs with continuity, such as Mitsuki's disappearance, count as anime story even though they do not adapt the manga. The arcs that do adapt the manga add up to 82 episodes.

Where to start

The films are optional. The series guide shows where each one fits and which are canon.

What to expect from Boruto

Boruto is the sequel: it follows the new generation, the children of the characters from Naruto, years later. The anime adds many stories of its own and the manga is more direct. The second part, Two Blue Vortex, is still being published and for now only exists as a manga.