Masashi Kishimoto’s masterpiece Naruto is a fantasy action manga and anime series, that is known to have some of the best fight and battle sequences. It is one of its specialties. However, it does not completely define the series. The series also carries world-building, character development, and a brilliant storyline.
Fans are not only attracted to the action scenes of the series but also to how the story creates a great piece of art that reflects major moral values through the use of fiction and fantasy. It has drama, heartbreak, bravery, fear, darkness, happiness, and many other emotions that fans can connect to.
This has all been possible because of the director of the Naruto anime, Yuto Date. According to an interview, Director Date had one condition while he was working on the series and that was that he would not make it a major action series but also focus on drama and emotions which indeed worked for the better of Naruto.
Naruto Director’s Condition While Working on The Series
During an interview with Anime Recorder, Naruto Director Yuto Date and Producer Hakutani talked about the development and creation of Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto and how it became such a big series. In the interview, Director Date explained how he had no intention of making it an action movie and would rather focus on the drama part.
He stated:
“At the start, I said, “I have no intention of making it an action movie.” Some people may think it’s an action piece, but for me, it’s a taiga drama. So when it comes to action scenes, I just ask the staff who love action to do whatever they want. His way of asking was, “It doesn’t matter how many sheets you use.” Instead, I was responsible for the drama part, and the work was divided like this.”
According to Date, whenever an action scene was involved he would hand over the responsibility to the staff members who loved the action sequences. He solely focused on the drama part and wanted to develop the series into a taiga drama (historical fiction TV series).
A Lot of Effort Was Put into Naruto’s Action
Producer Naoharu Hakutani also gave his expression about the action sequences of the anime series. According to Hakutani, there was a lot of effort put into the action scenes of the series and the creators of the action-based episodes were very particular about them.
He stated:
“The key action episodes were given to Mr. Wakabayashi (Mr. Atsushi Wakabayashi) and Mr. Kurotsu (Mr. Yasuaki Kurotsu), so of course we put a lot of effort into them as well. They were very particular about their opinions, so my main job was to listen to their opinions and sometimes appease them (lol).”
He further said:
“It received good reviews from viewers, and when I heard people say, “I want to see another work by this staff member,” I was glad that I made NARUTO.”
According to Hakutani, the combination of action and drama led to good reviews from the viewers and he was happy that he got to make the Naruto series, which is now one of the biggest anime series in the world.
You can watch Naruto on Hulu.
