I watched the final episode of Naruto yesterday. After re-watching it with my wife this evening, with some regret I clicked the "Remove from queue" button. The show has been running for nearly fifteen years and it strangely been a large of my life.
When I was a college senior, two of my roommates were into it. At the time I think there were only two seasons and so it was not anywhere near the anime behemoth it would become later on. It was actually not for a few more years that I even started watching the series. I moved back to Indiana, PA to be with my eventually-wife and we lived in a rundown basement apartment in the outskirts of Homer City. I had no job that winter so I ended up marathon watching the Japanese subtitled version on YouTube. And just as I finished the final episode, I discovered a new series had started called Shippuuden.
My wife knew I was into anime. I think she thought it was just these weird, nerdy Japanese cartoons I liked. One weekend, Cartoon Network decided to have marathon of Naruto. By that time, we'd moved to Monroeville. Amanda started watching an episode. We ended up, I think, wasting nearly the entire weekend watching the Invasion of Konoha arc. She quickly caught up to me and on a weekly basis if it was Thursday I was downloading the latest fansub. We even took the series with us to Europe on our honeymoon. It was the gateway into sharing one of my passions with my wife and I think I turned her into a mini-otaku (even if that meant she watched shows involving vampires). Midway through we stopped watching for a good year, as the spoilers got more and more absurd, but when the canon started back up, we ended up rewatching the whole series (even some filler) up to where they were. The fillers, near the end, soured Amanda and even me on watching, but I still watched a number of the shinden side stories. And with this final arc, surrounding the wedding, we both watch together.
Our sons are still too small to watch the show. We went to see both Naruto: The Last and Boruto, they just knew it was mommy and daddy's cartoon.
The final episode, while not the most amazing of stories, had many poignant moments and nearly had Amanda in tears. Naruto's request to Iruka, to serve as his father at the wedding, was pretty touching. There were also some hilarious moment both with the best of the Orochimaru gags and Killer Bee's yes/no pillows. And I think what I liked best is that it had Hinata...
I don't know why but I've been a sucker for her for years. I remember freaking out like a little girl when she finally admitted her feelings for Naruto when trying to protect him from Pain in the manga. When I thought she died a chapter later, I was a wreck until they revealed she was still alive a few weeks later. When the first teaser for The Last came out, I was thrilled that they had teased a relationship. A few weeks later, the series ended and I got the reward I was hoping for, when chapter 700 showed Himawari with those familiar "whiskers." I've seen some other anime (most notably re:Zero) where we see the protagonist loves who they love, but in this case I think Kishimoto got it 100% right. Before anyone else supported him, she did even from the sidelines.
I'll probably watch Boruto in a few weeks but I know it won't be the same. Naruto was both one of my favorite shows (I know it is far from the "best" anime) and is so connected to my life for over a decade.
Thanks for the memories Kishimoto, dattebayo.
