Naruto created a sensation in its first years, and unlike most anime that get forgotten after a few months, it became the quintessential fighting shonen people are still talking about decades after it began airing. There were a hundred different things one could find to talk about when it came to the story and its characters, as well as everything it was based on; namely the still up until then semi-mystical Japanese history and mythology. And just like every show that becomes a world-wide sensation, it was also an easy way for someone to blend in at anime conventions. Are you a newbie who doesn’t know anyone nor has an opening for starting a chat? All you needed was a headband, memorize a few hand seals, and run like a retard with your hands stretching behind you. In a few minutes someone would approach you, asking who your favorite characters are. 

There were stuff going on that you wouldn’t see in earlier years, because the internet wasn’t as fast or as widespread, and anime were not promoted that heavily yet. As famous as Dragonball was during the 90s for example, it was not everywhere on the same volume as the Big Three. You couldn’t believe how many young people had become weeaboos thanks to it (not me, as I was already over twenty at the time, and was more into mecha, space operas and super violent OVAs). You would go into a net cafe and see dozens of people doing a Naruto marathon. You would see others improving their drawing skills just so they could sketch their favorite characters. There were also those learning Japanese language and history, after they got fascinated by the themes and the philosophy of the show. And of course there were the shipping wars, the theory crafting, the versus battles with characters from the other Big Three, and a gazillion other things to keep you preoccupied for a decade. 

It’s very easy to see why it was so successful. It was tapping into the need of young people to stand out in the crowd, which was a really big issue for most teenage millennials of the time. Having a war-torn setting was also an easy excuse for action and adventure, while victimizing children at the same time for having to grow up in a suffocating society that expects too much out of them. It was a relatable excuse for empowerment fantasy when it came to young people with first world problems suffering from social anxiety.

Obviously, the more the show kept going the less relatable it felt, partly because its audience was growing out of its angsty teenage phase and partly because of how the writing was becoming progressively worse. It began losing its magic once other shows with far better production values came out (namely Suzumiya Haruhi and Death Note) which stole the spotlight and made it obvious that it was just another poorly paced, badly animated studio Pierrot series. By the late 00s only hardcore fans were still giving a damn about it, with the rest seeing it as just an excuse to make money through episode and chapter reviews. It was a milk-cow everyone was tolerating because it was vital for the anime industry to keep going. Quality had nothing to do with it. Today it’s a shadow of what it used to be, nostalgic if you were once a fan, but otherwise something you most likely regret having invested so much time, money, and effort.

In retrospect, lots of things did not make any sense from the very beginning. Ninjas don’t run around in bright-colored jumpsuits and are sort of needless in a world where anyone can use computers and machineguns. Also, how dangerous can ninjas really be if not even professionals can’t tell apart a real body from a clone, or a little boy can easily bypass all security and steal top secrets? You can always suspend your disbelief, but deep inside you know there is never going to be any realistic approach to its interesting themes. The foundations of the power system are broken, since most of the so-called tactics come down to people exchanging places with a log whenever it suits the plot. Even so, if you break it down to core elements, you can easily find ten reasons for why it was so easy to appeal to most anime fans. It became much worse as time went on, but the first arcs are still some of the best in any fighting shonen.

1) An underdog protagonist who nobody takes seriously and struggles to be acknowledged
2) A cool rival who gets the spotlight all the time and makes the protagonist jealous
3) Focused on a small cast of fleshed-out characters
4) Tragic flashbacks in a captivating war-torn setting
5) Using stealth and tactics instead of mindless raw power
6) Treating mentors and villains as equally important and fleshed-out
7) Death was ever-present, permanent, and meaningful
8) Easy to follow plot
9) Very catchy and memorable soundtrack 
10) Relatively ok pacing

1) In specific, the Wave Country arc was only 20 episodes, and served an introduction to the main characters, the setting, and the power system. It also featured two interesting villains who were not a one-time psychotic rapists and did NOT become allies or recurring opponents. Also, despite the protagonist defeating one of them with the obligatory hidden power than came out when he needed it the most, his victory felt hollow and horrible, thus becoming a major twist for the formula. It had drama, tension, comedy, all the good stuff, but it was also dragging for many episodes, so I am giving it an 8/10.

2) The Chuunin Exam was triple in size with 60 episodes, and served to flesh out all the secondary characters. Unlike typical exams and tournament arcs in shonen, it was not treating most of the participants as cannon fodder. Each one of them felt like a possible protagonist of his own show and had the potential to be the hero of his own story. This never happened, but for the time being it multiplied its cast several fold, so anyone could choose a different character to root for. This is when the shipping wars and the versus battles blew up, creating a huge circlejerk of shonentards. 

This changed the third reason of why the show was appealing, but it didn’t damage it yet, since the tournament structure was giving the spotlight to the two participants, while everyone else was reduced to spectators. It works when nobody else is allowed to do something and fails only when everybody is fighting at the same time.

[i] Reason no.3 became: It has a huge cast but focuses on few of them at a time, as means to flesh them out. [/i]
  
It was also the arc that showed us all the secondary ninja villages and the frail truce amongst them. The tournament was not just a bunch of teenagers trying to level up in the ninja hierarchy. It was about politics and maintaining peace through a power display of every faction. There was even a major conspiracy which threatened the village and caused the death of a major character. It was in overall another great arc, with the only negative being several characters who were simply not interesting despite getting the spotlight. I am giving it a 7/10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB1gZuMgDiw