Inspiring Young Readers
posted on 03 Apr 2026
Why We Love Naruto
I talked with nine-year-old Alfie and Boden who are two of the biggest Naruto fans in Birmingham. This is an exciting and action-packed series of Japanese books and programmes about a Ninja Academy with Naruto Uzumaki as one of the main characters. It is basically a traditional epic martial arts story in Manga form. As with all Japanese books, they have to be read from right to left, starting in the upper right-hand corner.
When did you discover the series?
Alfie: I first came across the books about eighteen months ago on the ipad. I really like Japanese culture and dived in to find out more about it and did some research online. I realised it was quite a cool series and asked my dad if I could order my first book. Ever since then I’ve been in love with it.
Boden: I discovered the books about five months ago because I have always loved reading comic books. My dad showed me some other Manga books and then Alfie lent me a Naruto book and I was totally absorbed by it. I read it over and over again because it was so good. And then I asked my dad to look out for some more. Then I bought some more in the series and kept reading them all the time because I loved the stories and illustrations so much. Then I found even more examples of Manga comics like One Piece. My favourite character in that series is Zorro because he can use three swords at once and it’s pretty cool.
What is the Naruto series all about?
An evil spirit called ‘Nine Tails Demon Fox’ was attacking The Village Hidden in the Leaves and so Naruto’s mom and dad had to contain it inside someone. Naruto was the closest to them, so they decided to lock it inside their son to save the village, even though they know this would be a problem for him in the future. In the process they unfortunately died. He is then helped by a mentor called Ikura at Ninja Academy. Ikura’s own parents had also been killed a long time ago by the same evil spirit. It can get Naruto into big trouble, but he gets much better at controlling it as he gets older. Part of his Ninja training is to learn how to do this.
What makes it special?
Alfie: At the start, Naruto is quite goofy and doesn’t take life seriously. He is a bit of a troublemaker at the Ninja Academy. When he gets recruited for Squad Seven, he realises that friendship is more important than being the best Ninja. Naruto is a wacky character, but he hides behind this personality because he doesn’t actually have parents to help him to grow up and make sense of stuff. I like how you see the expression on faces as soon as you open the book. The illustrator uses features to express their feelings and their body shapes do as well.
Boden: I love the way that the pictures show detailed shading. It’s very good because the illustrator, Masashi Kishimoto, shows how to do both close up and far away pictures really well. His style helps me to improve my own drawing because it gives me ideas which I keep practising and improving. The speech bubbles are different shapes to help us to understand their feelings eg a spiky shape to show excitement and a wobbly shape to show fear. When the characters shout, the words aren’t bound by a bubble but just exist along with the picture in big bold type.
Do you have a favourite character?
We both like Kakashi because he is calm although he has powerful skills and he is a very good trainer. He is an important friend to Naruto and possesses something called a sharingan which is a strong power that means you can copy but also improve on your opponent’s jutsu (martial arts skill).
What next?
We will both keep collecting the Naruto series, but there are so far over one hundred books! While we keep collecting, we will share them and also try to influence our other friends as well. We will keep improving our own drawings all the time and we have already started making our own Manga comic. We hope to one day to become Manga creators for our jobs. This might involve a trip to Japan!
Alfie and Boden
April 2026
