Naruto/Anime and Others

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


There are so many tropes in Naruto that we had to split its trope page. This one is for the tropes specific to other media than the manga itself, especially the anime.

Here be spoilers. Anything that has not been aired on the free version[1] of Crunchyroll should be spoiler-tagged.

Tropes from the Anime (series and movies)

  • Adaptation Expansion: A staple of the Anime, especially from the onset of Shippuden onwards. A common occurrence is for fights to be much more fleshed out, or even for fights to be written from scratch.
    • Shikamaru's reaction to Asuma's death is dealt with in much more detail.
    • Temari's fight against Tenten in the manga is only shown off-panel, and she does not confront Sasuke at all. In the anime we get to actually see Temari curb stomping Tenten, and later trying in vain to delay Sasuke.
    • If you have to name the character who got the most mileage out of this, it's probably Hinata. In the manga you'd be hard-pressed to find her enjoying even a single fleeting moment of triumph. In the Anime she's learned a Big Lipped Alligator Jutsu involving a gazillion laser beams, landed solid hits on seemingly undefeatable villains and won a ramen eating contest. The anime team aren't bothering to hide their fondness of her (they even spent an omake on Lampshading it).
    • Iruka had his moments, too. The Mizuki Strikes Back arc is the greatest thing to happen for Iruka fans since he stood up to Kakashi before the Chuunin exams. It also shows off his power and intelligence, stopping fans of the series from wondering just how he became a Chuunin, because up until then we basically never see him fight.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plothole: Episode 166 of Shippûden. Hey, why is Hinata charging head-on when that's the least likely strategy to work? What happened to the insane barrage of chakra lasers from the 1st series' episode 151?
  • All Your Colors Combined: Rainbow Chakra. Granted, it only appears in The Movie, but it's too good an example to pass up.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The first opening theme for the English dub of Naruto was this, but afterwards, all the theme songs were the original Japanese ones.
  • Animated Actors: Some of the Omake segments have the characters as these.
  • Animation Bump: Crops up from time to time in big fights. Examples include Sasuke vs. Orochimaru, Lee vs. Gaara, Naruto vs. Sasuke, some parts of Team 10 vs. Hidan and Kakuzu, Sasuke vs. Killer Bee, Kakashi vs. Pain, Hinata vs. Pain, and the Kyuubi vs. Pain (which has quickly gained infamy amongst the fandom for its Off-Model art).
    • Arguably, the last three examples count as an inversion of this trope. Hence the infamy.
  • Art Shift: In the anime, Juugo's initial flashback is drawn in a more abstract, undefined style.
  • Anime Theme Song: The opening and ending credits are always new songs that really have nothing to do with the show. Singing one of the songs for the opening and ending credits inevitably results in an influx of new fans for the singers.
  • Bait and Switch Credits: Virtually every opening features activities of characters who really aren't doing anything at the time, especially during the filler seasons, when almost all the openings featured Sasuke and Orochimaru, despite neither of them making any appearance besides cameos.
    • The openings in Part I (especially the first and fourth ones) give the impression that Sakura often fights alongside her squad, but she's often set aside and forced to serve as a (somewhat ineffective) last line of defense for the people who need protection.
    • The second version of the fourth Shippuden opening features members of Team 8 fighting the Quirky Miniboss Squad (Hinata vs. Gozu, Kiba vs. Kigiri, Shino vs. Nurari, Sakura vs. Rinji, and Sai and Naruto vs. Guren). Only the ones with Kigiri, Nurari and Guren happened.
    • The seventh opening to Shippuden is particularly guilty in this regard. It features (in increasingly level of inaccuracy) Choji and Kakashi vs. Preta Pain; Ino, Hinata, and Sakura vs. Konan; Sai vs. Asura Pain; Kiba, Lee, Tenten, and Neji vs Deva Pain. In actuality, Choji and Kakashi actually fight together against Deva Pain (and Asura Pain, sort of), Hinata tried to fight him later on, Ino didn't fight because she was working with her father getting some information, Sakura spent the battle treating the wounded and defending a hospital, Konan fought Shino and some other members of the Aburame clan (mostly off-panel in the manga, more is shown in the anime), Kiba fought Preta Pain with his mother (briefly and it was a bit longer in the anime), and Lee, Tenten, Neji, and Sai never fought because they were out of the village at the time (for the first three until after most of the fighting was over, for Sai the entire arc) so none of those things ended up happening.
    • All those have nothing on Shippuden's weird and funny as hell tenth opening. It features, in increasing order of implausibility/absurdity:
    • The sixth Shippûden ending Features Sakura prominently, and makes the show look like it's a romance. While the previous one is only Hinata and makes it look like a Slice of Life!
  • Beat Still My Heart: In a Filler episode, a ninja impersonating Kabuto links her heart to Naruto's and then pulls it out, still beating.
  • Because I'm Jonesy: A Naruto imposter had the misfortune of running into the real Naruto and came off looking completely pathetic and ridiculous.
  • Bodyguard Crush: An inverted example in that numerous girls Naruto has been assigned to protect in fillers and the movies end up developing feelings for him. He may actually have picked up more admirers than Sasuke through this method, although he tends to be, true to character, oblivious.
  • Bottle Episode: Episode 26's first 12 minutes is just a recap and introduction for new viewers.
  • Bullet Time: Extensively and painfully used in episode 159 of Shippûden.
  • Bullying a Dragon: In "The Weight of the Prized Artifact", the client is a Jerkass who continually antagonizes Naruto and Kiba. Yes, he's mistreating two People of Mass Destruction; the guy who can pulverize stone with Rasengan and the guy who can turn into a two-headed wolf monster. Even if he doesn't know specifically what they can do, he knows that shinobi in this world have ridiculously dangerous abilities, so the way he's acting is borderline Too Dumb to Live.
  • Canon Foreigner: Too many to count; the various spin-offs, movies and specials have introduced countless characters, techniques and elements that never appear in the manga at all, and exist in canonicity limbo.
    • The movies allow themselves a lot of artistic license with the verse. Among the things they've introduced that we've never heard of in the manga (or even the anime) and likely never will, we have "rainbow chakra"; five or so advanced bloodlines; and several princesses who are head over heels for Naruto now, one of whom explicitly said she wanted to bear his children.
    • Hinata's infamous chakra bee-massacring laser spam attack, which debuted in the anime. It proceeded to make an appearance in every video game adaptation released since and even in the Denser and Wackier spin-off Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth, but was never even mentioned in the manga.
  • City with No Name: The city in the Land of Fire where the movie studio is in the first movie, although the theater owner gives the only indication that it's not just part of Konoha we haven't seen before or since.
  • Doomed by Canon: Utakata.
  • Double Standard: Remember the scene where Konohamaru transformed into Sai and Sasuke in a decidedly Yaoi situation? You know, after he did the same thing except with women? Yeah, that's in the MANGA ONLY. Which is highly ironic, considering the entire original joke was about Sakura's Double Standard.
  • Downer Ending: The Six-Tails arc, though if you read the manga you obviously saw that one coming.
  • Eat The Summoning Toad: With all the supplies contaminated by poisonous mushrooms, Naruto resorts to trying to eat Gamatatsu. This fails hilariously, but then he remembers that he can also use summoning to get fresh supplies from Mt. Myoboku.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: "U-zu-ma-ki! Naruto Rendan!" was translated as "Na-ru-to! Uzumaki Barrage!" The purpose of this attack in the first place was for it to be in sync with his last name, thus four upward kicks. Because the dub reversed his last and first name for this attack, the first kick either comes out with something akin to a "Ha!" or nothing at all, making the first kick useless for the dub in what the original intention of it was.
  • Filler: Before the Time Skip, filler made up 38% of the entire series, including 85 episodes in a row. These mostly consisted of various examples of Defeat Means Friendship, fights against blatant Filler Villains and several one-shots of slapstick/potty humor, all with no plot relevance; by the end it was being described by fans as a form of torture. Thankfully Shippuuden has taken to spreading out the filler arcs, probably to keep this from happening ever again. There's also clearly been a shift from three episode pointlessness to Adaptation Expansion (The Ninja Guardians arc featured an expanded backstory for a character who probably wasn't going to get another chance to have one; the Three Tails arc created a story arc of 22 episodes out of an event that took all of half an issue in the manga).
  • Foreshadowing: Done in, of all things, the opening sequences. For example, in the second opening you see Sakura with long hair except a couple of brief shots taking place after her Important Haircut. In the third opening there is a shot of Sasuke running zoomed into his face, and a lightning bolt very briefly appears near him, which is him using Chidori.
    • The best use of this trope can be seen in Shippuden's 6th OP. It's a must-watch for its sheer epicness.
  • Gainaxing: Temari becomes unusually bouncy in one episode despite her breasts being perfectly stable in the rest of the series. Tsunade does so during the Pain arc (on low-angle shot!).
  • God Was My Co-Pilot : Played straight for the audience and semi averted for Naruto himself in the 4th Shippuden Movie. The audience knows (or ought to know) that Naruto has inadvertently met the 4th from nearly the beginning. Naruto himself gets a few hints towards the very end of the film, but never puts two and two together (and gets mind wiped as a a result of time travel).
  • Girl Of The Movie: Naruto gets one of these in the first, fourth, and fifth movies. While the first, Kazahana Koyuki, could arguably be a Jerkass Big Sis role (the actress in the first movie is definitely subject of a one-sided crush), the same is not true for Shion (fourth movie) or Amaru (fifth movie). The writers are taking full advantage of Naruto hitting puberty over the time skip.
  • Gosh Hornet: In a filler fight from Shippuden, Sakura accidentally dislodges an enormous hornet's nest from a mountain while attacking Kabuto. Oddly, the hornets ignore her and go straight for Kabuto who, despite being startled, cuts them down before they can hurt him.
  • High Heel Face Turn: Guren.
  • High School AU: The second ending of Shippuden, and Konoha Gakuen Den, which is based off of it.
  • How We Got Here: The post-Pain Invasion filler consists of a series of flashbacks to before the Time Skip and even before the start of the series. It starts as an Iruka Gaiden, but it quickly branches out.
    • Episodes 257-260 give anyone who hasn't already seen it a crash course in how Naruto and Sasuke grew together and apart.
  • Inaction Sequence
  • Kabuki Sounds
  • Lampshade Hanging: The introduction music for season 1 of Shippuden is a bit too triumphant in declaring that now the series proper can get back on track (with an implied "as opposed to endless filler"). One translation even went ahead and translated a line to "no more doing the same thing over and over" (the "same thing" being encountering Filler Villains, flinging rasengans, failing the plot-of-the-day to locate Sasuke...), though it's unclear how close that is to the meaning of the original.
    • The Omake to shippuden episode 165 consists of Sakura scolding Hinata over the then-current credits animation which consisted of ~10 year old Hinata pedaling a bicycle up a mountain to the tune of a super cheery fun pop song. Sakura is outraged that Hinata, a mere extra, is hogging the credits all to herself, and further points out that as a ninja Hinata should be running and not riding bicycles. Naruto then explains that it can't be helped- the production staff had been overrun with Hinata fans and every other word in the song is "bicycle" or "pedal", so they hardly could have not put her on a bicycle. Sakura would have none of this and demands to have an ending all to herself, which she, funnily enough, gets two episodes later.
    • In a filler episode, Naruto lampshades the overuse of super-powerful ninja techniques for mundane tasks, which was a regular feature of the pre-Shippuden fillers. The said episode has Jiraiya using a Rasengan to row a boat.

Naruto: It looks like the Rasengan has become some sort of a cheap technique.

    • Naruto lampshades Status Quo Is God in episode 101, one of the first majorly obvious filler episodes in the series.

Naruto: What kind of ending is that?!

  • Leitmotif
  • Like Cannot Cut Like: Lightning charged swords.
  • Loud Gulp: Twice, courtesy of Sakura. First in response to facing the scary ninja in episode 23 and second when at one point she realized she had to be nice to Naruto. Her swallow sound effect sounded different between the dub and sub versions.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Oddly enough, Hinata is used this way by the anime, more than once. Few can forget the debut of sparkly Magical Girl Sailor Hinata, supposedly 13, dancing naked on top of a waterfall in the filler Bikochu arc. She's also been sighted wearing revealing Christmas-bunny outfits in omakes. And she had her jacket pulled open twice to perform some medical stuff on her (the second is actually from the manga), showing her larger-than-expected breasts (and that she's wearing a Spy Catsuit / some chainmail). Not bad for a girl who never wears skirts or anything even slightly revealing.
    • The summer endings usually prominently feature Sakura in a bikini.
  • Mondegreen: Exhibited by the original English, dub-exclusive Anime Theme Song for the first two seasons ("Rise, Power!", composed by Jeremy Sweet and Ian Nickus). Just look at the comments for the video attempting to decipher the lyrics, which range from "Rice, chew your sock!" to "Rise, do your stuff!" to "Fries, too much salt!". The official lyrics apparently consist of "Rise, tsuyosa!", with "tsuyosa" meaning strength/power in Japanese.
  • The Movie: Currently eight.
  • Never Say "Die": The first few episodes of the Naruto CN dub and the early Shippuden Disney XD dub.
  • Won't Work On Me: In the Raiga filler arc, Neji's byakugan- an all-seeing eye passed down via generations of Superpoewrful Genetics, the secrets of which Neji's father died to protect - is unable to locate a paraplegic kid in a backpack.
  • Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: The anime adaptation of Part II, Naruto Shippuden.
  • Off-Model: Generally, it is seen in what were meant to be epic fights, such as the Valley of the End or Naruto vs. Pain. That last one gave rise to episode 167, which includes these sequences. Animation Bump + Filler padding apparently equals Looney Tunes. It's like watching Naruto on acid.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Several pieces of music in Shippudden: Akatsuki's theme, Hidan's theme, and most recently the unearthly Girei which was used as a theme for the godlike Pain (and once for Tobi revealing himself as Madara).
  • Ominous Pipe Organ: Orochimaru's theme is the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (by Johannes Sebastian Bach) on a pipe organ, with some Asian flute, shamisen and electric guitar thrown in for good measure. The Fight version is that on steroids. The rest of the villains pretty much follow suit, each upping the ante with yet more unearthly chords and Ominous Latin Chanting.
  • Ondo
  • One-Woman Wail: Used for great effect in Shippuden when Sasori dies. Also subverted at the middle of Orochimaru's theme: it's there but used for hypnotic and unsettling effect.
  • Overtook the Manga: Resulted in an 85-episode stretch of Filler after the main events of Part 1, but got better in part 2. They now have the filler spread out more cautiously.
  • Remember the New Guy?: The anime pulls this with the random Hyuga guy guarding Hinata during the Pain arc. A whole series of flashbacks make him out as some sort of bodyguard that's constantly around, yet we've never seen him before now.
  • Scream Discretion Shot: Happens when a filler villain beats up Hinata in the Three-Tails arc.
  • Shaggy Dog Story: If you read the manga, you knew all along that neither Konoha nor Orochimaru were going to get the Three-Tailed Beast in the Three-Tails arc.
  • Sickening Crunch: During the Chuunin exams, Neji damages Hinata's heart during their fight. A heartbeat sound and a picture of a heart appears from time to time, and she reacts as though she's in pain.
  • Simple Score of Sadness: The appropriately titled 'Sadness and Sorrow' from the original series, as well as 'Despair', 'Tragic' and 'Loneliness' from Shippuden.
  • Something Completely Different: Shippuuden episode 82's mature and soulful examination of Shikamaru's character in the wake of Asuma's death was a temporary but dramatic departure in tone and style from the series norm. Partially the result of Adaptation Expansion, since what Shikamaru's doing is shown as a montage with no dialogue in the manga.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: The 13th ending of Shippuden. Not the ending itself, but seeing as the arc that this ending plays trough is probably the darkest moment of the series, you would think that the animators knew exactly what they were getting into by putting an insanely upbeat ending featuring Hinata happily riding a bicycle after something like this.
  • Technicolor Toxin: In the anime, many poisonous jutsu and weapons are purple, including Shizune's venomous cloud and Sasori's blades.
  • Theme Music Power-Up:
    • In Part I, Naruto had several "commence recovery and ass-kicking" tunes. "The Raising Fighting Spirit" was the most common, but several were held in reserve for really stand-out occasions. To beat Neji, Naruto had to bust out three of these in a row ("Avenger" followed immediately by "Heavy Violence" followed immediately by "Strong and Strike").
    • Rock Lee has "Utsukishi Aoi Yajuu" (Beautiful Green Beast), which starts up every time it seems like he is going to win a battle.
    • Shikamaru has the techno song "Fake" which starts up whenever it turns out things have gone All According to Plan.
    • In Part I, whenever Orochimaru's theme music started playing the other guy was screwed. The normal version meant they were merely scared half to death and weren't going to dare stand up to him; the "fight" version was reserved for horrible Curb Stomping.
  • Theme Tune Cameo: Variations on the Naruto Main Theme show up in all sorts of places during Part I (most obviously in Grief and Sorrow), but the really astounding bit is the track Crushing from the second OST (original soundtrack) of Part II. It's by a completely different composer, yet...
  • The Thing That Goes Doink: Usually heard but not seen in scenes featuring the Hyuuga and Uchiha houses.
  • Variable-Length Chain: Lee's weapon in the third movie.

Other Tropes

  • Bowdlerise: Jetix UK, RTL 2, and maybe where it's airing in Australia. In short, any Anglophone country that airs this except for America is/has going to make/made a mess of it.
    • To give an example from the Jetix UK Broadcast, the scene in the Search for Tsunade Arc where Kabuto slits his wrists to take advantage of Tsunade's crippling fear of blood was edited so that there was no blood during that scene. Instead of blood, Tsunade now seemed to have a fear of getting dirty.
    • Sasuke pulling out his sword on Naruto was cut out on the Disney XD broadcast of the first Shippuden episode, and the first few episodes didn't say "die" or "kill".
    • Shippuden's edited dub on Disney XD doesn't seem to know what to do with it. Some violent scenes are edited in ways that end up making no sense as a result, others are kept in almost unedited. Sometimes Never Say "Die" is in full effect, other times it isn't, with no real reason given as to why. A particularly bad example is a line of Sai's dialogue. In the original Japanese, he states his brother is dead. In the original English airing, he states he's "gone." On the first flashback to this line, it's changed to "dead." On another LATER flashback to the line, it's changed back to "gone." Disney XD just can't make up its mind.
    • The Filipino dub.
    • The manga's English release has censored drinking (accidentally) and smoking in two pivotal scenes. It's also turned Konohamaru's Boy on Boy and Girl on Girl jutsu into silhouettes, but at least the latter's still there.
  • Cash Cow Franchise
  • CCG Importance Dissonance
  • Colon Cancer: Exhibited by the video games Naruto: Ultimate Ninja: Storm, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja: Storm: Generations, and the PlayStation Portable game Naruto: Ultimate Ninja: Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress. Technically, one could also insert a colon between "Naruto" and "Shippuden" in some of the titles.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: There seems to be a "Dragon Missile" technique for every element, which forms the element into a dragon shape appropriate to the element and then blasts the opponent. Turned Up to Eleven with the tenth anniversary game Ryujinki, which compared to the main series, is entirely this. In game, while the bosses being dragons and Naruto's new Cool Sword are understandable given the theme, Naruto can use a dragon-shaped Rasengan.
  • OC Stand-In: Hanabi (Hinata's younger sister) is often prominently featured in Hyuuga-centric fanfiction and her personality widely varies from story to story, given her lack of characterization. Also Tenten, who has absolutely no background (not even a family name).
  • Spin-Off: Rock Lee's Springtime Of Youth, a comical spin-off centered around Rock Lee is published in the Jump's monthly.
  • The Wiki Rule: There's a wiki for that, too.
  1. ↑ one week after the paid version
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