“Elementary school kids who used to buy Shonen Jump every week are still crying in their 40s.”
(Auto-translated from Japanese)
My Story
I have been reading it in Jump since I was in elementary school. Early in the series, the scene where Naruto shouts "I'm going to be a fire shadow!" was just purely cool at that time. But when I read it again now, it makes me cry. I can see what I couldn't see back then, but now that I am an adult, I can see it clearly. The turning point was when I read the chapter where Jiraiya died. For the first time in a manga, I really cried out loud. It was in the train, so it was the worst. Since then, I changed my perception of Naruto as "not just a shonen manga. It is a story about a master and his apprentice, and a story about passing on a dream you have given up on to the next generation. Now I let my son read it and we watched the Payne version together. I'm glad he cried too. I am convinced since becoming a parent that there is something that sticks with me that transcends generations.
Favorite scene / line
In the scene just before Jiraiya is defeated by Payne and sinks into the sea, he murmurs in his mind, "This is my way of Shinobi," while thinking of the faces of his disciples. When I read that monologue, I was shaken to think that a shōnen manga could depict such a human being's final moments.
Stories I'd love to see
I would like to see a movie about the three shinobi, Jiraiya, Oojemaru, and Tsunade, when they were young. I would like to know how they met, where they diverged, and how they chose their respective "Shinobi paths".
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