“The moment I learned the meaning of the main character's name, the whole story became a different story from the first episode.”
(Auto-translated from Japanese)
My Story
I had kind of been watching Naruto since elementary school and liked it but didn't think much about it. The turning point came in high school, when I saw a scene where Minato and Kushina told Naruto the origin of their names. The name "Naruto" was named after the main character in Jiraiya's novel, a shinobi who brings peace to the world, and Minato and Kushina gave it to him in hopes that he would grow up to be such a child. I watched that scene and rewatched the whole thing from episode 1. I had no idea that the main character's name had such a meaning for so long. What Minato and Kushina were trying to tell Naruto as they prepared to die, it all led to the cry in episode 1, "I will become a fire shadow! in the first episode. It changed the way I saw Naruto. Since then, I have been reading Naruto as "the story of names.
Favorite scene / line
The scene where Minato puts his consciousness into Naruto's seal. Just the words, "I'm glad I met you," are enough to bring tears to my eyes. It is painful just to imagine how people who have become parents would feel if they read this.
Stories I'd love to see
I would like to see a work that depicts Kinoha in the Minato era. A time when Jiraiya, Olimaru, and Tsunade were still active and Minato and Obito were growing up as the same generation. A story of how a hero becomes a hero.