With an extremely popular series, Japanese fans expect to see the appearance of an art book. Prior to the art book's existence, the artists are allotted or budgeted for color pages in a monthly issue. This goes over a period of time, and with the frequency of a manga being published in Japan, the amount of color pages drawn collects over chapters. Then they appear again in art books for fans who want an archival copy of the images. So it is no surprise that Nauto has its own art book in Japanese and to then know that Viz re-released it in English as a present for Naruto fans.

The manga is more detailed and richer than the anime drawings, so for anime viewers, the art book only covers drawings from the first season of Naruto. This is a hardcover book arranged in a thematic format featuring images showcasing personalities from various characters to recapping enemies or bringing out messages of what the artist wanted to show.

What also makes this art book neat is a long translated interview with the mangaka Masashi Kishimoto for how his characters are formed and then a timeline workflow process to drawing a Naruto artwork. This is a source of inspiration for people who want to be artists of their own right.

Naruto is still an ongoing bestseller for Shonen Jump, and does not appear to be concluding anytime soon with its Shippuden addition, so as mentioned before, this art book is a dated one, but if you happen to appreciate the younger side of Team 7 then this is an art book to not miss owning.

We've played Naruto fight games before. We've played a lot of Naruto fight games before....

But none that looked like *this* — holy hannah, never before has a videogame looked more like the anime series, in fact, we'll go as far as to say that it looks better than the anime series! Played on a PS3 and viewed on a 50inch Sony LCD HDTV, we were totally blown away by the level of detail and the absolute attention to accuracy regarding the characters and situations that make up the universe of Naruto.

If fact, the first time you start playing you'll actually be distracted by the look and feel. Button mashers be warned, this is not an easy game to learn, there's no instruction manual (although the ultra-cool metal case includes some awesome extras such as a card-game card, a lazer etched cel, and the soundtrack on a bonus CD), and the learning curve to pull off those killer moves is steep. We recommend you master these moves BEFORE you connect to other players on the internet, lest you have your ass handed to you.

When you do get to perform your ultimate jitsu, of course, the game takes over for a few seconds but the results are more than worth it for the spectacular fashion in which they are rendered. Overall, and despite some drawbacks, this game is killer and Bandai/Namco has a huge hit on their hands.

Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, January 2009