Masashi Kishimoto's hit manga Naruto inspired a juggernaut of an anime starting in 1999, which ran until 2017, spanning hundreds of episodes and spin off films. Naruto is the story of Naruto Uzumaki and his quest to become Hokage, though the story didn't entirely just focus on the titular character. The sprawling chronicles of Naruto also involved international politics, the cycle of hatred, and great cosmic threats like Ten-Tails and Kaguya Otsutsuki. The Naruto anime kept scaling things up until it become unwieldy.
For the most part, anime fans are happy with the Naruto anime as it is, though in light of One Piece's impending Netflix remake "The One Piece," it may be time to give serious thought to a possible Naruto remake. While there are no officially announced plans to launch such a behemoth project, there are compelling reasons why an anime studio may dust off the original Naruto anime and tell Naruto Uzumaki's story all over again with higher production value in a new decade of shonen anime. There are obstacles to such an endeavor, but also potential for serious payoff.
Why Does The Original Naruto Anime Need a Remake?
A Naruto Remake Would Get Rid of The Original's Filler Arcs & Upgrade The Animation
Ordinarily, an anime series, TV show, or movie will get greenlit for a remake if the original version retains its popularity but has dated production values or writing. Other factors include if there is enough material to retell the story with better foreshadowing and references. Sometimes, a remake is obviously just a cash grab, which may make pop culture fans skeptical and cynical about remakes and reboots. Fortunately, the anime industry has been very cautious and practiced discretion with remakes and reboots, only occasionally doing so for good reason.
A few popular examples give fans hope that anime remakes are for the sake of entertainment and not just merchandising, even for larger series like One Piece and Naruto. Given how lucrative such series are, money is surely at least part of the equation, but fans can focus more on the updated visuals and production values of a remake. Naruto and One Piece are both part of the ultra-popular shonen big three, along with Bleach, and all three of them are showing their age, a major prompt for a remake.
While not many details are clear just yet, fans know for sure that One Piece is getting its "The One Piece" Netflix remake fairly soon, even with the original anime still airing. Perhaps The One Piece will embody a similar purpose as the Netflix live-action One Piece series, and serve as a short but sweet on-ramp for new fans. Naruto isn't quite as long as One Piece, but it still has hundreds of episodes and several movies, which is daunting for new fans.
Thus, a Naruto remake could tighten up the series and greatly accelerate its pacing in various ways, including doing away with the filler arcs. By doing so, the remake would make the franchise far more beginner-friendly and allow longtime fans to revisit the story in a time-conscious way. That's what the new season of Bleach did. Studio Pierrot honed in on telling the final arc in a way that showcased the pacing, which is the Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War anime's single best asset. Even without filler episodes, the original Naruto anime had sluggish pacing, using far more episodes than it really needed to explore its story arcs.
It used methods like recaps, unecessary flashbacks, reaction shots, redundant internal dialogue, and more to stretch things out, but a remake anime would fix all that without cutting any core material. Fans can look to Western anime-inspired series like Avatar: The Last Airbender to see how an anime-adjacent series can tell a great story in less time, with sharply executed fight scenes and lean dialogue to match. Anime, as a whole, seems to leisurely savor itself, but modern anime series are bucking that trend.
Demon Slayer & Jujutsu Kaisen, for example, tell their stories in a shorter and more intense story arcs. Fans might even say that Demon Slayer can tell more story in 26 episodes than Naruto can in 50. On a production level, the Naruto franchise would benefit hugely from an official remake. While the original anime gradually looked better over time with HD visuals and enhanced animation techniques, the original anime has outdated visuals that may disappoint new fans who are more used to Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia.
At the time, the original anime was produced with a lot of filler episodes and arcs to try to give the manga a chance to stay ahead, and many fans dislike filler. Fortunately, all that would be easy to fix with a remake Naruto anime, allowing fans to digest the stunning story of Naruto Uzumaki with tightly paced, lushly animated, filler-free anime seasons. It's likely that The One Piece will do the same, and if it does, it may become an even better on-ramp to the One Piece world than the live-action Netflix series.
What Are the Potential Obstacles to Remaking the Naruto Anime?
Some Hard-core Fans Could Critique It & Naruto is Already a Juggernaut
There are plenty of substantial reasons to remake the entire Naruto anime for a new generation of shonen fans to enjoy, but daydreaming about it and actually producing it are worlds apart. One of the greatest obstacles is the time, expense, and manpower needed to produce such a project. Even if the hypothetical remake anime only had about one-third as many episodes, producing 200+ episodes of any anime is a serious undertaking that no studio can take lightly. With that in mind, however, Naruto may be worth that undertaking.
Remaking Naruto would first involve finding the right animation studio for the job, one that has the necessary assets and the free time to get the job done. Big names like studio MAPPA, UFOtable, Toei Animation, Pierrot, and Wit Studio may come to mind, but studios like those tend to have their hands full already. And given the controversy about overworked and underpaid animators, it's asking an awful lot for any studio to also make a juggernaut like a Naruto remake.
Aside from issues like finances, time, and manpower, a potential Naruto remake might face the harshest of obstacles: the fandom. There are many fans who badly want a remake like this, yet given how difficult it is to please audiences nowadays, it may give studios pause. It's true that such a remake would fix the sluggish pacing, cut filler, and modernize the animation, but some fans may wonder if that's even worth the trouble. Those fans may argue that the original Naruto anime, whatever its flaws, is more than enough for any viewing experience.
Today's anime fans are spoiled for choice on what to watch, with each anime season overflowing with great series to check out. The current Spring 2024 anime lineup is rich with new and returning series. Adding a huge Naruto remake might be too much for those fans who already have a backlog of great series to watch. In simplest terms, some fans may argue that a remake Naruto anime actually isn't even worth it, and there's no room and no need for it. Other fans may feel the opposite and relish the idea of a Naruto remake, but an anime studio would need a large enough share of anime fans to support the idea before even considering it.
Successful Anime Remakes Strengthen the Case For a Potential Naruto Remake
Fruits Basket, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, and Trigun Stampede Are Already Successful Proof of Concept
Even if there are no plans to remake the Naruto anime, the concept has some strong legs to stand on, mostly because other recent anime showed how well a remake can turn out. Remakes are never a guaranteed success, but it seems the anime industry generally knows what it's doing, and given the popularity of the lucrative Naruto anime, it's likely that any Naruto remake would be given a serious effort for maximum results.
Such was the case for recent hit anime. The 2019 remake of Fruits Basket, Trigun Stampede, Urusei Yatsura, and the more recent Thousand-Year Blood War arc of Bleach all had massive success with the likes of Fruits Basket being preferred over the original. Though Bleach's Thousand-Year Blood War arc may not be a remake in a purist sense, the new Bleach anime did update the visuals, fixed the pacing, and modernized the series for a new audience. Ultimately, a Naruto remake could easily do the same, especially since both Naruto and Bleach have similar vibes.
In general, it seems anime fans are more interested in sequel seasons and brand-new adaptations than remakes. By delving into new adaptations or sequels, fans can explore new stories rather than spend time watching a familiar anime for a second time. With that in mind, there's still demand out there for remade anime, with Fruits Basket and the new Bleach anime season both getting enthusiastic reception. If anime fans and anime studios don't mind the sheer length of a Naruto remake, then such a project would likely replicate the Thousand-Year Blood War arc's success.
The struggling Bleach franchise had a much more acute need for remake-style material than Naruto. The Naruto series, however, can still turn to other reasons to get a remake, including the small but established presence of remakes in the anime industry. With the brewing excitement of Netflix's The One Piece also looming, it's unclear how it may shift the tide if it garners accolades and positive reception when it finally premieres. Given enough time, fans may be hungry for a fresher, leaner telling of Naruto Uzumaki's epic story, regardless of what the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations anime is doing.
