Scooby-Doo is a long-running American animated series produced
for Saturday morning television in several different versions
from 1969 to the present. The original series, Scooby-Doo,
Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by
writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and character designer Iwao Takamoto.
Hanna-Barbera produced numerous spin-offs and related works until being
absorbed in 1997 into Warner Bros. Animation, which has handled production
since then. Although the format of the show and the cast (and ages)
of characters have varied significantly over the years,
the most familiar versions of the show feature a talking dog named
Scooby-Doo and four teenagers: Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake,
Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers.
These five characters (officially collectively known as "Mystery, Inc.",
but never referred to as such in the original series) drive around the world
in a van called the "Mystery Machine", and solve mysteries typically involving
tales of ghosts and other supernatural forces. At the end of each episode,
the supernatural forces turn out to have a rational explanation,
typically criminal plots involving costumes,
latex masks and special effects intended to frighten or distract.
Later versions of Scooby-Doo featured different variations on the show's
supernatural theme, and include characters such as Scooby's cousin Scooby-Dum
and nephew Scrappy-Doo in addition to or instead of some of the original characters.
Scooby-Doo was originally broadcast on CBS from 1969 to 1976,
when it moved to ABC. ABC aired the show until canceling it in 1986,
and presented a spin-off, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, from 1988 until 1991.
A new Scooby-Doo series, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, aired on the WB Network
during the Kids' WB programming block from 2002 until 2005. The current
Scooby-Doo series, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, airs Saturday mornings
on The CW network. Repeats of the original series, as well as second-run
episodes of What's New, Scooby-Doo?, are broadcast frequently on the
Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the United States and other countries.
Selasa, 08 Januari 2008
Batman
Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman)
is a fictional character, a comic book superhero co-created by
artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger (although only Kane receives official credit)
[1] and published by DC Comics. The character made his first appearance in Detective
Comics #27 (May 1939). Batman's secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy industrialist,
playboy, and philanthropist. Witnessing the murder of his parents as a child leads him to
train himself to physical and intellectual perfection and don a bat-themed costume in order
to fight crime. Batman operates in Gotham City, assisted by various supporting characters
including his sidekick Robin and his butler Alfred Pennyworth, and fights an assortment of
villains influenced by the characters' roots in film and pulp magazines. Unlike most superheroes,
he does not possess any superpowers; he makes use of intellect, detective skills,
science and technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation in his war on crime.
Batman became a popular character soon after his introduction,
and eventually gained his own title, Batman. As the decades wore on,
differing takes on the character emerged. The late 1960s Batman television
series utilized a camp aesthetic associated with the character for years after
the show ended. Various creators worked to return the character to his dark roots,
culminating in the 1986 miniseries Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by writer-artist Frank Miller.
That and the success of director Tim Burton's 1989 Batman motion picture helped reignite popular
interest in the character. A cultural icon, Batman has been licensed and adapted into a
variety of media, from radio to television and film, and appears on a variety of merchandise
sold all over the world.
is a fictional character, a comic book superhero co-created by
artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger (although only Kane receives official credit)
[1] and published by DC Comics. The character made his first appearance in Detective
Comics #27 (May 1939). Batman's secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy industrialist,
playboy, and philanthropist. Witnessing the murder of his parents as a child leads him to
train himself to physical and intellectual perfection and don a bat-themed costume in order
to fight crime. Batman operates in Gotham City, assisted by various supporting characters
including his sidekick Robin and his butler Alfred Pennyworth, and fights an assortment of
villains influenced by the characters' roots in film and pulp magazines. Unlike most superheroes,
he does not possess any superpowers; he makes use of intellect, detective skills,
science and technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation in his war on crime.
Batman became a popular character soon after his introduction,
and eventually gained his own title, Batman. As the decades wore on,
differing takes on the character emerged. The late 1960s Batman television
series utilized a camp aesthetic associated with the character for years after
the show ended. Various creators worked to return the character to his dark roots,
culminating in the 1986 miniseries Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by writer-artist Frank Miller.
That and the success of director Tim Burton's 1989 Batman motion picture helped reignite popular
interest in the character. A cultural icon, Batman has been licensed and adapted into a
variety of media, from radio to television and film, and appears on a variety of merchandise
sold all over the world.
Avatar: The Legend of Aang
Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world, home to humans,
fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided
into four nations—the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads,
and the Fire Nation. Within each nation, an order of men and women called
"Benders" have the ability to manipulate their native element.
These Bending arts combine a certain style of martial arts and
elemental mysticism. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending,
Firebending, and Airbending.[12]
In each generation, one person is capable of Bending all four elements;
this is the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form.
When the Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated into a baby native in
the next of the four nations in the Avatar Cycle, which parallels the
seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire,
and autumn for air.[13] While legend holds that the Avatar must
master the elements in order, starting with their native element,
this can sometimes be compromised when the situation requires it.
Learning to bend the element opposite one's native element is extremely
difficult because opposing Bending arts are based on opposing
fighting styles and doctrines. Firebending and Waterbending are opposites,
as are Earthbending and Airbending. [14].
The Avatar possesses a unique power that resides within him or her,
called the Avatar State. It is a defense mechanism that empowers the
Avatar with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars.
When the state is reached, the current Avatar will be able to wield
the combined power of all past lives. When the Avatar enters this state,
his or her eyes and mouth, and tattoos in the case of an Airbender,
begin to glow. The glow is the representation of all the Avatar's
previous incarnations focusing their energy through his or her body.
However, if the Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, then the reincarnation
cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist.[15]
Through the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have
served to keep the four nations in harmony and maintain world order.
[12] The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world
and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits.[16]
Main Characters
Aang (Mitchel Musso in the unaired pilot, Zach Tyler Eisen onwards)
is the fun-loving, 12-year-old (chronologically 112-years-old)
protagonist of the series. He is the current incarnation of the Avatar,
the avatar of the planet manifested in human form. As the Avatar,
Aang must master all four elements to bring peace to the world and balance
between the four Nations.[20] Every way the relunctant hero, Aang openly
expresses that he rather be searching for fun adventure and making new friends
than being charged with saving the world. Compounded with his energetic nature
and childish naïvete, at times Aang can be somewhat oblivious of the world around
him and others' true feelings, as he is often too preoccupied with the events
immediately surrounding him to notice what occurs on a more in-depth level.
However, over the course of the series, Aang matures drastically as his
experiences cause him to fully realize the state of the world and gradually
shape him into being physically and mentally suited for the task set before him.
Katara (Mae Whitman) is 14 years old, and one of the remaining
Waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe. Katara, along with her brother,
Sokka, discovers Aang at the beginning of the series. She and Sokka accompany
him on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord and bring peace to the war-torn nations.
Katara is mature, loving, and responsible. Always looking out for the well-being of
others, after the passing of their mother at the hands of the Fire Nation,
Katara took on a motherly role over Sokka, a nature that she expressed in
relation to Aang and Toph. She is an apt leader when the situation calls for one.
[21] However, she can be overbearing at times, and believes without exception that
her way is the right way, never relenting on her views even when they are disproved.
[22] Despite Katara's kind nature, she has a temper which, when combined with her
impressive waterbending skills and idealistic views, can be quite destructive.
Sokka (Jack DeSena) is a 15-year-old warrior of the Southern Water Tribe who,
with his sister Katara, accompanies Aang on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord.
Sokka describes himself as "meat-loving" and "sarcastic."[14] Unlike his companions,
Sokka cannot bend an element. However, the series frequently grants him opportunities
to demonstrate his true gift: ingenuity. He takes great pride in his mental and physical
strength, though it is often overshadowed by others' ability to bend. He is extremely clever,
relying on science where the mystical and martial arts elude him,
though his silly and immature manner often causes others to underestimate
his intellect.
Toph Bei Fong (Jessie Flower) is a 12-year-old, blind Earthbender who
leaves her wealthy lifestyle and home to join Aang on his quest in order
to teach him earthbending. Though blind, Toph "sees" with Earthbending,
feeling vibrations in the ground that objects make when they are moving,
which also allows for certain other abilities unique to her. Toph has largely
lived in seclusion all her life due to overprotective parents, which makes her
somewhat selfish, sarcastic, and, at times, bitter and arrogant.
She does not hesitate to speak her mind and is bluntly truthful.
With the presence of friends, Toph gradually becomes less overly
abrasive towards others and learns what it means to be part of a team.
Zuko (Dante Basco) is the exiled 16-year-old prince of
the Fire Nation and original primary antagonist of the series.
Zuko was obsessed with capturing the Avatar in his quest to restore
his honor and redeem himself in the eyes of his father, Fire Lord Ozai,
who deems him a complete failure. The most defining aspect of his appearance
is the scar over his left eye, which he received during a forced Agni Kai with Ozai.
[23] As a result of his conflicted life, including the loss of his beloved mother Ursa,
Zuko often acts temperamental, bitter, and cold to anyone he comes in contact with.
However, his character is subjected to the most significant amount of development
throughout the series, influenced by both the presence of his Uncle Iroh and his
time as an exile. Overtime, Zuko becomes less of an overbearing, pompous prince
and more of an emotional outcast. He is shown to be a very caring and contemplative
individual, at times struggling with his feelings of pity and bonding
with the same people his nation has terrorized. Later on in the third
series of Avatar, Zuko finally decides to abandon his family and the
firebenders world conquest and joins the Avatar to help him master Fire
Bending.
Azula (Grey DeLisle) is the 14 year-old-princess of
the Fire Nation, Zuko's younger sister, and Fire Lord Ozai's
pampered favorite child. Azula has been cruel and self-centered
her entire life. Her mind is set on war and power; she manipulates
and even tortures others to advance her own desires, ignoring family
and emotional bonds whenever necessary. As a firebending prodigy with
a sadistic personality, Azula is a dangerous opponent. Azula is one of
the few Firebenders shown to possess the ability to generate lightning,
but is also the only one shown who can produce blue fire, which is much
hotter than an orange flame.[15] Azula sees others as expendable,
and intimidates her lackeys and all those under her command.
fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided
into four nations—the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads,
and the Fire Nation. Within each nation, an order of men and women called
"Benders" have the ability to manipulate their native element.
These Bending arts combine a certain style of martial arts and
elemental mysticism. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending,
Firebending, and Airbending.[12]
In each generation, one person is capable of Bending all four elements;
this is the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form.
When the Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated into a baby native in
the next of the four nations in the Avatar Cycle, which parallels the
seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire,
and autumn for air.[13] While legend holds that the Avatar must
master the elements in order, starting with their native element,
this can sometimes be compromised when the situation requires it.
Learning to bend the element opposite one's native element is extremely
difficult because opposing Bending arts are based on opposing
fighting styles and doctrines. Firebending and Waterbending are opposites,
as are Earthbending and Airbending. [14].
The Avatar possesses a unique power that resides within him or her,
called the Avatar State. It is a defense mechanism that empowers the
Avatar with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars.
When the state is reached, the current Avatar will be able to wield
the combined power of all past lives. When the Avatar enters this state,
his or her eyes and mouth, and tattoos in the case of an Airbender,
begin to glow. The glow is the representation of all the Avatar's
previous incarnations focusing their energy through his or her body.
However, if the Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, then the reincarnation
cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist.[15]
Through the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have
served to keep the four nations in harmony and maintain world order.
[12] The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world
and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits.[16]
Main Characters
Aang (Mitchel Musso in the unaired pilot, Zach Tyler Eisen onwards)
is the fun-loving, 12-year-old (chronologically 112-years-old)
protagonist of the series. He is the current incarnation of the Avatar,
the avatar of the planet manifested in human form. As the Avatar,
Aang must master all four elements to bring peace to the world and balance
between the four Nations.[20] Every way the relunctant hero, Aang openly
expresses that he rather be searching for fun adventure and making new friends
than being charged with saving the world. Compounded with his energetic nature
and childish naïvete, at times Aang can be somewhat oblivious of the world around
him and others' true feelings, as he is often too preoccupied with the events
immediately surrounding him to notice what occurs on a more in-depth level.
However, over the course of the series, Aang matures drastically as his
experiences cause him to fully realize the state of the world and gradually
shape him into being physically and mentally suited for the task set before him.
Katara (Mae Whitman) is 14 years old, and one of the remaining
Waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe. Katara, along with her brother,
Sokka, discovers Aang at the beginning of the series. She and Sokka accompany
him on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord and bring peace to the war-torn nations.
Katara is mature, loving, and responsible. Always looking out for the well-being of
others, after the passing of their mother at the hands of the Fire Nation,
Katara took on a motherly role over Sokka, a nature that she expressed in
relation to Aang and Toph. She is an apt leader when the situation calls for one.
[21] However, she can be overbearing at times, and believes without exception that
her way is the right way, never relenting on her views even when they are disproved.
[22] Despite Katara's kind nature, she has a temper which, when combined with her
impressive waterbending skills and idealistic views, can be quite destructive.
Sokka (Jack DeSena) is a 15-year-old warrior of the Southern Water Tribe who,
with his sister Katara, accompanies Aang on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord.
Sokka describes himself as "meat-loving" and "sarcastic."[14] Unlike his companions,
Sokka cannot bend an element. However, the series frequently grants him opportunities
to demonstrate his true gift: ingenuity. He takes great pride in his mental and physical
strength, though it is often overshadowed by others' ability to bend. He is extremely clever,
relying on science where the mystical and martial arts elude him,
though his silly and immature manner often causes others to underestimate
his intellect.
Toph Bei Fong (Jessie Flower) is a 12-year-old, blind Earthbender who
leaves her wealthy lifestyle and home to join Aang on his quest in order
to teach him earthbending. Though blind, Toph "sees" with Earthbending,
feeling vibrations in the ground that objects make when they are moving,
which also allows for certain other abilities unique to her. Toph has largely
lived in seclusion all her life due to overprotective parents, which makes her
somewhat selfish, sarcastic, and, at times, bitter and arrogant.
She does not hesitate to speak her mind and is bluntly truthful.
With the presence of friends, Toph gradually becomes less overly
abrasive towards others and learns what it means to be part of a team.
Zuko (Dante Basco) is the exiled 16-year-old prince of
the Fire Nation and original primary antagonist of the series.
Zuko was obsessed with capturing the Avatar in his quest to restore
his honor and redeem himself in the eyes of his father, Fire Lord Ozai,
who deems him a complete failure. The most defining aspect of his appearance
is the scar over his left eye, which he received during a forced Agni Kai with Ozai.
[23] As a result of his conflicted life, including the loss of his beloved mother Ursa,
Zuko often acts temperamental, bitter, and cold to anyone he comes in contact with.
However, his character is subjected to the most significant amount of development
throughout the series, influenced by both the presence of his Uncle Iroh and his
time as an exile. Overtime, Zuko becomes less of an overbearing, pompous prince
and more of an emotional outcast. He is shown to be a very caring and contemplative
individual, at times struggling with his feelings of pity and bonding
with the same people his nation has terrorized. Later on in the third
series of Avatar, Zuko finally decides to abandon his family and the
firebenders world conquest and joins the Avatar to help him master Fire
Bending.
Azula (Grey DeLisle) is the 14 year-old-princess of
the Fire Nation, Zuko's younger sister, and Fire Lord Ozai's
pampered favorite child. Azula has been cruel and self-centered
her entire life. Her mind is set on war and power; she manipulates
and even tortures others to advance her own desires, ignoring family
and emotional bonds whenever necessary. As a firebending prodigy with
a sadistic personality, Azula is a dangerous opponent. Azula is one of
the few Firebenders shown to possess the ability to generate lightning,
but is also the only one shown who can produce blue fire, which is much
hotter than an orange flame.[15] Azula sees others as expendable,
and intimidates her lackeys and all those under her command.
Candy Candy
Candy Candy (キャンディ・キャンディ, Candy Candy?) is a Japanese novel, manga, and anime series.
The main character, Candice "Candy" White Ardlay is a blonde American girl with freckles,
large emerald green eyes and long, curly hair, worn in pigtails with bows.
Candy Candy first appeared in a prose novel by famed Japanese writer Kyoko Mizuki in April 1975.
When Mizuki joined forces with manga artist Yumiko Igarashi,
the Japanese magazine Nakayoshi became interested in Candy Candy.
The series was serialized as a manga series in the magazine for four years and won the 1st
Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo in 1977. The story was adapted into an anime series by Toei animation.
There are also several Candy Candy movies which were never released outside of Japan.[citatio
Candy Candy is primarily a love story.
Candy's first love was a character named Anthony Brown,
but the series is remembered by the majority of fans as a
result of her heartbreaking separation from her true love and soulmate,
Terruce "Terry" Grantchester (side note: Lord Grantchester - there is current
a member of the British House of Lords, with the title). A recurrent story arc
in the series is the "Prince of the Hill", a mysterious boy Candy encountered once as a child.
His identity is revealed in the last pages of the manga and in the last chapters of the anime.
The early years
Candy is a six year old who lives in an orphanage near Lake Michigan with Ms.
Pony and Sister Lynne (レイン先生 "Lane-sensei" in Japanese).
In some countries, her name is Sister Maria or Sister Mary).
Candy was found by them when she was a baby,
the same day that Annie--Candy's best friend--was also found during a cold winter day.
She frequently causes mischief with her young friends, especially with Annie.
She has a raccoon named Clynn that will accompany her in most of her future adventures.
One day, Annie consents to be adopted by rich parents, the Brightons (Britter in some countries).
This takes place after Candy refuses to be adopted by this same family when she realizes
she will be separated from Annie after the proposed adoption. After Annie's adoption,
she writes letters to Candy but soon she tells her that her parents prefer that she forget
about her past. Heartbroken, Candy goes to her favorite place, Pony's Hill, to cry.
Here, she hears the voice of a boy, telling her: "Little girl,
you are prettier when you smile than when you cry".
The boy is dressed in a full Scottish outfit and carries a bagpipe.
Candy is awed by his outfit but soon they become friends and he plays the bagpipe for her.
When she turns around to pick up Annie's letter, the boy mysteriously disappears.
The only suggestion that it was not a dream is a brooch in the shape of an eagle with the letter
"A" on it. Candy nicknames him "The Prince of the Hill" and she will daydream about
this encounter all her life.
The Ardlay Family
At age 12, Candy is "adopted" by the Leagan family to be a companion to Eliza and
later ends up as a maid. The children, Eliza and Neal,
often play cruel pranks on her and delight in tormenting her.
Mrs. Leagan, whose name is Ruth, does not like her, but Mr. Leagan is kinder to Candy,
though he is frequently away on business and therefore cannot be a reliable ally.
One day, she meets three cousins: the brothers Archibald (Archie) and Alistair (Stear) Cornwell,
and their cousin, Anthony Brown. They are also Eliza and Neal's cousins,
and they all belong to the Ardlay family (Andrew family in some countries).
It is soon apparent that the boys all have a crush on Candy,
but she clearly prefers Anthony because of his striking resemblance to the Prince of the Hill.
While Candy is a maid at the Leagan house, Annie and her parents pay a visit to the Leagans.
When Annie is introduced to Candy, she acts as if she had never seen her before
in order to conceal the "embarrassing" fact that she was an orphan from
Pony's Home--following Annie's adoption, the Brightons had told friends
and family that Annie was the orphaned daughter of a relative of theirs,
rather than a child from an orphanage.
Candy is sad that she cannot talk to her best friend,
but has a chance to interact with her when she Annie and the Leagans are preparing to go out for a horse ride and Annie's horse takes off with Annie screaming for help (she calls Candy's name, rather than her parents'). Candy gives chase with another horse, and manages to rescue Annie from her hellish horse ride. Before Annie and her parents leave the Leagan's residence, she leaves a ribbon tied to a post so Candy can find it. Candy does find it and is later accused by Eliza and Neal of stealing it from their guests. These two manage to persuade their parents that Candy cannot be trusted to stay living inside the house, and she is sent to live in the horse stable. When Archie, Stear and Anthony discover Candy's mistreatments (and after many adventures), they have the head of the Ardlay house adopt Candy. This mysterious and very wealthy gentleman (referred to as Great Uncle William or Grandfather William in some translations) is never seen. Candy also befriends Albert, a bearded vagabond that lives in a hunter's lodge with lots of animals.
Now Candy has a new social situation and while some of the Ardlay
relatives still dislike her (namely Eliza, Neal,
their mother and the "apparent" head of the family, Great Aunt Elroy),
the three boys make her feel welcome and help her become "a real lady".
Her romance with Anthony develops tenderly,
and he grows a new breed of white roses that he names "Sweet Candy" in her honor.
This romance, however, is brutally cut short when,
on the day Candy is officially introduced as an Ardlay,
he falls from his horse during a fox hunt and dies--interestingly,
seconds before his death, he was going to tell Candy about a boy who looked very much like
him and who was always around his mother when he was a baby.
Aunt Elroy and Eliza blame Candy for Anthony's death.
Candy is heartbroken and returns to Pony's Home to overcome her grief.
She does not stay long, for Great Uncle William has other plans for her:
he is sending her to the Saint Paul Academy, a boarding school in London.
While on the ship to London, Candy wanders out
into the deck and she sees a young man who resembles Anthony in the shadows.
She tries to approach him because he is crying, but he mockingly brushes her
off while denying he was upset. She has met Terry Grantchester.
Saint Paul Academy
This boarding school is co-ed, but contact between girls and boys is very
limited and severely punished. The Ardley cousins--Candy, Stear,
Archie, Eliza and Neal--are all students there. Because Archie and
Stear are her adoptive cousins, Candy is allowed to see them,
but not as much as she would like. She quickly starts to sneak
into the boys residence at night to chat with them. She does
this by crossing the park that separates the boys and girls
quarters while swinging from tree to tree until she lands on
the balcony to their room. Soon after the school year begins,
Annie is enrolled in this same school and Candy hopes to finally
be able to resume her friendship with her former best friend.
Annie, however, pretends not to know her at first. One day,
when Annie--who is in love with Archie--witness Archie trying
to confess his love to Candy, she runs crying and Candy goes
after her to try to calm her down. When Candy finally catches
up with Annie, the later speaks of the subconscious resentment
and jealousy she had felt since they were children at Pony's Home.
Annie compares the perceived favoritism that Ms. Pony and Sister Maria
showed Candy, to Archie's love for Candy (which at the time was stronger
than the feelings he also had for Annie). While Annie is bitterly crying in this way,
Eliza and her friend overhear this exchange.
Annie's secret comes to light, and this allows Annie to become Candy's
friend again. Candy also makes a friend of her neighbor,
Patricia (Patty) O'Brian who ends up being Stear's love interest.
The school days are full of mischief as Candy tries to avoid Eliza's evil schemes,
and the harsh discipline of the Academy nuns. Also in London,
she finds her old friend Albert working at a local zoo.
He has shaved his beard and looks like a young adult in his twenties.
Terry, the boy she met on the ship, is also attending the same boarding school.
He is a rebel and always causes trouble with the nuns
who can't really punish him since his father,
the Duke of Grantchester, supports the school financially.
Terry teases Candy every time they meet, seemingly because he's
in love with her but is afraid to admit it. Most of their meetings
end up in a fight. He mostly teases her about her freckles,
a fact that makes Candy furious, and her tree-swinging habits.
This leads Terry to give candy the nickname "Freckled Tarzan."
Candy in the beginning is still grieving the memory of Anthony,
and cannot understand Terry's role in her life. She's troubled by
this rebellious boy, particularly because she has seen him cry before,
and she suspects there is tragedy in his life. One night,
instead of entering Archie's room, she accidentally enters
Terry's room and finds out he is the son of Eleanor Baker,
a famous American actress. Terry is an illegitimate son,
and feels torn between a father who has married for duty
to his name and social status,
and a mother who loves him dearly but thinks it is best not to see each other.
One day Candy talks to Terry about him & Anthony,
jealous of the feelings she has about another boy,
tells her in a cruel manner that she cannot have romantic
feelings for somebody that is dead. The school's May Festival
dance arrives but Candy cannot attend because she's punished
with detention by sister Grey. Great Uncle William sends her
two costumes for the ball: one of Romeo and one of Juliet.
Candy initially disguises herself as Romeo, and manages
to escape the detention tower to go to the ball where she dances with Annie.
Then she runs to the woods where she has hidden the Juliet outfit
and changes into Juliet. Terry finds her and dances with her.
Then Terry throws a jealous fit when Candy foolishly brings
up Anthony while they are dancing. He knows that since the
accident, Candy has been frightened of horses and he decides
to cure her once and for all. He takes her to the stables
and shoves her brutally on his horse. Candy cries but slowly
overcomes her fear of horses, and begins to understand that
life after Anthony must go on.
Candy and her friends go to Scotland during the summer.
Terry is also there and eventually reconciles with his mother thanks to Candy's
intervention. He admits to Candy that he likes acting too
and would like to pursue a career in theatre. Over the summer
Terry and Candy really bond; she is more comfortable around him,
and he is no longer rude to her. One day, while they are sitting
alone under a tree, Terry asks Candy to dance with him so she will
have nice memories of her summer in Scotland.
Candy accepts the invitation and they begin dancing.
But soon after they begin their dance, Terry abruptly
stops and kisses Candy. Candy, feeling embarrassed,
slaps him and tells him that nobody has ever disrespected her in that way.
She still cannot admit her feelings for Terry.
When they go back to school in September,
Eliza is jealous of Candy's relationship with Terry, which came
to her attention during the summer. Eliza had developed a crush
on Terry during the summer in Scotland, and vows to separate them.
She sets up a rendezvous in the stable for them,
fooling them into thinking one needed to talk to the other.
She brings the nuns to the stable and they are caught "in scandal.
" Sister Grey, the head nun at Saint Paul Academy,
decides that Candy is to be expelled from the school,
but that nothing will happen to Terry because his father financially supports the school.
Terry is opposed to the discrepancy in punishments,
and decides to solve the problem: he will leave the school instead of Candy,
and will go to the United States to pursue his dream of acting on Broadway.
Before he leaves the school, Terry plays the harmonica all
night for Candy while she is locked in a punishment cell.
This was Terry's farewell to his beloved Candy. However,
Candy is unaware of his decision and when she finds out,
she finally understands how much she loves him and she runs
to the port to tell him she's in love with him. However, she arrives too late,
and can only watch as Terry's ship leaves across the Atlantic.
As Candy cries and calls his name, she decides to return to America too.
Nurse years
After a dreadful journey as a stowaway in a cargo ship from
England to America, Candy goes back to Pony's Home and finds
that Terry was there only minutes before she arrived.
Encouraged by Ms. Pony, she decides to study to be a
nurse and takes classes in a school in Chicago, where
she excels because of her interpersonal skills.
She is reunited with her friends from school
when they come back from Europe because of rumors of war.
Terry's theatre company comes on tour to Chicago,
and they meet very briefly after chasing each other
in the city (their meeting being sabotaged by Terry's
partner, Susanna Marlowe, who has an unrequited crush on Terry).
They start writing letters to each other and maintain a long distance relationship.
World War I begins and there are some thoughts of sending young nurses to the war,
but Candy is not selected.
One day, a mysterious patient arrives at the hospital:
he was injured in a train explosion in Italy and has amnesia;
he was brought to Chicago because it is the only name he says
in his delirium. Candy is shocked to recognize her good old friend Mr.
Albert, and personally monitors his needs. Because he has no family or relatives,
Albert must leave the hospital and Candy suggests that
they get an apartment together so she can continue to
take care of him. The thought of her Mr. Albert who has
shown her so much kindness in the past going out alone
without his memory greatly distresses her.
Albert agrees reluctantly at first,
but soon they become excellent friends and are very happy living together.
In the meantime, Terry has landed the lead role of
Romeo Montague in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Terry invites Candy to New York to the premiere.
His intentions seem matrimonial: he's been saving money
and has sent Candy a one way ticket. Candy daydreams
about being his wife and having breakfast with him. However,
a terrible accident happens during one of the rehearsals:
a lamp detaches from the ceiling right above Terry,
but Susanna (who still has an unrequited crush on him,
despite him telling her that he loves Candy and should
leave her alone) lunges and pushes him away. Her injuries
are so severe that her leg must be amputated. Feeling
horribly guilty for what happened, and even more so
because he knows of her unrequited feelings for him,
Terry does not know what to do, as there is increasing pressure that he should
marry Susanna from both Susanna and Susanna's mother.
It is in this tense atmosphere that Candy comes to New York.
Terry tries to keep the incident from her until a better time,
but unfortunately Candy finds out during the premiere.
She is stunned, and knows that Terry is probably suffering a
great deal because of this moral dilemma, yet she is angered
that Susanna is blackmailing him into marriage. When she goes
to confront Susanna about this, she arrives just in time to
save Susanna from committing suicide. The situation is untenable
as to what to do, and Candy hastily decides to end her relationship
with Terry at once. She believes that by removing herself from the
situation, the problem will be solved. In what is probably the most
remembered scene of both the manga and the anime for the full emotional
impact it carried for both characters, they break up on the hospital stairs.
They both promise to be happy, as if hoping that the sacrifice of the relationship
for someone else's wish would not be in vain. Heartbroken,
Candy returns to Chicago under the haze of a high fever and
tormented with knowing that her dream of marrying Terry has
been shattered. She returns to the loving care and support of her Mr.
Albert who is very concerned about her well being, and he provides
a shoulder for her to cry on.
The months pass and Candy tries heals from her grief,
by devoting herself to her work and to Albert's recovery
of his memory. Unfortunately, people begin to whisper about
her living with a man she is not married to. Also around this time,
Stear, who had joined the army, dies in combat.
Soon after Stear's death Patty leaves Chicago.
Albert recovers his memory abruptly and remembers who Candy really
is and more importantly, who he really is. He hides this from her at
the beginning, but once the rumours become unbearable and Candy
is fired from the hospital, he decides to leave to avoid causing
her more problems. Candy misses him a lot and is worried about
his health, as she is unaware he's recuperated his memory in full.
One day he sends a package to her and hoping to see him to ensure
he's fine, she goes to Rockston, Illinois only to find that Terry
is now acting in a low class theatre, drunk. Candy realizes he has
arrived to that state because of the pain he feels over their breakup.
Since Susanna is still dependent on Terry, Candy knows that the only
way she can help him come out of this is to remind him of his dream.
By sheer willpower, she manages to reach the actor, who snaps back into
action. He sees Candy from the stage in his drunken stupor and delivers
a performance worthy of his talents. Afterwards, despite acknowledging
that he cannot forget Candy, he finds the strength to go back to his
life in New York, and in some way perhaps honoring their mutual wish
when they broke up: to be happy despite the circumstances of their
separation. This is the last time they see each other, each seeming
to go in their separate ways. Before leaving Rockston, however,
Candy runs into Terry's mother, who tells her that only one person
was capable of saving her son.
Back in Chicago, the days go by peacefully until Neal starts
wooing Candy. He is unsuccessful because she remembers how
cruel he was to her as a child. He arranges a forced marriage
telling her it's Great Uncle William's will and that she has
to obey. By Neal's side there are Mrs Leagan, Eliza and the Great Aunt
Elroy all trying to talk Candy into this commitment. Astonished,
Candy decides to seek the mysterious Great Uncle William to forbid
the union. George, his faithful lawyer and consigliere, drives her
to the mansion where he is staying. There Candy discovers shockingly
that the Great Uncle William is none other than her old friend Mr.
Albert. He was the brother of Anthony's mother Rosemary, to whom he
had been greatly attached to. This also explains the resemblance
between the two men (uncle/nephew). His identity was hidden from all
partly because of his young age and because he did not wish to be
the head of the family and run the business. He makes a dramatic
appearance in front of the Chicago society to prevent Candy's arranged
marriage to Neal.
The end
Still shocked by her discovery that Albert is the Great
Uncle William, Candy goes back to Pony's Home to reflect
on the events in her life. On Pony's Hill, she remembers
her friends Anthony and Stear who have died. A tear falls from
her eyes and a familiar voice says; "Little girl, you are much
prettier when you smile..." As she looks up, she has a new surprise:
Albert is standing there. Candy realizes he has been the Prince of the
Hill all these years. "Albert, Great Uncle William... and then my Prince!"
she exclaims as she runs to him. The anime ends with a gathering at Pony's
Home front yard, besides Albert there are Annie, Archie, Ms. Pony, Sister
Maria, the children of Pony's Home, Clynn (Candy's racoon) and Mina a dog
that was given to Candy by one of her patients. Candy makes a toast to her
friends that helped her overcome troubles in life.
The main character, Candice "Candy" White Ardlay is a blonde American girl with freckles,
large emerald green eyes and long, curly hair, worn in pigtails with bows.
Candy Candy first appeared in a prose novel by famed Japanese writer Kyoko Mizuki in April 1975.
When Mizuki joined forces with manga artist Yumiko Igarashi,
the Japanese magazine Nakayoshi became interested in Candy Candy.
The series was serialized as a manga series in the magazine for four years and won the 1st
Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo in 1977. The story was adapted into an anime series by Toei animation.
There are also several Candy Candy movies which were never released outside of Japan.[citatio
Candy Candy is primarily a love story.
Candy's first love was a character named Anthony Brown,
but the series is remembered by the majority of fans as a
result of her heartbreaking separation from her true love and soulmate,
Terruce "Terry" Grantchester (side note: Lord Grantchester - there is current
a member of the British House of Lords, with the title). A recurrent story arc
in the series is the "Prince of the Hill", a mysterious boy Candy encountered once as a child.
His identity is revealed in the last pages of the manga and in the last chapters of the anime.
The early years
Candy is a six year old who lives in an orphanage near Lake Michigan with Ms.
Pony and Sister Lynne (レイン先生 "Lane-sensei" in Japanese).
In some countries, her name is Sister Maria or Sister Mary).
Candy was found by them when she was a baby,
the same day that Annie--Candy's best friend--was also found during a cold winter day.
She frequently causes mischief with her young friends, especially with Annie.
She has a raccoon named Clynn that will accompany her in most of her future adventures.
One day, Annie consents to be adopted by rich parents, the Brightons (Britter in some countries).
This takes place after Candy refuses to be adopted by this same family when she realizes
she will be separated from Annie after the proposed adoption. After Annie's adoption,
she writes letters to Candy but soon she tells her that her parents prefer that she forget
about her past. Heartbroken, Candy goes to her favorite place, Pony's Hill, to cry.
Here, she hears the voice of a boy, telling her: "Little girl,
you are prettier when you smile than when you cry".
The boy is dressed in a full Scottish outfit and carries a bagpipe.
Candy is awed by his outfit but soon they become friends and he plays the bagpipe for her.
When she turns around to pick up Annie's letter, the boy mysteriously disappears.
The only suggestion that it was not a dream is a brooch in the shape of an eagle with the letter
"A" on it. Candy nicknames him "The Prince of the Hill" and she will daydream about
this encounter all her life.
The Ardlay Family
At age 12, Candy is "adopted" by the Leagan family to be a companion to Eliza and
later ends up as a maid. The children, Eliza and Neal,
often play cruel pranks on her and delight in tormenting her.
Mrs. Leagan, whose name is Ruth, does not like her, but Mr. Leagan is kinder to Candy,
though he is frequently away on business and therefore cannot be a reliable ally.
One day, she meets three cousins: the brothers Archibald (Archie) and Alistair (Stear) Cornwell,
and their cousin, Anthony Brown. They are also Eliza and Neal's cousins,
and they all belong to the Ardlay family (Andrew family in some countries).
It is soon apparent that the boys all have a crush on Candy,
but she clearly prefers Anthony because of his striking resemblance to the Prince of the Hill.
While Candy is a maid at the Leagan house, Annie and her parents pay a visit to the Leagans.
When Annie is introduced to Candy, she acts as if she had never seen her before
in order to conceal the "embarrassing" fact that she was an orphan from
Pony's Home--following Annie's adoption, the Brightons had told friends
and family that Annie was the orphaned daughter of a relative of theirs,
rather than a child from an orphanage.
Candy is sad that she cannot talk to her best friend,
but has a chance to interact with her when she Annie and the Leagans are preparing to go out for a horse ride and Annie's horse takes off with Annie screaming for help (she calls Candy's name, rather than her parents'). Candy gives chase with another horse, and manages to rescue Annie from her hellish horse ride. Before Annie and her parents leave the Leagan's residence, she leaves a ribbon tied to a post so Candy can find it. Candy does find it and is later accused by Eliza and Neal of stealing it from their guests. These two manage to persuade their parents that Candy cannot be trusted to stay living inside the house, and she is sent to live in the horse stable. When Archie, Stear and Anthony discover Candy's mistreatments (and after many adventures), they have the head of the Ardlay house adopt Candy. This mysterious and very wealthy gentleman (referred to as Great Uncle William or Grandfather William in some translations) is never seen. Candy also befriends Albert, a bearded vagabond that lives in a hunter's lodge with lots of animals.
Now Candy has a new social situation and while some of the Ardlay
relatives still dislike her (namely Eliza, Neal,
their mother and the "apparent" head of the family, Great Aunt Elroy),
the three boys make her feel welcome and help her become "a real lady".
Her romance with Anthony develops tenderly,
and he grows a new breed of white roses that he names "Sweet Candy" in her honor.
This romance, however, is brutally cut short when,
on the day Candy is officially introduced as an Ardlay,
he falls from his horse during a fox hunt and dies--interestingly,
seconds before his death, he was going to tell Candy about a boy who looked very much like
him and who was always around his mother when he was a baby.
Aunt Elroy and Eliza blame Candy for Anthony's death.
Candy is heartbroken and returns to Pony's Home to overcome her grief.
She does not stay long, for Great Uncle William has other plans for her:
he is sending her to the Saint Paul Academy, a boarding school in London.
While on the ship to London, Candy wanders out
into the deck and she sees a young man who resembles Anthony in the shadows.
She tries to approach him because he is crying, but he mockingly brushes her
off while denying he was upset. She has met Terry Grantchester.
Saint Paul Academy
This boarding school is co-ed, but contact between girls and boys is very
limited and severely punished. The Ardley cousins--Candy, Stear,
Archie, Eliza and Neal--are all students there. Because Archie and
Stear are her adoptive cousins, Candy is allowed to see them,
but not as much as she would like. She quickly starts to sneak
into the boys residence at night to chat with them. She does
this by crossing the park that separates the boys and girls
quarters while swinging from tree to tree until she lands on
the balcony to their room. Soon after the school year begins,
Annie is enrolled in this same school and Candy hopes to finally
be able to resume her friendship with her former best friend.
Annie, however, pretends not to know her at first. One day,
when Annie--who is in love with Archie--witness Archie trying
to confess his love to Candy, she runs crying and Candy goes
after her to try to calm her down. When Candy finally catches
up with Annie, the later speaks of the subconscious resentment
and jealousy she had felt since they were children at Pony's Home.
Annie compares the perceived favoritism that Ms. Pony and Sister Maria
showed Candy, to Archie's love for Candy (which at the time was stronger
than the feelings he also had for Annie). While Annie is bitterly crying in this way,
Eliza and her friend overhear this exchange.
Annie's secret comes to light, and this allows Annie to become Candy's
friend again. Candy also makes a friend of her neighbor,
Patricia (Patty) O'Brian who ends up being Stear's love interest.
The school days are full of mischief as Candy tries to avoid Eliza's evil schemes,
and the harsh discipline of the Academy nuns. Also in London,
she finds her old friend Albert working at a local zoo.
He has shaved his beard and looks like a young adult in his twenties.
Terry, the boy she met on the ship, is also attending the same boarding school.
He is a rebel and always causes trouble with the nuns
who can't really punish him since his father,
the Duke of Grantchester, supports the school financially.
Terry teases Candy every time they meet, seemingly because he's
in love with her but is afraid to admit it. Most of their meetings
end up in a fight. He mostly teases her about her freckles,
a fact that makes Candy furious, and her tree-swinging habits.
This leads Terry to give candy the nickname "Freckled Tarzan."
Candy in the beginning is still grieving the memory of Anthony,
and cannot understand Terry's role in her life. She's troubled by
this rebellious boy, particularly because she has seen him cry before,
and she suspects there is tragedy in his life. One night,
instead of entering Archie's room, she accidentally enters
Terry's room and finds out he is the son of Eleanor Baker,
a famous American actress. Terry is an illegitimate son,
and feels torn between a father who has married for duty
to his name and social status,
and a mother who loves him dearly but thinks it is best not to see each other.
One day Candy talks to Terry about him & Anthony,
jealous of the feelings she has about another boy,
tells her in a cruel manner that she cannot have romantic
feelings for somebody that is dead. The school's May Festival
dance arrives but Candy cannot attend because she's punished
with detention by sister Grey. Great Uncle William sends her
two costumes for the ball: one of Romeo and one of Juliet.
Candy initially disguises herself as Romeo, and manages
to escape the detention tower to go to the ball where she dances with Annie.
Then she runs to the woods where she has hidden the Juliet outfit
and changes into Juliet. Terry finds her and dances with her.
Then Terry throws a jealous fit when Candy foolishly brings
up Anthony while they are dancing. He knows that since the
accident, Candy has been frightened of horses and he decides
to cure her once and for all. He takes her to the stables
and shoves her brutally on his horse. Candy cries but slowly
overcomes her fear of horses, and begins to understand that
life after Anthony must go on.
Candy and her friends go to Scotland during the summer.
Terry is also there and eventually reconciles with his mother thanks to Candy's
intervention. He admits to Candy that he likes acting too
and would like to pursue a career in theatre. Over the summer
Terry and Candy really bond; she is more comfortable around him,
and he is no longer rude to her. One day, while they are sitting
alone under a tree, Terry asks Candy to dance with him so she will
have nice memories of her summer in Scotland.
Candy accepts the invitation and they begin dancing.
But soon after they begin their dance, Terry abruptly
stops and kisses Candy. Candy, feeling embarrassed,
slaps him and tells him that nobody has ever disrespected her in that way.
She still cannot admit her feelings for Terry.
When they go back to school in September,
Eliza is jealous of Candy's relationship with Terry, which came
to her attention during the summer. Eliza had developed a crush
on Terry during the summer in Scotland, and vows to separate them.
She sets up a rendezvous in the stable for them,
fooling them into thinking one needed to talk to the other.
She brings the nuns to the stable and they are caught "in scandal.
" Sister Grey, the head nun at Saint Paul Academy,
decides that Candy is to be expelled from the school,
but that nothing will happen to Terry because his father financially supports the school.
Terry is opposed to the discrepancy in punishments,
and decides to solve the problem: he will leave the school instead of Candy,
and will go to the United States to pursue his dream of acting on Broadway.
Before he leaves the school, Terry plays the harmonica all
night for Candy while she is locked in a punishment cell.
This was Terry's farewell to his beloved Candy. However,
Candy is unaware of his decision and when she finds out,
she finally understands how much she loves him and she runs
to the port to tell him she's in love with him. However, she arrives too late,
and can only watch as Terry's ship leaves across the Atlantic.
As Candy cries and calls his name, she decides to return to America too.
Nurse years
After a dreadful journey as a stowaway in a cargo ship from
England to America, Candy goes back to Pony's Home and finds
that Terry was there only minutes before she arrived.
Encouraged by Ms. Pony, she decides to study to be a
nurse and takes classes in a school in Chicago, where
she excels because of her interpersonal skills.
She is reunited with her friends from school
when they come back from Europe because of rumors of war.
Terry's theatre company comes on tour to Chicago,
and they meet very briefly after chasing each other
in the city (their meeting being sabotaged by Terry's
partner, Susanna Marlowe, who has an unrequited crush on Terry).
They start writing letters to each other and maintain a long distance relationship.
World War I begins and there are some thoughts of sending young nurses to the war,
but Candy is not selected.
One day, a mysterious patient arrives at the hospital:
he was injured in a train explosion in Italy and has amnesia;
he was brought to Chicago because it is the only name he says
in his delirium. Candy is shocked to recognize her good old friend Mr.
Albert, and personally monitors his needs. Because he has no family or relatives,
Albert must leave the hospital and Candy suggests that
they get an apartment together so she can continue to
take care of him. The thought of her Mr. Albert who has
shown her so much kindness in the past going out alone
without his memory greatly distresses her.
Albert agrees reluctantly at first,
but soon they become excellent friends and are very happy living together.
In the meantime, Terry has landed the lead role of
Romeo Montague in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Terry invites Candy to New York to the premiere.
His intentions seem matrimonial: he's been saving money
and has sent Candy a one way ticket. Candy daydreams
about being his wife and having breakfast with him. However,
a terrible accident happens during one of the rehearsals:
a lamp detaches from the ceiling right above Terry,
but Susanna (who still has an unrequited crush on him,
despite him telling her that he loves Candy and should
leave her alone) lunges and pushes him away. Her injuries
are so severe that her leg must be amputated. Feeling
horribly guilty for what happened, and even more so
because he knows of her unrequited feelings for him,
Terry does not know what to do, as there is increasing pressure that he should
marry Susanna from both Susanna and Susanna's mother.
It is in this tense atmosphere that Candy comes to New York.
Terry tries to keep the incident from her until a better time,
but unfortunately Candy finds out during the premiere.
She is stunned, and knows that Terry is probably suffering a
great deal because of this moral dilemma, yet she is angered
that Susanna is blackmailing him into marriage. When she goes
to confront Susanna about this, she arrives just in time to
save Susanna from committing suicide. The situation is untenable
as to what to do, and Candy hastily decides to end her relationship
with Terry at once. She believes that by removing herself from the
situation, the problem will be solved. In what is probably the most
remembered scene of both the manga and the anime for the full emotional
impact it carried for both characters, they break up on the hospital stairs.
They both promise to be happy, as if hoping that the sacrifice of the relationship
for someone else's wish would not be in vain. Heartbroken,
Candy returns to Chicago under the haze of a high fever and
tormented with knowing that her dream of marrying Terry has
been shattered. She returns to the loving care and support of her Mr.
Albert who is very concerned about her well being, and he provides
a shoulder for her to cry on.
The months pass and Candy tries heals from her grief,
by devoting herself to her work and to Albert's recovery
of his memory. Unfortunately, people begin to whisper about
her living with a man she is not married to. Also around this time,
Stear, who had joined the army, dies in combat.
Soon after Stear's death Patty leaves Chicago.
Albert recovers his memory abruptly and remembers who Candy really
is and more importantly, who he really is. He hides this from her at
the beginning, but once the rumours become unbearable and Candy
is fired from the hospital, he decides to leave to avoid causing
her more problems. Candy misses him a lot and is worried about
his health, as she is unaware he's recuperated his memory in full.
One day he sends a package to her and hoping to see him to ensure
he's fine, she goes to Rockston, Illinois only to find that Terry
is now acting in a low class theatre, drunk. Candy realizes he has
arrived to that state because of the pain he feels over their breakup.
Since Susanna is still dependent on Terry, Candy knows that the only
way she can help him come out of this is to remind him of his dream.
By sheer willpower, she manages to reach the actor, who snaps back into
action. He sees Candy from the stage in his drunken stupor and delivers
a performance worthy of his talents. Afterwards, despite acknowledging
that he cannot forget Candy, he finds the strength to go back to his
life in New York, and in some way perhaps honoring their mutual wish
when they broke up: to be happy despite the circumstances of their
separation. This is the last time they see each other, each seeming
to go in their separate ways. Before leaving Rockston, however,
Candy runs into Terry's mother, who tells her that only one person
was capable of saving her son.
Back in Chicago, the days go by peacefully until Neal starts
wooing Candy. He is unsuccessful because she remembers how
cruel he was to her as a child. He arranges a forced marriage
telling her it's Great Uncle William's will and that she has
to obey. By Neal's side there are Mrs Leagan, Eliza and the Great Aunt
Elroy all trying to talk Candy into this commitment. Astonished,
Candy decides to seek the mysterious Great Uncle William to forbid
the union. George, his faithful lawyer and consigliere, drives her
to the mansion where he is staying. There Candy discovers shockingly
that the Great Uncle William is none other than her old friend Mr.
Albert. He was the brother of Anthony's mother Rosemary, to whom he
had been greatly attached to. This also explains the resemblance
between the two men (uncle/nephew). His identity was hidden from all
partly because of his young age and because he did not wish to be
the head of the family and run the business. He makes a dramatic
appearance in front of the Chicago society to prevent Candy's arranged
marriage to Neal.
The end
Still shocked by her discovery that Albert is the Great
Uncle William, Candy goes back to Pony's Home to reflect
on the events in her life. On Pony's Hill, she remembers
her friends Anthony and Stear who have died. A tear falls from
her eyes and a familiar voice says; "Little girl, you are much
prettier when you smile..." As she looks up, she has a new surprise:
Albert is standing there. Candy realizes he has been the Prince of the
Hill all these years. "Albert, Great Uncle William... and then my Prince!"
she exclaims as she runs to him. The anime ends with a gathering at Pony's
Home front yard, besides Albert there are Annie, Archie, Ms. Pony, Sister
Maria, the children of Pony's Home, Clynn (Candy's racoon) and Mina a dog
that was given to Candy by one of her patients. Candy makes a toast to her
friends that helped her overcome troubles in life.
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball (franchise)
(ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru?), created by Akira Toriyama in 1984,
is an internationally famous media franchise. It consists primarily of one manga series,
three different anime, seventeen animated feature films, an unofficial live-action Chinese movie,
a collectible trading card game, a large number of electronic games,
as well as other collectibles like action figures.
An official live-action film titled Dragonball is currently in production.
Dragon Ball has an extensive online fanbase and, as of 2005, is consistently one of the most
frequently searched-for terms on Google, Yahoo!, Lycos, and YouTube.
The narrative of Dragon Ball received some of its inspiration and various
characters from the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West,
though it diverges from the novel very quickly. It follows the adventures of its lead character,
Son Goku (based on the Monkey King of the folk legend, Sun Wukong) from his childhood into old age.
Dragon Ball originally included action and comedy elements,
as well a significant amount of science fiction, though the story became more sci-fi oriented over time.
History
Main article: Dragon Boy
Just prior to ending a successful six-year run on his humor manga, Dr. Slump,
in the Weekly Shonen Jump anthology magazine, Akira Toriyama started toying with the ideas that
he would later apply into the Dragon Ball manga. In 1983,
he wrote two chapters of Dragon Boy for the Fresh Jump anthology magazine.
This story, left unfinished, merged in the comic style of Dr. Slump with an action-oriented plot.
It included many elements which would be reused in the later series,
including a very different kind of Dragon Ball. In 1983, Toriyama published The Adventures of Tongpoo,
a sci-fi comic also featuring a Goku-like character and plot elements (such as "Hoi Poi Capsules")
which he would reuse later.
Dragon Ball manga
Main article: Dragon Ball (manga)
In late December 1984, the first issue of Dragon Ball appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump,
the same anthology magazine where Dr. Slump had previously been published.
The series was then published weekly and on a very tight schedule (14 pages per week,
plus title page) for nearly eleven years, ending in May 1995.
In total, 519 regular chapters and one bonus chapter were published.
Unlike American-style comic books, Dragon Ball was largely produced in black-and-white,
although a small number of pages in a subset of chapters were colorized for emphasis.
During the run of the manga in Japan, it was reprinted in as a tankōbon (Japanese graphic novels).
Unlike the original print run of the manga, the previously colorized pages were reprinted only
in grayscale.
A year and a half into the story of Dragon Ball,
Akira Toriyama included an extended cameo by some of the characters and locations
from his previous creation, Dr. Slump.
This is perceived by many fans as tying the two fictional universes together, although the Dr.
Slump characters never make any further appearances in Dragon Ball.
Dragon Ball anime
Main article: Dragon Ball (anime)
Within a short amount of time Dragon Ball had reached a level of popularity in
Japan that convinced the people of Toei Animation to produce both an anime series and a
feature film based on the characters.
The anime series premiered in February 1986 on Fuji Television,
running weekly and in prime time with new episodes every Wednesday night.
The anime series that was produced closely matched the manga that it was based on
(as opposed to Sailor Moon, for example, which the manga and anime diverged significantly),
but this had the major drawback that the anime would often catch up to the current
point in the manga and the animators were left to create additional episodes and
situations to allow them time for more source material to be written.
Such material in the series (known by fans as filler)
was often of a lower quality than the original manga and occasionally would directly
contradict information that would be provided in the source material later.
This is perhaps unsurprising due to the difficulty of producing 20 minutes of animation each week,
with only 14 pages of manga to work from.
In December of 1986, the first theatrical film version of the anime was produced.
Simply titled "Dragon Ball" (When released on VHS,
the subtitle "The Legend of Shenlong" was added),
it retold the events of the first several episodes of the anime series.
The movie was followed by additional movies in the July of 1987
("The Sleeping Princess in the Devil's Castle") and the July of 1988 ("Mystical Great Adventure").
Because of the popularity of the title in Japan,
three video games (all for the Nintendo Family Computer) were produced.
The first, released in 1986 as "The Mystery of Shenlong", was the only action game of the three.
The other two (released in 1988 and 1989) were card game/board game hybrids.
The anime series ended in April 1989 after 153 episodes
(and Goku's transition to adulthood). Although the animated series ended,
fans did not have to wait long for the continuation of the story. The sequel anime,
Dragon Ball Z debuted the following week.
Dragon Ball Z
Main article: Dragon Ball Z
Picking up exactly where the previous series left off,
Dragon Ball Z began airing in Japan a week after the Dragon Ball anime ended,
and in the same time slot. A new series name was chosen
by the producers to differentiate the current series,
with its reduced emphasis on comedy and its new science fiction themes,
from the previous one -- even though both were still based on the same Dragon Ball manga.
The new show also featured improved production values and animation quality.
This transition point was attractive because not only did it follow a several
year gap in the plot (one of several such gaps in the series),
but it also featured revised origin stories for several lead characters and the
introduction of several new characters. This made it
a good jumping point for new fans of the series.
Three months after the premier of DBZ,
in July 1989, the first movie of the series (entitled Dead Zone in the US) premiered in theaters.
In total, thirteen DBZ movies were produced. In addition to the feature films,
two movie-length television specials were also produced for the series.
A visual walkthrough was also made for one of the many NES games based
on the series, but was only released in Japan.
It is highly unlkely that an English version will ever be produced.
Like the original Dragon Ball anime,
DBZ suffered from the same manga-to-anime pacing problems which resulted in the excess
of filler material in the previous anime. In some ways,
the problem was more pronounced during the production of DBZ as
the increased focus on action resulted in many issues of the manga devoted entirely
to action sequences. These combat-oriented issues were more difficult to
"stretch" into episodes than more diverse action and this resulted in
pacing problems throughout some sections of the series.
In May 1995, the long running Dragon Ball manga finally ended its run
in Shonen Jump as creator Akira Toriyama had grown exhausted and
his editors allowed him to end the series.
Without additional issues of the manga to translate onto the small screen,
DBZ ended in January 1996 after 291 episodes. Once again however,
Japanese fans would not have to wait more than a week for the continuation of the story,
in Dragon Ball GT.
During the production of DBZ in Japan, popularity for the franchise was at its peak.
Production of video games--first for the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom),
then later for Super Famicom, PlayStation, Game Boy,
and Sega Saturn-- reached its peak during this period. Ironically,
despite tremendous success in Japan and tons of marketable goods,
the series had yet to take off in the US.
Dragon Ball GT
Main article: Dragon Ball GT
The third and final Dragon Ball series quickly followed the completion of Dragon Ball Z in February.
Unlike the two previous series,
Dragon Ball GT was not based on the Dragon Ball manga by Akira Toriyama.
Instead, it was completely new material.
From the beginning however, there were problems with the series.
Dragon Ball fandom in Japan was waning.
To help renew interest in the series and bring it back to its roots,
a decision was made to return the series to the style of the original
comedy Dragon Ball anime, rather than the more action-oriented Dragon Ball Z.
This decision led to the reintroduction of several villains not present since
the original series, a return to the "Dragon Ball quest"-style plot of that series,
and even the mystical de-aging of Goku, back to roughly the age he was when the first series began.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this creative change did not
improve ratings and the series focus was changed again after the completion of only sixteen episodes.
The remaining episodes of the series returned to the more action-oriented style of the latter series. As a result of declining interest, the series had ended in November 1997 after only 64 episodes. There was no sequel the following week.
DBGT was also less successful in its tie-ins than the previous series had been.
Unlike the previous series, DBGT did not spawn any theatrical films on its own.
In March 1996, just one month after the introduction of the series,
the Dragon Ball 10th Anniversary Special (called The Path to Power in the US) was released.
Although produced in the artistic style of DBGT, the plot was a modified retelling of
the very beginning of the original Dragon Ball anime.
This was the last Dragon Ball animated movie to be released to date.
Other than that film, the final series was limited to a single television special,
released in March 1997. In other product areas, such as video games and merchandise,
DBGT was also less successful than its predecessors.
(ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru?), created by Akira Toriyama in 1984,
is an internationally famous media franchise. It consists primarily of one manga series,
three different anime, seventeen animated feature films, an unofficial live-action Chinese movie,
a collectible trading card game, a large number of electronic games,
as well as other collectibles like action figures.
An official live-action film titled Dragonball is currently in production.
Dragon Ball has an extensive online fanbase and, as of 2005, is consistently one of the most
frequently searched-for terms on Google, Yahoo!, Lycos, and YouTube.
The narrative of Dragon Ball received some of its inspiration and various
characters from the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West,
though it diverges from the novel very quickly. It follows the adventures of its lead character,
Son Goku (based on the Monkey King of the folk legend, Sun Wukong) from his childhood into old age.
Dragon Ball originally included action and comedy elements,
as well a significant amount of science fiction, though the story became more sci-fi oriented over time.
History
Main article: Dragon Boy
Just prior to ending a successful six-year run on his humor manga, Dr. Slump,
in the Weekly Shonen Jump anthology magazine, Akira Toriyama started toying with the ideas that
he would later apply into the Dragon Ball manga. In 1983,
he wrote two chapters of Dragon Boy for the Fresh Jump anthology magazine.
This story, left unfinished, merged in the comic style of Dr. Slump with an action-oriented plot.
It included many elements which would be reused in the later series,
including a very different kind of Dragon Ball. In 1983, Toriyama published The Adventures of Tongpoo,
a sci-fi comic also featuring a Goku-like character and plot elements (such as "Hoi Poi Capsules")
which he would reuse later.
Dragon Ball manga
Main article: Dragon Ball (manga)
In late December 1984, the first issue of Dragon Ball appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump,
the same anthology magazine where Dr. Slump had previously been published.
The series was then published weekly and on a very tight schedule (14 pages per week,
plus title page) for nearly eleven years, ending in May 1995.
In total, 519 regular chapters and one bonus chapter were published.
Unlike American-style comic books, Dragon Ball was largely produced in black-and-white,
although a small number of pages in a subset of chapters were colorized for emphasis.
During the run of the manga in Japan, it was reprinted in as a tankōbon (Japanese graphic novels).
Unlike the original print run of the manga, the previously colorized pages were reprinted only
in grayscale.
A year and a half into the story of Dragon Ball,
Akira Toriyama included an extended cameo by some of the characters and locations
from his previous creation, Dr. Slump.
This is perceived by many fans as tying the two fictional universes together, although the Dr.
Slump characters never make any further appearances in Dragon Ball.
Dragon Ball anime
Main article: Dragon Ball (anime)
Within a short amount of time Dragon Ball had reached a level of popularity in
Japan that convinced the people of Toei Animation to produce both an anime series and a
feature film based on the characters.
The anime series premiered in February 1986 on Fuji Television,
running weekly and in prime time with new episodes every Wednesday night.
The anime series that was produced closely matched the manga that it was based on
(as opposed to Sailor Moon, for example, which the manga and anime diverged significantly),
but this had the major drawback that the anime would often catch up to the current
point in the manga and the animators were left to create additional episodes and
situations to allow them time for more source material to be written.
Such material in the series (known by fans as filler)
was often of a lower quality than the original manga and occasionally would directly
contradict information that would be provided in the source material later.
This is perhaps unsurprising due to the difficulty of producing 20 minutes of animation each week,
with only 14 pages of manga to work from.
In December of 1986, the first theatrical film version of the anime was produced.
Simply titled "Dragon Ball" (When released on VHS,
the subtitle "The Legend of Shenlong" was added),
it retold the events of the first several episodes of the anime series.
The movie was followed by additional movies in the July of 1987
("The Sleeping Princess in the Devil's Castle") and the July of 1988 ("Mystical Great Adventure").
Because of the popularity of the title in Japan,
three video games (all for the Nintendo Family Computer) were produced.
The first, released in 1986 as "The Mystery of Shenlong", was the only action game of the three.
The other two (released in 1988 and 1989) were card game/board game hybrids.
The anime series ended in April 1989 after 153 episodes
(and Goku's transition to adulthood). Although the animated series ended,
fans did not have to wait long for the continuation of the story. The sequel anime,
Dragon Ball Z debuted the following week.
Dragon Ball Z
Main article: Dragon Ball Z
Picking up exactly where the previous series left off,
Dragon Ball Z began airing in Japan a week after the Dragon Ball anime ended,
and in the same time slot. A new series name was chosen
by the producers to differentiate the current series,
with its reduced emphasis on comedy and its new science fiction themes,
from the previous one -- even though both were still based on the same Dragon Ball manga.
The new show also featured improved production values and animation quality.
This transition point was attractive because not only did it follow a several
year gap in the plot (one of several such gaps in the series),
but it also featured revised origin stories for several lead characters and the
introduction of several new characters. This made it
a good jumping point for new fans of the series.
Three months after the premier of DBZ,
in July 1989, the first movie of the series (entitled Dead Zone in the US) premiered in theaters.
In total, thirteen DBZ movies were produced. In addition to the feature films,
two movie-length television specials were also produced for the series.
A visual walkthrough was also made for one of the many NES games based
on the series, but was only released in Japan.
It is highly unlkely that an English version will ever be produced.
Like the original Dragon Ball anime,
DBZ suffered from the same manga-to-anime pacing problems which resulted in the excess
of filler material in the previous anime. In some ways,
the problem was more pronounced during the production of DBZ as
the increased focus on action resulted in many issues of the manga devoted entirely
to action sequences. These combat-oriented issues were more difficult to
"stretch" into episodes than more diverse action and this resulted in
pacing problems throughout some sections of the series.
In May 1995, the long running Dragon Ball manga finally ended its run
in Shonen Jump as creator Akira Toriyama had grown exhausted and
his editors allowed him to end the series.
Without additional issues of the manga to translate onto the small screen,
DBZ ended in January 1996 after 291 episodes. Once again however,
Japanese fans would not have to wait more than a week for the continuation of the story,
in Dragon Ball GT.
During the production of DBZ in Japan, popularity for the franchise was at its peak.
Production of video games--first for the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom),
then later for Super Famicom, PlayStation, Game Boy,
and Sega Saturn-- reached its peak during this period. Ironically,
despite tremendous success in Japan and tons of marketable goods,
the series had yet to take off in the US.
Dragon Ball GT
Main article: Dragon Ball GT
The third and final Dragon Ball series quickly followed the completion of Dragon Ball Z in February.
Unlike the two previous series,
Dragon Ball GT was not based on the Dragon Ball manga by Akira Toriyama.
Instead, it was completely new material.
From the beginning however, there were problems with the series.
Dragon Ball fandom in Japan was waning.
To help renew interest in the series and bring it back to its roots,
a decision was made to return the series to the style of the original
comedy Dragon Ball anime, rather than the more action-oriented Dragon Ball Z.
This decision led to the reintroduction of several villains not present since
the original series, a return to the "Dragon Ball quest"-style plot of that series,
and even the mystical de-aging of Goku, back to roughly the age he was when the first series began.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this creative change did not
improve ratings and the series focus was changed again after the completion of only sixteen episodes.
The remaining episodes of the series returned to the more action-oriented style of the latter series. As a result of declining interest, the series had ended in November 1997 after only 64 episodes. There was no sequel the following week.
DBGT was also less successful in its tie-ins than the previous series had been.
Unlike the previous series, DBGT did not spawn any theatrical films on its own.
In March 1996, just one month after the introduction of the series,
the Dragon Ball 10th Anniversary Special (called The Path to Power in the US) was released.
Although produced in the artistic style of DBGT, the plot was a modified retelling of
the very beginning of the original Dragon Ball anime.
This was the last Dragon Ball animated movie to be released to date.
Other than that film, the final series was limited to a single television special,
released in March 1997. In other product areas, such as video games and merchandise,
DBGT was also less successful than its predecessors.
Naruto
"NARUTO" redirects here. For other uses, see Naruto (disambiguation).
This article is about the manga and anime franchise.
For the title character, see Naruto Uzumaki.
Naruto (NARUTO - ナルト -, Naruto?) is a Japanese manga series
written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto with an anime adaptation.
The main character, Naruto Uzumaki, is a loud, hyperactive,
unpredictable adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become a Hokage,
the ninja in the village acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all.
Kishimoto first authored a one-shot of Naruto in the August 1997 issue
of Akamaru Jump.[1] The plot differed substantially in that Naruto was
the son of the demon fox instead of being the container,
and the story was placed in a more modern setting.[2] This early
version of Naruto already had the ability to transform into a sexy
young woman - but when he did so, a fox tail sprouted. Kishimoto then
rewrote the story to its current form, which was first published by Shueisha
in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Shonen Jump magazine. As of volume 36,
the manga has sold over 71 million copies in Japan.[3] Viz Media publishes
a translated version in the American Shonen Jump magazine.
Naruto has become Viz's best-selling manga series.
[4] To date, the first 27 volumes are available.
In order to catch up to the translated anime,
Viz plans to release volumes 16 to 27 three at a time over the months of September to December 2007.
[5]
The first of two anime series,
produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex, premiered across Japan on the terrestrial
TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3,
2002, and is still being aired. Viz also licensed the anime for North American production.
Naruto debuted in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on September
10, 2005, and in Canada on YTV's Bionix on September 16, 2005.
Naruto began showing in the UK on Jetix on July 22, 2006.
It began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007 in Australia,
which features the German dub opening, although it could be watched on Cartoon Network in 2006.
The first series lasted nine seasons, while Naruto: Shippūden began its first on February 15, 2007.
Plot introduction
Twelve years before the events at the focus of the series, the nine-tailed demon fox
attacked Konohagakure. Powerful enough to raise tsunamis and flatten mountains
with a swish of one of its tails, it raised chaos and slaughtered many people,
until the leader of the Leaf Village – the Fourth Hokage – sacrificed his own
life to seal the demon inside the newborn, Naruto Uzumaki.The Fourth Hokage,
who was celebrated as a hero for sealing the demon fox away, wanted Naruto to
be respected in a similar light by being the containment vessel for the demon fox.
The Leaf Village, however, shunned him, regarding Naruto as if he were the demon
fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by
the Third Hokage forbade anyone to discuss or mention the attack of the demon fox
to anyone, even their own children. However, this did not stop them from treating
him like an outcast and as a result he grew up an orphan without friends, family,
or acknowledgment. He could not force people to befriend him, so he sought acknowledgment
and attention the only way he knew – through pranks and mischief.
However, that soon changed after Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy
by using his Shadow Clone Technique, a technique from a forbidden scroll
that he was tricked into stealing, to save his teacher, Iruka Umino, from
the renegade ninja Mizuki. That encounter gave Naruto two insights: that
he was the container of the demon fox, and that there was someone besides
the Third Hokage who actually cared for and acknowledged him. His graduation
from the academy opened a gateway to the events and people that would change
and define his world, including his way of the ninja for the rest of his life.[6]
The main story follows Naruto and his friends' personal growth and development as ninja,
and emphasizes their interactions with each other and the influence of their backgrounds
on their personalities. Naruto finds two friends and comrades in Sasuke Uchiha and
Sakura Haruno, two fellow young ninja who are assigned with him to form a three-person
team under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also confides in other
characters that he meets throughout the series as well. They learn new abilities,
get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey
as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of the Leaf Village.
Throughout all of the Naruto plot, strong emphasis on character development changes the plot,
with very few things happening because of chance. At first, emphasis is placed on Naruto,
Sasuke, and Sakura, who are the members of Team 7. However, other characters are developed,
such as Kakashi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya, as well as Naruto's peers in the other teams and villages.
Several major villains come into play as well, the first being Zabuza Momochi,
a missing-nin from Kirigakure, and his partner, Haku. Later, in the Chunin Exams arc,
Orochimaru is introduced as an S-Class missing-nin at the top of Konoha's most wanted list.
Also During this arc three ninjas known as The Sand Siblings are introduced. These siblings
are from Sungakure and include Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara. Later still,
a mysterious organization called Akatsuki begins to pursue Naruto for the
nine-tailed demon fox inside him.
Origins
In the original one shot of "Naruto," Naruto Uzumaki is the
son of powerful fox demon, whose spirit was sealed away by nine
powerful warriors. Only one, the current chief of the village of
the fox spirits on Mt. Oinari with a large resemblance to the Third
Hokage from the current series, survived, and he took on the duty of
raising Naruto. Naruto, however, is mischievous and a trouble maker,
pulling multiple pranks on others with each passing day. The village chief,
angry, sends Naruto on special training to the human world to find a human
friend he can trust, otherwise he will not be welcome to the village any longer.
While in the human world, Naruto meets the artist Kuroda, who trusted no
one after his father's death, struggling to finish an important painting.
After Kuroda's assistant, Takashi, is killed and the painting is stolen,
Naruto is framed and arrested. Kuroda, however, sympathizes Naruto enough
to legally take all punishments that would have been given to Naruto.
Naruto, attempting to repay Kuroda, searches for Takashi's murderer,
eventually finding out that Matsushima, who hired Kuroda to make the
painting, and his body guard plotted the whole thing and framed Naruto.
Naruto defeats both of them with ease, and the two get arrested, with no
one believing their stories about Naruto's abilities. Although Naruto befriends Kuroda,
however, Kuroda is too busy to follow Naruto to Mt. Oinari, and thus Naruto leaves to
continue his quest.
The original Naruto has a significant theming on friendship and trust.
At the beginning of the story, neither Naruto or Kuroda trusted anyone,
but by the end both befriend and trust each other. Despite its high results
in the reader poll after getting released, Kishimoto currently thinks the
"art stinks and the story's a mess!" Kishimoto also revealed that he was
originally working on Karakuri for the Hop Step Award when, unsatisfied by
the rough drafts, decided to work on something different instead, which later
formed into Naruto.
Noticiably, in the original Naruto, scrolls and stickers are used for the lesser jutsu,
rather than using hand signs to initiate Jutsu.
Naruto: Shippūden
From volume 28 onward, the series takes a new setting, taking place 2½ years after
the previous volume. While simply referred to as Part II in the manga, the anime
gave this part of the series the name Naruto: Shippūden (ナルト 疾風伝, Naruto: Shippūden?
lit. Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles). Between where volume 27 leaves off and the beginning
of volume 28, to distance the gap between the manga and anime, the anime adds a series
of filler episodes totalling 85, the longest number of filler episodes in any anime series.
Naruto: Shippūden tells the story of a matured and older cast from the original
series. After training for 2½ years with Jiraiya, Naruto Uzumaki, now fifteen,
returns to Konohagakure, reunites with the friends he left behind, and reforms
the original Team 7, excluding Sasuke Uchiha.
Unlike the original series, the organization of Akatsuki, which played a minor
role earlier, takes on the main antagonist factor in their attempts of world domination.
All of Naruto's classmates have matured and improved in the ranks, some more than others.
Characters
Naruto has a large and colorful cast of characters, running a gamut of detailed
histories and complex personalities, and allowing many of them their fair share
in the spotlight; they also seem to grow and mature throughout the series, as it
spans several years. As fitting for a coming-of-age saga, Naruto's world constantly
expands and thickens, and his social relations are no exception – during his introduction
he has only his teacher and the village's leader for sympathetic figures, but as the story
progresses, more and more people become a part of his story.
The students at the Ninja Academy, where the story begins, are split up
into squads of three after their graduation and become Genin, rookie ninja.
Each squad is assigned an experienced sensei. These core squads form a basis
for the characters' interactions later in the series, where characters are
chosen for missions for their team's strength and complementary skills;
Naruto's squad 7 becomes the social frame where Naruto is acquainted with Sasuke
Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, and their sensei Kakashi Hatake, forming the core of his
world-in-the-making. The other three-man teams of his former classmates form another
such layer, as Naruto connects with them to various degrees, learning of their motives,
vulnerabilities, and aspirations, often relating them to his own. The groups of
three are not limited to the comrades Naruto's age – groups in the story in general
come in threes and multiples of three with very few exceptions.
Sensei-student relationships play a significant role in the series; Naruto has
a number of mentors with whom he trains and learns, most notably Iruka Umino, the
first ninja to recognize Naruto's existence, Kakashi Hatake, his team leader, and
Jiraiya, and there are often running threads of tradition and tutelage binding together
several generations. These role models provide guidance for their students not only
in the ninja arts but also in a number of Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideals.
Techniques, ideals, and mentalities noticeably run in families,
Naruto often being exposed to the abilities and traditions of generation-old clans in his
village when friends from his own age group demonstrate them, or even achieve improvements
of their own; it is poignantly noted that Naruto's generation is particularly talented.
Character names often borrow from Japanese folklore and literature (such as the
names borrowed from the folktale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari), or are otherwise elaborate puns;
often there is a noticeable influence of the story behind the name shouldered by the character.[7]
Anime details
Even though it debuted some time after the manga, the anime quickly caught up,
since one anime episode usually covers one or two manga chapters. To prevent overlapping,
the anime's producers tend to organize content from the manga chapters into long, uneventful
sections followed by short bursts of action, sometimes adding filler content in between.
By the time the last canonical arc of the anime concluded, it was quickly gaining on the
manga and consequently switched to anime-only filler episodes to allow the manga to broaden
the gap once more. Most of the filler episodes are stand-alone stories, with a few being part
of arcs that are several episodes long. The filler episodes lasted for 85 episodes, the
duration of the first series. After the series moved back into manga-adapted episodes,
it was renamed Naruto: Shippūden (疾風伝, Naruto: Shippūden? lit. Hurricane Chronicles).
The new series premiered on February 15, 2007.
The anime generally remains true to the manga, usually changing only minor details
(causes of death, loss of limbs, and other injuries have been lessened in the anime)
or expanding on parts skipped by the manga. The filler arcs, though unreferenced in
the manga (save for a few scant scenes), deal with the breaks between story arcs,
most prominently the period between the mission to retrieve Sasuke and Naruto's
departure from Leaf Village at the end of the original series. The filler arcs
also often shine the spotlight on minor characters that have received little
narrative attention otherwise.
New episodes, animated by Studio Pierrot, air weekly on TV Tokyo in Japan during
the Golden Time slot (Japan's equivalent of prime time in the US). As of October 5,
2006, it shows on Thursday nights. The series has also spawned four movies, Naruto the
Movie, Naruto the Movie 2, Naruto the Movie 3, and Naruto: Shippūden the Movie. The first
three are available on DVD, while the fourth one was released in theatres on August 4, 2007.
It has also been confirmed by Shonen Jump that there will be a fifth Naruto movie in the summer
of 2008.
This article is about the manga and anime franchise.
For the title character, see Naruto Uzumaki.
Naruto (NARUTO - ナルト -, Naruto?) is a Japanese manga series
written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto with an anime adaptation.
The main character, Naruto Uzumaki, is a loud, hyperactive,
unpredictable adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become a Hokage,
the ninja in the village acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all.
Kishimoto first authored a one-shot of Naruto in the August 1997 issue
of Akamaru Jump.[1] The plot differed substantially in that Naruto was
the son of the demon fox instead of being the container,
and the story was placed in a more modern setting.[2] This early
version of Naruto already had the ability to transform into a sexy
young woman - but when he did so, a fox tail sprouted. Kishimoto then
rewrote the story to its current form, which was first published by Shueisha
in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Shonen Jump magazine. As of volume 36,
the manga has sold over 71 million copies in Japan.[3] Viz Media publishes
a translated version in the American Shonen Jump magazine.
Naruto has become Viz's best-selling manga series.
[4] To date, the first 27 volumes are available.
In order to catch up to the translated anime,
Viz plans to release volumes 16 to 27 three at a time over the months of September to December 2007.
[5]
The first of two anime series,
produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex, premiered across Japan on the terrestrial
TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3,
2002, and is still being aired. Viz also licensed the anime for North American production.
Naruto debuted in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on September
10, 2005, and in Canada on YTV's Bionix on September 16, 2005.
Naruto began showing in the UK on Jetix on July 22, 2006.
It began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007 in Australia,
which features the German dub opening, although it could be watched on Cartoon Network in 2006.
The first series lasted nine seasons, while Naruto: Shippūden began its first on February 15, 2007.
Plot introduction
Twelve years before the events at the focus of the series, the nine-tailed demon fox
attacked Konohagakure. Powerful enough to raise tsunamis and flatten mountains
with a swish of one of its tails, it raised chaos and slaughtered many people,
until the leader of the Leaf Village – the Fourth Hokage – sacrificed his own
life to seal the demon inside the newborn, Naruto Uzumaki.The Fourth Hokage,
who was celebrated as a hero for sealing the demon fox away, wanted Naruto to
be respected in a similar light by being the containment vessel for the demon fox.
The Leaf Village, however, shunned him, regarding Naruto as if he were the demon
fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by
the Third Hokage forbade anyone to discuss or mention the attack of the demon fox
to anyone, even their own children. However, this did not stop them from treating
him like an outcast and as a result he grew up an orphan without friends, family,
or acknowledgment. He could not force people to befriend him, so he sought acknowledgment
and attention the only way he knew – through pranks and mischief.
However, that soon changed after Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy
by using his Shadow Clone Technique, a technique from a forbidden scroll
that he was tricked into stealing, to save his teacher, Iruka Umino, from
the renegade ninja Mizuki. That encounter gave Naruto two insights: that
he was the container of the demon fox, and that there was someone besides
the Third Hokage who actually cared for and acknowledged him. His graduation
from the academy opened a gateway to the events and people that would change
and define his world, including his way of the ninja for the rest of his life.[6]
The main story follows Naruto and his friends' personal growth and development as ninja,
and emphasizes their interactions with each other and the influence of their backgrounds
on their personalities. Naruto finds two friends and comrades in Sasuke Uchiha and
Sakura Haruno, two fellow young ninja who are assigned with him to form a three-person
team under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also confides in other
characters that he meets throughout the series as well. They learn new abilities,
get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey
as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of the Leaf Village.
Throughout all of the Naruto plot, strong emphasis on character development changes the plot,
with very few things happening because of chance. At first, emphasis is placed on Naruto,
Sasuke, and Sakura, who are the members of Team 7. However, other characters are developed,
such as Kakashi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya, as well as Naruto's peers in the other teams and villages.
Several major villains come into play as well, the first being Zabuza Momochi,
a missing-nin from Kirigakure, and his partner, Haku. Later, in the Chunin Exams arc,
Orochimaru is introduced as an S-Class missing-nin at the top of Konoha's most wanted list.
Also During this arc three ninjas known as The Sand Siblings are introduced. These siblings
are from Sungakure and include Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara. Later still,
a mysterious organization called Akatsuki begins to pursue Naruto for the
nine-tailed demon fox inside him.
Origins
In the original one shot of "Naruto," Naruto Uzumaki is the
son of powerful fox demon, whose spirit was sealed away by nine
powerful warriors. Only one, the current chief of the village of
the fox spirits on Mt. Oinari with a large resemblance to the Third
Hokage from the current series, survived, and he took on the duty of
raising Naruto. Naruto, however, is mischievous and a trouble maker,
pulling multiple pranks on others with each passing day. The village chief,
angry, sends Naruto on special training to the human world to find a human
friend he can trust, otherwise he will not be welcome to the village any longer.
While in the human world, Naruto meets the artist Kuroda, who trusted no
one after his father's death, struggling to finish an important painting.
After Kuroda's assistant, Takashi, is killed and the painting is stolen,
Naruto is framed and arrested. Kuroda, however, sympathizes Naruto enough
to legally take all punishments that would have been given to Naruto.
Naruto, attempting to repay Kuroda, searches for Takashi's murderer,
eventually finding out that Matsushima, who hired Kuroda to make the
painting, and his body guard plotted the whole thing and framed Naruto.
Naruto defeats both of them with ease, and the two get arrested, with no
one believing their stories about Naruto's abilities. Although Naruto befriends Kuroda,
however, Kuroda is too busy to follow Naruto to Mt. Oinari, and thus Naruto leaves to
continue his quest.
The original Naruto has a significant theming on friendship and trust.
At the beginning of the story, neither Naruto or Kuroda trusted anyone,
but by the end both befriend and trust each other. Despite its high results
in the reader poll after getting released, Kishimoto currently thinks the
"art stinks and the story's a mess!" Kishimoto also revealed that he was
originally working on Karakuri for the Hop Step Award when, unsatisfied by
the rough drafts, decided to work on something different instead, which later
formed into Naruto.
Noticiably, in the original Naruto, scrolls and stickers are used for the lesser jutsu,
rather than using hand signs to initiate Jutsu.
Naruto: Shippūden
From volume 28 onward, the series takes a new setting, taking place 2½ years after
the previous volume. While simply referred to as Part II in the manga, the anime
gave this part of the series the name Naruto: Shippūden (ナルト 疾風伝, Naruto: Shippūden?
lit. Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles). Between where volume 27 leaves off and the beginning
of volume 28, to distance the gap between the manga and anime, the anime adds a series
of filler episodes totalling 85, the longest number of filler episodes in any anime series.
Naruto: Shippūden tells the story of a matured and older cast from the original
series. After training for 2½ years with Jiraiya, Naruto Uzumaki, now fifteen,
returns to Konohagakure, reunites with the friends he left behind, and reforms
the original Team 7, excluding Sasuke Uchiha.
Unlike the original series, the organization of Akatsuki, which played a minor
role earlier, takes on the main antagonist factor in their attempts of world domination.
All of Naruto's classmates have matured and improved in the ranks, some more than others.
Characters
Naruto has a large and colorful cast of characters, running a gamut of detailed
histories and complex personalities, and allowing many of them their fair share
in the spotlight; they also seem to grow and mature throughout the series, as it
spans several years. As fitting for a coming-of-age saga, Naruto's world constantly
expands and thickens, and his social relations are no exception – during his introduction
he has only his teacher and the village's leader for sympathetic figures, but as the story
progresses, more and more people become a part of his story.
The students at the Ninja Academy, where the story begins, are split up
into squads of three after their graduation and become Genin, rookie ninja.
Each squad is assigned an experienced sensei. These core squads form a basis
for the characters' interactions later in the series, where characters are
chosen for missions for their team's strength and complementary skills;
Naruto's squad 7 becomes the social frame where Naruto is acquainted with Sasuke
Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, and their sensei Kakashi Hatake, forming the core of his
world-in-the-making. The other three-man teams of his former classmates form another
such layer, as Naruto connects with them to various degrees, learning of their motives,
vulnerabilities, and aspirations, often relating them to his own. The groups of
three are not limited to the comrades Naruto's age – groups in the story in general
come in threes and multiples of three with very few exceptions.
Sensei-student relationships play a significant role in the series; Naruto has
a number of mentors with whom he trains and learns, most notably Iruka Umino, the
first ninja to recognize Naruto's existence, Kakashi Hatake, his team leader, and
Jiraiya, and there are often running threads of tradition and tutelage binding together
several generations. These role models provide guidance for their students not only
in the ninja arts but also in a number of Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideals.
Techniques, ideals, and mentalities noticeably run in families,
Naruto often being exposed to the abilities and traditions of generation-old clans in his
village when friends from his own age group demonstrate them, or even achieve improvements
of their own; it is poignantly noted that Naruto's generation is particularly talented.
Character names often borrow from Japanese folklore and literature (such as the
names borrowed from the folktale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari), or are otherwise elaborate puns;
often there is a noticeable influence of the story behind the name shouldered by the character.[7]
Anime details
Even though it debuted some time after the manga, the anime quickly caught up,
since one anime episode usually covers one or two manga chapters. To prevent overlapping,
the anime's producers tend to organize content from the manga chapters into long, uneventful
sections followed by short bursts of action, sometimes adding filler content in between.
By the time the last canonical arc of the anime concluded, it was quickly gaining on the
manga and consequently switched to anime-only filler episodes to allow the manga to broaden
the gap once more. Most of the filler episodes are stand-alone stories, with a few being part
of arcs that are several episodes long. The filler episodes lasted for 85 episodes, the
duration of the first series. After the series moved back into manga-adapted episodes,
it was renamed Naruto: Shippūden (疾風伝, Naruto: Shippūden? lit. Hurricane Chronicles).
The new series premiered on February 15, 2007.
The anime generally remains true to the manga, usually changing only minor details
(causes of death, loss of limbs, and other injuries have been lessened in the anime)
or expanding on parts skipped by the manga. The filler arcs, though unreferenced in
the manga (save for a few scant scenes), deal with the breaks between story arcs,
most prominently the period between the mission to retrieve Sasuke and Naruto's
departure from Leaf Village at the end of the original series. The filler arcs
also often shine the spotlight on minor characters that have received little
narrative attention otherwise.
New episodes, animated by Studio Pierrot, air weekly on TV Tokyo in Japan during
the Golden Time slot (Japan's equivalent of prime time in the US). As of October 5,
2006, it shows on Thursday nights. The series has also spawned four movies, Naruto the
Movie, Naruto the Movie 2, Naruto the Movie 3, and Naruto: Shippūden the Movie. The first
three are available on DVD, while the fourth one was released in theatres on August 4, 2007.
It has also been confirmed by Shonen Jump that there will be a fifth Naruto movie in the summer
of 2008.
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