"Enter: Naruto Uzumaki!" (参上!うずまきナルト, Sanjō! Uzumaki Naruto) is episode 1 of the original Naruto anime.
Synopsis
Twelve years ago, a vicious tailed beast known as the Nine-Tails, attacked the shinobi village of Konohagakure. Many shinobi fought the beast, but it defeated and killed all those that stood in front of it. Luckily, the town was saved when the village's leader, the Fourth Hokage, sealed the beast with an infant boy at the cost of his own life.
In the present, Naruto Uzumaki is a prankster who is constantly causing trouble throughout Konohagakure, most recently having placed graffiti all over the Hokage Rock. Much of the village dislikes him for it, but he enjoys the attention garnered from reprimands, as he had no parents or friends due to the villagers abusing him daily for no apparent reason. Despite claiming to be a talented shinobi who would someday become Hokage, Naruto is incapable of performing basic techniques such as the Clone Technique. When this leaves him unable to graduate from the Academy, one of his instructors, Mizuki, tells Naruto that if he could steal the Scroll of Seals and learn one of its secret techniques, he would be allowed to continue on to the ranks of the ninja anyway and graduate.
After successfully stealing the scroll, Naruto is caught by another instructor, Iruka Umino, who realised that Naruto had been tricked by Mizuki. Mizuki arrives and asks Naruto for the scroll, to which Iruka ordered Naruto not to, as Mizuki lied and only wanted the scroll for himself. Mizuki then tells Naruto that he wasn't the one lying, explaining that the reason the villagers hate him such much is due to the Nine-Tails that had been sealed inside him since the day he was born. He goes on to explain that Iruka, whose parents were killed by the Nine-Tails, must hate him the most. However, Iruka refutes the accusation, saying he did not blame Naruto for the beast's actions, and that in fact he, having grown up also craving attention, sympathised with him. Naruto believing Iruka, uses his newly-mastered Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to defeat Mizuki.
Amazed by the complicated technique that Naruto has learned, Iruka officially makes Naruto a ninja by giving him his own forehead protector, and notes that he may one day have the potential to become Hokage.
Trivia
- For the Japanese DVD release of this episode, a shinobi from the opening scene was redrawn without blood on his face. This edit was present in all subsequent dubbing of the episode.
- Shikamaru, Ino, and Sakura were behind Naruto in the anime, but in the manga, different unnamed Academy students were behind him.
- This episode does not contain the opening sequence only the title appears at the end of the prologue and the theme song plays only on the scene where some of the Konohagakure shinobi are chasing Naruto for defacing the Hokage Rock.
- The English dub of this episode was originally released as TV-Y7-FV. Due to the heavy content of the series, though, this rating was never used again.
- In the cut version, the blood from Iruka's nosebleed was edited out, so he was only seen falling back.
