Naruto opens with the title character causing trouble: 12 year old Naruto Uzumaki is an orphan with a nine-tailed demon fox sealed inside of him. The other villagers look down on him, and he causes trouble to get attention. Despite his setbacks, he's determined to become the strongest ninja in his village and earn the title of Hokage. 
 I like that the story focuses on a troubled main character -- not because a troubled main character is new, but because Naruto chooses to be a troublemaker instead of trying to prove everyone wrong about him. He reacts like many kids do when they aren't given enough attention, and it's refreshing to see a manga reflect that. 
 However, I'm not such a big fan of how two-dimensional Sakura is, our only female character so far. Having a crush on Sasuke is fine, but she has zero personality beyond that, and that's pretty lame. I hope to see some major character development here -- women are more than future wives!! 
 The action scenes are well-choreographed and exciting. I look forward to comparing this with the anime.