SH Figuarts - Naruto Uzumaki

I love anime. I don't love ALL anime, and certainly not all mainstream anime but I have invested a lot of time and money into the Naruto anime series. For those of you that don't know, that's 300 some episodes in the first series, and 500 episodes in the Shippuden series!

The thing I enjoy about Naruto is the show has some colorful characters, there are lots of great fights to watch, and the main character, Naruto Uzumaki, has a charm that really rubs off on you. You just want him to succeed! If you know nothing about Naruto, he starts out in the series as a young boy raised in a Ninja village. He has been given an unusual burden upon the death of his parents: his body holds part of a beast called the Nine-Tails, a massive and destructive chakra monster. He grows up over the course of the series, seeking to prove himself and make lasting bonds along the way.

This particular figure is the very first figure in the Naruto line released by SH Figuarts and was my first Japanese import figure. No matter how many newer versions SH Figuarts releases (they've already got another one plus another Sage Mode Naruto up for pre-order), this one will always hold a special place in my collection! As is the way with Japanese import figures of any kind, whether they be Figma, SH Figuarts or Revoltech, he comes with a LOT of accessories. His articulation is pretty great. There are complaints that his likeness isn't accurate to the show, but with the exception of one of the faces, it looks close enough to me! The paint and sculpt of the figure is pretty good, and unlike many other SH Figuarts, he actually does have some darker shading in the folds of his orange clothes. Ok, down to brass tacks!



Sculpt&Paint: 8/10 Good. Generally speaking, the sculpting for his clothes, paint application and some of the shading is good! There is attention to detail and there is almost nothing missing here. That said, the knee joints aren't sculpted the best and the black shading may have been overused, making his oranges a bit too dull.

Articulation: 9/10 Excellent (33 points). I mean...it's a lot. Aside all the double joints, he has a butterfly joint, a floating ab piece to allow a good ab crunch with some manipulation, and some AMAZING drop down hip joints, toe hing and his headband piece can be posed! The joints have a bit of gaping and it would be nice if the head could look up and down more but DANG, it allows for some great poses!

Price/Availability: 4/10 Not so good! This figure was released in July of 2014.  There are very few available in stores online and most of those are marked up 150% of their value. That translates to anywhere from 120 to 170 CAD. SH Figuarts will never be an inexpensive brand, but that might break some wallets! Add to that, there have been some pretty bad knock offs from China that you should be wary of.

Accessories: 5/5 Excellent. Who are we kidding here? He comes with two kunai knives, his rasengan (it's a swirly energy ball!) effect, a hand to peg in the rasengan, SIX pairs of hands and FOUR different expression faces ranging from neutral, grinning, teeth gritting determined, and shouting.
With these you can enact pretty much everything from the show up to the point he learns  the rasenshuriken!

Fun Factor: 5/5 Excellent. I love this figure. It has, and will always be, one of my favourites. Aside the sentimental value, he has AWESOME balance and can kick higher and straighter than nearly every SH figuarts, new or old, I have ever seen.

Verdict: 31/40 Great! While this figure has some minor flaws and a mark-ed unavailability, it is an awesome figure to own! Easy to dismiss if you aren't a fan of the anime, manga or games, but one of the best for a Naruto collection!

Holy accessories Batman! 

The curse of an SH Figuarts box: Where to put all these boxes
The blessing of SH figuarts boxes: A place to put all those tiny accessories!

Determined face!

Angry shouting face!

My least favourite....the neutral face. This one looks
like the head is too short. 

Classic Shadow Clone jutsu pose!

Classic Naruto grinning face!

Double kunai! Believe it! 

Hes a very upbeat guy

Rasengan! 

Rasen catch!

Eh? eh???? 

Some fighting poses

Now that's some high kicking! He's balancing completely here on his own!

And some side kicking! Reminds me
of Karate kid. 

That's about as low as he can go
for a Summoning Jutsu pose!

Ok, that's enough photos! Put away the camera!