A Side-by-Side Comparison Between Naruto's 20th Anniversary Remake of Iconic Moments and the Original Anime

Ely Bulnes • Writer and Editor

Jan 9, 2025 3:00 PM EST

Welcome, ninjas. Plenty of manga have more than one adaptation. Some anime desperately deserve to be revisited, and other remakes feel a bit pointless. Famously, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is considered a better adaptation of the manga than the 2003 version. It learned from the mistakes of the first anime and fixed pacing issues, kept a more lighthearted tone closer to that of the manga, and has incredibly crisp animation. Similarly, Hunter x Hunter's 2011 adaptation gets more praise than the one that came out in 1999. However, some reboots did so poorly that they almost ruined the legacy of their source material. While many Berserk fans believe that the manga has never had a truly faithful adaptation, almost all agree that the 1997 animated series far surpasses the 3D generated nightmare that came out in 2016.

Road of Naruto is not a reboot of the series. Rather, it is an OVA (original video animation) released in celebration of Naruto's 20th anniversary. It is a sequence of iconic moments from the original anime, redrawn in the more streamlined animation style that is popular today. See a side-by-side comparison of key moments by scrolling down below.

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The animation in Road to Naruto is definitely sharper and smoother. The eyes especially have so much more depth and color. However, the grittiness of the original animation works better to illustrate the violent world inhabited by these ninjas. Also, the perfect crispiness of the OVA detracts from some of the more emotional moments. For example, in the panel with Naruto crying, the left is certainly “uglier” than the one on the right, but it conveys his despair far more effectively.
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The thick, Attack on Titan-esque line art really work in this panel. Sometimes anime looks best when it simply resembles colorized manga panels with all of the sketchiness included.
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