I've watched 27 eps (from 20 -47) of Naruto in the past two days, and OMFG I LUV!!! I wasn't really impressed by the first 20 eps of the series, but OMG, the Chuunin exams... OMFG!!!! *screams* This is a rather fangrrly post on the ways I adore the characters! ^__^

Naruto is still rather blah to me, and I suspect he'll only truly grow on me when Neji and he fights in the third exam (that's what happened in the manga). Sasuke does indeed kick major arse, and the boy is a ball of hatred, NOT bitterness, that, is reserved for Neji. And I think I'm in love with Neji, so much bitterness, so much anger, and to be fair a bit of a bastard (not as much as Sasuke, but a bastard nonetheless). I can't exactly pinpoint why I love the boy but I do.

Shikamura is becoming the Kewlest Dude to have Eva Walk'd the Earth. Brains and lazy, how can you not like that? Sakura actually became the Kewl for 10 minutes there....then she went and screwed it up *sigh* But Hinata is adorable, and I truly feel for the girl *huggles*.

Something that finally clicked while watching the anime is the amount of characters (on the side of Good) is prepared to kill. Sure Naruto is all very anti-killing like 99.9% of shounen heroes, but the rest of the cast are all, how should we say this without sounding callous, hmm, trained killers.

Not that I don't adore Neji, Sasuke, or the rest, but it has been seen that they would kill anyone standing between them and their goals. Hell, even the other good guys would kill to protect themselves, or complete a mission, which brings me to my point, yes, I had a point.

The series is really quite morally ambiguous, hell, just listen to the Hokage's speech on what purpose the Chunnin exam actually serves as. Their world isn't nice, and it's interesting to see that the 'good' guys can be as ruthless as the 'bad' guys. The fact they are children makes it all the more interesting.