Naruto Ends! and 12 years of nostalgia

Naruto finally ended! I got through reading the last chapter earlier this week and, honestly, I'm glad Kishimoto went with an epilogue-type ending with the "what is everyone doing in the future?" scenario. It always wraps things up nicely (just ask J.K. Rowling). If you haven't read it yet, read it now! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, well, stop reading this because you've got 700 chapters to catch up with. Yeah, 700, so you better get started, though you could probably skim through the 300 or so filler chapters. And no, I'm not going to give a synopsis. Just go and read it.

But seriously, how has this not made front page news? 700 chapters spanning 15 years (though I've only been following it for about 12 years). But, 15 years! That's almost as old as my sister. That's just over a decade of my life to what amounts to reading a dozen or so pages a week. I can't name anything on TV I've followed as religiously as this. I can't even name a TV show I currently watch that was around 12 years ago. The only band I can think of that might still be around is Blink 182 and even they went on hiatus for a couple years. Oh, and Linkin Park but I haven't cared for any of their albums since Meteora (released back in 2003). K's Bento went up from $3.75 to around $5.00. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't think I own any article of clothing 12 years old. I think the only similarity from 12 years ago to present day is that I'm still working at the orchid farm on the weekends (though now I make $7.50 an hour instead of just $20 a day). Hell, when I started reading Naruto I probably looked more like this guy

Since then I've managed to graduate from both high school and college, traveled to two different countries, and work three different jobs. We've owned three dogs during that span. I've gone from being obsessed with baseball to a general indifference (unless it's post-season. I always pay attention during post-season). I even gained a basic understanding of other sports (who knew there were other sports). Hell, when Naruto started my sister was still waking me up in the middle of the night when she had a nightmare. Now it takes her 15 minutes just to drag herself out of bed in the morning.

Speaking of other countries, by some divine miracle I was in Japan during the 10th anniversary of Naruto where I managed to pick up this sticker

As well as this cool picture

Jon: "This background was obviously not made for people as cool or as tall as us"

You would think that after following something for over a decade, I may be walking away with some sort of lesson learned or a piece of worldly wisdom or something like that. I've got nothing - well at least nothing new that I haven't already seen in countless other manga, comics, anime, TV shows, books, movies, etc (and with less time invested in them). For the sake of being a better writer (not necessarily a better person), I have learned the importance of planning not just for continuity sake but to not waste the reader's time with 20 pages with what could be explained with just one panel. Gah, so many filler chapters! Fillers just to introduce a single concept that could've just been explained with just a couple panels. Well, here's looking forward to whatever the next manga he works on will be. At least I've still got Bleach... and all their filler chapters.