These are the covers of the first 27 issues of Jump Comics' Naruto digested Manga [or Tankoubon] which have many chapters in each book. Naruto began in Weekly Shonen Jump #43 in 1999. A new chapter of the story is published weekly in Japan in Shonen Jump, which is available in the US in English. Viz is releasing the graphic novels in English and you can get them at your local bookstore.

Update [04/04/05] Volume 27 was be released in Japan on the april 4th.
[on 4/30/04 volume 22 was released, to give you an idea of the speed at which they come out in Japan]

I have bought the Viz version of books one and two and so I present to you...

aksarah's gripe about Viz's adaptation of Naruto!

• +plus "This book reads from right to left" - Fabulous. Lovely. Thank you for your laziness.
• -minus Sensei, -sama, -san and ALL the justu are TRANSLATED. There's something just NOT RIGHT about 'Master Iruka' and Mr. Tazuna and Lord Hokage.
• +plus Names are Last name first First name last. Fabulous. Amazing even.
• -minus In book two, page 41 the map is so horribly wrong. The Land Of The Sand? Last time I checked it was called the Wind Country.
• +plus They DID keep the towns right... Sunagakure. Yes. Correct.
• -minus Also in book two on page 41, 'Kumo' is repeated twice.'
• And so it goes... For every good thing they've done with this manga, there's an equally egregious bad thing!

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Why "Jo Duffy" who Viz put in sole command of Naruto's English adaptation felt these negative steps were nessesary is beyond me. Did Viz think that "Kagebunshin no Jutsu" was too much for little kids, most likely their target audience, to pronounce? I always thought little kids loved to learn stuff and throw terms around. Anyone ever heard a 10 year old go nuts when you bring up DBZ or something they know? They're all 'kamehameha!' on your ass. It makes little sense to me, epsecially since I read Viz's adaptation of Ruruouni Kenshin and that's really good. All the -donos are in place and the attacks are not translated [though I think 'jo-chan' got lost, but you can't win em all].

I have decided to boycott Viz's Naruto. I have instead bought the ORIGINAL TANKOUBON in Japanese and am already well on my way to LEARNING JAPANESE so that I can read them! Ha!

Update [01/18/04] 200 chapters of manga! Congrats Kishimoto-sensei! Also, 20 Volumes out in Japanese. [still only 2 in english, but American Shonen Jump seems to be well into the haku/zabuza arc]
Update [01/04/04] The 200th Chapter of Naruto is about to come out in Japan! I'm holding my breath!
Update [11/19/03] Book 19 is out in Japan and Book 2 is out in the US.
Update [07/03] Book 18 has a release date [in Japan] of August 4th 2003. Shonen Jump [Japan] is well into what will be book 20.
Update [07/22/03]Viz still has "Naruto, Volume 1, The Tests of the Ninja" slated for a July release in North America, though I have yet to see it as of yet...
Update! [06/03] - The 1st volume of manga [see below] will be released soon in 2003! Finally!

	There are more volumes but this site is no longer being updated.

Note, Volume 27 is the first cover to NOT have Naruto on it.