Though it is one of the most famous anime ever made, Naruto is hardly the only anime about ninja. Some other ninja series take the genre to a darker, more mature place. Originally a manga that ran from 2003 to 2004 based on a novel from 1958, with an anime adaptation in 2005, Basilisk is the dark and grim counterpart to a relatively light-hearted ninja series like Naruto.
At is most simple, Basilisk is a story in the vein of Romeo and Juliet, though with a cast of super-powered ninja like Naruto: two clans at war, the heirs of those warring clans are in the middle of a doomed love affair. With that premise in mind, it is hardly surprising that the series doesn’t have a happy ending.
The relentless darkness and constant character deaths can admittedly be off-putting, but the series is executed with enough style and unique story elements that it is worth at least one watch, especially for ninja fans looking for a more mature take on shinobi action.
Basilisk is Naruto’s Bleaker & More Mature Counterpart
The story of Basilisk begins towards the end of the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun. Ieyasu decides to use the feuding Iga and Kouga clans to settle the dispute over which of his grandsons will succeed him. Each clan fights on behalf of one of Ieyasu’s grandsons and is told to select their ten best ninjas to fight until one clan wipes out the other. Basilisk fully commits to that dark premise, with the brutal violence resulting in a high death count by the series’ end.
Basilisk’s visual style is consistently one of the series’ greatest strengths. Each of the ninjas has a distinct visual design and slate of powers that make the characters memorable at first glance. Unfortunately, characters are introduced almost as quickly as they’re killed off, with some ninjas getting less than an episode of screen time. This, combined with the fact that there are only a handful of truly sympathetic characters, makes it hard to cheer for either the Iga or the Kouga. The end of the feud doesn’t really bring a sense of relief or satisfaction. If anything, the audience will probably just be exhausted to have witnessed so much brutality and bloodshed for so little benefit.
10 Best Anime That Followed Naruto’s Legacy
Given that Naruto is one of Shonen Jump’s famous Big 3, it was always inevitable that newer stories would be influenced by it in some way.
If anything, that really just highlights the series’ inherent tragedy. No matter which clan wins, they both ultimately lose. Before Ieyasu commands the two clans to fight, they were actually at peace. It’s a bleak statement about the politics and social hierarchy of historical Feudal Japan, and the futility of war in general, but it’s also a powerful one. The original series found at least enough of an audience to get two sequel series: The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls and the Ouka Ninja Scrolls, though a certain amount of creativity was required on the part of the sequels’ writers to account for the fact that the entire original cast died.
Naruto does have moments of thematic darkness and character death, but at its core, the series is very much a shonen series that never really stops being accessible to audiences of all ages. Basilisk, on the other hand, is indisputably adult and relentlessly dark and bleak. That may not appeal to everyone, but Basilisk‘s unique spin on the genre makes it a must-watch for Naruto fans looking for a darker and more adult story.
Basilisk is available to stream on Crunchyroll!
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Naruto
- Summary:
- Naruto Uzumaki’s journey to becoming a Hokage is the center of the Naruto manga and anime series. The series is an adaptation of two one-shot manga written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. The first of the one-shot manga follows the life of the main protagonist during his pre-teen years and the second one, during his teenage years. The titles of the manga are Kishimoto: Karakuri and Naruto released in 1995 and 1997 respectively. A third book about his adult years also followed.Weekly Shonen Jump featured the serialized manga from 1999 to 2014. The popularity of the series paved the way for other multimedia franchises such as an anime TV series which aired in Japan from 2005 to2009. An english version also aired from 2009 to 2011 on Disney XD, and transferred to Toonami in 2014. Naruto has spawned 11 movies, 11 original video animations (OVA), novels, video games, trading cards, and other merchandises such as shirts, accessories and school supplies.Naruto hails from the fictional village Konohagakure, where his father was once the Fourth Hokage. Hokage is what the villagers call their leader. When he was a baby, a Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked the village, but Naruto’s father defeats it by sealing into Naruto’s body. His father dies in the process, and the event was only revealed to him when he was 12 years old.Since then, he trained to become a ninja and forms a bond with Sasuke Uchicha and Sakura Haruno, who accompanied him throughout his journey. Together they discovered a more complicated world filled with mysteries.The end of the series sees Naruto as a husband to Hinata Hyuga and a father to Boruto and Himawari. A spinoff series revolving around Naruto and Boruto also followed which was eventually followed by Boruto’s own adventure with a new batch of ninjas.Naruto is one of the best-selling manga series in history with its various franchises having loyal customers all over the world.Related:15 Things You Didn’t Know About NarutoNaruto: Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes The Show Left HangingThe Most Powerful Naruto Characters, Ranked
