Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto Uzumaki (Uzumaki Naruto) is a fictional character in the Naruto universe created by Masashi Kishimoto as the main protagonist for the series and developed into a media franchise, consisting of a series of manga, anime, soundtracks, OVAs, movies, video games, and other collectibles. While creating Naruto, Kishimoto kept in mind to keep the character "simple and stupid" while giving him many attributes of Son Goku from the Dragon Ball franchise.

In the series, Naruto is a ninja affiliated with the fictional village of Konohagakure, and has ambitions of becoming Hokage, or the leader of the village. Due to being the host for the nine-tailed demon fox, a malevolent creature that attacked Konohagakure, he is ostracized by the other villagers. He compensates for this with his cheerful and boisterous personality, and over the course of the series, manages to befriend several other Konohagakure ninja, as well as ninja from other villages. He obtains an especially close relationship with Sasuke Uchiha, one of his fellow ninja in Team 7, and treats him as his brother. Naruto appears in all of the series' films, as well as in other media related to the franchise, including video games and OVAs.

Several anime and manga publications have expressed acclaim and criticism of Naruto's character. While many reviewers consider him one of the most memorable anime and manga characters in history, he has been viewed as a stereotypical manga and anime protagonist comparable to many other protagonists in other shōnen manga.Nevertheless, Naruto has remained highly popular with the Naruto reader base, placing high in several popularity polls. Merchandise based on Naruto has also been released, including figurines and plush dolls